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aimmcan d&tate^men 
 
 SAMUEL ADAMS 
 
 JAMES K. HOSMER 
 
 PROFESSOR IN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 
 ST. LOUIS» MO. 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 1892 
 

 Copyright, 1885, 
 Br JAMES K. HOSMER. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 ^Trn 
 
 ^«A^ 
 
 ^AR 
 
 « »f«? 
 
 T/Ce Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Company. 
 
To 
 MRS. MARY HEMENWAY, 
 
 I UNDERTAKEN AT HER SUGGESTION, AND MADE POSSIBLE BT HER KINDNESS, 
 
 I 
 
 ! IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATXD. 
 
 ^4:^5 
 
The old Teutonic Assembly rose again to full life in the New 
 England town-meeting. — Freeman. 
 
 Samuel Adams, the helmsman of the Revolution at its origin, 
 the truest representative of the home rule of Massachusetts in its 
 town-meetings and General Court. — Bancroft. 
 
 A man whom Plutarch, if he had only lived late enough, would 
 have delighted to include in his gallery of worthies, — a man who 
 in the history of the American Revolution is second only to Wash- 
 ington, — Samuel Adams. — John Fiske. 
 
PEEFAOE. 
 
 A LIFE of Samuel Adams from beyond the 
 Mississippi ! Of all the worthies of Boston is 
 there one more thoroughly Bostonian, and is it 
 not impertinence, bordering upon profanity, for 
 the wild West to lay hold of his name and fame ? 
 The writer of this book believes that his pages 
 will exhibit in Samuel Adams a significance by 
 no means circumscribed within narrow limits. 
 The story of his career can as appropriately 
 claim the attention of the West — yea, of the 
 North and South — as of the East. 
 
 But if it should be thought that only New 
 England hands can touch, without sacrilege, so 
 sacred an ark, it may be urged that the members 
 of that larger New England, which has forsaken 
 the ungenerous granite of the old home for the 
 fatter prairies and uplands of the interior, re- 
 main, nevertheless, true Yankees, and have bar- 
 tered away no particle of their birthright for 
 the more abundant pottage ; they will by no 
 means consent to resign any portion of their 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 interest in the gods, altars, and heroes of their 
 race. 
 
 If a personal reference may be pardoned, the 
 writer can claim that it has come down in his 
 blood to have to do with Samuel Adams. His 
 great-great-grandfather, a colonel of the Old 
 French War, was sent, in the pre-r evolutionary 
 days, by the town of Concord to the Massachu- 
 setts Assembly, and was one of Sam Adams's 
 faithful supporters in the long struggle when 
 at length Bernard and Hutchinson were foiled 
 and driven out. In the post-revolutionary days 
 the writer's great-grandfather, a former captain 
 of minute-men, sat for Concord for some years 
 in the Massachusetts Senate, under the sway of 
 Samuel Adams as presiding officer. When, on 
 the fateful April morning. Gage sent out the 
 regulars to seize Sam Adams and John Han- 
 cock, proscribed and in hiding at Lexington, 
 the ancient colonel and the captain of minute- 
 men, leaving at their homesteads the provincial 
 powder and cannon-balls concealed in the barns 
 and wells, had a main hand in organizing and 
 carrying through, at the north bridge in Con- 
 cord, the diversion which enabled Sam Adams 
 to escape, unmolested, to the Congress at Phila- 
 delphia. The writer's grandfather, in the next 
 generation again, just arrived at musket-bearing 
 age in the hard time of Shays's Rebellion, sus- 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 tained Governor Bowdoin and the cause of law 
 and order, among the rank and file, as did the 
 aged Samuel Adams in a higher sphere. 
 
 Of all the " embattled farmers " who stood 
 in arms at Concord bridge on the day when the 
 arch-rebel eluded the clutch of King George, 
 the captain of the minute-men, it is said, is the 
 only one whose portrait has been transmitted 
 to our time. That portrait has hung upon the 
 wall of the writer's study while he has been 
 busy with this book ; and it has required no 
 great stretch of imagination sometimes, among 
 the uncertain shadows of midnight, to think that 
 the face of the old " Revolutioner " grew genial 
 and sympathetic, as his great-grandson tried 
 to tell the story of the " Chief of the Revolu- 
 tion." 
 
 Though writing, for the most part, in St. 
 Louis, the author has traveled far to study 
 authorities. Whatever the Boston collections 
 possess, — manuscripts, old newspapers, pam- 
 phlets, books, — has been freely opened to him, 
 and examined by him. His greatest oppor- 
 tunity, however, was offered to him at Wash- 
 ington, by the kindness of Honorable George 
 Bancroft. Mr. Bancroft holds in his possession 
 most of the manuscripts of Samuel Adams yet 
 extant, together with a large number of auto- 
 graph letters written to Mr. Adams throughout 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 his long life by conspicuous men of the Revolu- 
 tionary period. These original papers, a col- 
 lection of the greatest value and interest, the 
 writer has been permitted, by the politeness of 
 Mr. Bancroft, to use with entire freedom. This 
 politeness the writer desires most gratefully to 
 acknowledge. 
 
 Much help has been derived from the " Life 
 of Samuel Adams," by William V. Wells, his 
 great-grandson, whose three large octavos give 
 evidence of much painstaking, and are full of 
 interesting materials. The writer of the pres- 
 ent biography has had no thought of super- 
 seding the important work of Mr. Wells, which 
 must be consulted by all who desire a minute 
 knowledge of Mr. Adams's character and career. 
 The volumes of Mr. Wells have an especial 
 value on account of the large number of ex- 
 tracts from the writings of Samuel Adams 
 which they contain. To some extent the cita- 
 tions in the present work have been taken from 
 these ; in great part, however, they have been 
 selected from old legislative reports and news- 
 papers, and also from unprinted records, drafts, 
 and letters. The filial piety of Mr. Wells is 
 much too exemplary ; the career of his ancestor 
 throughout he regards with an admiration quite 
 too indiscriminate. Nor is his tone as regards 
 the unfortunate men, against whom Samuel 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 Adams fought his battle, that which candid 
 historians of the Revolution will hereafter em- 
 ploy. The present book aims to give, in smaller 
 compass, what is most important in Mr. Adams's 
 career, and to estimate more fairly his charac- 
 ter and that of his opponents. 
 
 JAMES K. HOSMER. 
 St. Louis, March 24, 1885. 
 
COI^TENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGS 
 
 The Youth and his Sukroundings 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Pre-Revoi-utionary Struggle 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Writs of Assistance 33 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 In the Massachusetts Assembly 46 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Parliamentary Representation and the Massa- 
 chusetts Resolves 62 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Stamp Act before England 78 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The True Sentiments of America 90 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Arrival of the Troops , . . 109 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PiOE 
 
 The Hecall of Bernard 126 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 The Non-Importation Agreements 145 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 The Sam Adams Regiments 160 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The Controversy as to Royal Instructions . . 183 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Committee of Correspondence 196 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 The Controversy as to Parliamentary Authority 207 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 The Hutchinson Letters . 220 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 The Tea-Party 243 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Hutchinson and the Tories 257 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Preparations for the First Congress .... 289 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 Lexington 313 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Declaration of Independence 332 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 Character and Service of Samuel Adams . . . 351 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 Closing Years 376 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 The Town-Meeting To-Day 418 
 
 INDEX .,,... 433 
 
SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE YOUTH AND HIS SURKOUNDINGS. 
 
 The Folk-mote, the fixed, frequent, access!^ 
 ble meeting of the individual freemen for dis- 
 cussing and deciding upon public matters, had 
 great importance in the polity of the primeval 
 Teutons, and was transmitted by them to their 
 English descendants. All thoughtful political 
 writers have held it to be one of the best 
 schools for forming the faculties of men; it 
 must underlie every representative system in 
 order to make that system properly effective. 
 The ancient folk-mote, the proper primordial 
 cell of every Anglo-Saxon body-politic, which 
 the carelessness of the people and the encroach- 
 ments of princes had caused to be much over- 
 laid in England, reappeared with great vitality 
 in the New England town-meeting.^ 
 
 ^ Tacitus, Germania, xi. Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsge- 
 schichte, Baud i. 4. Freeman, Growth of English Constitution, 
 I 
 
2 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 At the Revolution, in Massachusetts, then ii\» 
 chiding Maine, and containing 210,000 white 
 inhabitants, more than were found in any other 
 American colony, there were more than two 
 hundred towns, whose constitution is thus de- 
 scribed by Gordon, a writer of the period : — 
 
 " Every town is an incorporated repubHc. The 
 selectmen, by their own authority, or upon the appli- 
 cation of a certain number of townsmen, issue a war- 
 rant for the calling of a town-meeting. The warrant 
 mentions the business to be engaged in, and no other 
 can be legally executed. The inhabitants are warned 
 to attend ; and they that are present, though not a 
 quarter or tenth of the whole, have a right to pro- 
 ceed. They choose a president by the name of mod- 
 erator, who regulates the proceedings of the meeting. 
 Each individual has an equal liberty of delivering his 
 opinion, and is not liable to be silenced or brow- 
 beaten by a richer or greater townsman than himself. 
 Every freeman or freeholder gives his vote or not, 
 and for or against, as he pleases ; and each vote 
 weighs equally, whether that of the highest or lowest 
 inhabitant. . . . All the New England towns are on 
 the same plan in general." 
 
 p. 17. May, Constitutional History of England, ii. 460. Phil- 
 lips, Geschichte des Angelsachsischen Rechts, p. 12. J. Toulmin 
 Smith, Local Self-Govemmeni and Centralization,' ■^. 29, etc. 
 Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies. E. A. Free'san. /n^oc?. to Am. 
 Jnstitut. Hist. H. B. Adams, Germanic Origin of N. E. Towns. 
 Edward Channing, Town and County Government in the Eng- 
 lish Colonies of N. A. 
 
THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 3 
 
 Throughout the thirteen colonies, the folk- 
 mote existed in well-developed form only in the 
 New England town-meeting ; few traces of it 
 can be found in the South ; nor in the middle 
 colonies was the case much different. At the 
 time of the Revolution, New England stood 
 alone in having restored a primitive liberty 
 which had been superseded, each of her little 
 democracies governing itself after a fashion for 
 which there was no precedent without going 
 back to the folk-mote of a remote day — to a 
 time before the kings of England began to be 
 arbitrary, and before the people became in- 
 different to their birth-right. 
 
 The New England town is best presented at 
 a point when it has had time to become fully 
 developed, and before the causes have begun to 
 operate which in our day have largely changed 
 it. The period of the Revolution, in fact, is 
 the epoch that must be selected ; and the town 
 of towns, in which everything that is most dis- 
 tinctive appears most plainly, is Boston. 
 
 Boston was a town governed by its folk- 
 mote almost from its foundation until 1822, 
 more than one hundred and eighty years. In 
 1822, when the inhabitants numbered forty 
 thousand, it reluctantly became a city, giving 
 up its town-meetings because they had grown 
 so large as to be unmanageable, — the people 
 
4 SAMUEL AD AM 8. 
 
 thereafter choosing a mayor and common coun- 
 cil to do the public business for them, instead of 
 doing it themselves. The records of the town 
 of Boston, carefully preserved from the earliest 
 times, lie open to public inspection in the office 
 of the city clerk. Whoever pores over these 
 records, on the yellow paper, in the faded ink, 
 as it came from the pens of the ancient town 
 clerks, will find that for the first hundred years 
 the freemen are occupied for the most part 
 with their local concerns. How the famous 
 cowpaths pass through the phases of their evo- 
 lution, — footway, country-lane, high-road, — 
 until at length they become the streets and re- 
 ceive dignified names ; what ground shall be 
 taken for burying-places, and how it shall be 
 fenced, as the little settlement gradually covers 
 the whole peninsula ; how the Neck, then a very 
 consumptive looking neck, not goitred by a ward 
 or two of brick and mortar-covered territory, 
 may be protected, so that it may not be guillo- 
 tined by some sharp north-easter ; what pre- 
 cautions shall be taken against the spread of 
 small-pox ; who shall see to it that dirt shall 
 not be thrown into the town dock ; that inquiry 
 shall be made whether Latin may not be better 
 taught in the public schools, — such topics as 
 these are considered. For the most part, the 
 record is tedious and unimportant detail for a 
 
THE YOUTH AND HI8 SURROUNDINGS. 5 
 
 modern reader, though now and then in an ad- 
 dress to the sovereign, or a document which 
 implies that all is not harmony between the 
 town and the royal governor, the horizon broad- 
 ens a little. But soon after the middle of the 
 eighteenth century the record largely changes. 
 William Cooper at length begins his service 
 of forty -nine years as town clerk, starting out 
 in 1761 with a bold, round hand, which gradu- 
 ally becomes faint and tremulous as the writer 
 descends into old age. One may well turn over 
 the musty pages here with no slight feeling of 
 awe, for it is the record, made at the moment, 
 of one of the most memorable struggles of hu- 
 man history, that between the little town of 
 Boston on the one hand, and George III. with 
 all the power of England at his back, on the 
 other. 
 
 At the date of the Stamp Act, 1765, the pop- 
 ulation of Boston was not far from 18,000, in 
 vast majority of English blood ; though a few 
 families of Huguenots, like the Faneuils, the 
 Bowdoins, the Reveres, and the Molineux, had 
 strengthened the stock by being crossed with 
 it, and there was now and then a Scotchman 
 or an Irishman. As the Bostonians were of 
 one race, so in vast majority they were of one 
 faith. Independents of Cromwell's type, though 
 there were Episcopalians, and a few Quakers 
 
6 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 and Baptists. The town drew its life from 
 the sea, to which all its industry was more or 
 less closely related. Hundreds of men were 
 afloat much of the time, captains or before the 
 mast, leaving their wives and children in the 
 town, but themselves being on shore only in the 
 intervals between the most enterprising voy- 
 ages. Of the landsmen, a large proportion were 
 ship-builders. The staunchest crafts that sailed 
 slid by the dozen down the ways of tlie Boston 
 yards. New England needed a great fleet, hav- 
 ing, as she did, a good part of the carrying-trade 
 of the thirteen colonies, with that of the West 
 Indies also. Another industry, less salutary, 
 was the distilling of rum ; and much of this 
 went in the ships of Boston and Newport men 
 to the coast of Africa, to be exchanged for 
 slaves. It was a different world from ours, 
 and should be judged by different standards. 
 Besides the branches mentioned, there was lit- 
 tle manufacturing in town or country ; the pol- 
 icy of the mother country was to discourage 
 colonial manufactures ; everything must be 
 made in England, the colonies being chiefly 
 valuable from the selfish consideration that 
 tliey could be made to afford a profitable mar- 
 ket for the goods. In the interior, therefore, 
 the people were all farmers, bringing their 
 produce to Boston, and taking thence, when 
 
THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 7 
 
 they went home, such English goods as they 
 needed. Hence the town was a great mart. 
 The merchants were numerous and rich ; the 
 distilleries fumed ; the ship-yards rattled ; the 
 busy ships went in and out ; and the country 
 people flocked in to the centre. 
 
 Though Boston lost before the Revolution 
 the distinction of being the largest town in 
 America, it remained the intellectual head of 
 the country. Its common schools gave every 
 child a good education, and Harvard College, 
 scarcely out of sight, and practically a Boston 
 institution, gave a training hardly inferior to 
 that of European universities of the day. At 
 the bottom of the social scale were the negro 
 slaves. The newspapers have many advertise- 
 ments of slaves for sale, and of runaways 
 sought by their masters. Slavery, however, 
 was far on the wane, and soon after the Revolu- 
 tion became extinguished. The negroes were 
 for the most part servants in families, not work- 
 men at trades, and so exercised little influence 
 in the way of bringing labor into disrepute. 
 
 As the slaves were at the bottom, so at the 
 top of society were the ministers, men often of 
 fine force, ability, and education. No other 
 such career as the ministry afforded was open 
 in those days to ambitious men. Year by year 
 the best men of each Cambridge class went into 
 
8 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 the ministry, and the best of them were sifted 
 out for the Boston pulpit. Jonathan May- 
 hew, Andrew Eliot, Samuel Cooper, Charles 
 Chauncey, Mather Byles, — all were characters 
 of mark, true to the Puritan standards, gen- 
 erally, as regards faith, eloquent in their office, 
 friends and advisers of the political leaders, 
 themselves often political leaders, foremost in 
 the public meetings, and active in private. 
 
 Together with the ministers, the merchants 
 were a class of influence. Nothing could be 
 bolder than the spirit in those days of Bos- 
 ton commerce. In ships built at the yards of 
 the town, the Yankee crews Avent everywhere 
 through the world. Timber, tobacco, tar, rice, 
 from the Southern colonies, wheat from Mary- 
 land, sugar and molasses from the West Indies, 
 sought the markets of the world in New Eng- 
 land craft. The laws of trade were compli- 
 cated and oppressive ; but every skipper was 
 more or less a smuggler, and knew well how to 
 brave or evade authority. Wealth flowed fast 
 into the pockets of the Boston merchants, who 
 built and furnished fine mansions, walked King 
 Street in gold lace and fine ruffles, and sat at 
 home, as John Hancock is described, in " a red 
 velvet cap, within which was one of fine linen, 
 the edge of this turned up over the velvet one 
 two or three inches. He wore a blue damask 
 
THE YO UTH AND ' HIS S URR UN DIN GS. 9 
 
 gown lined with silk, a white plaited stock, a 
 white silk embroidered waistcoat, black silk 
 small-clothes, white silk stockings, and red mo- 
 rocco slippers." It is all still made real to us 
 in the superb portraits of Copley, — the mer- 
 chants sitting in their carved chairs, while a 
 chart of distant seas unrolled on the table, or 
 a glimpse through a richly curtained window in 
 the background at a busy wharf or a craft un- 
 der full sail, hints at the employment that has 
 lifted the men to wealth and consequence. 
 
 Below the merchants, the class of workmen 
 formed a body most energetic. Dealing with 
 the tough oak that was to be shaped into storm- 
 defying hulls, twisting the cordage that must 
 stand the strain of arctic ice and tropic hur- 
 ricane, forging anchors that must hold off the 
 lee-shores of all tempestuous seas, — this was 
 work to bring out vigor of muscle, and also of 
 mind and temper. The caulkers were bold pol- 
 iticians. The rope-walk hands were energetic 
 to turbulence, courting the brawls with the 
 soldiers which led to the " Boston massacre." 
 It must be said, too, that the taverns throve. 
 New England rum was very plentiful, the cargo 
 of many a ship that passed the " Boston Light," 
 of many a townsman and " high private " who 
 came to harsh words, and, perhaps, fisticuffs, in 
 Pudding Lane or Dock Square. The prevailing 
 
10 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 tone of the town, however, was decent and 
 grave. The churches were thronged on Sun- 
 days and at Thursday lecture, as they have not 
 been smce. All classes were readers ; the book- 
 sellers fill whole columns in the newspapers 
 with their lists ; the best books then in being 
 in all departments of literature are on sale and 
 in the circulating libraries. The five news- 
 papers the people may be said to have edited 
 themselves. Instead of the impersonal articles 
 of a modern journal, the space in a sheet of the 
 " Revolution," after the news and advertise- 
 ments, was occupied by letters, in which " A 
 Chatterer," "A. Z.," or more often some classic 
 character, "Sagittarius," '• Vindex," " Philan- 
 tlirop," ''Valerius Poplicola," " Nov-Anglus," 
 or " Massachusettensis," belabors Whig or 
 Tory, according to his own stripe of politics, — 
 the champion sometimes appearing in a rather 
 Chinese fashion, stilted up on high rhetorical 
 soles, and padded out with pompous period and 
 excessive classic allusion, but often direct, bold, 
 and well-armed from the arsenals of the best 
 political thinkers. 
 
 Of course the folk-mote of such a town as 
 this would have spirit and interest. Wrote a 
 Tory in those days : ^ " The town-meeting at 
 
 1 Sagittarius, quoted by Frothingham : " The Sam Adams'* 
 Regiments," Atlantic Monthly, November, 1863. 
 
THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 11 
 
 Boston is the hot-bed of sedition. It is there 
 tliat all their dangerous insurrections are en- 
 gendered ; it is there that the flame of discord 
 and rebellion was first lighted up and dissemi- 
 nated over the provinces ; it is therefore greatly 
 to be wished that Parliament may rescue the 
 loyal inhabitants of that town and province 
 from the merciless hand of an ignorant mob, 
 led on and inflamed by self-interested and prof- 
 ligate men." Have more interesting assem- 
 blies ever taken place in the history of the 
 world than the Boston town-meetings ? Out 
 of them grew the independence of the United 
 States, and what more important event has 
 ever occurred? 
 
 Massachusetts was unquestionably the leader 
 in the Revolution.^ After the first year of war, 
 
 1 On this point, which local pride might dispute, a few au' 
 thorities may be cited. Englishmen at the time felt as fol' 
 lows : " In all the late American disturbances and in every 
 thought against the authority of the British Parliament, the 
 people of Massachusetts Bay have taken the lead. Every 
 new move towards independence has been theirs ; and in every 
 fresh mode of resistance against the law they have first set 
 the example, and then issued out admonitory letters to the 
 other colonies to follow it." Mauduit's Short Vieio of the Hist, 
 of the N. E. Colonies, p. 5 See also Anburey's Travels, i 310. 
 Hutchinson, Hist, of Mass. Bay, iii. 257. Rivington, Inde- 
 pendence the Object of Congress in America, London, 1770, p. 
 15. Lord Camden called Massachusetts " The rinir-leading 
 Colony." Coming to writers of our own time, Lecky declares, 
 Hist. ofXVIlIth Century, iii. 386 : " The Central and South- 
 
12 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 indeed, the soil of New England, as compared 
 with the Centre and South, suffered little from 
 the scourge of hostile military occupation. 
 Her sacrifices, however, did not cease. There 
 is no way of determining how many New Eng- 
 land militia took the field during the strife •, 
 the multitude was certainly vast. The figures, 
 however, as regards the more regular levies, 
 have been preserved and are significant. With 
 a population comprising scarcely more than one 
 third of the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies. 
 New England furnished 118,251 of the 231,791 
 Continental troops that figured in the war. 
 Massachusetts alone furnished 67,907, more 
 than one quarter of the entire number. As re- 
 gards the giving of money and supplies, without 
 doubt her proportion was as large. There re- 
 sistance to British encroachment began ; thence 
 disaffection to Britain was spread abroad. 
 
 ern ColoDies long hesitated to follow New England. Massa- 
 chusetts had thrown herself with fierce energy into the con- 
 flict, and soon drew the other provinces in her wake." Says 
 J. R. Seeley, Expansion of England, pp. 1.54, 155 : " The spirit 
 driving the colonies to separation from England, a principle 
 attracting and conglobing them into anew union among them- 
 selves, — how early did this spirit show itself in the New Eng- 
 land colonies ! It was not present in all the colonies. It 
 was not present in Virginia ; but when the colonial discon- 
 tents burst into a flame, then was the moment when Virginia 
 went over to New England, and the spirit of the Pilgrim 
 Fathers found the power to turn the offended colonists into a 
 new nation." 
 
THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 13 
 
 As Massachusetts led the thirteen colonies, 
 the town of Boston led Massachusetts. " This 
 Province began it," wrote General Gage,^ — "I 
 might say this town, for here the arch-rebels 
 formed their scheme long ago." The ministers 
 of George III. recognized this leadership and 
 attacked Boston first. So thoroughly did the 
 forces of revolt centre here that the English 
 pamphleteers, seeking to uphold the govern- 
 ment cause, speak sometimes not so much of 
 Americans, or New Englanders, or indeed men 
 of Massachusetts, as of " Bostoneers," as if it 
 were with the people of that one little town 
 that the fight was to be waged. Even in the 
 woods and wilds the preeminence was known. 
 When Major George Rogers Clark was sub- 
 duing the Mississippi valley, he found that 
 the British emissaries, rousing the Indians and 
 simple French hahitans against him by using 
 the terms they could best understand, had urged 
 them ''to fight Boston." Boston led the thir- 
 teen colonies. Who led the town of Boston? 
 He certainly ought to be a memorable figure. 
 He it is whose story this book is designed to 
 tell. 
 
 The progenitor in America of the Adams 
 family, so numerous and famous, was Henry 
 
 1 To Lord Dartmouth; quoted in Diary and Letters oj 
 Thomas Hutchinson, p. 16. 
 
14 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Adams, who, with a family of eight children, 
 settled at an early period near Mount Wollas- 
 ton in Quincy. The inscription on his tomb- 
 stone, written by President John Adams, de- 
 scribes him as having come from Devonshire, 
 in England. English families of the name trace 
 their descent from a remote Welsh ancestor ; 
 there is a possibility, therefore, of a mixture of 
 Celtic blood in the stock. Grandsons of the 
 emigrant Henry Adams were Joseph Adams, 
 a citizen of Braintree, and John Adams, a sea- 
 eaptain. The former was grandfather of Pres- 
 ident John Adams ; the latter was grandfather 
 of Samuel Adams, the subject of this memoir. 
 The second son of Captain John Adams was 
 Samuel Adams, born May 6, 1689, in Boston, 
 where he always lived, and where he was mar- 
 ried at the age of twenty-four to Mary Fifield. 
 From this union proceeded a family of twelve 
 children, three only of whom survived their 
 father. Of these the illustrious Samuel Adams 
 was born September 16, O. S., 1722. 
 
 The theory that great men derive their pow- 
 ers from their mothers rather than their fathers 
 may, perhaps, be regarded as exploded. It will 
 receive no support, at least, from the case of 
 Samuel Adams. Of his mother no mention can 
 be found except that she was rigidly pious after 
 the puritan standards ; his father, however, 
 
THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 15 
 
 was a man of most noteworthy qualities, and 
 filled a large place in the community in which 
 his lot was cast. He was possessed, at first, of 
 what for those days was a large property, and 
 in 1712 bought a handsome estate in Purchase 
 Street, extending two hundred and fifty-eight 
 feet along the thoroughfare and running thence 
 to the low water line of the harbor. The man- 
 sion, large and substantial, fronted the water, 
 of which it commanded a fine view. Samuel 
 Adams, senior, early made impression, passing 
 soon from a purely private station into various 
 public positions. He became justice of the 
 peace, deacon of the Old South Church, then 
 an office of dignity, selectman, one of the im- 
 portant committee of the town to instruct the 
 representatives to the Assembly, and at length 
 entered the Assembly itself. His son called 
 him " a wise man and a good man." He was 
 everywhere a leader. In 1715, largely through 
 his influence, the " New South " religious soci- 
 ety was established in Summer Street. About 
 the year 1724, with a score or so of others, gen- 
 erally from the North End, where the ship- 
 yards especially lay, he was prominent in a club 
 designed " to lay plans for introducing certain 
 persons into places of trust and power." It 
 was known as the " Caulkers' Club," hence, 
 possibly, one of the best known terms in politi- 
 
16 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 cal nomenclature. As a representative he sig- 
 nalized himself by opposition to that combative 
 old veteran from the wars of Marlborough, 
 Shute, in whose incumbency the chronic quar= 
 rel between governor and legislature grew very 
 sharp. The tastes and abilities, indeed, which 
 made the son afterwards so famous, are also 
 plain in the father, only appearing in the son 
 in a more marked degree and in a time more 
 favorable for their exhibition. 
 
 "Sam" Adams (to his contemporaries it was 
 affectation quite superfluous to go beyond the 
 monosyllable in giving his Christian name) 
 has left but few traces of his boyhood. There 
 is a story that as he went back and forth be- 
 tween home and the wooden school-house in 
 School Street, just in the rear of King's Chapel, 
 his punctuality was so invariable that the la- 
 borers regulated their hours of work by him. 
 One is glad to believe that this tale of virtue 
 so portentous has no good foundation. Un- 
 doubtedly, however, he was a staid, prema- 
 turely intelligent boy, responding to the severe 
 Puritan influences which surrounded him, and 
 early developed through listening to the talk 
 of the strong men of the town, for whom his 
 father's house was a favorite meeting-place. 
 Of his college life, too, there is almost no men- 
 tion. He was a close student and always after- 
 
THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 17 
 
 ward fond of quoting Greek and Latin. His 
 father's earnest wish was that he should study- 
 theology. Whitefield, as Sam Adams came 
 forward into life, was quickening wonderfidly 
 the zeal of New England. It would have been 
 natural for the parents and the sober-minded 
 son to feel a warmth from so powerful a torch. 
 A minister, however, he could not be. He re- 
 ceived the degree of A. B. in 1740, and when 
 three years after he became Master of Arts, 
 the thesis which he presented showed plainly 
 what was his true bent. " Whether it be Law- 
 ful to resist the Supreme Magistrate, if the 
 Commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved," 
 was his subject, which he proceeded to discuss 
 in the presence, not only of the college dignita- 
 ries, but of the new governor, Shirley, and the 
 Crown officials, who sat in state near the young 
 speakers at Commencement, as do their suc- 
 cessors to-day. What he said and what effect 
 he produced is not recorded. No one knew 
 that as the young man spoke, then, for the 
 first time, one of the great Revolutionary group 
 was asserting the right of resistance by the 
 people to arbitrary oppressors. Shirley was 
 perhaps lost in some far - away dream of how 
 he might get at the French ; and when thirty 
 years after, in his retirement at Dorchester, 
 he asked who the Sam Adams could be. that 
 
18 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 was such a thorn in the side to his successors 
 Bernard and Hutchinson, he was quite uncon- 
 scious of the fact that he himself had had the 
 benefit, close at hand, of the first scratch. 
 
 In the Harvard quinquennial, where the 
 names in the provincial period are arranged 
 not alphabetically, but according to the conse- 
 quence of the families to which the students 
 belong, Sam Adams stands fifth in a class of 
 twenty-two. As he reached his majority his 
 father became embarrassed, and while misfor- 
 tune impended, Sam Adams, whose disinclina- 
 tion to theology had become plain, began the 
 study of law. This his mother is said to have 
 disapproved; law in those days was hardly 
 recognized as a profession, and the young man 
 turned to mercantile life as a calling substantial 
 and respectable. He entered the counting- 
 house of Thomas Gushing, a prominent mer- 
 chant, with whose son of the same name he 
 was destined afterwards to be closely connected 
 through many years of public service. For 
 business, however, he had neither taste nor 
 tact. The competition of trade was repulsive 
 to him ; his desire for gain was of the slightest. 
 Leaving Mr. Gushing after a few months, he 
 received from his father £1,000 with which to 
 begin business for himself. Half of this he 
 lent to a friend who never repaid it, and the 
 
THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 19 
 
 other half he soon lost in his own operations. 
 Thriftless though he seemed, he began to be 
 regarded as not unpromising, for there were 
 certain directions in which his mind was won- 
 derfully active. Father and son became part- 
 ners in a malt-house situated on the estate in 
 Purchase Street, and one can well understand 
 how business must have suffered in the circum- 
 stances in which they were presently placed. 
 
 The times became wonderfully stirring. In 
 1T45 Sir William Pepperell led his New Eng- 
 land army to the capture of Louisburg. Bos- 
 ton was at first absorbed in the great prepara- 
 tions ; while the siege proceeded the town was 
 in a fever of anxiety, as it had good cause to 
 be ; for brave though they were, whoever reads 
 the story must feel that only the most extraor- 
 dinary good luck could have brought the pro- 
 vincials through. When the victory was at 
 length complete, and the iron cross from the 
 market-place was brought home by the soldiers 
 in token of triumph, never was joy more tu- 
 multuous. In all this time Samuel Adams, 
 senior, was in the forefront of public affairs. 
 He sat in the Assembly, and was proposed by 
 that body for the Council or upper house, but 
 was rejected by Shirley. He was a member of 
 most of the mdlitary committees, in that day 
 the most important of the legislature ; there 
 
20 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 are facts showing that his jiidgiiient was espe- 
 cially deferred to in affairs of that kind. 
 
 Encouraged by the success at Cape Breton, 
 the colonists planned still further enterprises 
 against the French, in all which Massachusetts, 
 stimulated by Shirley, who had the heart and 
 the head of a soldier, took part with enthusiasm. 
 When in 1748 the magnificent fruits of New 
 England energy were all resigned at the peace 
 of Aix la Chapelle, a deep resentment w^as felt. 
 
 In matters relating to peace and war the 
 elder Adams was much concerned. The son 
 meantime, trusting himself more and more to 
 the element for which he was born, figured 
 prominently in the clubs and wrote copiously 
 for the newspapers. One can easily see how 
 business must have been carried on with some 
 slackness, since the two partners were marked 
 by such characteristics. 
 
 In 1748 Samuel Adams, senior, died, bequeath- 
 ing to the younger Samuel a third of his estate, 
 — his sister and his brother (who is mentioned 
 about this time in the town records as clerk of 
 the market) receiving their shares. In 1749 
 he married Elizabeth Checkley, daughter of 
 the minister of the " New South," established 
 himself in Purchase Street, and gave himself, 
 with a mind by no means undivided, to the 
 management of the malt-house. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 THE PRE-EEVOLUTIONARY STEUGGLB. 
 
 Leaving ''Sam, the Maltster," to wait 
 through the years that must mtervene before 
 the hour shall really strike for him, we must 
 make a survey of the institutions into the midst 
 of which he was born, and of the momentous 
 dispute in which he was presently to stand forth 
 as a figure of the first importance. 
 
 According to the original charter, which was 
 that of a mere trading corpoi'ation, vaguely 
 drawn, and which was converted without color 
 of law into the foundation of an independent 
 state, the affairs of Massachusetts were to be 
 managed by a governor, deputy-governor, and 
 eighteen assistants, who were to hold monthly 
 meetings for that purpose. These officials were 
 to be elected, and a general oversight to be ex- 
 ercised, by the stockholders of the company to 
 whom the charter was granted. The colonists 
 were " to enjoy the rights of Englishmen," but 
 had no share in the direction of affairs. The 
 company was transferred, however, very soon, 
 
22 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 to New England, and the settlement, instead of 
 being subject to stockholders across the water, 
 became then self - governed, an arrangement 
 quite different from that at first contemplated. 
 
 For the first half century, through a provi- 
 sion of the General Court enacted in 1631, no 
 man was to become a freeman unless he were 
 a church member. Since not a fourth part of 
 the adult population were ever church mem- 
 bers, the democracy had many of the features 
 of an oligarchy. Among themselves the free- 
 men cherished a spirit strongly democratic ; but 
 towards those outside, the spiritual aristocracy 
 preserved a haughty bearing. 
 
 At the end of fifty years, beneath Charles II. 
 and James II., came a crisis. When at length 
 in 1692 Sir William Phips, a rough and en- 
 terprising son of the colony, appeared as gov- 
 ernor, he brought with him a document which 
 was far from pleasing to the people, who had 
 hoped from the protestant champion, William 
 III., a restoration of the old institutions. High 
 notions of his prerogative, however, were enter- 
 tained by the new king, and were not opposed 
 by even the wisest among his advisers. Mas- 
 sachusetts, Plymouth, and Maine were compre- 
 hended under one jurisdiction. New Hampshire 
 being left independent. The old freedom of 
 Massachusetts was to a large extent suspended. 
 
THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE. 23 
 
 The theocracy, too, was abolished ; toleration 
 was secured to all religious sects except pa- 
 pists ; and the right of suffrage, once limited to 
 church members, was bestowed on all inhabit- 
 ants possessing a freeliold of the annual value 
 of forty shillings, or personal property to the 
 amount of j640. The appointment of the gov- 
 ernor, lieutenant-governor, and colonial secre- 
 tary was reserved to the king. The governor 
 possessed the power of summoning, adjourning, 
 and dissolving the General Court, and a nega- 
 tive upon all its acts. He was dependent upon 
 it, however, for his salary by annual grant. 
 Two boards, as before, were to constitute the 
 legislature or General Court, a Council and 
 House of Representatives. The members of 
 the latter body were to be chosen annually by 
 the towns, and had the important power of the 
 purse. The Council was to consist of twenty- 
 eight members, who in the first instance were 
 to be appointed by the king. Afterwards, a 
 new Council for each year was to be chosen by 
 joint ballot of the old Council and the Repre- 
 sentatives, the power being given to the gov- 
 ernor of rejecting thirteen out of the twenty- 
 eight. To all official acts the concurrence of 
 the Council was necessary, and to the king was 
 reserved the power of annulling any act within 
 three years of its passage. 
 
24 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 To turn to judicial institutions : at the head 
 stood a Superior Court, presided over by a 
 chief justice and subordinate judges. These 
 were appointed by the governor in Council ; 
 so, too, were inferior magistrates, as justices of 
 the peace in each county. In course of time, 
 the regular number of judges in the Superior 
 Court came to be five, and to it was assigned 
 all the jurisdiction of the English Common 
 Pleas, King's Bench, and Exchequer. There 
 were also county courts of Common Pleas for 
 smaller civil cases. Courts of Sessions, com- 
 posed of justices of the peace in each countj^, 
 for inferior criminal cases, and Courts of Pro- 
 bate for settling the estates of persons deceased. 
 An attorney-general was appointed to conduct 
 public prosecutions. From 1697 Courts of Vice- 
 Admiralty existed, empowered to try without 
 jury all maritime and revenue cases ; but these 
 tribunals were from the first strenuously op- 
 posed. From 1698 a Court of Chancery also 
 existed. The governor was commander-in-chief 
 of the militia, whose officers he was also em- 
 powered to appoint. In 1728 the charter of 
 William and Mary was amended, after earnest 
 disputes between Governor Shute and the As- 
 sembty (the lower house of the legislature), by 
 a clause giving the governor power to negative 
 the speaker chosen by the Assembly ; and also 
 
THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE. 25 
 
 by a clause making it impossible for the house 
 to adjourn, by its own vote, for a longer term 
 than two days. 
 
 With these representative and judicial insti- 
 tutions, which require from the reader careful 
 attention, concerned as he will be in our story 
 with a variety of constitutional disputes, Mas- 
 sachusetts, absorbing Plymouth and Maine, 
 passed from her colonial into her provincial 
 period. Though greatly restricted in her in- 
 dependence, the new order was really in some 
 respects a vast improvement upon the old. 
 Through the canceling of the condition of 
 church membership, citizenship became prac- 
 tically open to all ; for the pecuniary qualifica- 
 tion was so small as to embarrass very few. 
 Though the legislature was cramped, the town- 
 meetings were unrestrained, and through the 
 enlargement of the franchise gained a power 
 and interest which they had not before pos- 
 sessed. 
 
 The prevailing tone of American writers, 
 who, as historians or biographers, have treated 
 the Revolutionary struggle, has been that the 
 case against the British government was a per- 
 fectly plain one, that its conduct was aggres- 
 sion in no way to be justified or palliated, and 
 as blundering as it was wicked. An illustrious 
 
26 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Englishman, E. A. Freeman, however, has just 
 written : " In the War of Independence there 
 is really nothing of which either side need be 
 ashamed. Each side acted as it was natural 
 for each side to act. We can now see that both 
 King George and the British nation were quite 
 wrong ; but for them to have acted otherwise 
 than they did would have needed a superhu- 
 man measure of wisdom, which few kings and 
 few nations ever had." 
 
 Our Fourth of July orators may well assume 
 a tone somewhat less confident, when thought- 
 ful men in England, not at all ill-disposed to- 
 ward America, and not at all blind to the 
 blunders and crimes which strew the course of 
 English history, pass even now, after a hun- 
 dred years, such a judgment as this which has 
 been quoted. A candid American student, ad- 
 mire as lie may the wisdom and virtue of our 
 Revolutionary fathers, is compelled to admit, 
 in this calmer time, that it was by no meany 
 plain sailing for King George and his minis- 
 ters, and that they deserve something better 
 from us than the unsparing obloquy which for 
 the most part they have received. 
 
 The love of the colonists toward England 
 had become estranged in other ways than by 
 *' taxation without representation." In Mas- 
 sachusetts, the destruction of the theocracy 
 
TEE PRE-REVOLUTJONARY STRUGGLE. 27 
 
 through the new charter was a severe shock 
 to puritan feeling. The enforced toleration of 
 all sects but papists was a constant source of 
 wrath ; and when, as the eighteenth century- 
 advanced, the possibility of the introduction of 
 bishops and a church establishment appeared, 
 a matter which was most persistently and un- 
 wisely urged,^ there was deep-seated resentment. 
 But another stone of offense, which, unlike 
 the fear of prelacy, affected all America as well 
 as New England, and was therefore very im- 
 portant, existed in the trade regulations. By 
 the revolution of 1688, the royal power in 
 England was restrained, but that of Parlia- 
 ment and the mercantile and manufacturing 
 classes greatly increased. The " Board of 
 Trade " was then constituted, to whom were 
 committed the interests of commerce and a 
 general oversight of the colonies. Adam Smith 
 was still in the far future, and the policy con° 
 stantly pursued was neither humane nor wise. 
 We may judge of the temper of the Board from 
 the fact that even John Locke, its wisest and 
 one of its most influential members, solemnh^ 
 advised William to appoint a captain-general 
 
 1 Grahame, Hist, of U. S., iv. 317. As far as New England was 
 concerned this fear of ecclesiasticism was as potent a source of 
 estrangement as any. Some writers regard it as the principal 
 cause of bad feeling. See John Adams, the Statesman of the Rev- 
 olution, by Hon. Mellen Chamberlain. Boston, 1884. 
 
28 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 over the colonies with dictatorial power, and 
 the whole Board recommended, in 1701, a re- 
 sumption of the colonial charters and the in- 
 troduction of such "an administration of gov- 
 ernment as shall make them duly subservient 
 to England." The welfare of the colonies was 
 systematically sacrificed to the aggrandizement 
 of the gains of English manufacturers and 
 merchants. Sometimes the provisions turned 
 out to the advantage of the colonists, but more 
 frequently there was oppression without any 
 compensating good. 
 
 Restrictions, designed for securing to the 
 mother-country a monopoly of the colonial 
 trade, crushed out every industry that could 
 compete with those of England. For such 
 products as they were permitted to raise, the 
 colonies had no lawful market but England, nor 
 could they buy anywhere, except in England, 
 the most important articles which they needed. 
 With the French West India islands a most 
 profitable intercourse had sprung up, the colo- 
 nists shipping thither lumber and provisions, 
 and receiving in return sugar and molasses, the 
 consumption of which latter article, in the wide- 
 spread manufacture of rum, was very large. In 
 1733 was passed the famous " Sugar Act," the 
 design of which was to help the British West 
 Indies at the expense of the northern colonies, 
 
THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE. 29 
 
 and by which all the trade with the French 
 islands became unlawful, so tliat no legitimate 
 source of supply remained open but the far less 
 convenient English islands. The restrictions, 
 indeed, were not and could not be enforced. 
 Every sailor was a smuggler ; every colonist 
 knew more or less of illicit traffic or industry. 
 The demoralization came to pass which always 
 results when a community, even with good rea- 
 son, is full of law-breakers, and the disposition 
 became constantly more and more unfriendly 
 toward the mother country. Said Arthur 
 Young : " Nothing can be more idle than to 
 say that this set of men, or the other adminis- 
 tration, or that great minister, occasioned the 
 American war. It was not the Stamp Act, nor 
 the repeal of the Stamp Act ; it was neither 
 Lord Rockingham nor Lord North, — but it 
 was that baleful spirit of commerce that wished 
 to govern great nations on the maxims of the 
 counter." 
 
 The Board of Trade, however, the main 
 source of the long series of acts by which the 
 English dependencies were systematically re- 
 pressed, should receive execration not too se- 
 vere. They simply were not in advance of 
 their age. When, after 1688, the commercial 
 spirit gained an ascendency quite new in Eng- 
 land, the colonists, far off, little known, and de- 
 
30 8AM U EL ADAMS. 
 
 spised, were pitched upon as fair game, if they 
 could be made to yield advantage. In so using 
 them, the men in power were only showing 
 what has so often passed as patriotism, that 
 mere expansion of selfishness, inconsistent with 
 any broad Christian sentiment, which seeks 
 wealth and might for the state at the expense 
 of the world outside. It was inhumanity from 
 which the world is rising, it may be hoped, — 
 for which it would be wrong to blame those 
 men of the past too harshly. The injustice, 
 however, as always, brought its penalty ; and 
 in this case the penalty was the utter estrange- 
 ment of the hearts of a million of Enghshmen 
 from the land they had once loved, and the 
 ultimate loss of a continent. 
 
 Before the Massachusetts settlement, it had 
 been stipulated in the charter that all the colo- 
 nists were to have the rights and privileges of 
 Englishmen, and this provision they often cited. 
 Magna Charta was but a confirmation of what 
 had stood in and before the time of Edward 
 the Confessor, — the primitive freedom, indeed, 
 ivhich had prevailed in the German woods. 
 This had been again and again re-confirmed. 
 Documents of Edivard I. and Edward III., the 
 Petition of Right of 1628, the Bill of Rights of 
 1689, had given such re-confirmations ; and the 
 descendants of the twenty thousand Puritans, 
 
THE PRE-REV OLUTIONARY STRUGGLE. 31 
 
 who, coming over between 1620 and 1640, had 
 been the seed from which sprung the race of 
 New Englanders, knew these things in a gen- 
 eral way. They were to the full as intelligent 
 in perceiving what were the rights of English- 
 men, and as tenacious in upholding them, as 
 any class that had remained in the old home. 
 Left to themselves for sixty yeai'S, there was 
 little need of an assertion of rights ; but when 
 at last interference began from across the wa- 
 ter, it was met at the outset by protest. Par- 
 liament is a thousand leagues of stormy sea 
 away from us, said they. That body cannot 
 judge us well ; most of all, our representatives 
 have no place in it. We owe allegiance to the 
 king indeed, but instead of Parliament, our 
 General Court shall tax and make laws for us. 
 Such claims, often asserted, though overruled, 
 were not laid aside, and at length in 1766 we 
 find Franklin asserting them as the opinion of 
 America at the bar of the House of Commons. 
 It cannot, however, be said that New Eng- 
 land was consistent here. In 1757, for in- 
 stance, the authority of Parliament was dis- 
 tinctly admitted by the General Court of Mas- 
 sachusetts ; so too in 1761 ; and even so late as 
 1768, it is admitted " that his Majesty's high 
 court of Parliament is the supreme legislative 
 power over the whole empire." 
 
32 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 The sum and substance is that as to the con- 
 stitutional rights of the colonists, the limits 
 were, in particulars, quite undetermined, both in 
 the minds of English statesmen, and also among 
 the colonists themselves. What " the ] privi- 
 leges and rights of Englishmen " were was not 
 always clearly outlined, and the student finds 
 sometimes more, sometimes less, insisted on, 
 according as the temper toward the old world 
 is embittered, or good-natured. As events 
 progress, through fear of prelatical contriviiigs 
 and through bad trade regulations, as has been 
 seen, the tone becomes more and more exasper- 
 ated. On the one side the spirit becomes con- 
 stantly more independent ; on the other side, 
 the claims take on a new shade of arrogance. 
 When the first decided steps toward the Rev- 
 olution occur in 1764, in the agitations con- 
 nected with the Stamp Act, the positions in 
 general of the parties in the dispute may be 
 set down as follows : " Parliament asserted the 
 right to make laws to bind the colonies in all 
 cases whatsoever ; the colonies claimed that 
 there should be no taxation without represen- 
 tation, and that, since they had no representa- 
 tives in Parliament, they were beyond its juris- 
 diction." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. 
 
 Sam Adams at twenty-eight, with a wife, 
 and his inheritance now in his hands through 
 the death of his father, had not yet begun to 
 play his proper part before the world. The 
 eyes of men were beginning to turn toward 
 him, indeed, as a man with a head to manage 
 a political snarl, and a^jjigl^^o^^^ig^oughts 
 that could instruct 
 
 however, the some^^l^ft y^lplJlSss- jjiaffag^j^JSlLf 
 the Purchase Stree 
 censors no doubt said 
 for him to mind his 
 than dabble as he did in 
 he was a good student and thinker was shown 
 by his contributions to the " Public Adver- 
 tiser." 
 
 He was devoted also to the discussions of the 
 debating-clubs. As yet the RevolutioB seemed 
 far off. The people of Massachusetts, it has 
 been said, were never in a more easy situation 
 than at the close of the war with France in 
 
84 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 1749. The whole charge for the expedition 
 against Cape Breton was reimbursed to them 
 by Parliament, so that the Province was set 
 free from a heavy debt, a liberality which of 
 course made it easier to swallow the bitter pill 
 of restoring Louisburg to the French. With 
 his patrimony Samuel Adams had apparently 
 inherited his father's friendships and enmities, 
 among the latter being a feud with Thomas 
 Hutchinson, a man fast rising to the position 
 of leading spirit of the Province, already in the 
 Council, and destined to fill in turn, sometimes 
 indeed to combine at once, the most distin- 
 guished positions. Governor Shirley's popu- 
 larity vanished before ill success, which over- 
 took his later enterprises; He gave way at 
 length in 1756 to Thomas Pownall, a man of 
 wide experience in colonial life and of much 
 tact, so that while maintaining firmly the pre- 
 rogative of the king,' in the chronic dispute be- 
 tween ministry and Assembly, which was never 
 long at rest, he contrived still to retain the 
 good-will of the people, who did him great 
 honor at his departure. Samuel Adams, who 
 in Shirley had opposed the union of the civil 
 and military powers in one head, was, like his 
 fellow-citizens, better pleased with Pownall, a 
 good opinion which the ex-governor afterward 
 abundantly justified by bravely and intelli' 
 
THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. 36 
 
 gently defending in Parliament the cause of 
 America. 
 
 In 1758 an incident occurred which attracted 
 much public attention. An attempt was then 
 made to seize and sell the property of Samuel 
 Adams, senior, on account of his connection 
 m'any years before with the " Land Bank 
 Scheme," a device perhaps not the wisest, 
 which had been resorted to for avoiding great 
 loss which threatened the colony in consequence 
 of a certain interference of the home govern- 
 ment in the finances. At the time it had been 
 asserted that each director would be held indi- 
 vidually responsible for the liabilities of the 
 concern ; but we may well believe that for 
 Samuel Adams it was a matter somewhat start- 
 ling to read in the " News Letter," ten years 
 after his father had been in his grave, and sev- 
 enteen years after the affair had taken place, 
 a sheriff's notice that the property he had in- 
 herited would be sold at auction " for the more 
 speedy finishing the Land Bank scheme." ^ 
 The sale did not take place, for when the sher- 
 iff appeared he found himself confronted by a 
 sturdy citizen, whose resistance he was forced 
 to respect. Soon afterward an act was passed 
 by the legislature liberating the directors from 
 personal liability — an act the significance of 
 
 1 Boston News Letter, August 10 and 17, 1758. 
 
86 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 which was not at the time understood, but 
 which was often referred to subsequently as a 
 memorable precedent, in the strife between the 
 colony and Parliament. 
 
 Turning over the Boston town records, as 
 the venerable rolls lie in their handsome sur- 
 roundings in the great city hall that stands 
 on the site of the little wooden school of Sam- 
 uel Adams's boyhood, one first finds his name 
 in 1753, on the committee to visit schools. 
 Scarcely a year passes from that date until 
 the town -meetings cease, crushed out by the 
 battalions of Gage, when his name does not 
 appear in connections becoming constantly 
 more honorable. The record, first in the hand 
 of Ezekiel Goldthwait, town clerk, and after 
 1761 in that of William Cooper, though mea- 
 gre, is complete enough to show how intimately 
 his life is connected with these meetings of the 
 freemen. He serves in offices large and small, 
 on committees to see that chimneys are prop- 
 erly inspected, as fire-ward, to see that pre- 
 cautions are taken against the spread of the 
 small-pox, as moderator, on the committee to 
 instruct the representatives to the Assembly, as 
 representative himself. From 1756 to 1764 he 
 was annually elected one of the tax-collectors, 
 and in connection with this office came the 
 gravest suspicion of a serious moral dereliction 
 
THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. 37 
 
 which his enemies could ever lay to his charge. 
 Embarrassments which weighed upon the peo- 
 ple caused payments to be slow. The tax-collec- 
 tors fell into arrears, and it was at length en- 
 tered upon the records that they were indebted 
 to the town in the sum of £9,878. The Tories 
 persisted afterwards in making this deficiency 
 a ground of accusation, and Hutchinson, in the 
 third volume of his history, deliberately calls it 
 a " defalcation." No candid investigator can 
 feel otherwise than that to Samuel Adams's 
 contemporaries any misappropriation of funds 
 by him was an absurd supposition. Without 
 stopping to inquire how it may have been with 
 his fellow collectors, it is quite certain that in 
 his case a feeling of humanity, very likely an 
 absence of business vigor, stood in the way of 
 his efficiency in the position. His townsmen 
 wanted him for a high office, a sure proof that 
 they had lost no confidence in him. A suc- 
 cessor was appointed to collect the arrears, the 
 Province being asked to authorize the town's 
 action. "Neither the historian nor the con- 
 temporary records furnish any evidence to re- 
 but the presumption that his ill success as a 
 collector was excusable if not unavoidable." ^ 
 In 1760 the prudent Pownall was succeeded 
 
 ^ See Province Laws, p. 27, note, edited by. Hon. Ellis Ames 
 and A. C. Goodell, Jr., Esq. The latter gentleman has com- 
 
38 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 by Francis Bernard, a character of quite differ- 
 ent temper. Botta has described him as a man 
 of excellent judgment, sincerely attached to the 
 interests of the Province, and of irreproachable 
 character. He was a defender of the preroga- 
 tive of the Crovs^n, however, ardent in disposi- 
 tion, and quite without the pliancy and adroit- j; 
 ness which had served his predecessor so well. | 
 He had before been governor of New Jersey, j, 
 and now was promoted to the more conspicu- 1] 
 ous post in Massachusetts. He had received Ij 
 an Oxford education, was a man of refined and ^ 
 scholarly tastes, and is said to have been able \ 
 to perform the astonishing feat of repeating the 
 whole of Shakespeare from memory. There is 
 no reason to doubt the authorities who speak j 
 well of Bernard, though the portrait that has I 
 come down to us from the patriot writers is | 
 dark. Events presently threw governor and ] 
 Province into positions of violent antagonism ^^ 
 to one another. To the governor the people ! 
 seemed seditious and unreasonable ; to the peo- 
 ple the governor appeared arbitrary and irrita- 
 ble, and the relation at length became one of 
 thorough hatred. At first he was liberally : 
 treated, however, receiving a grant of X 1,300 j 
 for his salary, and the island of Mt. Desert | 
 
 pletely cleared .the character of Samuel Adams in a papei 
 lead before the Mass. Histor. Society in the spring of 1883. ^ 
 
THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. 39 
 
 in Maine, favors to which he would have re- 
 sponded no doubt graciously if, as an English 
 country gentleman, his every nerve had not 
 been presently rasped by the preposterous lev- 
 elers with whom he was thrown into contact. 
 
 The fall of Quebec in 1759, immediately 
 preceding the accession of Bernard, was an im- 
 portant crisis in the history of Massachusetts. 
 The colonists had learned to estimate their mil- 
 itary strength more highly than ever before. 
 Side by side with British regulars, they had 
 fought against Montcalm and proved their 
 prowess. Officers qualified by the best ex- 
 perience to lead, and soldiers hardened by the 
 roughest campaigning into veterans, abounded 
 in all the towns. A more independent spirit 
 appeared, and this was greatly strengthened 
 by the circumstance that the destruction of the 
 power of France suddenly put an end to the 
 incubus which, from the foundation of things, 
 had weighed upon New England, viz., the dread 
 of an invasion from the north. Coincident with 
 this great invigoration of the tone of the Prov- 
 ince came certain changes in the English pol- 
 icy, changes which came about very naturally, 
 but which, in the temper that had begun to 
 prevail, aroused fierce resentment. As the 
 Seven Years' War drew towards its close, it 
 grew plain that England had incurred an enor- 
 
40 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 mous debt. Her responsibilities, moreover, had 
 largely increased. All India had fallen into her 
 hands as well as French America. At the ex- 
 pense of her defeated rival, her dominion was 
 immensely expanding ; vast was the glory, but 
 vast also the care and the financial burden. A 
 faithful, sharp-eyed minister, George Grenville, 
 seeing well the needs of the hour, and searching 
 as no predecessor had done into the corruptions 
 and slacknesses of administration, at once fast- 
 ened upon the unenforced revenue laws as a 
 field where reform w^as needed. Industry on 
 land, as we have seen, was badly hampered in 
 a score of ways, and on the sea the wings of 
 commerce were cruelly clipped. 
 
 Grenville's imprudence was as conspicuous 
 as his eye was keen and his fidelity persistent. 
 As the first step in a series of financial meas- 
 ures which should enable England to meet her 
 enormous debt and her great expenses, he set 
 in operation a vigorous exaction of neglected 
 customs and imposts. The vessels of the navy 
 on the American coast were commissioned to 
 act in the service of the revenue, each ofiicer 
 becoming a customs official. At once all con- 
 traband trade was subjected to the most ener- 
 getic attack, no respect being shown to placea 
 or persons. In particular, the Sugar Act, by 
 which an effort had been made to cut off the 
 
THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. 41 
 
 interchange of American lumber and provisions 
 for the sugar and molasses of the French West 
 Indies, was strongly enforced, and the New 
 England sailors, with the enterprising mer- 
 chants of Boston, Newport, Salem, and Ports- 
 mouth behind them, flamed out into the fierc- 
 est resentment. Whereas for many a year the 
 collectors, from their offices on the wharves, 
 had winked placidly at the full cargoes from 
 St. Domingo and St. Christopher, brought into 
 port beneath their very eyes, now all was to 
 be changed in a moment. Each sleepy tide- 
 waiter suddenly became an Argus, and, backed 
 up by a whole fleet full of rough and ready 
 helpere, proceeded to put an end to the most 
 lucrative trade New England possessed. 
 
 To help forward this new activity in the car- 
 rying out of laws so often heretofore a dead 
 letter, certain legal forms known as " writs of 
 assistance " were recommended, to be granted 
 by the Superior Court to the officers of the 
 customs, giving them authority to search the 
 houses of persons suspected of smuggling. The 
 employment of such a power, though contra- 
 band goods were often, no doubt, concealed in 
 private houses, was regarded as a great out- 
 rage. Writs of assistance in England were le- 
 gal and usual. If they were ever justifiable, 
 as English authorities said then and still say, 
 
42 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 they are justifiable under such circumstances 
 as prevailed in America. Stephen . Sewall, 
 however, chief justice of the Province, when 
 applied to for such a writ, in November, 1760, 
 just after the fall of Quebec, expressed doubt 
 as to their legality, and as to the power of the 
 court to grant them. But the application had 
 been made on the part of the Crown by Pax- 
 ton, the chief officer of customs at Boston, and 
 could not be dismissed without a hearing. 
 While the matter was pending Sewall died, 
 and his successor was none other than Thomas 
 Hutchinson, who already held the offices of 
 lieutenant-governor, member of the Council, 
 and judge of probate. He received his new 
 position from Governor Bernard, being pre- 
 ferred to Colonel James Otis, to whom the post 
 was said to have been promised by Governor 
 Shirley, years before. 
 
 Now it is that a figure of the highest im- 
 portance in the story of Samuel Adams first 
 comes prominently upon the scene. At the ses- 
 sions of the court there had lately sat among 
 the lawyers, in the tie-wig and black gown 
 then customary, a certain " plump, round-faced, 
 smooth-skinned, short-necked, eagle-eyed young 
 politician," James Otis, the younger, already a 
 man of mark, for he held the lucrative position 
 of advocate-general, the official legaL adviser of 
 
TEE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. 43 
 
 the government. It was for him now to de- 
 fend the case of the officers of the customs. He, 
 however, refused, resigned his commission, and 
 with Oxenbridge Thacher, a patriotic and elo- 
 quent lawyer, Avas retained by the merchants 
 of Boston and Salem to undertake their cause. 
 Hutchinson, whose invaluable history relates 
 with a certain old-fashioned stiffness but with 
 much calm dignity the story of Massachusetts, 
 does not forget himself, even when he comes to 
 the events in which he himself was an actor. 
 His recital maintains its tone of qaiet modera- 
 tion even when his theme becomes that bitter 
 strife, in which, fighting to the last, he was 
 himself utterly borne down. It is a disfigure- 
 ment of the narrative that he sometimes as- 
 cribes mean motives to the champions who 
 faced him in the battle ; but the wonder is, 
 under the circumstances, that the men with 
 whom he so exchanged hate for hate stand 
 forth in his page with so little detraction. 
 Hutchinson declares the conduct of James Otis, 
 in the case of the writs of assistance, to have 
 been caused by chagrin, because his father had 
 failed to receive the position of chief justice. 
 What weight this charge is entitled to will be 
 considered hereafter. 
 
 Among the high services rendered by John 
 Adams is certainly to be counted the fact that 
 
44 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 in his faithfully kept diary and familiar letters, 
 from his youth in Shirley's day down to his 
 patriarchal age at Quincy, when his son was 
 President of the United States, we have the 
 most complete and graphic picture extant of 
 America's most memorable period. The record 
 is in parts almost as naive as that of Sewall, 
 " the New England Pepys," and gains as much 
 in value from the foibles of the writer, his self- 
 consciousness, his honest irascibility, his nar- 
 rowness, as it does from his strong qualities. 
 Here is his picture of the case of the writs of 
 assistance : — 
 
 " Otis was a flame of fire. With a promptitude 
 of classical allusions, a dej^th of research, a rapid 
 summary of historical events and dates, a profusion 
 of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eye into- 
 futurity, and a torrent of impetuous eloquence, he 
 hurried away everything before him. American in- 
 dependence was then and there born ; the seeds of 
 patriots and heroes were then and there sown, to de- 
 fend the vigorous youth, the non sine diis ammosus 
 infans. Every man of a crowded audience appeared 
 to me to go away, as I did, ready to take arms against 
 writs of assistance. Then and there was the first 
 scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary 
 claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child 
 Independence was born." 
 
 John Adams also took notes of the speech 
 of Otis, which have been preserved. It lasted 
 
THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. 45 
 
 between four and five hours and was indeed 
 learned, eloquent, and bold. The most signifi- 
 cant passage is that in which, after describing 
 the hardships endured by the colonies through 
 the acts of navigation and trade, with passion- 
 ate invective he denounced taxation without 
 representation. It was by no means a new 
 claim, but the masses of the people caught the 
 words from his lips, and henceforth it came to be 
 a common maxim in the mouths of all that tax- 
 ation without representation is tyranny. Hutch- 
 inson continued the case to the next term, " as 
 the practice in England is not known," and 
 James Otis went forth to be for the next ten 
 years the idol of the people. 
 
 John Adams's assertion, that in this magnifi- 
 cent outburst American independence was born, 
 will scarcely bear examination. The speech 
 was not to such an extent epoch-making. Both 
 orator and audience were thoroughly loyal and 
 had no thought of a contest of arms with the 
 mother-country. The principle asserted was 
 only a re-avowal of what, as has been seen, had 
 been often maintained. The argument was 
 simply an incident in the long continued, fric- 
 tion between parent-land and dependency, not 
 differing in essential character from scores of 
 acts showing discontent which had preceded, 
 though possessing great interest from the ability 
 and daring of the pleader. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 
 
 In the year 1764, when the agitation con- 
 cerning the impending Stamp Act was disturb- 
 ing the colonies, Samuel Adams had reached 
 the age of forty-two. Even now his hair was 
 becoming gray, and a peculiar tremulousness of 
 the head and hands made it seem as if he were 
 already on the threshold of old age. His con- 
 stitution, nevertheless, was remarkably sound. 
 His frame, of about medium stature, was mus- 
 cular and well-knit. His eyes were a clear steel 
 gray, his nose prominent, the lower part of his 
 face capable of great sternness of look, but in or- 
 dinary intercourse wearing a genial expression. 
 Life had brought to him much of hardship. In 
 1757 his wife had died, leaving to him a son, 
 still another Samuel Adams, and a daughter. 
 Misfortune had followed him in business. The 
 malt-house had been an utter failure ; his patri- 
 mony had vanished little by little, so that be- 
 yond the fair mansion on Purchase Street, with 
 its pleasant harbor view, little else remained to 
 
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 4T 
 
 him ; the house was becoming rusty through 
 want of means to keep it in proper repair. In 
 his public relations, fortune had thus far treated 
 him no more kindly. As tax-collector he had 
 quite failed and was largely in arrea,rs. There 
 was a possibility of losing what little property 
 remained to him, and of having his name 
 stained with dishonor. His hour, however, had 
 now come. 
 
 In May, 1764, the town of Boston appointed, 
 as usual, the important committee to instruct 
 the representatives just elected to the General 
 Court. The committee were " Richard Dana, 
 Esqr., Mr. Samuel Adams, John Ruddock, 
 Esqr., Nathaniel Bethune, Esqr., Joseph Green, 
 Esqr.," and to Samuel Adams was given the 
 task of drafting the paper. He submitted it in 
 the town-meeting of the 24th, a document very 
 memorable, because it contains the first public 
 denial of the right of the British Parliament 
 to put in operation Grenville's scheme of the 
 Stamp Act, just announced ; and the first sug- 
 gestion of a union of the colonies for redress of 
 grievances. Samuel Adams's original draft is 
 still in existence, the first public document he 
 wrote of which we have any distinct trace, 
 though there is ample evidence that his pen 
 had frequently before been employed in that 
 way. One may well have a feeling of awe as 
 
48 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 he reads upon the yellowing paper, in a hand- 
 writing delicate but very firm, the protests 
 and recommendations in which America begins 
 to voice her aspirations after freedom. Adams 
 
 says : — 
 
 "What still increases our apprehensions is, that 
 these unexpected Proceedings may be preparatory to 
 more extensive Taxations upon us. For if our Trade 
 may be taxed, why not our Lands, the Produce of 
 our lands, and in short everything we possess or 
 make use of ? This, we apprehend, annihilates our 
 Charter Rights to govern and tax ourselves. ... If 
 Taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our 
 having a legal representation where they are laid, 
 are we not reduced from the Character of free Sub- 
 jects to the miserable State of tributary Slaves ? " 
 
 The instructions close with this important 
 suggestion : — 
 
 " As his Majesty's other Northern American Col- 
 onies are embarked with us in this most important 
 Bottom, we further desire you to use your Endeavors 
 that their weight may be added to that of this Prov- 
 ince ; that by the united Applications of all who are 
 Aggrieved, all may happily attain Redress." ^ 
 
 1 The first part of this extract is copied from Samuel Ad- 
 ams's autograph in the posses.sion of Mr. Bancroft. The con- 
 chiding passage does not stand in the original draft, but is 
 copied here from the Boston town records. 
 
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 49 
 
 Samuel Adams drew up this document. 
 There can be no doubt that the respectable 
 but hiconspicuous citizens associated with him 
 on the committee looked to him to supply ideas 
 as well as form. Patrick Henry's famous " Vir- 
 ginia resolutions " denying the right of Parlia- 
 ment to tax America did not appear until a 
 year later. Besides the distinct denial of this 
 right contained in Samuel Adams's instruc- 
 tions, and the suggestion of the union of the 
 colonies for a redress of grievances, the doc- 
 ument contained an assertion of the important 
 position that the judges should be dependent 
 for their salaries upon the general Assembly. 
 Also the hint was thrown out that, if burdens 
 should not be removed, agreements would be 
 entered into to import no goods from Britain, as 
 a measure of retaliation upon British manufac- 
 turers. As the story develops, it will quickly 
 be seen how important these suggestions be- 
 came. There are, in fact, few documents in 
 the whole course of American history so preg- 
 nant with great events. 
 
 The legislature met in June, when a memo- 
 rial was forthwith prepared by James Otis for 
 transmission to the agent of the colony in Eng- 
 land, who was expected to make the document 
 known to the English public. The memorial 
 followed the suggestions, almost the very words, 
 4 
 
50 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 of Samuel Adams. A committee was also ap- 
 pointed to address the assemblies of the sister 
 colonies, counseling united action in behalf of 
 their common rights. The same year, but at a 
 later session, — for Bernard, little pleased with 
 the tone of proceedings, made haste to pro- 
 rogue the Assembly, — the house, following 
 again the Boston instructions, petitioned the 
 government for the repeal of the Sugar Act. 
 
 On the 6th of December of this year Sam- 
 uel Adams married for his second wife Eliza- 
 beth Wells, a woman of efficiency and cheerful 
 fortitude, who, through the forty years of hard 
 and hazardous life that remained to him, walked 
 sturdily at his side. It required, indeed, no 
 common virtue to do this, for while Samuel 
 Adams superintended the birth of the child 
 Independence, he was quite careless how the 
 table at home was spread, and as to the con- 
 dition of his own children's clothes and shoes. 
 More than once his family would have become 
 objects of charity, if the hands of the wife 
 had not been ready and skillful. 
 
 Early in 1765 Grenville brought before Par- 
 liament his scheme for the Stamp Act, notice 
 of which had been given some time before. 
 As discussed at home, it had excited little com- 
 ment ; some of the colonial agents had favored 
 it. Even Franklin, then agent for Pennsylva. 
 
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 51 
 
 nia, apparently regarding its operation as a fore- 
 gone conclusion, had taken steps to have a friend 
 appointed stamp distributor in his Province. 
 In America, indeed, there had been opposition. 
 One royal governor, no other than Bernard, 
 was strongly opposed to it, winning from Lord 
 Camden in a discussion with Lord Mansfield 
 the commendation of being a " great, good, and 
 sensible man, who had done his duty like a 
 friend to his country." Hutchinson, too, the 
 lieutenant-governor, opposed it. " It cannot be 
 good policy," he said, "to tax the Americans; 
 it will prove prejudicial to the national inter- 
 ests. You will lose more than you will gain. 
 Britain reaps the profit of all their trade and 
 of the increase of their substance." Such evi- 
 dences of discontent, however, as were given, it 
 did not seem at all worth while to regard. The 
 bill at length passed the house late at night, the 
 members yawning for bed, and listening with 
 impatience to the forcible protest of Barr^, who 
 in their idea had the poor sense to magnify a 
 mole-hill into a mountain. So little do we un- 
 derstand what is trifling and what is momen- 
 tous of what passes under our eyes ! 
 
 The news was brought to the colonies by a 
 ship which reached Boston in April, and the 
 spirit of resistance became universal. Patrick 
 Henry's resolutions, passed in May, were gen- 
 
62 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 erally adopted as the sentiments of America. 
 In Boston the discontent came to a head in 
 August, when it was resolved to hang in effigy 
 Andrew Oliver, who had been appointed dis- 
 tributor of stamps. Decorous though the com- 
 munity ordinarily was, there was a population 
 in the streets along the water side quite capa- 
 ble of being carried to the extreme of ruth- 
 lessness and folly. Hutchinson most unjustly 
 was made the special mark of their rage. Gor- 
 don states that the cause in part was certain 
 unpopular financial enterprises, projected and 
 carried through by him as far back as 1748. 
 Since then, however, his standing with the 
 townspeople had been as high as possible, and 
 it must have been well known that he had op- 
 posed the Stamp Act as unjust and impolitic. 
 So far he had given but few signs of a course 
 obnoxious to the people. The mob, however, 
 mad with rum, attacked with such fury the fine 
 mansion of Hutchinson at the North End, that 
 he and his family escaped with difficulty. The 
 house was completely gutted, and then de- 
 stroyed. Handsome plate and furniture were 
 shattered ; worst of all, manuscripts and other 
 documents of great importance, collected by 
 Hutchinson for the continuation of his history, 
 were scattered loose in the streets, and for the 
 most part lost. The Admiralty records also 
 
JN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY, 53 
 
 were burnt and other destruction committed. 
 The demonstration in its earlier phases had the 
 approval of the patriots. A town-meeting, 
 however, the next day, condemned the excesses, 
 and pledged the aid of the people to preserve 
 order henceforth. 
 
