 Chapter 5, Part 1 of Eve of the Revolution by Carl Becker, a little discreet conduct. It has been his Thomas Hutchinson's principle from a boy that mankind are to be governed by the discerning few, and it has been ever since his ambition to be the hero of the few, Samuel Adams. We have not been so quiet these five years if it were not for two or three Adams' we should do well enough, Thomas Hutchinson. In December 1771 Horace Walpole, a persistent if not an invaluable political prophet, was of opinion that all the storms that for a decade had distressed the empire were at last happily blown over, among which storms he included as relatively of minor importance the disputes with the colonies. During two years following this prediction might well have appeared to moderate-minded men entirely justified. American affairs were barely mentioned in Parliament and a few paragraphs in the annual register were thought sufficient to chronicle for English readers events of interest occurring across the Atlantic. In the colonies themselves an unwanted tranquility prevailed, rioting as an established social custom disappeared in most of the places where it had formerly been so much practice. The Sons of Liberty retaining the semblance of an organization were rarely in the public eye, save at the annual celebrations of the repeal of the Stamp Act, quite harmless occasions devoted to the expression of patriotic sentiments. Merchants and landowners again prosperous were content to fall back into accustomed habits of life conscious of duty done without too much stress readily believing their liberties finally vindicated against encroachments from abroad and their privileges secure against unwarranted and dangerous pretensions at home. The people appear to be weary of their altercations with the mother country Mr. Johnson the Connecticut agent wrote to Wetterburn in October 1771 a little discreet conduct on both sides would perfectly reestablish that warm affection and respect towards Great Britain for which this country was once remarkable. Discreet conduct was nowhere more necessary than in Massachusetts where the people perhaps because they were much accustomed to them grew weary of altercations less easily than in most colonies yet even in Massachusetts there was a marked waning of enthusiasm after the high excitement occasioned by the Boston massacre a certain disintegration of the patriotic party James Otis recovered from a temporary fit of insanity only to grow strangely suspicious of Samuel Adams Mr. Hancock discreetly holding his piece attended to his many thriving and very profitable business ventures John Adams somewhat unpopular for having defended and procured the acquittal of the soldiers implicated in the massacre retired in high dudgeon from public affairs to the practice of his profession in high dudgeon with everyone concerned with himself first of all and with the people who so easily forgot their interests and those who had served them and with the British government and all fawning tools of ministers of whom Mr. Thomas Hutchinson was chief. Meanwhile Mr. Hutchinson so roughly handled in the secret diary of the rising young lawyer was the recipient of new honors having been made governor of the province to succeed Francis Bernard for once finding himself almost popular. He thought he perceived a disposition in all the colonies and even in Massachusetts to let the controversy subside. Though there are a small majority sour enough yet when they seek matter for protests, remonstrances they are puzzled where to charge the grievances which they look for. The new governor looked forward to happier days and an easy administration. Hancock and most of the party are quiet he said and all of them except Adams abate of their virulence. Adams would push the continent into a rebellion tomorrow if it was in his power. No one in the year 1770 was better fitted than Samuel Adams either by talent and temperament or the circumstances of his position to push the continent into a rebellion. Unlike most of his patriot friends he had neither private business nor private profession to fall back upon when public affairs routine. His only business being as one might say the public business is only profession the definition and defense of popular rights in this profession by dent of single minded devotion to it through a course of years. He had indeed become wonderfully expert and had already achieved for himself the enviable position of known and named leader in every movement of opposition to royal or magisterial prerogative. In this connection no exploit had brought him so much distinction as his skillful management of the popular uprising which had recently forced Governor Hutchinson to withdraw the troops from Boston. The event was no by play in the life of Samuel Adams no amateur achievement accomplished on the side but the serious business of a man who during 10 years had abandoned all private pursuits and had embraced poverty to become a tribune of the people. Samuel Adams had not inherited poverty nor had he after all exactly embraced it but had as it were naturally drifted into it through indifference to world to gain the indifference which men of single and fixed purpose have for all irrelevant matters. The elder Samuel Adams was a merchant of substance and of such consequence in the town of Boston that in Harvard College where students were named according to the prominence of their families his son's name was fifth in a class of 22 in 1748 upon the death of his father Samuel junior accordingly inherited a very decent property considered so at least in that day a spacious old house and purchase street together with a well established malt business for business however the young man and not so young either was without any aptitude whatever being entirely devoid of the acquisitive instinct and neither possessing nor ever being able to acquire any skill in the fine art of inducing people to give four things more than it cost to make them these deficiencies the younger Adams had already exhibited before the death of his father from whom he received on one occasion a thousand pounds half of which he promptly loaned to an impiccunious friend in which he would in any case doubtless have lost as he soon did the other half on his own account in such incompetent hands the malt business soon fell to be a liability rather than an asset of the liabilities accumulated notably one incurred by the tax collectors of the town of Boston of whom Samuel Adams was one during the years from 1756 to 1764 for one reason or another on Adams's part certainly on account of his humane feelings and general business inefficiency the collectors fell every year a little behind in the collections and one day found themselves declared on