 For the meeting of the Assembly, appointed 
 for the end of September, Samuel Adams again, 
 in behalf of the town, prepared instructions for 
 the " Boston seat." John Adams, his second 
 cousin, and some years his junior, at the same 
 time performed a similar service for the town 
 of Braintree. The kinsmen put their heads 
 together in the preparation of their work, a co- 
 operation that was to be many times repeated 
 in the years that were coming. The " Boston 
 Gazette " spread the documents everywhere 
 throughout the other towns, by whom they 
 were again and again imitated, the papers be- 
 coming the generally accepted platform of the 
 Province. Points especially insisted on were 
 the right, secured by charter to the people of 
 Massachusetts, of possessing all the privileges 
 of free-born Britons, representation as the in- 
 dispensable condition of taxation, and the right 
 of trial by jury, violated in the Admiralty 
 Courts, whose jurisdiction of late had been 
 much extended. The same town-meeting to 
 which the instructions were reported thanked 
 
64 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Conway and Barre for bold speeches in theii 
 behalf, and directed that their portraits should 
 be placed in Faneuil Hall. 
 
 Just now it was that Oxenbridge Thacher, a 
 member of the Assembly, an ardent patriot, and 
 the associate of James Otis in the case of the 
 writs of assistance, died at the age of forty-five. 
 On September 27 the town elected Samuel 
 Adams his successor. The record in the hand 
 of William Cooper states that the election took 
 place on the second ballot, the candidate re- 
 ceiving two hundred and sixty-five votes out 
 of four hundred and forty-eight. He appeared 
 the same day in the Assembly-room in the 
 west end of the second story of the Old State 
 House, and was immediately qualified, a mo- 
 ment only before the body was prorogued by 
 the governor. It was not until October that 
 he fairly began that life of public service which 
 was to last almost unbroken until his death. 
 
 Samuel Adams may well be called the '' Man 
 of the Town-meeting." Though the sphere of 
 his activity was henceforth for so much of the 
 time the Massachusetts Assembly, he was not 
 through that taken away from the town-meet- 
 ing. The connection between the Assembly 
 and the town-meetings, w^hich stood behind it 
 and sent the members to it, was a very close 
 one. Each man who stood in the house, stood 
 
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 55 
 
 (if we may make use of a modern distinction) 
 as a deputy and not as a representative ; ^ that 
 is, he had in theory no independence, was 
 bound as to all his acts by the instructions of 
 the folk-mote that sent him and employed him 
 simply as a matter of convenience. In the first 
 days of New England there was no delegation 
 of authority by the freemen. As the inconven- 
 ience had become plain of requiring for the 
 transaction of all business the voices of all the 
 freemen, the board of selectmen had at length 
 come into existence for each town ; and as the 
 towns had multiplied, the central council was 
 at length devised for the care of business that 
 affected all. The town-meeting, however, in 
 the day of its strength jealously kept to itself 
 every particle of power which it could reserve. 
 It was simply for convenience that the folk- 
 motes sent each a man to the Assembly-cham- 
 ber in King Street. The freemen could not go 
 in a mass ; that would take them from their 
 bread-winning. For such a crowd, too, there 
 would be no room, nor would it be possible for 
 all to hear 'and vote. A deputy must go for 
 eacli town, but the liberty allowed to him was 
 narrow. In the instructions of 1764, Samuel 
 Adams, at the beginning, while informing the 
 deputies that the townsmen " have delegated 
 1 Dr. Francis Lieber, Political Ethics, ii. 325. 
 
66 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 to you the power of acting in their publick 
 Concerns in general as your own prudence shall 
 direct you," takes pains immediately to qualify 
 carefully the concession thus ; " Always reserv- 
 ing to themselves the Constitutional Right of 
 expressing their mind and giving you such In- 
 struction upon particular Matters as they at 
 any Time shall Judge proper." ^ 
 
 There is no doubt that here serious harm 
 could come to pass ; for it must be admitted 
 that the town-meeting plan can never answer 
 for large affairs. In an ideal state, while the 
 folk-mote is at the base, there must be found, 
 through representation, the smaller governing 
 and legislating body, and at length the one man, 
 good enough and wise enough to be trusted 
 with power to be used independently. The 
 idea is of course quite erroneous that represen- 
 tative government is nothing but a substitute 
 for the meeting of the whole people in the fo- 
 rum, made necessary by increased population. 
 The representative must be held to a strict ac- 
 countability indeed, — but he must be his own 
 man, independent in judgment, with an eye to 
 the general interests, not simply those of his 
 constituency ; he must be selected not because 
 he is likely to be a subservient instrument, but 
 for his good judgment and leadership. The 
 
 1 Boston Town Records. 
 
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 67 
 
 bond should be close between him and those 
 who send him. Nevertheless the representa- 
 tive should be the superior man, selected be- 
 cause he is superior. " Instructions " are out 
 of place as addressed to such a man ; his judg- 
 ment should be left untrammeled, and in cases 
 where representative and constituents are likely 
 to differ, they should defer to him, not he to 
 them.i 
 
 This was not the New England theory. But 
 whatever may have been the New England 
 theory, there is no doubt that, in practice, the 
 men who sat in the Assembly, if they really 
 had ability and force, were as free as need be. 
 Such men as Joseph Hawley at Northampton, 
 Elbridge Gerry at Marblehead, James Warren 
 at Plymouth, characters about to appear in our 
 story, shaped the opinions of the communities 
 in which they dwelt. According to the form, 
 they spoke simply the views of the town, and 
 regularly after election listened respectfully to 
 the instructions which prescribed to them a 
 certain course of conduct, sometimes with great 
 minuteness. They themselves, however, had 
 led the way to the opinions that thus found 
 
 1 See discussions of the subject by Dr. Francis Lieber, Po- 
 lit. Ethics, ii. 313, etc. ; John Stuart Mill, Representative Gov- 
 ernment, p. 237; Dr. Rudolph Gneist, Geschichte und heutige 
 Gestalt der Aemter in England, 112; Burke, Speech to the 
 Electors of Bristol, Novembers, 1774. 
 
68 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 voice ; for, with their natural power quickened 
 by their folk-mote training, they usually had 
 tact and force enough to sway the town to po- 
 sitions near their own. How much more was 
 this mastery held in the case of such a leader 
 as Samuel Adams ! One fancies that he must 
 have sometimes smiled inwardly, when, after 
 the May election, Boston, through some novice 
 or comparatively obscure personage, charged 
 him and his colleagues, in peremptory terms, to 
 do this, that, and the other thing — him whose 
 domination in the patriot ranks became quite 
 absolute, who at last moulded New England 
 opinion, and could place great men and small 
 almost as he pleased ! Or was he so far self- 
 deceived that he did not know his own strength, 
 and believed that many a plan which came 
 from his own powerful brain proceeded from 
 the great heart of the people, which he so thor- 
 oughly venerated ? 
 
 Practically, with all the independent think- 
 ing, the able men shaped opinion. In theory, 
 however, all proceeded from the town-meetings, 
 and those who stood for them were deputies, 
 who could only do the people's will. Using 
 the term " representative " in its limited sense, 
 it may be said that a body like the Massachu- 
 setts House was not a representative assembly ; 
 it was a convention of the folk-motes, the free» 
 
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 59 
 
 men of each town being concentrated for con- 
 venience into the delegate who stood in the 
 chamber. Samuel Adams, therefore, was really 
 scarcely less concerned with the folk-mote 
 when he worked in the General Court, than 
 when he worked in Faneuil Hall. In the lat- 
 ter case he was the controlling mind of one 
 town ; in the former case, of all the Massachu- 
 setts towns, who, as it were, sat down together 
 in the hall in King Street. For what he did 
 in the latter sphere as well as in the former 
 sphere he deserves to be called, above all men 
 who have ever lived, " the Man of the Town- 
 Meeting." 
 
 No building is so associated with Samuel 
 Adams as the Old State House. It was only 
 now and then that a town-meeting met, and 
 seldom that it became so large as to overflow 
 from Faneuil Hall into the Old South. After 
 Samuel Adams entered the Assembly his at- 
 tendance was daily at the chamber for long pe- 
 riods, until he went to Congress in 1774. From 
 the close of the Revolution again until 1797, 
 his public service was almost without break. 
 For years he was in the senate, was then lieu- 
 tenant-governor, then governor, the functions 
 of all which positions he discharged in one or 
 another of the rooms of the Old State House. 
 No other man, probably, has darkened its door 
 
60 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 way so often. A wise reverence has restored 
 the building nearly to its condition of a hun- 
 dred years ago. On the eastern gable the lion 
 and the unicorn rear opposite one another, as 
 in the days of the Province ; belfry, roof, and 
 windows are as of yore ; the strong walls built 
 by the masons of 1713, though looked down 
 upon by great structures on all sides, stand with 
 a kind of unshaken independence in their place 
 and compel veneration. Ascending the spiral 
 staircase, one reaches the second story, where 
 all stands as it was in the former time. The 
 Assembly chamber occupies the western end, a 
 well-lighted room, ample in size for the hun- 
 dred and twenty-five deputies whom it was 
 intended to accommodate. Its decoration is 
 simple ; convenience, not beauty, was what the 
 Puritan architect aimed at, but it is a well- 
 proportioned and stately hall. On the after- 
 noon when the writer first visited it, among 
 other relics there stood at the west end the old 
 " Speaker's desk," as it is called, which, how- 
 ever, seems ill-adapted to the use of a Speaker. 
 It has been suggested that probably it was the 
 clerk's desk, for which it seems more suitable. 
 If that is so, here sat Samuel Adams, for he 
 was clerk through all those disturbed years. 
 Here rose his voice as he directed the stormy 
 debate ; here moved his hands as he wrote the 
 
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 61 
 
 papers which are the first utterances of Amer- 
 ican freedom. In the chamber corresponding, 
 in the eastern end of the building, the gov- 
 ernor met with the Council : it was also the ses- 
 sion-room of the Superior Court, and here took 
 place the scene already described, when James 
 Otis denounced the writs of assistance. 
 
 Of many another noteworthy event the Old 
 State House has also been the scene. In its 
 halls were held anciently the town-meetings. 
 Hither came the deputies from the other town- 
 meetings, in the time when the New England 
 folk-motes were most vigorous, most nobly ac- 
 tive in effecting great results. In the whole 
 history of Anglo-Saxon freedom, since the times 
 when the Teutons clashed their shields in token 
 of approval in the forests of the Elbe and 
 Weser, what scenes are there more memorable 
 than these old walls have witnessed ! The Old 
 State House is the theatre where our actors for 
 the most part must move. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY EEPEESENTATION AND THE 
 MASSACHUSETTS RESOLVES. 
 
 It would be quite inexplicable how a new 
 member at once should become to such an ex- 
 tent the leading man of the legislative body, 
 deferred to upon every occasion, intrusted with 
 the most important work, and infusing a quite 
 new tone into all the deliberations, were it not 
 for a fact well attested. For many previous 
 years, while the management of the malt-house 
 suffered, not only in Bernard's time but through 
 the years of Pownall also, and far back into the 
 administration of Shirley, the quick mind and 
 ready pen of Samuel Adams had been always 
 busy, until at length the most important docu- 
 ments, promulgated under quite other names, 
 were really of his authorship. One man, and 
 only one, there was in the Assembly, when 
 Samuel Adams took his seat among them, who 
 was treated by the body with equal deference, 
 and that was James Otis, temporarily absent 
 in New York at the Stamp Act congress, con- 
 
PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 63 
 
 vened there at the suggestion of Massachusetts. 
 In mind, character, and opinions, the two lead- 
 ers were a strong contrast to each other in many- 
 ways. Otis's power was so magnetic that a 
 Boston town-meeting, upon his mere entering, 
 would break out into shouts and clapping, and 
 if he spoke he produced effects which may be 
 compared with the sway exercised by Chatham, 
 whom as an orator he much resembled. Long 
 after disease had made him utterly untrust- 
 worthy, his spell remained, and we shall here- 
 after see the American cause brought to the 
 brink of ruin, because the people would follow 
 him, though he was shattered. Of this gift 
 Samuel Adams possessed little. He was always 
 in speech straightforward and sensible, and 
 upon occasion could be impressive, but his en- 
 dowment was not that of the mouth of gold. 
 While Otis was fitful, vacillating, and morbid, 
 Samuel Adams was persistent, undeviating, and 
 sanity itself. While Samuel Adams never 
 abated by a hair his opposition to the British 
 policy, James Otis, who at the outset had given 
 the watch-word to the patriots, later, after Par- 
 liament had passed the Stamp Act, said : — 
 
 " It is the duty of all humbly and silently to ac- 
 quiesce in all the decisions of the supreme legislature. 
 Nine hundred and ninety-nine in a thousand will 
 never entertain the thought but of submission to our 
 
64 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 sovereign, and to the authority of Parliament in all 
 possible contingencies." 
 
 A point where the opinions of the two men 
 were quite at variance was the idea of a repre- 
 sentation of the colonies in Parliament. While 
 Samuel Adams from the first rejected it as im- 
 practicable and undesirable, James Otis advo- 
 cated it with all his force. He was far from 
 being alone in this advocacy. In England 
 Grenville with many others was well disposed 
 toward it, and it would probably have been 
 considered but for the declaration made against 
 it by the colonies themselves. Adam Smith, 
 at this time becoming famous, espoused the 
 view. In his idea representation should be 
 proportioned to revenue, and if this were con- 
 ceded to the colonies, he foresaw a time when 
 in the growing importance of America the seat 
 of power would be transferred thither. A few 
 years later than this, the British government 
 would most willingly have granted parliamen- 
 tary representation to the colonies as a solution 
 of the difficulties. Among Americans, Frank- 
 lin, as well as James Otis, earnestly favored the 
 scheme and had anticipations similar to those 
 of Adam Smith ; and Hutchinson early had 
 suggested the same idea. It is quite noticeable 
 that in our own day Professor J. R. Seeley, in 
 the " Expansion of England," treating the 
 
PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 65 
 
 relations between Britain and her dependen- 
 cies at the present time, advocates with elo- 
 quence an abrogation of all distinctions between 
 mother-country and dependency, and in Ian- 
 guage quite similar to that of James Otis urges 
 the compacting and consolidating of the Brit- 
 ish empire. He would have a ''great world 
 Venice," the sea flowing everywhere, indeed, 
 through its separated portions, but uniting in- 
 stead of dividing. 
 
 Such unification now can be regarded only as 
 advantageous, whether we look toward the gen- 
 eral welfare, or to the internal benefits brought 
 by such a consolidation to the powers them- 
 selves. Disintegrated Italy has in our day 
 come together into a great and powerful king- 
 dom under the headship of the house of Sa- 
 voy. Still more memorably Germany has been 
 redeemed from the granulation which for so 
 many ages had made her weak, and has become 
 a magnificent nation. The practical annihila- 
 tion of space and time, as man gains dominion 
 over the world of matter, makes it possible 
 that states should be immense in size as never 
 before. The ends of the earth talk together 
 almost without shouting; the man of to-day 
 moves from place to place more easily and 
 speedily than the rider of the enchanted horse 
 or the owner of the magic carpet in the Arabian 
 
66 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Nights. Modern political unification is a step 
 toward making real the brotherhood of the hu- 
 man race, the commg together of mankind into 
 one harmonious family, to which the benevolent 
 look forward. Who can question, moreover, 
 that in the case of the individual citizen, whose 
 political atmosphere is that of a mighty state, 
 there is a largeness of view, a magnanimity 
 of spirit, a sense of dignity, an obliteration of 
 small prejudices, an altogether nobler set of 
 ideas, than are possible to the citizen of a con- 
 tracted land ? Really, in the highest view, any 
 limitation of the sympathies which prevents a 
 thorough, generous going out of the heart to- 
 ward the whole human race is to be regretted. 
 The time is to be longed and labored for when 
 patriotism shall become merged into a cosmo- 
 politan humanity.^ The man who can call 
 fifty millions of men his fellow-citizens is nearer 
 that fine breadth of love than he whose country 
 is a narrow patch. If parliamentary represen- 
 tation of the American colonies had come to 
 pass, the British empire might have remained 
 to this day undivided, and would not the wel- 
 fare of the English-speaking race, of the world 
 in general, have been well served thereby ? 
 
 Plausible and interesting though such con- 
 siderations are, parliamentary representation^ 
 
 1 Lessing, Gesprachejur Freimaurer. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 67 
 
 in any adequate shape, was for the colonies 
 one hundred years ago probably quite impracti- 
 cable ; and when Samuel Adams took the lead, 
 as he at once did, in opposing the ideas that 
 were so powerfully advocated, he showed great 
 practical sense and rendered a most important 
 service. Writing to Dennys Deberdt, then co- 
 lonial agent, December 21, 1765, and speaking 
 of Parliament, he said : — 
 
 " We are far, however, from desiring any represen- 
 tation there, because we think the Colonies cannot be 
 fully and equally represented; and if not equally, 
 then in effect not at all. A representative should be, 
 and continue to be, well acquainted with the internal 
 circumstances of the people whom he represents. It 
 is often necessary that the circumstances of individual 
 towns should be brought into comparison with those 
 of the whole ; so it is particularly when taxes are in 
 consideration. The proportionate part of each to 
 the whole can be found only by an exact knowledge 
 of the internal circumstances of each. Now the Col- 
 onies are at so great a distance from the place where 
 the Parliament meets, from which they are separated 
 by a wide ocean, and their circumstances are so often 
 and continually varying, as is the case in countries 
 not fully settled, that it would not be possible for 
 men, though ever so well acquainted with them at 
 the beginning of a Parliament, to continue to have 
 an adequate knowledge of them during the existence 
 of that Parliament. . . . 
 
68 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 " The several subordinate powers of legislation in 
 America seem very properly to have been constituted 
 upon their [the colonists] being considered as free 
 subjects of England, and the impossibility of their 
 being represented in Parliament, for which reason 
 these powers ought to be held sacred. The Ameri- 
 can powers of government are rather to be considered 
 as matters of justice than favor, — without them, 
 they cannot enjoy that freedom which, having never 
 forfeited, no power on earth has any right to deprive 
 them of." 
 
 Still another consideration must have weighed 
 with Samuel Adams aside from those men- 
 tioned here. He well knew how great the 
 departure had been in England from the prim- 
 itive institutions and standards of the old Teu- 
 tonic freedom. Liberty seemed to be sinking 
 before the encroachments of arbitrary power. 
 Corruption was universal and scarcely noticed ; 
 the great masses of the people, practically un- 
 represented in the government, apathetic or 
 despairing, were losing the characteristics of 
 freemen. Already he had begun to cherish the 
 idea of independence in his own mind. Amer- 
 ica must cut loose, not only because she was de- 
 nied her rights, but because she was bound to 
 a ship that was embarrassed almost to sinking, 
 with few sailors in the crew that manned hei 
 likely to have strength and skill enough to 
 
PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 69 
 
 keep her afloat. Precisely at this time, in the 
 troubles connected with the election of Wilkes, 
 the agitation was beginning tliat was to result, 
 after sixty years, in the great Reform Bill of 
 1832. The stubborn resistance of America, of 
 which Samuel Adams was to such an extentj 
 the heart and centre, operated most beneficently 
 for England, by encouraging there a similar 
 temper. Had the American disputes ended in 
 a grant of parliamentary representation, or any 
 result short of a complete sundering, much 
 of the healthful pressure which afterwards 
 brought on reform in England must have been 
 wanting. That America insisted on independ- 
 ence not only saved her, but also the mother- 
 land.^ England's other great dependencies, 
 Canada, Australia, New Zealand, have pre- 
 ferred to remain in the bond ; yet at the same 
 time they are free. But in order that it should 
 be possible for them to remain and be free, it 
 was necessary for America to depart. Only in 
 that way could England be brought to purify 
 herself, and learn how to use properly the 
 power that has been placed in her hands. 
 
 With the changed temper of the mother- 
 land, and the changed conditions under which 
 our lives now pass, the objections to a connec- 
 tion with England, so important one hundred 
 
 1 Buckle, Hist, of Civilization, i. 345. 
 
70 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 years ago, have been to a large extent set aside. 
 If the bond were now existing, is there really 
 much in present circumstances to justify the 
 severing of it ? Is Freeman's anticipation to 
 be looked upon as unreasonable and unattrac- 
 tive, that a time may come when, through some 
 application of the federal principle, the great 
 English-speaking world, occupying so rapidly 
 north, south, east, and west, the fairest portions 
 of the planet, not only one in tongue, but sub- 
 stantially one in institutions and essential char- 
 acter, may come together into a vaster United 
 States, the " great world Venice," the pathways 
 to whose scattered parts shall be the subjected 
 seas ? 1 
 
 The meeting of the legislature in September, 
 1765, which Bernard prorogued so summarily, 
 scarcely giving Samuel Adams time to take his 
 oath as a member, had yet been long enough to 
 afford the governor opportunity to lay before 
 them a message, in which, however he might 
 before have shown leanings to the popular side, 
 he now declared that the authority of Parlia- 
 ment was supreme, and counseled submission. 
 The Assembly had time to arrange for an an- 
 swer to the address, and a statement of their 
 
 1 See also J. R. Seeley's Expansion of England, and a pam- 
 phlet by Rev. F. Barham Zincke, noticed in the Nation, April 
 5, 1883. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 71 
 
 position. Samuel Adams was put at once in 
 the forefront, the task being assigned to him 
 of drafting the papers. When in October the 
 legislature again met, two documents were soon 
 reported, both the work of Mr. Adams, a re- 
 sponse to Bernard, and a series of resolves des- 
 tined to great fame as the " Massachusetts Re- 
 solves." 
 
 In the response, while the courtesy of the 
 terms is consummate, the clearest assertions 
 respecting the limitation of the powers of Par- 
 liament are made. Strong loyalty to the king 
 is expressed, while the Assembly at the same 
 time refuses to assist in the execution of the 
 Stamp Act. The resolves contain the same 
 ideas substantially, but in a different form of 
 expression, since they were meant to be a pro- 
 mulgation to the world of the sentiments of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Matters in Massachusetts were fast passing 
 from the nebulous stage into clear definition. 
 The supporters of the ministry began to with- 
 draw from positions inconsistent with the claims 
 now made by the government ; and the As- 
 sembly, by adopting these resolves, for the 
 first time committed itself formally to opposi- 
 tion. Had Otis been present there would no 
 doubt have been less decision. In May of 
 this year he had made the declaration, already 
 
72 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 quoted, respecting the necessity of submission 
 to Parliament ; liis mind, too, was full of the 
 thought of a parliamentary representation for 
 the colonies. Otis, however, was absent at the 
 Congress in New York, and the energetic new 
 member swayed the House according to his 
 will, with no one to cross his plans. 
 
 The New York Congress, at which delegates 
 had appeared from nine of the colonies, had 
 been far from harmonious in their discussions. 
 Timothy Ruggles, the president, a delegate 
 from Massachusetts, a brave old soldier, re- 
 fused to sign the documents submitted, and 
 cast his lot with the Tories henceforth. Ogden, 
 of New Jersey, acted with him. Otis bore a 
 prbminent part, but was nevertheless forced to 
 abandon his positions by signing the papers, 
 which were inconsistent with the idea of sub- 
 mission to Parliament, and declared American 
 representation to be impracticable. In the 
 midst of the debates a ship loaded with stamps 
 arrived, at which the town was thrown into the 
 greatest turmoil. During the excitement the 
 delegates, feeling the necessity of union, made 
 mutual concessions, and finally, with the excep- 
 tions above mentioned, signed petitions contain- 
 ing substantially the ideas of the Massachusetts 
 Resolves, by which the colonies became " a bun- 
 dle of sticks, which could neither be bent nor 
 broken." 
 
PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 73 
 
 The response to Bernard and the Massachu- 
 setts Resolves, which presently after were 
 mocked at in England as " the ravings of a 
 parcel of wild enthusiasts," were greeted in 
 America with great approval. The 1st of No- 
 vember was the day appointed for the Stamp 
 Act to go into operation. In Boston the morn- 
 ing was ushered in by the tolling of bells and 
 the firing of minute-guns. The deep popular 
 discontent found sullen expression, though the 
 excesses of the August riots were avoided. 
 The stamps had arrived and been stored at 
 Castle William in the harbor, an additional 
 force being appointed to guard them. Bernard, 
 much embarrassed by the stubborn opposition, 
 sought advice from the Council and Assembly 
 as to what course to take, but with no good re- 
 sult. The Assembly, soon after convening, pro- 
 ceeded to consider the possibility of transacting 
 business without the use of stamps, a matter 
 which had been touched upon in the preceding 
 session, and for meddling with which they had 
 been prorogued. As was the usage, committees 
 were appointed in which the business was to be 
 shaped before coming under the consideration 
 of the whole body, of all which Mr. Adams was 
 a leading member and sometimes chairman. 
 By his hand, too, at this time the House re- 
 buked the governor and Council for drawing 
 
74 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 without its consent, from the provincial treas- 
 ury, money to pay the additional troops at the 
 Castle, declaring that to make expenditures un- 
 authorized by the people's representatives was 
 an infringement upon their rights. 
 
 Otis and his colleagues now returning from 
 New York with a report of the proceedings of 
 the Stamp Act Congress, the Assembly at once 
 indorsed its action. In letters of Mr. Adams 
 at this time sent to England, in which he writes 
 for others as well as himself, a plan is men- 
 tioned at which he had before hinted, and which 
 was now, under the name of the '' non-impor- 
 tation " scheme, about to become one of the 
 most effective means of resistance which the 
 colonists could employ. Spreading from Mas- 
 sachusetts, where Adams had suggested the 
 idea, to the thirteen colonies in general, it 
 struck terror into the hearts of British traders, 
 who saw ruin for themselves in the cutting off 
 of the American demand for their products. 
 
 A general gloom now settled over Massachu- 
 setts. The courts were closed ; business, to a 
 large extent, came to a stand. No legal or 
 commercial papers were valid without the 
 stamp, and the stamps lay untouched at the 
 Castle, tlie Province refusing to use them. The 
 law was in many places in the colonies set at 
 defiance and evaded. Men had recourse to ar- 
 
PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 75 
 
 bitration in the settlement of disputes. Ships 
 entered and cleared, and other business was 
 done, in contempt of the statute. Newspapers 
 were published with a death's head in the place 
 where the law required a stamp. The strait 
 was severe, and on the 18th of December a 
 Boston town-meeting took place to consider 
 measures looking toward the opening of the 
 courts. A committee was appointed, of which 
 Samuel Adams was chairman, to petition the 
 governor and Council, and it was agreed to em- 
 ploy Jeremiah Gridley, a famous lawyer of the 
 day, James Otis, and John Adams, to support 
 the memorial. 
 
 Samuel Adams had a quick eye for power 
 and availability of every kind, and now that he 
 was in the foreground he swept the field every- 
 where for useful allies. Of the brilliant young 
 men who were about to come forward in Mas- 
 sachusetts as the contest became fierce, there is 
 scarcely one whom Samuel Adams did not, so 
 to speak, discover, or to whom, at any rate, he 
 did not stand sponsor as the new-comer took 
 his place among the strivers. He it was who 
 suggested to the town the employment of his 
 young Braintree kinsman, John Adams, who 
 now for the first time steps into prominence in 
 public affairs. The diary of John Adams gives 
 an account of his waiting until candle-light dur- 
 
76 SAMUEL ADAM 8. 
 
 ing the winter afternoon in the representatives' 
 chamber, in company with the town's commit- 
 tee and many others, until a message came 
 across the hall from Bernard and the Council, 
 in the east room, to Samuel Adams, directing 
 that the memorial of the town should be pre- 
 sented, and that the counsel in support should 
 attend, but no others. The memorial had no 
 effect, and the strait remained at present unre- 
 lieved. 
 
 John Adams has interesting things to say in 
 his diary about the clubs, at which he meets 
 the famous characters of the day. 
 
 "This day learned that the Caucus Club meets at 
 certain times in the garret of Tom Dawes, the adju- 
 tant of the Boston regiment. He has a large house, 
 and he has a movable partition in his garret, which 
 he takes down, and the whole club meets in one room. 
 There they smoke tobacco till you cannot see from 
 one end of the garret to the other. There they drink 
 flip, I suppose, and there they choose a moderator 
 who puts questions to the vote regularly ; and select- 
 men, assessors, collectors, wardens, fire-wards, and 
 representatives are regularly chosen before they are 
 chosen in the town. Uncle Fairfield, Story, Rud- 
 dock, Adams, Cooper, and a rudis indigestaque moles 
 are members. They send committees to wait on the 
 Merchant's Club, and to propose and join in the choice 
 of men and measures." 
 
 It was the successor of this club to which 
 
PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 77 
 
 Samuel Adams now introduced John Adams. 
 The new organization was larger, and the scope 
 of its action, too, instead of being limited to 
 town affairs, now included a far wider range 
 in the struggle that was beginning. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGLAND. 
 
 Careful observers are remarking that the 
 temper of the legislature, as shown by the re- 
 sponse to Bernard and the Massachusetts Re- 
 solves, is something quite different from what it 
 has been. This difference is to be attributed 
 to the influence of Samuel Adams, who, al- 
 though for several years well known, now for 
 the first time finds opportunity to make him- 
 self properly felt. Meantime events are taking 
 place across the water which require our no- 
 tice. 
 
 Inasmuch as the American Colonies had prof- 
 ited especially from the successes of the war, it 
 had been felt, justly enough, that they should 
 bear a portion of the burden. It might have 
 been possible to secure from them a good sub- 
 sidy, but the plan devised for obtaining it was 
 unwise. The principle was universally admit- 
 ted that Parliament had power to levy " exter- 
 nal " taxes, those intended for the regulation 
 of commerce. With the Stamp Act, in 1764, 
 
THE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGLAND. 79 
 
 Grenville had taken a step farther. This was 
 an " internal " tax, one levied directly for the 
 purpose of raising a revenue, not for the regu- 
 lation of commerce. The unconscious Gren- 
 ville explained his scheme in an open, honest 
 way. "I am not, however," said he to the colo- 
 nial agents in London, " set upon this tax. If 
 the Americans dislike it and prefer any other 
 method, I shall be content. Write, therefore, 
 to your several colonies, and if they choose any 
 other mode, I shall be satisfied, provided the 
 money be but raised." But Britain, pushing 
 thus more earnestly than heretofore, found her- 
 self, much to her surprise, confronted by a stout 
 and well-appointed combatant, not to be brow- 
 beaten or easily set aside. 
 
 No one was more astonished than Grenville 
 that precisely now an opposition so decided 
 should be called out. He had meant to soften 
 his measures by certain palliatives. For the 
 southern colonies, the raising of rice was fa- 
 vored ; the timber trade and hemp and flax in 
 the north received substantial encouragement ; 
 most important of all measures, all restriction 
 was taken from the American whale fishery, 
 even though it was quite certain under such 
 conditions to ruin that of the British isles. 
 Grenville felt that he had proceeded prudently. 
 He had asked advice of many Americans, who 
 
80 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 had made no objection to, and in some cases 
 had approved, the Stamp Act. Men of the best 
 opportunities for knowing the temper of the 
 colonies, like Shirley, fifteen years governor of 
 Massachusetts, and for a time commander-in- 
 chief of all the military forces in America, had 
 decidedly favored it. Nothing better than the 
 Stamp Act had been suggested, though Gren- 
 ville had invited suggestions as to substitutes. 
 America, however, was in a ferment, and Eng- 
 land, too, for one reason or another, was in a 
 temper scarcely less threatening. Something 
 must be done at once. But the responsibility 
 was taken out of the hands of Grenville ; a 
 new ministry liad come into power, and he was 
 once more a simple member of Parliament. 
 
 The new premier was the Marquis of Rock- . 
 ingham, a young statesman of liberal principles 
 and excellent sense, though with a strange in- 
 capacity for expressing himself, which made 
 him a cipher in debate. The secretary of state, 
 in whose department especially came the man- 
 acjement of the colonies, was General Conway, 
 like Barre a brave officer and admirable man, 
 nnd well-disposed toward America. On the, 
 14th of January began that debate, so memo- 
 rable both on account of the magnitude of tht^ 
 issues involved and the ability of the dispu- 
 tants who took part. A few Americans, Frank- 
 
TEE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGLAND. 81 
 
 lin and other colonial agents among them, list- 
 ened breathlessly in the gallery, and transmitted 
 to their country a broken, imperfect report of 
 all the superb forensic thunder. Whoever stud- 
 ies candidly the accounts cannot avoid receiving 
 a deep impression as to the power and substan- 
 tial good purpose of the great speakers, and as to 
 the grave embarrassments that clogged them in 
 striving to point out a practicable course. The 
 agitation out of which reform was to come was 
 already in the air. While none of the actors 
 in the scene appreciated the depth of the gulf 
 into which England was sinking, all evidently 
 felt the pressure of evil. Mansfield appears 
 ready at one point to admit abuse, but depre- 
 cates interference with the constitution, while 
 Pitt denounces the " rotten boroughs," and de- 
 clares that they must be lopped off. 
 
 Edmund Burke made upon this occasion his 
 maiden speech, but no one thought it worth 
 while, in those days before systematic report- 
 ing had begun, to record the words of the un- 
 known young man. Pitt, who followed him, 
 hushed all into attention as he rose in his fee- 
 bleness, his eloquence becoming more touching 
 from the strange disease by which he was af- 
 flicted, and which he was accused of using pur- 
 posel}^ to increase the effect of his words ; he 
 first praised the effort of the new member, and 
 
82 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 then proceeded in that address so worthy of his 
 fame. Pitt's advice was that the Stamp Act 
 should be repealed absolutely and immediately, 
 but at the same time that the sovereignty of 
 England over the colonies should be asserted 
 in the strongest possible terms, and be made 
 to extend to every point of legislation, except 
 that of taking their money without consent. 
 
 "There is an idea in some that the colonies are 
 virtually represented in this house. They never have 
 been represented at all in Parliament. I would fain 
 know by whom an American is represented here. Is 
 he represented by any knight of the shire in any 
 county of this kingdom ? Would to God that re- 
 spectable representation were augmented by a greater 
 number ! Or will you tell me that he is represented 
 by any representative of a borough, a borough which 
 perhaps no man ever saw ? This is what is called 
 the rotten part of the constitution ; it cannot endure 
 the century. If it does not drop it must be ampu- 
 tated. The idea of a virtual representation of Amer- 
 ica in this house is the most contemptible that ever 
 entered into the head of a man. It does not deserve 
 a serious refutation." 
 
 Later in the winter, when the debate was re- 
 newed in the House of Lords, Lord Camden, 
 chief justice of the Common Pleas, supported the 
 views of Pitt in a strain which the latter called 
 divine. He tried to establish by a learned cita- 
 
THE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGLAND. 83 
 
 tion of precedents that the parts and estates of 
 the realm had not been taxed until represented; 
 but as if he felt that abuses had accumulated, 
 he declared that, if the right of the Americans 
 to tax themselves could not be established in 
 this way, it would be well to give it to them 
 from principles of natural justice. Among 
 those who replied, the most noteworthy was 
 Lord Mansfield, chief justice of England, who 
 declared, in opposition to Camden, that : — 
 
 " The doctrine of representation seemed ill-founded. 
 There are 12,000,000 people in England and Ireland 
 who are not represented ; the notion now taken up, 
 that every subject must be represented by deputy, is 
 purely ideal. There can be no doubt, my lord, that 
 the inhabitants of the colonies are as much repre- 
 sented in Parliament as the greatest part of the peo- 
 ple of England are represented, among 9,000,000 
 of whom there are 8,000,000 who have no votes in 
 electing members of Parliament. Every objection, 
 therefore, to the dependency of the colonies upon 
 Parliament, which arises to it upon the ground of 
 representation, goes to the whole present constitution 
 of Great Britain, and I suppose it is not meant to 
 new-model that too ! A member of Parliament chosen 
 by any borough represents not only the constituents 
 and inhabitants of that particular place, but he repre- 
 sents the inhabitants of every other borough in Great 
 Britain. He represents the city of London and all 
 other the Commons of this land and the inhabitants 
 
84 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 of all the colonies and dominions of Great Britain, 
 and is in duty and conscience bound to take care of 
 their interests." 
 
 When, after the speech of Mansfield, the 
 subject came to a vote in the House of Lords, 
 the matter stood in his favor by one hundred 
 and twenty-five to five. In the Commons tlie 
 majority on the same side was as overwhelm- 
 ing. 
 
 Looking back upon this momentous debate 
 after a century and a quarter has elapsed, what 
 are we to say as to the merits of it ? England 
 has completely changed since then her colonial 
 policy, but no sober second thought has induced 
 her historians to believe that the position of 
 the government was plainly a wrong one. Pitt 
 and Camden turned the scale for us in the 
 Stamp Act matter : their declarations put back- 
 bone into the colonial resistance, and disheart- 
 ened the ministry in England ; but Pitt's opin- 
 ions were declared at the time to be peculiar to 
 himself and Lord Camden, and have ever since, 
 in England, been treated as untenable.^ Mans- 
 field's theory of " virtual representation," — - that 
 a representative represents the whole realm, 
 not merely his own constituency, " all other 
 the Commons of this land, and the inhabitants 
 of all the colonies and dominions of Great 
 
 1 Massey, Hist, of Reign of George III. i. 262. 
 
TEE BTAMF ACT BEFORE ENGLAND. 85 
 
 Britain, and is in duty and conscience bound 
 to take care of their interests," — is declared by 
 another writer to be grandly true, though, to 
 be sure, somewhat overstrained as regards the 
 colonies. Burke, a few years afterwards, ad- 
 dressing the electors of Bristol, developed the' 
 doctrine elaborately. Mansfield was right in 
 urging that the constitution knows no limitation 
 of the power of Parliament, and no distinction 
 between the power of taxation and other kinds 
 of legislation. The abstract right, continues 
 our historian, was unquestionably on the side 
 of the minister and Parliament, who had im- 
 posed the tax, and that right is still acted 
 upon. In 1868, in the trial of Governor Eyre 
 of Jamaica, the English Judge Blackburn de- 
 cided, " although the general rule is that the 
 legislative assembly has the sole right of im- 
 posing taxes in the colony, yet when the im- 
 perial legislature chooses to impose taxes, ac- 
 cording to the rule of English law they have a 
 right to do it." ^ Lecky says : — 
 
 " It was a first principle of the constitution, that a 
 member of Parhament was the representative not 
 merely of his own constituency, but also of the whole 
 empire. Men connected with, or at least specially in- 
 terested in the colonies, always found their way into 
 Parliament ; and the very fact that the colonial ar- 
 
 1 Youge, Const. Hist, of England, p. 66. 
 
SS SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 guments were maintained with transcendent power 
 within its walls was sufficient to show that the colo- 
 nies were virtually represented." 
 
 Lecky, however, even while thus arguing, 
 admits that the Stamp Act did unquestiona- 
 bly infringe upon a great principle ; and he ac- 
 knowledges that the doctrine, that taxation and 
 representation are inseparably connected, lies 
 at the very root of the English conception of po- 
 litical liberty. It was only by straining matters 
 that the colonies could be said to be virtually 
 represented, and in resisting the Stamp Act the 
 principle involved was the same as that which 
 led Hampden to refuse to pay the ship money.^ 
 
 It is only fair for the present generation of 
 Americans to weigh arguments like those of 
 Mansfield, and to understand how involved the 
 case was. The statesmen of the time of George 
 III. were neither simpletons nor utterly ruth- 
 less oppressors. They were men of fair pur- 
 poses and sometimes of great abilities, not be- 
 fore their age in knowledge of national economy 
 and political science ; still, however, sincerely 
 loving English freedom, and, with such light as 
 they had, striving to rule in a proper manner 
 the great realm which was given them to be 
 guided. In ways which the wisest of them did 
 not fully appreciate, the constitution had under 
 1 Lecky, iii. 353, etc. 
 
THE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGLAND. 87 
 
 gone deterioration through the carelessness of 
 the people and the arbitrary course of many of 
 the rulers, until the primeval Anglo-Saxon 
 freedom was scarcely recognizable, and liberty 
 was in great jeopardy. Following usages and 
 precedents, learned lawyers could easily find 
 justification for an arbitrary course on the part 
 of the ministers, and it is a mark of greatness 
 in Camden, that, learned lawyer though he was, 
 he felt disposed to rest the cause of the colonies 
 on the basis of " natural justice," rather than 
 upon the technicalities with which it was his 
 province to deal. In the shock of the Stamp 
 Act and Wilkes agitations England came to her- 
 self, and by going back to the primeval princi- 
 ples started on a course of reform by no means 
 yet complete. At this very time Richard 
 Bland of Virginia, anticipating by a century 
 the spirit and methods of the constitutional 
 writers of whom E. A. Freeman is the best- 
 known example, uttered sentences which might 
 well have been taken as their motto by the 
 " Friends of the People," the " Society of the 
 Bill of Rights," and the other organizations in 
 England which were just beginning to be active 
 for the salvation of their country. He derived 
 the English constitution from Anglo-Saxon 
 principles of the most perfect equality, which 
 invested every freeman with a right to vote. 
 
88 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 " If nine tenths of the people of Britain are de^ 
 prived of the high privilege of being electors, it 
 would be a work worthy of tlie best patriotic spirits 
 of the nation to restore the constitution to its pris- 
 tine perfection." 
 
 Much as Pitt and Camden were admired, and 
 powerful as was their brave denunciation of 
 the Stamp Act and their demand for its repeal, 
 their famous position that a distinction must 
 be made between taxation and legislation, and 
 that while Parliament could not tax it could 
 legislate, seemed no more tenable to Ameri- 
 cans than it did to Englishmen. As we shall 
 see, the colonial leaders soon pass on from de- 
 manding representation as a condition of taxa- 
 tion, to demanding representation as a condi- 
 tion of legislation of every kind; they deny 
 utterly the power of Parliament to interfere in 
 any of their affairs ; they owe allegiance to the 
 king, but of Parliament they are completely in- 
 dependent. So Franklin had already declared. 
 This position was shocking to Pitt, and he would 
 have been as willing to suppress its upholders 
 as was Lord North himself. 
 
 It is making no arrogant claim to say that 
 in all this preliminary controversy the Ameri- 
 can leaders show a much better appreciation of 
 the principles of Anglo-Saxon liberty, and a 
 management much more statesman-like, than 
 
THE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGLAND. 89 
 
 even the best men across the water. It was to 
 be expected. As far as New England is con- 
 cerned, there is no denying the oft quoted as- 
 sertion of Stoughton that God sifted a whole 
 nation to procure the seed out of which the 
 people was to be developed. The colonists 
 were picked men and women, and the circum- 
 stances under which they were placed on their 
 arrival on these shores forced upon them a re- 
 vival of institutions which in England had long 
 been overlaid. The folk-mote had reappeared 
 in all its old vigor, and wrought in the society 
 its natural beneficent effect. Together with 
 intelligence and self-reliance in every direction, 
 it had especially trained in the people the polit- 
 ical sense. In utter blindness the Englishman 
 of our revolutionary period looked down upon 
 the colonist as wanting in reason and courage. 
 Really the colonist was a superior being, both 
 as compared with the ordinary British citizen 
 and with the noble. Originally of the best 
 English strain, a century and a half of training 
 under the institution best adapted of all human 
 institutions to quicken manhood had had its 
 effect. What influences had surrounded lord 
 or commoner across the water to develop in 
 them a capacity to cope with the child of the 
 Puritan, schooled thoroughly in the town-meet- 
 ing? 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE TEUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 
 
 From the imposing British Parliament, sit- 
 ting in the shadow of Westminster Abbey, 
 with Westminster Hall close at hand, and just 
 beyond these the City, fast becoming the heart 
 of the civilized world, to come to the little pro- 
 vincial town and the Old State House with its 
 modest company of town-meeting deputies is a 
 change marked indeed. But the deputies are 
 as worthy of regard as their high placed con- 
 temners at St. Stephen's. 
 
 Though Otis was still the popular idol, Sam- 
 uel Adams became every day more and more 
 the power behind all, preparing the documents, 
 laying trains for effects far in the future, watch- 
 ful as regards the slightest encroachments. In 
 Faneuil Hall as plain townsman, and also in 
 his place as deputy, he is found busy with 
 plans for helping on the work of the courts 
 without yielding to the requirements of the 
 Stamp Act, while the crown officials on theii 
 side uphold the authority of Parliament. On 
 
THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 91 
 
 the 16tb of May, 1766, however, the Harrison, 
 a brigantine, six weeks out from England, cast 
 anchor in the inner harbor with news of the 
 repeal of the Stamp Act. The powerful voices 
 raised in opposition to it in Parliament, the 
 pressure from the trading and manufacturing 
 centres, the clamor of the people, had brought 
 about the change. The measure, however, was 
 accompanied by the Declaratory Act, in which 
 the ground of Pitt was by no means taken, but 
 the assertion was made that Parliament was su- 
 preme over the colonies in all cases whatsoever. 
 For expediency's sake the obnoxious tax was 
 repealed, but the right to tax and to legislate in 
 every other way for the colonies was plainly 
 stated. The people in general, nevertheless, no- 
 ticed only the repeal, and were ti-ansported with 
 joy. Salutes were fired fmm the different bat- 
 teries, the shipping was dressed with flags, the 
 streets were full of music. At night Liberty 
 Tree was hung full of lanterns, transparencies 
 were shown, fire-works were displayed on the 
 Common, and high and low feasted and reveled. 
 John Hancock, a rich young merchant, twenty- 
 nine years old, lately come into a great fortune 
 through the death of his uncle, Thomas Han- 
 cock, particularly signalized himself by his lib- 
 erality. Before his handsome mansion opposite 
 the Common, a pipe of Madeira wine was dis- 
 
92 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 tributed to the people. His house and those of 
 other grandees near were full of the finer world, 
 while the multitude were out under the trees, 
 just leafing out for the spring. One is glad to 
 record that for, once poor Bernard cordially sym- 
 pathized with the popular feeling. He and his 
 Council had a congratulatory meeting in the af- 
 ternoon, and in the evening walked graciously 
 about among the people, a brief harmonious 
 interlude with discord before and triple discord 
 to come in the near future. 
 
 In May, as usual, the elections for representa- 
 tives were held. Boston returned as the four to 
 which it was entitled, Samuel Adams, Thomas 
 Gushing, James Otis, and a new member, des- 
 tined in the time coming to great celebrity, 
 John Hancock. True to his self-imposed func- 
 tion of enlisting for the public service young 
 men likely for any reason to be helpful, it was 
 Mr. Adams who brought forward the new mem- 
 ber. The handsome, free-handed young mer- 
 chant, perhaps the richest man of the Province, 
 began now a public career, in the main though 
 not always useful, almost as continuous and pro- 
 tracted as that of Mr. Adams himself. 
 
 Still another noteworthy addition was made 
 this year to the Assembly in Joseph Haw ley, 
 t^ent as member for Northampton on the Con- 
 necticut River, a man of the purest character, of 
 
THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 93 
 
 bright intellect, devoted to the cause of the pa- 
 triots, and especially helpful through his pro- 
 found legal knowledge. His influence was pow- 
 erful with the country members, who sometimes 
 showed a jealousy, not unusual in the present 
 day, of the representatives of the metropolis. 
 Samuel Adams and Hawley thoroughly appre- 
 ciated one another, and worked hand in hand 
 through many a difficult crisis in the years that 
 were approaching. 
 
 During the troubled sessions to come Thomas 
 Gushing was chosen each year the speaker — = 
 an honorable but not especially significant man 
 among the patriots, who, through the fact that 
 he was figure-head of the House, Avas sometimes 
 credited in England and among the other colo- 
 nies with an importance which he never really 
 possessed. Samuel Adams at the same time 
 was made clerk, a position which gave him 
 some control of the business of the House, and 
 was worth about a hundred pounds a year. 
 His ability in drafting documents was now par- 
 ticularly in place ; at the same time he was not 
 at all debarred from appearing in debate. From 
 this time forward, until he went to Congress at 
 Philadelphia, he was annually made clerk, the 
 little stipend forming often his sole means of 
 support. 
 
 At the instance of James Otis, on the 3d of 
 
94 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 June, the debates of the Assembly were thrown 
 open to the public, and arrangements were made 
 for a gallery where the sessions could be wit- 
 nessed by all. For the first time in the history 
 of legislative associations it was made the right 
 of the plain citizen to hear and see — a usage 
 which has modified in important ways the pro- 
 ceedings and very character of deliberative bod- 
 ies. 
 
 No long-headed statesman in the colonies, in 
 face of the Declaratory Act, could feel that the 
 contest with the home government was any- 
 thing more than adjourned, and the wary Mas- 
 sachusetts managers were careful not to be 
 caught napping. The constitution of the Coun- 
 cil or upper house will be remembered. It 
 consisted of twenty-eight members, elected each 
 year by the Assembly and the preceding Coun- 
 cil, voting together ; the governor possessed the 
 power of rejecting thirteen of the twenty-eight 
 elected. Immediately after the organization of 
 the Assembly at the end of May, Bernard and 
 the leaders came to strife as to the composition 
 of the new Council. There were five persons 
 upon the election of whom the governor's heart 
 was especially fixed, — Hutchinson, Andrew 
 and Peter Oliver, Trowbridge, and Lynde. 
 They were "prerogative men" and very im- 
 portant in the way of keeping in check in the 
 
THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 95 
 
 upper house any feeling of sympathy with the 
 spirit of opposition, which was sure to be rife 
 in the Assembly. As Bernard was anxious to 
 retain them, the popular leaders were just as 
 anxious to exclude them ; Hutchinson, in par- 
 ticular, from his great ability and influence, was 
 especially desired on the one hand and dreaded 
 on the other. These five the Assembly refused 
 to reelect, taking the ground that, as crown of- 
 ficials, it was inappropriate that they should sit 
 in the legislature. Hutchinson was lieutenant- 
 governor, chief justice, and judge of probate ; 
 the Olivers were respectively secretary and 
 judge in the Superior Court, Lynde was a 
 judge also, and Trowbridge was attorney-gen- 
 eral. In a paper justifying the course of the 
 Assembly, drafted by Adams, but in the com- 
 position of which Otis no doubt had a share, 
 the desire was expressed to release " the judges 
 from the cares and perplexities of politics, and 
 give them an opportunity to make still further 
 advances in the knowledge of the law." Ber- 
 nard possessed no means of constraining the 
 election of his friends. He rejected six of the 
 councilors elected by the Assembly, by way of 
 retaliation, and scolded the body sharply. The 
 vacancies remained unfilled, although Hutchin- 
 son tried to retain his place on the strength of 
 his office as lieutenant-governor. The Assem- 
 
96 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 bly was inflexible. Into the place of leader of 
 the Council stepped the excellent James Bow- 
 doin, a well-to-do merchant of Huguenot de- 
 scent, of the best sense and character, who 
 henceforth for many years played a most use- 
 ful part ; at present he rendered great service 
 by keeping the Council and the Assembly in 
 accord. 
 
 Hawley at once made himself felt as a bold 
 and clear-headed statesman. " The Parliament 
 of Great Britain," said he, during this session, 
 '^ has no right to legislate for us." Hereupon 
 James Otis, rising in his seat, and bowing to- 
 ward Hawley, exclaimed : " He has g(me far- 
 ther than I have yet done in tliis house." With 
 his lawyer's acumen the NorthampUm member 
 seemed to appreciate the untenability of Pitt's 
 opinion and to reject it at once. In 1766, to 
 deny to Parliament the right of legislating for 
 the colonies was advanced ground, but it came 
 soon to be generally occupied. 
 
 In December, 1766, soon after the adjourn- 
 ment of the legislature, a vessel, having on 
 board two companies of royal artillery, was 
 driven by stress of weather into Boston harbor. 
 The governor, by advice of the Council, directed 
 that provision should be made for them at the 
 expense of the Province, following the prece- 
 dent established shortly before, when a com- 
 
THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 97 
 
 pany had been organized to be paid by the 
 Province, but without the consent of the rep- 
 resentatives, for the protection of the stamps 
 at the castle. In the case in hand humanity 
 demanded that the soldiers should be received 
 and provided for ; a principle, however, was 
 again violated in a way which sharp-eyed patri- 
 ots could not overlook. Here resistance was 
 made, as in the previous case, and we find now 
 the beginnings of a matter which developed 
 into great importance. 
 
 According to the account of Hutchinson, the 
 jealousy which the country towns had felt of 
 the influence of Boston was disappearing at the 
 time of the Stamp Act. Thenceforward the 
 leaders are for the most part the Boston men, 
 who project and conduct all the measures of 
 importance. In the intervals between the ses- 
 sions of the Assembly, town-meetings are fre- 
 quent, in which general interests, as well as 
 things purely local, are considered. In town- 
 meeting and Assembly the leaders are the same, 
 a select body of whom meet at stated times and 
 places in the evening, at least once a week, to 
 concert plans, inspire the newspapers, arrange 
 for news. 
 
 With calmness and accuracy Hutchinson 
 states the gradual changes of position which 
 the colonies assume as the contest proceeds. 
 
98 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 The view whicli advanced minds had some time 
 before adopted became general. The author- 
 ity of Parliament to pass any acts whatever 
 affecting the interior polity of the colonies was 
 called in question, as destroying the effect of 
 the charters. King, lords, and commons, it is 
 said, form the legislature of Great Britain ; so 
 the king by his goveinors, the councils and as- 
 semblies, forms the legislatures of the colonies. 
 But as colonies cannot make laws to extend 
 farther than their respective limits. Parliament 
 must interpose in all cases where the legisla- 
 tive power of the colonies is ineffectual. Here 
 the line of the authority of Parliament ought 
 to be drawn ; all beyond is encroachment upon 
 the constitutional powers of the colonial legis- 
 latures. This doctrine, says Hutchinson, was 
 taught in every colony from Virginia to Massa- 
 chusetts, as early as 1767. 
 
 The liberal Rockingham administration, after 
 a few months of power, disappeared, having sig- 
 nalized itself as regarded America by the re- 
 peal of the Stamp Act, and by the Declaratory 
 Act. Of the new ministry the leading spirit 
 was Charles Townshend, a brilliant statesman, 
 but unscrupulous and unwise. His inclinations 
 were arbitrary ; he regretted the repeal of the 
 Stamp Act, as did also the king and Parliament 
 in general, who felt themselves to have been 
 
THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 99 
 
 humiliated. Pitt, indeed, now Earl of Chatham, 
 was a member of the government ; but, op- 
 pressed by illness, he could exercise no restraint 
 upon his colleague, and the other members were 
 either in sympathy with Townshend's views, or 
 unable to oppose him. Townshend's three 
 measures affecting America, introduced on the 
 13th of May, 1767, were : a suspension of the 
 functions of the legislature of New York for 
 contumacy in the treatment of the royal troops ; 
 the establishment of commissioners of the cus- 
 toms, appointed with large powers to super- 
 intend laws relating to trade ; and lastly an 
 impost duty upon glass, red and white lead, 
 painters' colors, paper, and tea. This was an 
 "external" duty to which the colonists had 
 heretofore expressed a willingness to submit; 
 but the grounds of the dispute were shifting. 
 Townshend had declared that he held in con- 
 tempt the distinction sought to be drawn be- 
 tween external and internal taxes, but that he 
 would so far humor the colonists in their quib- 
 ble as to make his tax of that kind of which 
 the right was admitted. A revenue of £40,000 
 a year was expected from the tax, which was 
 to be applied to the support of a " civil list," 
 namely, the paying the salaries of the new 
 commissioners of customs, and of the judges 
 and governors, who were to be relieved wholly 
 
100 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 or in part from their dependence npon the an- 
 nual grants of the Assemblies ; then, if a sur- 
 plus remained, it was to go to the payment of 
 troops for protecting the colonies. To make 
 more efficient, moreover, the enforcement of the 
 revenue laws, the writs of assistance, the de- 
 nunciation of which by James Otis had formed 
 so memorable a crisis, were formally legalized. 
 
 The popular discontent, appeased by the 
 repeal of the Stamp Act, was at once awake 
 again, and henceforth in the denial of the 
 right of Parliament to tax, we hear no more 
 of acquiescence in commercial restrictions and 
 in the general legislative authority of Parlia- 
 ment. A knowledge of the scandalous pen- 
 sion list in England, the monstrous abuses of 
 patronage in Ireland, the corruptions which 
 already existed in America, made the people 
 indignant at the thought of an increase in the 
 numbers and pay of placemen. 
 
 Now it is that still another of the foster 
 children of Samuel Adams emerges into prom- 
 inence, the bright and enthusiastic Josiah Quin- 
 cy, already at the age of twenty-three becom- 
 ing known as a writer, who urges an armed 
 resistance at once to the plans of the ministry. 
 It was the over-hasty counsel of youth, and the 
 plan for resistance adopted by the cooler heads 
 was that of Samuel Adams, namely, the non* 
 
THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 101 
 
 importation and the non-consumption of Brit- 
 ish products. From Boston out, through an 
 impulse proceeding from him, town-meetings 
 were everywhere held to encourage the man- 
 ufactures of the Province and reduce the use of 
 superfluities, long lists of which were enumer- 
 ated. Committees were appointed everywhere 
 to procure subscriptions to agreements looking 
 to the furtherance of home industries and the 
 disuse of foreign products. 
 
 But while some were watchful, others were 
 supine or indeed reactionary. Pending the op- 
 eration of the non-consumption arrangements, 
 which were not to go into effect until the end 
 of the year, a general quiet prevailed, at which 
 the friends of the home government felt great 
 satisfaction. They declared that the "faction 
 dared not show its face," and that " our incen- 
 diaries seem discouraged," and in particular they 
 took much hope from the course pursued by 
 James Otis. He, on the 20th of November, in 
 town-meeting, made a long speech on the side 
 of the government, asserted the right of the 
 king to appoint officers of customs in what num- 
 ber and by what name he pleased, and declared 
 it imprudent to oppose the new duties. Of the 
 five commissioners of customs three had just ar- 
 rived from England, the most important among 
 them being Paxton, whose influence had been 
 
102 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 felt in the establishment of the board. Robin- 
 son and Temple, the other members, were al- 
 ready on the ground. In their early meetings, 
 while the Province in general seemed quiet, and 
 the voice of Otis in Faneuil Hall advocated a 
 respectful treatment of the board and a com- 
 pliance with the regulations they were to en- 
 force, they had some reason to feel that in spite 
 of the hot-headed boy, Quincy, and Samuel 
 Adams with his impracticable non -consump- 
 tion schemes, the task of the commissioners 
 was likely to be an easy one. 
 
 Before the full effects of the new legislation 
 could be seen, Townshend suddenly died ; but 
 in the new ministry that was presently formed 
 Lord North came to the front, and adopted the 
 policy of his predecessor, receiving in this 
 course the firm support of the king, whose 
 activity and interest were so great in public 
 affairs that he " became his own minister." As 
 the business of the colonies grew every day 
 more important, it was thought necessary at 
 the end of the year to appoint a secretary of 
 state for the American department. For tliis 
 office Lord Hillsborough was named, who had 
 been before at the head of the Board of Trade. 
 The new official did not hesitate to adopt ag- 
 gressive measures, granting, for his first act, to 
 the many-functioned Hutchinson a pension oi 
 
THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 103 
 
 two hundred pounds, to be paid by the commis- 
 sioners of customs, through which he became in 
 a measure independent of the people. 
 
 Of the three men now leaders of the Assem- 
 bly, Hawley lived at a distance and was only 
 occasionally in Boston, which became more 
 and more the centre of influence. A certain 
 excitability, moreover, which made him some- 
 times over-sanguine and sometimes despondent, 
 hurt his usefulness. Otis, sinking more and 
 more into the power of the disease which in 
 the end was to destroy him, grew each year 
 more eccentric. Samuel Adams, always on the 
 ground, always alert, steady, indefatigable, pos- 
 sessing daily more and more the confidence of 
 the Province, as he had before gained that of 
 the town, became constantly more marked as, in 
 loyalist parlance, the "chief incendiary." Just 
 at this time, in the winter session of the leg- 
 islature of 1767-68, he produced a series of re- 
 markable papers, in which the advanced ground 
 now occupied by the leaders was elaborately, 
 firmly, and courteously stated. 
 
 The first letter, adopted by the Assembly 
 January 13, 1768, is to Dennys Deberdt, the 
 agent of the Assembly in London, and intended 
 of course to be made public. The different 
 members of the ministry and the lords of the 
 treasury were also addressed, and at last the 
 
104 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 king. There is no whisper in the documents 
 of a desire for independence. 
 
 " There is an English affection in the colonists to- 
 wards the mother country, which will forever keep 
 them connected with her to every valuable purpose, 
 unless it shall be erased by repeated unkind usage on 
 her part." 
 
 The injustice of taxation without representa- 
 tion is stated at length, the impossibility of a 
 representation of the colonies in Parliament is 
 dwelt upon, and a voluntary subsidy is men- 
 tioned as the only proper and legal way in 
 which the colonies should contribute to the 
 imperial funds. The impropriety of giving sti- 
 pends to governors and judges independent of 
 the legislative grants is urged, and the griev- 
 ance of the establishment of commissioners of 
 customs with power to appoint placemen is as- 
 sailed. No passage is more energetic than that 
 in which the Puritan forefends the encroach- 
 ments of prelacy. 
 
 " The establishment of a Protestant episcopate in 
 America is also very zealously contended for ; and it 
 is very alarming to a people whose fathers, from the 
 hardships they suffered under such an establishment, 
 were obliged to fly their native country into a wilder- 
 ness, in order peaceably to enjoy their privileges, 
 civil and religious. Their being threatened with the 
 loss of both at once must throw them into a disagree- 
 
THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 105 
 
 able situation. We hope in God such an establish- 
 ment will never take place in America, and we desire 
 you would strenuously oppose it. The revenue raised 
 in America, for aught we can tell, may be as consti- 
 tutionally applied towards the support of prelacy as 
 of soldiers and pensioners." 
 
 As a final measure a " Circular Letter " was 
 sent to " each House of Representatives or 
 Burgesses on the Continent." 
 
 The authorship of these documents has been 
 claimed for Otis, the assertion being made that 
 Adams was concerned with them only as his as- 
 sistant. The claim is, however, quite untenable. 
 In style and contents they reflect Adams, while 
 they are in many points inconsistent with the 
 manner and opinions of Otis. Aside from the 
 strong internal evidence, the most satisfactory 
 external proofs have been produced. Mrs. Han- 
 nah Wells, the daughter of Samuel Adams, 
 used to say that, when her father was busy 
 with the composition of the petition to the 
 king, she one day said to him, in girlish awe 
 before the far-off mighty potentate, that the 
 paper would doubtless be soon touched by the 
 royal hand. '' It will, my dear," he replied, 
 *'more likely be spurned by the royal foot." It 
 is a significant anecdote as showing that he 
 himself had little confidence that the effort of 
 the Province would meet with favor. Though 
 
106 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 eminent statesmen had been personally ap- 
 pealed to, and finally the king, the Assembly 
 were careful to send no memorial to Parliament, 
 not recognizing its right to interfere. 
 
 Even more important than the documents 
 sent abroad was the " Circular Letter " dis- 
 patched by the Assembly to its sister bodies 
 throughout America during the same session. 
 When the measure was first proposed by Mr. 
 Adams, there was a large majority against it, for 
 the feeling in England against concerted action 
 in the colonies was well known, and there was a 
 disinclination to cause any unnecessary^ friction. 
 In a fortnight, however, a complete change had 
 been wrought, for the measure was carried 
 triumphantly, the preceding action of the House 
 being erased from the record. A few days af- 
 ter, on February 11th, the form of the letter 
 was reported, again from the hand of Mr. Ad- 
 ams. In it a statement was made of the expe- 
 diency of providing for a uniform plan in the 
 action of the different legislatures for remon- 
 strances against the government policy, infor- 
 mation was given as to the action of Massachu- 
 setts, and communication was invited as to the 
 measures of the rest. Great pains were taken 
 to disclaim all thought of influencing others. 
 
 " The House is fully satisfied that your Assemhly is 
 too generous and enlarged in sentiment to believe 
 
THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 107 
 
 that this letter proceeds from an ambition of taking 
 the lead or dictating to the other Assemblies. They 
 freely submit their opinion to the judgment of others, 
 and shall take it kind in your House to point out to 
 them anything further that may be thought neces- 
 sary." 
 
 The utmost care and tact were evidently 
 believed to be in place, to avoid exciting jeal- 
 ousy. The '' Circular Letter " had a good re- 
 ception from the various bodies to which it was 
 addressed, and exasperated correspondingly the 
 loyalists. The crown officers of Massachusetts 
 sent energetic memorials to England ; Bernard 
 in particular, besides detailing the new outrage, 
 enlarged upon the older grievance, the deter- 
 mination of the Assembly to exclude the crown 
 officers from the Council. 
 
 The same month of February was still further 
 signalized by the coming forward into promi- 
 nence of yet another of the protegSs of Samuel 
 Adams, perhaps the ablest and most interest- 
 ing of all, Joseph Warren, who, although for 
 some years a writer for the newspapers, now, at 
 the age of twenty-seven, made for the first time 
 a real sensation by a vehement arraignment of 
 Bernard in the " Boston Gazette." The sen- 
 sitive governor, touched to the quick by the 
 diatribe, for such it was, and unable to induce 
 the legislature to act in the matter, prorogued 
 
108 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 it in a mood of exasperation not at all surpris- 
 ing ; not, however, until a series of resolutions 
 had been reported by a committee of which 
 Otis and Adams were members, discouraging 
 foreign importations and stimulatmg home in- 
 dustries. These were passed with no dissenting 
 voice but that of stalwart Timothy Ruggles, 
 who, having honestly espoused the cause of 
 king and Parliament, opposed himself now to 
 the strong set of the popular current, careless 
 of results to himself, with the same soldierly 
 resolution he had brought to the aid of Aber- 
 crombie and Sir Jeffrey Amherst in the hard 
 fighting of the Old French War. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 
 
 If we look back through the controversy that 
 preceded the independence of America, the year 
 1768 stands out as an important one. The 
 adoption by the Assembly of Massachusetts of 
 the state papers described in the preceding 
 chapter signalized the opening of the year. 
 These were presently after published together 
 in England by that liberal-handed friend of 
 America, Thomas Hollis, under the title, " The 
 True Sentiments of America." They impressed 
 profoundly public sentiment on both sides of 
 the Atlantic. Events of commensurate im- 
 portance presently followed, and the year was 
 not to close without a marked increase in the 
 estrangement between mother-land and colo- 
 nists. 
 
 In Pennsylvania the '' Farmer's Letters " of 
 John Dickinson were meeting with wide ap- 
 proval and quickly obtained circulation in the 
 colonies in general. They were entirely in ac- 
 cord with the Massachusetts utterances, and 
 
110 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 proved that, while Franklin was in England, 
 he had left men behind in his Province well 
 able to take care of the public welfare. Boston 
 town-meeting, in the spring, appointed Samuel 
 Adams, John Hancock, and Joseph Warren to 
 express to Dickinson its thanks. Meantime 
 though, as has been seen, the author of the 
 papers of January had little hope that they 
 would meet with a kind reception, the people 
 were more sanguine, and looked for a good re- 
 sult. Hillsborough, ■ however, never presented 
 the letter to the king. The government found 
 nothing but unreasonable contumacy in the 
 " True Sentiments of America." The " Circu- 
 lar Letter " was regarded as distinctly seditious, 
 and Bernard was required to demand of the leg- 
 islature that it should be rescinded, under threat 
 of constant prorogation until it should be done. 
 To give emphasis to the government threat. 
 General Gage, commander of the forces in 
 America, with headquarters in New York, was 
 ominously directed " to maintain the public 
 tranquillity." 
 
 A naval force also was dispatched to Boston, 
 of which the first vessel to arrive was the fifty- 
 gun ship Romney, which signalized its ap- 
 proach from Halifax in May by impressing 
 New England seamen from vessels met off the 
 coast. Great ill-will existed between the peo- 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. Ill 
 
 pie and the ship's crew, which burst into flame 
 a few weeks after in the affair of the Liberty, 
 a sloop owned by Hancock, which had broken 
 the revenue laws. A serious riot came near re- 
 sulting. The commissioners of customs, having 
 in mind the Stamp Act riots four years before, 
 took refuge at the Castle ; Bernard withdrew 
 to his house in Roxbury ; while the people 
 thronged to town-meeting, which, as usual, 
 when the numbers overflowed, flocked from 
 Faneuil Hall to the Old South. As James 
 Otis entered he was received with cheers and 
 clapping of hands ; he was made moderator by 
 acclamation, and presently was storming mag- 
 nificently before the enthusiastic thousands. 
 No alarming result, however, followed. Ber- 
 nard, reasonably somewhat anxious at Roxbury, 
 with scarcely a man to rely on if force should 
 be used, heard at last that the emissaries of the 
 people were coming. It must have been with 
 much relief that he saw presently a quiet pro- 
 cession of eleven chaises draw up before his 
 door, from which alighted two-and-twenty citi- 
 zens, with a member of his Council at their 
 head, and Otis and Samuel Adams among the 
 number. A representation of grievances was 
 made in decided but temperate terms ; chief of 
 all, the demand was urged that the Romney 
 should be removed from the harbor. 
 
112 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 " I received them," wrote Bernard, " with all 
 possible civility, and having heard their petition I 
 talked with them very freely upon the subject, but 
 postponed giving them a final answer until the next 
 day, as it should be in writing. I then had wine 
 handed around, and they left me highly pleased with 
 their reception." 
 
 Bernard declared that lie had no authority 
 to remove the Romney, and the matter rested 
 there, the crown officials, not unreasonably, 
 pressing more urgently than ever for a body of 
 troops for their protection. The disturbance 
 had, to be sure, proved slight, but it might 
 easily have become a grave affair. In the in- 
 structions of the town to the representatives, 
 adopted in May, written by John Adams, now 
 resident in Boston, Hutchinson calls attention 
 to a significant attenuation of the usual loyal 
 expression. 
 
 " They declare a reverence and due subordination 
 to the British Parliament, as the supreme legislative, 
 in all cases of necessity for the preservation of the 
 whole empire. This is a singular manner of express- 
 ing the authority of Parliament." 
 
 The whole continent had approved the " Cir- 
 cular Letter." Connecticut, New Jersey, Geor- 
 gia, and Virginia had responded, which caused 
 Samuel Adams to exclaim in terms which he 
 afterwards used on a still more memorable oc- 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 113 
 
 casion, " This is a glorious day ! " When the 
 demand that the '' Circular Letter " should be 
 rescinded became known to the Assembl}', 
 through a message from Bernard in which a 
 letter from Hillsborough was quoted, a letter 
 written by Samuel Adams was twice read and 
 twice accepted, by a vote of ninety-two to thir- 
 teen, and ordered to be sent to Hillsborough 
 by the first opportunity, without imparting its 
 contents to the governor or the public. The 
 letter closes with the hope that "to acquaint 
 their fellow-subjects involved in the same dis- 
 tress of their having invited the union of all 
 America in one joint supplication, would not 
 be discountenanced by our gracious sovereign 
 as a measure of an inflammatory nature." 
 
 The letter was sent by the first conveyance. 
 Mr. Adams withheld it from publication as long 
 as he considered that the public interests were 
 subserved by so doing ; then he resolved to 
 have it printed in the " Boston Gazette." Ber- 
 nard thus relates a scene reported to him : — 
 
 " This morning the two consuls of the faction — 
 Otis and Adams — had a dispute upon it in the rep- 
 resentatives' room, where the papers of the house 
 are kept, which I shall write as a dialogue to save 
 paper : — 
 
 " Otis. — What are you going to do with the let- 
 ter to Lord Hillsborough ? 
 
114 BAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 ^^ Adams. — To give it to the printer to publish 
 next Monday. 
 
 " Otis. — Do you think it proper to publish it so 
 soon, that he may receive a printed copy before the 
 original comes to his hand ? 
 
 " Adams. — What signifies that ? You know it 
 was designed for the people, and not for the minis- 
 ter. 
 
 " Otis. — You are so fond of your own drafts that 
 you can't wait for the publication of them to a proper 
 time. 
 
 " Adams. — I am clerk of this house, and I will 
 make that use of the papers which I please. 
 
 " I had this," continues the governor, " from a 
 gentleman of the first rank, who I understood was 
 present." 
 
 On the day of the adoption of the letter to 
 Hillsborough, the House considered also the 
 question of rescinding, which was promptly de- 
 cided in the negative by a vote of ninety-two 
 to seventeen. Addressing the governor, still 
 by the hand of Samuel Adams, they declared : 
 
 " The Circular Letters have been sen t and many 
 of them have been answered ; those answers are now 
 in the public papers ; the public, the world, must 
 and will judge of the proposals, purposes, and an- 
 swers. We could as well rescind those letters as the 
 resolves ; and both would be equally fruitless if by 
 rescinding, as the word properly imports, is meant a 
 repeal and nullifying the resolution referred to." 
 