the official records to be indebted to the town in the sum of nine thousand eight hundred and seventy eight pounds this indebtedness Mr. Hutchinson and other gentlemen not well disposed towards Samuel Adams conveniently and frequently referred to in later years as a defalcation in this year of 1764 when he had lost his entire patrimony except the old house and purchase street now somewhat rusty for want of repair Samuel Adams was married to Elizabeth Wells it was his second marriage the first having taken place in 1749 of which the fruit was a son and a daughter Samuel Adams was then it was the year of the sugar act 42 years old that is to say at the age when a man's hair begins to turn gray when his character is fixed when his powers such as they are fully matured well known as a poor provider an improvident man who had lost a fair estate had failed in business and was barely able and sometimes not able to support his small family these mundane matters concern Samuel Adams but little to John Adams he said on one occasion that he never looked forward in life never planned later scheme or formed a design for laying up anything for himself or others after him this was the truth inexplicable as it must have seemed to his more provident cousin it was even less than the truth during the years following 1764 Samuel Adams renounced all pretense of private business giving himself holy to public affairs while his good wife with excellent management made his stipend as clerk of the assembly served for food and obtained through the generosity of friends or her own ingenious labors indispensable clothes for the family frugality that much lauded virtue in the 18th century needed not to be preached in the old purchased street home but life went on there somehow or other decently enough not without geniality yet with evident piety the old bible is still preserved from which each evening some member of the family read a chapter and at every meal the head of the house said grace returning thanks for God's benefits if Samuel Adams at the age of 42 was known for a man who could not successfully manage his own affairs it was also known and very well known for a man with a singular talent for managing the affairs of the community he could manage successfully for example town meetings in every sort of business great or small incidental to local politics this talent he may have inherited from his father who was himself a notable of the neighborhood one of the organizers of the new south church and prominent about 1724 in a club popularly known as the caulkers club formed for the purpose of laying plans for introducing certain persons into places of trust and power and was himself from time to time introduced into such places of trust and power as justice of the peace deacon select man and member of the provincial assembly from an early age the younger Samuel exhibited a marked aptitude for this sort of activity and was less likely to be found in his counting house or counting of his money than in some hospitable tavern or back shop discussing town topics with local worthies Samuel Adams was born to serve on committees he had the innate slant of mind that properly belongs to a moderator of mass meetings called to aggravate a crisis with the soul of a Jacobin he was most at home in clubs secret clubs of which everyone had heard and few were members designed at best to accomplish some particular good for the people at all events meeting regularly to sniff the approach of tyranny in the abstract academically safeguarding the commonwealth by discussing the first principles of government from the days of Ann Hutchinson Boston never liked clubs and the caulkers club was the prototype of many rather more secular and political than religious or transcendental which flourished in the years preceding the revolution John Adams in that diary which tells us so much that we wish to know gives us a peep inside one of these clubs the caucus club which met regularly at one period in the Garrett of Tom Dawes's house there they smoke tobacco to you cannot see from one end of the Garrett 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 Ruddick Adams Cooper and a rudas in the Stetsdoc Moles of others are members they send committees to wait on the merchants club and to propose and join in the choice of men and measures the artist Copley in the familiar portrait by which posterity knows Samuel Adams chose to represent him in conventional garb on a public and dramatic occasion standing erect eyes flashing a mouth firm set pointing with the monetary finger to the charter of Massachusetts Bay a portrait well suited to hang in the art museum or in the meeting place of the daughters of the revolution a different effect would have been produced if the man had been placed in Tom Dawes's Garrett dimly seen through tobacco smoke sitting with Kodolph drinking flip in the midst of uncle Fairfield story Cooper and a rudas in the guest stockway Moles this was his native habitat an environment precisely suited to his peculiar talent Samuel Adams had a peculiar talent that indispensable combination of qualities possessed by all great revolutionists of the crusading types such as Jean Jacques Rousseau John Brown or Mazini when a man abandons his business or job and complacently leaves the clothing of his children to wife or neighbors in order to drink flip and talk politics ordinary folk are content to call him a lazy loud ne'er-do-well worthless fellow or scamp Samuel Adams was not a scamp he might have been no more than a ne'er-do-well perhaps if cosmic forces have not opportunely provided him with an occupation which his contemporaries and posterity could regard as a high service to humanity in his own eyes this was the view of the situation which justified his conduct when he was about to depart for the first Continental Congress a number of friends contributed funds to furnish him forth with presentable apparel a suit of clothes new wig new hat six pair of the best silk hoes six pair of fine thread ditter six pair of shoes and it being 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 accept a purse containing about 15 or 20 Johannes to accept so much and still preserve one's self-respect would be impossible to ordinary men under ordinary circumstances fate had so ordered the affairs of Samuel Adams that integrity of character required him to be an extraordinary man acting under extraordinary circumstances the character of his mind as well as the outward circumstances of his life predisposed Samuel Adams to think that a great crisis in the history of America and of the world confronted the men of Boston there was in him some innate scholastic quality some strain of doctrinaire puritan inheritance diverted to secular interest that gave