TEE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 115 
 
 Immediately upon this action, Bernard, as 
 required, prorogued the Assembly, but not un- 
 til a committee had been appointed to prepare 
 a petition praying " that his majesty would be 
 graciously pleased to remove his excellency, 
 Francis Bernard, from the government of the 
 Province." Adams justly looked upon the per- 
 sistence of the Assembly in this matter as an 
 important triumph, and often referred to it in 
 times when the people's cause was depressed, 
 during the years that were coming, to invigo- 
 rate the spirit of his party. Since the governor 
 had been directed to prorogue the Assembly 
 as often as it should come together, until the 
 '' Circular Letter " should be rescinded, Massa- 
 chusetts in July, 1768, had practically no leg- 
 islature. The colonies in general approved the 
 stand of that Province, and the necessity of 
 union began to be felt. 
 
 In the democracy of Boston, Samuel Adams, 
 among the leadeis, was especially the favorite 
 of the mechanics and labcu'ers. His popularity 
 was particularly marked in the ship-yards, the 
 craftsmen in which exercised a great influence. 
 His own poverty, plain clothes, and caieless- 
 ness as to ceremony and display, caused them 
 to feel that he was more nearly on a level with 
 themselves than Bowdoin, Gushing, Otis, or 
 Hancock, who through wealth or distinguished 
 
116 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 connections were led to affiliate with the rich 
 and high-placed. Though the legislature could 
 not convene, the restless patriot could find 
 his opportunity in the town-meetings ; and if 
 they were infrequent, he poured himself into 
 the newspapers. Constant, too, were the ha- 
 rangues which he delivered in his intercourse 
 with the townsmen, sitting side by side with 
 some ship - carpenter on a block of oak, just 
 above the tide, or with some shop-keeper in a 
 fence corner sheltered from the wind. Most 
 of his writing was done in a study adjoining his 
 bed-room in the Purchase Street house. His 
 wife used to tell how she was accustomed to 
 listen to the incessant motion of his pen, the 
 light of his solitary lamp being dimly visible. 
 Passers in the street would often see, long after 
 midnight, the light from his well-known win- 
 dow, and " knew that Sam Adams was hard 
 at work writing against the Tories." Of his 
 ways, as he moved about in his daily walks, 
 some graphic hints are given in an affidavit 
 which was taken at a time when an effort was 
 made to collect evidence against him. Under 
 a statute of the reign of Henry VIII., which 
 had been produced from under the dust of cen- 
 turies, subjects could be taken from foreign 
 parts to England, to be tried for treason. A 
 great desire was felt by the government party 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 117 
 
 to make out a case against Samuel Adams suf- 
 ficiently strong to justify such deportation. 
 The project was abandoned, but the following 
 curious memorial of the attempt is still pre- 
 served in the London state-paper ofiice : — 
 
 *' The information of Richard Sylvester of Boston, 
 inn-holder, taken before me, Thomas Hutchinson, 
 Esq., chief justice of said province, this twenty-third 
 of January, in the ninth year of his Majesty's reign : 
 
 " This informant sayeth that the day after the boat 
 belonging to Mr. Harrison was burnt, the last sum- 
 mer, the informant observed several parties of men 
 gathered in the street at the south end of the town 
 of Boston, in the forenoon of the day. The inform- 
 ant went up to one of the parties, and Mr. Samuel 
 Adams, then one of the representatives of Boston, 
 happened to join the same party near about the same 
 time, trembling and in great agitation.^ The party 
 consisted of about seven in number, who were un- 
 known to the informant, he having but little acquaint- 
 ance with the inhabitants, or, if any of them were 
 known, he cannot now recollect them. The inform- 
 ant heard the said Samuel Adams then say to the 
 said party, * If you are men, behave like men. Let 
 us take up arms immediately, and be free, and seize 
 all the king's officers. We shall have thirty thou- 
 sand men to join us from the country.' The inform- 
 ant then walked off, believing his company was dis- 
 
 "^ The constitutional tremulousness of hand and voice com- 
 men to Mr. Adams is elsewhere described. 
 
118 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 agreeable. The informant further sayeth, that after 
 the burning of the boat aforesaid, and before the ar- 
 rival of the troops, the said Samuel Adams has been 
 divers times at the house of the informant, and at 
 one of those times particularly the informant began a 
 discourse concerning the times ; and the said Sam- 
 uel Adams said : ' We will not submit to any tax, 
 nor become slaves. We will take up arms, and 
 spend our last drop of blood before the king and 
 Parliament shall impose on us, and settle crown offi- 
 cers in this country to dragoon us. The country was 
 first settled by our ancestors, therefore we are free 
 and want i^s king. The times were never better in 
 Rome than when they had no king and were a free 
 state ; and as this is a great empire, we shall have it 
 in our power to give laws to England.' The inform- 
 ant further sayeth, that, at divers times between the 
 burning of the boat aforesaid and the arrival of the 
 troops aforesaid, he has heard the said Adams ex- 
 press himself in words to very much the same pur- 
 pose, and that the informant's wife has sometimes 
 been present, and at one or more of such times 
 George Mason of Boston, painter, was present. The 
 informant further sayeth, that about a fortnight be- 
 fore the troops arrived, the aforesaid Samuel Adams 
 being at the house of the informant, the informant 
 asked him what he thought of the times. The said 
 Adams answered, with great alertness, that, on light- 
 ing the beacon, we should be joined with thirty thou- 
 sand men from the country with their knapsacks and 
 bayonets fixed, and added, ' We will destroy every sol- 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 119 
 
 dier that dare put his foot on shore. His majesty has 
 no right to send troops here to invade the country, 
 and I look upon them as foreign enemies ! ' This in- 
 formant further sayeth, that two or three days before 
 the troops arrived, the said Samuel Adams said to 
 the informant, that Governor Bernard and Mr. Hutch- 
 inson and the commissioners of the customs had sent 
 for troops, and the said Adams made bitter exclama- 
 tions against them for so doing, and also repeated 
 most of the language about opposing the king's 
 troops, which he had used as above mentioned about 
 a fortnight before. The informant contradicted the 
 said Samuel Adams, and attributed the sending troops 
 to the resolve of the General Court and the proceed- 
 ings of the town-meeting. 
 
 " Sworn to : T. Hutchinson.'* 
 
 The steps taken in America had only 
 strengthened the determination of the govern- 
 ment to break the spirit of the colonists. Not 
 only was the project entertained of sending 
 Samuel Adams and other leaders to England 
 for trial, but town-meetings were to be forbid- 
 den, and an armed force, consisting of two reg- 
 iments and a frigate, was to be sent at once to 
 Boston. Samuel Adams afterward said that 
 from this time he dismissed all thought of 
 reconciliation, and looked forward to, and la- 
 bored for, independence. Hutchinson declares 
 that Adams's efforts for independence began as 
 
120 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 early as 1765. It is well established, at any 
 rate, that though the vague dream of a great 
 independent American state, some time to exist, 
 had now and then found expression, Samuel 
 Adams, first of men, saw clearly that the time 
 for it had come in the critical period of the reign 
 of George III., and secretly began his labors for 
 it. Up to the year we have reached, indeed, 
 and possibly afterwards, documents which he 
 prepared contain loyal expressions, and some- 
 times seem to disclaim the wish or thought of 
 ever severing the connection with the mother 
 country. His Tory contemporaries found great 
 duplicity in Mr. Adams's conduct. He himself 
 would, no doubt, have said that when he dis- 
 claimed the thought of independence he spoke 
 for others, the bodies namely which employed 
 his hand to express their conclusions, that he 
 could not be and was not bound in such cases to 
 speak his own private views. It must be con- 
 fessed that some casuistry is necessary now and 
 then to make the conduct of Samuel Adams 
 here square with the absolute right. An ad- 
 vocate, whose sense of honor is nice, hesitates 
 to screen a criminal of whose guilt he is con- 
 vinced, by any reticence as to his own views. A 
 newspaper writer of the highest character will 
 refuse to postpone his own sentiments, while he 
 expresses the differing sentiments adopted by 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 121 
 
 the journal which employs him. One wonders 
 if the puritan conscience of Samuel Adams did 
 not now and then feel a twinge, when at the 
 very time in which he had devoted himself, 
 body and soul, to breaking the link that bound 
 America to England, he was coining for this 
 or that body phrases full of reverence for the 
 king and rejecting the thought of independence. 
 The fact was, he could employ upon occasion a 
 certain fox-like shrewdness, which did not al- 
 ways scrutinize the means over narrowly, while 
 he pushed on for the great end. Before our 
 story is finished other instances of wily and de- 
 vious management will come under our notice, 
 which a proper plumb-line will prove to be not 
 quite in the perpendicular. Bold, unselfish, 
 unmistakably pious as he was, the Achilles of 
 independence was still held by the heel when 
 he was dipped. 
 
 In September, the Senegal and Duke of 
 Cumberland, ships of the fleet, set sail from 
 the harbor, and Bernard caused the rumor to 
 be spread abroad that they were going for 
 troops. A town-meeting was summoned, and 
 Bernard, apprehending insurrection, caused the 
 beacon on Beacon Hill to be so far dismantled 
 that signals could not be sent to the surround- 
 ing country. At the meeting, over which Otis 
 presided, four hundred muskets lay on the floor 
 
122 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 of Faneuil Hall. A committee, of which Sam- 
 uel Adams was a member, was appointed to in- 
 quire of the governor as to his reasons for expect- 
 ing the troops, and to request him to convoke a 
 general Assembly. Bernard refused, which con- 
 duct the committee reported to an adjourned 
 meeting on the day following, when a spirited' 
 declaration was made by the town of its pur- 
 pose to defend its rights. The governor de- 
 scribed the meeting to Hillsborough in these 
 terms : — 
 
 " An old man protested against everything but ris- 
 ing immediately, and taking all power into their own 
 hands. One man, very profligate and abandoned, 
 argued for massacring their enemies. His argument 
 was, in short, liberty is as precious as life ; if a man 
 attempts to take my life, I have a right to take his ; 
 ergo, if a man attempts to take away my liberty, I 
 have a right to take his life. He also argued, that 
 when a people's liberties were threatened, they were 
 in a state of war, and had a right to defend them- 
 selves ; and he carried these arguments so far, that 
 his own party were obliged to silence him." 
 
 For the leaders there was plainly work to be 
 done in the way of restraining as well as stim- 
 ulating. The policy decided upon was bold, 
 but not without precedent. Since the governor 
 refused to convene the legislature, the town- 
 meeting of Boston resolved to call a conventioB 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 123 
 
 of the towns of the Province, by their represen- 
 tatives, as had been done in 1688, choosing at 
 the same time Gushing, Otis, Samuel Adams, 
 and Hancock as their own delegates. Every 
 inhabitant also vas exhorted to provide himself 
 with arms and ammunidon, on the pretext that 
 a war with France was impending. At once, 
 on September 22d, the convention assembled ; 
 ninety-six towns and four districts sent deputies. 
 It was much embarrassed during the first three 
 (days of its sitting by the unaccountable absence 
 of Otis, whose importance was so great that, 
 however strange his freaks might be, his pres- 
 ence could not be dispensed with. The gov- 
 ernment party regarded this convention as the 
 most revolutionary measure yet undertaken ; 
 Bernard declared it to be illegal, and solemnly 
 warned it to disperse. The temper of the body, 
 however, was somewhat reactionary, the coun- 
 try members in particular holding back from 
 the course to which the " Bostoneers " would 
 have committed them. Adams, who was al- 
 ways in advance, was little pleased. His daugh- 
 ter remembered afterwards that he exclaimed : 
 "I am in fashion and out of fashion, as the 
 whim goes. I will stand alone. I will oppose 
 this tyranny at the threshold, though the fabric 
 of liberty fall and I perish in its ruins." The 
 petition of the preceding legislature to the king, 
 
124 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 however, and a letter to Deberdt, also written 
 by Adams, both which papers were manly and 
 strong, were adopted. The great end gained 
 was in the way of habituating the people to 
 coming together in other than the established 
 ways ; and the precedent was found useful in 
 the times that were approaching. 
 
 On the very day that the convention ad- 
 journed, after a session of a week, there arrived 
 from Halifax the 14th and 29th regiments, 
 which have come down in history, following 
 the designation of Lord North, as the " Sam 
 Adams regiments," for reasons which will 
 abundantly appear. While the ships which 
 brought them lay close at hand in the harbor 
 in a position to command the town, the regi- 
 ments after landing marched with all possible 
 pomp from Long Wharf to the Common, 
 where they paraded, each soldier having in his 
 cartridge-box sixteen rounds, as if entering an 
 enemy's country. The 29th regiment en- 
 camped on the Common, but the 14th was 
 quartered in Faneuil Hall, Bernard insisting 
 that both should be in the body of the town. 
 Samuel Adams wrote the next week to De- 
 berdt : — 
 
 " The inhabitants preserve their peace and quiet- 
 ness. However, they are resolved not to pay their 
 money without their own consent, and are more than 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 125 \ 
 
 ever determined to relinquish every article, however /. 
 dear, that comes from Britain. May God preserve 
 
 the nation from being greatly injured, if not finally \ 
 
 ruined, by the vile ministrations of wicked men in I 
 
 America I " '\ 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE KECALL OF BERNARD. 
 
 The troops had arrived, and it is absurd to 
 think that Bernard and the crown officers had 
 no reason on their side in demanding them. 
 With three quarters of the people of the Prov- 
 ince, as shown by the composition of the As- 
 sembly, directly hostile to the government pol- 
 icy, and in Boston a still larger proportion in 
 opposition, with the upper house of the legisla- 
 ture through its constitution scarcely less in 
 sympathy with the people than the lower, the 
 governor had no support in his honest efforts 
 to maintain the parliamentary supremacy, un- 
 less he could have the regiments. That the 
 commissioners of the customs had been foolish 
 and cowardly in fleeing with their families to 
 the Castle after the affair of the Liberty, it is 
 quite wrong to assert. They were unquestion- 
 ably in danger and had no means of defending 
 themselves. The unpopular laws which they 
 were expected to administer could only be car- 
 ried out under protection of a military force. 
 
THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 127 
 
 When General Gage came on from New 
 UTork to demand quarters for the regiments, the 
 Council refused to grant them until the bar- 
 racks at the Castle were filled, which was re- 
 quired by the letter of the law. The main 
 guard was finall}^ established opposite the State 
 House in King Street, with the cannon pointed 
 toward the door, while the troops were housed 
 in buildings hired by their commander, the at- 
 tempt to obtain possession of a ruinous building 
 belonging to the Province being foiled by its 
 occupants, who were backed by town and coun- 
 try in refusing to vacate. 
 
 The troops presented a formidable appear- 
 ance as they marched through the streets and 
 paraded on the Common. However objection- 
 able in actual service, for imposing display all 
 who are familiar with armies must admit that 
 nothing is equal to the British scarlet, when 
 spread out over ranks well filled and drilled, 
 with the glitter of bayonets above the mass of 
 superb color. The Tories took great heart. 
 Good-natured Dr. Byles congratulated the pa- 
 triots because tlieir grievances were at length 
 redressed [red-dressed], and Hutchinson wrote 
 cheerful letters. The people were at first quiet 
 and orderly, but by no means cowed ; and when 
 familiarity at length had bred its usual conse- 
 quence, a threatening turbulence appeared. A 
 
128 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 crowd of abandoned women followed the troops 
 from Halifax, many of whom before long be- 
 came inmates of the almshouses. Before a 
 month had passed, forty men had deserted, and 
 one who was recovered was summarily shot. 
 The town, moreover, was shocked by the flog- 
 ging of troops, which was administered by negro 
 drummers in public on the Common. Strangely 
 enough, Samuel Adams was once appealed to 
 by the wife of a soldier sentenced to receive a 
 number of lashes almost sufficient to kill him. 
 How the poor creature could have formed the 
 idea that the arch rebel would have influence 
 with the commanders it is hard to say. He 
 made the effort, however, and the interven- 
 tion wjis successful, in the hope, his daughter 
 surmises, who tells the story, that the conces- 
 sion would pave the way for conciliatory over- 
 tures, with which he was afterwards approached. 
 Through policy, and no doubt also through hu- 
 mane inclination, occasions of friction between 
 soldiers and townsmen were avoided as far as 
 possible by the commanders ; the legal restric- 
 tion was fully recognized, that the troops could 
 not be employed except upon the requisition of 
 a civil magistrate. 
 
 Some amusing traditions have come down as 
 to the extent to which non-interference was 
 pursued. At a legal inquiry, a soldier, who 
 
THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 129 
 
 had been on duty, was said to have been thus 
 
 interrogated : — 
 
 " The sentinel being asked whether he was on 
 guard at the time, he answered — Yes. Whether he 
 saw any person break into Mr. Grey's house ? — Yes. 
 Whether he said anything to them ? — No. Why 
 he did not ? — Because he had orders to challenge 
 nobody. Whether he looked upon them to be thieves ? 
 — Yes. Why he did not make an alarm and cause 
 them to be secured ? — Because he had orders to do 
 nothing which might deprive any man of his lib- 
 erty ! " 
 
 This story is perhaps an invention, but the 
 policy which it parodies was real. Occasions 
 of offense were avoided ; a good discipline was 
 maintained, and the collisions which at length 
 came to pass grew rather out of the aggressions 
 of the townsmen than from the conduct of the 
 troops. 
 
 As the fall and winter proceeded, we find 
 Samuel Adams busy in the newspapers, among 
 which his principal organ was the '' Boston 
 Gazette," whose bold proprietors, Edes & Gill, 
 made their sheet the voice of the patriot sen- 
 timent and gave their office also to be a rally- 
 ing-point for the popular leaders. Adams's 
 signatures at this time are significant : " Obsta 
 principiis," "Arma cedant togse," and "Vin- 
 dex." Through him' the popular ideas find 
 
130 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 expression. He shows the illegality and use- 
 lessness of billeting troops. He assails the com- 
 missioners of customs, who, having returned 
 from the Castle, and been censured by the 
 Council because "they had no just reason for 
 absconding from their duty," had taken up 
 their quarters in Queen Street. He considers 
 the arguments of the opponents of America in 
 Parliament, and upon this latter theme is par- 
 ticularly wise and forcible. The following let- 
 ter he contributed, as " Vindex," to the " Boston 
 Gazette " of December 19, 1768, and it would 
 perhaps be impossible to find a better illustra- 
 tion of the superior political sense of the New 
 Englanders, trained in town-meeting, as com- 
 pared with their contemporaries in England. 
 Speaking of a certain just claim of the col- 
 onies, he says : — 
 
 " I know very well that some of the late contenders 
 for a right in the British Parliament to tax Ameri- 
 cans who are not, and cannot be, represented there, 
 have denied this. When pressed with that funda- 
 mental principle of nature and the Constitution, that 
 what is a man's own is absolutely his own, and that no 
 man can have a right to take it from him without his 
 consent, they have alleged, and would fain have us 
 believe, that by far the greater part of the people in 
 Britain are excluded the right of chasing their rep- 
 resentatives, and yet are taxed ; and therefore that 
 
THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 131 
 
 they are taxed without their consent. Had not this 
 doctrine been repeatedly urged, 1 should have thought 
 the bare mentioning it would have ojiened the eyes of 
 the people there to have seen where their pretended 
 advocates were leading them : that in order to estab- 
 lish a right in the people in England to enslave the 
 Colonists under a plausible shew of great zeal for the 
 honor of the nation, they are driven to a bold asser- 
 tion, at all adventures, that truly the greater part of 
 the nation are themselves subject to the same yoke 
 of bondage. What else is it but saying that the 
 greater part of the people in Britain are slaves ? 
 For if the fruit of all their toil and industry depends 
 upon so precarious a tenure as the will of a few, what 
 security have they for the utmost farthing? What 
 are they but slaves, delving with the sweat of their 
 brows, not for the benefit of themselves, but their 
 masters ? After all the fine things that have been 
 said of the British Constitution, and the boasted free- 
 dom and happiness of the subjects who live under it, 
 will they thank these modern writers, these zealous 
 assertors of the honor of the nation, for reducing 
 them to a state inferior to that of indented servants, 
 who generally contract for a maintenance, at least, for 
 their labor?"! 
 
 In Parliament, the American cause was by no 
 means without friends and advocates, among 
 whom the conspicuous figure was now Edmund 
 
 ^ In most of the extracts given, punctuation, spelling, cap- 
 itals, and italics follow those of the originals, as they stand in 
 the old newspapers or the manuscripts. 
 
132 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Burke. Even Grenville declared that the order 
 requiring the rescinding of the Circular Letter 
 was illegal. Lord North, however, in Novem- 
 ber was " determined to see America at the 
 king's feet ; " he led the ministry, and through 
 both houses England pledged itself to maintain 
 entire and inviolate the supreme authority of 
 the legislature of Great Britain over every part 
 of the empire. Hillsborough introduced reso- 
 lutions in the House of Lords condemning the 
 legislature of Massachusetts and the Septem- 
 ber convention, approving the sending of the 
 military force, and preparing changes in the 
 charter of the Province which would lessen 
 the popular power. Through the Duke of Bed- 
 ford steps were taken toward bringing "the 
 chief authors and instigators " to trial for trea- 
 son, and yet the riots at this time in England 
 were beyond comparison greater and more 
 threatening than any disturbances in the col- 
 onies. Obstacles, however, were found to bring- 
 ing these men to trial. It was declared by the 
 attorney and solicitor-general to be impossible, 
 from the evidence furnished, to make out a 
 case of treason against Samuel Adams or any 
 other person named. The straits to which the 
 trade of England had been brought, through 
 the course pursued by the colonies, produced 
 at length an effect greater than any remon 
 
THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 133 
 
 strances. The tax upon glass, paper, and paint- 
 ers' colors was taken off; it was, however, al- 
 lowed to remain on the one article, tea. 
 
 In the mean time, in Boston, the controversy 
 was fast and furious. Of the half-dozen news- 
 papers, the '' Massachusetts Gazette," also 
 known as " Draper's " and the " Court Gazette," 
 was the usual organ of the administration, as 
 the " Boston Gazette " was of the popular lead- 
 ers, though other sheets as well teemed with 
 combative periods. The government writers, 
 among whom were some of the commissioners 
 of customs, received liberal pay. On the pop- 
 ular side Samuel Adams was the writer most 
 forcible and prolific, and his contributions went 
 also to newspapers at a distance. Tlie follow- 
 ing extract is taken from an appeal to tHe Sons 
 of Liberty, prepared on the anniversary of the 
 repeal of the Stamp Act, and found posted on 
 the Liberty Tree in Providence, R. L, on the 
 morning of the 18th of March, 1769. It ap- 
 peared the same morning in the "Providence 
 Gazette," and afterward in the " Boston Ga- 
 zette." It is the closing paragraph of the ap- 
 peal, and remarkable from the significant words 
 at the end. It is the first instance, perhaps, 
 where Samuel Adams in any public way hints 
 at independence as the probable issue of the 
 difiiculties. 
 
134 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 " When I consider the corruption of Great Britain, 
 
 — their load of debt, — their intestine divisions, tu- 
 mults, and riots, — their scarcity of provisions, — and 
 the Contempt in which they are held by the nations 
 about them ; and when I consider, on the other 
 Hand, the State of the American Colonies with Re- 
 gard to the various Climates, Soils, Produce, rapid 
 Population, joined to the virtue of the Inhabitants, 
 
 — I cannot but think that the Conduct of Old Eng- 
 land towards us may be permitted by Divine Wisdom, 
 and ordained by the unsearchable providence of the 
 Almighty, for hastening a period dreadful to Great 
 Britain. 
 
 " A Son of Liberty. 
 "Providence, March 18th, 1769." 
 
 Great efforts were made to obtain circulation 
 for the Tory papers (for now the terms Tory and 
 Whig, borrowed from England, had come into 
 vogue) ; but they had no popular favor as com- 
 pared with the " Boston Gazette." Hutchinson 
 declared that seven eighths of the people read 
 none but this, and so were never undeceived. 
 The site of the office of Edes & Gill, in Court 
 Street, is really one of the memorable spots of 
 Boston. Here very frequently met Warren, 
 Otis, Quincy, John Adams, Church, and patri- 
 ots scarcely less conspicuous. In those groups 
 Samuel Adams becomes constantly more and 
 more the eminent figure. Here they read the 
 exchanges, corrected the proof of their contri- 
 
THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 135 
 
 butions, strengthened one another by the inter- 
 change of ideas, and planned some of the most 
 remarkable measures in the course to independ- 
 ence. At this time, also, Samuel Adams's con- 
 troversial pen found other subjects than British 
 machinations. His friend, Dr. Chauncy, becom- 
 ing concerned in a sharp dispute with Seabury, 
 afterwards the first bishop of the American 
 Episcopal Church, Adams smote the prelatical 
 adversary with a true Roundhead cudgel. To 
 such as Seabury he was uncompromisingly hos- 
 tile till the day of his death, though on one 
 remarkable occasion hereafter to be mentioned 
 he postponed his prejudice to secure a certain 
 ulterior end. For Mr. Seabury 's cloth at this 
 time he shows little respect, declaring that ''he 
 had managed his cause with the heart, though 
 he had evidently discovered that he wanted the 
 head,^of a Jesuit." 
 
 Massachusetts had been nearly a year with- 
 out a legislature, when in May, 1769, the gov- 
 ernor issued a summons for a meeting. Otis, 
 Gushing, Samuel Adams, and Hancock were 
 elected almost unanimously in town-meeting, 
 and forthwith "instructed," by the hand of 
 John Adams, in the most determined manner. 
 The Assembly, as soon as the members were 
 sworn, neglecting the usual preliminary, the 
 election of the clerk, who then superintended 
 
136 SAMUEL ADAMS, 
 
 the election of the speaker, adopted a remon- 
 strance prepared by Samuel Adams, demand- 
 ing the removal of the troops. When Bernard 
 alleged that the power did not lie with him, 
 a committee, of which Samuel Adams was a 
 member, declared in answer to the assertion : — 
 
 " That the king was the supreme executive power 
 through all parts of the British empire, and that the 
 governor of the Province, being the king's lieutenant 
 and captain-general and commander-in-chief, it indu- 
 bitably follows that all officers, civil and military, 
 within the colony are subject to his Excellency." 
 
 In adopting the report the Assembly declined 
 to proceed to business under military duress, 
 upon which Bernard adjourned them to Cam- 
 bridge, urging that in that place the objection 
 would be removed. The Assembly went to 
 Cambridge, although, in 1728, the power of the 
 governor to convene the legislature elsewhere 
 than in Boston had been denied. They went, 
 however, under protest, and when in the suc- 
 ceeding administration they were again and 
 again convened at Cambridge, a sharp contro- 
 versy resulted, with which we shall presently 
 be concerned. When the governor urged them 
 to hasten their proceedings in order to save 
 time and money, the house replied by Samuel 
 Adams : — 
 
THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 137 
 
 " No time can be better employed than in the pres- 
 ervation of the rights derived from the British Con- 
 stitution, and insisting upon points which, though your 
 Excellency may consider them as non-essential, we 
 esteem its best bulwarks. No treasure can be better 
 expended than in securing that true old English lib- 
 erty which gives a relish to every other enjoyment." 
 
 News reached Massachusetts of the bold re- 
 solves of the Virginia House of Burgesses of 
 this year. " The committee on the state of the 
 Province," of w^hich Mr. Adams was a member, 
 at once reported resolutions embodying those 
 of Virginia in so far as they related to taxation, 
 intercolonial correspondence, and trial by jury 
 of the vicinage. They went back to the •' Mas- 
 sachusetts Resolves " of 1765, and made so def- 
 inite an expression of the claims of the patriots 
 that Hutchinson declared "no such full decla- 
 ration had ever before been made, that no laws 
 made by any authority in which the people had 
 not their representatives could be obligatory 
 on them." Two additional regiments had come 
 in the spring to Boston, which, being judged 
 quite unnecessary, had been ordered to Halifax. 
 One had already sailed, and the other was about 
 to embark, when the new resolutions appeared 
 in the "Boston Gazette." Then the regiment 
 was detained ; for the government felt that the 
 declarations were more pronounced in their re- 
 
138 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 bellious tone than any that had yet been made. 
 At this the Assembly took alarm, and although 
 the resolves had passed m a full house unani- 
 mously, one hundred and nine being present, 
 it was voted to modify therft. This was done 
 in spite of the more zealous spirits. The regi- 
 ment then departed, leaving behind the original 
 force, the 14th and 29th, which were now fast 
 nearing an hour destined to bestow upon them 
 a somewhat unenviable immortality in the his- 
 tory of America. 
 
 Another noteworthy incident in this animated 
 session was the demand by Bernard, in accord- 
 ance with the terms of the Billeting Act, by 
 which the troops had been quartered on the 
 town, of a sum to defray the expenses of the 
 troops. Samuel Adams, speaking for his com- 
 mittee, showed at length the conflict of the de- 
 mand with the chartered rights of the Province, 
 ending with the declaration : — 
 
 " Your Excellency must therefore excuse us in this 
 express declaration, that as we cannot consistently 
 with our honor or interest, and much less with the 
 duty we owe our constituents, so we shall never make 
 provision for the purposes in your several messages 
 above mentioned." 
 
 But the career of Francis Bernard in Amer- 
 ica had now reached its close. The petitions 
 for his removal that had been sent from the 
 
THE RECALL OF BERNARD. V6^ 
 
 Province had probably little effect in producing 
 this result ; but the merchants of England, 
 alarmed at the non-importation agreements in 
 the colonies and selfishly anxious to stem, if 
 possible, the disaffection that was beginning to 
 tell with such effect on their pockets, made rep- 
 resentations that were heeded. While retain- 
 ing his office, he was summoned to England, 
 ostensibly to help the government with infor- 
 mation and advice ; and, as a mark of the ap- 
 proval with which the king and ministry re- 
 garded his coarse, he was made a baronet under 
 the title of Sir Francis Bernard of Nettleham. 
 His demand from the legislature of a grant for 
 the salary during the year to come, made under 
 instruction from the king, was sufficiently legal, 
 inasmuch as he remained governor and was to 
 serve, according to his own ideas, the interests 
 of the Province. Half the salary, moreover, 
 was to be paid to the lieutenant-governor. But 
 the General Court scornfully refused the de- 
 mand. It was prorogued early in July " to the 
 usual time for its meeting for the winter ses- 
 sion," and on the last day of the month Sir 
 Francis sailed for England. The day of his 
 departure was made a public gala-day. Flags 
 were hoisted, the bells sounded from the stee- 
 ples, cannon roared from the wharves, and on 
 Fort Hill blazed a great bonfire. For more 
 
140 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 than a year he retained in England the title of 
 governor of Massachusetts Bay. Samuel Ad- 
 ams, in the " Boston Gazette," May 1st, thus 
 mocked the outgoing magistrate : — 
 
 "Your promotion, sir, reflects an honor on the 
 Province itself ; an honor which has never been con- 
 ferr'd upon it since the thrice-happy administration of 
 Sir Edmond Andross of precious memory, who was 
 also a baronet ; nor have the unremitted Endeavors 
 of that very amiable and truly patriotick Gentleman 
 to render the most substantial and lasting services to 
 this people, upon the plan of a wise and uucorrupt 
 
 set of m rs, been ever parallelled till since you 
 
 adorned the ch — r. . . . Pity it is that you have not 
 a pension to support your title. But an Assembly 
 well chosen may supply that want even to your wish. 
 Should this fail, a late letter, said to have strongly 
 recommended a tax upon the improved lands of the 
 Colonies, may be equally successful with the other 
 letters of the like nature, and funds sufficient may be 
 rais'd for the Use and Emolument of yourself and 
 friends, without a Dependence upon a ' military estab- 
 lishment supported by the Province at Castle Wil- 
 liam.' 
 
 " I am, sir, with the most profound respect, and 
 with the sincerest Wishes for your further Exaltation, 
 the most servile of all your tools. A Tory." 
 
 Francis Bernard was an honorable and well- 
 meaning man, and by no means wanting in 
 ability. As with the English country gen- 
 
THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 141 
 
 tlemen in the eighteenth century, in general, 
 the traditions of English freedom had become 
 much obscured in his mind. He leaned toward 
 prerogative, not popular liberty, and honestly 
 felt that the New Englanders were disposed 
 to run to extremes that would ruin America 
 and injure the whole empire. Where among 
 the rural squires or the Oxford scholars of the 
 time can be found any who took a different 
 view? This being his position, no one can 
 deny that during the nine years of his incum- 
 bency he fought his difficult fight with courage, 
 persistency, and honesty. He leaned as far as 
 such a man could be expected to lean toward 
 the popular side, showing wisdom in 1763 and 
 1764, as we have seen, in trying to procure a 
 lowering or abolition of the duties in the Sugar 
 Act, and regarding the Stamp Act as most in- 
 expedient. The best friends of America in Par- 
 liament, like Lord Camden, extolled in strong 
 terms his character and good judgment. His 
 refined tastes and good dispositions were shown 
 in his interest in Harvard College. After the 
 fire of 1764, he did what he could from his own 
 library to make good the loss of the books 
 which had been burned ; certainly the alumnus 
 in whose youthful associations the plain but not 
 ungraceful proportions of Harvard Hall have 
 become intimately bound may have a kind 
 
142 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 thought for its well-meaning and much ma- 
 ligned architect. The accusations of under- 
 hand dealing that were brought against him 
 will not bear examination. 
 
 Bollan, agent in England of the Massachu- 
 setts Council, obtained from Beckford, a liberal 
 member of Parliament, copies of six letters, 
 written by Bernard to influence parliamentary- 
 action in November and December, 1768. The 
 letters contain estimates of public characters, 
 an account of events in Massachusetts, and pro- 
 pos^ds of certain changes in the charter. When 
 sent to America these papers aroused great in- 
 dignation. They were felt to be so important 
 that, despite Sabbatarian scruples, they were 
 considered by the Council on Sunday. The ut- 
 most wrath was ])Oured out upon their author. 
 Yet really tin', letters contain nothing more than 
 views which Beinard had made no secret of. 
 That he was profoundly dissatisfied with the 
 constitution of the colonies and desired changes, 
 every one knew. What opinion he had of his 
 active opponents and their measures was no 
 secret. He did them no more justice than they 
 did him. The changes he advocated were that 
 the provincial governments should be brought 
 to a uniform type ; the Assemblies he would 
 have remain popular, as before ; but for the 
 Council, or upper house, he recommended a 
 
THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 143 
 
 body made up of a kind of life peers, appointed 
 directly by the king. He recommended, also, 
 that there sliould be a fixed civil list from 
 which the king's officers shoidd derive a certain 
 provision, declaring that in the existing state 
 of things it was impossible to enforce in the 
 colonies any unpopular law or punish any out- 
 rage favored by the people, since civil officers 
 were mainly dependent on annual grants from 
 the Assembly. For a prerogative man, such 
 views were not unreasonable ; certainly Ber- 
 nard had made no pretense of holding others. 
 He was, however, bitterly denounced and in- 
 sulted. 
 
 As the Baronet of Nettleham was borne out 
 to sea that quiet summer evening, amid the peal- 
 ing bells, the salvos of cannon, and the glare of 
 the great bonfire on Fort Hill, the populace of 
 Boston, as it were, shouted after him their con- 
 tumely. Fine Shakespearean scholar that he 
 was, one may well believe that the bitter out- 
 bursts of Coriolanus against the common cry 
 of curs, whose breath was hateful as the reek 
 of rotten fens, rose to the lips of the aristocrat. 
 Neither side could do justice to the other. The 
 student of history knows well that mutual jus- 
 tice and forbearance are in such cases not to be 
 expected. They were the fighters in a fierce 
 conflict, and of necessity bad blood was engen- 
 
144 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 dered. A different tone, however, may be de- 
 manded at the present time. When a writer, 
 after the lapse of a hundred years, declares, 
 " He displayed his malignity to the last, and 
 having done his best to ruin the Province, and 
 to reap all possible benefit from its destruction, 
 took his departure," ^ one feels that a well-mean- 
 ing man is pursued quite too far, and the desire 
 for fair play suggests the propriety of a word 
 or two in his favor. 
 
 1 Wells, S. Adams, i. 266. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE NON-IMPORTATION AGEEEMENTS. 
 
 Bernard had gone, and in his place stood 
 Thomas Hutchinson. For the next two years 
 he remained lieutenant-governor, but to all in- 
 tents and purposes he was chief magistrate, 
 in which position he remained until the king 
 found no way of disentangling the ever-increas- 
 ing perplexities except through the sword of a 
 soldier. Since for five most imporant years 
 the figure of Hutchinson is to be scarcely less 
 prominent in our story than that of Samuel 
 Adams himself, the main facts in his career 
 hitherto may be recapitulated, that the char- 
 acter may be fully understood with which now, 
 in the summer of 1769, and in his fifty-eighth 
 year, he comes into the foreground. 
 
 Born in ITll, he left Harvard in 1727, and 
 soon made some trial of mercantile life. From 
 a line of famous ancestors, among them Mrs. 
 Anne Hutchinson, that strong and devout spirit 
 of the earliest days of Boston, he had inherited 
 a most honorable name and great abilities. He 
 
 10 
 
146 SAM V EL ADAMS. 
 
 was a Puritan to the core ; his wealth was 
 large, his manners conciliated for him the good 
 will of the people, which for a long time he 
 never forfeited. He became a church member 
 at twenty-four, selectman of Boston at twenty- 
 six, and at thirty was sent as agent of the Prov- 
 ince to London on important business, which he 
 managed successfully. For ten years after his 
 return he was representative, during three of 
 which lie served as speaker. In particular, he 
 did good service in the settlement of the Prov- 
 ince debt in 1749. For sixteen years he was a 
 member of the Council, and while in the Coun- 
 cil he became judge of probate, lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor, and chief justice, holding all these posi- 
 tions at once. It is shooting quite wide of the 
 mark to base any accusation of self-seeking 
 on the number of Hutchinson's offices. The 
 emoluments accruing from them all were very 
 small ; in some, in fact, his service was practi- 
 cally gratuitous. Nor was any credit or fame 
 he was likely to gain from holding them at all 
 to be weighed against the labor and vexation 
 to be undergone in discharging their functions. 
 A more reasonable explanation of his readiness 
 to uphold such burdens is that the rich, high- 
 placed citizen was full of public spirit. That 
 he performed honorably and ably the work of 
 these various offices there is no contradicting 
 
THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS. 147 
 
 testimony. As a legislator no one had been 
 wiser. As judge of probate he had always be- 
 friended widows and orphans. As chief justice, 
 though not bred to the law, he had been an 
 excellent magistrate. Besides all this, he had 
 found time to write a history of New England, 
 which must be regarded as one of the most in- 
 teresting and important literary monuments of 
 the colonial period — a work digested from the 
 most copious materials with excellent judg- 
 ment, and presented in a style admirable for 
 dignity, clearness, and scholarly finish. 
 
 Now that battle was joined between the peo- 
 ple and the prerogative men, he had taken 
 sides with the latter, following his honest opin- 
 ions, and keeping his head cool even after the 
 exasperations of years of controversy. On the 
 14th of February, 1772, he writes : — 
 
 " It is not likely that the American colonies will 
 remain part of the dominion of Britain another cen- 
 tury, but while they do remain, the supreme, absolute 
 legislative power must remain entire, to be exercised 
 upon the colonies so far as is necessary for the main- 
 tenance of its own authority and the general weal of 
 the whole empire, and no farther." ^ 
 
 With these views Hutchinson comes into the 
 leading place among the Tory champions, a 
 
 1 From Hutchinson's autograph letter to John H. Hutchin- 
 son, Dublin, in Mass. Archives. 
 
148 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 place which he had not sought, but which, 
 when urged upon him, he did not refuse. 
 
 As Hutchinson becomes now the conspicu- 
 ous figure among the royalists, Samuel Adams 
 stands out in a prominence which he has not 
 before possessed in the camp of the patriots. 
 To Bernard " he was one of the principal and 
 most desperate chiefs of the faction." To 
 Hutchinson, however, he becomes " the chief 
 incendiary," the '' all in all," the " instar om- 
 nium^'' " the master of the puppets." Whereas 
 to Bernard Samuel Adams has been only one 
 among several of evil fame, to Hutchinson he 
 stands like Milton's Satan among the subor- 
 dinate leaders of the hellish cohorts, isolated 
 in a baleful supremacy. This new eminence 
 of Samuel Adams is mainly due to an event 
 which took place in the beginning of Septem- 
 ber. James Otis, who was far enough from 
 looking forward to independence, whose favor- 
 ite scheme, as we have seen, was an American 
 representation in Parliament, and who with all 
 his opposition was very desirous to be thought 
 loyal, felt outraged beyond measure at the re- 
 ports of seditious conduct on his part, that had 
 been made in letters written by the crown offi- 
 cers to the government in England. While in 
 this frame of mind, he met, at the British coffee 
 house in King Street, Robinson, one of the com- 
 
TEE NON-IMPORTATJON AGREEMENTS. 149 
 
 missioners of customs, who was there in com- 
 pany with officers of the army and navy and 
 various civil dignitaries. A violent altercation 
 took place which ended in a fight, in the course 
 of which Otis was severely cut and bruised, his 
 head in particular receiving ugly wounds. The 
 proceeding was regarded in the town as most 
 cowardly and brutal, since Otis, while alone, 
 was set upon by several assailants. The hostile 
 temper of the people was greatly incensed by 
 the occurrence, the resentment becoming mixed 
 with passionate grief when it presently ap- 
 peared that the mind of the popular idol had 
 become practically wrecked by reason, as was 
 generally believed, of the injuries received. 
 
 For years already the eccentricities of Otis, 
 which plainly enough indicate a certain mor- 
 bidness of mind, had aroused anxiety, and made 
 him sometimes almost unendurable to those who 
 were forced to work with him. When Oxen- 
 bridge Thacher, the admirable man whose un- 
 timely death opened the way for Samuel Adams 
 to enter the Assembly, had happened to think 
 differently from Otis, the latter had treated 
 him in so overbearing and insolent a way that 
 he was obliged to call on the speaker of the 
 house for protection. The bar were sometimes 
 all up in arms against him on account of his ar- 
 rogant affronts. Adams usually got on with him 
 
150 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 better than others did. Gordon says that " Sam 
 Adams was well qualified to succeed Thacher, 
 and learned to serve his own views by using 
 Otis's influence." The old historian regards it 
 as part of Samuel Adams's tact, who, he says, 
 ** acquired great ascendency by being ready to 
 acquiesce in the proposals and amendments of 
 others, while the end aimed at by them did not 
 eventually frustrate his leading designs. He 
 showed in smaller matters a pliableness and 
 complaisance which enabled him at last to 
 carry those of much greater consequence." 
 
 But deft though he was, Adams could not al- 
 ways manage Otis, as is indicated by the scene 
 between " the two consuls of the faction," of 
 which we know through Bernard's description, 
 already quoted. At the time of the violence, 
 as is learned from John Adams's report, Otis 
 was in a strange frame of mind, and no doubt 
 comported himself in such a way as to bring the 
 nssault npon himself. Although the abilities 
 and services of James Otis were so magnificent, 
 contemporary testimony makes it plain that he 
 must often have been a source of great embar- 
 rassment through his vacillations and infirmi- 
 ties. That his motives were sometimes far 
 enough from being the highest seems probable. 
 The assertion of Hutchinson that his opposition 
 to the government cause was due to wrath, into 
 
TEE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS. 151 
 
 which he fell because his father had not been 
 made chief justice in 1760, would not, unsup- 
 ported, be sufficient to establish the fact. Gor- 
 don, however, who stood with the patriots, 
 makes the same statement. The story is that 
 Shirley had promised the place to the elder 
 Otis, and that the son had exclaimed: "If 
 Governor Bernard does not appoint my father 
 judge of the Superior Court, I will kindle such 
 a fire in the Province as shall singe the gov- 
 ernor, though I myself perish in the flames ; " 
 and that his resistance to the government be- 
 gan at the appointment of Hutchinson instead 
 of his father. John Adams, too, touched by a 
 slighting remark of Otis, and dashing down an 
 odd outburst of testiness in his diary, hints at 
 much self-seeking. 
 
 From 1769, Otis, who had always been an 
 uncomfortable ally, however useful at times, 
 became simply a source of anxiety and embar- 
 rassment. His influence with the people yet 
 remained ; by fits and starts his old eloquence 
 still flashed forth, and town-meeting and As- 
 sembly, which he had so often made to thrill, 
 were slow to give him up. It required all 
 Samuel Adams's adroitness, however, to hold 
 his crazy associate within some kind of limits, 
 who frequently, as we shall see, put things in 
 the gravest peril in spite of all that could be 
 
152 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 done. With Bernard gone, therefore, and Otis 
 incapacitated, Hutchinson and Samuel Adams, 
 in the deepening strife, confront one another, 
 each assisted by, but quite above, his fellow 
 combatants, fighters well worthy of one another 
 in point of ability, honesty, and courage. 
 
 For years now Samuel Adams had laid aside 
 all pretense of private business, and was de- 
 voted simply and solely to public affairs. The 
 house in Purchase Street still afforded his fam- 
 ily a home. His sole source of income was the 
 small salary he received as clerk of the Assem- 
 bly. His Avife, like himself, was contented with 
 poverty ; through good management, in spite 
 of their narrow means, a comfortable home-life 
 was maintained in which the children grew up 
 happy, and in every way well-trained and cared 
 for. John Adams tells of a drive taken by these 
 two kinsmen, on a beautiful June day not far 
 from this time, in the neighborhood of Boston. 
 Then, as from the first and ever after, there 
 was an affectionate intimacy between them. 
 They often called one another brother, though 
 the relationship was only that of second cousin. 
 "My brother, Samuel Adams, says he never 
 looked forward in his life ; never planned, laid 
 a scheme, or formed a design of laying up any- 
 thing for himself or others after him." The 
 case of Samuel Adams is almost without par- 
 
TEE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS. 153 
 
 allel as an instance of enthusiastic, unswerving 
 devotion to the public service throughout a long 
 life. His pittance scarcely supplied food, and 
 when clothing was required, as we shall see, it 
 came by special gift from his friends. Yet 
 with all this, according to the confession of his 
 enemies, he was absolutely incorruptible. 
 
 Bernard before his departure had written 
 that the most respectable of the merchants 
 would not hold to the non-importation agree- 
 ments, and British merchants accordingly felt 
 encouraged to send cargoes to America. On 
 September 4 a factor arrived in charge of a 
 large consignment of goods. The town was ex- 
 pecting him ; Samuel Adams, in the " Boston 
 Gazette," had prepared the public mind. At 
 once a meeting of merchants was held at which 
 the factor was " required to send his goods back 
 again." At a town-meeting held on the same 
 day Samuel Adams with others was appointed 
 to vindicate the town from the false representa- 
 tions of Bernard and other officials, and the 
 case of those who had broken the non-importa- 
 tion agreements was considered. The names 
 of four merchants were placed on the records 
 as infamous ; among those thus gibbeted were 
 a son of Bernard and the two sons of Hutchin- 
 son, with whom the father was believed by the 
 people to be in collusion. Such goods as had 
 
154 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 been landed were housed, and the key was kept 
 by a committee of patriots. The troops mean- 
 while stood idle spectators, for no act could be 
 alleged of which any justice of the peace would 
 take notice, although the temper of the people 
 was so plainly hostile. An invitation from 
 New York, to continue the non-importation 
 agreement until all the revenue acts should be 
 repealed, was at once accepted by the mer- 
 chants. Hutchinson, in letters to Bernard, 
 hopes, consistently enough, "that Parliament 
 will show their indignation. ... A rigorous 
 spirit in Parliament will yet set us right ; with- 
 out it the government of this Province will be 
 split into innumerable divisions." 
 
 The committee chosen to defend the town 
 from the aspersions of the crown officials re- 
 ported at an adjourned meeting, held a fort- 
 night later, an address written by Samuel 
 Adams, which obtained great fame under the 
 title, " An Appeal to the World." It occupies 
 twenty-nine pages of the town-records, and was 
 circulated widely in America and also in Eng- 
 land, where it was republished. In the case of 
 Wilkes the principle of representation was at 
 this time undergoing attack in England as well 
 as in America, and there were many who read 
 with eagerness the Boston statement. Speak- 
 ing of Bernard, the appeal declares : — 
 
THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS. 155 
 
 " He always discovered an avefsion to free assem- 
 blies ; no wonder then that he should be so particu- 
 larly disgusted at a legal meeting of the town of Bos- 
 ton, where a noble freedom of speech is ever expected 
 and maintained; an assembly of which it may be 
 justly said, * Sentire quie volunt et quae sentiunt di- 
 cere licet,' — they think as they please and speak as 
 they think. Such an assembly has ever been the 
 dread, often the scourge of tyrants." 
 
 A remarkable forbearance, one is forced to 
 admit, characterizes the conduct of the soldiers 
 during the fall and winter of 1769. In Octo- 
 ber a man who had given information regard- 
 ing certain smuggled wine, which had arrived 
 from Rhode Island, was tarred and feathered, 
 carted for three hours through the streets, and 
 finally made to swear under the Liberty Tree 
 never again to do the like. John Mein, pub- 
 lisher of the *' Chronicle," a paper which, from 
 having been neutral, at length took the govern- 
 ment side, was a recent Scotch immigrant of 
 intelligence and enterprise. His advertisements 
 as a bookseller are still interesting reading, fill- 
 ing as they do whole columns of the news- 
 papers with lists of his importations, comprising 
 the best books in that day published. He de- 
 serves to be gratefully remembered also as the 
 founder in Boston of circulating libraries. For 
 ridiculing certain of the patriots he was at- 
 
156 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 tacked and goaded into firing a pistol among 
 the crowd ; he was forced to fly to the main 
 guard for protection, whence he escaped in dis- 
 guise, to return soon after to Enghuid. Difii- 
 culty was experienced in maintaining the non- 
 importation agreements. Certain merchants 
 who had signed them rekictantly, interpreting 
 them now according to the letter, which made 
 them expire on January 1, 1770, at once threw 
 off restrictions on that date and began to sell 
 tea. Among these were the sons of Hutchin- 
 son, who were upheld by their father. The peo- 
 ple, how^ever, had a different understanding of 
 the agreement. The restriction, they thought, 
 must remain in force until other merchants 
 could import. A crowd of citizens, merchants, 
 justices of the peace, selectmen, representatives, 
 and magistrates, as well as men of a lower de- 
 gree, waited upon Hutchinson, demanding re- 
 dress. Hutchinson from the wdndow w^arned 
 them of the danger of their illegal and riotous 
 proceedings, but finally succumbed to the de- 
 mands of the crowd, a course which he later re- 
 gretted. " Some of your friends and mine," he 
 afterward wrote to a royalist, " wish matters 
 had gone to extremities, this being as good a 
 time as any to have called out the troops." He 
 felt great doubt whether he was competent, as 
 governor, to order the soldiers to fire, as appears 
 
THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS. 157 
 
 from his diary, a doubt shared by the legal 
 lights in England; he was chief magistrate, 
 but did that imply the powers of a justice of 
 the peace ? 
 
 The same method seems to have been em- 
 ployed or at least threatened by the people, in 
 other cases, and to have been much dreaded. 
 A certain Scotchman, a large importer, having 
 been remonstrated with and proving utterly 
 contumacious, Samuel Adams arose in the meet- 
 ing and moved grimly that the crowd, consist- 
 ing of two thousand people, should resolve itself 
 into a committee of the whole and wait upon 
 him to urge his compliance with the general 
 wish. Thereupon the Scotchman, a little fel- 
 low in a reddish, smoke-dried wig, with a squeak- 
 ing voice and a roll of the r's like a well-played 
 drum, rushed before the crowd exclaiming: 
 " Mr. Mode-r-r-rator, I agr-r-ree, I agr-r-ree ! " 
 greatly to the people's amusement. Samuel 
 Adams pointed to a seat near himself with a 
 polite, condescending bow of protection, and the 
 frightened man was quieted. 
 
 It had been intimated from England tliat, 
 since the government had become convinced 
 that duties like those of the Towiishend act were 
 not consistent with the laws of commerce, the 
 imposts would be removed from glass, paper, and 
 painters' colors, but not, as we have seen, from 
 
158 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 the one article, tea. The people were not con- 
 ciliated, for it was easy to see that in retaining 
 the duty upon tea, the government proposed to 
 cling to the right of taxing the colonies. Thjs 
 principle the colonists were just as determined 
 to repudiate, and therefore, although as a mat- 
 ter of dollars and cents it was a thing of tri- 
 fling moment, a resistance to the use of tea from 
 the present time is a main feature of the dis- 
 turbance. Tea it was which the sons of Hutch- 
 inson were anxious to bring into the market 
 at the expiration of the non-importation agree- 
 ments, when the resistance of the people was 
 so determined. It was voted by the citizens 
 soon after at Faneuil Hall to abstain totally 
 from the use of tea. Since the men were less 
 concerned in the matter than the women, the 
 mistresses of four hundred and ten families 
 pledged themselves to drink no more tea until 
 the revenue act was repealed, and a few days 
 later one hundred and twenty young ladies 
 formed a similar league. 
 
 " We, the daughters of those patriots," said they, 
 " who have and do now appear for the public interest, 
 and in that principally regard their posterity, — as 
 such do with pleasure engage with them in denying 
 ourselves the drinking of foreign tea, in hope to frus- 
 trate a plan which tends to deprive a whole com- 
 munity of all that is valuable in life." 
 
THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS. 159 
 
 At the social gatherings the void created by 
 the absence of the popular beverage was quite 
 unfilled, save by the rather melancholy notes 
 of the spinnet. 
 
 The importers had no peace. They were 
 pointed out as proscribed men, and were hooted 
 at by boys in the streets. It was during such 
 a disturbance that, on the 22d of February, the 
 first bloodshed took place in Boston, in a con- 
 test which had for so long been a mere war of 
 words. A crowd of boys, engaged in torment- 
 ing a trader who had made himself obnoxious 
 by selling tea, was fired into by a partisan of 
 the government. One boy was wounded, and 
 another, Christopher Snyder, son of a poor Ger- 
 man, was killed. An immense sensation was 
 created. The boy who was slain was eleven 
 years old. At his funeral five hundred of his 
 schoolmates walked before the coffin, and a 
 crowd of more than a thousand people followed. 
 The procession marched from the Liberty Tree 
 to the town-house, and thence to the burying- 
 ground on the Common. The man who had 
 fired the shot narrowly escaped being torn in 
 pieces. So step by step the estrangement in- 
 creased, and at length came a formidable ex- 
 plosion. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 
 
 As the spring of the year 1770 appeared, 
 the 14th and 29th regiments had been in Bos- 
 ton about seventeen months. The 14th was in 
 barracks near the Brattle Street Church ; the 
 29th was quartered just south of King Street ; 
 about midway between them, in King Street, 
 and close at hand to the town-house, was the 
 main guard, whose nearness to the public build- 
 ing had been a subject of great annoyance to 
 the people. During a period when the legis- 
 lature was not in session a body of troops had 
 occupied the unused representatives' chamber. 
 James Otis had characteristically given voice 
 to the general aversion at this time. At a 
 meeting of the Superior Court in the council 
 chamber he moved an adjournment to Faneuil 
 Hall, saying, with a gesture of contempt and 
 loathing, "that the stench occasioned by the 
 troops in the representatives' chamber might 
 prove infectious, and that it was utterly derog- 
 atory to the court to administer justice at the 
 
THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 161 
 
 points of bayonets and the mouths of cannon." 
 Diirmg their Boston sojourn the troops were 
 carefully drilled. John Adams, whose house 
 was near the barracks of the 14th, has left a 
 description of the music and exercises to which 
 he and his family were constantly treated. 
 One is forced to admit, also, that a good degree 
 of discipline was maintained ; no blood had as 
 yet been shed by the soldiers, although provo- 
 cations were constant, the rude element in the 
 town growing gradually more aggressive as the 
 soldiers were never allowed to use their arms. 
 Insults and blows with fists were frequently 
 taken and given, and cudgels also came into 
 fashion in the brawls. Whatever awe the reg- 
 iments had inspired at their first coming had 
 long worn off. In particular the workmen of 
 the rope-walks and ship-yards allowed their 
 tongues the largest license, and were foremost 
 in the encounters. 
 
 About the 1st of March fights of unusual 
 bitterness had occurred near Grey's rope-walk, 
 not far from the quarters of the 29th, between 
 the hands of the rope-walk and soldiers of that 
 regiment, which had a particularly bad reputa- 
 tion. The soldiers had got the worst of it, and 
 were much irritated. Threats of revenge had 
 been made, which had called out arrogant re- 
 plies, and signs abounded that serious trouble 
 11 
 
162 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 was not far off. From an early hour on the 
 evening of the 5th of March the symptoms 
 were very ominous. There was trouble in the 
 neighborhood of the 14th regiment, which was 
 stopped by a sudden order to the soldiers to 
 go into their barracks. A crowd of towns- 
 people remained in Dock Square, where they 
 listened to an harangue from a certain myste- 
 rious stranger in a long cloak, who has never 
 been identified. An alarm was rung from one 
 of the steeples, which called out many from 
 their houses under the impression that there 
 was a fire. At length an altercation began in 
 King Street between a company of lawless 
 boys and a few older brawlers on the one side, 
 and the sentinel, who paced his beat before the 
 custom-house, on the other. Somewhat earlier 
 in the evening the sentry had pushed or struck 
 lightly with his musket a barber's apprentice, 
 who had spoken insolently to a captain of the 
 14th as he passed along the street. The boy 
 was now in the crowd, and pointing out the 
 sentry as his assailant, began with his compan- 
 ions to press upon him, upon which the soldier 
 retreated up the steps of the custom-house, and 
 called out for help. A file of soldiers was at 
 once dispatched from the main guard, across 
 the street, by Captain Preston, officer of the 
 guard, who himself soon followed to the scene 
 
THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 163 
 
 of trouble. A coating of ice covered the ground, 
 upon which shortly before had fallen a light 
 snow. A young moon was shining ; the whole 
 transaction, therefore, was plainly visible. The 
 soldiers, with the sentinel, nine in number, drew 
 up in line before the people, who greatly out- 
 numbered them. The pieces were loaded and 
 held ready, but the mob, believing that the 
 troops would not use their arms except upon 
 requisition of a civil magistrate, shouted coarse 
 insults, pressed upon the very muzzles of the 
 pieces, struck them with sticks, and assaulted 
 the soldiers with balls of ice. 
 
 In the tumult precisely what was said and 
 done cannot be known. Many affidavits were 
 taken in the investigation that followed, and, 
 as always at such times, the testimony was 
 most contradictory. Henry Knox, afterwards 
 the artillery general, at this time a bookseller, 
 was on the spot and used his influence with 
 Preston to prevent a command to fire. Pres- 
 ton declared that he never gave the command. 
 The air, however, was full of shouts, daring 
 the soldiers to fire, some of which may have 
 been easily understood as commands, and at 
 last the discharge came. If it had failed to 
 come, indeed, the forbearance would have been 
 quite miraculous. Three were killed outright, 
 and eight wounded, only one of whom, Crisp us 
 
164 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Attacks, a tall mulatto who faced the soldiers, 
 leaning on a stick of cord- wood, had really taken 
 any part in the disturbance. The rest were by- 
 standers or were hurrying into the street, not 
 knowing the cause of the tumult. A placid 
 citizen, standing in his doorway on the corner 
 of King and Congress Streets, was struck by 
 two balls in the arm, upon which, says tradi- 
 tion, he turned about and quietly remarked, " I 
 declare, I do think these soldiers ought to be 
 talked to." A wild confusion, with which this 
 curious little spill of milk and water was in 
 strong enough contrast, took possession of the 
 town. The alarm-bells rang frantically ; on the 
 other hand the drums of the regiments thun- 
 dered to arms. The people flocked to King 
 Street, where the victims lay weltering, the 
 whiteness of the ground under the moon giving 
 more ghastly emphasis to the crimson horror. 
 The companies of the 29th regiment, forming 
 rapidly, marched to the same spot, upon which, 
 with steady discipline, they kneeled in obedi- 
 ence to command, prepared for street-firing. 
 The 14th meanwhile stood ready in their bar- 
 racks. " The soldiers are rising. To arms ! 
 to arms ! Town-born, turn out," were the 
 wild cries with which the air was filled. 
 
 What averted a fearful battle in the streets 
 was the excellent conduct of Hutchinson. He 
 
THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 165 
 
 bad supposed at first that the confusion was 
 due to an alarm of fire, but was presently called 
 out by people running from King Street, with 
 the tidings that he must appear, or the town 
 would soon be all in blood. Making his way 
 to Dock Square, he could produce no impres- 
 sion upon the confusion. He avoided the 
 crowd by entering a house, and by a private 
 way at length reached the custom-house. His 
 first act was to take Preston sharply to task. 
 
 *' Are you the commanding ofiicer ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Do you know, sir, you have no power to 
 fire on any body of people collected together, 
 except you have a civil magistrate with you to 
 give orders ? " 
 
 " I was obliged to, to save the sentry." 
 
 As a catastrophe seemed imminent, the lieu- 
 tenant-governor made his way as quickly as 
 possible to the council-chamber, from the bal- 
 cony of which facing eastward down King 
 Street, with the soldiers in their ranks, the an- 
 gry people and the bloody snow directly be- 
 neath him, he made a cool and wise address. 
 He expressed heart-felt regret at the occur- 
 rence, promised solemnly that justice should be 
 done, besought the people to return to their 
 homes, and desired the lieutenant-colonels who 
 stood at his side to send the troops to their 
 
166 SAMtfEL ADAMS. 
 
 quarters. " The law," he declared, " should 
 have its course. He would live and die by the 
 law." 
 
 The officers, descending to their commands, 
 gave orders to the troops to shoulder arms and 
 return to their barracks. No opposition was 
 made to the arrest of Captain Preston and the 
 nine soldiers who had been concerned in the 
 firing, which was presently effected. The 
 crowd gradually fell away, leaving about a hun- 
 dred to attend the investigation, which at once 
 began under Hutchinson's eye, and continued 
 until three o'clock in the morning. In good 
 season the next forenoon, Hutchinson, sitting 
 in the council chamber, with such members of 
 the Council as could be assembled, was waited 
 upon by the selectmen of Boston and most of 
 the justices of the county, who told him that 
 townspeople and troops could no longer live 
 together, and that the latter must depart. 
 Hutchinson alleged, as he had done before, that 
 the troops were not under his command, and 
 while the interview went forward the select- 
 men were peremptorily summoned elsewhere. 
 To Faneuil Hall the people had flocked be- 
 times, the number of the townsmen swelled by 
 crowds who poured in from the country. Wil- 
 liam Cooper, the town clerk, acted as chairman 
 at first. When presently the selectmen ap' 
 
THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 167 
 
 peared, and things took on a more formal shape, 
 Thomas Gushing became moderator, and Dr. 
 Cooper, of the church in Brattle Street, by in- 
 vitation of the multitude, offered an earnest 
 prayer. Depositions were then taken, graphic 
 statements of facts connected with the Massa- 
 cre, by various eye-witnesses, and then at length 
 Samuel Adams addressed the meeting. What 
 he said must be inferred from the action which 
 the meeting immediately took. A committee 
 of fifteen was appointed, among them Samuel 
 Adams, although he was not at the head of it, 
 who were instructed to wait upon Hutchinson 
 to demand the instant removal of the troops. 
 Measures were then taken for a town-meeting 
 in regular form at three o'clock in the after- 
 noon, the selectmen preparing, and the consta- 
 bles posting the warrants. While the people 
 dispersed, the committee proceeded to discharge 
 their duty that they might be ready to report 
 in the afternoon. Their spokesman announced 
 to Hutchinson that it was the determination 
 of Boston and all the country round that the 
 troops should be removed. According to Hutch- 
 inson's own account, when he, with his Council 
 and the officers of the army and navy stood 
 face to face with the committee of fifteen, he 
 reiterated his declaration that he had no au- 
 thority to remove the troops. The committee. 
 
168 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 dissatisfied, waited after tlie interview in a 
 room adjoining the council chamber. 
 
 At three o'clock the town-meeting assembled 
 in regular form at Faneuil Hall, but the mul- 
 titude, swollen by the people of the surrounding 
 towns, became so vast that they adjourned to 
 the Old South. As Hutchinson sat deliberating 
 with the Council and crown officers, the crowd 
 swept past the town-house, over the snow still 
 crimson with the Massacre. How they looked 
 as they moved past, now in groups, now singly, 
 now in a numerous throng, we may get through 
 side-lights. It was a disorderly mob which the 
 evening before had pressed upon the soldiers. 
 But now said a member of the Council to Hutch- 
 inson, as they looked from the windows down 
 upon the street : " This multitude are not such 
 as pulled down your house ; but they are men 
 of the best characters, men of estates, and men 
 of religion ; men who pray over what they do." 
 And Hutchinson himself declares, that they 
 were " warmed with a persuasion that what 
 they were doing was right, that they were 
 struggling for the liberties of America," and 
 he judged " their spirit to be as high as was the 
 spirit of their ancestors when they imprisoned 
 Andros, while they were four times as numer- 
 ous." It must be owned that there is a tone of 
 candor in these expressions ; nevertheless, it 
 
THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 169 
 
 was the view of Hutchinson that the demand 
 of the people for the removal of the regiments 
 ought to be resisted, and he has recorded that 
 it was not he w^ho yielded. Colonel Dalrymple, 
 of the 14th regiment, the ranking officer, had 
 indicated that as the first intention had been to 
 station the 29th at the Castle, though he could 
 receive^ an order from no one but Gage, he 
 would respect the expression of a desire from 
 the magistrates, and would, if it were thought 
 best, send the 29th to the Castle. The town's 
 committee were informed of this, Hutchinson 
 declaring that he would receive no further com- 
 munication on the subject. The Council, how- 
 ever, with Dalrymple, induced him to meet 
 them again for further deliberation. 
 
 Issuing, as we may suppose, from the south- 
 ern door, the committee of fifteen appeared 
 upon the steps of the Old State House, on their 
 way to the Old South to make their report, 
 Samuel Adams at their head. The crowd had 
 overflowed from the church into the street, and 
 the cry went before, '' Make way for the com- 
 mittee." Samuel Adams bared his head : he was 
 but forty-eight, but his hair was already so gray 
 as to give him a venerable look. He inclined 
 to the right and left, as they went through the 
 lines of men, saying as he did so : '' Both regi- 
 ments or none ! " '' Both regiments or none ! " 
 
170 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Densely as they could be packed, the floor and 
 the double range of galleries in the Old South 
 were filled with the town-meeting, the crowd 
 in the street pushing in on the backs of those 
 already in place, till stairs, aisles, and windows 
 were one mass of eager faces. The reply of 
 the lieutenant-governor was rendered in this 
 presence, — namely, that the commander of 
 the two regiments received orders only from 
 the general in New York, but that at the de- 
 sire of the civil magistrates, the 29th, because 
 of the part it had played in the disturbance, 
 should be sent to the Castle, and also that the 
 position of the main guard should be changed ; 
 the 14th, however, must remain in the town, 
 but should be so far restrained as to remove all 
 danger of further differences. But now re- 
 sounded through the building the cry, " Both 
 regiments or none ! " from the floor, from the 
 galleries, from the street outside, where men 
 on tip-toe strove to get a view of proceedings 
 within. *' Both regiments or none ! " and it be- 
 came plain what the leader had meant, as he 
 spoke to the right and to the left a moment be- 
 fore, while the committee had proceeded from 
 the council chamber to the town-meeting. The 
 watch- word had been caught up as it was sug- 
 gested ; and now with small delay a new com- 
 mittee, this time consisting of seven, upon which 
 
THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 171 
 
 the town took more care than ever to put the 
 best men, was sent back to the governor. 
 
 Of the committee, Hancock, Henshaw, and 
 Pemberton had wealth, ability, and worth, and 
 were moreover selectmen ; Phillips was a mer- 
 chant, generous and respected ; Molineux, too, 
 was a merchant, a man of much executive force, 
 but more valued perhaps in action than in coun- 
 sel, while Joseph Warren, the physician, im- 
 petuously eloquent, had for some years been 
 pushing always higher. On the list of the 
 committee, while Hancock is first, Samuel Ad- 
 ams comes second. Probably the rich luxu- 
 rious chairman did not forget, even on an oc- 
 casion like this, to set off his fine figure with 
 gay velvet and lace, and a gold-headed cane. 
 About four o'clock that afternoon, the 6th of 
 March, the new committee entered the council 
 chamber ; and now as the power of the people 
 and the power of the government, like two 
 great hulls in a sea-fight, are about to crash 
 together, in the moment of collision, on the 
 side of the Province the gilded figure-head is 
 taken in and " a wedge of steel " ^ is thrust 
 forth in front to bear the brunt of the impact. 
 
 1 John Adams, who found the legitimate resources of rhetoric 
 quite inadequate for the expression of his admiration for his 
 kinsman, says Sam Adams was " born and tempered a wedge 
 of steel to split the knot of lignum vitce that tied America to 
 England." 
 
172 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Hancock disappears from the fore, and Samuel 
 Adams stands out to take the shock ! Day was 
 ah-eady waning, and we may fancy the council 
 chamber lighting up mth a ruddy glow from 
 the open fire-places. John Adams long after 
 suggested the scene that took place as a fit 
 subject for a historical painting. 
 
 " Now for the picture. The theatre and the scenery 
 are the same with those at the discussion of the writs 
 of assistance. The same glorious portraits of King 
 Charles the Second, and Kiug James the Second, to 
 which might be added, and should be added, little 
 miserable likenesses of Governor Winthrop, Governor 
 Bradstreet, Governor Endicott, and Governor Belcher, 
 hung up in obscure corners of the room. Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor Hutchinson, commander-in-chief in 
 the absence of the governor, must be placed at the 
 head of the council-table. Lieutenant-Colonel Dal- 
 rymple, commander-in-chief of his majesty's mili- 
 tary forces, taking rank of all his majesty's council- 
 lors, must be seated by the side of the lieutenant- 
 governor and commander-in-chief of the Province. 
 Eight-and-twenty councillors must be painted, all 
 seated at the council-board. Let me see, — what 
 costume ? What was tlie fashion of that day in the 
 month of March ? Large white wigs, English scarlet- 
 cloth coats, some of them with gold-laced hats ; not 
 on their heads indeed in so august a presence, but on 
 the table before them or under the table beneath 
 them. Before these illustrious personages appeared 
 
THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 173 
 
 Samuel Adams, a member of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives and their clerk, now at the head of the 
 committee of the great assembly at the Old South 
 Church." 
 
 Adams spoke in his straightforward, earnest 
 way, asserting the illegality of quartering troops 
 on the town in time of peace without the con- 
 sent of the legislature ; he described the trouble 
 that must come if the troops remained, and 
 urged the necessity of compliance with the de- 
 mand of the town. Gordon says that the pe- 
 culiar nervous trembling, of which he was the 
 subject, communicated itself as he spoke to 
 Colonel Dalrymple. Hutchinson showed no ir- 
 resolution. He briefly defended both the legal- 
 ity and the necessity of the presence of the 
 troops, and declared once more that they were 
 not subject to his authority. Samuel Adams 
 once more stood forth : — 
 
 "It is well known," he said, "that acting as gov- 
 ernor of the Province, you are by its charter the 
 commander-in-chief of the military forces within it ; 
 and as such, the troops now in the capital are subject 
 to your orders. If you, or Colonel Dalrymple under 
 you, have the power to remove one regiment, you 
 have the power to remove both ; and nothing short 
 of their total removal will satisfy the people or pre- 
 serve the peace of the Province. A multitude highly 
 incensed now wait the result of this application. The 
 
174 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 voice of ten thousand freemen demands that both 
 regiments be forthwith removed. Their voice must 
 be respected, their demand obeyed. Fail not then at 
 your peril to comply with this requisition ! On you 
 alone rests the responsibility of this decision ; and if 
 the just expectations of the people are disappointed, 
 you must be answerable to God and your country for 
 the fatal consequences that must ensue. The com- 
 mittee have discharged their duty, and it is for you 
 to discharge yours. They wait your final determina- 
 tion." 
 
 A long discussion now took place, in whicli 
 Hutchinson appears to have stood alone in his 
 wish to continue to oppose the town. His be- 
 lief, he says, was that if officers and Council had 
 supported him in the beginning in the firm as- 
 sertion that the troops could not be removed 
 without the orders of Gage, the people could 
 have been put off. The Council, however, 
 yielded ; the colonels, too, gave way, Dalrym- 
 ple at last signifying his readiness to remove 
 the 14th as well as the 29th. The position of 
 affairs remained no secret. The people were 
 promptly informed that the governor stood 
 alone. At length Andrew Oliver, the sec- 
 retary, upon whom Hutchinson much relied, 
 who had at first advised resistance, declared 
 that it could go no farther, that the governor 
 must give way or instantly leave the Province. 
 
THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 175 
 
 At last, therefore, the formal recommendation 
 came from him to Dalrymple to remove the 
 troops. The soldier's word of honor was given 
 that it should be done at once, and at dark the 
 committee carried back to the meeting the 
 news of success, upon which, so say the rec- 
 ords, " the inhabitants could not but express 
 the high satisfaction which it afforded them." 
 
 A week was required for the transportation 
 of the troops and their baggage, during which 
 the town, dissatisfied with what appeared like 
 unnecessary delay, remonstrated through the 
 same committee of seven. A night-watch dur- 
 ing this time continued in organization, under 
 the same committee. Says John Adams : — 
 
 " Military watches and guards were everywhere 
 placed. We were all upon a level ; no man was ex- 
 empted ; our military officers were our superiors. I 
 had the honor to be summoned in my turn, and at- 
 tended at the State House with my musket and bay- 
 onet, my broadsword and cartridge-box, under the 
 command of the famous Paddock." 
 
 During this week occurred -the funeral of the 
 victims of the Massacre, which took place under 
 circumstances of the greatest solemnity. Four 
 hearses, for one of the wounded had meantime 
 died, containing the bodies, and coming from 
 different directions, met upon the spot in King 
 Street in which the victims had fallen. The 
 
176 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 assemblage was such as had never before been 
 known ; the bells of Boston and the whole neigh- 
 borhood tolled, and a great procession, march- 
 ing in ranks of six abreast, followed to the 
 Granary Burying Ground, where the bodies 
 were laid in a common grave near the north- 
 east corner. There they rest to this day. In 
 England the affair was regarded as a '' success- 
 ful bully " of the whole power of the govern- 
 ment by the little town, and when Lord North 
 received details of these events he always af- 
 terward referred to the 14th and 29th as the 
 " Sam Adams regiments." 
 
 From that day to this, both in England and 
 America, it has been held that there was a 
 great exhibition of weakness, if not actual pol- 
 troonery, on the part of the civil and military 
 officers of the government in this conflict with 
 the town of Boston. The idea is quite wrong. 
 Hutchinson, so far from showing any weakness, 
 was resolute even to rashness. Loving his coun- 
 try truly, honestly believing that Parliament 
 must be supreme over the provincial legisla- 
 ture, and that the people would acquiesce in 
 such supremacy if only a few headstrong lead- 
 ers could be set aside, he was in a position as 
 chief magistrate which he had not sought. 
 Now that he was in it, however, he pursued 
 
THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS, 177 
 
 the course which seemed to him proper, sad- 
 dened though he must have been by the unpop- 
 larity, fast deepening into hatred, of which he 
 had become the subject. To uphold the gov- 
 ernment cause, the presence of the troops was, 
 in his view, indispensable. The taxes imposed 
 by Parliament there could be no hope of col- 
 lecting in the misled Province except with the 
 support of bayonets. Upon what could his 
 own authority rest, with Council and Assembly 
 in vast proportion hostile, if the troops were 
 removed ? He had avoided occasions of con- 
 flict, as he had reason to feel, with much for- 
 bearance. The Massacre of the 5th of March 
 he deeply regretted ; he was determined to 
 have justice done. But when the peremptory 
 demand came from the town for the removal of 
 the regiments, then he felt it right to remain 
 passive ; he thought he had no power in the 
 matter. There is no reason to doubt his own 
 representation, made in private letters,^ in his 
 histor}^,^ in his private diary ^ now just come to 
 light, that he would not have yielded but for 
 the course pursued by those about him, whose 
 support he could not do without. Possibly he 
 was right in thinking that a firm front shown 
 from the first by the crown officers would have 
 
 I To Bernard, March 18, 1770. 2 jjist. iU. 275. 
 
 3 Diary, 79, 80. 
 12 
 
178 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 won over the people in spite of the machina- 
 tions of the " faction." All men about the 
 governor, however, were at last for yielding, 
 and the people knew it, and were encouraged 
 by it in their own course. In the " Diary," 
 where he expresses himself with more freedom 
 than elsewhere, Hutchinson charges Dalrym- 
 ple with being especially responsible for the 
 result : — 
 
 " Colonel Dalrymple offered to remove one regi- 
 ment, to which the soldiers on guard belonged. This 
 was giving up the point. . . . The regiments were 
 removed. He was much distressed, but he brought it 
 all upon himself by his offer to remove one of the 
 regiments." 
 
 Nor is it necessary to regard Dalrymple as a 
 coward. His character as a brave and prudent 
 soldier is certified to in the strongest terms by 
 the famous Admiral Hood, shortly before the 
 commodore on the Boston station. The regi- 
 ments together numbered scarcely six hundred 
 effective men. Boston was evidently sustained 
 by the country. What could six hundred men 
 do against a populous Province ? It was, no 
 doubt, a stretch of authority to order the troops 
 away, but a prudent soldier may well have felt 
 that the circumstances justified it. He took the 
 responsibility, and although the mortification 
 which the act caused in England was so great, 
 
THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 179 
 
 it is to be noticed that he never received any* 
 censure for it. 
 
 But while we try to do justice to men who 
 have received contemptuous treatment for a 
 hundred years, we must not lose sight of their 
 mistake. Hutchinson's conduct was manful 
 and consistent with his views. He ought, how- 
 ever, to have had better views. Out of the 
 best strain of New England as he was, sprung 
 from liberty-loving sires and trained in the 
 folk-mote, what business had he to stand there 
 for arbitrary power against government of the 
 people, by and for the people ? It was a posi- 
 tion in which such a man should never have 
 been found. And now let us look at the great 
 contrasting figure. In the scenes we have been 
 contemplating, the two men stand over against 
 one another in a definite opposition and prom- 
 inence which we have not before seen. It has 
 been regarded as the most dramatic point of 
 Samuel Adams's career. One may well dwell 
 with admiration on the incidents of his con- 
 duct. Where his adversary failed, he was 
 strong. Of like origin and training with him, 
 in Samuel Adams's case the fruit had been le- 
 gitimate. He believed with all his heart in 
 the people, that they should be governed only 
 by themselves or their representatives, and was 
 perfectly fearless and uncompromising against 
 
180 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 all power, whether king, Parliament, or sol- 
 diery, which contravened the great right. 
 While he moves in obedience to the principle 
 he recognizes, how effective at this time is his 
 work ! As is so often the case, he is, for the most 
 part, somewhat withdrawn, — not the moderator 
 of the town-meeting, nor indeed chairman of 
 the famous committees, — but nevertheless the 
 controlling mind. His speech at Faneuil Hall 
 in the forenoon of the 6th of March without 
 doubt outlined the whole policy that must be 
 pursued. When, as the first committee passed 
 from the south door of the State House to the 
 Old South, he kept repeating to right and left, 
 " Both regiments or none," he guided the whole 
 action of the people as the crisis approached. 
 When, an hour or two later, Hancock stepped 
 aside and Samuel Adams walked forward in 
 the council chamber into the spokesman's place, 
 probably he was the one man of the Province 
 who could then have brought the British lion 
 to confusion. He himself seems to have felt 
 that it was the great moment in his life. For 
 almost the only time in his whole career, we 
 find something like a strain of personal exulta- 
 tion in his reference to this scene. Writing of 
 Hutchinson's bearing in it to James Warren of 
 Plymouth, in the following year, he says : — 
 
 " It was then, if fancy deceived me not, I observed 
 
THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 181 
 
 his knees to tremble. I thought I saw his face grow 
 pale (and I enjoyed the sight) at the appearance of 
 the determined citizens peremptorily demanding the 
 redress of grievances." 
 
 The contemporary historian, as we have seen, 
 says that Dalrymple, too, trembled. We need 
 not feel, however, that either soldier or civilian 
 played then the part of the craven. The cir- 
 cumstances were for them full of danger and 
 difficulty. The determination of ten thousand 
 freemen was focused in the steel-blue eyes of 
 Samuel Adams as he stood in the council cham- 
 ber ; the tramp of their feet and the tumult of 
 their voices made a heavy ground-tone behind 
 his earnest, decisive words. It was a time when 
 even a brave man might for a moment blench. 
 
 By rare good -fortune, the world possesses 
 what is probably the best representation that 
 could at that time have been made of Samuel 
 Adams as, on that March day, he drove the 
 British uniform out of the streets of Boston. 
 John Hancock, two years later, employed the 
 famous John Singleton Copley to paint portraits 
 of himself and Samuel Adams, which hung for 
 fifty years on the walls of the Hancock House 
 in Beacon Street, which were then removed to 
 Faneuil Hall, and are now in the Art Museum. 
 Copley was at first well disposed to the popular 
 cause. At the time of the Massacre he testified 
 
182 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 against the soldiers, and seems to have admired 
 the bearing of Samuel Adams throughout the 
 disturbances. At any rate, for this portrait, he 
 has chosen to give Samuel Adams as he stood 
 in the scene with Hutchinson in the council 
 chamber. Against a background suggestive of 
 gloom and disturbance, the figure looks forth. 
 The face and form are marked by great 
 strength. The brow is high and broad, and 
 from it sweeps back the abundant hair, streaked 
 with gray. The blue eyes are full of light and 
 force, the nose is prominent, the lips and chin, 
 brought strongly out as the head is thrown 
 somewhat back, are full of determination. In 
 the right hand a scroll is held firmly grasped, the 
 energy of the moment appearing in the cording 
 of the sinews as the sheets bend in the pressure. 
 The left hand is thrown forth in impassioned 
 gesture, the forefinger pointmg to the provin- 
 cial charter, which with the great seal affixed, 
 lies half unrolled in the foreground. The plain 
 dark-red attire announces a decent and simple 
 respectability. The well-knit figure looks as 
 fixed as if its strength came from the granite 
 on which the Adamses planted themselves when 
 they came to America ; the countenance speaks 
 in every line the man. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE CONTEOVERSY AS TO ROYAL INSTRUC- 
 TIONS. 
 
 In the fall of the year Captain Preston and 
 the soldiers were brought to trial. However 
 the rude part of the people may have thirsted 
 for their blood, it was not the temper of the 
 better-minded. By an arrangement in which 
 Samuel Adams had a share, John Adams and 
 Josiah Quincy, eminent patriots and lawyers, 
 appeared as counsel for the prisoners, while 
 Robert Treat Paine, also eminent, undertook 
 the prosecution. Everything was done to se- 
 cure for the prisoners a fair trial. The town 
 attempted to suppress the publication of the 
 official account of the Massacre until proceed- 
 ings were over, that the minds of the jurors 
 might be quite unprejudiced. Preston was en- 
 tirely acquitted ; most of the soldiers, too, were 
 brought in "Not guilty." Two were found 
 guilty of manslaughter, but let off with no more 
 severe punishment than being branded in the 
 hand in open court. John Adams, fully per- 
 
184 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 suaded of tlie innocence of the accused, and 
 Quincy, exerted themselves to the utmost for 
 their clients, and every extenuating circum- 
 stance was allowed its full weight. Samuel 
 Adams, it must be confessed, appears not al- 
 ways to advantage at this time. He was little 
 satisfied with the postponement of the trial, 
 and quite displeased with the issue. With 
 William Cooper, Warren, and a concourse of 
 people, if we may trust Hutchinson, he appeared 
 before the Superior Court after the judges had 
 decided not to proceed at once, and sought to 
 induce them to alter their decision. The trial 
 he followed carefully, constantly taking notes. 
 At its conclusion, over the signature " Vindex," 
 he examined the evidence at length, pronounced 
 much of that given for the soldiers false, and 
 battled fiercely with the royalist writers who 
 ventured into the lists against him. 
 
 The conduct of the town of Boston was really 
 very fine. The moderation which put off the 
 arraignment of the accused men until the pas- 
 sions of the hour liad subsided, the appearance 
 of John Adams and Josiah Quincy, warm pa- 
 triots, in the defense, the acquittal at last of all 
 but two, and the light sentence inflicted upon 
 these, — all together constituted a grand tri- 
 umph of the spirit of law and order, at a time 
 when heated feeling might have been expected 
 
ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS. 185 
 
 to carry tlie day. If Samuel Adams's counsels 
 had prevailed, it cannot be denied that the out- 
 come would have been less creditable. The 
 course of things would have been hurried, the 
 punishment have been more severe. Yet with 
 all their undue vehemence, his utterances pos- 
 sess sometimes a noble grandeur. As "Vin- 
 dex " he declares : ^ — 
 
 " Philanthrop may tell us of the hazard of 'disturb- 
 ing and inflaming the minds of the multitude whose 
 passions know no bounds.' The multitude I am 
 speaking of is the body of the people, no contempti- 
 ble multitude, for whose sake government is instituted, 
 or rather who liave themselves erected it, solely for 
 their own good, — to whom even kings and all in 
 subordination to them, are, strictly speaking, servants, 
 not masters." 
 
 On the very day of the Boston Massacre Par- 
 liament debuted the repeal of the taxes imposed 
 by Towiishend upon glass, paper, and paints, 
 voting at last, as has been said, to retain only 
 the duty upon tea. Since the right of taxa- 
 tion without representation was thus adhered 
 to, the concession amounted to nothing, and 
 the breach between mother-land and colonies 
 remained as wide as ever. 
 
 When at length the General Court convened, 
 in March, a most tedious dispute arose at once. 
 Says Hutchinson : — 
 
 1 January 21, 1771. 
 
186 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 " There came a signification of the king's pleasure 
 that the General Court should be held in Cambridge, 
 unless the lieutenant-governor should have more 
 weighty reasons for holding it at Boston than those 
 which were mentioned by the secretary of state 
 against it." 
 
 Bernard, as we know, had already convened 
 the court at Cambridge, in violation, as was 
 claimed, of the charter, causing no small incon- 
 venience to the members and also to Harvard 
 College, the " Philosophy Room " in which was 
 given up to the sessions. The main point, 
 however, upon which the Whigs stood was the 
 insufficiency of the plea of royal "instructions '* 
 for violating a provision of the charter. The 
 quarrel continued until 1772, when Hutchinson 
 felt forced to yield the point, although shortly 
 before he had been on the brink of success. 
 Both Otis and Hancock came out at one time 
 on the government side, and Cushing, too, was 
 weak-kneed. Hutchinson might well have felt 
 that he was made even with his adversary for 
 his discomfiture at the time of the Massacre, 
 when one day he was waited upon by a legisla- 
 tive committee with Sam Adams among them, 
 bearing a message to the effect that they rec- 
 ognized his power under royal instruction to 
 remove the legislature " to Housatonic, in the 
 extreme west of the Province, if he chose." 
 
ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS. 187 
 
 For the patriot cause all seemed imperiled, and 
 Hutchinson wrote cheerfully, looking forward 
 to the most substantial cleaving of difficulties 
 from the success of this entering wedge. He 
 was foiled, however ; Bowdoin and Hawley stood 
 steadfastly by Samuel Adams, while Otis, speed- 
 ily falling once more under the power of his 
 disease, was carried off bound hand and foot. 
 Hancock came round again to his old friends. 
 The tail of the British lion remained in the 
 grasp of these remorseless twisters. 
 
 While the debate was in progress Hutchin- 
 son received his commission as governor, not 
 without many tokens of favor in spite of the 
 lowering brows of the patriots. His brother- 
 in-law, Andrew Oliver, became at the same 
 time lieutenant-governor, and Thomas Flucker 
 secretary. Among the felicitations Harvard 
 College paid a tribute, while the students made 
 the walls of Holden Chapel ring with the an- 
 them : — 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord : from henceforth, behold, 
 all nations shall call thee blessed ; for thy rulers 
 
 ! shall be of thy own kindred, your nobles shall be of 
 yourselves, and thy governor shall proceed from the 
 
 ( midst of thee." 
 
 j Shortly before, in 1770, died Dennys De- 
 
 ( berdt, who had served the Assembly long and 
 
 faithfully in England as agent; and in his 
 
188 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 place, not without considerable resistance, 
 Franklin was elected. This famous Boston 
 boy, who as a youth had gone to Pennsylvania, 
 and after a remarkable career had at length 
 proceeded to England, was already the agent 
 of Pennsylvania. No American as yet had 
 gained so wide a fame on both sides of the At- 
 lantic. His discoveries in natural philosophy 
 gave him high rank among men of science, and 
 his abilities in politics had also become gener- 
 ally recognized. In Massachusetts, neverthe- 
 less, a considerable party distrusted him, among 
 whom stood Samuel Adams ; and it is easy to 
 understand why. Franklin's wide acquaintance 
 with the world, joined to a disposition natu- 
 rally free, had lifted him to a degree that might 
 well seem alarming above the limitations rec- 
 ognized as proper by all true New Engiand- 
 ers. The boy who, according to the well-known 
 story, had advised his father to say grace once 
 for all over the whole barrel of beef in the cel- 
 lar, and so avoid the necessity of a blessing at 
 table over each separate piece, was indeed the 
 father of the man. Plenty of stories were rife 
 respecting Franklin, that touched the Puritan 
 corns as much as would this. At the present 
 time, indeed, it is not merely tlie over-fastidious 
 who take exception to certain passages in 
 Franklin's life. To stern Samuel Adams and 
 
ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS. 189 
 
 his sympathizers no man upon whom rested a 
 suspicion of free tliinking or free living could 
 be congenial 
 
 There were still other reasons, which had 
 probably more weight than that just men- 
 tioned in bringing it about that, just at this 
 time Franklin should be opposed in Massachu- 
 setts. In some respects, to be sure, his political 
 declarations were exceedingly bold ; witness his 
 famous " examination " in 1765. With all this, 
 however, Franklin was strenuously opposed to 
 any revolution. The British empire he com- 
 pared to a magnificent china bowl, ruined if a 
 piece were broken out of it, and he earnestly 
 recommended that it should be kept together. 
 With grand foresight he anticipated the speedy 
 peopling of the Mississippi valley, though at 
 that time few Europeans had crossed the Alle- 
 ghanies ; and he thought the time was not far 
 off when this portion of the English dominions 
 would preponderate, when even the seat of gov- 
 ernment might be transferred hither, and Amer- 
 ica become principal, while England should be- 
 come subordinate. For the views of Samuel 
 Adams, Franklin, probably, had as little liking 
 as Adams had for those of Franklin. As late as 
 the summer of 1773 Franklin wrote to Boston, 
 deprecating the influence of the violent spirits 
 who were for a rupture with the mother coun- 
 
190 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 try. " This Protestant country (our mother, 
 though of late an unkind one) is worth preserv- 
 ing ; her weight in the scale of Europe, and 
 her safety in a great degree, may depend on 
 our union with her." To his well-known de- 
 sire to remain united to England was added 
 the fact that Franklin, as deputy postmaster- 
 general, held an important crown office, while 
 his natural son, William Franklin, was royal 
 governor of New Jersey, and a pronounced 
 Tory. 
 
 Samuel Adams acquiesced in the appoint- 
 ment of Franklin, though his party succeeded 
 in associating with him the Virginian, Arthur 
 Lee ; and at the fall session of 1770, by the 
 bidding of the House, Samuel Adams had sent 
 the new agent a long letter of instructions, in 
 which the grievances were recapitulated for 
 which Franklin was to seek redress. These in- 
 clude the quartering of troops on tlie people in 
 time of peace ; the policy of arbitrary instruc- 
 tions from his majesty's secretaries of state in 
 violation of the charter; the removal of the 
 legislature from Boston ; the secrecy as to in- 
 tended measures of government, with the con- 
 cealment from the colonies of the names of their 
 accusers and of the allegations against them; 
 the sending to England of false reports of 
 speeches and legislative proceedings under the 
 
ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS. 191 
 
 Province seal ; tlie enormous extension of the 
 jurisdiction of the Admiralty Courts, in viola- 
 tion of the clause of Magna Charta by which 
 every freeman on trial was entitled to the 
 " judgment of his peers on the law of the 
 land ; " and finally the threatened bestowal by 
 the king of salaries upon the attorney-general, 
 judges, and governor of the Province, thus re- 
 moving their dependence upon the people. All 
 these subjects are treated in detail. The let- 
 ter was not only sent to Franklin, but was pub- 
 lished in full in the " Boston Gazette." Hutch- 
 inson sent a copy to England, denouncing Sam- 
 uel Adams by name as the author, and calling 
 him the " all in all," the " great incendiary 
 leader." 
 
 In August, 1771, a strong fleet of twelve 
 sail, under Admiral Montague, brother of the 
 Earl of Sandwich, a commander who among 
 the old sea-dogs of England seems to have been 
 marked by characteristics especially canine, 
 cast anchor before the town. The pretext was 
 the impending war with Spain, but all knew it 
 was intended to check the spread of sedition. 
 It is hard to see in these years how the Whig 
 cause could have been prevented from going 
 by the board, but for Samuel Adams. Now in 
 the newspapers, now in the Boston town-meet- 
 ing, now at the head of his party in the House, 
 
192 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 at the first symptom of danger lie was on the 
 alert with resolute remonstrance, the more vig- 
 orous as those about him grew weary and reac- 
 tionary. Fighting steadily the removal of the 
 legislature, he was once more up in arms when 
 Hutchinson, in obedience again to " instruc- 
 tions," was about to surrender the command of 
 the Castle to Dalrymple, though the charter 
 required that the commander should be an offi- 
 cer of the Province. Again, at the hint that 
 the governors and the law officers wei-e to re- 
 ceive salaries from the king and to be no longer 
 dependent on the Province, there was the fierc- 
 est " oppugnation." This point, indeed, be- 
 came at once the subject of a quarrel of the 
 sharpest, just as the long dispute was closing 
 respecting the removal of the legislature. 
 
 Almost the first business to which the 
 House turned in May, 1772, was the question 
 of the governor receiving a salary from the 
 king. Hutchinson now avowed that his sup- 
 port in future was to proceed from the king, 
 and declined to accept compensation from the 
 Province. Vigorous resolutions were passed 
 declaring this to be a violation of the char- 
 ter, " exposing the Province to a despotic ad- 
 ministration of government." Hawley was 
 chairman of the committee reporting the res- 
 olutions, but Samuel Adams was concerned in 
 
ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS. 193 
 
 their composition. When they passed by a 
 vote of eighty-five to nineteen, several of the 
 loyalists withdrew discouraged. The legisla- 
 ture, made sullen, refused to repair the Prov- 
 ince House, and Hutchinson, after an energetic 
 reply to Hawley's resolutions, prorogued the 
 court until September. During the summer 
 Lord Hillsborough retired from his secretary- 
 ship, making it known to the lords of trade on 
 the eve of that event that the king, " with the 
 entire concurrence of Lord North, had made 
 provision for the support of his law servants in 
 the Province of Massachusetts Bay." In Sep- 
 tember this news became known in Boston, and 
 that warrants had been ordered on the com- 
 missioners of customs for the payments. The 
 rising tone in the writings of Samuel Adams is 
 very apparent. As " Vindex " he had declared 
 in the " Boston Gazette," when only rumors 
 were rife, — 
 
 " I think the alteration of our free and mutually 
 dependent ccnstitution into a dependent ministerial 
 despotism, a grievance so great, so ignominious and 
 intolerable, that in case I did not hope things would 
 in some measure regain their ancient situation without 
 more bloodshed and murder than has been already 
 committed, I could freely wish at the risk of my all, 
 to have a fair chance of offering to the manes of my 
 slaughtered countrymen a libation of the blood of 
 the ruthless traitors who conspired their destruction." 
 
 18 
 
194 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 As " Valerius Poplicola," October 5, 1772, 
 he is even more earnest. 
 
 " Is it not enough," he cried, " to have a Governor 
 an avowed advocate for ministerial measures, and a 
 most assiduous instrument in carrying them on, 
 model'd, shaped, controul'd, and directed, totally inde- 
 pendent of the people over whom he is commissioned 
 to govern, and yet absolutely dependent upon the 
 Crown, pension'd by those on whom his existence 
 depends, and paid out of a revenue establish'd by 
 those who have no authority to establish it, and ex- 
 torted from the people in a Manner most odious, in- 
 sulting, and oppressive ? Is not this indignity enough 
 to be felt by those who have any feeling ? Are we 
 still threatened with more ? Is Life, Property, and 
 everything dear and sacred to be now submitted to 
 the Decisions of pensioned judges, holding their 
 places during the pleasure of such a Governor, and a 
 Council perhaps overawed ? To what a state of In- 
 famy, Wretchedness, and Misery shall we be reduced, 
 if our Judges shall be prevail'd upon to be thus de- 
 graded to HIRELINGS, and the body of the people 
 shall suffer their free Constitution to be overturned 
 and ruin'd. Merciful God ! inspire thy people with 
 wisdom and fortitude, and direct them to gracious ends. 
 In this extreme distress, when the plan of slavery seems 
 nearly compleaied, save our country from impend- 
 ing ruin. Let not the iron hand of tyranny ravish our 
 laws and seize the badge of freedom, nor avow'd Cor- 
 ruption and the murderous Rage of lawless Power be 
 ever seen on the sacied Seat of Justice ! 
 
ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS. 195 
 
 " Let us converse together upon this most interest- 
 ing Subject, and open our minds freely to each other. 
 Let it be the topic of conversation in every social 
 club. Let every Town assemble. Let Associations 
 and Combinations be everywhere set up to consult 
 and recover our just Rights. 
 
 * The country claims our active aid. 
 
 That let us roam ; & where we find a spark 
 
 Of public Virtue, blow it into Flame.' '* 
 
CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 " Let associations and combinations be every- 
 where set up to consult and recover our just 
 rights." This suggestion, contained at the end 
 of the paper quoted at the close of the last 
 chapter, Samuel Adams proceeded to put at 
 once in practice, setting on foot one of the most 
 memorable schemes with which his name is as- 
 sociated. As his career has been traced, we 
 have seen that in the instructions of 1764 and 
 frequently since, his recognition of the impor- 
 tance of a thorough understanding between the 
 widely separated patriots has appeared. A let- 
 ter of the previous year to Arthur Lee contains 
 the definite suggestion of a Committee of Cor- 
 respondence, " a sudden thought which drops 
 undigested from my pen," which should not 
 only promote union among the Americans, but 
 also with men similarly minded in England, 
 like the society of the Bill of Rights. The 
 task before Samuel Adams was a hard one. 
 Not only must he thwart the Tories, but he 
 
THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 197 
 
 found the patriots for the most part quite in- 
 different ; he may be said, indeed, to have 
 worked out the scheme alone. Gushing, Han- 
 cock, and Phillips, his associates of the Boston 
 seat, were against his idea, as were also the 
 more influential among the selectmen. War- 
 ren indeed was a strenuous helper, but had 
 not yet risen into great significance. Church 
 appeared zealous, but he was secretly a trai- 
 tor. Three petitions were presented to the 
 selectmen, and three weeks passed before the 
 meeting could be brought about. In the last 
 petition the number of names was much di- 
 minished, indicating the difficulty which Sam- 
 uel Adams found in holding the people to the 
 work. He used what influence he could out- 
 side of Boston to prepare the way for his idea 
 in other towns. Writing to Elbridge Gerry, 
 a young man of twenty-eight, with whom he 
 was just coming into a connection that grew 
 into a close and unbroken life-long friendship, 
 who had encouraged him with an account of 
 interest felt at Marblehead, he says : — 
 
 " Our enemies would intimidate us by saying our 
 brethren in the other towns are indifferent about this 
 matter, for which reason I am particularly glad to re- 
 reive your letter at this time. Roxbury I am told is 
 fully awake. I wish we could arouse the continent." 
 
 A town-meeting took place, which was ad- 
 
198 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 journed and again adjourned, in the general 
 lethargy ; so slight was the interest with which 
 the successive steps in a movement of the first 
 importance were regarded ! Hutchinson, in an- 
 swer to a resolution of inquiry and a request 
 that the legislature, which was to meet Decem- 
 ber 2, might not be prorogued, replied, — 
 
 " That the charter reserved to the governor the 
 full power, from time to time, to adjourn, prorogue, 
 or dissolve the Assembly. A compliance with the 
 petition would be to yield to them the exercise of that 
 part of the prerogative. There would be danger of 
 encouraging the inhabitants of other towns in the 
 Province to similar procedures, which the law had 
 not made the business of town-meetings." 
 
 The town-meeting caused the governor's 
 words to be read again and again before it, and 
 voted them to be " not satisfactory." The pro- 
 ceeding illustrates well the astuteness and 
 knowledge of men of Samuel Adams, who was 
 certainly as consummate a j)olitical manager as 
 the country has ever seen. He drafted for the 
 town the resolution and request to the gov- 
 ernor, which have just been referred to, and 
 which apparently relate to something very dif- 
 ferent from his real purposes ; he was chairman 
 of the committee which presented these docu- 
 ments. The whole thing was a trap. He wrote 
 afterwards to Gerry that he knew such requests, 
 
THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 199 
 
 couched in such terms, must provoke from 
 Hutch mson an arrogant answer, the effect of 
 which would be to touch the people in a point 
 where they were sensitive, and produce unan- 
 imity for the course which he desired to pur- 
 sue. As he had expected and planned, the 
 town-meeting resolved unanimously that " they 
 have ever had and ought to have, a right to 
 petition the king or his representative for a 
 redress of such grievances as they feel, or for 
 preventing such as they have reason to appre- 
 hend, and to communicate their sentiments to 
 other towns." 
 
 The town-meeting having been brought into 
 an appropriate mood, there followed the motion 
 which in its consequences was perhaps the most 
 important step which had so far been taken in 
 bringing into existence the new nation. The 
 town records of Boston say : — 
 
 " It was then moved by Mr. Samuel Adams that 
 a Committee of Correspondence be appointed, to con- 
 sist of twenty-one persons, to state the rights of the 
 colonists and of this Province in particular as men 
 and Christians and as subjects ; and to communicate 
 and publish the same to the several towns and to the 
 world as the sense of this town, with the infring- 
 ments and violations thereof that have been or from 
 time to time may be made." 
 
 The motion occasioned some debate and 
 
200 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 seems to have been carried late at night ; the 
 vote in its favor, at last, was nearly unanimous. 
 The colleagues of Adams, who had left him 
 almost alone thus far, now declined to become 
 members of the committee, regarding the 
 scheme as useless or trifling. The committee 
 was at last constituted without them ; it was 
 made up of men of little prominence but of 
 thorough respectability. James Otis, in another 
 interval of sanity, was made chairman, a posi- 
 tion purely honorary, the town in this way 
 showing its respect for the leader whose mis- 
 fortunes they so sincerely mourned. 
 
 The Committee of Correspondence held its 
 first meeting in the representatives' chamber at 
 the town-house, November 3, 1772, where at the 
 outset each member pledged himself to observe 
 secrecy as to their transactions, except those 
 which, as a committee, they should think it 
 proper to divulge. According to the motion by 
 which the committee was constituted, three du- 
 ties were to be performed : 1st, the preparation 
 of a statement of the rights of the colonists, as 
 men, as Christians, and as subjects; 2d, a dec- 
 laration of the infringement and violation of 
 those rights ; 3d, a letter, to be sent to the sev- 
 eral towns of the Province and to the world, 
 giving the sense of the town. The drafting of 
 the first was assigned to Samuel Adams, of 
 
THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 201 
 
 the second to Joseph Warren, of the third to 
 Benjamin Church. In a few days tidings came 
 from the important towns of Marblehead, Rox- 
 bury, Cambridge, and Plymouth, indicating that 
 the example of Boston was making impression 
 and was likely to be followed. On November 
 20, at a town-meeting in Faneuil Hall, the 
 different papers were presented : Otis sat as 
 moderator, appearing for the last time in a 
 sphere where his career had been so magnifi- 
 cent. The report was in three divisions, ac- 
 cording to the motion. The part by Samuel 
 Adams, which has absurdly been attributed to 
 Otis by later v^riters, is still extant in his au- 
 tograph. The paper of Warren recapitulated 
 the long list of grievances under which the 
 Province had suffered ; while Church, in a let- 
 ter to the selectmen of the various towns, solic- 
 ited a free communication of the sentiments of 
 all, expressing the belief that the wisdom of 
 the people would not " suffer them to doze or 
 sit supinely indifferent on the brink of destruc- 
 tion." 
 
 In the last days of 1772, the document, hav- 
 ing been printed, was transmitted to those for 
 whom it had been intended, producing at once 
 an immense effect. The towns almost unani- 
 mously appointed similar committees ; from 
 every quarter came replies in which the senti- 
 
202 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 ments of Samuel Adams were echoed. In the 
 
 library of Bancroft is a volume of manuscripts, 
 worn and stained by time, which have an in- 
 terest scarcely inferior to that possessed by 
 the Declaration of Independence itself, as the 
 fading page hangs against its pillar in the li- 
 brary of the State Department at Washington. 
 They are the original replies sent by the Mas- 
 sachusetts towns to Samuel Adams's commit- 
 tee, sitting in Faneuil Hall, during those first 
 months of 1773. One may well read them 
 with bated breath, for it is the touch of the 
 elbow as the stout little democracies dress up 
 into line, just before they plunge into actual 
 fight at Concord and Bunker Hill. There is 
 sometimes a noble scorn of the restraints of or- 
 thography, as of the despotism of Great Britain, 
 in the work of the old town clerks, for they gen- 
 erally were secretaries of the committees ; and 
 once in a while a touch of Dogberry's quaint- 
 ness, as the punctilious officials, though not al- 
 ways " putting God first," yet take pains that 
 there shall be no mistake as to their piety by 
 making every letter in the name of the Deity 
 a rounded capital. Yet the documents ought 
 to inspire the deepest reverence. They con- 
 stitute the highest mark the town-meeting has 
 ever touched. Never before and never since 
 have Anglo-Saxon men, in lawful folk-mote 
 
THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 203 
 
 assembled, given utterance to thoughts and 
 feelings so fine in themselves and so pregnant 
 with great events. To each letter stand af- 
 fixed the names of the committee in autograph. 
 This awkward scrawl was made by the rough 
 fist of a Cape Ann fisherman, on shore for the 
 day to do at town-meeting the duty his fellows 
 had laid upon him ; the hand that wrote this 
 other was cramped from the scythe-handle, as 
 its possessor mowed an intervale on the Con- 
 necticut ; this blotted signature, where smutted 
 fingers have left a black stain, was written by 
 a blacksmith of Middlesex, turning aside a mo- 
 ment from forging a barrel that was to do duty 
 at Lexington. They were men of the plainest ; 
 but as the documents, containing statements of 
 the most generous principles and the most cour- 
 ageous determination, were read in the town- 
 houses, the committees who produced them, and 
 the constituents for whom the committees stood, 
 were lifted above the ordinary level. Their 
 horizon expanded to the broadest ; they had in 
 view not simply themselves, but the welfare of 
 the continent ; not solely their own generation, 
 but remote posterity. It was Samuel Adams's 
 own plan, the consequences of which no one 
 foresaw, neither friend nor foe. Even Hutchin- 
 son, who was scarcely less keen than Samuel 
 Adams himseK, was completely at fault, *' Such 
 
204 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 a foolish scheme," he called it, "that the faction 
 must necessarily make themselves ridiculous." 
 But in January the eyes of men were opening. 
 One of the ablest of the Tories, Daniel Leon- 
 ard, wrote : — 
 
 " This is the foulest, subtlest, and most venomous 
 serpent ever issued from the egg of sedition. I saw 
 the small seed when it was implanted ; it was a grain 
 of mustard. I have watched the plant until it has 
 become a great tree." 
 
 It was the transformation into a strong cord 
 of what had been a rope of sand. 
 
 Though Samuel Adams could be terribly in 
 earnest, as sufficiently appears from the ex- 
 tracts which have been made, there is never an 
 excess of zeal and rage, such as shows itself 
 sometimes in his more youthful and hot-headed 
 disciples, Warren and Quincy. During the oc- 
 cupation of Boston by the troops, Warren was 
 known to be ready with knock-down arguments, 
 upon occasion, for red-coats that were too forth- 
 putting, and once exclaimed to William Eustis, 
 afterwards governor of Massachusetts : " These 
 fellows say we won't fight ; by heavens, I hope 
 I shall die up to my knees in blood ! " Dur- 
 ing the agitation before the formaticm of the 
 Committee of Correspondence, Josiah Quincy 
 wrote : — 
 
TEE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 205 
 
 " The word of God has pointed the mode of relief 
 from Moabitish oppression : prayers and tears with 
 the help of a dagger. The Lord of light has given us 
 the fit message to send to a tyrant : a dagger of a 
 cubit in his belly ; and every worthy man who desires 
 to be an Ehud, the deliverer of his country, will strive 
 to be the messenger." 
 
 Such outbreaks of vindictive frenzy never 
 appeared in the speech or conduct of Samuel 
 Adams, though as a dire necessity from which 
 there could be no shrinking without sacrifice of 
 principle an appeal to the sword at some time 
 not far distant began to seem to him inevi- 
 table. 
 
 How high the name of Samuel Adams stood 
 elsewhere than in Massachusetts, was shown 
 early in 1773 in the matter of the burning of 
 the British man-of-war Gaspee, in Narragan- 
 sett Bay. The zealous ofiicer who commanded 
 her had brought upon himself the ill-will of 
 the people by the faithfulness with which he 
 carried out his instructions in executing the 
 obnoxious revenue laws. His vessel running 
 ashore, a party from Providence attacked her in 
 boats, and after a fight, in which the commander 
 was wounded, the Gaspee was burned. The 
 wrath of the Tories and of the ofiicers of the 
 British army and navy was great. A board of 
 commissioners appointed by the crown convened 
 
206 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 at Providence, who, it was believed, would send 
 the culprits to England for punishment, and 
 perhaps take away the chp.rter of Rhode Island. 
 Through the general connivance of the people, 
 the British admiral and the governor could not 
 find the actors in the affair, although they were 
 well known. Matters wore a dark look. In 
 their distress, the leading men of the colony, 
 looking about for an adviser, made respectful 
 application to Samuel Adams : " Give us your 
 opinion in what manner this colony had best 
 behave in this critical situation, and how the 
 shock that is coming upon us may be best 
 evaded or sustained." Samuel Adams, while 
 giving advice in detail, makes a suggestion 
 which plainly shows what thought now espe- 
 cially occupies him : — 
 
 " I beg to propose for your consideration whether 
 a circular letter from your Assembly on the occasion, 
 to those of the other colonies, might not tend to the 
 advantage of the general cause and of Rhode Island 
 in particular." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE CONTKOVERSY AS TO PAELIAMBNTARY 
 AUTHORITY. 
 
 In the long struggle between the patriots and 
 the government the student becomes bewil- 
 dered, so numerous are the special discussions, 
 and so involved with one another. Hutchin- 
 son and Samuel Adams stand respectively at 
 the heads of the opposed powers, each dex- 
 terous, untiring, fearless ; and as the spectator 
 of a mortal combat with swords between a pair 
 of nimble, energetic strivers might easily be- 
 come confused in the breathless interchange of 
 thrust and parry, so in trying to follow this un- 
 remitting ten years' fight, there is absolutely no 
 place where one can rest. The attention must 
 be fixed throughout, or some essential phase of 
 the battle is lost. 
 
 However deceived Hutchinson may have 
 been for an instant as to the effect of his 
 great rival's stroke in the establishment of the 
 Committee of Correspondence, his eyes were 
 in a moment opened, and with his usual quick- 
 
208 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 ness he was ready at once with his guard. 
 He convened the legislature January 6, 1773, 
 and whereas he had always heretofore avoided 
 a formal discussion of the great question at 
 issue, preferring to assume the authority of 
 Parliament over the colonies as a matter of 
 course, he now sent to the legislature a pow- 
 erful message in which the doctrine of par- 
 liamentary supremacy was elaborately vindi- 
 cated. The reception of such a paper was to 
 the legislature a matter of the gravest mo- 
 ment. Hutchinson was unsurpassed in acute- 
 ness ; no one knew so thoroughly as he the 
 history of the colonies from the beginning ; 
 his legal reading had been so wide that few 
 could match him in the citation of precedents. 
 At his command, too, were all the skill and 
 learning of the Tory party, which included 
 strong men, like Daniel Leonard, the news- 
 paper writer, and Jonathan Sewall, the attor- 
 ney-general. Reviewing the past usages of 
 Massachusetts, the governor undertook to show 
 that the course of things favored the idea of 
 the supremacy of Parliament, which had never 
 been denied until the time of the Stamp Act. 
 The grant of liberties and immunities in the 
 charter could not be understood as relieving 
 the Province from obligations toward the su- 
 preme legislature, but was only an assurance on 
 
PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY. 209 
 
 the part of the crown to the Americans that 
 they had not become aliens, but remained free- 
 born subjects everywhere in the dominions of 
 Britain. By their voluntary removal from 
 England to America, they relinquished a right 
 which they could resume whenever they chose 
 to return to England, — the right, namely, of 
 voting for the persons who made the laws. 
 The fact that they had voluntarily relinquished 
 this right by removing could by no means be 
 understood as destroying the authority of the 
 law-makers over them. No line, he alleged, 
 could be drawn between an acknowledgment 
 of the supremacy of Parliament and inde- 
 pendence ; and the governor asked if there 
 was anything they had greater reason to dread 
 than independence, exposed as they would then 
 be in their weakness to the attacks of any 
 power which might choose to destroy them. 
 Hutchinson supported and illustrated his posi- 
 tions by references to history and constitutional 
 authorities far and near. The tone of the doc- 
 ument was moderate and candid: "If I am 
 wrong I wish to be convinced of my error. . . . 
 I have laid before you what I think are the 
 principles of your constitution ; if you do not 
 agree with me, I wish to know your objec- 
 tions." Nothing could be better adapted to 
 weaken the spirit of opposition, to which the 
 
 14 
 
210 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Committees of Correspondence were giving new 
 strength. 
 
 The governor's message produced a wide and 
 profound effect. The newspapers spread it to 
 the world. It was read not only throughout 
 Massachusetts, but throughout America ; in 
 England, too, it was widely circulated. Many 
 a patriot knit his brows over it as a paper most 
 formidable to his cause ; the Tories called it 
 unanswerable, and extolled its author as a rea- 
 soner whom none could overthrow. But over 
 against him stood his adversary, wary, watchful, 
 undismayed, and the counter-stroke was at once 
 delivered. As Hutchinson had summoned to 
 his help all the acumen and learning of the loy- 
 alists, so his opponent laid under contribution 
 whatever shrewdness or knowledge could be 
 found in the opposite camp. Hawley and John 
 Adams, in particular, lent their help. The 
 master agitator, however, himself arranged and 
 combined all, presenting at last an instrument 
 in his own clear, unequivocal English, which 
 the simplest could grasp, which the ablest 
 found it difficult to gainsay. On January 8, 
 the speech of the governor had had a second 
 reading ; then a committee, with Samuel Ad- 
 ams for its chairman, was appointed to reply, 
 which reported its answer on the 22d. The 
 Assembly entered into long and careful de- 
 
PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY. 211 
 
 liberation concerning it. They had been ac- 
 customed to follow with little question their 
 strongest minds, particularly of late the mem- 
 bers of the Boston seat; but in the present 
 crisis they seem to have resolved to take no 
 leap in the dark. The answer of the com- 
 mittee was taken up paragraph by paragraph, 
 and thorough proof was demanded for the 
 soundness of all the arguments and the cor- 
 rectness of the citations from authorities. All 
 this the committee furnished. 
 
 The reply, as it came out from this inquisi- 
 tion, traversed the governor's speech, position by 
 position. The disturbed condition of the Prov- 
 ince, to which he had made allusion, was attrib- 
 uted to the unprecedented course of Parliament. 
 The charters granted by Elizabeth and James 
 were cited, and much space was taken in show- 
 ing that the laws of the colonies were intended 
 to conform to the fundamental principles of the 
 English constitution, and that they did not im- 
 ply the supremacy of Parliament. The terri- 
 tory of America was at the absolute disposal of 
 the " crown," and not annexed to the " realm." 
 The sovereignty of Parliament was not im- 
 plied in the granting of the charters ; Parlia- 
 ment had never had the inspection of colonial 
 acts, for the king alone gave his consent or al- 
 lowance. The reply denied that the settlers, 
 
212 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 when removing to America, relinquished any 
 of the rights of British subjects, one of which 
 was to be governed by laws made by per- 
 sons in whose election they had a voice. " His 
 excellency's manner of reasoning on this point 
 seemed to them to render the most valuable 
 clauses of their charter unintelligible." 
 
 The paper passed on to a consideration of 
 the views of the founders of New England. 
 From Hutchinson's own declarations in his his- 
 tory, they sought here to make good their case 
 in opposition to his plea. As regarded the di- 
 lemma proposed by the governor, that if Parlia- 
 ment were not supreme the colonies were inde- 
 pendent, the alternative was accepted, and the 
 claim made that, since the vassalage of the col- 
 onies could not have been intended, therefore 
 they must be independent. There cannot be 
 two independent legislatures in one and the 
 same state, Hutchinson had urged. Were not 
 the colonies, then, by their charters made dif- 
 ferent states by the mother country ? queried 
 the reply. Although, said Hutchinson, there 
 may be but one head, the king, yet the two leg- 
 islative bodies will make two governments as 
 distinct as the kingdoms of England and Scot- 
 land before the union. Very true, may it 
 please your excellency, was the answer; and if 
 they interfere not with each other, what hin- 
 
PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY. 213 
 
 ders their living happily in such a connection, 
 mutually supporting and protecting each other, 
 united under one common sovereign ? As to 
 the dangers of independence, the answer states 
 that the colonists stand in far more fear of des- 
 potism than of any perils which could come to 
 them if they were cut loose. The Assembly 
 discussed the paper with the greatest care, 
 point by point. At length it passed, and Sam- 
 uel Adams himself, at the head of the com- 
 mittee, put the document into the hand of 
 Hutchinson. 
 
 A controversy has arisen, which need not be 
 entered into here, as to how far the credit of 
 this memorable reply belongs to any one man. 
 That Samuel Adams consulted whoever might 
 be able to give him help is certain, and he 
 gained much from the suggestions of othei's. 
 In the main, however, the work is undoubtedly 
 his. Wide as is the range of reading implied, 
 it was not beyond him. Devoted heart and soul 
 as he was to the public service, there were few 
 great writers upon the subject of politics, an- 
 cient or modern, with whom he was unac- 
 quainted. Though not a lawyer, wherever 
 law touched questions of state he was at home. 
 Hutchinson had felt that his message was irre- 
 futable. The reply made him think that he 
 had perhaps made a mistake in submitting the 
 
214 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 matter to argument. Heretofore the policy 
 had been to regard the matter of parliamen- 
 tary supremacy as something so clear that it 
 did not admit of discussion ; doubts now began 
 to arise whether it had been wise to abandon 
 this policy. But it was too late to withdraw. 
 To the reply of the House he opposed a rejoin- 
 der longer than his original message, adding 
 little, however, to its strength. When the As- 
 sembly, through Samuel Adams, met this also, 
 the indefatigable governor once more appeared. 
 The Council, too, by the hand of Bowdoin, 
 took part in the controversy. 
 
 The patriots published the debate, pro and 
 con^ far and wide, confident that their side had 
 been well sustained. On the other hand, the 
 friends of government in England and America 
 extolled the effort of Hutchinson, and found 
 only sophistry in the argument of his opp<i- 
 nents. Thurlow, then attorney-general, found 
 the governor's course admirable, and Lord 
 Mansfield, whom Hutchinson met in England 
 the following year, passed the highest encomi- 
 ums upon his w^ork. 
 
 In spite of commendation from such high 
 sources, many friends of the government disap- 
 proved Hutchinson's course. They felt, says 
 Grahame, that " the principles solemnly estab- 
 lished by the crown and Parliament were un- 
 
PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY. 215 
 
 hinged and degraded by the presumptuous, 
 argumentative patronage of a provincial gov- 
 ernor." Hutchinson himself was ill at ease. He 
 wrote Lord Dartmouth that he did not *' intend 
 ever to meet the Assembly again. . . . Your 
 lordship very justly observes that a nice dis- 
 tinction upon civil rights is far above the reach 
 of the bulk of mankind to comprehend. I ex- 
 perience the truth of it both in the Council 
 and House of Representatives. The major part 
 of them are incapable of those nice distinctions, 
 and are in each house too ready to give an im- 
 plicit faith to the assertion of a single leader." 
 As one reviews the strife at this distance, it 
 may be said that both sides argued well.. As 
 far as precedents went, Hutchinson certainly 
 could brace himself thoroughly. For centuries 
 the principles of the primeval liberty had un- 
 dergone wide perversion. Kings had persisted, 
 and people had acquiesced in all sorts of arbi- 
 trary procedure. The first charter, intended 
 only for a tiading company, had been put to a 
 use for which it was never designed in being 
 made the basis of a great body-politic. In the 
 second charter, many provisions were indefi- 
 nite. The relation of government and governed 
 throughout the colonial history had been full 
 of quarreling. It was often hard enough to say 
 what could be claimed, what rulers and people 
 
216 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 really thought or intended. A good basis for 
 Hutchinson's argument existed in the British 
 constitution as it was. Samuel Adams pre- 
 sented that constitution rather as it had been 
 before the ancient freedom had been overlaid ; 
 as it should be, moreover, and as it tends to be- 
 come in these later days, when the progress of 
 reform gives back constantly more and more of 
 the old Anglo-Saxon liberty.^ Hutchinson hon- 
 estly felt that he was right ; he was sustained 
 by many of the best Englishmen of his day ; in 
 fact, at the present time Britons of the highest 
 position and intelligence hold the same conclu- 
 sions. The ideas of his opponent, however, 
 are those higher and broader ones Avhich are to 
 rule the world of the future. 
 
 Before the session ended, the House through 
 Samuel Adams contended with Hutchinson as 
 to the salaries of the judges of the Superior 
 Court, which, like that of the governor, it had 
 been resolved in England should be independ- 
 ent of the Province. The prorogation took 
 place on the 6th of March. 
 
 When on the 5th of March the anniversary 
 of the Massacre was celebrated, the oration be- 
 fore the crowded auditory in the Old South 
 was delivered by the brilliant but double-faced 
 Benjamin Church. He was eloquent and seem- 
 1 Freeman, Grovoth of the Eng. Const. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY. 217 
 
 ingly patriotic ; the following prophetic pas- 
 sage is found in the address : "Some future 
 Congress will be the glorious source of the sal- 
 vation of America. The Amphictyons of 
 Greece, who formed the diet or great council 
 of the states, exhibit an excellent model for the 
 rising Americans." 
 
 Hutchinson having alleged the illegality of 
 the proceedings of the Boston town-meeting, 
 which established the Committee of Correspond- 
 ence, and considered the matter of the salaries 
 of the judges, Samuel Adams was chairman of 
 the committee to reply. "By an unfortunate 
 mistake," wrote the governor, " soon after the 
 charter a law passed which made every town 
 in the Province a corporation perfectly demo- 
 cratic, every matter being determined by the 
 major vote of the inhabitants; and although 
 the intent of the law was to confine their pro- 
 ceedings to the immediate proceedings of the 
 town, yet for many years past the town of 
 Boston has been used to interest itself in every 
 affair of moment v/hich concerned the Province 
 in general." 
 
 The legislature during the late session had 
 been so thoroughly occupied by the controversy 
 concerning the parliamentary authority that 
 Samuel Adams had found no opportunity to 
 develop his plan of Committees of Correspond- 
 
218 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 ence in ways that he had projected. He was 
 of course not sorry to have circumstances bring 
 it about that the initiative in the greater work, 
 the binding together of the separate colonies as 
 the Massachusetts towns were bound together, 
 was taken by Virginia. Early in March, the 
 House of Burgesses debated the matter of an 
 intercolonial system of correspondence ; before 
 the middle of the month the measure had 
 passed, and as soon after as the slow moving 
 posts of those days could bring the news, the 
 intelligence reached Massachusetts. The con- 
 troversy as to whether the idea of intercolonial 
 Committees of Correspondence really originated 
 with Samuel Adams is hardly worth dwelling 
 upon. Indeed, the scheme was so obvious that 
 doubtless it occurred originally to many persons. 
 None, however, are known to have been before 
 Samuel Adams in the matter. 
 
 That the special action of the House of Bur- 
 gesses in March, 1773, came to pass through 
 Boston incitement is a matter which Virginia 
 local pride would no doubt strenuously deny, 
 Boston claimed it, however. 
 
 " Our patriots say that the votes of the town of 
 Boston, which they sent to Virginia, have produced 
 the resolves of the Assembly there, appointing a 
 Committee of Correspondence, and I have no doubt 
 it is their expectation that a committee for the same 
 
PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY. 219 
 
 purpose will be appointed by most of the other As- 
 semblies upon the continent." ^ 
 
 Whatever may have been the secret springe, 
 the news of the Virginia action was most 
 warmly welcomed. The General Court had 
 adjourned, but the Boston Committee of Corre- 
 spondence distributed the Southern resolutions 
 far and wide. Samuel Adams at once testified 
 his joy, in a letter to R. H. Lee ; and immedi- 
 ately upon the convening of the new legisla- 
 ture, to which he, with Hancock, Cushing, and 
 Phillips, had been elected by an almost unani- 
 mous vote, resolves were introduced responding 
 warmly to the Southern overtures and estab- 
 lishing a legislative Committee of Correspond- 
 ence. Fifteen members were to constitute it, 
 eight of them forming a quorum. Though 
 Cushing was nominally chairman, Samuel Ad- 
 ams was of course the inspirer and chief mover, 
 as he also was of the Boston committee. In 
 both he was by far the foremost man, fanning, 
 as it were, with one hand the fires of freedom 
 already alight in the Massachusetts towns, and 
 with the other holding the torch to the tinder 
 piled up and ready, though not yet kindled, in 
 the slower colonies, until at last the whole land 
 was brought into a conflagration of discontent. 
 
 1 Hutchinson, manuscript letter in Mass. Archives, April 19, 
 1773. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 
 
 In the session of the General Court which 
 came after the May elections of 1773, the gov- 
 ernor, following instructions, signified the king's 
 disapprobation of the appointment of Com- 
 mittees of Correspondence, which sit and act 
 during the recesses. The House replied, and 
 Hutchinson gives in his history a summary of 
 their argument. It is strange, when he was 
 able to state so fairly the positions of his oppo- 
 nents, that he did not feel more strongly the 
 justice of those positions. The House said : — 
 
 "■ When American rights are attacked at times when 
 the several AssembHes are not sitting, it is higiily 
 necessary that they should correspond, in order to 
 unite in the most effectual means to obtain redress of 
 grievances ; and as in most colonies the Assemblies 
 sit at such times as governors who hold themselves 
 under the direction of administration think fit, it 
 must be expected that the intention of such corre- 
 spondence will be made impracticable, unless com- 
 mittees sit in the recess. The crown officers had 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 221 
 
 corresponded with ministers of state and persons of 
 influence, in order to make plans for a policy deemed 
 grievous by the colonists ; it ought not to be thought 
 unreasonable or improper for the colonists to corre- 
 spond with their agents as well as each other, that 
 their grievances might be explained to his majesty, 
 that in his justice he might afford them relief ; and 
 I as heretofore the Province had felt the displeasure of 
 their sovereign from misrepresentations, there was 
 room to apprehend that in this instance he had been 
 misinformed by such persons as had in meditatioq 
 : further measures destructive to the colonies, and 
 I which they were apprehensive would be defeated by 
 I means of Committees of Correspondence, sitting and 
 I acting in the recess of the respective Assemblies." 
 
 r 
 
 I The " misinformation " conveyed to the king 
 I by persons who favored " measures destructive 
 to the colonies " was a matter which troubled 
 \ the patriots not a little, leading in the summer 
 ! of 1773 to a series of proceedings on their part 
 full of adroitness, but quite irreconcilable, one 
 is forced to admit, with fair dealing. The con- 
 viction had long prevailed that the policy of 
 the ministry toward America was suggested by 
 persons residing in the colonies, who studied on 
 the spot the course of events and the temper of 
 the people, and by secret correspondence gave 
 advice which led to obnoxious acts. Franklin 
 at length obtained possession in England of 
 
222 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 certain private letters from Hutchinson, An- 
 drew Oliver, the lieutenant-governor, Paxton, 
 the head of the commissioners of customs, and 
 one or two other loyalists, which were put to 
 an extraordinary use. Precisely how Franklin 
 obtained the letters was a secret for more than 
 a hundred years. Whether his course was al- 
 together honorable in the matter need not be 
 considered here. In the recriminations that 
 followed, an innocent man nearly lost his life 
 in a duel, and Franklin himself, after having 
 been exposed to a bitter denunciation by Wed- 
 derburn, the solicitor-general, in the presence 
 of the Privy Council, was ostracised by English 
 society. 
 
 However it may have been with the obtain- 
 ing of the letters, the manner in which they 
 were employed to bring obloquy upon Hutch- 
 inson really admits of no defense. Less than 
 half of the letters were from Hutchinson, and 
 in these not a sentence can be found inconsist- 
 ent with his public declarations, or expressing 
 more than a mild disapproval of the course of 
 the Whigs. His conviction that Parliament 
 should be supreme in the colonies is apparent, 
 but this he had a thousand times asserted be- 
 fore the world. He writes in no unfriendly 
 spirit, and makes suggestions remarkable only 
 for their great moderation. In the only one of 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 223 
 
 the six letters in which Hutchinson trenches 
 closely upon controverted points, his expres- 
 sions, copied here from the pamphlet published 
 by the Massachusetts Assembly, are as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " I never think of the measures necessary for the 
 peace and good order of the colonies without pain ; 
 there must be an abridgment of what are called Eng- 
 lish liberties. I relieve myself by considering that 
 in a remove from the state of nature to the most 
 perfect state of government, there must be a great 
 restraint of natural liberty. I doubt whether it is 
 possible to project a system of government in which 
 a colony, three thousand miles distant from the par- 
 ent state, shall enjoy all the liberty of the parent 
 state. I am certain I have never yet seen the pro- 
 jection." 
 
 In Hutchinson's own defense, he says of 
 these words, in his history : — 
 
 " To a candid mind, the substance of the whole 
 paragraph was really no more than this : * I am 
 sorry the people cannot be gratified with the enjoy- 
 ment of all they call English liberties, but in their 
 sense of them it is not possible for a colony at three 
 thousand miles' distance from the parent state to en- 
 joy them, as they might do if they had not re- 
 moved.' " 
 
 In no way does the governor say more here 
 than he had repeatedly said in public. He 
 
224 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 makes no recommendation that the charter 
 should be changed, or troops be sent. Such 
 liberties as the establishment of Committees of 
 Correspondence, the discussion of great affairs 
 of state by the town-meetings, the resistance 
 to the ministerial policy in the matter of the 
 payment of the judges and the crown officials, 
 Hutchinson felt, and in the most open manner 
 had said, ought to be abridged. These, in his 
 idea, were excesses, but they could be remedied 
 without touching the charter. He was undoubt- 
 edly wrong, of course, but there was nothing 
 underhanded in his fight. He declares further 
 that he wishes well to the colony, and therefore 
 desires an abridgment of its liberty, and that 
 he hopes no more severity will be shown than 
 is necessary to secure its dependence. 
 
 As to the other letters sent by Franklin at 
 the same time with those of Hutchinson, there 
 is no reason at all for supposing that the lat- 
 ter had known anything about them. Oliver 
 goes farther than the governor : he recommends 
 changes in the constitution, hints at taking off 
 the '' principal incendiaries," and proposes the 
 formation of a colonial aristocracy from whom 
 the Council shall be drawn. Paxton demands 
 plainly " two or three regiments." Oliver and 
 Paxton did say enough to compromise them- 
 selves, but they were comparatively small game, 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 225 
 
 about whom the patriots cared little. We have 
 now to see what was made out of these letters. 
 For some months they remained in the hands 
 of the patriots unused. In June, however, soon 
 after the governor's return from Hartford, 
 where he had been concerned with the settle- 
 ment of the boundary line between New York 
 and Massachusetts, a public service which 
 he skillfully turned much to the advantage of 
 the Province, Hancock informed the Assembly 
 darkly that within eight-and-forty hours a dis- 
 covery would be made, which would have great 
 results. This the spectators in James Otis's 
 gallery caught up, and it was spread through- 
 out the town and the Province. At the time 
 named, Samuel Adams desired that the gal- 
 leries might be cleared, as he had matters of 
 profound moment to communicate. After the 
 clearing, he spoke of a prevailing rumor that 
 letters of an extraordinary nature had been 
 written and sent to England, greatly to the 
 prejudice of the Province. He added that he 
 had obtained the letters and the consent of the 
 person who had received them to their being 
 read to the House, under the restriction, how- 
 ever, that they were neither to be printed nor 
 copied, in whole or part. The letters were 
 then read. After the reading, amid these mys- 
 terious surroundings, a committee reported, the 
 
 15 
 
226 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 letters being lumped together, that they tended 
 and were designed to overthrow the constitution 
 of government and to introduce arbitrary power 
 into the Province. The report was accepted al- 
 most unanimously. These proceedings were 
 spread abroad, and the curiosity of the people 
 became wonderfully roused as to what the 
 dreadful letters contained. This temper of 
 mind was stimulated by rollings of the eyes 
 and raisings of the hands on the part of the 
 Whig leaders over the enormities which could 
 not be spoken. 
 
 Hutchinson did not prorogue the Co art, which 
 would have looked like an attempt on his part 
 to smother the subject, indicative of conscious- 
 ness of guilt ; but he sent a message asking 
 for copies of the letters, declaring that he had 
 never written letters, public or private, of any 
 such character as was reported. The House re- 
 plied by sending him the dates, and asking him 
 for copies of his letters written on those dates. 
 Hutchinson declined to send the copies, on the 
 ground that there would be an impropriety in 
 laying before them his private correspondence, 
 and that he was restrained by the king from 
 showing that of a public nature. But he said 
 that he could assure them that neither private 
 nor public letters of his " tended, or were de- 
 signed to subvert, but rather to preserve entire 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 227 
 
 the constitution of the government." He de- 
 clared that his letters, of the dates mentioned 
 by the House, contained nothing different from 
 what had been published in his speeches to 
 the Assembly, as well as to the world in his 
 history, and that none of them related to the 
 charter. 
 
 The popular pressure to know more of the 
 direful discoveries became very earnest. Han- 
 cock at length told the House that copies of 
 the letters had been put into his hands in the 
 street. These were found upon comparison to 
 correspond with the letters in possession of the 
 House, and a committee was appointed to con- 
 sider how the House might become "honora- 
 bly " possessed of the letters, so that they could 
 be published. Hawley soon reported from this 
 committee that Samuel Adams had said that, 
 since copies of the letters were already abroad, 
 the gentleman from whom the letters them- 
 selves were received gave his consent that they 
 should be copied and printed. The legislature 
 then ordered that the letters should be printed ; 
 but beforehand, with very Yankee cunning, 
 they took pains to circulate everywhere their 
 resolves. These resolves, putting as they did 
 the worst construction upon the letters, declar- 
 ing that they tended to alienate the affections 
 of the king, to produce severe and destructive 
 
228 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 measures, and that they contained proofs of a 
 conspiracy against the country, went to all the 
 towns. As if Hutchinson had been privy to, if 
 not the author of all the letters, the implication 
 was that it was right to hold him responsible 
 for everything they contained. The towns be- 
 came prepossessed with the darkest anticipa- 
 tions. 
 
 The printed letters were at length allowed to 
 go forth. In the popular excitement, and in- 
 fluenced by the interpretation which had been 
 given to them, the people universally saw abom- 
 inable treachery in what was really harmless. 
 In the midst of the rage against the governor, 
 a petition for his removal and that of Oliver 
 was dispatched by the legislature to Franklin, 
 to be presented to the ministry. The rough 
 draft of this petition, in the hand of Samuel 
 Adams, runs as follows : — 
 
 PETITION TO THE KING. 
 
 June 23, 1773. 
 Nothing but a Sense of the Duty we owe to our 
 Sovereign and the obligation we are under to consult 
 the Peace and Safety of the Province could induce 
 us to remonstrate to your Majesty the Malconduct of 
 those who, having been born and educated and con- 
 stantly resident in the Province and who formerly 
 have had ye confidence and were loaded with ye hon- 
 ours of this People, your Majesty, we conceive from 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 229 
 
 the purest Motives of rendering the People most 
 happy, was graciously pleased to advance to the high- 
 est places of Trust and Authority in the Province. 
 . . . We do therefore most humbly beseech your 
 Majesty to give order that Time may be allowed to 
 us to support these our Complaints by our Agents 
 and Council. And as the said Thomas Hutchinsou, 
 Esq., and Andrew Oliver, Esq., have by their above 
 mentioned Conduct and otherwise rendered themselves 
 justly obnoxious to your Majesty's loving Subjects, 
 we pray that your Majesty will be graciously pleased 
 to remove them from their posts in this government, 
 and place such good and faithfull men in their stead 
 as your Majesty in your great Wisdom shall think fit. 
 
 This transaction, wliicli has been dwelt on at 
 considerable length, deserves attention because 
 it is probably the least defensible proceeding 
 in which the patriots of New England were 
 concerned during the Revolutionary struggle. 
 Nothing can be more sly than the manoeu- 
 vring throughout. The end aimed at, to excite 
 against Hutchinson the strongest animosity at 
 a time when his management of the controversy 
 as to parliamentary authority had made an 
 impression of ability, and his service in settling 
 the boundary line so satisfactorily might have 
 conciliated some good-will, was completely suc- 
 cessful. His position was henceforth intoler- 
 able. When one reads at this distance of time 
 
230 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 the little pamphlet containing the letters, which 
 the General Court caused to be published, one 
 sees plainly the justice of the remark of Dr. 
 George E. Ellis : " The whole affair is a mar- 
 velously strong illustration of the most vehe- 
 ment possible cry, with the slightest possible 
 amount of wool." 
 
 Without this means of forming a judgment 
 for ourselves, Hutchinson's statements as to the 
 matter would require to be taken with much 
 allowance. View them in connection with this 
 plain evidence, however, and they have great 
 weight, and it is hard to resist the conviction 
 that the man was deeply injured. He said : 
 " They [the letters] have been represented as 
 highly criminal, though there is nothing more 
 than what might naturally be expected from a 
 confidential correspondence." ^ Again he de- 
 clared them to be " the most innocent things in 
 the world ; but if it had been Chevy Chace, the 
 leaders are so adroit they would have made the 
 people believe it was full of evil and treason." ^ 
 The following letter, written a little later in 
 the year, copied here from Hutchinson's letter- 
 book, contains a clear and manly statement : — 
 
 " I differ in my principles from the present leaders 
 of the people. ... I think that by the constitution 
 
 1 From Hutchinson's manuscript, Mass. Archiv. 
 
 2 From manuscript in Mass. Archiv. 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 231 
 
 of the colonies the Parliament has a supreme author- 
 ity over them. I have nevertheless always been an 
 advocate for as large a power of legislation within 
 each colony as can consist with a supreme controul. 
 I have declared against a forcible opposition to the 
 execution of acts of Parliament which have laid taxes 
 on the people of America; I have notwithstanding 
 ever wished that such acts might not be made as the 
 Stamp Act in particular. I have done everything in 
 my power that they might be repealed. I do not see 
 how the people in the colonies can enjoy every lib- 
 erty which the people in England enjoy, because in 
 England every man may be represented in Parlia- 
 ment, the supreme authority over the whole ; but in 
 the colonies, the people, I conceive, cannot have rep- 
 resentatives in Parliament to any advantage. It gives 
 me pain when I think it must be so. I wish also 
 that we may enjoy every priviledge of an English- 
 man which our remote situation will admit of. These 
 are sentiments which I have without reserve declared 
 among my private friends, in my speeches and mes- 
 sages to the General Court, in my correspondence 
 with the ministers of state, and I have published 
 them to the world in my history ; and yet I have been 
 declared an enemy and a traitor to my country be- 
 cause in my private letters I have discovered the 
 same sentiments, for everything else asserted to be 
 contained in those letters, I mean of mine, unfriendly 
 to the country, I must deny as altogether groundless 
 and false." 
 
 On a fly-leaf of his diary two years later, 
 
232 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 after quoting a sentence from Erasmus as to the 
 injustice of garbled quotations from a man's 
 words, lie continues : " How applicable is this 
 to the case of my letters to Whately, and the 
 expression, 'there must be an abridgment of 
 what are called English liberties ! ' Every- 
 thing which preceded and followed, which 
 would have given the real sentiment and taken 
 away all the odium, was left out." 
 
 It is hard to palliate the conduct of the pa- 
 triots. Had the leaders lost in the excitement 
 of the controversies the power of weighing 
 words properly, and did they honestly think 
 Hutchinson's expressions deserved such an in- 
 terpretation ? Did they honestly believe that 
 it was right to hold him responsible for what 
 Oliver and Paxton had said? Unfortunately 
 there is some testimony to show that their con- 
 duct was due to deliberate artifice. Says their 
 victim : — 
 
 "When some of the governor's friends urged to 
 the persons principally concerned . . . the unwar- 
 rantableness of asserting or insinuating what they 
 knew to be false and injurious, they justified them- 
 selves from the necessity of the thing; the public 
 interest, the safety of the people, making it abso- 
 lutely necessary that his weight and influence among 
 them should by any means whatever be destroyed." 
 
 Further, if Hutchinson's testimony in his 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 233 
 
 own case is not to be received, what are we to 
 say of Franklin's suspicious hint, who, in trans- 
 mitting the letters, counsels the use of mystery 
 and manoeuvring, that, " as distant objects seen 
 only through a mist appear larger, the same 
 may happen from the mystery in this case." ^ 
 , There never were cooler heads than stood on 
 I the shoulders of some of those leaders ; it is 
 ' impossible to think that they were blinded. 
 ,' The complicity of Samuel Adams with the 
 I whole affair is unmistakable. His name occurs 
 ( constantly in the course of the proceedings ; his 
 I ascendency among the Whigs at the moment 
 ' was at its highest. '' Master of the puppets," 
 his writhing adversary calls him, while also de' 
 \ daring that through some kind of evil sorcery 
 ' many of the representatives, in spite of them- 
 I selves, were made by him to vote against their 
 * will and judgment. The whole transaction has 
 a more than questionable color, and though pa- 
 triotic historians and biographers have been 
 able to see nothing in it except, so to speak, a 
 I dove-like iridescence, an unprejudiced judge will 
 I detect the scaly gleam of a creature in better 
 repute for his wisdom than his harmlessness 
 ( Dr. Johnson might have folded Hutchinson 
 and Samuel Adams to his burly breast in an 
 
 1 G. E. Ellis, Atlantic Monthly, May, 1884, p. 672 ; also. Cur- 
 wen's Jour., App., art. " Hutchinson." I cannot, however, find 
 the letter to Cooper in which this passage is said to occur. 
 
234 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 ecstasy, such thoroughly good haters of one 
 another were they. It is hard to say what the 
 casuistry was which enabled the Puritan poli- 
 tician, upright though he was, to make crooked 
 treatment of his Tory hete noir square with his 
 sense of right. Apparently he felt that Hutch- 
 inson was the devil, who might rightly be fought 
 with his own fire. 
 
 Besides the controversy over the letters sent 
 by Franklin, the House, in the summer session 
 of 1773, discussed the independency of the 
 judges of the Superior Court. A series of re- 
 solves was passed demanding of those officers 
 whether they would receive the grants of the 
 Assembly or accept their support from the 
 crown, and making it the indispensable duty 
 of " the Commons " of the Province to impeach 
 them before the governor and Council if their 
 reply should be delayed. Hutchinson upon this 
 at once prorogued the House. The term " the 
 Commons " had only lately been applied to the 
 Assembly. Says Hutchinson : — 
 
 " Mr. Adams would not neglect even small circum- 
 stances. In four or five years a great change had 
 been made in the language of the general Assembly. 
 That which used to be called the ' court-house,' or 
 ' town-house,' had acquired the name of the ' state- 
 house ; ' the ' House of Representatives of Massachu- 
 setts Bay,' had assumed the name of ' his majesty's 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 235 
 
 Commons ; ' the debates of the Assembly are styled 
 ' parliamentary debates ; ' acts of Parliament, * acts of 
 the British Parliament ; ' the Province laws, ' the laws 
 of the land ; ' the charter, a grant from royal grace or 
 favor, is styled the ' compact ; ' and now ' impeach' is 
 used for ' complain,' and the * House of Representa- 
 tives ' are made analogous to the ' commons,' and the 
 ' Council ' to the ' Lords,' to decide in case of high 
 crimes and misdemeanors." 
 