direction to all his thinking in 1743 upon receiving the degree of master of arts from Harvard College he argued the thesis whether it be lawful to resist the supreme magistrate if the commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved we may suppose that the young man acquitted himself well reasoning with great nicety in favor of the legality of an illegal action doubtless to the edification of governor surely who was present and who perhaps felt sufficiently remote from the performance being himself only an actual supreme magistrate presiding over a real commonwealth and indeed for most young men a college thesis is but an exercise for sharpening the wits rarely dangerous in its later effects but in the case of Samuel Adams the ability to distinguish the speculative from the actual reality seemed to diminish as the years passed after 1764 relieved of the pressure of life's anxieties and daily nourishing his mind on premises and conclusions reasonably abstracted from that relative and the conditioned circumstance he acquired in a high degree the faculty of identifying reality with propositions about it so that for example liberty seemed threatened if improperly defined and a false inference from an axiom of politics appeared the same as evil intent to take away a people's rights thus it was that from an early date in respect to the controversy between the colonies and the mother country Samuel Adams became possessed of settled convictions that were capable of clear and concise presentation and that were advanced impersonal and highly subjective for which outward events the stamp act the towns and duties the appointment of Thomas Hutchinson as governor or whatever furnished as it were the suggestion only the convictions themselves being largely the result of inward brooding the fine spun product of his own raciocinative mind the crisis which thus threatened in the mind of Samuel Adams was not an ordinary one no mere complication of affairs or creaking of worn out institutions or honest difference of opinion about the expediency or the legality of measures it was a crisis engendered deliberately by men of evil purpose public enemies well known and often named Samuel Adams who had perhaps not heard of even one of the many materialistic interpretations of history thought of the past as chiefly instructed in connection with certain great apical conflicts between liberty and tyranny a political manachianism in which the principle of liberty was embodied in the virtuous many and the principle of tyranny in the wicked few those who read history must know it for a notorious fact that ancient peoples have lost their liberties at the hands of designing men leagued in self-conscious conspirators against the welfare of the human race thus the yoke was fastened upon the Romans millions enslaved by a few now in the year 1771 another of these apical conflicts was come upon the world and Samuel Adams living in heroic days was bound to stand in the forefront of the virtuous against restless adversaries forming the most dangerous plans for the ruin of the reputation of the people in order to build their own greatness upon the destruction of their liberties a superficial observer might easily fall into the era of supposing that the restless adversaries and dividing conspirators against whom patriots had to contend were all in England on the contrary the most persistent enemies of liberty were Americans residing in the midst of the people whom they sought to dispoil one might believe that in England the general inclination is to wish that we may preserve our liberties and perhaps even the ministry could for some reasons find it in their hearts to be willing that we should be restored to the state we were in before the passing of the Stamp Act even Lord Hillsborough richly meriting the curses of the disinterested and better part of the colonists was by no means to be reckoned the most inveterate and active of all the conspirators against our rights there are others on this side of the Atlantic who have been more insidious in plotting the ruin of our liberties than even he and they are the more infamous because the country they would enslave as that very country in which to use the words of their adulators and expectants they were born and educated of all these restless adversaries and infamous plotters of ruin the chief in the mind of Samuel Adams was probably Mr. Thomas Hutchinson judged only by what he did and said and by such other sources of information as are open to the historian Thomas Hutchinson does not appear to have been prior to 1771 an enemy of the human race one of his ancestors mistress and Hutchinson poor woman had indeed been it was as far back as 1637 an enemy of the Boston church but as a family the Hutchinson's appear to have kept themselves singularly free from notoriety or other grave reproach Thomas Hutchinson himself was born in 1711 in Garden Court Street Boston of rich but honest parents a difficult character which he managed for many years to maintain with reasonable credit in 1771 he was a grave elderly man of 60 years more distinguished than any of his forebears had been having since the age of 26 been honored with every important elected and appointed office in the province including that of governor which he had with seeming reluctance just accepted it may be that Thomas Hutchinson was ambitious but if he elbowed his way into office by a solicitation about the mean arts of an intrigue the fact was well concealed he was not a member of the caucus club so far as is known he was not a member of any club designed to introduce certain persons into places of trust and power except indeed of the club if one may call it such composed of the best families closely interrelated by marriage and social intercourse mostly wealthy enjoying the leisure and the disposition to occupy themselves with affairs and commonly regarding themselves as forming a kind of natural aristocracy whose vested duty it was to manage the commonwealth to this club Mr. Hutchinson belonged and it was no doubt partly through its influence without any need of solicitation on his part that offices were thrust upon him one morning in September 1760 it was the day following the death of Chief Justice Sewell Mr. Hutchinson was stopped in the street by the first lawyer in the province Jeremiah Gridley who assured him that he Mr. Hutchinson must be Mr. Sewell's successor and it soon appeared that other principal lawyers together with the surviving judge of the superior court were of the same opinion as Mr. Gridley although the place was an attractive one Mr. Hutchinson distressed at his ability to discharge competently the duties of a chief justice since he had never had any systematic training as a lawyer besides as he