 Townsliend's revenue act of 1767, by wMcli 
 a tax was laid upon painters' colors, glass, paper, 
 and tea, was passed less for the sake of gaining 
 a revenue than for maintaining the abstract 
 right of taxation. The yield had been from 
 the first quite insignificant, and as has been 
 seen, the tax was now entirely repealed, ex- 
 cept upon the single article of tea. In the ham- 
 pered commerce of that time, duties were lev- 
 ied upon articles both when exported and when 
 imported. In the present case the duty upon 
 tea exported from England was taken off, and 
 threepence a pound was assigned as the impost 
 to be paid on the importation into America. 
 As the export duties to be removed were far 
 larger than this import duty, the tea could be 
 sold for a price considerably lower than hereto- 
 fore. A double benefit was hoped for, — that 
 the Americans, won by cheap tea, might be 
 brought to acquiesce in a tax levied by Parlia- 
 
236 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 ment, and also that the prosperity of the impor- 
 tant East India Company would be furthered, 
 which for some time past, owing to the colonial 
 non-importation agreements, had been obliged 
 to see its tea accumulate in its warehouses, until 
 the amount reached 17,000,000 pounds. The 
 project was Lord North's, and passed Parlia- 
 ment in May, by a large majority. 
 
 Samuel Adams, forever alert, saw the danger 
 in a moment, and was ready with his expedient. 
 Steps must be forthwith taken for a closer bond 
 among the colonies, " after the plan first pro- 
 posed by Virginia." A congress of delegates, 
 to meet at some central point, must be arranged 
 for ; it was time for the representatives of the 
 colonies to come together face to face. The 
 credit of originating the idea of a continental 
 congress belongs to Franklin, who in 1754 
 brought about the congress at Albany. Its 
 main object then, however, had been to take 
 measures for a united resistance against the 
 French. The Stamp Act congress, ten years 
 later, suggested in Samuel Adams's often re- 
 ferred to "instructions" of that year, was the 
 first meeting of colonial delegates to resist Eng- 
 land. In 1766, '68, '70, and '71, we find him 
 pushing measures looking toward union ; now 
 in 1773 he is outspoken and urgent. His posi- 
 tion in the leading colony gave him an oppor 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 237 
 
 tunity to work effectively, such as others else- 
 where did not possess. When in July of this 
 year Franklin wrote to Gushing from London 
 suggesting a congress, Samuel Adams had al- 
 ready hinted at it strongly in the preceding 
 January, and Church in his oration on the 5th 
 of March had uttered the prophetic passage 
 that has been quoted. 
 
 Samuel Adams urged during the present 
 summer, in a series of essays in the " Boston 
 Gazette," the project of a congress as the only 
 salvation of the country. Though Hutchin- 
 son was under obloquy, the cause of the Whigs 
 was far from being in a satisfactory condition. 
 Many were tired of controversy. Gushing, for 
 instance, who had been addressed directly by 
 Dartmouth, the colonial secretary, favored a 
 submissive policy, believing that grievances 
 would be redressed, " if these high points about 
 the supreme authority of Parliament were to 
 fall asleep." Such laxness Samuel Adams tried 
 hard to counteract. Lord Dartmouth to be 
 sure was thoroughly well-meaning. His marked 
 religious character, unusual among men of his 
 station, made him acceptable to the New Eng- 
 landers. He proposed that there should be 
 mutual concessions. Only submit and you 
 shall be treated most graciously, was his tone. 
 But Samuel Adams opposed with all his might. 
 
238 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 At length, as " Observation " in the " Boston 
 Gazette," September 27, 1773, Samuel Adams 
 wrote : — 
 
 " The very important dispute between Britain and 
 America has, for a long time, employed the pens of 
 statesmen in both countries, but no plan of union is 
 yet agreed on between them ; the dispute still con- 
 tinues, and everything floats in uncertainty. As I 
 have long contemplated the subject with fixed atten- 
 tion, I beg leave to offer a proposal to my country- 
 men, namely, that a congress of American States 
 be assembled as soon as possible ; draw up a Bill of 
 Rights, and publish it to the world ; choose an am- 
 bassador to reside at the British Court to act for the 
 united Colonies ; appoint where the Congress shall 
 annually meet, and how it may be summoned upon 
 any extraordinary occasion, what farther steps are 
 necessary to be taken, &c." 
 
 Three weeks later, October 11, in the " Ga- 
 zette " appeared the following : — 
 
 " But the Question will be asked, — How shall the 
 Colonies force their Oppressors to proper Terms ? 
 This Question has been often answered already by our 
 Politicians, viz : * Form an Independent State,' ' An 
 American Commonwealth.' This Plan has been 
 proposed, and I can't find that any other is likely to 
 answer the great Purpose of preserving our Liberties. 
 I hope, therefore, it will be well digested and for- 
 warded, to be in due Time put into Execution, un* 
 less our Political Fathers can secure American Liber- 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 239 
 
 ties in some other Way. As the Population, Wealth, 
 and Power of this Continent are swiftly increasing, 
 we certainly have no Cause to doubt of our Success 
 in maintaining Liberty by forming a Commonwealth, 
 or whatever Measure Wisdom may point out for the 
 Preservation of the Rights of America." 
 
 The legislative committee of correspondence 
 had heretofore done little. Samuel Adams, 
 who by means of the Boston committee had 
 largely re-invigorated the spirit of liberty in the 
 Province, now set the other agency at work, 
 that a similar spirit might be sent throughout 
 the thirteen colonies. It was necessary that 
 Gushing, who, as speaker, was ex officio chair- 
 man of the committee, should sign the mani- 
 festo. Hutchinson's term " the puppets," of 
 whom Samuel Adams was said to be the mas- 
 ter, was perhaps more applicable to Gushing 
 than to some of his fellows. By a skillful touch 
 of the master's fingers, the respectable wooden 
 personality that did duty as the legislative fig- 
 ure-head, responded to his wire and danced to 
 the patriot measure. The document is wise, 
 moderate, thoroughly appreciative of the cir- 
 cumstances of the hour. 
 
 " We are far from desiring," thus the paper con- 
 cluded, " that the Connection between Britain and 
 America should be broken. Esto perpetua is our ar- 
 dent wish, but upon the Terms only of Equal Liberty. 
 
240 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 If we cannot establish an Agreement upon these 
 terms, let us leave it to another and a wiser Genera- 
 tion. But it may be worth Consideration, that the 
 work is more likely to be well done at a time when 
 the Ideas of Liberty and its Importance are strong in 
 men's minds. There is Danger that these Ideas may 
 grow faint and languid. Our Posterity may be 
 accustomed to bear the Yoke, and being inured to 
 Servility, they may even bow the Shoulder to the 
 Burden. It can never be expected that a people, 
 however numerous, will form and execute as wise 
 plans to perpetuate their Liberty, when they have 
 lost the Spirit and feeling of it." 
 
 The document was of course written by Mr. 
 Adams, and the selection given is copied from 
 his autograph. 
 
 Hutchinson now wrote to Dartmouth a letter 
 containing the following passage. Speaking of 
 the Whigs he said : — 
 
 " They have for their head one of the members 
 from Boston, who was the first person that openly, 
 in any public assembly, declared for absolute independ- 
 ence, and who, from a natural obstinacy of temper, 
 and from many years' practice in politics, is, perhaps, 
 as well qualified to excite the people to any extrava- 
 gance in theory or practice as any person in America. 
 From large defalcations, as collector of taxes for the 
 town of Boston, and other acts in pecuniary matters, 
 his influence was small until within these seven years; 
 but since that, it has been gradually increasing, until 
 
THE HUTCHINISON LETTERS. 241 
 
 he has obtained such an ascendency as to direct the 
 town of Boston and the House of Representatives, 
 and consequently the Council, just as he pleases. A 
 principle has been avowed by some who are attached 
 to him, the most inimical that can be devised, that in 
 political matters the public good is above all other 
 considerations ; and every rule of morality, when in 
 competition with it, may very well be dispensed with. 
 Upon this principle, the whole proceeding, with re- 
 spect to the letters of the governor and lieutenant- 
 governor, of which he was the chief conductor, has 
 been vindicated. In ordinary affairs, the counsels of 
 the whole opposition unite. Whenever there appears 
 a disposition to any conciliatory measures, this person, 
 by his art and skill, prevents any effect ; sometimes 
 by exercising his talents in the newspapers, an in- 
 stance of which is supposed to have been given in 
 the paper enclosed to your lordship in my letter, 
 number twenty-seven, at other times by an open op- 
 position, and this sometimes in the House, where he 
 has defeated every attempt as often as any has been 
 made. But his chief dependence is upon a Boston 
 town-meeting, where he originates his measures, 
 which are followed by the rest of the towns, and of 
 course are adopted or justified by the Assembly. 
 
 " I could mention to your lordship many instances 
 of the like kind. To his influence it has been chiefly 
 owing, that when there has been a repeal of acts of 
 Parliament complained of as grievous, and when any 
 concessions have been made to the Assembly, as the 
 removal of it to Boston and the like, (notwithstanding 
 16 
 
242 SAMUEL ADAMS, 
 
 the professions made beforehand by the moderate 
 part of the opposition, that such measures would (]uiet 
 the minds of the people,) he has had art enough to 
 improve them to raise the people higher by assuring 
 them, if they will but persevere, they may bring the 
 nation to their own terms ; and the people are more 
 easily induced to a compliance from the declaration 
 made, that they are assured by one or two gentlemen 
 in England, on whose judgment they can depend, 
 that nothing more than a firm adhesion to their de- 
 mands is necessary to obtain a compliance with every 
 one of them. Could he have been made dependent, 
 I am not sure that he might not have been taken off 
 by an appointment to some public civil office. But, 
 as the constitution of the Province is framed, such an 
 appointment would increase his abilities, if not his 
 disposition to do mischief, for he well knows that I 
 have not a Council which in any case would consent 
 to his removal, and nobody can do more than he to 
 prevent my ever having such a Council." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE TEA-PABTY. 
 
 The colonies generally were resolved not to 
 receive the tea. Resolutions were adopted in 
 Philadelphia, October 18, requesting the agents 
 of the East India Company, who were to sell 
 the tea, to resign, which they did. Boston at 
 once followed the example. Acting upon the 
 precedent of the time of the Stamp Act, when 
 Oliver, the stamp commissioner, had resigned 
 his commission under the Liberty Tree, a plac- 
 ard was posted everywhere on the 3d of No- 
 vember, inviting the people of Boston and the 
 neighboring towns to be present at Liberty 
 Tree that day at noon, to witness the resigna- 
 tion of the consignees of the tea, and hear them 
 swear to re-ship to London what teas should ar- 
 rive. The placard closed, — 
 
 ''I^^Show me the man that dares take this 
 down." 
 
 At the time appointed, representatives Ad- 
 ams, Hancock, and Phillips, the selectmen and 
 town clerk, with about five hundred more, were 
 
244 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 present at the Liberty Tree. But no consign- 
 ees arrived, whereupon Molineux and Warren 
 headed a party who waited upon them. The 
 consignees, Clarke, a rich merchant, and his 
 sons, Benjamin Faneuil, Winslow, and the two 
 sons of Hutchinson, Thomas and Elisha, sat to- 
 gether in the counting-house of Clarke in King 
 Street. Admittance was refused the commit- 
 tee, and a conversation took place through a 
 window, during which the tone of the con- 
 signees was defiant. There was some talk of 
 violence, and when an attempt was made to 
 exclude the committee and the crowd attending 
 them from the building, into the first story of 
 which they had penetrated, the doors were 
 taken off their hinges and threats uttered. 
 Molineux, generally impetuous enough, but 
 now influenced probably by cooler heads, dis- 
 suaded the others from violence. A few days 
 later, a serious riot came near taking place be- 
 fore the house of Clarke in School Street ; the 
 people outside broke some windows, while from 
 the inside a pistol was fired from the second 
 story. Judicious men among the patriots, how- 
 ever, exerted themselves successfully to prevent 
 a repetition of the eiccesses at the time of the 
 Stamp Act. 
 
 A town -meeting oil November 5, in which 
 an effort of the Tories to make head against 
 
THE TEA-PARTY. 245 
 
 the popular feeling came to naught, showed 
 how overwhelming was the determination to 
 oppose the introduction of the tea. Precisely 
 how the plans were organized — precisely who 
 many of the actors were in the few eventful 
 weeks that remained of 1773, can now never 
 be known. A frequent meeting-place was the 
 room over the printing-office of Edes & Gill, 
 now the corner of Court Street and Franklin Ave. 
 Samuel Adams, never more fully the master 
 than during these lowering autumn and winter 
 days when such a crisis was encountered, was 
 often at the printing office ; and there and at 
 meetings of the North End Club much was ar- 
 ranged. No voice needs to speak out of the si- 
 lence of those undercurrents to let us know that 
 he was at the head. When news arrived on 
 the 17th that three tea-ships were on the way 
 to Boston, for a second time a town-meeting 
 demanded through a committee, of which Sam- 
 uel Adams was a member, the resignation of 
 the consignees. They evaded the demand ; the 
 town-meeting voted their answer not satisfac- 
 tory, and at once adjourned without debate or 
 comment. The silence was mysterious ; what 
 was impending none could tell. 
 
 The consignees, appreciating their danger, 
 tried to shift their responsibility upon the gov- 
 ernor and Council, but without effect. The 
 
246 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Committee of Correspondence of the town, 
 combining with itself the committees of Rox- 
 bury, Dorchester, Brookline, Cambridge, and 
 Charlestown, and so forming what Hutchinson 
 called "a little senate," met frequently and 
 maintained a general oversight. They pledged 
 themselves to resist the landing and sale of the 
 tea, and sent out through the Province a joint 
 letter, the composition of Samuel Adams : — 
 " We think, gentlemen," this document said, 
 " that we are in duty bound to use our most 
 strenuous endeavors to ward off the impending 
 evil, and we are sure that upon a fair and cool 
 inquiry into the nature and tendency of the 
 ministerial plan, you will think this tea now 
 coming to us more to be dreaded than plague 
 and pestilence." The necessity of resistance 
 was strongly declared, and the advice of the 
 committees urgently asked. 
 
 The incipient union is becoming very plain 
 at the time of the Boston tea-party. In the 
 crises of an earlier date, each town or province 
 liad met the occasion in a condition of more or 
 less isolation. Now, however, as never before, 
 there appears a formal bond ; the newspapers 
 teem with missives, not only from Massachu- 
 setts towns, but from the colonies in general, 
 expressing sympathy, fear that the peril will 
 not be adequately met, encouragement to bold- 
 
THE TEA-PARTY. 247 
 
 ness, praise for decision, — missives proceeding 
 from the regularly organized committees, show- 
 ing how the ligaments are knitting that are to 
 bind so great a body. 
 
 On the 28th, the first of the tea-ships, the 
 Dartmouth, Captain Hall, sailed into the 
 harbor. Sunday though it was, the Committee 
 of Correspondence met, obtained from Benja- 
 min Rotch, the Quaker owner of the Dart- 
 mouth, a promise not to enter the vessel until 
 Tuesday, and made preparations for a mass- 
 meeting at Faneuil Hall for Monday forenoon, 
 to which Samuel Adams was authorized to in- 
 vite the surrounding towns. A stirring placard 
 the next morning brought the townsmen and 
 their neighbors to the place. After the organi- 
 zation, Samuel Adams, arising among the thou- 
 sands, moved that : " As the town have deter- 
 mined at a late meeting legally assembled that 
 they will to the utmost of their power prevent 
 the landing of the tea, the question be now 
 put, — whether this body are absolutely deter- 
 mined that the tea now arrived in Captain Hall 
 shall be returned to the place from whence it 
 came." There was not a dissenting voice. The 
 meeting had now become larger even than the 
 famous one of the Massacre. As usual they 
 surged across King Street to the Old South, 
 once niore under the eyes of Hutchinson, who. 
 
248 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 as at the time of the Massacre, who could look 
 down upon tliem from the chamber in the State 
 House where he was sitting with the Council. 
 Samuel Adams's motion was repeated, with the 
 addition : ^' Is it the firm resolution of this 
 body that the tea shall not only be sent back, 
 but that no duty shall be paid thereon ? " 
 Again there was no dissenting voice. In the 
 afternoon, the meeting having resolved that the 
 tea should go back in the same ship in which 
 it had come, Rotch, the owner of the Dart- 
 mouth, protested, but was sternly forbidden, at 
 his peril, to enter the tea. Captain Hall also 
 was forbidden to land any portion of it. " Ad- 
 ams was never in greater glory," says Hutch- 
 inson. 
 
 The next morning, November 30, the peo- 
 ple again assembling, the consignees made it 
 known that it was out of their power to send 
 the tea back; but they promised that they 
 would store it until word should come from 
 their " constituents " as to its disposal. While 
 the meeting deliberated, Greenleaf, the sheriff 
 of Suffolk, appeared with a message from the 
 governor. Samuel Adams gave it as his judg- 
 ment that the sheriff might be heard ; ujDon 
 which the paper was read. Hutchinson blamed 
 the meeting sharply, and concluded by " warn- 
 ing, exhorting, and requiring " the assemblage 
 
THE TEA-PARTY. 249 
 
 to disperse, and to " surcease all further unlaw- 
 ful proceedings at their utmost peril." The 
 crowd hissed the official heartily, who at once 
 beat a retreat. Copley, the artist, who has al- 
 ready appeared in our story as painting the 
 portrait of the "man of the town-meeting," 
 at the time when the regiments were driven to 
 the Castle, was much liked for his honesty and 
 good-nature. As the son-in-law of the con- 
 signee, Richard Clarke, and at the same time 
 popular in the town, he was well-fitted to be 
 a mediator. He now asked of the meeting 
 whether the consignees would be civilly treated, 
 if they should appear before it. Upon assur- 
 ance that they would be, he went at once to 
 the Castle, whither the Clarkes had betaken 
 themselves, one must allow with perfect good 
 reason, if they valued their safety. He could 
 not prevail upon them, however, to face the 
 assembly, and not long after we find him on 
 the Tory side, until at length he leaves Amer- 
 ica. 
 
 The Dartmouth each night was watched by 
 a strong guard ; armed patrols, too, were es- 
 tablished, and six couriers held themselves 
 ready, if there should be need, to alarm the 
 country. The most vigorous resolutions were 
 passed, and a committee was appointed, with 
 Samuel Adams at the head, to send intelligence 
 
250 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 far and wide. During the first week in De- 
 cember arrived the Eleanor and the Beaver, 
 also tea-ships, which were moored near the 
 Dartmouth, and subjected to the same over- 
 sight. The " True Sons of Liberty " posted 
 about the town the most spirited placards. 
 From the sister towns the post-riders came 
 spurring in haste with responses to the mani- 
 festo of the Committee of Correspondence, all 
 which Samuel Adams took care to have at once 
 published, with whatever rumors there might 
 be as to the conduct of the other provinces re- 
 specting tea, which, as all knew, might be ex- 
 pected to arrive in other ports besides Boston. 
 
 Hutchinson, in spite of himself, had become, 
 one is forced to say through the machinations 
 of the Whigs, little more than a cipher in his 
 own jurisdiction. His influence was for the 
 time being completely broken down, and though 
 the fleet lay in the harbor, and the weak regi- 
 ments were at the Castle, yet the popular man- 
 ifestation was so general and threatening that 
 he could make no head against it. It is absurd 
 to accuse him or the consignees of cowardice 
 because they felt they were in danger in the 
 town. The latter had good reason to seek the 
 protection of the Castle, and the governor 
 might well prefer to occupy his country house. 
 For several times the air was full of riot, and 
 
THE TEA-PARTY. 251 
 
 Hutchinson and his friends had cause to know 
 that a Boston riot might be a terrible thing. 
 The governor could not depend upon any jus- 
 tice of the peace to make a requisition for the 
 use of the military. Whether he himself had 
 power to make such a requisition lawfully was 
 a matter open to doubt. He could expect no 
 support from his Council, — his own party were 
 completely overawed. He showed no want of 
 spirit at this time. Says Richard Frothing- 
 ham : " His course does not show one sign of 
 vacillation from first to last, but throughout 
 bears the marks of clear, cold, passionless in- 
 flexibility." It is rather amusing to read his 
 summons to Hancock, commander of the Bos- 
 ton cadets, to hold his force in readiness for the 
 preservation of order ; for Hancock, however 
 he may have coquetted with the Tories shortly 
 before, was now a red-hot Whig, as were most 
 of the cadets, who were in great part them- 
 selves in the " rabble." The governor de- 
 nounced, threatened, pleaded, without yielding 
 a hair from his position that the authority of 
 Parliament must be maintained, although, as 
 we know now, it went sorely against his wish 
 that the tax on tea was retained, and he would 
 gladly have had things as they were before the 
 Stamp Act. 
 
 The days flew by. At length jame the end 
 
252 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 of tlie time of probation. If the cargo of the 
 Dartmouth had not been " entered " within that 
 period, the ship, according to the revenue laws, 
 must be confiscated. Rotch, the Quaker owner, 
 had signified his willingness to send the ship 
 back to England with the cargo on board, if he 
 could procure a clearance. The customs ofii- 
 cials stood on technicalities ; under the circum- 
 stances a clearance could not be granted. The 
 grim British admiral ordered the Active and 
 the Kingfisher from his fleet to train their 
 broadsides on the channels, and sink whatever 
 craft should try to go to sea without the 
 proper papers. The governor alone had power 
 to override these obstacles. It was competent 
 for him to grant a permit which the revenue 
 men and the admiral must respect. If he re- 
 fused to do this, then on the next day the legal 
 course was for the revenue ofiicers to seize the 
 Dartmouth and land the tea under the guns of 
 the fleet. 
 
 It was the 16th of December. A crowd of 
 seven thousand filled the Old South and the 
 streets adjoining. Nothing like it had ever 
 been known. Town- meeting had followed 
 town-meeting until the excitement was at fever 
 heat. The indefatigable Committee of Corre- 
 spondence had, as it were, scattered fire through- 
 out the whole country. The people from deep 
 
THE TEA-PARTY. 263 
 
 in the interior had poured over the "Neck" into 
 the little peninsula to see what was ^coming ; 
 the beacons were ready for lighting, and every- 
 where eyes were watching, expecting to see 
 them blaze. Poor Quaker Rotch, like his sect 
 in general, quite indifferent to great political 
 principles at stake, ready to submit to "the 
 powers that be," and anxious about his pelf, 
 felt himself, probably, the most persecuted of 
 men, when the monster meeting forced him in 
 the December weather to make his way out to 
 Milton Hill to seek the permit from Hutchin- 
 son. While the merchant journeyed thither 
 and back, the great meeting deliberated. Even 
 as ardent a spirit as Josiah Quincy counseled 
 moderation ; but when the question was put 
 whether the meeting would suffer the tea to 
 be landed, the people declared against it unan- 
 imously. 
 
 Meantime darkness had fallen upon the 
 short winter day. The crowd still waited in 
 the gloom of the church, dimly lighted here 
 and there by candles. Rotch reappeared just 
 after six, and informed the meeting that the 
 governor refused to grant the permit until the 
 vessels were properly qualified. As soon as 
 the report had been made, Samuel Adams 
 arose, for it was he who had been moderator, 
 and exclaimed : " This meeting can do nothing 
 
254 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 more to save the country.'' It was evidently a 
 concerted signal, for instantly the famous war- 
 whoop was heard, and the two or three score of 
 '-'- Mohawks " rushed by the doors, and with the 
 crowd behind them hurried in the brighten- 
 ing moonlight to Griffin's wharf, where lay the 
 ships. The tea could not go back to England ; 
 it must not be landed. The cold waters of the 
 harbor were all that remained for it. Three 
 hundred and forty-two chests were cast over- 
 board. Nothing else was harmed, neither per- 
 son nor property. All was so quiet that those 
 at a distance even could hear in the calm air 
 the ripping open of the thin chests as the tea 
 was emptied. The "Mohawks" found helpers, 
 so that in all perhaps one hundred and fifty 
 were actively concerned. Not far off in the 
 harbor lay the ships of the fleet, and the Castle 
 with the " Sam Adams regiments." But no 
 one interfered. The work done, the '^ Mohawks " 
 marched to the fife and drum through the 
 streets, chaffing on the way Admiral Montague, 
 who was lodging in the town. He gave a surly 
 growl in return, which tradition has preserved. 
 " Well, boys, you 've had a fine pleasant even- 
 ing for your Indian caper, haven't you? But 
 mind, you have got to pay the fiddler yet ! " 
 " Oh, never mind ! " shouted Pitts, the leader, 
 '' never mind, squire ; just come out here, if 
 
THE TEA-PARTY. 255 
 
 you please, and we '11 settle the bill in two 
 minutes." ^ 
 
 Next morning, while the good Bohea, soaked 
 by the tide, was heaped in windrows on the 
 Dorchester shore, the rueful Boston mothers 
 steeped from catnip and pennyroyal a cup 
 which certainly could not inebriate, and which 
 ; even Sam Adams's robust patriotism could 
 hardly have regarded as cheering. 
 
 Through this whole crisis Hancock was in 
 the front, like a brave man, risking his life and 
 his means. Warren, too, and another public- 
 I spirited physician, Dr. Thomas Young, who soon 
 • after, by removal from the country, brought to 
 an end a career which had promised to become 
 ' illustrious, were earnestly engaged. To these 
 t must be added Josiah Quincy, John Pitts, John 
 I Scollay, and the other selectmen, with William 
 ^ Cooper, the intrepid town clerk. But in the 
 whole affair Samuel Adams was more than ever 
 I the supreme mind. To his discretion was left 
 i the giving of the signal ; as the controller of 
 I the Committee of Correspondence, he was prac- 
 I tically the ruler of the town ; his spirit per- 
 vaded every measure. In regard to the whole 
 \ secret development, which can now never be 
 known, it is probable that his influence was 
 no less dominant than in what was done be- 
 fore the world. 
 
 1 Lossing's Field Book, i. 499. 
 
256 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 The couriers galloped with all the four winds 
 to spread the news, Paul Revere reaching 
 Philadelphia shortly before Christmas. Here 
 is a specimen of the hastily prepared notes 
 they carried from the Committee of Corre- 
 spondence. It is copied from the autograph in 
 Samuel Adiims's papers, the ^'s for the most 
 part uncrossed, and punctuation neglected in 
 the breathless haste in which it was written. 
 
 Boston, Dec. llth, 1773. 
 
 Gentlemen, — We inform you in great Haste 
 that every chest of Tea on board the three Ships in 
 this Town was destroyed the last evening without the 
 least Injury to the Vessels or any other property. 
 Our Enemies must acknowledge that these people 
 have acted upon pure and upright Principle, the 
 people at the Cape will we hope behave with pro- 
 priety and as becomes men resolved to save their 
 Country. 
 
 To Plym° 
 
 & to Sandwich with this addition 
 
 We trust you will afford them 
 Your immediate Assistance and Advice. 
 
 The reference at the close of the note is to 
 still a fourth tea-ship which had been cast away 
 on the back of Cape Cod. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 
 
 The Boston leaders were now in great dan- 
 ger of arrest and deportation to England for 
 trial, the members of the Committee of Corre- 
 spondence in particular being shadowed by spies 
 who tried to obtain all information that could 
 be made to count against them. For mutual 
 protection fifteen members of the committee 
 bound themselves to support and vindicate one 
 another, by an agreement which it is interest- 
 ing to read. In this document a circumstance 
 slight in itself, but important as revealing the 
 recognized leadership of Samuel Adams, is to 
 be noticed. The first signer is a worthy citi- 
 zen, Robert Pierpont, but the name has been 
 erased, and that of Samuel Adams put in its 
 place, Pierpont and the other associates coming 
 afterward. Plainly the committee regarded it 
 as presumptuous that any name should be writ- 
 ten before his. The energy of the body was 
 untiring. South Carolina was encouraged, and 
 the tea received there was left to rot in cellars 
 
 17 
 
258 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 in Charleston. Philadelphia and New York 
 responded with equal spirit. Through the com- 
 mittees the thirteen colonies were now linked, 
 and the desire for a Congress was becoming 
 general and imperative. 
 
 When the legislature met in January, 1774, 
 to which time it had been prorogued, Samuel 
 Adams vindicated the Committees of Corre- 
 spondence and their activity in the intervals 
 between the sessions, in reply to a message of 
 Hutchinson, who declared the king's disappro- 
 bation of such institutions. Comparing the 
 state papers of the veteran disputant at this 
 time with those of ten years previous, one notes 
 a change in the grounds upon which he chooses 
 to base his striving. There is less reference to 
 precedents and documentary authorities, and 
 more frequent appeal to natural right. '' The 
 welfare and safety of the people," " the good 
 of the people," are phrases which appear 
 more often. Whether it was that he felt that 
 he could express himself more freely since 
 public sentiment had become so far educated, 
 or whether his own conceptions ripened and 
 altered, his arguments and his watchwords be- 
 came different. Hutchinson wrote : — 
 
 " The leaders here seem to acknowledge that their 
 cause is not to be defended on constitutional princi 
 pies, and Adams now gives out that there is no need 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 259 
 
 of it ; they are upon better ground ; all men have a 
 natural right to change a bad constitution for a better, 
 whenever they have it in their power." ^ 
 
 Elsewhere, too, Hutchinson declares to Lord 
 Dartmouth that a principle had been avowed 
 by the patriots that " the public good was above 
 all considerations." 
 
 An important topic during the present ses- 
 sion was the one which had now for some time 
 been agitated, and which had been pointedly 
 dwelt upon at the session of the preceding 
 summer, whether the judges of the Superior 
 Court should be suffered to receive salaries 
 from the king, and thus be made quite inde- 
 pendent of the Province. The legislature had 
 passed resolves requiring the judges to de- 
 cline the royal grant ; and one of the five, 
 Trowbridge, whose feeble bodily condition was 
 believed, at any rate by the Tories, to have 
 unnerved him, had obeyed. His associates fol- 
 lowed his example. " One of them assured 
 me," says Hutchinson, " that he was con- 
 strained to a compliance, merely because his 
 person, his wife and children, and his property, 
 were at the mercy of the populace, from whom 
 there was nothing which he had not to fear." 
 Peter Oliver alone, the chief justice, refused to 
 1 Copied from autograph in Mass. Arch. April 7^ 1773. 
 
260 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 yield to the legislative pressure, and was at 
 once taken in hand. The judges, in truth, 
 seem to have been miserably starved. Even 
 their door-keeper is said to have had a larger 
 stipend than theirs. On circuits they traveled 
 eleven hundred, sometimes thirteen hundred 
 miles a year. The highest grant made to any 
 one of them was .£120 a year, and it had been 
 much less. The chief justice received only 
 X150. Small as the salary was, the grant was 
 sometimes postponed. Respected members of 
 the bench, not long before, had lived in penilry 
 and died insolvent. Peter Oliver set forth that 
 he had been a justice of the Superior Court 
 seventeen years ; that his salary had been in- 
 sufficient for his support ; that his estate had 
 suffered, and that he had repeatedly had it in 
 mind to resign, but had been encouraged to 
 hope for something better. It had always beea 
 a hope deferred, and he announced that he 
 proposed now to accept the offer of the king. 
 
 When Oliver's purpose became plain, steps 
 were promptly taken in the legislature for his 
 impeachment. Hereupon sprang up a new con- 
 troversy with the governor. The Assembly 
 assumed that since the chief justice was ap- 
 pointed by the governor by the advice and 
 consent of the Council, the governor and 
 Council by implication, though it might not 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 261 
 
 be plainly expressed, possessed also a power 
 of removal. Hatchinson declared that the gov- 
 ernor and Council had no power to sit as a 
 court in such a case ; and when the committee 
 of the Assembly, with Samuel Adams at its 
 head, presented themselves before the Council 
 to institute proceedings, the governor held aloof. 
 A neat ^ece of management here occurred, 
 in which Adams and Bowdoin played into one 
 another's hands as they had long been accus- 
 tomed to do, dexterously circumventing an ob- 
 stacle, and making a precedent sure to be 
 afterwards useful. Poor Hutchinson, not less 
 shrewd than they, saw it all, but he had be- 
 come the merest shadow of power. 
 
 " Mr. Adams addressed the Council in this form : 
 ' May it please your Excellency and the honorable 
 Council.' Mr. Bowdoin, no doubt by concert, ob- 
 served to him that the governor was not in Council. 
 This gave opportunity for an answer : ' The governor 
 is " presumed " to be present.' This was certainly a 
 very idle presumption. It gave pretense, however, 
 for Mr. Adams to report to the House, and, being 
 clerk of the House, afterwards to enter upon the 
 journals, that the committee had impeached the chief 
 justice before the governor and Council, and prayed 
 that they would assign a time for hearing and deter- 
 mining thereon." 
 
 The cunning coryphoei of the two houses in 
 
262 SAMUEL ADAMS, 
 
 this way were preparing to dispense with the 
 governor entirely. He prorogued the Court 
 before proceedings could go further, sending 
 his secretary for that purpose. The Council 
 received the message, but the House barred its 
 door against him until they had completed cer- 
 tain important measures. The last act of the 
 session, while the door was still kept fast, was 
 to direct the Committee of Correspondence to 
 write to Franklin Avitli respect to the public 
 grievances, — the final appeal, direct or indi- 
 rect, which Massachusetts made for redress. 
 
 Hutchinson, broken in health by the treat- 
 ment he had received from a people whom he 
 sincerely loved and honestly desired to serve, 
 begged the king for leave of absence. It was 
 promptly granted, and the governor would have 
 early availed himself of it, but for the death of 
 Andrew Oliver, the lieutenant-governor. If 
 Hutchinson should now absent himself, author- 
 ity must fall into the hands of the Council, 
 which would be a complete surrender to the 
 Whigs. He therefore postponed his departure 
 until a new appointment could be made. 
 
 On the 5th of March the oration in com- 
 memoration of the Massacre was given by John 
 Hancock. He is described as making a fine ap- 
 pearance, and produced upon the vast assembly 
 a great impression. Wells, whose admiration 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 263 
 
 for his great-grandfather is perfectly unquali- 
 fied, insists, with rather naive unconsciousness 
 that there can be anything crooked in such a 
 proceeding, that Samuel Adams wrote the ora- 
 tion for Hancock, and then sat blandly by as 
 moderator while the people were deceived into 
 the belief that the man who surpassed all in 
 social graces and length of purse could thun- 
 der also from the rostrum with the best. At 
 the end, moreover, the moderator, at the head 
 of the committee appointed by the meeting, 
 thanked the orator in the name of the town for 
 his " elegant and spirited oration." Really 
 there is nothing in the character of either man, 
 it must be admitted with some sadness, to 
 make the assertion seem unreasonable. Han- 
 cock was quite capable, as in his love for pop- 
 ularity he wooed the turbulent crowd, of appro- 
 priating without acknowledgment the strength 
 of some convenient Siegfried, standing invisible 
 at his side. As to Adams, since we have been 
 forced to believe that he had a principal hand 
 in the manoeuvring as regards Hutchinson's 
 letters, it will require no strain to believe him 
 capable of a peccadillo, so trifling in compar- 
 ison, as lending Hancock a little brains, that he 
 might gain a credit he did not deserve. The 
 transaction has unquestionably a good side. 
 The cause would be helped by a spirited, patri- 
 
264 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 otic speech from the handsome, well-bom man 
 whose wealth and prodigality gave him pres- 
 tige. Hancock, too, would be pleased, and so 
 more jRrmly bound. No American public man 
 ever postponed more utterly the thought of 
 self than Samuel Adams. Only let the cause 
 be helped ! No man's end was ever better, but 
 now and then in the means there was a touch 
 of trickery. 
 
 When the news of the Boston tea-party 
 reached England, Parliament, naturally much 
 incensed, prepared promptly to retaliate. Says 
 the authority from whom so much has been 
 taken, whose help, however, we are about to 
 lose : — 
 
 " This was the boldest stroke which had yet been 
 struck in America. . . . The leaders feared no con- 
 sequences. And it is certain that ever after this time 
 an opinion was easily instilled and was constantly in- 
 creasing, that the body of the people had also gone 
 too far to recede, and that an open and general revolt 
 must be the consequence ; and it was not long before 
 actual preparations were visibly making for it in 
 most parts of the Province." 
 
 While one party thus girded itself for a war 
 that was no longer to consist in words, the 
 other party pressed on with equal spirit. The 
 first retaliatory measure was the Boston Port 
 Bill, which passed about the end of March in 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 265 
 
 spite of the strenuous opposition of the friends 
 of America, and against the best judgment also 
 of Hutchinson and some of the wiser Tories. 
 The faithful Colonel Barre showed at this time 
 a curious inconsistency and confusion of ideas. 
 In a speech which causes one almost to believe 
 that the good veteran at the time had fortified 
 himself for his forensic bout with a nip of 
 Dutch courage, he declared " that he liked the 
 measure, harsh as it was ; he liked it for its 
 moderation. , . . He said, I think Boston ought 
 to be punished. She is your oldest son. (Here 
 the House laughed)." i A fortnight later, how- 
 ever, he stood sturdily with Burke and Pownall 
 in strong opposition. By the Port Bill all ships 
 were forbidden to enter or depart from the port 
 of Boston, until the contumacious town should 
 agree to pay for the destroyed tea, and in other 
 respects make the king sure of its willingness 
 to submit. Many who had hitherto been brave 
 showed now a disposition to quail. Franklin 
 wrote from England to the four Boston repre- 
 sentatives, advising that compensation for the 
 destroyed tea should be made to the East India 
 Company, as a conciliatory step. Samuel Ad- 
 ams dismissed the advice with the contemp- 
 tuous remark that " Franklin might be a great 
 philosopher, but that he was a bungling politi- 
 cian." 
 
 1 Tudor's Otis, p. 438. 
 
266 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 A second act was also passed by Parliament 
 to change the constitution of Massachusetts, 
 according to which act the Council was to be 
 appointed by the crown, the judges were to be 
 appointed and removed by the governor, the 
 juries were to be nominated and summoned by 
 the sheriffs, instead of chosen among the peo- 
 ple, and, most serious of all, an end was to be 
 put to the free town-meetings, which henceforth 
 were to assemble only as convened by the gov- 
 ernor, and to discuss only such topics as he pre- 
 scribed. 
 
 A third act was designed to protect soldiers 
 who might use violence in opposing popular 
 disturbances. Such trials as those of Captain 
 Preston and the men who fired at the Massacre 
 were not to be repeated, but any persons sim- 
 ilarly accused were to be sent to Great Britain, 
 or to some other colony, to be judged. 
 
 A fourth act, affecting Massachusetts less 
 directly than the three which have been de- 
 scribed, was, however, scarcely less exasperat- 
 ing. It was known as the Quebec Act, and 
 had as its ostensible object the settling of the 
 constitution of Canada. But the measure did 
 far more than this. In disregard of the charters 
 and rights of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New 
 York, and Virginia, the boundaries of " Que- 
 bec " were extended to the region now occupied 
 
 !1 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 267 
 
 by Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, IlHnois, and Wis- 
 consin, ■ — the whole Northwest ; for all this vast 
 territory an arbitrary rule was decreed. There 
 was to be no habeas corpus ; the people were 
 to have no power ; the religion of the pope was 
 not only tolerated, but favored. Said Thurlow, 
 in the House of Commons : " It is the only 
 proper constitution for the colonies; it ought 
 to have been given to them all when first 
 planted ; and it is what all now ought to be re- 
 duced to." Measures were also taken to meet 
 the case of riots, and special instructions were 
 sent for the arrest, at a proper and convenient 
 time, of Samuel Adams, as the " chief of the 
 revolution " above all others. General Gage, 
 commander-in-chief in America, was appointed 
 to supersede Hutchinson temporarily, the quar- 
 tering of soldiers upon the people was made 
 legal, and arrangements were entered upon for 
 increasing the military force. 
 
 Meantime in the Province, the legislature 
 being prorogued, and Hutchinson's power prac- 
 tically at an end, authority lay in the hands of 
 the Committee of Correspondence. 
 
 " The governor," says Hutchinson, "retained the 
 title of captain-general, but he had the title only. 
 The inhabitants in many parts of the Province were 
 learning the use of fire-arms, but not under the offi- 
 cers of the regiments to which they belonged They 
 
268 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 were forming themselves into companies for military 
 exercise under officers of their own choosing, hinting 
 the occasion there might soon be for employing their 
 arms in defense of their liberties." 
 
 Letters were addressed to the sister colonies, 
 deploring tlieir silence as to the question of 
 parliamentary authority. Adams, writing to 
 Franklin for the Committee, recapitulates the 
 old positions : — 
 
 " It will be vain for any to expect that the people 
 of this country will now be contented with a partial 
 and temporary relief, or that they will be amused by 
 court promises, while they see not the least relaxa- 
 tion of grievances. By the vigilance and activity of 
 Committees of Correspondence among the several 
 towns in this Province, they have been wonderfully 
 enlightened and animated. They are united in senti- 
 ment, and their opposition to unconstitutional meas- 
 ures of government is become systematical. Colony 
 communicates freely with colony. . There is a com- 
 mon affection among them, — the coynmimis sensus ; 
 and the whole continent is now become united in sen- 
 timent and in opposition to tyranny. Their old good- 
 will and affection for the parent country is not, how- 
 ever, lost. If she returns to her former moderation 
 and good humor, their affection will revive. They 
 wish for nothing more than permanent union with 
 her, upon the condition of equal liberty. This is all 
 they have been contending for, and nothing short of 
 this will, or ought to, satisfy them. When formerly 
 
HUTCHINSON AND TEE TORIES. 269 
 
 the kings of England have encroached upon the liber- 
 ties of their subjects, the subjects have thought it 
 their duty to themselves and their posterity to con- 
 tend with them till they were restored to the footing 
 of the Constitution. The events of such struggles 
 have sometimes proved fatal to crowned heads, — 
 perhaps they have never issued but in establishments 
 of the people's liberties." 
 
 Already Hutchinson had written to Dart- 
 mouth : " There are some who are ready to go 
 all the lengths of the chief incendiary, who is 
 determined, he says, to get rid of every gov- 
 ernor who obstructs them in their course to in- 
 dependency." 1 Samuel Adams himself now 
 wrote to Arthur Lee : — 
 
 " The body of the people are now in council. 
 Their opposition grows into a system. They are 
 united and resolute. And if the British administra- 
 tion and government do not return to the principles 
 of moderation and equity, the evil, which they profess 
 to aim at preventing by their rigorous measures, will 
 the sooner be brought to pass, viz.. the entire separa- 
 tion avid independence of the colonies.'' 
 
 News of the Port Bill and of the removal of 
 the seat of government to Salem were received 
 in Boston on the 10th of May, which was at 
 the same time election day. The spirit of the 
 town may be inferred from the voting. Of the 
 ^From letter-book in Mass. Archiv. July 10, 1773. 
 
270 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 five hundred and thirty-six votes cast, Hancock 
 received all, Samuel Adams all but one, and 
 Gushing and Phillips were returned with nearly 
 the same emphasis. The Committee of Corre- 
 spondence on the same day issued an invita- 
 tion to the Committees of the eight neighboring 
 towns to meet them in convention on the 12th. 
 The towns, Charlestown, Cambridge, Newton, 
 Brookline, Roxbury, Dorchester, Lynn, and 
 Lexington, were promptly on hand by their 
 Committees. The proceedings were open to 
 the public. Samuel Adams was moderator, 
 while Joseph Warren, who every day now be- 
 comes more conspicuous, managed proceedings 
 on the floor. The injustice and cruelty of the 
 act closing the port were denounced, and the 
 idea indignantly spurned of purchasing exemp- 
 tion from the penalty by paying for the tea. 
 A circular letter prepared by Samuel Adams 
 was sent from the convention to New England 
 and the middle colonies. The paper, having 
 pointed out the injustice and cruelty of the act 
 by which the inhabitants had been condemned 
 unheard, proceeds : — 
 
 " This attack, though made immediately upon us, 
 is doubtless designed for every other colony who 
 shall not surreDder their sacred rights and liberties 
 into the hands of an infamous ministry. Now, there- 
 fore, is the time when all should be united in opposi 
 tion to this violation of the liberties of all. . . . 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 271 
 
 " The single question then is, whether you con- 
 sider Boston as now suffering in the common cause, 
 and sensibly feel and resent the injury and affront of- 
 fered to her. If you do, and we cannot believe 
 otherwise, may we not, from your approbation of 
 our former conduct in defense of American liberty, 
 rely on your suspending your trade with Great Brit- 
 ain at least, which it is acknowledged will be a great 
 but necessary sacrifice to the cause of liberty, and 
 will effectually defeat the design of this act of re- 
 venge. If this should be done, you will please con- 
 sider it will be through a voluntary suffering, greatly 
 short of what we are called to endure from the im- 
 mediate hand of tyranny." 
 
 The town, too, took action in the matter. 
 May 13 a town-meeting was held, at which, 
 after prayer by Dr. Samuel Cooper, William 
 Cooper read the text of the Port Bill, which 
 the meeting straightway pronounced repugnant 
 to law, religion, and common sense. Samuel 
 Adams was moderator. The Tories were out 
 in force and strove hard to bring the meeting 
 to an agreement to pay for the tea, which course 
 would buy off the ministry from the enforce- 
 ment of the act. As has been mentioned, even 
 Franklin counseled this; but a truer instinct 
 caused the Boston Whigs to regard such a 
 course as a virtual admission that in destroying 
 the tea they had done wrong, and a concession 
 
272 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 therefore of the principle for which they had 
 been contending. They carried the day. Sam- 
 uel Adams, as moderator, transmitted the action 
 of Boston to all the colonies, accompanying his 
 report with these words : — 
 
 " The people receive the edict with indignation. 
 It IS expected by their enemies, and feared by some 
 of their friends, that this town singly will not be able 
 to support the cause under so severe a trial. As the 
 very being of every colony, considered as a free peo- 
 ple, depends upon the event, a thought so dishonor- 
 able to our brethren cannot be entertained as that 
 this town will be left to struggle alone." 
 
 Paul Revere, the patriot Mercury, carried 
 the document and also the manifesto of the 
 convention of Committees of Correspondence 
 to New York and Philadelphia, consuming in 
 liis ride to the latter town six days. The effect 
 of the papers was marvelous. Philadelphia 
 recommended a Congress, and from every quar- 
 ter came expressions of sympathy and promises 
 of help. During the summer the people in all 
 the New England and middle colonies came 
 together, and for the most part adopted the 
 phrase that '* Boston must be regarded as suf- 
 fering in the common cause." Everywhere 
 there was manful resolution that Boston must 
 be sustained. 
 
 Thomas Gage, the new military governor, on 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 273 
 
 the 13th of May, while the town-meeting just 
 described was in session, sailed up the harbor 
 in the frigate Lively, the cannon of which, 
 a year later, were to open the battle of Bunker 
 Hill. Landing first at the Castle, he entered 
 the town on the 17th with great circumstance. 
 Crowds filled the streets, and outwardly all was 
 decorous and respectful. Hancock, at the head 
 of the cadets, received him at the wharf; there 
 were proper ceremonies in the council chamber, 
 and a great banquet at Faneuil Hall, where 
 many loyal toasts were drunk. The day was 
 raw and rainy, and the public temper, in spite 
 of the outward show, no better. The instruc- 
 tions of Gage were to proceed promptly against 
 the ringleaders, who, as Dartmouth wrote, were 
 regarded as having sufficiently compromised 
 themselves by the tea-party to receive the 
 heaviest punishment. Gage, however, was re- 
 luctant to act, through a well-grounded pru- 
 dence. Though his force was increased to four 
 regiments, no leader could be arrested without 
 certainty of a popular uprising not to be lightly 
 encountered. 
 
 We have now to bid farewell to a figure who 
 has for more than ten years been scarcely less 
 conspicuous in these pages than Samuel Adams 
 himself. So far as the unfortunate Thomas 
 
 18 
 
274 8AM U EL ADAMS. 
 
 Hutchinson is concerned, the battle is over. As 
 he disappears from the scene, the reader will 
 not feel that it is an undue use of time if a 
 page or two is devoted to a final consideration 
 of him and the class he represented. 
 
 History, at this late date, can certainly afford 
 a compassionate word for the Tories, who, be- 
 sides having been forced to atone in life for the 
 mistake of taking the wrong side by undergo- 
 ing exile and confiscation, have received while 
 in their graves little but detestation. At the 
 evacuation of Boston, says Mr. Sabine in the 
 " American Loyalists," eleven hundred loyal- 
 ists retired to Nova Scotia with the army of 
 Gage, of whom one hundred and two were men 
 in official station, eighteen were clergymen, two 
 hundred and thirteen were merchants and tra- 
 ders of Boston, three hundred and eighty-two 
 were farmers and mechanics, in great part from 
 the country. The mere mention of calling and 
 station in the case of the forlorn, expatriated 
 company conveys a suggestion of respectability. 
 There were, in fact, no better men or women in 
 Massachusetts, as regards intelligence, substan- 
 tial good purpose, and piety. They had made 
 the one great mistake of conceding a supremacy 
 over themselves to distant arbitrary masters, 
 which a population nurtured under the influ- 
 ence of the revived folk-mote ought by no 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 275 
 
 means to have made ; but with this exception, 
 the exiles were not at all inferior in worth of 
 every kind to those who drove them forth. The 
 Tories were generally people of substance, their 
 stake in the country was greater even than that 
 of their opponents, their patriotism, no doubt, 
 was to the full as fervent. There is much that 
 is melancholy, of which the world knows but 
 little, connected with their expulsion from the 
 land they sincerely loved. The estates of the 
 Tories were among the fairest ; their stately 
 mansions stood on the sightliest hill - brows ; 
 the richest and best tilled meadows were their 
 farms ; the long avenue, the broad lawn, the 
 trim hedge about the garden, servants, plate, 
 pictures, — the varied circumstance, external 
 and internal, of dignified and generous house- 
 keeping, — for the most part, these things were 
 at the homes of Tories. They loved beauty, 
 dignity, and refinement. It seemed to belong 
 to such forms of life to be generously loyal to 
 king and Parliament, without questioning too 
 narrowly as to rights and taxes. The rude 
 contacts of the town-meeting were full of things 
 to offend the taste of a gentleman. The crown 
 officials were courteous, well-born, congenial, 
 having behind them the far away nobles and 
 the sovereign, who rose in the imagination, 
 unknown and at a distance as they were, sur- 
 
276 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 rounded by a brilliant glamour. Was there 
 not a certain meanness in haggling as to the 
 tax which these polite placemen and their su- 
 periors might choose to exact, or inquiring 
 narrowly as to their credentials when they 
 chose to exercise authority ? The graceful, the 
 chivalrous, the poetic, the spirits over whom 
 these feelings had power, were sure to be To- 
 ries. Democracy was something rough and 
 coarse ; independence, — what was it but a sev- 
 ering of those connections of which a colonist 
 ought to be proudest ! It was an easy thing to 
 be led into taking sides against notions like 
 these. Hence, when the country rose, many a 
 high-bred, honorable gentleman turned the key 
 in his door, drove down his line of trees with 
 his refined dame and carefully guarded children 
 at his side, turned his back on his handsome 
 estate, and put himself under the shelter of the 
 proud banner of St. George. It was a mere 
 temporary refuge, he thought, and as he pro- 
 nounced upon " Sam Adams " and the rabble a 
 gentlemanly execration, he promised himself 
 a speedy return, when discipline and loyalty 
 should have put down the ship-yard men and 
 the misled rustics. 
 
 But the return was never to be. The day 
 went against them ; they crowded into ships 
 with the gates of their country barred forever 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 277 
 
 behind them. They found themselves penni- 
 less upon shores often bleak and barren, always 
 showing scant hospitality to outcasts who came 
 empty-handed, and there they were forced to 
 begin life anew. Having chosen their side, 
 their lot was inevitable. Nor are the victors to 
 be harshly judged. There was no unnecessary 
 cruelty shown to the loyalists. The land they 
 had left belonged to the new order of things, 
 and, good men and women though they were, 
 there was nothing for them, and justl}^ so, but 
 to bear their expatriation and poverty with 
 such fortitude as they could find. Gray, 
 Clarke, Erving, and Faneuil, — Royall and 
 Vassall, Fayerweather and Leonard and Sewall 
 — families of honorable note, bound in with all 
 that was best in the life of the Province, — 
 who now can think of their destiny impitying? 
 Let us glance at the stories of two or three 
 whose names have become familiar to the reader 
 in these pages. 
 
 Andrew Oliver, the lieutenant - governor, 
 thought Parliament ought to be supreme. 
 With perfect honesty he upheld his view, be- 
 lieving not only that it was England's right, 
 but that in this sovereignty lay his country's 
 only chance for peace and order. The old Tory 
 atoned heavily for his mistake in life and even 
 in death. It broke his heart when his pri- 
 
278 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 vate letters, sent by Franklin, were used to 
 rouse against him the people's ill-will. In the 
 streets he was exposed to execration. At his 
 funeral the Assembly, taking umbrage because 
 precedence was given to the officers of the army 
 and navy, withdrew, insisting even in presence 
 of the corpse upon an unseemly punctilio. 
 When the body was lowered into the grave the 
 people cheered, and Peter Oliver, the chief jus- 
 tice, was prevented by fear for his life from do- 
 ing a brother's office at the burial. 
 
 Stout Timothy Ruggles was the son of the 
 minister of Rochester. He was six feet six 
 inches tall, and as stalwart in spirit as in frame. 
 He became a soldier, and as the French wars 
 proceeded was greatly distinguished for his ad- 
 dress and audacity. At the battle of Lake 
 George he was second in command, having 
 charge especially of the New England marks- 
 men, whose sharp fire it was that caused the 
 defeat of the Baron Dieskau. As a lawyer, af- 
 ter his return from his campaigns, his reputa- 
 tion equaled that which he had gained in the 
 field. His bold, incisive character, and a caus- 
 tic wit which he possessed, caused men to give 
 way before him. John Adams, in 1759, men- 
 tions Ruggles first and most prominently in 
 making a comparison of the leading lawyers of 
 the Province, and tells us in what his *' grand* 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 279 
 
 Ruggles then lived in Sand- 
 wich, but removing soon after to Hardwick in 
 Worcester County, he laid out for himself a 
 noble domain, greatly benefiting the agriculture 
 of the neighborhood by the introduction of im- 
 proved methods, by choice stock and an appli- 
 cation of energy and intelligence in general. 
 In public and professional life he was a rival of 
 the Otises, father and son. He was at one time 
 speaker of the Assembly. He was president of 
 the Stamp Act congress in New York, where 
 his opposition to the patriot positions caused 
 him to be censured. As the conflict between 
 crown and Assembly proceeded, he was one 
 of Samuel Adams's most dreaded opponents. 
 Through force of character he did much to 
 infuse a loyalist tone into the western part of 
 the Province, which might have been fatal to 
 the Whigs, had there not been on the spot a 
 man of Hawley's strength to counteract it. In 
 the Assembly he was Hutchinson's main re- 
 liance, able to accomplish little on account of 
 the overwhelming Whig majority, but always 
 consistently working for the ideas in which he 
 believed. When war became certain, '* Brig- 
 adier " Ruggles was counted as the best of the 
 veterans who still survived from the struggles 
 with the French ; he was much more distin- 
 guished than Washington. On the day of the 
 
280 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 battle of Lexington he organized a force of 
 loyalists, two hundred strong. Later he was 
 in arms on Long Island. But fortune no more 
 favored him. As an exile in Nova Scotia he 
 fared as best he could, dying at last in 1798, a 
 man without a country. 
 
 But of all the Americans who took the loyal 
 side at the Revolution, Thomas Hutchinson is 
 the most distinguished figure. His early career 
 has been already sketched. His work as a 
 financier had been particularly important, his 
 ability in this direction being conceded by his 
 enemies. John Adams wrote in 1809 : — 
 
 " If I was the witch of Endor, I would wake the 
 ghost of Hutchinson and give him absolute power 
 over the currency of the United States and every 
 part of it, provided always that he ' should meddle 
 with nothing but the currency. As little as I revere 
 his memory, I will acknowledge that he understood 
 the subject of coin and commerce better than any 
 man I ever knew in this country." 
 
 Judging him at this distance of time, we cer- 
 tainly can see that Hutchinson was a good 
 and able man in many other directions than as 
 a financier. His one mistake, in fact, for which 
 he was made to atone so bitterly in life and 
 death, was disloyalty to the folk-mote, that 
 sovereign People so long discrowned, which on 
 the soil of New England resumed its rights, 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 281 
 
 and fought its hot battle with the usurper, 
 Prerogative. He should have chosen his master 
 better ; he ought to have known how to choose 
 better, sprung as he was from the best New 
 England strain, and nurtured from his cradle 
 in the atmosphere of freedom. But his choice 
 was honest, and no one, who examines the evi- 
 dence, can say that in his losing cause he did 
 not fight his guns like a man, — a sleepless, 
 able captain who went down at last with his 
 ship. He hoped, no doubt, for advancement for 
 himself and his sons, stood in some undue awe, 
 natural enough in a colonist, before the king 
 and English nobles, and came to feel a personal 
 hatred for the men who opposed him, so that he 
 could no more do them justice than they could 
 do it to him. It has been charged that, for 
 the sake of winning favor with the people, he 
 wrote letters of a character likely to give them 
 pleasure, which he exhibited in public as let- 
 ters which he intended to send to persons in 
 power ; that, however, they were never sent ; 
 that the impression on the minds of the peo- 
 ple having been produced, the letters were 
 destroyed. The charge has been confidently 
 made and may have some grounds. Certainly 
 the trick is discreditable; but it is as incon- 
 sistent with his general character as were the 
 occasional bhortcomings of Samuel Adams with 
 
282 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 his. We may admit the faults of Hutchinson, 
 that he was sometimes subservient, that he 
 sometimes bore malice, sometimes, probably, 
 for a moment under temptation stooped to du- 
 plicity. Nevertheless, the obloquy of which he 
 has been the victim is for the most part quite 
 undeserved, and any lover of fair play will feel 
 that it ought to be refuted. He held, to be sure, 
 many offices ; it is rather the case, however, that 
 they were thrust upon him than that he sought 
 them ; they were miserably paid, excepting the 
 governorship to which he attained only at a late 
 period; they were positions of burden rather 
 than honor ; his administration of his trusts in 
 every point, excepting as he favored parliamen- 
 tary supremacy, was wise and faithful, accord- 
 ing to the testimony of all. He has been called 
 covetous ; rather he sacrificed his means for 
 what he thought the public good, and when, as 
 the cause of the king went down, his beautiful 
 home and fine fortune underwent confiscation, 
 he speaks of the loss in his diary and private 
 letters with the dignified equanimity of a high- 
 minded philosopher. 
 
 Pleasant traditions of the last royal gov- 
 ernor yet linger about Milton Hill, the spot 
 which he loved above all others. Old people 
 are still there who have heard from their grand, 
 parents the story of Hutchinson's leave-taking, 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 283 
 
 on the June day when at length the soldiers had 
 come with Gage, and he was about setting out 
 for England to give the king the account of his 
 stewardship. As he stepped forth from his 
 door the beautiful prospect was before him, the 
 Neponset winding through the meadows wav- 
 ing for the scythe, the villages on the higher 
 ground, the broad blue harbor, unfolded from 
 the wharves to the Boston Light, with the ships 
 on its breast, and the flag above the Castle. 
 He looked up, no doubt, into the branches of 
 the thrifty button woods he had planted, with a 
 good-by glance, then turned his back upon it 
 all, with no thought that it was for the last 
 time. He went down the road on foot, affably 
 greeting his neighbors. Whig and Tory, for the 
 genial magnate was on the best terrns with all. 
 At the foot of the hill, his coach, which the next 
 year was taken to Cambridge and appropriated 
 to the use of Washington, received him and 
 carried him to Dorchester Neck, whence in his 
 barge he proceeded to the man of- war Minerva, 
 and so passed away forever. 
 
 All that he possessed was confiscated, even 
 the dust of his forefathers, and those still 
 nearer ; and here may be mentioned a circum- 
 stance in which the grotesque and the melan- 
 choly are strangely commingled. In his tomb 
 on Copp's Hill lay his father and grandfather, 
 
284 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 and also his wife, whose memory he tenderly 
 cherished. He wrote from England a moving 
 letter to his son, asking that the coffin might be 
 removed to Milton, to a new tomb to be there 
 built, near the home to which he expected to 
 return, prescribing carefully the steps to be 
 taken, that all might be done reverently. But 
 the son, leaving with the other Tories at the 
 time of the evacuation of Boston, never found 
 the opportunity. The tomb with its dead, like 
 everj^thing else belonging to the old governor, 
 was sold. The canny patriot who bought it 
 had a thrift as close as that of the character in 
 the " Pirates of Penzance," who appropriates 
 in the old burying-ground on his freshly pur- 
 chased estate the ancestors of the former pos- 
 sessor. " I do not know whose ancestors they 
 may formerly have been, but they are now 
 mine," and so he weeps among their graves 
 upon proper occasion. The governor's tomb 
 had before it a stone bearing the name *' Hutch- 
 inson," and underneath, the finely-carved es- 
 cutcheon of the family. A great-grandson of 
 the governor, on a pious pilgrimage to the spot, 
 found the old lettering erased. The armorial 
 bearings, however, remained distinct and hand- 
 some, and over them, as if they were his own, 
 the new proprietor had caused his own name to 
 be carved. The coat of arms he felt apparently 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 285 
 
 to be part of his bargain ; so, too, the buried 
 Hutchinsons beneath. The stone is still to be 
 seen in its place above the tomb on Copp's Hill, 
 and under it no doubt lies, with his appropriated 
 ancestors, the clever Whig, whose name it now 
 bears, snugly tucked in, like a hermit-crab in 
 his stolen shell, awaiting Gabriel's trump. 
 
 When Hutchinson reached England his re- 
 ception was of the best. Lord Dartmouth car- 
 ried him to the king without giving him time 
 to change his clothes after the journey. A con- 
 versation of an hour or two took place, of which 
 he has left a careful report, in which both 
 king and governor appear to good advantage. 
 He was offered a baronetcy, and was as well re- 
 ceived as possible by the people in power. His 
 diary, just given to the world, offers an unaf- 
 fected account of his experiences, from which 
 the conclusion is irresistible that he bore him- 
 self well in his new surroundings, was felt by 
 good men to have played a creditable part, 
 and made all whom he met regard him as a 
 man of good sense. Not Samuel Adams him- 
 self could have moved with a stricter conform- 
 ity to Puritan standards in the midst of a 
 life often frivolous and corrupt. In fact, the 
 two men, much as they hated one another, were 
 in some respects alike. In point of adroitness 
 they were not ill-matched ; each sought what 
 
286 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 he believed to be his country's good, with sin- 
 cere patriotism, in his separate way ; there was 
 in each the same indefatigability, the same deep 
 gravity of character, combined with a genial 
 manner. From the fashionable amusements of 
 London Hutchinson turned with disgust. Gar- 
 rick utterly displeased him; he could see noth- 
 ing attractive in the sports which he was taken 
 to witness. After John Adams's fashion, he 
 notes carefully each Sunday the preacher and 
 the sermon. Like the '* chief incendiary," his 
 ideal community would have been his dear Bos- 
 ton straitened into a " Christian Sparta." " I 
 assure you," he writes, "I had rather die in a 
 little country farm-house in New England, than 
 in the best nobleman's seat in Old England, 
 and have therefore given no ear to any pro- 
 posal of settling here." So frequently in these 
 pages we have the utterances of a homesick 
 spirit, that would gladly have left the splendors 
 and attentions of the court of George IIL to re- 
 turn to the land he sincerely loved. The ex- 
 ile was keenly sensitive to opprobrium, and 
 defends himself in his letters and sometimes in 
 more formal ways. Speaking of his letter- 
 books left behind in his house at Milton, now 
 in the Massachusetts archives, and from which 
 much has been quoted in this volume, he 
 says : — 
 
HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 287 
 
 "When I was threatened by the tea-mobs, I car- 
 ried them to Milton, and when I was obliged to re- 
 turn to the Castle upon Gen. Gage's arrival, it did 
 not come into my mind where I had put them. I am 
 sure there is nothing in them but what will evidence 
 an upright aim, and an endeavor to keep off the 
 I miseries which in spite of my endeavors a few men 
 I have brought upon the country ; and if they will take 
 the w^hole of them, they will find a uniform plan for 
 preserving the authority of Parliament, and at the 
 same time indulging the colonies in every point in' 
 ; which the people imagined they were aggrieved." 
 
 I To attacks which were made upon him by 
 j the Whigs in Parliament he replied by a for- 
 mal '* Vindication," in which he speaks of him- 
 j self in the third person. The paper was not 
 ( printed then, and appears now for the first time 
 in the diary. It is a document full of clear- 
 j ness and dignity, and has much interest to the 
 student of our Revolutionary history. A pas- 
 sage from this follows : — 
 
 " It is asserted that no one fact has ever appeared 
 to have been materially misrepresented by him, nor 
 any one proposal made unfriendly to the rights and 
 liberties of mankind in general, or tending to take 
 from the Province of which he was governor, the 
 privileges enjoyed by its charter, or any powers or 
 privileges from the inhabitants of the colonies, which 
 can be made to consist with their relation to Parlia- 
 
288 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 ment as the supreme authority of the British do- 
 minions. . . . 
 
 " It is a remark more ancient than any British col- 
 ony that ' Gubernatorum vituperatio populo placet,' 
 and every governor of Massachusetts Bay, for near 
 a century past, has by experience found the truth 
 of it." 
 
 With this outburst we dismiss the ruined 
 exile from our attention. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 
 
 As Hutchinson looked his last upon Boston 
 harbor, having his mind cheered by a warm ad- 
 dress, expressing for him deep respect, which had 
 been sent in to him by a hundred and twenty 
 ] respectable merchants, and by a second similar 
 i address coming from the lawyers, he must have 
 I heard the tolling of the bells that announced 
 j the closing of the port of Boston in retaliation 
 ( for the destruction of the tea. 
 j The steps which the government had taken 
 i were decided enougli, but the instrument 
 through whom they were to be carried into 
 execution was a man far different from the as- 
 tute, energetic Hutchinson. Ga,ge was mild in 
 temper, and of very moderate ability. His 
 disposition was to treat Boston good-naturedly, 
 and it was only when fortified by others that 
 he made up his mind to put the Port Bill in 
 force. The Whig leaders, relieved from the op- 
 position of their great antagonist, manoeuvred 
 and drove forward relentlessly, outwitting or 
 19 
 
290 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 overriding the general at every step, until his 
 weak amiability gave way to outbreaks of testy 
 ill-nature. 
 
 The General Court which had convened on 
 the 26th of May w*as memorable as the last 
 under the colonial charter. The other colo- 
 nies, as well as Massachusetts, were now ripe 
 for the Congress, and Samuel Adams, who in 
 the gathering Revolution had attained in his 
 own Province an almost autocratic ascendency, 
 prepared to secure the nomination of dele- 
 gates. For a few days nothing could be done, 
 for Gage prorogued the Court, to meet early 
 in June at Salem. The session presently took 
 place in that town, and never had the hand of 
 the great master been so deft and at the same 
 time so daring : one moment pulling strings 
 with the nicest caution, the next it was, as it 
 were, clenched and delivered in a telling blow. 
 But whether in the form of flattering palm or 
 doubled fist, it ruled the hour omnipotently, 
 and brought to pass a triumphant success. 
 
 Samuel Adams, working with the Commit- 
 tee of Correspondence to the last moment, then 
 hurrying over the country roads to Salem, was 
 late in reaching the place of meeting, giving 
 much anxiety to the patriots, who followed him 
 now like children, and much joy to the Tories, 
 for the report spread that at last the soldiers 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 291 
 
 had seized him. While the Assembly waited, 
 he entered the hall. The Tories, made bold by 
 the presence in town of a general as chief 
 magistrate, with soldiers at his back, bore 
 themselves with much arrogance. The pres- 
 sure of the crowd of spectators in the hall in 
 \ which the Court was to assemble was consider- 
 ' able, and a group of Tories had taken posses- 
 , sion of the space about the chair appropriated 
 to the clerk. When Samuel Adams entered, 
 I one of their number, in a gold-laced coat and 
 ! otherwise richly dressed, had seated himself in 
 I the chair, which he seemed disposed to retain. 
 I " Mr. Speaker, where is the place for your 
 clerk ? " said Samuel Adams, with his eyes 
 j fixed upon the intruder and the group that 
 ( surrounded him. The speaker pointed to the 
 chair and desk. "Sir," said Mr. Adams, " my 
 company will not be pleasant to the gentlemen 
 who occupy it. I trust they will remove to 
 another part of the house." The Tories gave 
 way before him, and his bearing soon dispelled 
 the idea with which some of the Tories had 
 flattered themselves, that Samuel Adams had 
 been delayed by his fears. 
 
 The House at once after organization pro- 
 tested against the removal from Boston. The 
 Council presented to the governor a respectful 
 address ; but when at last a wish was expressed 
 
292 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 that his aclmmistration might be a happ}^ con- 
 trast to that of his two immediate predeces- 
 sors, Gage angrily interrupted the chairman, 
 refused to listen farther, and denounced the 
 address as insulting to the king and Privy 
 Council, and to himself. Affairs were indeed 
 critical. Boston, with many of its Whigs weak- 
 kneed and its latent Toryism all brought to 
 the surface and made demonstrative by the dis- 
 play of power by the ministry, was in danger 
 of adopting a measure for giving compensation 
 for the tea, and perhaps going still farther in 
 the path of concession, to win relief from the 
 calamity that had come. A town-meeting was 
 called. Samuel Adams could not be in two 
 places at once, and to Joseph Warren was left 
 the responsibility of bringing things to a good 
 issue. Warren, gallant as he was, felt his heart 
 sink. He was like a general of division, who, 
 having fought long with great effect under the 
 eye of an old field-marshal, suddenly in a day 
 of the utmost danger finds himself intrusted 
 with an independent command. He begged the 
 generalissimo to come back. " I think your at- 
 tenrlance can by no means be dispensed with 
 over Friday, as I believe we shall have a warm 
 engagement." But on that very day — it was 
 the 17th of June, one year before Bunker Hill 
 — there was work to be done at Salem too, and 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 293 
 
 Warren had to fight it out by himself. With 
 John Adams in the chair as moderator, the 
 lieutenant on the floor brought all to a victo- 
 rious issue. At that time he first realized his 
 own great power and became self-reliant. Mean- 
 while Samuel Adams, in his field, having bur- 
 rowed for days like a skillful engineer, at length 
 sprung his mine, and in the most audacious of 
 assaults carried the position. 
 
 A larger number of representatives had ap- 
 peared than ever before, drawn together by the 
 greatness of the crisis, many of whom were dis- 
 posed to be reactionary, if not actually Tories. 
 A committee of nine on the state of the Prov- 
 ince, consisting of the principal members of 
 the Assembly, and of which Samuel Adams 
 was chaii-man, had been appointed in May be- 
 fore the prorogation. By this committee all 
 action must be initiated. If a hint should 
 reach Gage that the Assembly were engaged 
 in the election of delegates to a Congress, it 
 was known that he would at once prorogue 
 the Court to prevent such action. Samuel Ad- 
 ams studied his problem warily. Sounding 
 the members of his committee, he found some 
 of them doubtful in the cause. In particular 
 Daniel Leonard of Taunton, a man of ability, 
 who is now known to have been one of Hutch- 
 inson's sharpest writers, was to be dreaded 
 
294 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 The plan pursued was to entertain in meetings 
 of the committee vague propositions for concil- 
 iation, until the kikewarm or Tory members 
 should form the idea that some compromise 
 was likely to be proposed. Meantime Samuel 
 Adams secretly made sure of those in the com- 
 mittee upon whom he could rely, and gradually 
 ascertained precisely what other members of 
 the House could be counted upon. All must 
 be done with the most velvet-footed caution, 
 and days must pass. A sufficient majority 
 must be secured and instructed, so that the 
 measure might be carried with little debate, 
 as soon as proposed, and no hint of it reach 
 Gage. 
 