was aware James Otis Sr who desired the place and made no secret of the fact that he had formally been promised it by Governor Shirley and once became active in pressing his claims upon the attention of Governor Bernard in this solicitation he was joined by his son James Otis Jr. Mr. Hutchinson on the contrary refrained from all solicitation so he tells us at least and even warned Governor Bernard that it would perhaps be wiser to avoid any trouble which the Otis's might be disposed to make in case they were disappointed this line of conduct may have been only a shrewder form of solicitation the proof of which to some minds would be that Mr. Hutchinson was in fact appointed to be Chief Justice this appointment was after as recalled as one of Mr. Hutchinson's many offenses although at the time it seems to have given general satisfaction especially to the lawyers the lawyers may well have been pleased for the new Chief Justice was a man whose outstanding abilities even more than his place in society marked him for a responsible position Thomas Hutchinson possessed the efficient mind no one surpassed him in wide and exact knowledge always at command of the history of the province of its laws and customs of past and present practice in respect to the procedure of administration industrious and systematic in his habits of work conscientious in the performance of his duties down to the last jot and tittle of the law he was preeminently fitted for the neat and expeditious dispatch of official business and his sane and trenchant mind habituated by long practice to the easy mastery of details was prompt to pass upon any practical matter however complicated and intelligent and just judgment it was doubtless thought in an age when the law was not too highly specialized to be understood by anybody indoctrinated that these traits would make him a good judge as they had made him a good counselor not all people is true are attracted by the efficient mind and mr. Hutchinson in the course of years had made enemies among whom were many who still thought of him as the man chiefly responsible for the abolition some 11 years before of what was probably the most vicious system of currency known to colonial america nevertheless in the days before the passing of the stamp act mr. Hutchinson was commonly well thought of both for character and ability and might still without offense be mentioned as a useful and honored public servant mr. Hutchinson did not at any time in his life regard himself as an enemy of the human race or of america or even of liberty rightly considered perhaps he had not be fine enthusiasm for the human race that herder or Jean-Jacques Rousseau had but at least he wished it well and to america the country in which he was born and educated in which he'd always lived he was profoundly attached of america he was as proud as a cultivated and unbigoted man well could be extremely jealous of her good name abroad and prompt to stand in any way that was appropriate and customary in defense of her rights and liberties to rights and liberties in general and to those of america in particular he'd given long and careful thought it was perhaps characteristic of his practical mind to distinguish the word liberty from the various things which it might conceivably represent and to think that of these various things some were worth more than others what any of them was worth being a relative matter depending largely upon circumstances speaking generally liberty in the abstract apart from particular unknown conditions was only a phrase a brassy tinkle in mr. Hutchinson's ear meaning nothing unless it meant mere absence of all constraint the liberty which mr. Hutchinson prize was not the same as freedom from constraint not liberty in this sense or in any sense but the welfare of a people neatly ordered for them by good government was what he took to be the chief end of politics and from this conception it followed that in a removed from a state of nature to the most perfect state of government there must be a great restraint of natural liberty the limitations proper to be placed upon natural liberty could scarcely be determined by abstract speculation or with mathematical precision but would obviously vary according to the character and circumstances of a people always keeping in mind the peace and good order of the particular community as the prime object in all such matters reasonable men would seek enlightenment not in the utopias of philosophers but in the history of nations and taking a large view of history the history more particularly of the british empire and of massachusetts bay it seemed to mr. Hutchinson as it seemed to john lock and to baron montesquieu that a proper balance between liberty and authority had been very nearly attained in the british constitution as nearly perhaps as common human frailty would permit the prevailing thirst for liberty would seem to be the ruling passion of the age mr. Hutchinson was therefore able to contemplate with much sanity and detachment in governments under arbitrary rules such a passion for liberty might he admitted have a salutary effect but in governments in which as much freedom is enjoyed as can consist with the ends of government as was the case in this province it must work anarchy and confusion unless there be some external power to restrain it in 1771 thomas hutchinson was perfectly convinced that this passion for liberty during several years rising steadily in the heads of the most unstable part of the population the most unstable both for character and estates had brought massachusetts bay to his state not far removed from anarchy not that he was unaware of the mistakes of ministers the measures of mr. grendel he had regarded as unwise from every point of view on behalf of the traditional privileges of the colonies privileges which their conduct had well justified and on behalf of the welfare of the empire he had protested against these measures as also later against the measures of mr. townsen and of all these measures he still held the same opinion that they were unwise measures nevertheless parliament had undoubtedly a legal right other rights in the political sense mr. hutchinson knew nothing of to pass them and the passing of legal measures however unwise was not to his mind clear evidence of a conspiracy to establish absolute despotism on the ruins of english liberty mr. hutchinson was doubtless temperamentally less inclined to fear tyranny than anarchy of the two evils he doubtless preferred such oppression as might result from parliamentary taxation to any sort of liberty the attainment of which might seem to require the looting of his ancestral mansion by a boston mob in 1771 at the time of his accession to the governorship mr. hutchinson was therefore of opinion that there must be an abridgment of what is called english liberty the liberty thomas hutchinson enjoyed least and desired most to have a bridge was the liberty of being governed in that province where he had formerly been happy in the competent discharge of official duties by a self constituted and illegal popular government entrenched in the town of boston in a letter which he wrote in 1765 but did not send he said it would be some amusement to you to have a more circumstantial account of the model of government among us i will begin with the lowest branch partly legislative partly executive this consists of the rival of the town of boston headed by one macintosh who i imagine you never heard of he is a bow fellow and is likely for a mansignalo as you can well conceive when there is occasion to burn or hang effigies or pull down houses these are employed but since government has been brought to assistant they are somewhat controlled by a superior set consisting of the master masons and carpenters etc of the town of boston when anything of more importance is to be determined as opening the custom house on any matter of trade these are under the direction of a committee of the merchants mr roe at their head then molly no solomon davis etc but all affairs of a general nature opening of the courts of law etc this is proper for a general meeting of the inhabitants of boston where otis with his mob high eloquence prevails in every motion in the town first determine what is necessary to be done and then apply either to the governor or council or resolve that it is necessary for the general court to correct it and it would be a very extraordinary resolve indeed that is not carried into execution this was in 1765 in 1770 the matter had ceased to be amusing for every year the model government was brought to a greater perfection so that it lasts the town meeting prescriptively composed of certain qualified voters and confined to the determination of strictly local matters had not only usurped all the functions of government in the province which was bad enough but was completely under the thumb of every tom dick and harry who might wish to attend which was manifestly still worse there is a town meeting no sort of regard being had to any qualification of voters but all the inferior people meet together and at a late meeting the inhabitants of other towns who happen to be in town mixed with them and made they say themselves near 3000 their newspapers say 4000 when it is not likely there are 1500 legal voters in the town it is in other words being under the government of a mob this has given the lower part of the people such a sense of their importance that a gentleman does not meet with what used to be common civility and we are sinking into perfect barbarism the spirit of anarchy which prevails in boston is more than i'm able to cope with the instigators of the mob it was well known were certain artful and self-seeking demagogues of whom the chief had formerly been James Otis but in late years mr Otis with his mob high eloquence had given way to enable man Samuel Adams than whom mr Hutchinson thought there was not a greater incendiary in the king's dominion or a man of greater malignity of heart or one who less scruples any measure however criminal to accomplish his purposes the letter undated and undirected in which thomas Hutchinson pronounced this deliberate judgment on Samuel Adams was probably written about the time of his accession to the governorship that is to say about the time when mr johnson the Connecticut agent was writing to Wetterburn that the people seemed to grow weary of altercations and that a little discrete conduct in both sides were perfectly restored cordial relations between britain and their colonies in the way of a little discrete conduct even a very little not much was to be hoped for from either governor Hutchinson or Samuel Adams in their dealings with each other unfortunately they had dealings with each other in the performance of official functions their incommensurable and repellent minds were necessarily brought to bear upon the same matters of public concern both unfortunately lived in boston and were likely any day to come face to face around the corner of some or other narrow street of that small town that reciprocal exasperation engendered by reasonable propinquity so essential to the life of altercations was therefore a perpetual stimulus to both men confirming each in his obstinate opinion of the other as a malicious and dangerous enemy of all that men hold dear thus it was that during the year 1771 and 1772 when if ever it appeared that others were growing weary of altercations these honorable men and trusted leaders did what they could to perpetuate the controversy by giving or taking occasion to recall ancient grudges or revived fruitless disputes willingly or unwittingly they together managed during this time of calm to keep the dying members alive against the day when some rising wind might blow them into devouring flames end of chapter five part one chapter five part two of eve of the revolution by carl becker this labor box recording is in the public domain with samuel adams it was a point of principle to avoid discrete conduct as much as possible in his opinion the great crisis which was his soul's abiding place wherein he nourished his mind and fortified his will admitted of no compromise good will was of no avail in dealing with the conspirators against our liberties the very essence of whose tactics it was to assume the mask of benevolence and so divide and by dividing disarm the people flattering those who are pleased with flattery forming connections with them introducing levity luxury and indolence and assuring them that if they are quiet the ministry will alter their measures during these years there was no power in the course of events or in the tongue of man to move him in the conviction that if the liberties of america are ever completely ruined it will in all probability be the consequence of a mistaken notion of pretense which leads men to acquiesce in measures of the most destructive tendency for the sake of present ease never therefore were the political affairs of america in a more dangerous state than when the people had seemingly grown weary of altercations and parliament could endure an entire session without one offensive measure the chief danger of all was that the people would think there was no danger millions could never be enslaved by a few if all possessed the independent spirit of brutus who to his immortal honor expel the proud tyrant of rome during the years of apathy and indifference samuel adams accordingly gave his days and nights with undiminished enthusiasm and a more trenchant discervity to the task of