 The days passed. At meetings of the com- 
 mittee the old cat purred of conciliation with 
 half-closed, sleepy eyes, until the doubtful men 
 were completely deceived. Leonard himself, at 
 length, went home to Taunton on legal busi- 
 ness, feeling that if Sam Adams was ready to 
 yield, there was no need of being watchful. 
 At once Adams set one of his best lieutenants, 
 James Warren of Plymouth, an apt and faith- 
 ful pupil, to keep the committee in play, while 
 he worked as secretly but more actively out- 
 side. At first he was sure of but five ; in 
 two days he could count on thirty ; at length 
 he had under his hand a majority, and all was 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 295 
 
 ready. One feels that if sharp-eyed Hutchin- 
 son had been on the spot, there would have 
 been trouble. Gage, however, satisfied with 
 his show of energy in rebuking the Council, 
 and abundantly assured that the temper of the 
 Assembly was peaceful, looked amiably on with 
 his hands fokled. 
 
 The spring at last was like lightning. On Fri- 
 day, the 17th of June, one hundred and twenty- 
 nine members were present. Sam Adams, at 
 the head of the committee on the state of the 
 Province, suddenly caused the door to be locked, 
 and charged the doorkeeper to let no one in or 
 out. The next instant a series of resolves was 
 produced providing for the appointment of James 
 Bowdoin, Thomas Gushing, Samuel Adams, John 
 Adams, and Robert Treat Paine, to meet the 
 delegates of other colonial Assemblies, on the 
 1st of September, at Philadelphia, or any other 
 place that should be decided upon. The House 
 was at once in an uproar, and an earnest effort 
 was made to choke off the measure. But the 
 majority rose in its power ; the lieutenants, 
 secretly drilled, were each in place, and the 
 arch conspirator, cool and genial, but adroit and 
 forceful as any man who ever ruled a senate, 
 held every string in his hand. Attempts were 
 made by Tory members to leave the hall, when 
 it became plain how things must go. The door- 
 
296 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 keeper, beset and browbeaten by heated men, 
 grew uneasy under the responsibility which 
 was placed upon him ; whereupon Sam Adams, 
 with a curious inversion of the great Cromwel- 
 lian precedent, but with a spirit as self-reliant 
 and straightforward as that of the other great 
 Puritan brewer himself, did not turn his Par- 
 liament out, but bolted them in. Making sure 
 that the door was still fast, he put the key into 
 his own pocket. 
 
 Some debate there must be, and while it went 
 forward a Tory member, pleading sickness, in 
 some way did manage to make his escape, 
 and hurried at once to Gage with the news. 
 Forthwith the general prepared the shortest 
 possible message of prorogation, and his secre- 
 tary hurried with it to the hall. The door was 
 still locked, with the key in Samuel Adams's 
 pocket, and even Thomas Flucker, Esquire, no 
 inconsiderable personage himself, and now the 
 messenger of the governor and commander-in- 
 chief, demanded admission in vain. The fact 
 that he was without was imparted to the 
 speaker, who communicated it formally to the 
 House, but the majority ordered the door to 
 be kept fast. By this time rumors of a great 
 legislative coup d'etat were flying through the 
 town and a crowd began to collect in the ap- 
 proaches to the hall. To these, for want of 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 297 
 
 a better audience, and also to several mem- 
 bers of the House who had come late to the 
 session, Flucker read his message. No tac- 
 tics, meantime, could long stave off the end at 
 which Sam Adams aimed. The Tories suc- 
 cumbed, the doubtful went over in a troop to 
 the Whig side, the delegates were elected with 
 only twelve dissenting voices, and five hun- 
 dred pounds were voted to pay their expenses. 
 Since no money could be drawn from the pub- 
 lic treasury without the governor's consent, 
 every town in the Province was assessed in 
 proportion to its last tax-list, to provide the 
 sum. Resolves were then passed for the re- 
 lief of Boston and Charlestown, as the special 
 sufferers by the Port Bill, renoimcing the use 
 of tea and all goods and manufactures com- 
 ing from Great Britain, and encouraging home 
 productions to the utmost. All that was nec- 
 essary having been fully and satisfactorily per- 
 formed, Mr. Flucker was admitted, the Assem- 
 bly with all grace submitted to the mandate of 
 prorogation, and the members scattered. The 
 horse was stolen, and General Gage locked the 
 barn-door with great vigor. 
 
 Samuel Adams dispatched the news by 
 printed circular to the selectmen of the towns, 
 with the apportionment made in each case for 
 the fund to defray the expenses of the dele- 
 
298 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 gates, and himself received the sums that were 
 sent. Notice was sent, too, by Gushing, as 
 speaker, to all the colonies, informing them of 
 the action of Massachusetts. This it was which 
 had been generally awaited, and now, following 
 in her wake, the thirteen colonies, from New 
 Hampshire to Georgia, prepared for the great 
 Congress at Philadelphia on September 1. 
 
 The interval between the prorogation of the 
 legislature and the departure of the delegates 
 to Philadelphia was by no means an idle one 
 for the patriots. As chairman of the commit- 
 tees for devising plans for the relief of the poor 
 and distributing the donations which began to 
 arrive from all quarters, Snmuel Adams was 
 kept busy. On the 27th of June occurred a 
 town-meeting, memorable as being the last oc- 
 casion upon which the Tories made an effort to 
 stem in that community the course of the Revo- 
 lution ; after this they threw themselves back 
 upon the military power. Taking advantage 
 of the public distress, which became every day 
 greater, a meeting was called by them at Fan- 
 euil Hall. In the enforced idleness of all 
 classes, a multitude attended, and, as usual, the 
 meeting adjourned to the Old South. A few 
 weeks previous, a " solemn league and cove- 
 nant " against using British productions of 
 every kind had been drawn up by Warren, 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 299 
 
 and had received many signatures. This doc- 
 ument having been read, a Tory denounced 
 it, and presently after a vote of censure was 
 moved upon the Committee of Correspond- 
 ence, providing also for its annihilation. Sam- 
 uel Adams, the moderator, quickly left the 
 chair to Cushing, taking his place on the floor 
 as champion of the Committee of which he had 
 been the creator and the ruling spirit. The 
 debate was long and vehement, lasting until 
 dark of the long June day, and was resumed 
 the following forenoon. It was conducted in 
 the presence of an audience of ruined men; 
 merchants whose idle ships had nothing be- 
 fore them but to rot at the wharves, mechanics 
 whose labor had suddenly become a drug in the 
 market, sailors to whom the sea was barred. 
 A slight yielding from the course into which 
 the Whigs had struck would remove at once the 
 incubus. It was not at all necessary to become 
 Tories ; certain small concessions, like tlie pay- 
 ment for the tea and an admission that its de- 
 struction had been a mistake, would be enough. 
 Even Josiah Quincy had advised moderation 
 at the time, and now great patriots like Frank- 
 lin declared this to be a proper step. 
 
 To Samuel Adams, who saw no safety in 
 such a course, the time was indeed critical. 
 But when the question was put as to the anni- 
 
300 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 hilation of the committee, the meeting " hy a 
 great majority " ^ voted in the negative, and 
 then almost unanimously the resolve passed : 
 *' That the town bear open testimony that they 
 are abundantly satisfied of the upright inten- 
 tions and mucli approve of the honest zeal of 
 the Committee of Correspondence, and desire 
 that they will persevere with their usual ac- 
 tivity and firmness, continuing steadfast in the 
 way of well-doing." This was an indorsement 
 of an unyielding course. The Tories, so utterly 
 defeated in town-meeting, signed a protest, 
 which was widely distributed, against the " sol- 
 emn league and covenant ; " but their sleepless 
 and implacable opponent stormed at them as 
 " Candidus " from the columns of the ^' Boston 
 Gazette." The "solemn league and covenant" 
 spread throughout the Massachusetts towns, 
 through all New England, and into the colonies 
 in general, becoming a most formidable non- 
 importation agreement, which the royal gov- 
 ernors denounced in vain. 
 
 Tlie patriots now lived in daily fear of the 
 arrest of Samuel Adams and his prominent sup- 
 porters. Urgent letters are extant, entreating 
 him to be on his guard ; steps were taken to 
 make his house more secure. But Gage de- 
 
 i These words in the town records are underscored by Wil- 
 liam Cooper, showing liis strong feeling. 
 
PBEFARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 301 
 
 layed ; the matter was left largely to his discre- 
 tion, and he was quite justified in thinking it 
 would be imprudent. A public seizure would 
 have been the height of rashness, and a private 
 arrest would have brought upon the British 
 force, still far from large, though it was gradu- 
 ally increasing, such an avalanche of patriots as 
 would infallibly have crushed it. It came very 
 near being the case that positive orders were 
 sent to Gage for the seizure. Says Hutchin- 
 son : " The lords of the privy council had their 
 pens in their hands in order to sign the war- 
 rant to apprehend Adams, Molineux, and 
 other principal incendiaries, try them, and if 
 found guilty, put them to death." Lord Mans- 
 field told Hutchinson that the warrant was not 
 sent, "because the attorney and solicitor gen- 
 eral were in doubt whether the evidence was 
 sufficient to convict them ; but he said things 
 would never be right until some of them were 
 brought over." 
 
 More insidious assaults were made, however, 
 without success. Hutchinson in his day had 
 known Adams too well to try such means. 
 " Why hath not Mr. Adams been taken off 
 from his opposition by an office ? " inquired 
 members of the ministry. " Such is the obsti- 
 nacy and inflexible disposition of the man," was 
 the reply, " that he never would be conciliated 
 
802 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 by any office of gift whatever." Gage was less 
 wise, and made a trial which had an ignomin- 
 ious failure. In 1818 Mr. Adams's daughter re- 
 lated ; The governor sent, by Colonel Fenton, 
 who commanded one of the newly arrived regi- 
 ments, a confidential and verbal message, prom- 
 ising Adams great gifts and advancement if he 
 would recede, and saying it was the advice of 
 Governor Gage to him not to incur the further 
 displeasure of his majesty. Adams listened with 
 apparent interest to this recital, until the mes- 
 senger had concluded. Then rising, he replied, 
 glowing with indignation : '•'• Sir, I trust I have 
 long since made my peace with the King of 
 kings. No personal consideration shall induce 
 me to abandon the righteous cause of my coun- 
 try. Tell Governor Gage it is the advice of 
 Samuel Adams to him no longer to insult the 
 feelings of an exasperated people." There is 
 some reason also for supposing that he was 
 offered afterward a pension of two thousand 
 guineas, and a patent of nobility in the Ameri- 
 can peerage which was projected. 
 
 Early in August Gage received official news 
 of the act of Parliament changing the charter, 
 which had been for some time unofficially 
 known, and instructions to put it at once in 
 force. Thirty-six councilors were nominated 
 by the crown, according to the new method, 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 303 
 
 called the " mandamus " councilors ; of these 
 twenty-four accepted. They at once met, and 
 other arbitrary measures were taken. The 
 Committee of Correspondence retaliated by 
 recommending that all men should practice 
 military drill, and that a Provincial Congress 
 should be summoned. Preliminary to this the 
 counties met in convention, one hundred and 
 fifty delegates from the towns of Middlesex as- 
 sembling at Concord, and the towns of Essex 
 I convening at Ipswich. Gage, meantime, took 
 j cannon from Cambridge, and in defiance of the 
 [ protests of the selectmen began to fortify Bos- 
 I ton Neck. 
 
 ,' During the summer of 1774, Samuel Ad- 
 j ams, while preparing for his departure to 
 I Philadelphia, continued to direct affairs in 
 I straitened Boston. The committees of which 
 I he was the chairman made gifts and afforded 
 employment to the poor in the repairing of 
 streets and building of wharves on the town's 
 land. His correspondence continues. To R. 
 H. Lee he writes : " It is the virtue of the yeo- 
 manry we. are chiefly to depend upon." The 
 sentence lets us know the kind of democracy 
 in which Adams believed. His disposition 
 was to put the fullest reliance upon the peo- 
 ple, yet sometimes he is careful to specify that 
 it is the " yeomanry '' or " the hulk of the peo- 
 
304 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 pie" who are to be built upon. As he dis- 
 trusted the fine world which was ready to cringe 
 before power, he recognized too the possibility 
 of danger at the other end of the scale, from 
 the " mob." In March of the present year 
 there had been a riot at Marblehead, the peo- 
 ple burning lawlessly a small-pox hospital. 
 Through Elbridge Gerry the facts came to 
 Samuel Adams, and the Assembly were peti- 
 tioned for armed assistance. It would have 
 been mortifying to the patriots and a triumph 
 to the Tories if the Assembly had been brought 
 to use arms against the people. The House de- 
 layed, probably through Adams's influence, and 
 the matter meanwhile fortunately quieted it- 
 self. At a later time, however, in the Shays 
 rebellion, we shall find the man of the town- 
 meeting standing as sternly against the mis- 
 guided people as he ever did against Tory or 
 crown official. *' Vox populi vox Dei " was a 
 sentiment to which he fully subscribed, but it 
 must be the voice of the substantial people. 
 
 Donations came from near and far to the sup- 
 port of suffering Boston. Salem and the ports 
 adjacent commonly received what was sent ; 
 and thence the carriage was made by land to the 
 centre. As the time drew near for the departure 
 to Philadelphia, Samuel Adams gave his parting 
 charge to the Committer of Correspondence, a 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 305 
 
 charge which they spoke of as " instructions," 
 from which they must on no account deviate, so 
 authoritative had his word become. The very 
 last business performed was to arrange for a 
 convention of deputies from Boston and the ad- 
 joining towns at some inland point, out of the 
 way of interruptions. This, it was felt, might 
 pave the way for a general congress of the 
 Province, which was likely before long to be 
 wanted. The execution of this project, and 
 the general direction of affairs, was to lie with 
 Joseph Warren, who, since the " Port Bill meet- 
 ing " of June 17, had fully found his powers, 
 and during the short remnant of his life was 
 to show himself a man of great executive force. 
 
 And now let us pause for a moment, as Sam- 
 uel Adams is on the point of leaving Massachu- 
 setts for the first time, to look at his home life. 
 
 He still occupied th6 house in Purchase 
 Street, the estate connected with which had, as 
 time went forward, through the carelessness of 
 its preoccupied owner become narrowed to a 
 scanty tract. It was nevertheless a sightly 
 place, from which stretched seaward before 
 the eye the island-studded harbor, with the 
 many ships, the bastions of the Castle, low ly- 
 ing to the right, and landward the town, ris- 
 ing fair upon its hills. Samuel Adams, shortly 
 
 20 
 
306 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 before this time, had been able, probably with 
 the help of friends, to put his home in good 
 order, and managed to be hospitable. For 
 apparently life went forward in his home, if 
 frugally, not parsimoniously, his admirable wife 
 making it possible for him, from his small in- 
 come as clerk of the House, to maintain a de- 
 cent housekeeping. His son, now twenty-two 
 years old, was studying medicine with Dr. 
 Warren, after a course at Harvard, a young 
 man for whom much could be hoped. His 
 daughter was a promising girl of seventeen. 
 With the young people and their intimates the 
 father was cordial and genial. He had an ear 
 for music and a pleasant voice in singing, a 
 practice which he much enjoyed. The house 
 was strictly religious ; grace was said at each 
 meal, and the Bible is still preserved from 
 which some member of the household read 
 aloud each night. Old Surry, a slave woman 
 given to Mrs. Adams in 1765, and who was 
 freed upon coming into her possession, lived in 
 the family nearly fifty years, showing devoted 
 attachment. When slavery was abolished in 
 Massachusetts, papers of manumission were 
 made out for her in due form ; but these she 
 threw into the fire in anger, saying she had 
 lived too long to be trifled with. The servant 
 boy whom Samuel Adams carefully and kindly 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 307 
 
 reared, became afterwards a mechanic of char- 
 acter, and worked efficiently in his former mas- 
 ter's behalf when at length in old age Adams 
 was proposed for governor. Nor must Queue 
 be forgotten, the big, intelligent Newfoundland 
 dog, who appreciated perfectly what was due 
 to his position as the dog of Sam Adams. He 
 had a vast antipathy to the British uniform. 
 He was cut and shot in several places by sol- 
 diers, in retaliation for his own sharp attacks ; 
 for the patriotic Queue anticipated even the 
 " embattled farmers " of Concord bridge in in- 
 augurating hostilities, and bore to his grave 
 honorable scars from his fierce encounters. The 
 upholders of the house of Hanover had received 
 iio heartier bites than those of Queue since the 
 days of the Jacobites. 
 
 Until now, in his fifty-third year, Samuel 
 Adams had never left his native town except 
 for places a few miles distant. The expenses 
 of the journey and the sojourn in Philadelphia 
 were arranged for by the legislative appropri- 
 ation. But the critical society of a populous 
 town, and the picked men of the thirteen colo- 
 nies were to be encountered^ A certain sump- 
 tuousness in living and apparel would be not 
 only fitting, but necessary in the deputies, that 
 the great Province which they represented 
 
308 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 might suffer no dislioiior. Samuel Adams him- 
 self probably would have been quite satisfied 
 to appear in the old red coat of 1770, in which 
 Copley had painted him, and which no doubt 
 his wife's careful darning still held together; 
 but his townsmen arranged it differently. The 
 story will be best told in the words of a writer 
 of the time : — 
 
 " The ultimate wish and desire of the high govern- 
 ment party is to get Samuel Adams out of the way, 
 when they think they may accomplish every of their 
 plans ; but, however some may despise him, he has 
 certainly very many friends. For, not long since, 
 some persons (their names unknown) sent and asked 
 his permission to build him a new barn, the old one 
 being decayed, which was executed in a few days, A 
 second sent to ask leave to repair his house, which 
 was thoroughly effected soon. A third sent to beg the 
 favor of him to call at a tailor's shop, and be meas- 
 ured for a suit of clothes, and choose his cloth, which 
 were finished and sent home for his acceptance. A 
 fourth presented him with a new wig, a fifth with a 
 new hat, a sixth with six pair of the best silk hose, a 
 seventh with six pair of fine thread ditto, an eighth 
 with six pair of shoes, and a ninth modestly inquired 
 of him whether his finances were not rather low than 
 otherwise. He replied it was true that was the case, 
 but he was very indifferent about these matters, so 
 that his poor abilities were of any service to the 
 public ; upon which the gentleman obliged him to 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 309 
 
 accept of a purse containing about fifteen or twenty 
 Johannes." ^ 
 
 On the 10th of August the four delegates set 
 forth : Tliomas Gushing, Samuel and John Ad- 
 ams, and Robert Treat Paine. Bowdoin was 
 unfortunately kept at home by the sickness 
 of his wife. They left the house of Gushing 
 in considerable state. "Am told," says John 
 Andrews, " they made a very respectable parade 
 in sight of five of the regiments encamped on 
 the Gommon, being in a coach and four, pre- 
 ceded by two white servants well mounted and 
 armed, with four blacks behind in livery, two 
 on horseback and two footmen." At Water- 
 town they dinf^d with a large number of their 
 friends, Avho drove out thither for the final 
 parting. Hence they proceeded in a coach ar- 
 ranged for their special convenience. The jour- 
 ney, with the great attentions they received, is 
 graphically related in the diary of John Adams, 
 who was, as the reader of these pages by this 
 time well knows, a most admirable observer 
 and reporter, in part for the same reason Lowell 
 gives for Margaret Fuller's sharpness : — 
 
 " A person must surely see well, if he try, 
 The whole of whose being 's a capital I." 
 
 1 John Andrews to William Barrell, Boston, August 11, 
 1774. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. 1865. The new suit was give« 
 just before the departure for Philadelphia. 
 
810 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 In Connecticut they were received with great 
 circumstance. Cavalcades accompanied them 
 from town to town. 
 
 " At four we made New Haven. Seven miles 
 out of town, at a tavern, we met a great number of 
 carriages and horsemen who had come out to meet 
 us. The sheriff of the county, and constable of the 
 town, and the justices of the peace were in the train. 
 As we were coming, we met others to the amount 
 of I know not what number. As we came into the 
 town, all the bells in town were set to ringing, and 
 the people, men, women, and children, were crowding 
 at the doors and windows as if it was to see a coro- 
 nation. At nine o'clock the cannon were fired, about 
 a dozen guns, I think." 
 
 Bears, the landlord of the tavern, afterwards 
 tells them : " the parade which was made to 
 introduce us into town was a sudden proposal 
 in order to divert the populace from erecting 
 a liberty-pole," engineered by the Tories. 
 
 Rarely enough in his life did Sam Adams 
 take a holiday, and now one thinks that, with so 
 much that was tremendous impending, a man 
 could hardly be in a mood for the enjoyment of 
 new scenes and people, and the reception of 
 honors, however flattering. He had long lived, 
 however, with his head in the lion's mouth, and 
 though the beast roared as never before, he had 
 good reason to feel that in the general rising 
 of America, of which he everywhere found to- 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 311 
 
 kens, the bite might at last be risked. As they 
 passed onward in the pleasant summer weather, 
 there was no doubt much to enjoy ; but whether 
 his experiences were agreeable or otherwise, of 
 matters purely personal he makes no more men- 
 tion now than at other times. The two kins- 
 men, so long already companions, and now in 
 closer relations than ever, good friends though 
 they were, were in some points strangely unlike. 
 Honest John parades himself artlessly in every 
 page he writes, now in self-chastening, now in 
 comfortable self-complacency. Reticent Sam, 
 on the other hand, though he lived with the pen 
 in his hand, and wrote reams every year which 
 went into print, is as silent as to himself as if 
 he had been dumb. Whether he was elated or 
 discouraged, happy or wretched, his mood rarely 
 leaves on his page any trace of itself. 
 
 The biographer of Samuel Adams, therefore, 
 is thankful enough for the help rendered him 
 by the unreserved Hutchinson and the naive 
 chat of the Braintree statesman. So in the 
 agreeable record of the latter we follow the 
 deputies onward. Each Sunday we know the 
 country parson whose preaching they experi- 
 ence, his text, his subject, perhaps the heads of 
 his discourse. At each stage we know not so 
 well the name of the town as that of the cheer- 
 ful landlord with whom they lodge. Starting 
 from Coolidge's in Watertown, we have seen 
 
312 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 til em bring up at Isaac Bears's, in New Haven, 
 — the curt host who dampeus any self-com- 
 placency they may incline to feel by declaring 
 the demonstration in their honor to be nothing 
 but a Tory device to head off the raising of a 
 liberty-pole. Thence on to Curtiss's, to Quin- 
 tard's, to Fitch's, Haviland's, Cock's, and 
 Day's, until at length they drive up before 
 Hull's, " The Bunch of Grapes," in New York. 
 Here they rest for several days, seeing tlie town 
 under the guidance of McDougall, afterwards 
 major-general, and meeting John Morin Scott, 
 John Jay, Duane, and members of the great 
 Livingston family, as they had met in Con- 
 necticut Silas Deane and Roger Sherman. 
 
 On the 27th they reached Princeton, where, 
 attending the college prayers, they find the 
 Scotch president. Dr. Witherspoon, " as high a 
 son of liberty as any man in America." They 
 cross the Delaware at Trenton, a pleasant sum- 
 mer transit. The men of Glover's amphibious 
 regiment who are to struggle with ice cakes 
 here in a year or two are still quietly fishing off 
 Marblehead, and the Hessians of Colonel Rahl 
 are still free and happy farmers in the pretty 
 villages about Marburg and Cassel. In Phila- 
 delphia presently after, '' dirty and fatigued," 
 they take lodgings, the four Massachusetts del- 
 egates together, " with Miss Jane Port in Arch 
 Street." 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 LEXINGTON. 
 
 On September 5, the delegates, fifty-three in 
 number, met at the city tavern, then viewed 
 the famous hall built for the Society of House 
 Carpenters, and concluded it was sufficient for 
 their purpose. Peyton Randolph of Virginia 
 was made chairman, and Charles Thomson 
 secretary. The Massachusetts delegates had 
 adopted the policy of keeping in the back- 
 ground, influenced greatly, no doubt, by an in- 
 cident that happened as they were on the point 
 of entering Philadelphia, and which John Ad- 
 ams thus detailed in his old age : — 
 
 " We were met at Frankfort by Dr. Rush, Mr. 
 Mifflin, Mr. Bayard, and several ether of the most 
 active sons of liberty in Philadelphia, who desired a 
 conference with us. We invited them to take tea 
 with us in a private apartment. They asked leave 
 to give us some information and advice, which we 
 thankfully granted. They represented to us that the 
 friends of government in Boston and in the Eastern 
 states had represented us to the Middle and South 
 
314 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 as four desperate adventurers. ' Mr. Gushing was a 
 harmless kind of man, but poor, and wholly depend- 
 ent upon his popularity for his subsistence. Mr. 
 Samuel Adams was a very artful, designing man, but 
 desperately poor, and wholly dependent on his pop- 
 ularity with the lowest vulgar for his living. John 
 Adams and Mr. Paine were two young lawyers, of 
 no great talents, reputation, or weight, who had no 
 other means of raising themselves into consequence 
 than by courting popularity.' We were all suspected 
 of wishing independence. Now, said they, you must 
 not utter the word independence, nor give the least 
 hint or insinuation of the idea, either in Congress, or 
 any private conversation ; if you do, you are undone ; 
 for independence is as unpopular in all the Middle 
 and South as the Stamp Act itself. No man dares 
 to speak of it. . . . You are thought to be too warm. 
 You must not come forward with any bold measure ; 
 you must not pretend to take the lead. You know 
 Virginia is the most popular state in the Union — 
 very proud — they think they have a right to lead. 
 The South and Middle are too much disposed to yield 
 it. . . . This was plain dealing, but it made a deep 
 impression. That conversation has given a coloring 
 to the whole policy of the United States from that day 
 to this (1822)." 
 
 As the presidency of Congress was given to 
 Virginia, so the first memorable event of the 
 session was an impassioned speech by Patrick 
 Henry, reciting the colonial wrongs, the ne- 
 
LEXINGTON. 315 
 
 cessity of union, and of the preservation of the 
 democratic part of the constitution. Applause 
 was general, and a debate followed, in which for 
 the most part only the Southern members ap- 
 peared, though John Jay took part. Samuel 
 Adams was without doubt the most conspicu- 
 ous and also the most dreaded member of the 
 body. All knew that he had been especially 
 singled out as the mark of royal vengeance ; 
 with the leading men he had long been in cor- 
 respondence ; his leadership in the most popu- 
 lous colony, which had so far borne the brunt 
 of the struggle, was a familiar fact, as was also 
 his authorship of the documents and measures 
 which had done most to bring about a crisis. 
 His views were generally felt to be quite too 
 extreme. 
 
 His first move was one of the most long- 
 headed proceedings of his whole career, — a 
 wily master-stroke even for him. In the dif- 
 ferences of religious belief, so many of the 
 members holding to their views with ardent in- 
 tolei-ance, it was felt by many to be quite inex- 
 pedient to open the Congress formally, after 
 the preliminaries were arranged, with prayer. 
 Samuel Adams, however, sternest of the Puri- 
 tans, and well known to hate everything that 
 had to do with prelacy ten times more because 
 a large proportion of the Episcopalians in the 
 
316 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 colonies held the popular cause in contempt, 
 electrified friend and foe by moving that the 
 Rev. Mr. Duche, an Episcopal clergyman, 
 should be asked to open their deliberations 
 with a religious service. Few acts in his ca- 
 reer, probably, cost him a greater sacrifice, and 
 few acts were really more effective. A rumor 
 came at the moment that Boston had been 
 bombarded. In the excitement that prevailed 
 Mr. Duche performed the service impressively, 
 although his conduct afterward proved him to 
 be a wretched character.^ " Joseph Read, the 
 leading lawyer of Philadelphia," says John 
 Adams, " returned with us to our lodgings. 
 He says we never were guilty of a more mas- 
 terly stroke of policy than in moving that Mr. 
 Duche might read prayers. It has had a very 
 good effect." If Prynne in the Long Parlia- 
 ment had asked for the prayers of Laud, the 
 sensation could not have been greater. Before 
 such a stretch of catholicity, the members be- 
 came ashamed of their divisions, and a spirit of 
 harmony, quite new and beyond measure sal- 
 utary, came to prevail. 
 
 Immediately afterward a committee was 
 formed, the description of whose duties recalls 
 the language used by the Boston town-meeting 
 in 1772, when the Committee of Correspond- 
 
 ^ Graydon's Memoirs, p. 98, note. 
 
LEXINGTON. 317 
 
 ence was formed. The committee was " to 
 state the rights of the colonies in general, the- 
 several instances in which tliose rights are vio- 
 lated and infringed, and the means most proper 
 to be pursued for obtaining a restoration of 
 them." The committee was to consist of two 
 delegates from each province, Samuel and John 
 Adams acting for Massachusetts. Another 
 committee was also appointed to examine and 
 report the several statutes which affected trade 
 and manufactures. 
 
 Meantime the plans concerted between Sam- 
 uel Adams on the one hand, and Warren with 
 the home-keeping patriots on the other, were 
 carried to fulfillment. Warren engineered the 
 famous " Suffolk Resolves," that " no obedience 
 was due to either or any part of the recent acts 
 of Parliament, which are rejected as the at- 
 tempts of a wicked administration to enslave 
 America." The determination was expressed to 
 remain on the defensive so long as such conduct 
 might be vindicated by the principles of reason 
 and self-preservation, but no longer, and to 
 seize as hostages the servants of the crown as 
 an offset to the apprehension of any persons in 
 Suffolk County who had rendered themselves 
 conspicuous in the defense of violated liberty. 
 A Provincial Congress was recommended, and 
 all tax-collectors were exhorted to retain moneys 
 
318 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 in their hands until government should be con- 
 stitutionally organized. So far there had been 
 no utterance quite so bold as this, and Warren 
 at once committed his resolves to the faithful 
 saddlebags of prompt Paul Revere, who con- 
 veyed them in six days to the banks of the 
 Schuylkill. The hosts now faced each other 
 with weapons drawn, and any day might see 
 an encounter. 
 
 Samuel Adams was believed by the moderate 
 men and the Tories to manage things both in 
 and out of Congress. 
 
 " While the two parties in Congress remained thus 
 during three weeks on an equal balance, the republi- 
 cans were calling to their assistance the aid of their 
 factions without. Continued expresses were employed 
 between Philadelphia and Boston. These were under 
 the management of Samuel Adams, — a man who, 
 though by no means remarkable for brilliant abilities, 
 yet is equal to most men in popular intrigue and the 
 management of a faction. He eats little, drinks little, 
 sleeps little, thinks much, and is most decisive and in- 
 defatigable in the pursuit of his objects. It was this 
 man, who, by his superior application, managed at 
 once the faction in Congress at Philadelphia and the 
 factions in New England. Whatever these patriots 
 in Congress wished to have done by their colleagues 
 without, to induce General Gage, then at the head of 
 his majesty's army at Boston, to give them a pretext 
 for violent opposition, or to promote their measures 
 
LEXINGTON. 319 
 
 in Congress, Mr. Adams advised and directed to be 
 done ; and when done, it was dispatched by express 
 to Congress. By one of these expresses came the 
 inflammatory resolves of the county of Suffolk, which 
 contained a complete declaration of war against Great 
 Britain." ^ 
 
 Galloway, the writer quoted, an able lawyer, 
 who had just before been Speaker of the Penn- 
 sylvania Assembly, was a leader in Congress of 
 the strong party who desired conciliation. The 
 plan proposed by him, and which came within 
 one vote of being accepted, was a union of the 
 colonies under a general Council, which, in con- 
 junction with the British Parliament, was to 
 care for America. Galloway confesses to have 
 been fairly frightened out of his purpose by 
 what he supposed to be the power of Samuel 
 Adams. 
 
 The Declaration of Rights, embodying a non- 
 consumption and non-importation of British 
 goods ; the addresses to the king, to the peo- 
 ple of England, of Canada, and of the British 
 American colonies, and a letter to the agent of 
 the colonies in England, comprise the published 
 papers of the first Congress, seven weeks pass- 
 ing while they were in preparation. Of these 
 
 1 Historical and Political Reflections on the Rise and Progress 
 of the American Revolution, by Joseph Galloway. London, 
 1780. Page 67. 
 
320 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 the first and most important is substantially 
 the same as that adopted by the people of 
 Boston in 1772. What part precisely Samuel 
 Adams took, we cannot tell. He himself says 
 nothing, and there was no formal report. John 
 Adams's pictures are as vivid as possible, but 
 the value of his evidence is impaired by his ev- 
 ident prejudice and sense of self-importance. 
 Bits of testimony, such as that just quoted from 
 Galloway, throw some further light. Gordon 
 states : — 
 
 " In some stage of their proceedings the danger 
 of a rupture with Britain was urged as a plea for 
 certain concessions. Upon this Mr. S. Adams rose 
 up, and, among other things, said in substance : ' I 
 should advise persisting in our struggle for liberty, 
 though it was revealed from heaven that nine hun- 
 dred and ninety-nine were to perish, and only one of 
 a thousand to survive and retain his liberty. One 
 such freeman must possess more virtue and enjoy 
 more happiness than a thousand slaves ; and let bim 
 propagate his like, and transmit to them what he hath 
 so nobly preserved.' " 
 
 All his tact and all his force were brought 
 into the fullest play, and we can be certain that 
 his influence was great. He writes to Warren, 
 September 25, indicating that the disposition to 
 regard Massachusetts as over-rash is somewhat 
 overcome, but that great caution must be used 
 
LEXINGTON. 321 
 
 on account of a pervading fear that independ- 
 ence is aimed at, and a subsequent subjugation 
 of America by the power of New England. If 
 the first Congress was not won to thoughts 
 of independence, it was kept, at any rate, 
 from measures disastrously reactionary. When 
 Congress adjourned, October 26, appointing a 
 second convention for May 20, 1775, Samuel 
 Adams had reason to feel that the course of 
 things had been not unsatisfactory. 
 
 The two Adamses and Cushing were received, 
 upon their arrival in Boston, November 9, with 
 public demonstrations. Letters are extant from 
 the patriots who had remained behind in Bos- 
 ton, addressed to Samuel Adams, while at Phil- 
 adelphia, full of regard and a reverence almost 
 filial, showing in every line how his wisdom 
 was deferred to. The uneducated people, in- 
 deed, are said to have become superstitious with 
 regard to him, believing that he had a pro- 
 phetic power, and had in his keeping war and 
 peace. As usual, there was no respite for him. 
 Gordon is authority for the statement that the 
 presence of Samuel Adams in the Provincial 
 Congress, which had come into being, caused 
 it to push preparations for war, and that, since 
 many members were timid, and excused them- 
 selves from attendance under plea of sickness, 
 at his instance measures were taken to keep 
 
 21 
 
322 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 them at their work. He was like a stout ser- 
 geant, who makes it his duty not only to face 
 the foe, but sometimes to pass along the rear 
 of the line of battle, with an admonitory prick 
 of the bayonet for the timid ones who may be 
 disposed to run before the enemy's fire. As a 
 body, however, the Provincial Congress was 
 brave and united, and included the best men 
 in Massachusetts. 
 
 To the second Continental Congress the in- 
 terval is short, but the factotum crowds it with 
 work. He leads the Provincial Congress in 
 measures for making the people aware of the 
 imminence of their danger ; he is at the head 
 of the town's committee to distribute donations 
 from abroad ; he reaches out on the one hand 
 to Canada, on the other to the Mohawk and 
 Stockbridge Indians, in efforts to induce them 
 to march to the patriotic music ; but his most 
 remarkable manifestation is in connection with 
 the fifth celebration of the Boston Massacre, on 
 the 6th of March, the 5th being Sunday. The 
 truth was, that since the change in the charter 
 in the preceding year no town-meeting could 
 be legally held save such as the governor ex- 
 pressly called. The well-trained " Bostoneers," 
 however, had a ruse ready, over which the dazed 
 Gage stroked his chin, without being able to 
 make up his mind to interfere. The clause 
 
LEXINGTON. 823 
 
 of the Government Act was clear as to the 
 prohibition of town-meetings. The preceding 
 August, Gage, disposed as usual to be good- 
 natured, had summoned the selectmen to the 
 Province House. " If a meeting were wanted 
 he would allow one to be called, if he should 
 judge it expedient." The fathers of the town 
 told him they had no occasion for calling a 
 meeting; they had one alive. Gage looked 
 serious : " I must think of that ; by thus doing 
 you can keep the meeting alive for ten years." 
 Foreseeing the storm, indeed, the May meeting 
 of 1774 had not "dissolved," but " adjourned." 
 So, too, had the Port Bill meeting of June 17. 
 During the remainder of the year, therefore, 
 and into the year following, as one turns over 
 the pages of the town records, the " adjourned " 
 May meeting, or the " adjourned " Port Bill 
 meeting, are reported, which serve perfectly 
 every purpose, the town comfortably riding out 
 the storm by the parliamentary technicality. 
 The meeting of the 6th of March was an ad- 
 journment of the Port Bill meeting. Warren, 
 knowing that the orator would be in danger, 
 with characteristic bravery solicited the post for 
 himself. 
 
 Generally it is as the manager, somewhat 
 withdrawn behind the figures in the fore- 
 ground, that Samuel Adams makes himself 
 
824 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 felt. In 1770, at the driving out of the regi- 
 ments, he is not chairman of the town's commit- 
 tee that waits upon Hutchinson, but stands be- 
 hind Hancock, only coming forward at the 
 moment of danger. At the destruction of the 
 tea, he is not in the company, but his sentence 
 from the chair was evidently the concerted 
 signal for which all were waiting. Again, at 
 the last great town-meeting before Lexington 
 and Concord, March 6, 1775, the fifth cele- 
 bration of the Boston Massacre, while Warren 
 is the heroic central figure, Samuel Adams is 
 behind all as chief director. On that day Gage 
 had in the town eleven regiments. Of trained 
 soldiers there were scarcely fewer than the 
 number of men on the patriot side ; and when 
 we remember that many Tories throughout the 
 Province, in the disturbed times, had sought 
 refuge in Boston, under the protection of the 
 troops, we can feel what a host there was that 
 day on the side of the king. Nevertheless, all 
 went forward as usual. The warrant appeared 
 in due form for the meeting, at which an ora- 
 tion was to be delivered to commemorate the 
 "horrid Massacre," and to denounce the "ruin- 
 ous tendency of standing armies being placed 
 in free and populous cities in time of peace." 
 The Old South was densely thronged, and in 
 the pulpit as moderator once more, by the side 
 
LEXINGTON. 325 
 
 of the town clerk, William Cooper, quietly sat 
 Samuel Adams. Among the citizens a large 
 party of officers were present, apparently in- 
 tent upon making a disturbance with the de- 
 sign of precipitating a conflict. The war, it 
 was thought, might as well begin then as at 
 any time. Warren was late in appearing ; 
 Samuel Adams sat meantime as if upon a 
 powder-barrel that might at any minute roar 
 into the air in a sudden explosion. The tradi- 
 tion has come down that he was serene and un- 
 moved. He quietly requested the townsmen to 
 vacate the front seats, into which, in order that 
 they might be well placed to hear, he politely 
 invited the soldiers, whose numbers were so 
 large that they overflowed the pews and sat 
 upon the pulpit stairs. Warren came at last, 
 entering through the window behind the pulpit 
 to avoid the press. Wells gives, from a con- 
 temporary, the following report : — 
 
 " The Selectmen, with Adams, Church, and Han- 
 cock, Cooper, and others, assembled in the pulpit, 
 which was covered with black, and we all sat gaping 
 at one another above an hour, expecting! At last a 
 single horse chair stopped at the apothecary's, opposite 
 the meeting, from which descended the orator (War- 
 ren) of the day ; and entering the shop, was followed 
 by a servant with a bundle, in which were the Cicero- 
 nian toga, etc. 
 
326 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 " Having robed himself, he proceeded across the 
 street to the meeting, and being received into the 
 pulpit, he was announced by one of his fraternity to 
 be the person appointed to declaim on the occasion. 
 He then put himself into a Demosthenian posture, 
 with a white handkerchief in his right hand, and his 
 left in his breeches, — began and ended without ac- 
 tion. He was applauded by the mob, but groaned at 
 by people of understanding. One of the pulpiteers 
 (Adams) then got up and proposed the nomination of 
 another to speak next year on the bloody Massacre, 
 — the first time that expression was made to the au- 
 dience, — when some officers cried, ' O fie, fie ! ' The 
 gallerians, apprehending fire, bounded out of the win- 
 dows, and swarmed down the gutters, like rats, into 
 the street. The Forty-third Regiment returning ac- 
 cidentally from exercise, with drums beating, threw 
 the whole body into the greatest consternation. There 
 were neither pageantry, exhibitions, processions, or 
 bells tolling as usual, but the night was remarked for 
 being the quietest these many months past." 
 
 A picturesque incident in the delivery of the 
 oration was that, as Warren proceeded, a Brit- 
 ish captain, sitting on the pulpit stairs, held up 
 in his open palm before Warren's face a num- 
 ber of pistol bullets. Warren quietly dropped 
 his handkerchief upon them and went on. It 
 was strange enough that that oration was given 
 without an outbreak. 
 
 " We wildly stare about," he says, '* and with amaze- 
 
LEXINGTON, 327 
 
 ment ask, ' Who spread this ruin around us ? ' What 
 wretch has dared deface the image of his God ? Has 
 haughty France or cruel Spain sent forth her myrmi- 
 dons ? Has the grim savage rushed again from the 
 far distant wilderness ? Or does some fiend, fierce 
 from the depth of Hell, with all the rancorous malice 
 which the apostate damned can feel, twang her de- 
 structive bow and hurl her deadly arrows at our 
 breast ? No, none of these ; but how astonishing ! 
 It is the hand of Britain that inflicts the wound. 
 The arms of George, our rightful king, have been 
 employed to shed that blood which freely should 
 have flowed at his command, when justice, or the honor 
 of his crown, had called his subjects to the field." ^ 
 
 The oration was given without disturbance, 
 though the tension was tremendous. In the 
 proceedings that followed the quiet was not 
 perfect, but the collision was averted for a time. 
 The troops were not quite ready, and on the 
 patriot side the presiding genius was as prudent 
 as he was bold.^ Shortly afterward Samuel 
 
 1 Frothingham's Warren, p. 433. 
 
 2 Hutchinson gives an interesting fact respecting this mem- 
 orable town-meeting, in his Diary. " September 6, 1775. Col. 
 James tells an odd story of the intention of the officers the 
 5 March ; that 300 were in the meeting to hear Dr. Warren's 
 oration : that if he had said anything against the King, &c., 
 an officer was prepared, who stood near, with an egg to have 
 thrown in his face, and that was to have been a signal to draw 
 swords, and they would have massacred Hancock, Adams, and 
 hundreds more ; and he added he wished they had. I am glad 
 
328 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Adams sent the following quiet account to 
 Richard Henry Lee in Virginia, which is taken 
 here from the autograph : — 
 
 Boston, March, 1775. 
 On the sixth Instant, there was an Adjournment of 
 our Town-meeting, when an Oration was delivered in 
 Commemoration of the Massacre on the 5th of March, 
 1770. I had long expected they would take that oc- 
 casion to beat up a Breeze, and therefore (having the 
 Honor of being the Moderator of the Meeting, and 
 seeing Many of the Officers present before the orator 
 came in) I took care to have them treated with Ci- 
 vility, inviting them into convenient Seats, &c., that 
 they might have no pretence to behave ill, for it is a 
 good maxim in Politicks as well as War, to put and 
 keep the enemy in the wrong. They behaved tol- 
 erably well till the oration was finished, when upon a 
 motion made for the appointment of another orator, 
 they began to hiss, which irritated the assembly to 
 the greatest Degree, and Confusion ensued. They, 
 however, did not gain their End, which was appar- 
 
 they did not : for I think it would have been an everlasting 
 disgrace to attack a body of people without arms to defend 
 themselves. 
 
 " He says one officer cried ' Vyl Fy ! ' and Adams immedi- 
 ately asked who dared say so ? And then said to the officer 
 he should mark him. The officer answered, ' And I will mark 
 you. I live at such a place, and shall be ready to meet you.' 
 Adams said he would go to his General. The officer said his 
 General had nothing to do with it ; the affair was between 
 them two." — Diary and Letters, pp. 528, 529. 
 
LEXINGTON. 329 
 
 ently to break up the Meeting, for order was soon 
 restored, and we proceeded regularly and finished. I 
 am persuaded that were it not for the Danger of pre- 
 cipitating a Crisis, not a Man of them would have 
 been spared. It was provoking enough to them, that 
 while there were sc many Troops stationed here for 
 the design of suppressing Town-meetings, there 
 should yet be a Meeting for the purpose of deliver- 
 ing an oration to commemorate a massacre perpe- 
 trated by soldiers, and to show the danger oi stand- 
 ing armies. 
 
 And now Gage was preparing for the expe- 
 dition to secure the stores at Concord, and 
 make the oft-threatened seizure of Hancock 
 and Adams. However the general may have 
 vapored shortly before in England, he had 
 shown since his arrival in Boston a judicious 
 hesitation as to precipitating hostilities, which 
 he saw well must at once follow the arrest of 
 the important men. Reinforcements, however, 
 were now on the way ; he had been urged for- 
 ward by letters from England, and he made 
 ready for the attempt. Several months before 
 this time, in the Provincial Congress, Samuel 
 Adams had called attention to the danger of 
 allowing expeditions of regulars into the inte- 
 rior, and had recommended opposition if they 
 should proceed more than ten miles from Bos- 
 ton. From this suggestion it may have come 
 
330 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 about that the militia everywhere were so on 
 the alertj and that on the evening of the 18th, 
 when the news spread that the regulars were 
 coming out, Jonas Parker's company paraded 
 so promptly on Lexington Green. That night, 
 in the house of the Rev. Jonas Clark, which 
 still stands a few rods from the Common, lodged 
 Samuel Adams and John Hancock, about to 
 start upon their journey southward. Rumors 
 of the coming of the troops had reached the 
 village through several channels, and when an 
 hour after midnight Parker's men loaded with 
 powder and ball, Hancock and Adams, stepping 
 over from the minister's, looked on. Shortly 
 before, the centaur, Paul Revere, having es- 
 caped from the clutches of the British, had 
 galloped up, and found all asleep. The ser- 
 geant, who with eight men was stationed at the 
 house, roused by the courier's urgency, stated 
 that the family did not wish to be disturbed 
 by any noise. " Noise," cried Paul Revere, 
 " you '11 have noise enough before long. The 
 regulars are coming out." On came the light 
 infantry, moving swiftly in the fresh night air. 
 In a moment more occurred the incident of 
 Major Pitcairn's order and pistol shot ; then 
 while the smoke cleared after the memorable 
 volley, Adams and Hancock were making their 
 way across the fields to Woburn. For Adams 
 
LEXINGTON. 331 
 
 it was an hour of triumph. The British had 
 fired first ; the Americans had " put the enemy 
 in the wrong ; " the two sides were committed ; 
 conciliation was no longer possible. As the sun 
 rose there came from him one of the few exult- 
 ant outbursts of his life : " What a glorious 
 morning is this ! " They waited in the second 
 precinct of Woburn, now Burlington, while the 
 minute-men, through the forenoon, hurried by 
 with their arms. At noon a man broke in 
 upon them, at the house of the minister, with 
 a shriek, and for a moment they thought them- 
 selves lost. They were then piloted along a 
 cart-way to a corner of Billerica, where they 
 were glad to dine off cold salt pork and pota- 
 toes served in a wooden tray. A day or two 
 later they set out for Philadelpliia. 
 
 A spirited, manly letter is extant, written by 
 John Hancock, at Worcester, to the Committee 
 of Safety. We have already had occasion to 
 notice his weakness ; his conduct hereafter will 
 show still greater shortcomings. One is glad 
 to view him at his best ; for at his best he was 
 a generous and able man. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 Hartford was reached on the 29th by the 
 two delegates, where, in a secret meeting with 
 Governor Trumbull and others, they heard the 
 plan arranged for the surprise of Ticonderoga. 
 Gushing, John Adams, and Paine joined them, 
 and soon afterward, in company with the Con- 
 necticut delegation, the Massachusetts deputies 
 entered New York with great ceremony. With 
 their number increased to fourteen by the ad- 
 dition of the New York delegates, tliey crossed 
 the Hudson, escorted by five hundred gentle- 
 men and two hundred militia. Through New 
 Jersey the honors continued, and at Philadel- 
 phia the climax was reached. Says Gurwen's 
 '' Journal : " — 
 
 " Early in the morning a great number of persons 
 rode out several miles, hearing that the Eastern del- 
 egates were approaching, when, about eleven o'clock, 
 the cavalcade appeared (I being near the upper end 
 of Fore Street) ; first, two or three hundred gentle- 
 men on horseback, preceded, however, by the newly 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 333 
 
 chosen city military officers, two and two, with drawn 
 swords, followed by John Hancock and Samuel Ad- 
 ams in a phaeton and pair, the former looking as if 
 his journey and high living, or solicitude to support 
 the dignity of the first man in Massachusetts, had im- 
 paired his health. Next came John Adams and 
 Thomas Gushing in a single-horse chaise : behind fol- 
 lowed Robert Treat Paine, and after him the New 
 York delegation and some from the Province of Con- 
 necticut, etc., etc. The rear was brought up by a 
 hundred carriages, the streets crowded with people of 
 all ages, sexes, and ranks. The procession marched 
 with a slow, solemn pace. On its entrance into the 
 city, all the bells were set to ringing and chiming, and 
 every mark of respect that could be was expressed ; 
 not much, I presume, to the secret liking of their fel- 
 low delegates from the other colonies, who doubtless 
 had to digest the distinction as easily as they could." 
 
 The events of the 19th of April had widened 
 the breach greatly ; nevertlieless, when Samuel 
 Adams, now more than ever looking forward to 
 nothing less than independence, stood among 
 his fellow members in the second Continental 
 Congress, he found himself still alone. Even 
 John Adams and Jefferson were as yet far from 
 being ready for such a step, and in the debates 
 the only questions raised were between a party 
 which was in favor of resisting British encroach- 
 ments by force of arms and a party which de- 
 sired to make still further appeals to king and 
 
384 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Parliament, both parties looking forward only 
 to a restoration of the state of things existing 
 before the disputes began. Among the leading 
 stbitesmen of America, independence was the 
 desire of Samuel Adams alone. He lost a 
 staunch supporter just now in the untimely 
 death of Josiah Quincy, Jr., by consumption, 
 which occurred on shipboard in April, on his 
 return from England, whither he had gone hop- 
 ing for an improvement in health. Quincy 's 
 relations with Samuel Adams, who was twenty- 
 two years older than he, were almost those of a 
 son. Except Warren, no one stood higher in 
 Adams's esteem, who always referred to him 
 with respect and tenderness. Quincy, in turn, 
 was devoted. " Let our friend, Samuel Adams, 
 be one of the first to whom you show my let- 
 ters," he wrote to his wife, — and again, speak- 
 ing of England : " The character of your Mr. 
 Samuel Adams stands very high here. I find 
 many who consider him the first politician in 
 the world. I have found more reason every 
 day to convince me he has been right when 
 others supposed him wrong." 
 
 His reputation as a desperate and fanatical 
 adventurer, with nothing to lose, still followed 
 him, and his advocacy of a scheme was often an 
 injury to it. Massachusetts, through Warren, 
 now beyond all men the leader at home, sought 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 335 
 
 to secure an aii^horization of the Provincial 
 Congress, which many in the Continental Con- 
 gress hesitated to grant, since it would be prac- 
 tically a recognition of the independence of 
 Massachusetts. When Peyton Randolph, how- 
 ever, retired from the chair to attend the session 
 of the Virginia Legislature, the presidency was 
 given to Massachusetts, in the person of John 
 Hancock, — a measure for which the two Ad- 
 amses worked hard, having in view a double 
 advantage ; by putting the richest man in New 
 Englaild into conspicuous position, the idea was 
 dispelled that only needy adventurers were con- 
 cerned; and, on the other hand, Hancock him- 
 self was likely to be clamped firmly to the pop- 
 ular cause by the honor which was shown him. 
 By far the most important business trans- 
 acted by the second Continental Congress was 
 the appointment of Washington as commander- 
 in-chief, — a service principally due to John 
 Adams, though the nomination was seconded 
 by Samuel Adams. 
 
 " Full of anxieties," says John Adams, " concern- 
 ing these confusions, and apprehending daily that we 
 should hear very distressing news from Boston, I 
 walked with Mr. Samuel Adams in the State House 
 yard, for a little exercise and fresh air, before the 
 hour of Congress, and there represented to him the 
 various dangers that surrounded us. He agreed to 
 
336 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 them all, but said, ' What shall we do? I answered 
 him ... I was determined t^ take a step which 
 should compel all the members of Congress to de- 
 clare themselves for or against something. I am 
 determined this morning to make a direct motion 
 that Congress should adopt the army before Boston, 
 and appoint Colonel Washington commander of it. 
 Mr. Adams seemed to think very seriously of it, but 
 said nothing. 
 
 " Accordingly, when Congress had assembled, I 
 rose in my place. . . . Mr. Washington, who hap- 
 pened to sit near the door, as soon as he heard me 
 allude to him, from liis usual modesty, darted into 
 the library-room. Mr. Hancock heard me with visi- 
 ble pleasure, but when I came to describe Washington 
 for the commander, I never remarked a more sudden 
 and striking change of countenance. Mortification 
 and resentment were expressed as forcibly as his face 
 could exhibit them. Mr. Samuel Adams seconded 
 the motion, and that did not soften the president's 
 physiognomy at all." 
 
 On the 12th of June Gage made his proc- 
 lamation, offering pardon "to all persons who 
 shall forthwith lay down their Arms and return 
 to the Duties of peaceable Subjects, excepting 
 only from the Benefit of such Pardon Samuel 
 Adams and John Hancock, whose Offences 
 are of too flagitious a Nature to admit of any 
 other Consideration than that of condign Pun- 
 ishment." News of his proscription probably 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 337 
 
 readied Samuel Adams at the same time with 
 that of the battle of Banker Hill, and of the 
 death of the man whom he is believed to have 
 loved beyond all others, Dr. Warren. The fol- 
 lowing letter to his wife is contained among his 
 manuscripts : — 
 
 Phil., June 28th, 1775. 
 My dearest Betsy, yesterday I received Letters 
 from some of our Friends at the Camp informing me 
 of the Engagement between the American Troops and 
 the Rebel Army in Charlestown. I can not but be 
 greatly rejoyced at the tryed Valor of our Country- 
 men, who by all Accounts behaved with an intrepidity 
 becoming those who fought for their Liberties against 
 the mercenary Soldiers of a Tyrant. It is painful to 
 me to reflect on the Terror I must suppose you were 
 under on hearing the Noise of War so near. Favor 
 me my dear with an Account of your Apprehensions 
 at that time, under your own hand. I pray God to 
 cover the heads of our Countrymen in every day of 
 Battle and ever to protect you from Injury in these 
 distracted times. The Death of our truly amiable 
 and worthy Friend Dr. Warren ic greatly afflicting ; 
 the Language of Friendship is, how shall we resign 
 him; but it is our Duty to submit to the Dispensations 
 of Heaven " whose ways are ever gracious, ever just." 
 He fell in the glorious Struggle for publick Liberty. 
 Mr. Pitts and Dr. Church inform me that my dear 
 Son has at length escaped from the Prison at Boston. 
 . . . Remember me to my dear Hannah and sister 
 22 
 
338 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Polly and to all Friends. Let me know where good 
 old Surry is. Gage has made me respectable by 
 naming me first among those who are to receive no 
 favor from him. I thouroughly despise him and his 
 Proclamation. . . . The Clock is now striking twelve. 
 I therefore wish you a good Night. 
 
 Yours most affectionately, 
 
 S. Adams. 
 
 Wells has stated that no letter of Samuel 
 Adams can be found in which any reference 
 is made to the death of Warren, overlooking 
 that which has just been given. It is, per- 
 haps, singular that Adams expressed no more. 
 " Their kindred souls were so closely twined 
 that both felt one joy, both one affliction," said 
 the orator at Warren's re-interment after the 
 British evacuation. That Samuel Adams wore 
 him in his heart of hearts all men knew, and 
 his silence is part of that i-eticence as to his 
 own emotions which has been referred to as so 
 constantly marking him. His relation to War- 
 ren, who died at thirty-five, was similar to that 
 in which he stood to Quincy, though somewhat 
 more intimate. " The future seemed burdened 
 with his honors," says Bancroft of Warren, and 
 it is hard to see how promise could be finer. 
 His powers were becoming calmed and trained, 
 while losing no particle of their youthful force. 
 He was at once prudent and yet most impetu- 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 339 
 
 ous, — able in debate in town-meeting or Assem- 
 bly, — prompt and intrepid in the field. Either 
 as statesman or as soldier he might have been 
 his country's pride. 
 
 Samuel Adams swept aside personal griefs 
 and perils. He adopted Washington cordially, 
 and poured out for him whatever information 
 could be of value to a man of the South about 
 to take command of an army of New England 
 troops. He strove to prepare for him a good 
 reception by sending beforehand to the impor- 
 tant men the most favorable commendations. 
 Less fortunate was the work of the Adamses in 
 behalf of Charles Lee, who, largely through 
 them, was appointed second in command, — the 
 eccentric, selfish marplot, who so nearly wrecked 
 the cause he assumed to uphold. On the 1st of 
 August the second Continental Congress ad- 
 journed until the 5th of September, the Massa- 
 chusetts delegation, on their return, having in 
 care five hundred thousand dollars for the use 
 of the army of Washington. 
 
 When Samuel Adams, with his fellow dele- 
 gates, arrived from Philadelphia, he found in 
 session " The General Assembly of the territory 
 of Massachusetts Bay," in which he was to sit 
 as one of the eighteen councilors. He was at 
 once made Secretary of State. His son became 
 a surgeon in the army of Washington, while his 
 
340 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 wife and daughter were inmates of the family 
 of Mrs. Adams's father at Cambridge. Leaving 
 his public functions in the hands of a deputy- 
 secretary, Samuel Adams is in the saddle again 
 on the 12th of September, and, after riding 
 three hundred miles on a horse lent him by 
 John Adams, with great benefit to his health, 
 he is soon once more at Philadelphia, for the 
 opening of the third Continental Congress. 
 
 The jealousy toward New England was now 
 even greater than ever before in the proprietary 
 and some of the southern colonies. Gadsden, 
 R. H. Lee, Patrick Henry, and a few others, 
 were ready for independence. As yet, however, 
 there was no discussion of this matter. Samuel 
 Adams, impatient, began to entertain the idea 
 of establishing independence for the New Eng- 
 land colonies by themselves, cherishing the hope 
 that the rest would follow in time. 
 
 The defection of Dr. Benjamin Church, which 
 was discovered in the fall of 1775, must have 
 caused him pain scarcely less than the deatlis of 
 Quincy and Warren. Next to these, no one of 
 the younger men had promised more fairly than 
 Church. His abilities were brilliant, his inter- 
 est in all the Whig projects apparently most 
 sincere. He had been implicitly trusted. Years 
 before, while secretly a writer for the govern- 
 ment, he had escaped discovery. Now he was 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 341 
 
 detected, while betraying to the enemy, by let- 
 ters written in cipher, the plans of the Massa- 
 chusetts patriots. He narrowly escaped execu- 
 tion. He was allowed to take passage for the 
 West Indies in a ship which was never heard 
 of more. 
 
 To relate particularly the doings of the Con- 
 tinental Congress must be left to the general 
 historian. The reports are meagre; a thousand 
 details came up for consideration, and Samuel 
 Adams was busy in many different ways which 
 it would be wearisome to try to trace. Inde- 
 pendence was more than ever at his heart, but 
 seemed as far off as ever. John Adams, who 
 had reached his ground at last, went home in 
 the winter and remained two months ; Han- 
 cock, becoming estranged from his plain com- 
 panions, affiliated with the aristocratic members 
 from the middle and southern colonies ; both 
 Cushing and Paine favored conciliation. Jef- 
 ferson remembered Samuel Adams as the chief 
 promoter of the invasion of Canada. He be- 
 came warmly friendly to the brave Montgomery, 
 followed with ardent hope the reduction of St. 
 Johns, Chambly, and Montreal, and was much 
 afflicted when the young conqueror was struck 
 down in the winter storm at Quebec. Disaster, 
 as always, nerved him to new efforts. 
 
342 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 The reader will be interested in the following 
 letter from his wife, copied from the autograph, 
 which the " bad paper " and the " pen made 
 with scissars " make not easily decipherable : — 
 
 Cambridge Feb. 12*^^, 1776. 
 My dear, I Received your affectinate Letter by 
 Feseuton and I thank you for your kind Concern for 
 My health and Safty. I beg you Would not give 
 yourself any pain on our being so Near the Camp; 
 the place I am in is so Situated, that if the Regulars 
 should ever take Prospect Hill, which god forbid, I 
 should be able to Make an Escape, as I am Within a 
 few stone casts of a Back Road, Which Leads to the 
 Most Retired part of Newtown. ... I beg you to 
 Excuse the very poor Writing as My paper is Bad and 
 my pen made with Scissars. I should be glad (My 
 dear), if you should 'nt come down soon, you would 
 Write me Word Who to apply to for some Monney, 
 for I am low in Cash and Every thing is very dear. 
 May I subscribe myself yours 
 
 Eliza'" Adams. 
 
 The chafing fanatic of independence, whose 
 fire was rising more and more, sent out in 
 February an " Earnest Appeal to the People." 
 The opponents of independence, led now by the 
 able Wilson of Pennsylvania, conspicuous af- 
 terwards in the debates on the constitution, and 
 as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, pursued a vigorous course. Helped es- 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 343 
 
 pecially by Wyeth of Virginia, Samuel Adams 
 stood against them. His abilities were greater 
 in other fields than on the floor of debate, ready 
 and impressive though he was, and he at this 
 time sadly missed the help of John Adams, 
 whose power here was of the highest. The 
 baffled striver, borne down for the time by the 
 odds against him, gnashed his teeth against his 
 colleagues, Hancock, Paine, and Gushing, who 
 rendered him no help. " Had I suggested an 
 idea of the vanity of the ape, the tameness of 
 the ox, or the stupid servility of the ass, I 
 might have been liable to censure ; " — thus he 
 wrote. Massachusetts stood nobly by him, for 
 at the reelection of delegates, though Hancock 
 was returned, like the two Adamses, by a good 
 majority, Paine was barely chosen, and Gush- 
 ing was entirely dropped, Elbridge Gerry of 
 Marble he ad taking his place, and showing him- 
 self at once a capable combatant side by side 
 with the veteran. 
 
 But a change was preparing. Speaking of 
 the work of Thomas Paine, Samuel Adams 
 bore this testimony to its value : " ' Gommon 
 Sense ' and ' The Grisis ' undoubtedly awakened 
 the public mind, and led the people loudly to 
 call for a declaration of independence." But 
 months were to pass before the new mood 
 of the people was to make itself felt in Con- 
 
344 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 gress. Adams, with the small phalanx of ad- 
 vanced men, among whom, besides Wyeth, 
 were Ward of Rhode Island, Chase of Mary- 
 land, and Oliver Wolcott and Roger Sherman 
 of Connecticut, faced the moderate men. He 
 fought also outside, trying especially to coun- 
 teract the influence of the Quakers, a sect 
 whose conduct in general tried his patience 
 greatly, and which in convention just before 
 had issued an address strongly urging unquali- 
 fied submission. Samuel Adams handled with- 
 out gloves the respectable broad-brims : — 
 
 " * But,* say the puling, pusillanimous cowards, * we 
 shall be subject to a long and bloody war, if we de- 
 clare independence.' On the contrary, I affirm it the 
 only step that can bring the contest to a speedy and 
 happy issue. By declaring independence we put our- 
 selves on a footing for an equal negotiation. Now 
 we are called a pack of villainous rebels, who, like the 
 St. Vincent's Indians, can expect nothing more than 
 a pardon for our lives, and the sovereign favor, re- 
 specting freedom and property, to be at the king's 
 will. Grant, Almighty God, that I may be numbered 
 with the dead before that sable day dawns on North 
 America." 
 
 Samuel Adams undoubtedly prepared the 
 resolutions respecting the disarming of the To- 
 ries, being chairman of the committee on that 
 matter. It was more and more the case that 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 345 
 
 his state papers before the war became the 
 models for important documents, and were used 
 directly to explain to the public the justice of 
 the American cause. John Adams, until within 
 a few months, and Jefferson, to the present mo- 
 ment, had regarded independence with disfavor, 
 only to be accepted as a last resort. Franklin 
 looked upon it as an event, which, if it must 
 come, was lamentable. Washington, in the first 
 Congress, denied that the colonies desired, or 
 that it was for their interest, ''separately or 
 collectively, to set up for independence." Up 
 to the time when he became commander-in- 
 chief, he desired peace and reconciliation on an 
 honorable basis. Joseph Warren died without 
 desiring American freedom. Even after Lex- 
 ington he favored reconciliation, founded on 
 the maintenance of colonial rights. " This," 
 said he, " I most heartily wish, as I feel a warm 
 affection for the parent state." Samuel Adams 
 had a few correspondents of views similar to 
 his own. Such were Joseph Hawley, who, be- 
 cause he was ill, or through some unaccounta- 
 ble neglect, was suffered to hide his fine powers 
 and accomplishments during all these mighty 
 years in the seclusion of Northampton ; also Dr. 
 Samuel Cooper, and James Warren of Plym- 
 outh, fast rising in Massachusetts to take his 
 namesake's place in council, though he never 
 
346 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 appeared in the field. To the latter Adams 
 writes in April : " The child Independence is 
 now struggling for birth. I trust that in a 
 short time it will be brought forth, and, in spite 
 of Pharaoh, all America will hail the dignified 
 stranger." The plain people, too, whom he 
 loved and trusted, rallied to him. At last, on 
 the 6th of April, while the Pennsylvania As- 
 sembly, under the lead of the incorrigible Dick- 
 inson, who was now as energetic at the brake 
 as he had once been on the engine, was in- 
 structing its delegates to discourage separation, 
 a measure was passed abolishing British cus- 
 tom-houses in the thirteen colonies, and open- 
 ing their ports to the commerce of the world. 
 Samuel Adams was on the committee that re- 
 ported it, and wrote to Hawley that the " united 
 colonies had torn into shivers the British acts 
 of trade." By May 10, under the lead of John 
 Adams, Congress had recommended to the col- 
 onies to set up governments of their own, sup- 
 pressing all crown authority. In May, also, the 
 Virginia delegates were instructed from home 
 to declare for independence ; Maryland was 
 won through the influence of Thomas Chase ; 
 in Pennsylvania the power of Dickinson visibly 
 waned; everywhere there was movement, until 
 on the 5th of June Richard Henry Lee of Vir- 
 ginia offered his resolution declaring tke col- 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 347 
 
 onies free and independent states, recommend- 
 ing the formation of foreign alliances, and a 
 plan of confederation. 
 
 As in some elaborate piece of music, a mighty 
 march with distinct, slowly succeeding tones 
 goes forward, while the intervals are filled in 
 with innumerable, subordinated notes, so in this 
 advance toward independence, while the sol- 
 emn steps are measured, a thousand minor de- 
 tails are everywhere interspersed. The hour 
 at hand constantly pressed. Powder in this di- 
 rection, provisions and clothes in that ; troops 
 to be recruited ; roads to be built ; inert Whigs 
 to be stimulated ; active Tories to be sup- 
 pressed ; officers to be commissioned ; plans of 
 campaign to be devised ; hostile projects to 
 be counteracted ; — all this must go forward. 
 Samuel Adams bore his part in all the intrica- 
 cies, but saw to it that the main theme should 
 be forever thundered with a volume more and 
 more prevailing. 
 
 On the 8th of June began the debate on 
 Lee's resolution. We do not know the special 
 arguments used, nor with certainty the names 
 of the speakers on the side of independence, ex- 
 cepting John Adams. Elbridge Gerry, many 
 years after, told the daughter of Samuel Ad- 
 ams that the success of Lee's measure was 
 largely due to the " timely remarks " of her 
 
848 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 father ; that in one speech he occupied an un- 
 usually long time, and that two or three waver- 
 ing members were finally convinced by him. 
 He remembered it as Samuel Adams's ablest 
 effort. Edward Rutledge, at length, brought 
 about a postponement of the question for three 
 weeks, that the hesitating delegates of the cen- 
 tral colonies might have time to consult their 
 constituents ; but not before Jefferson, John 
 Adams, Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert 
 R. Livingston had been made a committee to 
 prepare the Declaration. One who follows this 
 story must feel regret that Samuel Adams was 
 not of this number. It happened not through 
 neglect, for at the same time he was appointed 
 to stand for Massachusetts on a committee re- 
 garded, probably, as certainly not less impor- 
 tant, — a committee, namely, consisting of one 
 from each colony, to prepare a plan of confed- 
 eration. 
 
 The three weeks passed, during which the 
 ripening sentiment of the country made itself 
 stnmgly felt by Congress. For Samuel Adams 
 it was a time of labor, for now it was, in per- 
 sonal conferences with hesitating members, that 
 he brought to bear his peculiar powers. When 
 the measure was again taken up, on the first 
 days of July, all was secured. There was no 
 longer a dissenting voice, and the delegates, 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 349 
 
 after the memorable form, pledged their lives, 
 their fortunes, and their sacred honor. 
 
 It seems to have been not at all a solemn 
 hour. The weather was very hot, and through 
 the open windows there came in from a stable 
 close by a swarm of mosquitoes and horse-flies, 
 who bit viciously at the legs of the members 
 through their silk stockings. American patri- 
 otism owes to these energetic insects an obliga- 
 tion very great and by no means adequately 
 recognized ; for the Fathers, wrought upon by 
 the sedulously applied torment, hastened to 
 sign the famous document of Jefferson, sub- 
 mitted at last by the committee. Now that 
 the struggle was over, the members became 
 positively hilarious in their good-nature. John 
 Hancock dashed down his great signature in 
 such shape " that George the Third might read 
 it without his spectacles." " Now we must all 
 hang together," it was remarked. " Yes," said 
 Franklin, "or we shall all hang separately." 
 " When it comes to the hanging," said fat Mr. 
 Harrison of Virginia to lean little Elbridge 
 Gerry of Massachusetts, " I shall have the ad- 
 vantage of you : for my neck, probably, will be 
 broken at the first drop, whereas you may have 
 to dangle for half an hour." 
 
 For Samuel Adams it was the most tri- 
 amphant moment of his life ; but he writes 
 
350 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 tlius calmly to his friend, John Pitts, at Bos- 
 ton : — 
 
 Phil. July, 1776. 
 My dear Sir, you were informed by the last Post 
 that Congress had declared the thirteen United Col- 
 onies free and independent States. It must be al- 
 lowed by the impartial World that this Declaration has 
 not been made rashly. . . . Too Much I fear has been 
 lost by Delay, but an accession of several Colonies 
 has been gained by it. Delegates of every Colony 
 were present and concurred in this important Act ex- 
 cept those of New York, who were not authorized to 
 give their Voice on the Question, but they have since 
 publickly said that a new Convention was soon to 
 meet in that Colony, and they had not the least Doubt 
 of their acceding to it. Our Path is now open to 
 form a plan of Confederation and propose Alliances 
 with foreign States. I hope our Affairs will now 
 wear a more agreable aspect than they have of late. 
 
 S. A.1 
 1 Copied from the autograph. 
 
CHAPTER XXL 
 
 CHARACTER AND SERVICE OF SAMUEL 
 ADAMS. 
 
 We have reached a point in the career of 
 Samuel Adams from which it will be conven- 
 ient to take a retrospect. He was now fifty- 
 four years old. Although his life was destined 
 to continue more than a quarter of a century 
 longer, and although the work that he accom- 
 plished in the years that were coming was im- 
 portant, his great and peculiar desert is for the 
 work done during these twelve years from 1764 
 to 1776, with the description of which this book 
 has been thus far occupied. That Massachu- 
 setts led the thirteen colonies during the years 
 preliminary to the Revolution has been suffi- 
 ciently set forth ; that Boston led Massachusetts 
 is plain ; the reader of the foregoing pages will 
 clearly understand that it was Samuel Adams 
 who led Boston. If the remark that Bancroft 
 somewhere makes is just, that " American free- 
 dom was more prepared by courageous coun- 
 sel than successful war," it would be hard to 
 
352 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 exaggerate the value of the work of Samuel 
 Adams in securing it. 
 