making brutuses of the men of boston that the fate of rome might not befall america they were assured in many an essay by this new candidus that the liberties of our country the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks we have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expensive treasure and blood and transmitted them to us with care and diligence it will bring an everlasting mark of infamy upon the present generation enlightened as it is if we should suffer them to be rested from us by violence without a struggle or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men of the latter we are in most danger at present let us therefore be aware of it let us contemplate our forefathers in posterity and resolve to maintain the rights bequeath to us from the former for the sake of the latter instead of sitting down satisfied with the efforts we have already made which is the wish of our enemies the necessity of the times more than ever calls for our utmost circumspection deliberation fortitude and perseverance let us remember that if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty we encourage it and involve others in our doom it is a very serious consideration which should deeply impress our minds that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers in the event these were days when many a former Brutus seemed ready to betray the cause deserted by James Otis whom he had supplanted and by John Hancock whose great influence he had formally exploited and whom he had led about like an ape as was currently reported Samuel Adams suffered a measure of eclipse the assembly would no longer do his bidding in respect to the vital question of whether the general court might be called by the governor to meet outside of Boston and it even imposed upon him as one of a committee the humiliating task of presenting an address to Mr. Hutchinson acknowledging his right to remove the legislature to any place he liked to house a tonic in the western extreme of the province if he thought fit there was even grave danger that the governor would be satisfied with this concession and would recall the court to sit in Boston Boston was indeed the very place where Samuel Adams wished to have it sit but to attain a right end in a wrong manner would be to suffer a double defeat losing at once the point of principle and the grievance necessary for maintaining the contention friends of the government were much elated at the waning influence of the chief incendiary and Mr. Sparhawk condescended to express a certain sympathy for their common enemy now that he was so much diminished harassed dependent in their power it was indeed under great difficulties during these years when massachusetts was almost without annals that Samuel Adams labored to make brutaces of the men of Boston so far deserted by his friends Samuel Adams might never have succeeded in overcoming these difficulties without the assistance presently rendered by his enemies of those who were of invaluable aid to him in this way Thomas Hutchinson was one the good governor having read his instructions knew what his duties were one of them manifested was to stand in defense of government and when government was every day being argumentatively attacked to provide as a counter irritant arguments in defense of government imagining that facts determine conclusions and conclusions directed conduct mr. Hutchinson hoped to diminish the influence of Samuel Adams by showing that the latter's facts were wrong and that his inferences however logically deduced were therefore not to be taken seriously i've taken much pains he says to procure writers to answer the pieces in the newspapers which do so much mischief among the people and have two or three engaged with draper besides a new press in a young printer who says he will not be frightened and i hope for some good effect the governor had read his instructions but not the mind of Samuel Adams or the minds of the many men who like the chief incendiary were prepared to cultivate the sensations of freedom perhaps the only good effect of his pieces was to furnish excellent feces for Samuel Adams to dispute upon which he did with unrivaled shrewdness each week in the boston gazette under the thin disguise of candidas valerias poplicola or windex to this last name windex mr hutchinson thought there might appropriately have been added another such as mogulignis or invetus and indeed of all these disputative essays in the boston gazette or mr draper's paper one may say that the apparent aim was to win a dialectic victory and the obvious result to prove that ill will existed by exhibiting it thomas hutchinson's faith in the value of disputation was not easily disturbed and after two years when it appeared that his able lieutenants writing a mr draper's newspaper were still as far as ever from bringing the controversy to a conclusion he could no longer refrain from trying his own practice tanned at an argument which he did in a carefully prepared address to the general court delivered january 6 1773 i have pleased myself for several years he said with hopes that the cause of the present disturbed and disordered state of government would see sub itself and the effect with it but i am disappointed and i may not any longer consistent with my duty to the king and my regard to the interests of the province delay communicating my sentiments to you upon a matter of so great importance the cause of their present difficulties mr hutchinson thought as evident as the fact itself a disturbed state of government having always followed must have been caused by the denial of the authority of parliament to make laws binding the province upon a right resolution of this question everything depended the governor accordingly confined himself to presenting all in good temper a concise and remarkably well articulated argument to prove that no line can be drawn between the supreme authority of parliament and the total independence of the colonies of which argument the conclusion must be in as much as the total independence of the colonies was not conceivably anyone's thought that supreme authority rested with parliament this conclusion once admitted it was reasonable to suppose that disturbances would cease for if the supremacy of parliament shall no longer be denied it will follow that the mere exercise of its authority can be no matter of grievance in closing his excellency expressed the desire in case the two houses did not agree with his exposition of the constitution to know their objections they may be convincing to me or i may be able to satisfy you of the insufficiency of them in either case i hope we shall put an end to those irregularities whichever will be the portion of a government where the supreme authority is controverted in this roundabout way governor hutchinson finally reached as a conclusion the pre-position with which he began namely that whereas a disturbed state of government is ex hypothesis a vital evil assertions or denials which tend to cause the evil must be unfounded it happened that both houses the lower house especially remained unconvinced by the governor's exposition of the constitution and both houses took advantage of his invitation to present their objections the committee which the lower house appointed to formulate a reply found their task no slight one not from any doubt that mr. hutchinson was an error but from the difficulty of constructing an argument that might be regarded as polemically adequate at the request of major holly john adams was accordingly invited requested and urged to meet the committee which he did every evening till the report was finished when the first draft of a reply probably drawn by dr. joseph warren was presented to mr adams for his criticism he modestly suggested to them the expediency of leaving out many popular and eloquent periods and of discussing the question with the governor upon principles more especially legal and constitutional there being in this first draft so mr adams thought no answer nor any attempt to answer the governor's legal and constitutional arguments such as they were and so being very civilly requested by the committee to make such changes in the draft as seemed to him desirable mr adams drew a line over the most eloquent parts of the oration they had before them and introduced those legal and historical authorities which appear on the record the reply prepared in this way and finally adopted by the assembly was longer and more erudite than mr hutchinson's address to meet the governor's major premise and thus undermine his entire argument legal precedents and the facts of history were freely drawn upon to prove that the colonies were properly outside of the realm and therefore all the parts of the empire by virtue of being under the special jurisdiction of the crown not subject in all matters to parliamentary legislation law and history thus supported the contention contrary to the governor's assertion that a line not only could be but always had been drawn between the supreme authority of parliament and the total independence of the colonies apart from any question of law or fact the assembly thought it of high practical importance that this line should be maintained in the future as in the past for if there be no such line none could deny the governor's inference that either the colonies are vassals of the parliament or they are totally independent upon which the assembly would observe only that as it cannot be supposed to have been the intention of the parties in the compact that we should be reduced to a state of vassalage the conclusion is that it was their sense that we were thus independent with very few exceptions everyone who was of the patriot way of thinking regarded the assembly's reply as a complete refutation of the argument presented in governor Hutchinson's address in the governor's opinion the disturbed state of government to which he had referred in his address was at this time brought to the highest pitch by the committees of correspondence recently established throughout the province an event long desired and now brought to pass by Samuel Adams that something might be done by a coordinated system of local communities was an undigested thought that dropped from Adams's mind while writing a letter to Arthur Lee in September 1771 at that time such was the general apathy of the people it would clearly be an arduous task for any man to attempt to awaken a sufficient number in the colonies to sow grand and undertaking but Samuel Adams who thought nothing should be disparate of took upon himself the performance of this arduous task such committees if they were anywhere needed were certainly needed in massachusetts where the people labored under a state of perfect despotism daily submitting to be ruled by a native governor who refused to accept a grant from the general court received his salary from london and govern the province according to his instructions is it not enough ask bellerius pop the cola in the gazette to have a governor pensioned by those on whom his existence depends his life property and everything dear and sacred to be now submitted to this decisions of pensioned judges holding their places during the pleasure of such a governor and a council perhaps overall confronted by so unprecedented a situation it occurred to samuel adams that perhaps mr hutchinson himself might be induced to come to his assistance late in 1772 he accordingly got the boston town meeting to present to the governor and address expressing great alarm at the establishment of salaries for judges and praying that the legislature which was to meet the second of december might not be pro-road it was possible that in replying the governor might take a high tone refusing the request as an interference with his own prerogative but as it was clearly the right of the people to petition for the governor to refuse would be samuel adams thought to put himself in the wrong in the opinion of every honest and sensible man the consequence of which will be that such measures as the people may determine upon to save themselves will be the more reconcilable even to cautious minds and thus we may expect that unanimity which we wish for the governor in a tone that might be called high did in fact object to the request as not properly a function of town meetings and thus furnish the occasion for organizing the committees which he thought so disturbing to the state of government it was on november 2 1772 upon a motion of samuel adams that a committee was appointed by a town meeting and found new hall to state the rights of the colonies and of this province in particular as men as christians and as subjects to communicate and publish the same to the several towns in this province and to the world as the sense of this town with the infringements and violations thereof that have been or from time to time may be made requesting of each town a free communication of their sentiments on this subject the report of the committee adopted november 20 announced to the world that as men the colonists and those of massachusetts in particular were possessed of certain natural rights among them the right of life liberty and property and that in as much as men entering society by voluntary consent they still retained every natural right not expressly given up or by the nature of the social compact necessarily ceded being christians as well as men the colonists enjoyed also those rights formulated in the institutes of the great law giver and head of the christian