 Bancroft has spoken of Samuel Adams as, 
 more than any other man, " the type and repre- 
 sentative of the New England town-meeting." ^ 
 Boston, as we have seen, is the largest com- 
 munity that ever maintained the town organiza- 
 tion, probably also the most generally able and 
 intelligent. No other town ever played so con- 
 spicuous a part in connection with important 
 events. Probably in the whole history of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race there has been no other so 
 interesting manifestation of the activity of the 
 folk-mote. Of this town of towns Samuel 
 Adams was the son of sons. He was strangely 
 identified with it always. He was trained in 
 Boston schools and Harvard College. He never 
 left the town except on the town's errands, or 
 those of the Province of which it was the head. 
 He had no private business after the first years 
 of his manhood ; he was the public servant sim- 
 ply and solely in places large and small, — fire- 
 ward, committee to see that chimneys were 
 safe, tax collector, moderator of town-meeting, 
 representative. One may almost call him the 
 creature of the town-meeting. His development 
 has taken place among the talk of the town pol- 
 
 1 In a private conversation with the writer ; also Hist, of 
 Constitution, ii. 260. 
 
CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 353 
 
 iticians at his father's house, on the floors of 
 Faiieuil Hall and the Old South, from the time 
 when he looked on as a wondering boy to the 
 time when he stood there as the master-figure. 
 "His chief dependence," wrote Hutchinson, 
 in a passage already quoted, ''is upon Boston 
 town-meeting, where he originates the measures 
 whicli are followed by the rest of the towns, 
 and, of course, are adopted or justified by the 
 Assembly." Edward Everett declared too, in 
 the Lexington oration, that — 
 
 " The throne of his ascendency was in Faneuil 
 Hall. As each new measure of arbitrary power was 
 announced from across the Atlantic, or each new act 
 of menace and violence on the part of the officers of 
 the government or of the army occurred in Boston, 
 its citizens, oftentimes in astonishment and perplexity, 
 rallied to the sound of his voice in Faneuil Hall ; and 
 there, as from the crowded gallery or the moderator's 
 chair he animated, enlightened, fortified, and roused 
 the admiring throng, he seemed to gather them to- 
 gether beneath the £egis of his indomitable spirit, as a 
 hen gathereth her chickens under her wings." 
 
 Though the sphere of his activity was to so 
 large an extent the Massachusetts Assembly, he 
 was not the less for that, as has appeared, the 
 " man of the town-meeting." The Assembly 
 was a collection of deputies., of whom each was 
 the mouthpiece of his constituency, having the 
 
 23 
 
354 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 folk-mote behind him, which limited his action 
 by careful instructions, kept sharp watch of his 
 behavior, and suffered him to hold office for so 
 short a term that he was in no danger of getting 
 beyond control. The Assembly was, therefore, 
 rather a convention of town-meetings than a 
 representative body, bearing in mind Dr. Lie- 
 ber's distinction ; and when Samuel Adams ar- 
 rayed and manoeuvred them in the west cham- 
 ber of the Old State House against Bernard or 
 Hutchinson in the east chamber, — the regi- 
 ments lying threateningly just behind, either 
 in the town or at the Castle, — it was the Mas- 
 sachusetts towns that he marshaled almost as 
 much as if the population had actually come 
 from the hills and the plains, gathering as do 
 the hamlets of Uri and Appenzell in Switzer- 
 land, to legislate for themselves without any 
 delegation of authority.^ 
 
 We have seen that New England had been 
 prolific of children fitted for the time. Men 
 /like John Scollay, William Cooper, William 
 /Molineux, William Phillips, Robert Pierpont, 
 John Pitts, Paul Revere, — plain citizens, mer- 
 chants, mechanics, selectmen of the town, dea- 
 cons in the churches, cool headed, well-to-do, 
 persistent, courageous, were sturdy wheel-horses 
 for the occasion. Of a higher order, and great 
 
 1 Freeman, Growth of the English Const. 
 
CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 355 
 
 figures in our story, have been James Otis, 
 James Bowdoin, Joseph Hawley, Thomas Gush- 
 ing ; and of the younger generation, John Han- 
 cock, Josiah Quincy, Joseph Warren, John Ad- 
 ams, Benjamin Church, — men who had some 
 of them a gift of eloquence to set hearts on fire, 
 some of them executive power, some of them 
 cunning to lay trains and supply the flash at the 
 proper time, some wealth, and birth, and high 
 social position. It was a wonderful group, but 
 in every one there was some inadequacy. |The 
 splendid Otis, whose leadership was at first un- 
 questioned, who had only to enter Boston town- 
 meeting to call forth shouts and clapping of 
 hands, and who had equal authority in the 
 Assembly, was, as early as 177C, fast sinking 
 into insanity. In spite of fits of unreasonable 
 violence and absurd folly, vacillations between 
 extremes of subserviency and audacious resist- 
 ance, his influence with the people long re- 
 mained. He was like the huge cannon on the 
 man-of-war, in Victor Hugo's story, that had 
 broken from its moorings in the storm, and be- 
 come a terror to those whom it formerly de- 
 fended. He was indeed a great gun, from whom 
 in the time of the Stamp Act had been sent the 
 most powerful bolts against unconstitutional 
 oppression. With lashings parted, however, as 
 the storm grew violent he plunged dangerously 
 
356 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 from side to side, almost sinking the ship, all 
 the more an object of dread from the calibre 
 that had once made him so serviceable. It was 
 a melancholy sight, and yet a great relief, when 
 his friends saw him at last bound hand and foot, 
 and carried into retirement. 
 
 Bowdoin, also, was not firm in health, and 
 though most active and useful in the Council, has 
 thus far done little elsewhere. Hawley, far in 
 the interior, was often absent from the centre in 
 critical times, and somewhat unreliable through 
 a strange moodiness ; Cashing was weak ; Han- 
 cock was hampered by foibles that sometimes 
 quite canceled his merits ; Quincy was a bril- 
 liant youth, and, like a youth, sometimes fickle. 
 We have seen him ready to temporize when 
 to falter was destruction, as at the time of the 
 casting over of the tea ; again, in unwise fervor, 
 he could counsel assassination as a proper ex- 
 pedient. Warren, too, could rush into extremes 
 of rashness and ferocity, wishing that he might 
 wade to the knees in blood, and had just reached 
 sober, self-reliant manhood when he was taken 
 off. John Adams showed only an intermittent 
 zeal in the public cause until the preliminary 
 work was done, and Benjamin Church, half- 
 hearted and venal, early began the double-deal- 
 ing which was to bring him to a traitor's end. 
 
 There was need in this group of a man of suf- 
 
CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 357 
 
 ficient ascendency, through intellect and char- 
 acter, to win deference from all, — wise enough 
 to see always the supreme end, to know what 
 each instrument was fit for, and to bring all 
 forces to bear in the right way, — a man of 
 consummate adroitness, to sail in torpedo-sown 
 waters without exciting an explosion, though 
 conducting wires of local prejudice, class-sensi- 
 tiveness, and personal foible on every hand led 
 straight down to magazines of wrath which 
 might shatter the cause in a moment, — a man 
 having resources of his o^vn to such an extent 
 that he could supplement from himself what 
 was wanting in others, — always awake though 
 others might want to sleep, always at work 
 though others might be tired, — a man de- 
 voted, without thought of personal gain or fame, 
 simply and solely to the public cause. Such 
 a man there was, and his name was Samuel 
 Adams. 
 
 In character and career he was a singular 
 combination of things incongruous. He was in 
 religion the narrowest of Puritans, but in man- 
 ner very genial. He was perfectly rigid in his 
 opinions, but in his expression of them often 
 very compliant. He was the most conservative 
 of men, but was regarded as were the '' aboli- 
 tion fanatics " in our time, before the emancipa- 
 tion proclamation. Who will say that his up- 
 
358 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Tightness was not inflexible ? Yet a wilier fox 
 than he in all matters of political manoeuvring 
 our history does not show. In business he had 
 no push or foresight, but in politics was a won- 
 der of force and shrewdness. In a voice full of 
 trembling he expressed opinions, of which the 
 audacity would have brouglit him at once to the 
 halter if he could have been seized. Even in 
 his young manhood his hair had become gray 
 and his hand shook as if with paralysis ; but he 
 lived, as we shall see, to his eighty-second year, 
 his work rarely interrupted by sickness, serving 
 as governor of Massachusetts for several suc- 
 cessive terms after he had lived his three score 
 and ten years, almost the last survivor among 
 the great pre-revolutionary figures. 
 
 Among his endowments eloquence was not his 
 most conspicuous power. As an orator Samuel 
 Adams was surpassed by several of his contem- 
 poraries. His ordinary style of speech was 
 plain and straight-forward, rarely, it is prob- 
 able, burning out into anything like splendor. 
 For swelling rhetoric he was quite too sincere 
 and earnest. John Adams, in his old age, 
 said : — 
 
 " In his common appearance, he was a plain, sim- 
 ple, decent citizen, of middling stature, dress, and 
 manners. He had an exquisite ear for music, and a 
 charnnng voice when he pleased to exert it. Yet his 
 
CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 359 
 
 ordinary speeches in town-meetings, in the House of 
 Representatives, and in Congress, exhibited nothing 
 extraordinary ; but upon great occasions, when his 
 deeper feelings were excited, he erected himself, or 
 rather nature seemed to erect him, without the small- 
 est symptom of affectation, into an upright dignity of 
 figure and gesture, and gave a harmony to his voice 
 which made a strong impression on spectators and 
 auditors, — the more lasting for the purity, correct- 
 ness, and nervous elegance of his style." 
 
 In Philadelphia, in 1774, 1775, and 1776, 
 John Adams probably was by far the best de- 
 bater in Congress. Jefferson wrote : — 
 
 "As a speaker Samuel Adams could not be com- 
 pared with his living colleague and namesake, whose 
 deep conceptions, nervous style, and undaunted firm- 
 ness made him truly our bulwark in debate. But 
 Mr. Samuel Adams, although not of fluent elocution, 
 was so rigorously logical, so clear in his views, abun- 
 dant in good sense, and master always of his subject, 
 that he commanded the most profound attention when- 
 ever he rose in an assembly by which tie froth of 
 declamation was heard with the most sovereign con- 
 tempt." 
 
 Samuel Adams had liis say and ceased. One 
 may be quite certain that he was seldom tedi- 
 ous. He was never the '' dinner-bell " of town- 
 meeting or Assembly ; but James Otis and John 
 Adams certainly surpassed him as orators, the 
 
860 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 former of whom might with good reason con- 
 test with Patrick Henry the title of " the 
 American Chatham," while the latter was well 
 called "the Colossus of debate." 
 
 Nor is it as a writer that Samuel Adams is 
 at his best. It is probable that he was one 
 of the most voluminous writers whom America 
 has as yet produced. Some twenty-five sig- 
 natures have been identified as used by him in 
 the newspapers at different times. At the same 
 moment that he filled the papers, he went on 
 with his preparation of documents for the town 
 and the Assembly till one wonders how a sin- 
 gle brain could have achieved it all. If those 
 writings only which can be identified were pub- 
 lished, the collection would present a formida- 
 ble array of polemical documents, embracing all 
 the great issues out of whose discussion grew 
 our independence. They were meant for a par- 
 ticular purpose, to shatter British oppression, 
 and when that purpose was secured, their au- 
 thor was perfectly careless as to what became 
 of them. Like cannon-balls which sink the 
 ship, and then are lost in the sea, so the bolts 
 of Samuel Adams, after riddling British au- 
 thority in America, must be sought by diving 
 beneath the oblivion that has rolled over them. 
 Of the portion that has been recovered, these 
 pages have given specimens enough to justify a 
 
CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 361 
 
 high estimate of the genius and accomplish- 
 ments of their author. It was an age of great 
 political writers. Contemporary in England 
 were Burke and '" Junius," — in France, Mon- 
 tesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire, — in America, 
 Dickinson, Franklin, and Paine. Samuel Ad- 
 ams will bear a good comparison with them, 
 generally offering for any shortcoming some 
 compensating merit. If there is never the mag- 
 nificence of Burke, there is an absence, too, of 
 all turgid and labored rhetoric. If there is a lack 
 of Franklin's pith and wit, there is a lack, too, 
 of Poor Richard's penny wisdom. If we miss 
 the tremendous invective of '' Junius," we find 
 instead of acrid cruelty the spirit of humanity. 
 If there is no over bitter denunciation, there is 
 on the other hand no milk and water. While 
 he is never pedantic, the reader has had occa- 
 sion to see his familiarity with ancient and 
 modern literature, and in particular his ac- 
 quaintance with writers upon constitutional his- 
 tory. The clearness of his style is admirable, 
 his logic unvaryingly good. His intensity of 
 conviction, both religious and political, some- 
 times makes him narrow. He can speak only 
 in stern terms of a Tory ; scarcely otherwise of 
 a Catholic or Episcopalian ; to free-thinkers 
 like Franklin and Paine he did not at first find 
 it easy to be cordial. But had he been more 
 
362 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 tolerant, he must have been less intense and 
 forceful. 
 
 That the power of Samuel Adams as a writer 
 was better appreciated by his contemporaries 
 than it has been by his successors is abun- 
 dantly apparent. The man who more than any 
 other felt his blows has left it on record that 
 Samuel Adams had been "for near twenty 
 years a writer against government in the pub- 
 lic newspapers, at first but an indifferent one ; 
 long practice caused him to arrive at great per- 
 fection, and to acquire a talent of artfully and 
 fallaciously insinuating into the minds of his 
 readers a prejudice against the character of all 
 whom he attacked, beyond any other man I 
 ever knew." " Bernard," says a contemporary, 
 " used to ' damn that Adams. Every dip of his 
 pen stings like a horned snake.' " These are 
 the bitter, chagrin-charged comments of his 
 opponents. His friends found no words strong 
 enough to make knoAvn their appreciation. 
 That the patriots were in the majority they 
 directly attributed to him. Says James Sulli- 
 van : '' By his speeches and ' Gazette ' produc- 
 tions a large majority was produced and main- 
 tained in Massachusetts in opposition to tlie 
 claims of the ministry." Says John Adams : 
 " A collection of his writings would be as curi- 
 ous ^s voluminous. It would throw light upon 
 
CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 363 
 
 American history for fifty years. In it would 
 be found specimens of a nervous simplicity of 
 reasoning and eloquence that have never been 
 rivaled in America." 
 
 It was, however, as a manager of men that 
 Samuel Adams was greatest. Such a master of 
 the methods by which a town-meeting may be 
 swayed, the world has never seen. On the 
 best of terms with the people, the ship-yard 
 men, the distillers, the sailors, as well as the 
 merchants and ministers, he knew precisely 
 what springs to touch. He was the prince of 
 canvassers, the very king of the caucus, of which 
 his father was the inventor. His ascendency 
 was quite extraordinary and no less marked 
 over men of ability than over ordinary minds. 
 Always clear-headed and cool in the most 
 confusing turmoil, he had ever at command, 
 whether he was button-holing a refractory in- 
 dividual or haranguing a Faneuil Hall meeting, 
 a simple but most effective style of speech. As 
 to his tact, was it ever surpassed ? We have 
 seen Samuel Adams introduce Hancock into 
 the public service, as he did a dozen others. It 
 is curious to notice how he knew afterwards in 
 what ways, while he stroked to sleep Hancock's 
 vanity and peevishness, to bring him, all un- 
 conscious, to bear, — now against the Boston 
 Tories, now against the English ministry, now 
 
864 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 against prejudice in the other colonies. Pen- 
 niless as he was himself, it was a great point, 
 when the charge was made that the Massachu- 
 setts leaders were desperate adventurers who 
 had nothing to risk, to be able to parade Han- 
 cock in his silk and velvet, with his handsome 
 vehicle and aristocratic mansion. One hardly 
 knows which to wonder at most, the astuteness 
 or the self-sacrifice with which, in order to pre- 
 sent a measure effectively or to humor a touchy 
 co-worker, he continually postpones himself 
 while he gives the foreground to others. Per- 
 haps the most useful act of his life was the 
 bringing into being of the Boston Committee 
 of Correspondence ; yet when all was arranged, 
 while he himself kept the laboring oar, he put 
 at the head the faltering Otis. Again and 
 again, when a fire burned for which he could 
 not trust liimself, he would turn on the mag- 
 nificent speech of Otis, or Warren, or Quincy, 
 or Church, who poured their copious jets, often 
 quite unconscious that cunning Sam Adams 
 really managed the valves and was directing 
 the stream. 
 
 The same ability at management has showed 
 itself in his career in the Continental Congress. 
 " I always considered him," said Jefferson, '' more 
 than any other member, the fountain of our 
 moie important measures ; " and again, writing 
 in 1825 : — 
 
CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 365 
 
 "If there was any Palinurus to the Revolution, 
 Samuel Adams was the man. Indeed, in the East- 
 ern States, for a year or two after it began, he was 
 truly the Man of the Revolution. He was constantly 
 holding caucuses of distinguished men (among whom 
 was R. H. Lee), at which the generality of the meas- 
 ures pursued were previously determined on, and at 
 which the parts were assigned to the different actors 
 who afterwards appeared in them. John Adams had 
 very little part in these caucuses ; but as one of the 
 actors in the measures decided on in them, he was a 
 Colossus." 
 
 How profound was the belief which the To- 
 ries held in his cunning has been illustrated in 
 the case of Hutchinson. Here are still other 
 testimonies. The charge of duplicity becomes 
 intelligible, from that Machiavellian streak in 
 his character, the existence of which it is use- 
 less to attempt to deny : — 
 
 " John Adams is the creature and kinsman of Sara 
 uel Adams, the Cromwell of New England, to whose 
 intriguing arts the Declaration of Independence is in 
 a great measure to be attributed, the history of which 
 will not be uninteresting. 
 
 " When the Northern delegates broached their po- 
 litical tenets in Congress, they were interrogated by 
 some of the Southern ones, whether they did or did 
 not aim at independence, to which mark their violent 
 principles seemed to tend. Samuel Adams, with as 
 grave a face as hypocrisy ever wore, affirmed that 
 
866 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 they did not ; but in the evening of the same day, in 
 a circle of confidential friends (as he took theoa to 
 be), confessed that the independence of the colonies 
 had been the great object of his life ; that whenever 
 he had met with a youth of parts, he had endeavored 
 to instil such notions into his mind, and had neglected 
 no opportunity, either in public or in private, of pre- 
 paring the way for that event which now, thank God, 
 was at hand. 
 
 " He watched the favorable moment when, by plead- 
 ing the necessity of a foreign alliance, and urging the 
 impracticability of obtaining it without a declaration 
 of independence, he finally succeeded in the accom- 
 plishment of his wishes." ^ 
 
 Another Tory, writing from Boston early in 
 this year, assails Adams and Hancock in this 
 wise ; — 
 
 " This man, whom but a day before hardly any 
 man would have trusted with a shilling, and whose 
 honesty they were jealous of, now became the confi- 
 dant of the people. With his oily tongue he duped a 
 man whose brains were shallow and pockets deep, and 
 ushered him to the public as a patriot too. He filled 
 his head with importance, and emptied his pockets, 
 and as a reward kicked him up the ladder where he 
 now presides over the ' Twelve United Provinces,' 
 and where they both are at present plunging you, my 
 countrymen, into the depths of distress." 
 
 1 "Decius," Lond. Morn. Post, 1779 (Moore's Diary of the 
 ^volution, ii. 144). 
 
CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 367 
 
 After the destruction of Rivington's press 
 in New York, the loyalist printer returned to 
 England, and published a pamphlet to show 
 that the intention of Congress was to assert 
 American independence and maintain it with 
 the sword. 
 
 " That I may thoroughly explain this matter," he 
 continues, " it is necessary the public should be made 
 acquainted with a very conspicuous character, no less 
 a man than Mr. Samuel Adams, the would-be Crom- 
 well of America. As to his colleague, John Han- 
 cock, that gentleman is, in the language of Hu- 
 dibras, - — 
 
 * A very good and useful tool 
 Which knaves do work with, called a fool.' 
 
 But he is too contemptible for animadversion. He 
 may move our pity, not our indignation, Mr. Ad- 
 ams, on the other hand, is one of those demagogues 
 who well know how to quarter themselves on a man 
 of fortune, and, having no property of his own, has 
 for some time found it mighty convenient to appro- 
 priate the fortune of Mr. Hancock to pubhc uses, — 
 I mean the very laudable purposa of carrying on a 
 trade in politics. 
 
 *' Mr. Adams finding, therefore, how very profitable 
 a business of this kind might be made without the 
 necessity of a capital of his own, it is no wonder he 
 should eagerly embrace the opportunity of dealing in 
 political wares with the demagogues of Britain. 
 
 " In justice to that gentleman's talents and virtues. 
 
368 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 it must be confessed that he is an adept in the busi- 
 ness, and is as equal to the task of forwarding a re- 
 bellion as most men. He is therefore far from being 
 unworthy the notice of British patriots. His politics 
 are of a nature admirably adapted to impose on a 
 credulous multitude. 
 
 " Mr. Adams's character may be defined in a few 
 words. He is a hypocrite in religion, a republican in 
 politics, of sufficient cunning to form a consummate 
 knave, possessed of as much learning as is necessary 
 to disguise the truth with sophistry, and so complete 
 a moralist that it is one of his favorite axioms, ' The 
 end will justify the means.' When to such accom- 
 plished talents and principles we add an empty pocket, 
 an unbounded ambition, and a violent disaffection to 
 Great Britain, we shall be able to form some idea of 
 Mr. Samuel Adams." 
 
 " That Machiavellian streak in his char- 
 acter ! " But do we need to go out of our way 
 and call it Machiavellian ? He would have 
 been, alas ! a less typical New Englander had 
 he not stooped now and then to a piece of sharp 
 practice. No Sam Slick, peddling out his cargo 
 of clocks, or whittling away at a horse-swap, 
 or (we must regretfully say it) inventing and 
 distributing his wooden nutmegs, was ever 
 " cuter " than Samuel Adams. The uncon- 
 scionable outside world, while it ascribes to the 
 Yankee character a thousand traits of worth, 
 persists in detecting in the pot of ointment a 
 
CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 369 
 
 most egregious fly. Who will deny that the 
 defect is there ? Sam Adams was too thorough 
 a Yankee to be quite without it. We believe 
 that he fell into it unconsciously. In the cases 
 of sharp practice that can be brought home 
 against him, it was, at any rate, never for him- 
 self, but always for what he believed the public 
 good ; for from first to last one can detect in 
 him no thought of personal gain or fame. 
 
 As Samuel Adams's followers often did not 
 know that they were being led, so, possibly, he 
 himself failed to see sometimes that he was 
 leading, believing himself to be the mere agent 
 of the will of the great people, which decided 
 this way or that. Quite careless was he as re^ 
 gards wealth, as regards his position before his 
 contemporaries and in history. Time and again 
 the credit for great measures which he orig- 
 inated was given to men who were simply his 
 agents, and there was never a remonstrance 
 from him ; time and again the men whom he 
 brought forward from obscurity, and whom he 
 set here and there with scarcely more volition 
 of their own than so many chess-men, stood in 
 an eminence before the world which is not yet 
 lost, obscuring the real master. Papers which 
 would have established his title to a position 
 among the greatest, he destroyed by his own 
 hand, or left at hap-hazard. 
 
 24 
 
370 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 If we briefly sum up the services rendered 
 during these twelve years, the particulars of 
 which, as they have been detailed, have seemed 
 involved and confusing, it is easy to see how 
 the men of his own day came to set him by the 
 side of Washington, and how writers of our 
 time can declare him " second only to Wash- 
 ington." ^ Those instructions to the Boston 
 representatives in 1764, in which Samuel Ad- 
 ams spoke for the town, emerging then, at the 
 age of forty-two, into the public life where he 
 remained to the end, contain the first sugges- 
 tion ever made in America for a meeting of the 
 colonies looking toward a resistance to British 
 encroachments. From that paper came the 
 " Stamp Act Congress." While the contem- 
 poraries of Samuel Adams rejoiced over the re- 
 peal of the Stamp Act, he saw in the declaration 
 of Parliament by which it was accompanied, 
 — " that it was competent to legislate for the 
 colonies in all cases whatsoever," — plain evi- 
 dence that more trouble was in store ; and he 
 was the most influential among the few who 
 strove to prevent a disastrous supineness among 
 
 1 " A man whom Plutarch, if he had only lived late enough, 
 would have delighted to include in his gallery of worthies, a 
 man who in the history of the American Revolution is second 
 only to Washington, Samuel Adams." — John Fiske (taken 
 from his forthcoming History of the American People, by kind 
 permission of the author). 
 
CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 371 
 
 the people. From this time forward, in Massa- 
 chusetts, the substantial authorship of almost 
 every state paper of importance can be traced 
 to him ; so, too, the initiation of almost every 
 great measure. 
 
 Nor was he the less a man of national im- 
 portance from the circumstance that his activ- 
 ity for the most part, up to this time, has been 
 circumscribed by the limits of Massachusetts. 
 As in Massachusetts the stirrings of freedom 
 were most early and most earnestly felt, so for 
 many years Massachusetts was a battle-ground 
 in which arbitrary power and popular liberty 
 were hotly contending, while the remaining 
 Provinces had little to disturb their peace. 
 " Boston is suffering in the common cause," 
 became the cry of America, at the time of the 
 Port Bill, in 1774. Massachusetts had been 
 no less suffering in the common cause for a full 
 decade before, the long parliamentary wrestle 
 between her General Court and the royal gov- 
 ernors having been waged for the benefit of 
 the whole thirteen colonies no less than for 
 herself. Elsewhere, no doubt, there was dis- 
 turbance : in Virginia, in particular, the dis- 
 cord was grave between the Burgesses and the 
 royal representatives. Massachusetts, however, 
 was far more than any other Province the field 
 of strife, the critical point beyond all others 
 
372 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 being the Old State House in Boston, with 
 Hutchinson or Bernard in one end, and the 
 Assembly in the other. The great leader of 
 the Massachusetts folk-motes manoeuvred and 
 fought in a small space ; but what was done 
 was done for an entire continent. It was 
 no combat of mere local significance. Who 
 can estimate the greatness of the interests in- 
 volved ? 
 
 From 1768, perhaps from an earlier period, 
 he saw no satisfactory issue from the dispute 
 but in the independence of America, and began 
 to labor for it with all his energy. It had been 
 a dream with many, indeed, that some time 
 there was to be a great independent empire in 
 this western world ; but no public man saw so 
 soon as Samuel Adams, that in the latter half 
 of the eighteenth century the time for it had 
 come, and that to work for it was the duty of 
 all patriots.^ We have passed in review the 
 
 1 July 1, 1774, Hutchinson, having just reached London, 
 was hurried by Lord Dartmouth into the presence of the king, 
 without being allowed time to change his clothes after the 
 voyage. A conversation of two hours took place, the king 
 showing the utmost eagerness to find out the truth as to Amer- 
 ica. While answering the king's inquiries concerning the pop- 
 ular leaders, Hutchinson remarked that Samuel Adams was 
 regarded " as the opposer of Government and a sort of Wilkes 
 in New England. 
 
 " King : What gives him his importance ? 
 
 " Hutchinson : A great pretended zeal for liberty and a most 
 
CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 373 
 
 great figures of our Revolutionary epoch, one 
 by one, and seen that neither then, seven years 
 before the Declaration of Independence, nor 
 long after, was there a man except Samuel Ad- 
 ams who looked forward to it and worked for it. 
 The people generally had not conceived of the 
 attainment of independence as a present possi- 
 bility. Those who came to think it possible, 
 like Franklin, Dickinson of Pennsylvania, and 
 James Otis, shrank from the idea as involving 
 calamity, and only tried to secure a better reg- 
 ulated dependence. As late as 1775, the idea of 
 separation, according to Jefferson, had "never 
 yet entered into any person's mind." ^ It was 
 well known, however, what were the opinions of 
 Samuel Adams. He was isolated even in the 
 group that most closely surrounded him. Even 
 so trusty a follower and attached a friend as 
 Joseph Warren could not stand with him here. 
 What Garrison was to the abolition of slavery, 
 Samuel Adams was to independence, — a man 
 looked on with the greatest dread as an ex- 
 tremist and fanatic by many of those who after- 
 wards fought for freedom, down almost to that 
 
 inflexible natural temper. He was the first that publicly as- 
 serted the independency of the colonies upon the kingdom." — 
 Diary and Letters of Hutchinson, p. 167. 
 
 Hutchinson had before declared the same thing in a letter 
 to Dartmouth, already quoted. 
 
 1 Cooke's Virginia, p. 375. 
 
374 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 very day. July 4, 1776, when, largely through 
 his skilful and tireless management, independ- 
 ence was brought to pass. 
 
 We are accustomed to call Washington the 
 " Father of his country." It would be useless, 
 if one desired to do so, to dispute his right to 
 / the title. He and no other will bear it through 
 the ages. He established our country's free- 
 dom with the sword, then guided its course 
 during the first critical years of its independent 
 existence. No one can know the figure without 
 feeling how real is its greatness. It is impossi- 
 ble to see how, without Washington, the nation 
 could have ever been. His name is and should 
 be greatest. But after all is " Father of Amer- 
 ica " the best title for Washington ? Where 
 and what was Washington during those long 
 preliminary years while the nation was taking 
 form as the bones do grow in the womb of her 
 that is with child ? A quiet planter, who in 
 youth as a surveyor had come to know the 
 woods ; who in his young manhood had led 
 bodies of provincials with some efficiency in 
 certain unsuccessful military expeditions ; who 
 in maturity had sat, for the most part in silence, 
 among his talking colleagues in tlie House of 
 Burgesses, with scarcely a suggestion to make 
 in all the sharp debate, while the new nation 
 was shaping. There is another character in 
 
CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 375 
 
 our history to whom was once given the title, 
 " Father of America," — a man to a large ex- 
 tent forgotten, his reputation overlaid by that 
 of those who followed him, — no other than 
 this man of the town-meeting, Samuel Adams. 
 As far as the genesis of America is concerned, 
 Samuel Adams can more properly be called the 
 " Father of America " than Washington. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 CLOSING YEABS. 
 
 Beitish authority in America, so far at 
 any rate as this could be done in the forum, 
 was shattered by the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence. The work was then transferred to the 
 field. Samuel Adams's heroic time has come 
 to an end ; his distinctive work is done ; if he 
 had died at the Declaration, his fame would 
 be as great as it is now ; what further he ac- 
 complished, though often of value, an ordinary 
 man might have performed. The events of his 
 life may be given henceforth with little detail. 
 
 So long as the war continued he remained in 
 Congress, with the exception of one year, when 
 infirmity, and the fact also that Massachusetts 
 was in the act of adopting her state constitu- 
 tion, in connection with which he rendered 
 important service, kept him at home. Con- 
 gress fell woefully in popular esteem, but the 
 work and the responsibility remained vast for 
 the few who were faithful. Samuel Adams 
 has been accused of unfriendliness to Wash- 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 377 
 
 ington, and of having been concerned in the 
 Conway cabal. The papers are in perfect pres- 
 ervation which put at rest this calumny, and 
 enable us to understand precisely what feeling 
 Samuel Adams did at this time entertain for 
 Washington. It was neither strange nor at 
 all discreditable at that period in the war to 
 doubt whether Washington was the best man 
 in the country for the head of the army. The 
 supreme position in the hearts of Americans, 
 which he came afterwards to hold, was at that 
 time far enough from being achieved. In the 
 flood of disaster which had so often over- 
 whelmed the American efforts, could any hu- 
 man eye then see clearly what portion of re- 
 sponsibility for it rested on the commander, 
 what portion on his subordinates, and what 
 was due to things in general? So far, the 
 only brilliant achievements of Washington had 
 been the victories at Trenton and Princeton, 
 and that the credit for those successes belonged 
 to him was less clear than it is now. The 
 "Fabian policy," which he had to so large an 
 extent pursued, and which the world now be- 
 lieves to have been masterly, did not vindicate 
 itself at once to the contemporaries of Washing- 
 ton. To Samuel Adams, so straight and im- 
 petuous, who from the beginning of his course 
 had sought his object with the directness and 
 
378 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 force of a cannon-ball, and who felt that a fair 
 exertion of the military strength of America 
 ought to burst to pieces the British opposition, 
 Washington, not unnaturally, seemed unener- 
 getic. 
 
 But though Samuel Adams might be secretly 
 impatient, and might give his impatience ex- 
 pression in directions where he thought good 
 might result, he had no desire but to sustain 
 the leader in all efl&cient work. He had even 
 been willing to make him dictator. His own 
 declarations, repeatedly uttered under circum- 
 stances which must cause them to seem true to 
 the most suspicious, make it clear that he was 
 never Washington's enemy, and never plotted 
 for his removal. A word must be said about 
 the origin of this calumny, which troubled 
 Adams in his lifetime, and followed him after 
 his death. We have already seen Samuel Ad- 
 ams the object of the enmity of John Han- 
 cock, in the old days of the struggle with 
 Hutchinson. Now, again, Hancock's worse 
 nature has the upper hand, and gives disgrace- 
 ful evidence of itself. His disposition to asso- 
 ciate with the aristocratic, temporizing element, 
 his obstructive course when the Declaration of 
 Independence was pending, the absurd pomp 
 which he persisted in maintaining as President 
 of Congress, even when the nation seemed at 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 379 
 
 the last gasp, offended much his austere and 
 simple-minded colleague. Undoubtedly these 
 things had provoked from Adams severe re- 
 mark. This sharp criticism, combined with 
 the fact that the Tories, and indeed others, 
 habitually spoke of Hancock in a way quite ex- 
 asperating to one so vain, as the " ape " or 
 " dupe " of Samuel Adams, gives abundant ex- 
 planation why an estrangement should have 
 come about. Hancock pursued his former friend 
 with great malignity. He circulated, if lie did 
 not originate, the slander that Samuel Adams 
 was the enemy of Washington ; and in other 
 ways used his high prestige to spread false 
 ideas as to his colleague's opinions and aims. 
 Said Mr. Adams : — 
 
 " The Arts they make use of are contemptible. 
 Last year, as you observe, I was an Enemy to General 
 Washington. This was said to render me odious to 
 the People. The Man who fabricated that Charge 
 did not believe it himself." ^ 
 
 In July, 1778, the British fleet left the Dela- 
 ware in haste, fearing to be blocked up by the 
 superior force of d'Estaing, about to arrive, 
 and immediately Clinton, abandoning Phila- 
 delphia, retreated through New Jersey, fighting 
 
 1 In the Adams papers are several letters of interest as 
 bearing upon this point. One written to General Greene has 
 an especial value. 
 
380 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 on the way the battle of Monmouth, where vic- 
 tory was so balked for the Americans by the 
 misconduct of Charles Lee. Immediately after- 
 ward the French admiral, with twelve sail of 
 the line, four frigates, and four thousand troops, 
 sailed into the Delaware, bringing M. Gerard, 
 the ambassador, for whom Congress, at once re- 
 turning to Philadelphia, prepared a great recep- 
 tion. The ceremonies took place on August 5, 
 and were more elaborate than had ever before 
 been witnessed in America. Somewhat ludi- 
 crously, in this pompous pageant Samuel Ad- 
 ams, associated with his old friend Richard 
 Henry Lee, appears as master of ceremonies, 
 leading off in the bowings and parade by which 
 the man of Versailles was to be made to feel 
 that he had not fallen among the Goths. But 
 more than once before this we have seen that , 
 Samuel Adams could pocket his preferences to 
 serve an occasion. 
 
 The French alliance came near going to ship- 
 wreck at the outset. Great was the mortifica- 
 tion, great the wrath at the French, to whose 
 desertion, as it was called, the failure in Rhode 
 Island was attributed. A serious riot between 
 American and French sailors occurred in Bos- 
 ton, in which all the old animosity of the French 
 war, which for the time had slumbered, seemed 
 on the point of reappearing. Washington and 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 381 
 
 Congress took all means possible to restore a 
 cordial understanding, in which efforts Samuel 
 Adams bore a great part. Here it was, too, 
 that Hancock rendered one of his greatest ser- 
 vices, his very vanity and prof useness, for once, 
 helping to an excellent result. He threw his 
 house open to d'Estaing and his officers, enter- 
 taining them magnificently. Thirty or forty 
 dined with him each day, whom he dazzled with 
 his liveries and plate. At Concert Hall, too, he 
 gave them a great ball, and stimulated other 
 Whigs to similar hospitalities. The entente cor- 
 diale^ which the Newport storm had disturbed, 
 grew firm again amid the steam of punch and 
 the airs of the Boston fiddlers. 
 
 Adams opposed, in 1780, Washington's plan 
 for giving to officers serving through the war 
 half pay for life. To this period, too, belongs 
 one of the greatest mistakes of his career, 
 which must be referred to what may be called 
 his town-meeting ideas. He showed his dislike 
 to the delegation of power to such an extent 
 as to oppose the establishment of departments 
 presided over by secretaries, preferring as the 
 executive machinery of Congress the form of 
 committees, which had prevailed from the first, 
 and had often proved inconvenient. There was 
 probably a degree of justice in the criticism of 
 Luzerne, the French minister : — 
 
382 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 " Divisions prevail in Congress about the new mode 
 
 of transacting business by secretaries of different de- 
 partments. Samuel Adams, whose obstinate, resolute 
 character was so useful to the Revolution at its origin, 
 but who shows himself so ill suited to the conduct of 
 affairs in an organized government, has placed himself 
 at the head of the advocates of the old system of 
 committees of Congress, instead of relying on minis- 
 ters or secretaries under the new arrangement." 
 
 He opposed the establishment of a Foreign 
 OfiBce ; so, too, of a War Department, for the 
 secretaryship of which the name of General 
 Sullivan had been mentioned. He opposed, 
 with equal decision, the appointment of a 
 secretary of finance, which position, however, 
 was created and bestowed upon Robert Morris, 
 with results most important and beneficent. 
 For the moment he consented to the dictator- 
 ship of Washington, but generally he looked 
 askance at all approaches to the " one man 
 power," standing ready to sacrifice ej0&ciency 
 even in desperate circumstances, rather than 
 contravene the principle that authority should 
 rest, as immediately as possible, in the hands 
 of the plain people. 
 
 On February 24, 1781, at length, four years 
 and a half after the scheme had been initiated, 
 the Articles of Confederation were ratified, and 
 the affixing of bis signature to these was the 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 383 
 
 last act of Samuel Adams in Congress. The 
 committee appointed to draw up tlie Articles 
 of Confederation, created at the same time with 
 the committee to draw up the Declaration of 
 Independence, had foimd their work one of the 
 greatest difficulty. Samuel Adams, it will be 
 remembered, represented Massachusetts on the 
 former committee, while John Adams served 
 upon the latter. The embarrassing labor had 
 gone forward whenever, from time to time, a 
 moment could be snatched from the ever press- 
 ing conduct of the war. It seemed scarcely 
 possible to frame a practicable scheme. The 
 several States, having declared themselves free 
 from the authority of England, exulted in their 
 independence, and regarded with great jeal- 
 ousy any scheme by which their liberty might 
 be curtailed. Some bond must of necessity be 
 devised, which would enable them to present 
 front to the danger which threatened all alike. 
 But the smaller States feared to be swallowed 
 up by the larger, and the larger sometimes 
 felt it to be beneath their dignity to stand on 
 an equal footing with the smaller. There was 
 as yet no common sentiment of nationality. 
 Constitution framers never had a harder task. 
 There was little enough precedent for a great 
 federal league. The architects were inexpe- 
 rienced, those for whom they worked were 
 
384 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 most suspicious, the dangers and distractions, 
 in the midst of which they must deliberate, 
 were quite overwhelming. The Constitution 
 of 1787 we feel to be vastly better, but the 
 Confederation that preceded it is, of coarse, 
 not to be despised. The Constitution was the 
 child of the Confederation, its existence not 
 possible without its parent. The Confederation 
 was tentative, temporary, and no doubt as close 
 and effective as it was possible, under the 
 circumstances, to make it. The intermittent 
 debates had tediously proceeded while often 
 cannon thundered north and south, and the Con- 
 gress, scarcely less than the commanders, were 
 forced to live in the saddle. One by one the 
 greater leaders of 1774, 1775, and 1776 had re- 
 tired, yielding place often to inferior men, while 
 they themselves served sometimes in the field, 
 sometimes in their home legislatures, some- 
 times remained idle on their farms. At length, 
 of all those who took part in sketching the 
 original plan, Samuel Adams was left alone. 
 
 The adoption of the Articles of Confedera- 
 tion, so far from increasing, rather limited the 
 powers of Congress. Sessions were to be an- 
 nual, to commence on the first Monday in 
 November ; the delegates were to be appointed 
 for a year, but were liable at any time to be 
 recalled by the States that had sent them. To 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 385 
 
 all important points nine States must consent, 
 wliereas before a mere majority had been de- 
 cisive. No State could vote unless represented 
 by at least two delegates. As regards peace, 
 war, and foreign intercourse, Congress pos- 
 sessed most of the powers now exercised by 
 the federal government ; but it had no means 
 of raising a revenue independent of State ac- 
 tion, except the resources, already exhausted 
 and fallen into disrepute, of paper issues and 
 loans. Congress could make requisitions on 
 the States, but had no power to enforce them ; 
 the oftener they were made the less they were 
 heeded. 
 
 It is worth while to look somewhat particu- 
 larly at the Articles of Confederation, because 
 in the framing of them Samuel Adams was so 
 largely concerned, and because, too, as will be 
 seen, they appeared to him, for the most part, 
 quite satisfactory as a bond of union between 
 the States. He reluctantly gave them up after- 
 wards for the Constitution, oven after their 
 weakness had become very plain, dreading of 
 all things a disposition to centralize. In the 
 States the legislatures should be held in strict 
 subordination to the town-meetings ; and, again, 
 in the federation, there should be no compro- 
 mise of the independence of the States. In 
 April Samuel Adams took leave of Congress 
 
 25 
 
386 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 for Massachusetts, from whose soil he never 
 afterwards departed. 
 
 The following correspondence can be appro- 
 priately introduced here, as showing what men 
 in these times were after Samuel Adams's own 
 heart : — 
 
 FROM MAJ. GEN. MACDOUGAL. 
 
 West Point, Dec. \Oth, 1781. 
 Maj. Gibbs of your line is the bearer of this, by 
 whom I have sent you a plate, a specimen of the 
 material which covers my board. It is made, as the 
 set is, of old unserviceable camp-kettles. 
 
 TO MAJ. GEN. ALEX. MACDOUGAL. 
 
 May \3th, 1782. 
 The present you sent me by Maj. Gibbs gratified 
 me exceedingly. I intend to transmit it to my pos- 
 terity as a specimen of Spartan frugality in an 
 American general officer. The citizen and the soldier 
 are called to the exercise of self-denial and patience, 
 and to make the utmost exertions in support of the 
 great cause we are engaged in. 
 
 S. A. 
 
 Always, when at home from Congress, as 
 the town records of Boston show, he had been 
 at the town-meetings, serving as moderator, on 
 committees of correspondence, safety, and in- 
 spection, committees for obtaining orators for 
 the celebration of the anniversary of the Mas- 
 
 \ 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 387 
 
 sacre, for the reformation of the manners of 
 the town, for the instruction of representatives 
 to address Lafayette, to take care of schools, etc., 
 etc.^ So it is that this Antseus of democracy 
 touches, as he can, his mother earth, to draw in 
 strength for the battle he is waging. Now that 
 he is at home again permanently, he seems to 
 be constantly present at the town-meetings, act- 
 ing as moderator whenever he is willing to serve 
 as such, and intrusted with business great and 
 small. Once more, too, the old man found him- 
 self under the roof of the Old State House, 
 which had seen so many of his early battles 
 and triumphs, for he was straightway elected 
 to the Senate of the State, and became at once 
 its presiding officer. As such he sat in that 
 famous chamber to the east, where James Otis 
 had denounced the writs of assistance, and 
 where he himself had confronted Hutchinson 
 in the stormy day of the Massacre. 
 
 One last scene of military pomp signalized, 
 the close of the war. In the late fall of 1782 
 the French army, which had fought well in the 
 field, and gained honor among the people, hold- 
 ing aloof from marauding and deeds of license, 
 — a fact which put it often in favorable con- 
 trast even with the American levies, — marched 
 from the Hudson to Boston, to embark for the 
 
 1 Town records of Boston from 1775 to 1781. 
 
388 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 West Indies. In uniforms of white and violet, 
 with the fleur-de-lis waving over their ranks, in 
 gaiters, queues, and great cocked hats, such as 
 had figured at Fontenoy and in the wars of 
 Frederick, the long column worked its way 
 through the interior villages to the seaboard. 
 The Baron Viomenil, who had done brilliantly 
 at Yorktown, was their commander. Boston 
 town-meeting did all honor to their guests, for 
 the Frenchmen remained some days while the 
 transports were preparing. Samuel Adams was 
 the prominent figure in the demonstrations. 
 
 Efforts having been made to restore the 
 refugee Tories to their original rights, Adams, 
 appointed by the town of Boston, instructed 
 the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, 
 and Safety, in terms which show that his im- 
 placability was undiminished. The committee 
 are directed to oppose " to the utmost of their 
 power every enemy to the just rights and liber- 
 ties of mankind ; after so wicked a conspiracy 
 against these rights and liberties by certain 
 ingrates, most of them natives of these States, 
 and who have been refugees and declared trai- 
 tors to their country, it is the opinion of this 
 town that they ought never to be suffered to 
 return, but excluded from having lot or place 
 among us." However harsh this expression 
 may appear, no fair student of the history of 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 389 
 
 those days will deny the reasonableness of the 
 judgment. There was every motive for pru- 
 dence as to the admission of British emissa- 
 ries and men of Tory sentiments. Whatever 
 their professions, they could scarcely fail to 
 treat with contempt the new order of things, 
 and try secretly to undermine it. Efforts were 
 made in 1784 and 1785 to exchange the Boston 
 town-meeting for a city organization, which, 
 it was felt, would be much more convenient for 
 managing the affairs of so large a population. 
 The people, however, could not bring them- 
 selves to give up the venerable system which 
 had accomplished such memorable results. 
 Samuel Adams took a leading part in the dis- 
 cussions, and was chairman of the important 
 committee to whom was left the duty of stat- 
 ing the " defects of the town constitution." 
 In this capacity he reported to the town that 
 " there were no defects," ^ and in his time there 
 was no change. 
 
 In 1786 came the formidable popular out- 
 break known as Shays's Rebellion. The weight 
 of federal and state taxes, combined with the 
 pressure of a vast private indebtedness, well- 
 nigh crushed the people. Circumstances made 
 proper the most rigid economy, but the vicious 
 spirit of extravagance prevailed. The courts, 
 1 Town records, November 9, 1785. 
 
390 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 whose agency had been invoked for the collec- 
 tion of the debts, were declared in the western 
 counties to be engines of destruction. Other 
 grievances, sometimes partly reasonable, some- 
 times absurd, were the cost of litigation, the 
 inordinate salaries of many public officers, and 
 the existence of the Senate in the state con- 
 stitution, which was condemned as needless and 
 aristocratic. At conventions of the people, 
 sometimes imposing through numbers, dema- 
 gogues dwelt in exaggerated terms upon these 
 topics, and, in no secret way, violence was 
 counseled against the laws of the land. The 
 means employed, indeed, were the same used 
 against British authority, which had resulted in 
 the Revolution. Those precedents, in that time 
 recent, were in the minds of the agitators ; and 
 it could be plausibly urged that the men now 
 in authority under the new order could not 
 consistently find fault with this application of 
 their own machinery, which the people were 
 setting at work once more to right great wrongs 
 by which they felt themselves oppressed. Sam- 
 uel Adams and those who believed with him 
 certainly had reason to be much embarrassed 
 by the situation. There is nevertheless no evi- 
 dence that the old democrat hesitated for a 
 moment as to his course. While the public 
 suffering could not be doubted, it was the re- 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 391 
 
 suit of a terrible war and could not be helped. 
 Whatever injustice existed could be reached 
 and remedied by constitutional means, without 
 an overturn, — a tiling which could not at all 
 be said of the old oppressions. He wrote to 
 John Adams : — 
 
 "Now that we have regular and constitutional 
 governments, popular committees and county conven- 
 tions are not only useless but dangerous. They 
 served an excellent purpose, and were highly neces- 
 sary when they were set up, and I shall not repent 
 the small share I then took in them." 
 
 As the danger thickened, Samuel Adams 
 was one of those who declared for the sternest 
 measures, to maintain the constitution and the 
 laws. Once more at the head of Boston town- 
 meeting, which he guided as moderator, and 
 whose spokesman he, as usual, became, as first 
 on the committee appointed to draft an ad- 
 dress, he strengthened the hands of his old 
 fellow-fighter, the fearless, energetic Bowdoin, 
 then governor, who was ready to do his full 
 duty. The entire state militia was called out, 
 and was well commanded, for fortunately the 
 veteran officers of the Revolution stood stoutly 
 on the side of law and order. 
 
 The gossiping William Sullivan gives a good 
 picture of the noble Bowdoin, standing on the 
 
392 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 steps of the court-house at Cambridge while 
 the troops of General John Brooks pass by in 
 review. He was fifty-eight years old, tall and 
 dignified, dressed in a gray wig, cocked hat, 
 white broadcloth coat and waistcoat, red smalh 
 clothes, and black silk stockings. His air and 
 manner were quietly grave, his features rather 
 small for a man of his size, his colorless face 
 giving evidence of the delicate health which 
 no doubt had prevented him from taking a 
 stand among the first of the patriots. Blood 
 was shed at Springfield, and at length in mid- 
 winter came the famous march of General Lin- 
 coln to Petersham, thirty miles in one night 
 through a driving snow-storm, which scattered 
 the main power of the insurgents, and ended 
 the danger. 
 
 The attitude, in which Samuel Adams stood 
 to the Federal constitution was much misrep- 
 resented during his lifetime, and a misunder- 
 standing as regards it has clouded his fame to 
 the present day. He disliked to confer great 
 powers, as we have repeatedly seen, on a body 
 far removed from its constituents. According 
 to his town-meeting ideas there should always 
 be as few removes as possible of the power 
 from the people. In 1785 Samuel Adams writes 
 to Elbridge Gerry, advising against '' a general 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 393 
 
 revision of the confederation," which seems to 
 him dangerous and unnecessary, and he appears 
 to strike hands with Gerry and his colleague 
 King, the representatives from Massachusetts, 
 to embarrass those who favor a stronger cen- 
 tral government.^ At the same time, however, 
 he declares : " It would have been better to 
 have fallen in the struggle than now to become 
 a contemptible nation," and he seems to be per- 
 suaded that there must be in some way a strong, 
 effective union. His declarations are perhaps 
 not altogether consistent, and imply some un- 
 certainty. 
 
 At the beginning of the convention assem- 
 bled in Massachusetts for the ratification or 
 rejection of the constitution, Samuel Adams 
 underwent a severe affliction in the death of 
 his son, who, with his constitution broken by 
 the hardships of a surgeon's life during the 
 war, died at thirty-seven. For two weeks de- 
 bates went forward without result, Mr. Adams 
 sitting silent, though it should be mentioned 
 that at the beginning, no doubt with the idea 
 of securing harmony, he made a motion quite 
 similar to that which preceded the delibera- 
 tions at Philadelphia in 1774, and which was 
 regarded as such a master-stroke. It was that 
 the ministers of the town in turn, without re- 
 
 1 Bancroft, Hist, of Constit. i. 199. 
 
394 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 gard to sect, should be invited to open the 
 meetings with prayer. 
 
 - An effort was made to bring the convention 
 to an abandonment of the consideration of the 
 instrument by paragraphs, and induce it to vote 
 upon the document as a whole, which without 
 doubt would have resulted in its rejection. 
 This Samuel Adams opposed in a speech still 
 extant. He declared that he had difficulties 
 and doubts as regards the proposed constitu- 
 tion, as had others, and he desired to have a 
 full investigation instead of deciding the mat- 
 ter in a hurry. This prevailed, and in the 
 course of the following week the shrewd man- 
 agers who favored the acceptance of the form 
 submitted devised a way to secure victory. 
 Nine amendments were prepared, famous as 
 the " conciliatory propositions," the story of 
 which is told as follows by Colonel Joseph 
 May : ^ — 
 
 " Adams and Hancock [then governor] were both 
 members of the convention in Massachusetts, and the 
 two most powerful men in the State. Adams ques- 
 tioned the policy of the adoption without amend- 
 ments, and let men know his reasons ; but Hancock 
 was in great trouble, and, as usual on such occasions, 
 he had, or affected to have, the gout, and remained at 
 home, wrapped up in flannel. The friends of the con- 
 
 1 Wells, iii. 258. 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 395 
 
 stitution gathered about him, flattered his vanity, told 
 him the salvation of the nation rested with him: if 
 the constitution was not accepted, we should be a 
 ruined nation ; if he said accept it, Massachusetts and 
 the nation would obey. They persuaded him to that 
 opinion. It was reported abroad that he had made 
 up his mind, and had recovered from his illness so far 
 that, on a certain day, he would appear again in the 
 convention, and would make a speech which would 
 probably be in favor of adopting the constitution. 
 Theophilus Parsons, afterwards the famous judge, was 
 the most active in procuring this result. He wrote a 
 speech for Hancock to read in the convention. 
 
 " So when the day arrived, Mr. Hancock was 
 helped out of his house into his coach, and driven 
 down to the place where the convention was held, — 
 Federal Street, — and thence carried into the conven- 
 tion by several young gentlemen, who were friends 
 of the family and in the secret. He rose in his place 
 and apologized for his absence, for his feebleness, and 
 declared that nothing but the greatness of the emer- 
 gency would have brought him from his bed of sick- 
 ness ; but duty to his country prevailed over consider- 
 ations of health. He hoped they would pardon him 
 for reading a speech which he had carefully prepared, 
 not being well enough to make it in any other man- 
 ner. Then he read the speech which Parsons had 
 written for him, and from Parsons's manuscript, and 
 sat down. One of his friends took the manuscript 
 hastily from him, afraid that the looker-on might see 
 that it was not in Hancock's hand, but Parsons's." 
 
396 SAMUEL ADAMS, 
 
 Colonel May next relates the course adopted 
 to secure tlie cooperation of Adams : — 
 
 " The same means were unaertaken to influence 
 Mr. Adams. It was not, however, so easy. They 
 had done what tbey could with experiment : flattery 
 would have no effect upon him ; but they knew two 
 tilings, — first, that he had great confidence in the 
 democratic instincts of the people ; and second, that 
 he was a modest man, and sometimes doubted his own 
 judgment when it differed from the democratic in- 
 stincts aforesaid. So they induced some of the lead- 
 ing mechanics of Boston to hold a meeting at the 
 * Green Dragon Inn ' in Union Street, their private 
 gathering-place, and pass lesolutions in favor of the 
 constitution, and send a committee to present them 
 to him. He was surprised at the news of the meet- 
 ing, and the nature of the resolutions, and asked who 
 was there. They were just the men, or the class of 
 men, whom he confided in. He inquired why they 
 had not called him to attend the meeting. * Oh, we 
 wanted the voice of the people,' was the answer. 
 Mr. Adams was still more surprised, and, after long 
 consideration, concluded to accept the constitution 
 with the amendment!*." 
 
 Daniel Webster gave in 1833 a graphic ac- 
 count of the same incident, in which Paul Re- 
 vere, whose attributes, as he goes on in life, 
 become rather those of Vulcan than Mercury, 
 is made to play the leading part : — 
 
 " He received the resolutions from the hands of 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 397 
 
 Paul Revere, a brass-founder by occupation, a man of 
 sense and character and of high public spirit, whom 
 the mechanics of Boston ought never to forget. 
 ' How many mechanics,' said Mr. Adams, ' were at 
 the Green Dragon when the resolutions were passed ? ' 
 ' More, sir,' was the reply, ' than the Green Dragon 
 could hold.' 'And where were the rest, Mr. Re- 
 vere ? ' 'In the streets, sir.' ' And how many were 
 in the streets ? ' ' More, sir, than there are stars in 
 the sky.' " 
 
 In the " conciliatory propositions " all pow- 
 ers not expressly delegated to Congress were 
 reserved to the several States ; the basis of rep- 
 resentation was altered ; the powers of taxation 
 and the granting of commercial monopolies by 
 Congress were restricted ; grand jury indict- 
 ments in capital trials were provided for ; the 
 jurisdiction of federal courts in cases between 
 the citizens of different states was limited, and 
 the right of trial by jury was given in such 
 cases. Upon the introduction of these amend- 
 ments, Mr. Adams urged the ratification of the 
 constitution, upon the understanding that they 
 were to be recommended. Still another speech 
 followed, in which he became a strong advocate 
 of the instrument, and dwelt upon the amend- 
 ments one by one ; and it is a curious feature 
 of the speech that, though he well knew where 
 the amendments really came from, yet with 
 
398 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 some of his old-time cunning his evident desire 
 is to encourage the general impression that 
 Hancock originated them. It was a matter of 
 great importance that the popular governor 
 should be supposed to have presented his own 
 views ; and the admiring Mr. Wells, uncon- 
 scious, as we have found him before, of any de- 
 vious trickery, takes pains to show how Adams 
 strove hard to produce in his hearers a false 
 impression. It is not edifying, but it is cer- 
 tainly droll, to see how the young foxes suc- 
 cessfully manage to outwit the old fox, who 
 then, all unconscious that he has himself been 
 a victim, goes on with liis wily expedient to 
 inveigle the convention into doing right. 
 
 The debate proceeded, the eloquence of 
 Fisher Ames making a powerful impression in 
 favor of the constitution. Massachusetts had 
 instructed her delegates to insist on an annual 
 election of congressmen ; Samuel Adams, al- 
 ways believing that power delegated should 
 return as soon as possible to the people, from 
 whom alone it could come, and willing, no doubt, 
 to subscribe to Jefferson's phrase : *' Where 
 annual election ends, tyranny begins," asked 
 why congressmen were to be chosen for two 
 years. Caleb Strong explained that it was a 
 necessary compromise, at which Adams an- 
 swered, " I am satisfied." The concession 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 399 
 
 seemed so important to the convention that 
 he was asked to repeat it, which he did. 
 At length he suggested certain other amend- 
 ments. These were rejected by the conven- 
 tion, though afterward accepted by the nation. 
 They now form the 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th arti- 
 cles in amendment ; the clauses of the concilia- 
 tory propositions were also in part adopted as 
 amendments. 
 
 We need not follow more particularly the 
 episodes of the convention, which at last ratified 
 the constitution by a narrow majority, the vote 
 standing one hundred and eighty-seven to one 
 hundred and sixty-eight. Probably there were 
 few men in the convention, as there were few 
 in the country, who did not feel that there were 
 defects in the form proposed. The only real 
 difference apparently between Samuel Adams 
 and those who were held to be special advo- 
 cates of the constitution was, that while all felt 
 there were defects, the latter wished to accept 
 the instrument at once and unconditionally, and 
 to run the risk of future amendments ; whereas 
 Mr. Adams felt that the ratification should be 
 accompanied by a recommendation of amend- 
 ments. The first conciliatory proposition in 
 particular, expressly reserving to the States the 
 rights not delegated to the federal government, 
 Adams regarded as "a summary of a bill of 
 
400 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 rights," and therefore of great importance. Jef- 
 ferson also declared that the proposition sup- 
 plied the vital omission of a bill of rights, which 
 was what "the people were entitled to against 
 every government on earth, general or particu- 
 lar, and what no just government should refuse 
 or rest on inference." Bancroft is careful to 
 point out that Adams by no means makes the 
 acceptance of the amendments a condition of 
 ratification, but would have them simply recom- 
 mended at the same time with the ratification. 
 
 Letters of Mr. Adams soon after this express 
 very earnestly his desire to have the amend- 
 ments adopted. He wished ''to see a line 
 drawn as clearly as may be between the federal 
 .powers vested in Congress and the distinct sov- 
 ereignty of the several States, upon which the 
 private and personal rights of the citizens de- 
 pend." His fear was lest *'the constitution, in 
 the administration of it, would gradually, but 
 swiftly and imperceptibly, run into a consoli- 
 dated government, pervading and legislating 
 through all the States : not for federal purposes 
 only, as it professes, but in all cases whatso- 
 ever. . . . Should a strong Federalist see what 
 has now dropped from my pen, he would say 
 that I am an 'Anti-Fed,' an amendment mon- 
 ger, etc." ^ Mr. Bancroft sums up well Samuel 
 1 To R. H. Lee, July 14, 1789, from the autograph. 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 401 
 
 Adams's position when he speaks of " the error 
 that many have made in saying that he was at 
 first opposed to the constitution. He never was 
 opposed to the constitution ; he only waited to 
 make up his mind." ^ His contemporaries in- 
 deed declared that his influence saved the 
 constitution in Massachusetts. His position is 
 quite different from that not only of Patrick 
 Henry, but also from that of K. H. Lee and 
 Elbridge Gerry, who opposed with all their 
 power. 
 
 As the year 1788 drew to a close, the Federal 
 constitution being now in force, though two 
 States still withheld their assent, an effort was 
 made to send Samuel Adams again to Congress. 
 In the newspapers of the time the most earnest 
 tributes are paid to him. He is set side by 
 side with Washington. Says the '' Independent 
 Chronicle" of December, 1788: ''While we 
 are careful to introduce to our Federal legisla- 
 ture the American Fabius, let us not be un- 
 mindful of the American Caio." " America," 
 says another, '' in her darkest periods ever found 
 him forward and near the helm, and for her 
 sake he with cheerfulness seven years served 
 her with a halter round his neck. Naked he 
 went into her employ, and naked he came out 
 1 From a private letter to the writer. 
 
402 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 of it." Says anotlier : " It has been said, he is 
 old and anti-federal. His age and experience 
 are the very qualifications you want. His in- 
 fluence caused the constitution to be adopted in 
 this State." 
 
 Mr. Adams, however, lost the election, which 
 was won by Fisher Ames, a young lawyer of 
 thirty-one, who by his eloquence in the consti- 
 tutional convention had raised to the highest 
 a reputation, before becoming brilliant. The 
 virulence of party spirit was excessive. To 
 have advocated amendments to the consti- 
 tution, however reasonable and proper, was 
 enough to condemn the most respected man, as 
 far as the Federalists were concerned. There 
 was danger even from other weapons than 
 sharp tongues and pens. A note is still pre- 
 served, written rudely on coarse paper, with 
 the words blurred by the moisture of the wet 
 grass of Samuel Adams's garden, into which, 
 it had been thrown, in which he is warned 
 against assassination. In April following, how- 
 ever, Adams became lieutenant-governor, Han- 
 cock being governor. He had already been 
 in Hancock's Council, and the reconciliation 
 had now become cordial. Adams, indeed, had 
 always been magnanimous. In Hancock's case, 
 the lapse of years and increasing infirmities 
 mitigated animosities, and gave opportunity to 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 403 
 
 the better nature which he certainly had. 
 Their supporters, rejoicing to see the old pa- 
 triots once more friends and again in fiie fore- 
 ground together, printed the ticket in letters 
 of gold. 
 
 The following year the venerable pair were 
 again chosen, and in a speech to the legislature, 
 made by Adams upon entering on his second 
 term of office, one finds expressions so cool 
 and wise concerning the great constitutional 
 question, that it is hard to see how even the 
 smoke of partisan battle could have blinded 
 men to their justice : — 
 
 " I shall presently be called upon by you, sir, as it 
 is enjoined by the constitution, to make a declara- 
 tion ujaon oath, (and shall do it with cheerfulness, be- 
 cause the injunction accords with my own judgment 
 and conscience,) that the commonwealth of Massachu- 
 setts is, and of right ought to be, a free, sovereign^ and 
 independent State. I shall also be called upon to make 
 another declaration, with the same solemnity, to sup- 
 port the constitution of the United States. I see the 
 consistency of this, for it cannot have been intended 
 but that these constitutions should mutually aid and 
 support each other. It is my humble opinion that, 
 while the commonwealth of Massachusetts maintains 
 her own just authority, weight, and dignity, she will 
 be among the firmest pillars of the federal Union. 
 
 " May the administration of the federal govern- 
 ment, and those of the several States in the Union, 
 
404 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 be guided by the unerring finger of heaven ! Each 
 of them and all of them united will then, if the peo- 
 ple are \^se, be as prosperous as the wisdom of hu- 
 man institutions and the circumstances of human 
 society will admit." 
 
 A conflict which seems to have aroused the 
 old energy of Adams more than any other that 
 occurred during his declining years was that as 
 to whether theatrical representations should be 
 allowed in Boston. In 1790 the legislature was 
 petitioned for authority to open a theatre in 
 Boston, which was promptly refused. In the 
 following year a town-meeting instructed the 
 representatives to obtain, if possible, a repeal 
 of the prohibitory act. It was carried, over 
 the protest of Samuel Adams and the old-fash- 
 ioned citizens. When Harrison Gray Otis 
 made a vigorous demonstration on the same 
 side, Samuel Adams " thanked God that there 
 was one young man willing to step forth in the 
 good old cause of morality and religion." He 
 himself fought the Philistines on the floor of 
 Faneuil Hall until his weak voice was drowned 
 in roars of disapproval. The prohibitory act 
 was not repealed, but a theatre was opened in 
 spite of it, upon which Hancock vindicated the 
 law by causing the whole company to be ar- 
 rested on the stage. A new application from 
 the town for a repeal of the act brought the 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 406 
 
 legislature to compliance. Samuel Adams had 
 now become governor, for we are anticipating 
 somewhat. His theory was that the governor 
 was simply an executive officer, whose only 
 proper function was to carry out the popular 
 will as expressed in the legislative enactments. 
 He says in one of his inaugurals : '' It is yours, 
 fellow-citizens, to legislate, and mine only to 
 revise your bills under limited and qualified 
 powers ; and I rejoice that they are thus lim- 
 ited. These are features which belong to a 
 free government alone." But desperate circum- 
 stances demanded desperate expedients. His 
 dear Boston, so far from becoming the " Chris- 
 tian Sparta " of his dreams, was fast going to 
 the dogs of depravity. Under the circumstances 
 consistency was a jewel not at all too precious 
 to be sacrificed. He set himself stubbornly 
 against the popular will and vetoed the repeal. 
 So long as he sat in the chair of the chief mag- 
 istrate the prohibitory law remained on the 
 statute books, though the scandalous play-ac- 
 tors dodged through their performances after 
 a fashion in spite of the constables, to the 
 delight of the graceless generation which had 
 come into the places of the fathers. 
 
 Though his natural force was suffering some 
 abatement, Adams could yet defend with power 
 still great the old, oft-threatened positions, in 
 
406 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 front of which, all his life, he had fought so 
 faithful a battle. John Adams returned from 
 Europe in 1788, after an absence of nine years. 
 In the earlier time the kinsmen had been of one 
 mind, but the younger had imbibed aristocratic 
 notions during his life in courts, which divided 
 him from his friend. A correspondence be- 
 tween John Adams, then vice-president of the 
 United States, and Samuel Adams, then lieu- 
 tenant-governor of Massachusetts, which, al- 
 though courteous, illustrates the difference of 
 their ideas, was a notable controversy of the 
 time. Of the democratic ideas Jefferson be- 
 came the leading exponent. Although at pres- 
 ent not dominant, these were soon to become 
 the prevailing ideas of America. Of the hold- 
 ers of these, " Republicans," as they were at 
 first called, Samuel Adams was recognized as 
 the head in Massachusetts. 
 
 With the approach of the fall in 1793, Han- 
 cock's infirmities perceptibly increased, and his 
 end was plainly near. The two men had come 
 to stand once more hand in hand, as in the 
 bygone days, when Gage had outlawed them 
 together, and they had fled before the regulars 
 with the volleys of Lexington filling the April 
 morning. What though Hancock had trimmed 
 and played the fool ? Again and again he had 
 risked wealth and life, as he stood chivalrously 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 407 
 
 in the thick of peril. What though he had in- 
 sulted and calumniated his old associate ? His 
 heart had turned tenderly to him once more in 
 old age, and Samuel Adams, as tenderly, held 
 him once more in a brotherly clasp. Here is 
 his last letter to Hancock : ^ — 
 
 Boston, Sept. 3d, 1793. 
 My very dear Sir, — I received your letter on 
 Saturday evening last. It cheered the spirit and 
 caused the blood to thrill through the veins of an 
 old man. 1 was sorry for the injunction you laid me 
 under. I hope you will relax it, and give me leave 
 to keep it. I shall then read it often, and when I 
 leave it, it will be read to your honor after you and I 
 shall be laid in the dust. I am rejoiced to discover 
 by it that your mind is firm and your speech good. 
 Shall I venture to conjure you, as your friend, strictly 
 to comply with the advice of your physicians ? I 
 have seen Drs. Jarvis and Warren ; they tell me that 
 they were all united in opinion, and say that they are 
 in hopes, under Providence, to bring you to such a 
 state of health as to enable you to perform the duties 
 of a station with which the people have honored you, 
 which I pray God you may continue in many years 
 after I am no more here. Mrs. Adams joins me in 
 best regards to you and Madam. 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 S. Adams. 
 
 1 From the autograph. 
 
408 SAMIKL ADAMS. 
 
 Hancock died at last on the 8tli of October. 
 He was honored with a most solemn funeral, 
 and Samuel Adams followed the coffin as chief 
 mourner. The strength of the septuagenarian 
 failed to sustain him under the emotions that 
 ovei'whehned him. He withdrew from his place 
 as the train wound past the Old State House, 
 and it went on to the Granary Burying Ground 
 without the man of the gray head and the 
 trembling hands, who through Hancock's death 
 had become chief magistrate of Massachusetts. 
 
 On January 17, 1794, Samuel Adams de- 
 livered his first speech, as governor, to the 
 Senate and House. He thought it worth while 
 to recapitulate to some extent the ultimate 
 grounds of freedom which he had so often as- 
 serted, and it was perhaps well, in the wide- 
 spread doabt that had come to exist as to the 
 expediency of trusting government to the hands 
 of the people. 
 
 In 1794, 1795, and 1796 Mr. Adams was 
 elected governor by heavy majorities, although 
 the Federalists made efforts to defeat him. In 
 his addresses to the two houses he occupied 
 the reasonable mean between the extreme Fed- 
 eralists and the extreme Republicans, insisting 
 upon the necessity of a just concession of power 
 to the Union, while urging at the same time 
 a maintenance of the rights of the States. He 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 409 
 
 approved thoroughly the policy of Washington 
 as regards European entanglements, acknowl- 
 edging the wisdom of his proclamation of neu- 
 trality, issued soon after the arrival of Citizen 
 Genet. 
 
 The Jay treaty of 1796, warmly favored by 
 Hamilton and Fisher Ames, Adams opposed, in 
 company with Madison, Gallatin, and Brock- 
 hoist Livingston, and made no effort to stop 
 the expressions of popular disapproval which, 
 in Boston, became riotous. His position drew 
 down upon him unmeasured wrath from the 
 Federalists, though few at the present time 
 will maintain that the provisions of that treaty 
 were wise. 
 
 As the year 1797 opened, Samuel Adams, 
 now seventy-five, gave notice, in a speech to the 
 legislature, of his retirement from public life. 
 That he had honor in this hour elsewhere than 
 at home had been shown in the presidential 
 election which had just taken place, when, in 
 the electoral college, Virginia had thrown for 
 Thomas Jefferson twenty votes, and for Samuel 
 Adams fifteen. Both houses of the Massachu- 
 setts General Court addressed him in terms of 
 great respect, and in May the toil-worn servant 
 of the people laid dowm his responsibilities. 
 
 His appearance in age is thus described by 
 Wells : — 
 
410 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 " He always walked with his family to and from 
 church, until his failing strength prevented. His 
 stature was a little above the medium height. He wore 
 a tie-wig, cocked hat, buckled shoes, knee-breeches, 
 and a red cloak, and held himself very erect, with the 
 ease and address of a polite gentleman. On stopping 
 to speak with any person in the street his salutation 
 was formal yet cordial. His gestures were animated, 
 and in conversation there was a slight tremulous mo- 
 tion of the head. He never wore glasses in public, 
 except when engaged in his official duties at the State 
 House. His complexion was florid and his eyes dark 
 blue. The eyebrows were heavy, almost to bushiness, 
 and contrasted remarkably with the clear forehead, 
 which, at the age of seventy, had but few wrinkles. 
 The face had a benignant, but careworn expression, 
 blended with a native dignity (some have said maj- 
 esty) of countenance, which never failed to impress 
 strangers." 
 
 Henceforth he lived in his house in Winter 
 Street (the Purchase Street home he had been 
 forced to resign), his wife at his side, cared 
 for by his daughter and her children. In cap 
 and gown he walked in his garden or sat in the 
 door-way. As age grew upon him his nearer 
 life receded, and the great figures and deeds of 
 the Revolution were oftener in his thoughts. 
 Once more he walked with Otis and Warren 
 and Quincy ; once more, in mind, he rallied 
 into closest battle-order the scattered Massa- 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 411 
 
 chusetts towns, put to flight, unweaponed, the 
 Fourteenth and Twenty-ninth regiments, and 
 barred out Gage in the great crisis of the throe 
 when " the child Independence was born." In 
 mixed companies, and among strangers, he was 
 reserved and silent ; among friends he was com- 
 panionable, abounding in anecdote, and keenly 
 alive to wit. His grandchildren read to him, or 
 were his amanuenses. To the last he was in- 
 terested in the common schools. In 1795, while 
 rejoicing over the establishment of academies, 
 he had, as governor, expressed to the legisla- 
 ture the fear that a large increase of these 
 institutions might lessen '' the ancient and ben- 
 eficial mode of education in grammar schools," 
 whose peculiar advantage is "that the poor and 
 the rich may derive equal benefit from them, 
 while none, excepting the more wealthy, gen- 
 erally speaking, can avail themselves of the 
 benefits of the academies." His form now was 
 familiar in the school-rooms, and he was known 
 as a friend by troops of children. 
 
 It is pleasant to record that in the storm 
 of party fury, now hotter than ever, there were 
 some Federalists broad-minded enough to do 
 him honor. When, in 1800, Governor Caleb 
 Strong was advancing through Winter Street, 
 in a great procession, probably at the time of 
 his inauguration, Mr. Adams was observed in 
 
412 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 his house, looking out upon the pageant. The 
 governor called a halt, and ordered the music 
 to cease. Alighting from his carriage, he 
 greeted the old man at the door, grasped the 
 paralytic hands, and expressed, with head bared, 
 his reverence for Samuel Adams. The soldiers 
 presented arms, and the people stood uncovered 
 and silent. 
 
 Could he have lived a second Hfe, a brilliant 
 recognition would probably have fallen to him. 
 The forces of federalism were becoming ex- 
 hausted ; the incoming wave of democracy 
 would certainly have lifted him into a place of 
 power. Already, as we have seen, Virginia, in 
 1796, cast fifteen votes in the electoral college 
 for him as president; her great son, Jefferson, 
 as he came at last into the supreme position, 
 recalled, with enthusiasm, their association and 
 sympathy in the first Congresses and could 
 hardly find language strong enough to express 
 his regret that old age must have its dues. 
 
 " A government by representatives elected by the 
 people, at short periods, was our object ; and our 
 maxim at that day was, ' Where annual election ends, 
 tyranny begins.' Nor have our departures from it 
 been sanctioned by the happiness of their effects." 
 " How much I lament that time has deprived me of 
 your aid ! It would have been a day of glory which 
 should have called you to the first office of my ad- 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 413 
 
 ministration. But give us your counsel, my friend, 
 and give us your blessing, and be assured that there 
 exists not in the heart of man a more faithful esteem 
 than mine to you, and that 1 shall ever bear you the 
 most affectionate veneration and respect." ^ 
 
 His work was done, and Adams calmly 
 awaited the end. As his friends were obliged 
 to buy clothes for him that he might make a 
 respectable appearance at the first Continental 
 Congress, in 1774, so at the last it would have 
 been necessary to support and bury him at the 
 public expense, had he not inherited from his 
 son, the army surgeon, claims against the gov- 
 ernment which yielded about six thousand dol- 
 lars. This sum, fortunately invested, sufficed 
 for the simple wants of himself and his admi- 
 rable wife. 
 
 Tudor, in his *' Life of James Otis," gives 
 the following often quoted description of the 
 political character of Samuel Adams: — 
 
 " He attached an exclusive value to the habits and 
 principles in which he had been educated, and wished 
 to adjust wide concerns too closely after a particular 
 model. One of his colleagues who knew him well, 
 and estimated him highly, described him, with good- 
 natured exaggeration, in the following manner : 
 ' Samuel Adams would have the State of Massachu- 
 
 1 February 26, 1800; March 29, 1801; from the manu- 
 scripts. 
 
414 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 setts govern the Union, the town of Boston govern 
 Massachusetts, and that he should govern the town 
 of Boston, and then the whole would not be hiten- 
 tionally ill-governed.' " 
 
 It is not a good description of Samuel Ad- 
 ams's limitation. He believed, to be sure, in 
 the town first, then the State, then the Union ; 
 but he had no such overweening confidence in 
 himself as is here denoted. From the voice of 
 the plain people there could be, in his idea, no 
 appeal. In town-meeting assembled, their man- 
 date would be wise, and must be authoritative. 
 To that he deferred submissively in important 
 crises, postponing his own judgment. His com- 
 rades knew it, and sometimes shrewdly played 
 upon him, as when they overcame his hesi- 
 tation before the Federal constitution. Even 
 when he himself was far in the foreground, 
 acting with all energy from his own inspira- 
 tions, it is probable he often fancied that he 
 represented and was pushed by the popular im- 
 pulse. He was submissive before " instruc- 
 tions," as if in some way he were really heark- 
 ening to the voice of God. He was slow in 
 recognizing the ways through which, in a vast 
 republic like ours, all large affairs must be ad- 
 ministered. A nation of fifty millions cannot 
 be run upon the town-meeting plan. There is 
 a perilous decentralization, toward which, in 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 415 
 
 the great forming days, Samuel Adams tended, 
 as others rushed toward peril in the opposite 
 extreme. Into the feeble Congress of 1781 he 
 could not bear that there should be any in- 
 troduction of " one man power," which alone 
 could give it efficiency ; he favored tei-ms of 
 office too short for the suitable training of the 
 official ; he thought power must ever return 
 speedily to the people who gave it, so that the 
 representative might never forget that he was 
 the creature of his constituents. The cases 
 are few, however, in which his advocacy was 
 unreasonable ; when all has been said that can 
 be said, America has had but few public men 
 as devoted, as wise, as magnificently serviceable 
 as he. 
 
 He grew feeble during the summer of 1803, 
 and was conscious, as was every one, that the 
 end was at hand. Early on the morning of Sun- 
 day, October 2, the tolling bells made known to 
 the town that he was dead. The " Independent 
 Chronicle " did him honor the next day in a 
 fine specimen of dignified, old-fashioned obitu- 
 ary. 
 
 There was embarrassment, through political 
 enmity, in procuring a suitable escort for his 
 funeral. But at length difficulties were over- 
 come, and an impressive train, headed by the 
 
416 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Independent Cadets, and consisting of many 
 dignitaries and private friends, accompanied 
 the plain coffin through the streets, during the 
 firing of minute guns from the Castle. He 
 was borne past the doors of the Old South, 
 which in his age had become liis place of wor- 
 ship; at length the muffled drums reverberated 
 from Faneuil Hall, but before reaching it, at 
 the Old State House, the funeral turned. Had 
 no occult sympathy established itself between 
 the heart that had grown still and the pile 
 that rose so venerable in the twilight of the 
 autumn day ? No other voice had sounded so 
 often in its chambers ; its thresholds had felt 
 the lightness of his youth and the feebleness of 
 his age. Beneath its roof had gathered the 
 scattered Massachusetts towns in the great old 
 days, and, submissive to his controlling mind, 
 had there wrought out a work that must 
 sanctify the spot forever. Had there been a 
 poet in the crowd, one fancies the blank win- 
 dows of the council chamber and the assembly- 
 room might have been seen to become suffused, 
 and the quaint belfry to make some obeisance. 
 There is no record that any sign was given. 
 The train moved up Court Street into Tremont 
 Street, and in the Granary Burying Ground, 
 close by the victims of the Boston Massacre, 
 Samuel Adams found his grave. In what is 
 
CLOSING YEARS. 417 
 
 now Adams Square, the town he loved has com- 
 memorated him worthily in imposing bronze. 
 His dust lies almost beneath the feet of the 
 passers in the great thoroughfare, and no stone 
 marks the spot. 
 2r 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. 
 
 Have New Englanders preserved the town- 
 meeting of Samuel Adams ? Thirteen million, 
 or about one quarter, of the inhabitants of the 
 United States, are believed to be descendants of 
 the twenty-one thousand who, in the dark days 
 of Stuart domination, came from among the 
 friends of Cromwell and Hampden to people the 
 northeast. In large proportion they have for- 
 saken the old seats, following the parallels of 
 latitude into the great northwest, and now at 
 length across the continent to California and 
 Oregon. At the beginning of the century 
 Grayson wrote to Madison that " New England- 
 ers are amazingly attached to their custom of 
 planting by townships." So it has always been ; 
 wherever New Englanders have had power to 
 decide as to the constitution of a forming state, 
 it has had the township at the basis. But in 
 the immense dilution which this element of 
 population has constantly undergone, through 
 the human flood from all lands, which, side by 
 
THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. 419 
 
 side with it, has poured into the new territories, 
 its influence has of necessity been often greatly 
 weakened, and the form of the township has 
 been changed from the original pattern, sel- 
 dom advantageously. 1 In New England itself, 
 moreover, a similar cause has modified some- 
 what the old circumstances. While multitudes 
 of the ancient stock have forsaken the granite 
 hills, their places have been supjjlied by a Cel- 
 tic race, energetic and prolific, whose teeming 
 families throng city and village, threatening 
 to outnumber the Yankee element, depleted as 
 it has been by the emigration of so many of its 
 most vigorous children. To these new-comers 
 must be added now the French Canadians, 
 who, following the track of their warlike an- 
 cestors down the river-valleys, have come by 
 thousands into the manufacturing towns and 
 into the woods, an industrious but unprogres- 
 sive race, good hands in the mills, and marvel- 
 pusly dexterous at wielding the axe. Whatever 
 may be said of the virtues of these new-com- 
 ers, and, of course, a long list could be made 
 out for them, they have not been trained to 
 
 1 S. A. Galpin, Walker's Statistical Atlas of U. S. ii. 10. 
 Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, as follows : Albert Shaw, Local 
 
 Government in Illinois ; E. W. Bemis, Local Government in 
 Michigan and the North- West ; E. R. L. Gould, Local Govern- 
 ment in Pennsylvania ; J. Macy, Lnstitutional Beginnings of a 
 
 Western State (Iowa). 
 
420 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon self-government. We have seen 
 the origin of the folk-mote far back in Teu- 
 tonic antiquity. As established in New Eng- 
 land, it is a revival of a very ancient thing. 
 The institution is not congenial to all ; the 
 Irishman and Frenchman are not at home in 
 it, and cannot accustom themselves to it, until, 
 as the nev^ generations come forward, they 
 take on the characteristics of the people among 
 whom they have come to cast their lot. At 
 present, in most old New England towns, we 
 find an element of the population numbering 
 hundreds, often thousands, who are sometimes 
 quite inert, allowing others to decide all things 
 for them ; sometimes voting in droves in an 
 unintelligent way as some whipper-in may di- 
 rect ; sometimes in unreasoning partisanship 
 following through thick and thin a cunning 
 demagogue, quite careless how the public wel- 
 fare ma}^ suffer by his coming to the front. 
 
 Still another circumstance which threatens 
 the folk-mote is the multiplication of cities. 
 When a community of moderate size, which has 
 gone forward under its town-meeting, at length 
 increases so far as to be entitled to a city char- 
 ter, the day is commonly hailed by ringing of 
 bells and salutes of cannon. But the assuming 
 of a city charter has been declared to be " an 
 almost complete abnegation of practical de* 
 
THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. 421 
 
 mocracy. The people cease to govern them- 
 selves ; once a year they choose those who are 
 to govern for them. Instead of the town-meet- 
 ing discussions and votes, one needs now to 
 spend only ten minutes, perhaps, in a year. 
 No more listening to long debates about schools,' 
 roads, and bridges. One has only to drop a slip 
 of paper, containing a list which some one has 
 been kind enough to prepare for him, into a 
 box, and he has done his duty as a citizen." ^ 
 In the most favorable circumstances, the mayor 
 and common council, representing the citizens, 
 do the work for them, while individuals are dis- 
 charged from the somewhat burdensome, but 
 educating and quickening duties of the folk- 
 mote. As yet the way has not been discovered 
 through which, in an American city, the pri- 
 mordial cell of our liberty may be preserved 
 from atrophy. 
 
 Though the town-meeting of the New Eng- 
 land of to-day ra,rely presents all the features 
 of the town-meeting of Samuel Adams, yet 
 wherever the population has remained tolerably 
 pure from foreign admixture, and wherever the 
 numbers at the same time have not become so 
 large as to embarrass the transaction of busi- 
 ness, the institution retains much of its old 
 vigor. The writer recalls the life, as it was 
 
 1 New York Nation, May 29, 1866. 
 
4:22 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 twenty-five years ago, of a most venerable and 
 imcontaminated old town, whose origin dates 
 back more than two hundred years. At first it 
 realized almost perfectly the idea of the Teu- 
 tonic " tun." For a long time it was the fron- 
 tier settlement, with nothing to the west but 
 woods until the fierce Mohawks were reached, 
 and nothing but woods to the north until one 
 came to the hostile French of Canada. About 
 the houses, therefore, was drawn the protection 
 of a palisade to inclose them (tynan) against 
 attack. Though not without some foreign in- 
 termixture, the old stock was, twenty -five years 
 ago, so far unchanged that in the various " dees- 
 tricks" the dialect was often unmistakably 
 nasal ; the very bob-o-links in the meadow- 
 grass, and the bumble-bees in the holly-hocks 
 might have been imagined to chitter and hum 
 with a Yankee twang ; and '' Zekle " squired 
 "Huldy," as of yore, to singing-school or ap- 
 ple-paring, to quilting or sugaring-off, as each 
 season brought its appropriate festival. The 
 same names stood for the most part on tax, vot- 
 ing, and parish lists that stood there in the time 
 of Philip's war, when for a space the people 
 were driven out by the Indian pressure ; and the 
 fathers had handed down to the modern day, 
 with their names and blood, the venerable 
 methods by which they regulated their lives. 
 
THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. 423 
 
 On the northern boundary a factory village had 
 sprung up about a water-power ; at the south, 
 too, five miles off, there was some rattle of mills 
 and sound of hammers. Generally, however, 
 the people were farmers, like their ancestors, 
 reaping great hay-crops in June with which to 
 fat in the stall long rows of sleek cattle for 
 market in December ; or, by farmer's alchemy, 
 transmuting the clover of the rocky hills into 
 golden butter. 
 
 From far and near, on the first Monday of 
 March, the men gathered to the central vil- 
 lage, whose people made great preparations for 
 the entertainment of the people of the out- 
 skirts. What old Yankee, wherever he may 
 have strayed, will not remember the "town- 
 meeting gingerbread," and the great roasts 
 that smoked hospitably for all comers ! The 
 sheds of the meeting-house close by were 
 crowded with horses and sleighs ; for, in the 
 intermediate slush, between ice and the spring 
 mud, the runner was likely to be better than 
 the wheel. The floor of the town-hall grew 
 wet and heavy in the trampling ; not in Eng- 
 land alone is the land represented ; a full rep- 
 resentation of the soil comes to a New Eng- 
 land town-meeting, — on the boots of the free- 
 men. On a platform at the end of the plain 
 room sat the five selectmen in a row, — at their 
 
424 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 left was the venerable town clerk, with the am- 
 ple volume of records before him. His memory 
 went back to the men who were old in Wash- 
 ington's administration, who in their turn re- 
 membered men in whose childhood the French 
 and Indians burned the infant settlement. 
 Three lives, the town clerk's being the third, 
 spanned the whole history of the town. He 
 was full of traditions, precedents, minutise of 
 town history, and was an authority in all dis- 
 puted points of procedure from whom there 
 was no appeal. In front of the row of select- 
 men with their brown, solid farmer faces, stood 
 the moderator, a vigorous man in the forties, 
 six straight feet in height, colonel of the county 
 regiment of militia, of a term's experience in 
 the General Court, and therefore conversant 
 with parliamentary law, a quick and energetic 
 presiding officer. 
 
 It was indeed an arena. The south village 
 was growing faster than the " street," and there 
 were rumors of efforts to be made to move the 
 town-hall from its old place, which aroused great 
 wrath; and both south village and "street" 
 took it hard that part of the men of the dis- 
 tricts to the north had favored a proposition 
 to be set off to an adjoining town. The weak 
 side of human nature came out as well as the 
 strong in the numerous jealousies and bicker- 
 
THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY, 425 
 
 ings. Following the carefully arranged pro- 
 gramme or warrant, from which there could 
 be no departure, because ample warning must 
 be given of every measure proposed, item after 
 item was considered, — a change here in the 
 course of the highway to the shire town, how 
 much should be raised by taxes, the apportion- 
 ment of money among the school districts, what 
 bounty the town would pay its quota of troops 
 for the war, a new wing for the poor-house, 
 whether there should be a bridge at the west 
 ford. Now and then came a touch of humor, 
 as when the young husbands, married within 
 the year, were elected field-drivers, officers tak- 
 ing the place of the ancient hog-reeves. Once 
 the moderator for the time being displeased 
 the meeting by his rulings upon certain points 
 of order. '' Mr. Moderator," cried out an an- 
 cient citizen with a twang in his voice like that 
 of a well-played jewsharp, " ef it 's in awrder, 
 I 'd jest like to inquire the price of cawn at 
 Cheapside." It was an effective reductio ad 
 absurdum. Another rustic Cicero, whom for 
 some reason the physicians of the village had 
 displeased, once filled up a lull in proceedings 
 with : " Mr. Moderator, I move that a dwelling 
 be erected in the centre of the grave-yard in 
 which the doctors of the town be required to 
 reside, that they may have always under their 
 eyes the fruits of their labors." 
 
426 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 The talkers were sometimes fluent, some- 
 times stumbling and awkward. The richest 
 man in town, at the same time town treasurer, 
 was usually a silent looker-on. His son, how- 
 ever, president of the county agricultural so- 
 ciety, an enterprising farmer, whose team was 
 the handsomest, whose oxen were the fattest, 
 whose crops were the heaviest, was in speech 
 forceful and eloquent, with an energetic word 
 to say on every question. But he was scarcely 
 more prominent in the discussions than a poor 
 cultivator of broom-corn, whose tax was only a 
 few dollars. There was the intrigue of certain 
 free-thinkers to oust the ministers from the 
 school-committee, — the manoeuvring of tbe fac- 
 tions to get hold of the German colony, a body 
 of immigrants lately imported into the factory- 
 village to the north. These sat in a solid mass 
 at one side while the proceedings went on in 
 an unknown tongue, without previous training 
 for such a work, voting this way or that accord- 
 ing to the direction of two or three leaders. 
 
 Watching it all, one could see how perfect a 
 democracy it was. Things were often done far 
 enough from the best way. Unwise or doubtful 
 men ^vere put in ofiice, important projects were 
 stinted by niggardly appropriations, unworthy 
 prejudices were allowed to interfere with wise 
 enterprises. Yet in the main the result was 
 
THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. 427 
 
 good. This was especially to be noted, — how 
 thoroughly the public spirit of those who took 
 part was stimulated, and how well they Y/ere 
 trained to self-reliance, intelligence of various 
 kinds, and love for freedom. The rough black- 
 smith or shoemaker, who had his say as to what 
 should be the restriction about the keeping of 
 dogs, or the pasturing of sheep on the western 
 hills, spoke his mind in homely fashion enough, 
 and possibly recommended some course not the 
 wisest. That he could do so, however, helped 
 his self-respect, and caused him to take a deeper 
 interest in affairs beyond himself than if things 
 were managed without a right on his part to 
 interfere ; and this gain in self-respect, public 
 spirit, self-reliance, to the blacksmith and shoe- 
 maker, is worth far more than a mere smooth 
 or cheap canying on of affairs. 
 
 Is there anything more valuable among An- 
 glo-Saxon institutions than this same ancient 
 folk-mote, this old-fashioned New England 
 town-meeting ? What a list of important men 
 can be cited who have declared, in the strongest 
 terms that tongue can utter, their conviction of 
 its preciousness ! ^ It has been alleged that to 
 
 1 John Stuart Mill, Representative Government, p. 64, etc. ; 
 De Tocqueville, De la Democratie en Amerique, i. 96, etc. ; 
 J. Toulmin Smith, Local Self-Goiiernment and Centralization, 
 p. 29, etc. ; May, Constitutional History of England, ii. 460 ; 
 
428 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 this more than anything else was due the su- 
 premacy of England in America, the successful 
 colonization out of which grew at last the 
 United States. France failed precisely for want 
 of this.^ England prevailed precisely because 
 '' nations which are accustomed to township in- 
 stitutions and municipal government are better 
 able than any other to found prosperous col- 
 onies. The habit of thinking and governing 
 for one's self is indispensable in a new coun- 
 try." So says De Tocqueville, seeking an ex- 
 planation for the failure of his own race, and 
 the victory of its great rival.^ None have ad- 
 mired this thorough New England democracy 
 more heartily than those living under a very 
 different polity. Richard Henry Lee of Vir- 
 ginia wrote in admiration of Massachusetts,^ as 
 the place '' where yet I hope to finish the re- 
 mainder of my days. The hasty, unpersever- 
 ing, aristocratic genius of the South suits not 
 my disposition, and is inconsistent with my 
 
 Bluntschli, quoted by H. B.Adams, Germanic Origin ofN. E. 
 Toivns ; Jefferson, to Kercheval, July 12, 1816, and to Cabell, 
 February 2, 1816; John Adams, Letter to his wife, October 
 
 29, 1775; Samuel Adams, Letter to Noah Webster, April 
 
 30, 1784; R, W. Emerson, Concord Bicentennial Discourse, 
 1835, etc. 
 
 1 Lecky, Hist. XVIIItk Century, i. 387. 
 
 2 De la De'm. en Am. \. 423. 
 
 8 Life of R. H. Lee, Letter to John Adams, October 7, 
 1779, i. 226. 
 
THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. 429 
 
 views of what must constitute social happiness 
 and security." Jefferson becomes almost fierce 
 in the earnestness with which he urges Vir- 
 ginia to adopt the township. " Those wards, 
 called townships in New England, are the vital 
 principle of their governments, and have proved 
 themselves the wisest invention ever devised 
 by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of 
 self-government, and for its preservation. . . . 
 As Cato, then, concluded every speech with the 
 words ' Carthago delenda est,^ so do I every 
 opinion with the injunction : '• Divide the coun- 
 ties into wards ! '" i 
 
 The town-meeting has been called " the pri- 
 mordial cell of our body-politic." Is its condition 
 at present such as to satisfy us ? As we have 
 seen, even in New England, it is only here and 
 there that it can be said to be well-maintained. 
 At the South, Anglo-Saxon freedom, like the 
 enchanted prince of the "Arabian Nights," 
 whose body below the waist the evil witch had 
 fixed in black marble, had been fixed in African 
 slavery. The spell is destroyed ; the prince has 
 his limbs again, but they are weak and wasted 
 from the hideous trammel. The traces of the 
 folk-mote in the South are sadly few. Nor 
 elsewhere is the prospect encouraging. The 
 influx of alien tides to whom our precious heir- 
 
 1 Works, vi. 544 ; vii 13. 
 
430 SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 looms are as nothing, the growth of cities and 
 the inextricable perplexities of their govern- 
 ment, the vast inequality of condition between 
 man and man — what room is there for the lit- 
 tle primary council of freemen, homogeneous in 
 stock, holding the same faith, on the same level 
 as to wealth and station, not too few in num- 
 ber for the kindling of interest, not so man}' as 
 to become unmanageable — what room is there 
 for it, or how^ can it be revivified or created ? It 
 is, perhaps, hopeless to think of it. Mr. Free- 
 man remarks that in some of the American col- 
 onies " representation has supplanted the prim- 
 itive Teutonic democracy, which had sprung into 
 life in the institutions, of the first settlers." 
 Over vast areas of our country to-day, repre- 
 sentation has supplanted democracy. It is an 
 admirable, an indispensable expedient, of course. 
 Yet that a representative system may be thor- 
 oughly well managed, we need below it the 
 primary assemblies of the individual citizens, 
 " regular, fixed, frequent, and accessible," dis- 
 cussing affairs and deciding for themselves. 
 De Tocqueville seems to have thought that An- 
 glo-Saxon America owes its existence to the 
 town-meeting. It would be hard, at any rate, 
 to show that the town-meeting was not a main 
 source of our freedom. Certainly it is w^ell to 
 hold it in memory ; to give it new life, if poa- 
 
THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. 431 
 
 sible, wherever it exists ; to reproduce some 
 semblance of it, however faint, in the regions 
 to which it is unknown ; it is well to brush the 
 dust off the half -forgotten historic figure who, 
 of all men, is its best type and representative. 
 
IKDEX. 
 
 Adams, Henry, progenitor of the 
 Adams family, 13. 
 
 Adams, John, value of his diary, 43 ; 
 describes James Otis in the case 
 of the writs of assistance, 44 ; 
 writes the Braintree instructions 
 in 1765, 53 ; supports the petition 
 to the governor and council in 
 1765, 75 ; describes the Caucus 
 Club, 76 ; removes to Boston and 
 writes instructions for the repre- 
 sentatives in 1768, 112 ; writes in- 
 structions for the representatives 
 in 1769, 135 ; drives with Samuel 
 Adams, 152 ; his account of Sam- 
 uel Adams at the time of the Bos- 
 ton Massacre, 172 ; serves on the 
 night-watch, 175 ; defends the sol- 
 diers, 183 ; gives aid in the con- 
 troversy as to parliamentary au- 
 thority, 210 ; presides at the Port 
 Bill meeting in 1774, 293 ; elected 
 delegate to the first Continental 
 Congress, 295, etc. ; sets out for 
 Philadelphia, reports the journey 
 in his diary, 309, etc. ; iiis self- 
 consciousness, 311 ; nominates 
 "Washington for commander-in- 
 chief, 335 ; begins to favor inde- 
 pendence in third Continental 
 Congress, 341 ; on committee to 
 prepare the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, 348 ; the best debater 
 in the early Congresses, 359 ; de- 
 fends aristocracy in a controversy 
 with Samuel Adams, 406. 
 
 Adams, Captain John, grandfather 
 of Samuel Adams, 14. 
 
 Adams, Joseph, grandfather of Pres- 
 ident John Adams, 14. 
 
 Adams, Samuel, Senior, father of 
 Samuel Adams, a political leader, 
 his home and estate, justice of 
 the peace, deacon, selectman, 
 member of Assembly, lielps form 
 
 28 
 
 the Caulkers' Club, 15; opposes 
 Governor Shute, 16; his promi- 
 nence in time of Governor Shir- 
 ley, 19 ; dies in 1748, 20. 
 Adams, Samuel, his parentage, 14 ; 
 school days and college life, 16; 
 his thesis as a Master of Arts, 17 ; 
 tries law, mercantile life, IS ; be- 
 comes his father's partner in a 
 malt-house, 19 ; marries EUzabeth 
 Checkley, 20 ; inherits a feud 
 with Thomas Hutchinson, 34 ; at- 
 tempt to seize and sell his prop- 
 erty to close the Land Bank 
 scheme, 35; accused of defalca- 
 tion as tax-collector, 37, 47 ; shows 
 marks of age at 42, death of his 
 wife, failure in business, 46 ; writes 
 town's instructions to the repre- 
 sentatives in 1764, 47 ; marries 
 Elizabeth Wells, 50 ; elected to 
 Assembly in 1765, man of the town- 
 meeting, 54 ; becomes the leader 
 of the Assembly, 62 ; compared 
 with James Otis, 63 ; opposes par- 
 liamentary representation of the 
 colonies, 64, 67 ; writes the re- 
 sponse to Barnard and the Massa- 
 chusetts Resolves, 71 ; suggests 
 the non-importation scheme, 74; 
 his keenness in discovering able 
 young men, 75 ; becomes clerk of 
 the Assembly, 93 ; non-importa- 
 tioxi and non-consumption agree- 
 ments adopted, 101 ; writes docu- 
 ments constituting the " True 
 Sentiments of America," 103 ; 
 denounces a Protestant episco- 
 pate, 104; writes the "Circular 
 Letter " of 1768, 105 ; has words 
 with James Otis, 113; his popu- 
 larity with mechanics and labor- 
 ers, 115 ; description of, in the 
 affidavit of Richard Sylvester, 
 117 ; begins, in 1768, to work for 
 
434 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 independence, 119; Tory accusa- 
 tions of duplicity, 120 ; his indig- 
 nation at reactionary spirit in 
 1708, 123 ; appealed to to save a 
 soldier from flogging, 128 ; his ac- 
 tivity in the newspapers, 129 ; on 
 imperfections of the British con- 
 stitution, 130 ; publicly hints at 
 independence in 1769, 134 ; de- 
 nounces the Rev. Mr. Seabury, 
 135 ; mocks Governor Bernard at 
 his departure, 140 ; becomes leader 
 of the patriots on the decay of 
 Otis, 148 ; his poverty and incor- 
 ruptibility, 152 ; writes ' ' Appeal 
 to the World," 154 ; protects the 
 Scotchman, 157 ; his bearing at 
 the time of the Boston Massacre, 
 167, etc. ; his speech to Governor 
 Hutchinson in the council cham- 
 ber, 173 ; displeased with the issue 
 of the trial of the soldiers, the 
 " Vindex" letters, 184; foiled by 
 Hutchinson in the controversy as 
 to royal instructions, 186 ; dis- 
 trusts Franklin, 189 ; opposes su- 
 pineness in 1771, 191 ; denounces 
 in 1772 pensioned judges, 194 ; 
 brings into being the Committee 
 of Correspondence, 390, etc. ; his 
 counsel sought by Rhode Island 
 at the time of the destruction of 
 the Gaspee, 205 ; the controversy 
 as to parliamentary authority, 
 210, etc. ; his connection with the 
 affair of the Hutchinson letters, 
 225; advocates a congress of the 
 colonies in 1773, 236 ; pubhcly ad- 
 vocates independence in 1773, 
 238; his part in the destruction 
 of the tea, 243, etc. ; bases Amer- 
 ica's claim to liberty mainly on 
 natural right, 258; tries to bring 
 about the impeachment of Chief 
 Justice Peter Oliver, 261 ; writes 
 an oration for Hancock to deliver 
 on aimiversary of the Massacre, 
 263 ; his great ascendency at time 
 of the Port Bill, 290; engineers 
 the choosing of delegates for the 
 first Continental Congress, 291, 
 etc. ; elected delegate to the first 
 Continental Congress, 295, etc. ; 
 locks the Assembly in, 296 ; chair- 
 man of committee for relieving 
 the poor and distributing dona- 
 tions after the Port Bill goes into 
 operation, 298 ; champion of the 
 Committee of Correspondence 
 the Tories, 299 ; the gov- 
 
 ernment's reasons for not seizing 
 him in 1774, testimony of Hutch- 
 inson to his incorruptibility, 301 ; 
 Gage's attempt upon him through 
 Colonel Fenton, 302 ; his ideas of 
 democracy, 303 ; his home life, 
 the place in Purchase Street, 305 ; 
 his taste in music, 306 ; receives 
 help from his friends before going 
 to Philadelphia, 308 ; sets out for 
 the first Congress, 309; his reti- 
 cence, 311 ; meets on the journey 
 to Philadelphia patriots from the 
 other colonies, 312 ; his influence 
 dreaded in the Congress, 315 ; he 
 moves that the Rev, Mr. Duche, 
 an Episcopahan, open the Con- 
 gress with prayer, 315 ; on com- 
 mittee to state the rights of the 
 colonies, 317 ; vigorously opposes 
 all concession, 320; his great in- 
 fluence in Massachusetts, 321 ; in 
 the Provincial Congress, 322 ; at 
 the town-meeting of March 6, 
 1775, 324, etc. ; letter to R. H. 
 Lee describing it, 328 ; flight from 
 Lexington, April 19, 1775, 330, 
 331 ; on the way to the second 
 Continental Congress, 332 ; soli- 
 tary among leading statesmen, in 
 1775, in his wish for independence, 
 333 ; seconds nomination of Wash- 
 ington to be commander-in-chief, 
 335 ; proscribed by Gage, 336 ; let- 
 ter on his proscription and the 
 death of Joseph Warren, 337 ; cor- 
 diality toward Washington, agency 
 in the appointment of Charles Lee 
 to be second in command, becomes 
 secretary of state in Massachu- 
 setts, 339 ; at Philadelphia for the 
 third Continental Congress, 340 ; 
 promotes invasion of Canada, 341 ; 
 writes " Earnest Appeal to the Peo- 
 ple," in behalf of independence, 
 February, 1776, 342 ; denounces 
 his colleagues from Massachusetts, 
 343 ; denounces the Quakers, 344 ; 
 in the debate on R. H. Lee's reso- 
 lution, 347 ; on committee to pre- 
 pare a plan of confederation, 
 348 ; letter to John Pitts describ- 
 ing the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, 350 ; the man of the town- 
 meeting, 352, etc. ; his place in 
 the group of Massachusetts lead- 
 ers, a combination of incongrui- 
 ties, 357 ; as an orator, 358 ; as a 
 writer, 360, etc. ; testimony of 
 friends and enemies to his power, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 435 
 
 362 ; as a manager of men, 363, 
 etc. ; called by Jefferson the Pa- 
 linurus of the Revolution, 365; 
 a Tory's estimate, 366 ; Riving- 
 ton's estimate, 367 ; a typical Yan- 
 kee, 368; his unselfishness, 369; 
 " second only to Washington," 
 370 ; his importance not circum- 
 scribed, 371 ; first advocate of in- 
 dependence, 372 ; appropriateness 
 of the title " Father of America," 
 374; his later congressional ser- 
 vice, helps construct the state 
 constitution of Massachusetts, 
 376; never unfriendly to Wash- 
 ington, 377, etc . ; at the reception 
 of M. Gerard, French ambassador, 
 380 ; helps maintain the entente 
 cordiale with the French, opposes 
 giving half-pay for life to Revolu- 
 tionary officers, opposes estab- 
 lishment of departments with 
 secretaries, 381,382; his last act 
 in Congress to sign Articles of 
 Confederation, 382 ; his attach- 
 ment to these, 385 ; continued in- 
 terest in Boston town-meeting, 
 386; president of the Massachu- 
 setts Senate, 387 ; at the depart- 
 ure of the French army, implaca- 
 ble towards the Tories, 388 ; re- 
 ports no defects in the town con- 
 stitution of Boston, 389 ; opposes 
 Shays's rebellion, 391 ; hesitates 
 at the adoption of the federal 
 constitution, 392, etc. ; how won 
 over, 396 ; defeated for Congress 
 by Fisher Ames, warned against 
 assassination, becomes lieutenant- 
 governor, 402 ; address to the 
 Massachusetts legislature, 403 ; 
 controversy as to theatrical rep- 
 resentations, 404, 405 ; controversy 
 with John Adams, leads " Repub- 
 licans " in Massachusetts, 406 ; 
 restored friendship with Hancock, 
 last letter to Hancock, 407 ; at 
 Hancock's funeral, as governor, 
 408; approves Washington's pol- 
 icy as to foreign entanglements, 
 disapproves Jay treaty, honored 
 by Virginia in presidential elec- 
 tion of 1796, 409 ; appearance in 
 age, 410 : interest in common 
 schools, 411 ; Caleb Strong's ven- 
 eration, Jefferson's tribute, 412, 
 413; his deference toward the 
 voice of the people, 414 ; his 
 death, 415; his funeral, 416; his 
 unmarked grave, 417. 
 
 Adams, Samuel, 3d, studies medi- 
 cine with Dr. Warren, 306 ; es- 
 capes from Boston during the 
 siege, 337 ; becomes a surgeon in 
 Washington's army, 339 ; his 
 death, 393. 
 
 Ames, Fisher, his influence at the 
 adoption of the federal constitu- 
 tion by Massachusetts, 398 ; de- 
 feats Samuel Adams for Congress, 
 402. 
 
 Appeal to the World, 154. 
 
 Assembly, Massachusetts, constitu- 
 tion of, 23 ; relation of to the 
 town-meetings, 55, etc. ; its cham- 
 ber in the Old State House, 60. 
 
 Attucks, Crispus, killed in the Bos- 
 ton Massacre, 164. 
 
 Barre, Colonel Isaac, opposes the 
 Stamp Act in Parliament, 51 ; his 
 speech at the time of the Boston 
 Port Bill, 265. 
 
 Bears, Isaac, landlord at New Ha- 
 ven, entertains delegates to the 
 first Congress, 310, 312. 
 
 Beaver, tea-ship in 1773, 250. 
 
 Bernard, Francis, becomes governor 
 in 1760, his character, 38, 140; 
 opposes the Stamp Act, Camden's 
 testimony in his favor, 51 ; his 
 conduct in the affair of the Lib- 
 erty, 111 ; his removal prayed for 
 by the Assembly, 115 ; describes a 
 town-meeting, 122 ; adjourns As- 
 sembly to Cambridge in 1769, 
 136 ; recalled and made baronet, 
 139 ; his departure from America, 
 143 ; testimony as to S. Adams as 
 a writer, 362. 
 
 Billeting Act, 138. 
 
 Blackburn, Judge, his view of par- 
 liamentary supremacy, given in 
 1868, in the case of Governor Eyre 
 of Jamaica, 85. 
 
 Bland, Richaird, of "Virginia, recom- 
 mends restoration in English con- 
 stitution of the primitive Anglo- 
 Saxon freedom, 87. 
 
 Board of Trade, its baleful agency 
 in promoting the estrangement of 
 the colonies from England, 27. 
 
 Bollan, agent of Massachusetts 
 Council, obtains in England let- 
 ters thought to compromise Ber- 
 nard, 142. 
 
 Boston, at the beginning of the Rev- 
 olution, 3 ; town records of, 4 ; 
 population, 5 ; industries of, 6 ; 
 I slavery in, 7 ; ministers, mer- 
 
436 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 chants of, 8 ; workmen, newspa- 
 pers, 10 ; folk-mote in, 11 ; leads 
 the Revolution, 13 ; calls a con- 
 vention of towns in 1768, 122 ; con- 
 duct at the time of the Massacre, 
 184 ; conduct at destruction of 
 tea, 243 : conduct at the time of 
 the Port Bill, 271 ; harbor closed 
 by the Port Bill, 289 ; Gage tries 
 vainly to stop the town-meetings, 
 323. 
 
 Boston Gazette, organ of the Whigs, 
 its popularity, 133, 134. 
 
 Bowdoin, James, of Huguenot ori- 
 gin, 5 ; becomes leader of the 
 Council in 17GG, 96; steadfast 
 against removal of the legislature 
 from Boston, 187 ; takes part in 
 the controversy as to parliament- 
 ary authority, 214 ; takes part in 
 the effort to impeach Chief Jus- 
 tice Oliver, 261 ; elected delegate 
 to the first Continental Congress, 
 295 ; prevented from going by the 
 sickness of his wife, 309 ; his use- 
 fulness crippled by ill-health, 356 ; 
 portrait of in Shays's rebellion, 
 392. 
 
 Bunker Hill, battle of, 337. 
 
 Burke, Ednumd, his ideas on rep- 
 resentation, 57 ; his maiden 
 speech, 81 ; friend of America in 
 1769, 131. 
 
 Byles, Rev. Dr. Mather, 8 ; on the 
 re(d)dressed grievances, 127. 
 
 Camden, Lord, praises Governor 
 Bernard, 51 ; his speech in debate 
 on repeal of the Stamp Act, 82 ; 
 disposed to rest the cause of the 
 colonies on the basis of natural 
 justice, 87. 
 
 Charter, first, of Massachusetts, 21 ; 
 second, its features, 22, 23 ; 
 changed in 1774, 302. 
 
 Chase, Thomas, of INlaryland, favors 
 independence, 344. 
 
 Chaimcy, Rev. Charles, 8 ; his con- 
 troversy with the Rev. Mr. Sea- 
 bury, 135. 
 
 Checkley, Elizabeth, first wife of 
 Samuel Adams, 20 ; her death, 46. 
 
 Church, Dr. Benjamin, appears to 
 favor the Committee of Corre- 
 spondence, 197 ; drafts in part its 
 manifesto, 201 ; his oration on the 
 anniversary of the Massacre, 216 ; 
 suggests a Congress of the col- 
 onies in 1773, 217 ; treason of, 
 340. 
 
 Church membership, at first requi- 
 site for a freeman, 22. 
 
 Circular Letter of 1768, adopted, 
 105, 106 ; Assembly refuses to re- 
 scind it, 114. 
 
 Clark, Major George Rogers, finds, 
 in subduing the Mississippi valley, 
 the Indians and /uibiknis prepared 
 "to fight Boston," 13. 
 
 Clark, Rev. Jonas, Adams and Han- 
 cock at his house in Lexington, 
 April, 1775, 330. 
 
 Clarke, Richard, consignee of tea 
 in 1773, 244. 
 
 Committee of Correspondence, Sam- 
 uel Adams's first idea of, accoimt 
 of its formation, 196, etc. ; re- 
 spouse of the towns to its over- 
 tiu-es, 201, etc. ; intercolonial, pro- 
 posal for proceeds from Virginia, 
 218. 
 
 Confederation, Articles of, difficul- 
 ties of framing, 382, etc. ; Samuel 
 Adams's attachment to, 385. 
 
 Congress, Continental, recommend- 
 ed by Church and Samuel Adams, 
 237 ; election of delegates to the 
 first, 297, etc. ; opening of the 
 first, 313 ; state papers of the first, 
 319 ; not unsatisfactory to the 
 friends of freedom, 321 ; second 
 Continental Congress, 333, etc. ; 
 third Continental Congress, 341, 
 etc. 
 
 Congress, Provincial, steps toward, 
 303 ; ability and worth of its mem- 
 bers, 322. 
 
 Constitution, federal, adoption of 
 in Massachusetts, 392, etc. 
 
 Conway, General, English secretary 
 of state, 80. 
 
 Cooper, Rev. Dr. Samuel, 8 ; prayer 
 at town-meeting after the Boston 
 Massacre, 167 ; favors independ- 
 ence, 345. 
 
 Cooper, William, town clerk of Bos- 
 ton, 5, 36 ; presides at the meet- 
 ing after the Massacre, 166 ; his 
 vehemence against the soldiers, 
 184 ; at the destruction of the tea, 
 255 : at town-meeting of March 6, 
 1775, 325. 
 
 Copley, J. S., his portraits of mer- 
 chants, 9 ; paints Saip.uel Adams, 
 181 ; his conduct at destruction of 
 the tea, 249. 
 
 Council, constitution of, 23 ; changed 
 by Parliament in 1774, 266. 
 
 Court, Superior, constitution of, 
 24; controversy concerning inde. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 437 
 
 pendence of judges of, 216, 234, 
 
 Courts, subordinate, constitution of, 
 24. 
 
 Gushing, Thomas, Samuel Adams in 
 the comitiug-room of the father 
 of, 18 ; speaker of the Assembly for 
 successive years, 93; reactionary 
 in the case of the removal of the 
 legislature, 18G ; opposes the Com- 
 mittee of Correspondence, 197 ; 
 chairman of the legislative Com- 
 mittee of Correspondence, 219 ; 
 favors submission in 1773, 237 ; 
 brought over to Whig side by 
 Samuel Adams, 239 ; elected dele- 
 gate to first Continental Congress, 
 295 ; sets out for Philadelphia, 
 309 ; favors conciliation in third 
 Continental Congress, 341 ; fails 
 of reelection, 343 ; his limitation, 
 356. 
 
 Dalrymple, colonel of the 14th regi- 
 ment at Boston Massacre, 169 ; 
 yields to the people, 174 ; his 
 character as a soldier, 178. 
 
 Dartmouth, Earl of, colonial sec- 
 retary after Hillsborough, 237 ; 
 Hutchinson describes to him Sam- 
 uel Adams, 240. 
 
 Dartmouth, first tea-ship in 1773, 
 247. 
 
 Deberdt, Dennys, agent of the As- 
 sembly in England, addressed 
 through Samuel Adams in 1768, 
 103 ; dies and is succeeded by 
 Franklin, 187 ; Declaration of In- 
 dependence, moved by R. H. Lee, 
 346 ; debate on, 347 ; committee 
 to draft, 348 ; hilarity of Congress 
 at its adoption, 349. 
 
 Declaratory Act, 91. 
 
 De Tocqueville, on the value of the 
 town-meeting, 428, 430. 
 
 Dickinson, John, author of the 
 " Farmer's Letters," 109 ; thanked 
 by Boston, 110 ; vehement oppo- 
 sition to the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, 346. 
 
 Distilling, important business in co- 
 lonial Boston, 6. 
 
 Duch^, Rev. Mr., opens first Conti- 
 nental Congress w^ith prayer, 316. 
 
 East India Company, distress of to 
 be relieved by the Tea Act, 236. 
 
 Ecclesiasticism, potent cause of the 
 estrangement of the colonies from 
 England, 27. 
 
 Edes & Gill, publishers of the Bos- 
 ton Gazette, their oflSce an impor- 
 tant gathering place for the Whigs, 
 129, 134, 245. 
 
 Eleanor, tea-ship in 1773, 250. 
 
 Eliot, Rev. Andrew, 8. 
 
 Faneuil, Benjamin, of Huguenot 
 origin, 5 ; consignee of the tea 
 in 1773, 244. 
 
 Faneuil Hall, usual place for town- 
 meetings, 59 ; four hundred mus- 
 kets on the floor, 121 ; quarters of 
 the 14th regiment, 124 ; at the 
 time of the Massacre, 166 ; Sam- 
 uel Adams in, 353. 
 
 Fifield, Mary, mother of Samuel 
 Adams, 14. 
 
 Flucker, Thomas, colonial secre- 
 tary, 187 ; sent by Gage to pro- 
 rogue Assembly in 1774, 296. 
 
 Folk-mote, primordial cell of Anglo- 
 Saxon liberty, reappears in the 
 New England town-meeting. See 
 Town-Meeting. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, before the bar 
 of the House of Commons in 1766, 
 31 ; acquiesces in the Stamp Act, 
 50 ; favors representation of the 
 colonies in Parliament, 64 ; agent 
 of the Assembly, 188; distrusted 
 by Samuel Adams, 189 ; his con- 
 nection with the Hutchinson let- 
 ters, 221, 233 ; favors making com- 
 pensation for the destroyed tea, 
 265 ; regards independence with 
 disfavor, 345 ; on committee to 
 draft Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, 348 ; his joke July 4th, 349. 
 
 Franklin, William, Tory governor 
 of New Jersey, 190. 
 
 Freeman, E. A., harsh judgment of 
 either party in American Revolu- 
 tion out of place, 26 ; his views 
 anticipated by Bland, 87 ; his ac- 
 count, of the democracy of Switz- 
 erland, 354 ; declares representa- 
 tion is supplanting democracy in 
 some parts of America, 430. 
 
 Gadsden, Christopher, early ready 
 for independence, 340. 
 
 Gage, General Thomas, testimony 
 to the leadership of Boston in the 
 Revolution, 13 ; demands quarters 
 for the troops in 1768, 127 ; ap- 
 pointed temporarily governor, 
 267 ; enters upon his office, 273, 
 289 ; foiled by Samuel Adams in 
 the election of delegates to the 
 
438 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 first Continental Congress, 297 ; 
 fortifies Boston Neck, 303 ; foiled 
 by Boston as to the prohibition of 
 town - meetings, 3'23 ; proscribes 
 Samuel Adams and Hancock, 336. 
 
 Galloway, the Tory, his testimony 
 as to the influence of Samuel Ad- 
 ams in 1774, 318. 
 
 Gaspee, the burning of the, 205. 
 
 George III., difficulty of his posi- 
 tion, 26. 
 
 Gerry, Elbridge, Samuel Adams 
 writes to him concerning the Com- 
 mittee of Correspondence, 197 ; 
 elected to third Continental Con- 
 gress, 343 ; joked for liis small 
 size at the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, 349 ; opposed to federal 
 constitution, 401. 
 
 Gerard, French ambassador, for- 
 mally received, 380. 
 
 Goldthwait, Ezekiel, town clerk of 
 Boston, 36. 
 
 Gordon, his description of a New 
 England town at the Revolution, 
 2 ; his testimony to the self-seek- 
 ing of James Otis, 151 ; his testi- 
 mony as to the earnestness of 
 Samuel Adams in the first Con- 
 gress, 320. 
 
 Grayson, on attachment of New 
 Englanders to town-meetings, 418. 
 
 Greenleaf, sheriff of Suffolk, at the 
 destruction of the tea, 248. 
 
 Grenville, George, enforces customs 
 regulations at the close of the 
 Seven Years' War, 40 ; introduces 
 the Stamp Act, 50 ; favors parlia- 
 mentary representation for the 
 colonies, 64 ; his fair purposes, 
 79 ; disapproves the order requir- 
 ing the rescinding of the Circular 
 Letter of 1768, 132. 
 
 Grey's rope-walk, workmen of, en- 
 gage in brawls with the soldiers, 
 161. 
 
 Hall, captain of the tea-ship Dart- 
 mouth, 247. 
 
 Hancock, John, at home, 8 ; cele- 
 brates repeal of the Stamp Act, 
 91 ; elected to Assembly, 92 ; at 
 the time of the Massacre, 171 ; 
 employs Copley to paint Samuel 
 Adams, 181 ; reactionary in the 
 case of the removal of the legis- 
 lature, 186 ; his connection with 
 the Hutchinson letters, 225 ; his 
 part in the destruction of the tea, 
 243, etc. ; opposes the Committee 
 
 of Correspondence, 197 ; his ora- 
 tion on the anniversary of the 
 Massacre, 262 ; receives Gage on 
 his arrival as governor, 273 ; flight 
 from Lexington, April 19, 1775, 
 330 ; writes a manly letter, 331 ; be- 
 comes President of Congress, 335 ; 
 his mortification at the nomination 
 of Washington as commander-in - 
 chief, proscribed by Gage, 336 ; 
 affiliates with aristocrats, 341 ; 
 his limitations, 356 ; called the 
 "dupe" of Samuel Adams, 366, 
 367 ; circulates the story that 
 Samuel Adams is unfriendly to 
 Washington, 379 ; helps to restore 
 the entente cordiale with the 
 French, 381 ; won over by The- 
 ophilus Parsons to support federal 
 constitution, 395 ; reconciled with 
 Samuel Adams, 402; death and 
 funeral, 408. 
 
 Harrison. Benjamin, his joke at the 
 Declaration of Independence, 349. 
 
 Harvard College, befriended by Gov- 
 ernor Bernard, 141 ; legielature 
 removed thither from 1769 to 1772, 
 136 ; celebrates the accession of 
 Hutchinson to governorship, 187. 
 
 Hawley, Joseph, member of the 
 Assembly from Northampton, 92 ; 
 his advanced ground in 1766, 96 ; 
 his excitability, 103 ; steadfast 
 against the removal of the legis- 
 lature, 187 ; aids in the contro- 
 versy as to parliamentary au- 
 thority, 210 ; m the case of the 
 Hutchinson letters, 227 ; favors 
 independence, 345 ; his usefulness 
 crippled by his moodiness and 
 the remoteness of his home, 356. 
 
 Henry, Patrick, his resolutions in 
 1765, 51 ; his speech at opening of 
 the first Continental Congress, 
 314 ; early ready for independ- 
 ence, 340 ; opposed to the federal 
 constitution, 401. 
 
 Henshaw, selectman on town's com- 
 mittee at time of the Boston Mas- 
 sacre, 171. 
 
 Hillsborough, Earl of, colonial sec- 
 retary, 132; retires in 1772, 193. 
 
 HoUis, Thomas, publishes in Eng- 
 land ' ' The True Sentiments of 
 America," 109. 
 
 House of Representatives. See As- 
 sembly. 
 
 Huguenot families in Boston, 5. 
 
 Hutchinson, Thomas, in feud with 
 Samuel Adams, Senior, 34; chief 
 
INDEX. 
 
 439 
 
 justice in 1760, and tries case of 
 the writs of assistance, 42 ; as his- 
 torian, 43 ; opposed to the Stamp 
 Act, 51 ; suffers outrage in the riot 
 of 1765, 52 ; favors parliament- 
 ary representation of the colonies, 
 64 ; rejected for the Council by 
 the Assembly, 95; pensioned by 
 Hillsborough in 1767, 102 , as lieu- 
 tenant-governor, chief magistrate 
 in 1769, 145 ; summ.ary of his ca- 
 reer hitherto, 145, 146, 147 ; at the 
 Boston Massacre, 164, etc. ; be- 
 comes governor, 187 ; at fault as 
 to the Committee of Correspond- 
 ence, 203 ; controversy as to par- 
 liamentary authority, 208, etc. ; 
 the Hutchinson letters, 221, etc. ; 
 settles boundary between Massa- 
 chusetts and New York, 225 ; de- 
 scribes Samuel Adams to Lord 
 Dartmouth, 240 ; his conduct at 
 the destruction of the tea, 251 ; 
 John Adams's testimony to his 
 financial ability, liis one mistake, 
 280 ; his character, 281, etc. ; his 
 farewell to Milton Hill, 282 ; con- 
 fiscation of his tomb and theft of 
 his coat of arms, 284 ; good re- 
 ception in England, interview 
 with the king, 285 ; his austerity, 
 his love for America, 286 ; his let- 
 ter-books, his " Vindication," 287 ; 
 addresses at his departure from 
 merchants and lawyers, 289 ; his 
 testimony to the incorruptitjility 
 of Samuel Adams, 301 ; gives fact 
 as to town-meeting of March 6, 
 1775, 327 ; testimony as to Samuel 
 Adams's ability as a writer, 362 ; 
 as to his early advocacy of inde- 
 pendence, 372. 
 Hutchinson, Thomas and Elisha, 
 sons of the governor, break the 
 non - importation agreement in 
 1770, 156 ; at destruction of the 
 tea, 244. 
 
 Instructions, Samuel Adams's of 
 1764 to representatives, 47 ; those 
 of S. and J. Adams in 1765, 53; 
 the general doctrine of instruc- 
 tion to representatives, 55 ; from 
 the king to crown officials, re- 
 sisted in 1770, 186, etc. 
 
 Jay, John, at opening of the first 
 Continental Congress, 315. 
 
 Jay treaty, opposed by Samuel Ad- 
 ams, 409. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, late in favoring 
 independence, 345 ; drafts the 
 Declaration, 348; upon Samuel 
 Adams as an orator, 359 ; upon 
 Samuel Adams's ability as a man- 
 ager, 364, 365 ; his reverence for 
 Samuel Adams, 412, 413 ; his lik- 
 ing for the tovfw organization, 429. 
 
 Knox, Henry, at Boston Massacre, 
 163. 
 
 Land Bank Scheme, 35. 
 
 Lecky, on virtual representation of 
 the colonies in Parliament in 1765, 
 85. 
 
 Lee, Arthur, associated with Frank- 
 lin as agent of the Assembly, 190 ; 
 correspondent of Samuel Adams, 
 196. 
 
 Lee, Charles, made second in com- 
 mand of army, 1775, 339. 
 
 Lee, Richard Henry, correspondent 
 of Samuel Adams, 328 ; early 
 ready for independence, 340 ; 
 moves the Declaration, June 5, 
 1776, 346 ; opposed to federal con- 
 stitution, 401. 
 
 Leonard, Daniel, denounces Commit- 
 tee of Correspondence, 204 ; able 
 Tory writer, 208 ; outwitted by 
 Saniuel Adams at choosing of dele- 
 gates to the first Continental Con- 
 gress, 293, etc. 
 
 Liberty, sloop, affair of, 111. 
 
 Liberty Tree, 243. 
 
 Lincoln, General, his march to Pe- 
 tersham, 392. 
 
 Livingston, R. R., on committee to 
 draft the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, 348. 
 
 Locke, John, member of Board of 
 Trade, 27. 
 
 Louisburg, expedition to, 19. 
 
 Luzerne, French minister, criticises 
 Samuel Adams as obstructing an 
 organized government, 381. 
 
 Lynde, judge of the Superior Court, 
 rejected for the Council by the 
 Assembly, 95. 
 
 MacDougall, Major General, meets 
 Samuel Adams, 312 ; correspond- 
 ence concerning camp equipage, 
 386. 
 
 Magna Charta, a confirmation of old 
 privileges, 30. 
 
 Mandamus councilors, 302. 
 
 Mansfield, Lord, speech in debate 
 on the repeal of the Stamp Act. 
 
440 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 83 ; approves Hutchinson's course 
 in the controversy as to parlia- 
 mejit ry authority, 214. 
 
 Massachusetts leads the thirteen 
 colonies in the Revolution, 11 ; 
 vnider the old charter, 21 ; under 
 the new charter, 22, etc. ; under 
 provisional government, 321, etc. ; 
 under the state constitution, 376, 
 etc. 
 
 Massachusetts Gazette, organ of the 
 Tories, 133. 
 
 Massacre, Boston, 160, etc. 
 
 May, Colonel Joseph, tells how Sam- 
 uel Adams and Hancock were 
 won to support the federal consti- 
 tution, 394, 395. 
 
 Mayhew, Rev. Jonathan, 8. 
 
 Mechanics of Boston, 9. 
 
 Main, John, driven out as a Tory, 
 155. 
 
 Merchants of Boston, 8. 
 
 Milton Hill, Hutchinson's farewell 
 to his home at, 282. 
 
 Mohawks, at the tea-party, 254. 
 
 Molineux, Williran, on town's com- 
 mittee at the Massacre, 171 ; at 
 destruction of the tea, 244. 
 
 Montague, Admiral, commands Brit- 
 ish fleet in 1771, 191 ; at destruc- 
 tion of the tea, 254. 
 
 Montgomery, Major General, favor- 
 ite of Samuel Adams, 341, 
 
 Newspapers, of Boston, 10. 
 
 Non-importation and non-consump- 
 tion agreements in 1767, 101 ; in 
 1769, 153 ; in 1774, 298. 
 
 North, Lord, succeeds Townshend 
 as premier, 102 ; determined to 
 see America at tlie king's feet, 
 132 ; introduces the Tea Act, 236. 
 
 Old South Chup.ch, Samuel Adams, 
 Senior, deacon of, 15 ; at the time 
 of the affair of the Liberty, 111 ; 
 at the time of the Massacre, 168, 
 etc. ; at the destruction of the 
 tea, 247, etc. ; on March 6, 1775, 
 324, etc. 
 
 Old State House, why interesting, 
 59 ; description of, 60 ; at the time 
 of the Massacre, 100, etc. ; tlie 
 battle-ground of Samuel Adams, 
 354 ; at the funeral of Samuel 
 Adams, 416. 
 
 Oliver, Andrew, stimp-distributor 
 in 1765, 52 ; rejected as secretary 
 of state, for the Council, by the 
 Assembly, 95 ; advises Hutchinson 
 
 to yield at the time of the Mas- 
 sacre, 174 ; becomes lieutenant- 
 governor, 187 ; connection with 
 the Hutchinson letters, 222, 224 ; 
 his removal demanded, 228 ; his 
 sad fate, 277. 
 
 Oliver, Peter, rejected, as judge of 
 the Superior Court for the Coun- 
 cil, by the Assembly, 95 ; as chief 
 justice refuses to decline the royal 
 grant, 259 ; efforts to impeach 
 him, 260. 
 
 Otis, James, Senior, 42. 
 
 Otis, James, Junior, his personal 
 appearance, 42 ; the case of the 
 writs of assistance, 44 ; his power 
 as an orator, readiness to sub- 
 mit to the Stamp Act, 63 ; fa- 
 vors parliamentary representa- 
 tion of the colonies, 64 ; at the 
 Stamp Act Congress, 72 ; opens 
 debates of the Assembly to the 
 public, 94 ; reactionary in 1767, 
 101 ; his speech in the affair of 
 the Liberty, 111 ; has words with 
 Samuel Adams, 11." ; his delay to 
 appear at tlie convention of the 
 towns in 1708, 123 ; assaulted in 
 1769, 148 ; his overbearing man- 
 ners, 149 ; as a source of embar- 
 rassment, 150 ; his self-seeking, 
 151 ; expresses aversion to the 
 soldiers, 160 ; reactionary in the 
 case of the removal of the legisla- 
 ture, 186 ; made chairman of the 
 Committee of Correspondence, 
 200 ; his last appearance in Fan- 
 euil Hall, 201 ; his great powers 
 and his Umitations, 355. 
 
 Paine, Robert Treat, prosecutes 
 soldiers after the Massacre, 183; 
 elected delegate to the first Conti- 
 nental Congress, 295; sets out, 
 309 ; favors conciliation in the 
 third Congress, 341. 
 
 Paine, Thomas, writes "Common 
 Sense " and the " Crisis," 343. 
 
 Parhament, controversy as to au- 
 thority of, 207, etc. 
 
 Parsonc, Theophilus, at adoption of 
 federal constitution, 395. 
 
 Paxtou, commissioner of customs, 
 101 ; his connection with the 
 H-itchinson letters, 222, 224. 
 
 Pemberton, selectman, on town's 
 committee at the time of the Mas- 
 sacre, 171. 
 
 Pepperell, Sir William, at Louisburg- 
 19. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 441 
 
 Phillips, on town's committee at 
 time of the Massacre, 171 ; op- 
 poses Committee of Correspond- 
 ence, 197 ; at destruction of the 
 tea, 243. 
 
 Pierpont, Robert, member of Com- 
 mittee of Correspondence, 257. 
 
 Pitt, speech in the debate on the re- 
 peal of the Stamp Act, 82. 
 
 Pitts, John, at destruction of the 
 tea, 254 ; Samuel Adams writes to 
 him describing the Declaration of 
 Independence, 349. 
 
 Port Bill, 264 ; goes into effect, 289. 
 
 Pownall, Thomas, becomes governor 
 in 1756, 34 ; defends America in 
 Parliament, 35, 265. 
 
 Prelacy, fear of, a main cause of the 
 estrangement of the colonies, 27 ; 
 denounced by Samuel Adams, 104. 
 
 Preston, Captain Thomas, at Boston 
 Massacre, 162; brought to trial, 
 183. 
 
 Quakers,. oppose the Revolution and 
 denounced by Samuel Adams, 344. 
 
 Quebec, effect of its capture in 1759, 
 39 
 
 Quebec Act, 266. 
 
 Queue, the dog of Samuel Adams, 
 307. 
 
 Quincy, Josiah, advocates armed re- 
 sistance iiL 1767, 100 ; defends the 
 soldiers after the Massacre, 183 ; 
 his excessive vehemence, 205 ; 
 counsels moderation at the de- 
 struction of the tea, 253 ; his un- 
 timely death, 334; his brilliancy 
 and limitations, 356. 
 
 Randolph, Peyton, president of 
 Continental Congress, 313. 
 
 Read, Joseph, praises policy of ask- 
 ing Rev. Mr. Duch^ to pray at 
 opening of Congress, 316. 
 
 Representation, theory of discussed, 
 56 ; parliamentary, favored by 
 Otis and others, opposed by Sam- 
 uel Adams, 64, etc. ; supplanting 
 democracy in some parts of Amer- 
 ica, 430. 
 
 Revere, Huguenot family, 5 ; Paul, 
 carries news of the tea-party to 
 Philadelphia, 256 ; the patriot 
 Mercury, 272 carries Suffolk Re- 
 solves to Philaaelphia, 318 ; April 
 19, 1775, 330 ; wins Samuel Adams 
 to fa/or the federal constitution, 
 396, 397 
 
 Right, petition of, of 1628, 30. 
 
 Rights, Bill of, 1689, 30. 
 
 Rivington, Tory, describes Samuel 
 Adams and Hancock, 367. 
 
 Robinson, commissioner of customs, 
 assaults Otis, 148. 
 
 Rockingham, Marquis of, premier, 
 80. 
 
 Romney, man-of-war, in Boston har- 
 bor, 1768, 110. 
 
 Rotch, Benjamin, owner of the Dart- 
 mouth, 247 ; his visit to Hutchin- 
 son at destruction of the tea, 253. 
 
 Ruggles, Timothy, president of 
 Stamp Act Congress, 72 ; opposes 
 Whigs in 1708, 108 ; his character, 
 278. 
 
 Rush, Dr. Benjamin, and others ad- 
 vise Massachusetts delegates to 
 first Continental Congress, 313. 
 
 Rutledge, Edward, and the Decla- 
 ration of Independence, 348. 
 
 Sagittajrius, Tory writer, on Boston 
 
 town-meeting, 10. 
 "Sam Adams regiments," arrival 
 of, 126; their fine display, 127; 
 their non-interference, 128, 155 ; 
 at the Massacre, 160, etc. 
 ScoUay, John, selectman, at the tea- 
 party, 255. 
 Seabury, Rev. Mr., denounced by 
 
 Samuel Adams, 135. 
 Seeley, .J. R., his "Expansion of 
 
 England " quoted, 64. 
 Sewall, Jonathan, able Tory writer, 
 
 208. 
 Sewall, Stephen, chief justice, 42. 
 Shays's Rebellion, 389, etc. ; Sam- 
 uel Adams opposes, 391. 
 Sherman, Roger, early favors inde- 
 pendence, 344 : on committee to 
 draft Declaration, 348. 
 Shirley, Governor, hears Samuel 
 Adams's Master of Arts oration, 
 17 ; his military activity, 20 ; fa- 
 vors the Stamp Act, 80. 
 Shute, Governor, opposed Samuel 
 Adams, Senior, 16 ; charter 
 amended in time of, 24. 
 j Slavery, in Massachusetts, 7. 
 
 Smith, Adam, favors parliamentary 
 I representation of the colonies, 64. 
 j Snyder, Christopher, death of, 159. 
 ! Stamp Act, introduced, 50 ; goes 
 j into operation, 73 ; repeal of, 91. 
 '. Stamp Act Congress, 72. 
 
 Strong, Gov. Caleb, does honor to 
 I Samuel Adams, 411. 
 ' Sugar Act, passage of, 28 ; enforce 
 I ment of, 40. 
 
442 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Sullivan, Wm,, describes Governor 
 
 Bowdoin, 391. 
 Surry, negro servant of Samuel 
 
 Adams, 30G. 
 Sylvester, Richard, his description 
 
 of Samuel Adams, 117. 
 
 Tea, duty on retained in 1769, 157 ; 
 act for sending to America, May, 
 1773, 230 ; destruction of, 243, etc. 
 
 Temple, commissioner of customs, 
 17G7, 102. 
 
 Thacher, Oxenbridge, in case of 
 writs of assistance, 43 ; his death, 
 54 ; abused by Otis, 149. 
 
 Thurlow, Lord Chancellor, approves 
 Hutchinson's course, 214 ; favors 
 oppression of colonies, 267. 
 
 Tories, to be judged compassion- 
 ately, 274; their stake in the 
 country, refinement, and real pa- 
 triotism, 275 ; often of honorable 
 note, 277 ; their arrogance at the 
 coming of Gage, 291 ; their last 
 effort to stem the Revolution, 
 298; estimates of Samuel Adams 
 by, 365, etc. ; Samuel Adams im- 
 placable towards, 388. 
 
 Towns in Massachusetts at the Rev- 
 olution, 2. 
 
 Town-meetings, a revival of the 
 Anglo-Saxon folk-mote, 1 ; descrip- 
 tion of at the Revolution, 2 ; rela- 
 tion of to the Assembly, 54, etc. ; 
 reluctant to delegate power, 5L ; in 
 Boston the most interesting man- 
 ifestation in history of the folk- 
 mote, Samuel Adams the man of, 
 352 ; reports there is no defect in, 
 389 ; influences at present modi- 
 fying in New England and else- 
 where, foreign admixture, 419 ; 
 the growth of cities, 420 ; descrip- 
 tion of, to-day, 422 ; preciousness 
 of, 427, 428 ; its decay, 429. 
 
 Townshend, Charles, his three meas- 
 ures affecting America, 99. 
 
 Trade regulations, a cause of es- 
 trangement, 29. 
 
 Trowbridge, as attorney-general re- 
 jected for the Council by the As- 
 sembly, 95; as judge of the Su- 
 perior Court, refuses royal grant, 
 259. 
 
 Unification, political, desirable, 65. 
 
 Vice-Admiralty, courts of, 24. 
 Viom^nil, Baron, at Boston, 388. 
 Virginia, resolves of 1769, 137 ; in- 
 
 augurates intercolonial Commit- 
 tees of Correspondence , 218 ; casts 
 fifteen votes for Samuel Adams as 
 President in the electoral college 
 in 1796, 409. 
 Virtual representation, 84. 
 
 Ward, of Rhode Island, favors inde- 
 pendence, 344. 
 
 Warren, James, letter of Samuel 
 Adams to, on the Massacre, 180 ; 
 at election of delegates to first 
 Continental Congress, 294 ; favors 
 independence, 345. 
 
 Warren, Joseph, arraigns Bernard 
 in the Boston Gazette, 107 ; on 
 town's committee at time of the 
 Massacre, 171 ; vehement against 
 the soldiers, 184 ; favors the Com- 
 mittee of Correspondence, 197 ; 
 drafts in part its manifesto, 201 ; 
 his excessive vehemence, 204 ; at 
 destruction of the tea, 244, 255; 
 manages the Port Bill meeting, 
 292 ; author of " Solemn League 
 and Covenant " against using Brit- 
 ish productions, 298 ; arranges for 
 the Suffolk Convention in 1774, 
 305; the Suffolk Resolves, 317; 
 town-meeting of March 0, 1775, 
 325, etc. ; becomes leader in Mas- 
 sachusetts, 334 ; death and char- 
 acter, 337, 338; does not desire 
 independence, 345 ; his limita- 
 tions, 356. 
 
 Washington, nominated comman- 
 der-in-chief, 335 ; treated cor- 
 dially by Samuel Adams, 339 ; 
 does not at first favor independ- 
 ence, 345 ; compared with Sam- 
 uel Adams, 374 ; Samuel Adams 
 never his enemy, 377. 
 
 Wells, Elizabeth, second wife of 
 Samuel Adams, 50 ; her efficiency, 
 50 ; letter to her husband, 342. 
 
 Wilson, of Pennsylvania, opposes 
 independence, 342. 
 
 Wolcott, Oliver, favors independ- 
 ence, 344. 
 
 Writs of assistance, the case of, 41. 
 
 Wyeth, of Virginia, favors independ- 
 ence, 343. 
 
 YoNGE, C. D., English constitutional 
 
 historian, on parliamentary right 
 
 to tax, 85. 
 Young, Arthur, on the Acts of Trade, 
 
 29. 
 Young, Dr. Thomas, at the destruo 
 
 tion of the tea, 255. 
 
1 
 
 j 
 
9lmertcan Statesmen. 
 
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 Indeed, it is not too much to say that, for the period covered, 
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 books of an excellent series. — Buffalo Times. 
 
 "BENJAMIN FRANKLIN." 
 One of the most interesting and instructive volumes of 
 the series, overflowing with instructive matter concerning 
 the Bostonian whose name is so closely identified with 
 t'le history of Philadelphia, and, indeed, with that of the 
 whole country as it existed in his day. The pictures 
 which are given of the momentous period in which he 
 11 v^ed are full of vigor, and betray an astonishing amount 
 cf research in many directions. The simplicity of style 
 and the critical ability so abundantly displayed make the 
 work very fascinating reading throughout. The estimate 
 of Franklin's character, ability, and attainments is a very 
 just one. — Boston Gazette. 
 
 *^* For sale by all B^s^rs. Sent, Qst-pa^d, on receipt 
 of price by the Publishers*^ •»-' tfi ' 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, 
 BOSTON AND N^:W YORK. 
 

 
 
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