church written and promulgated in the new testament lastly being englishmen the colonists were by the common law of england exclusive of all charters from the crown entitled and by the acts of the british parliament declared to be entitled to all the liberties and privileges of subjects born within the realm the infringements which have been made upon these rights although well known were once more stated at length and all the towns of the province were requested in case they agreed with the sentiments of the town of boston to unite in a common effort to rescue from impending ruin our happy and glorious constitution for its part the town of boston was confident that the wisdom of the other towns as well as they regard for themselves and the rising generation would not suffer them to dose or set supinely indifferent on the brink of destruction while the iron hand of oppression is daily tearing the choices fruit from the fair tree of liberty moderate men might think in the winter of 1773 that the iron hand of oppression tearing the choices fruit from the fair tree of liberty was a figure of speech which did not shape itself with nice flexibility to the exact form and pressure of observable facts it is the limitation of moderate men to be much governed by observable facts and if the majority could not at once rise to the rhetoric of samuel adams it was doubtless because they had not his instinctive sense of the arch conspirators truly implacable enmity to america the full measure of this enmity mr adams lived in the hope of someday revealing it was of course well known that mr brunard had formerly written home letters most injurious to the province and in 1770 there was abundant reason to be jealous as samuel adams writing on behalf of the town of boston assured benjamin franklin that the most mischievous and virulent accounts have been lately sent to administration from castle william no doubt from the commissioners of the customs conveying malicious and unfounded misrepresentations of america under the seal of official correspondence had indeed long been a favorite means of mending the fortunes of those decayed gentlemen and bankrupt politicians whose ambition it was to rise in office by playing the sycophant to some great man in england mr brunard had played this game and had been found out at it as everyone knew but mr brunard was no american and it was scarcely to be imagined that mr hutchinson who boasted that his ancestors were of the first rank and figure in the country who had all the honors leveraged upon him which his fellow citizens had it in their power to bestow who professed the strongest attachment to his native country and the most tender feelings for its rights should be so lost to all sense of gratitude and public love as to aid the designs of despotic power for the sake of rising a single step higher this was indeed scarcely to be imagined yet samuel adams imagined it perfectly before there was any material evidence of the fact he was able by reasonable inference to erect well-grounded suspicions into a kind of working hypothesis mr hutchinson governor of the province was an enemy of liberty with many english friends he would be required by official duty and led by personal inclination to maintain a regular correspondence with high officials in england from which the conclusion was that thomas hutchinson professed friend of america was a traitor in secret alienating the affections of the king from his loyal subjects samuel adams knew this well and now after all these years the material evidence necessary to convince men of little faith was at hand under circumstances that might be regarded as providential thomas hutchinson was at last unmasked the prelude to this dramatic performance was pronounced in the massachusetts assembly one day in june 1773 by mr john Hancock who darkly declared that within eight and forty hours a discovery of great pith and moment would be made to the house on the next day but one samuel adams arose and desired the galleries cleared as there were matters to lay before the members which the members only had a right to know of when the galleries were cleared he informed the house that certain letters written by high officials in the province and extremely hostile to the rights and liberties of america had been procured in england and transmitted to a gentleman who had in turn placed them in his mr adams's hands but with the strictest injunction that they be returned without being copied or printed mr adams had given his pledge to this effect and if the house would receive them on these terms he would be glad to read the letters no restriction having been placed on their being read they were read accordingly and the committee having been appointed to make recommendations it was at length resolved by the house of assembly that certain letters presented to it by mr samuel adams tended and were manifestly designed to undermine the constitution and establish a despotic power in the province the proceedings of the house being spread abroad it soon became everywhere known that only the pledged word of the house stood in the way of revelations highly damaging to the public character of governor hutchinson this outcome of the matter however gratifying to samuel adams did not satisfy governor hutchinson after there had been buzzed about for three or four months a story of something that would amaze everybody and these dark rumors being spread through all the towns in the province and everybody's expectations raised it was exasperating to his pragmatic nature to have nothing more definite transpire than that the something which would amaze everybody would indeed amaze everybody if only it could be made known it should at least be made known to the person most concerned the governor therefore requested the assembly to furnish him copies of the letters which were attributed to him and declared by the house to be destructive of the constitution and reply the house sent certain dates only the house was of opinion that the governor could easily make authentic copies of whatever letters he'd written at these dates if he had written any and such copies being furnished to the assembly might be published and the whole matter that's cleared up without violating the pledged word of anyone with this request the governor refused to comply on the ground that it would be improper to reveal his private correspondence and contrary to instructions to reveal that of a public nature he would say however that he had written letters on the days mentioned but in these letters there was no statement of fact or expression of opinion not already well known what his opinions were the assembly and the world might very well gather from his published speeches and his history of massachusetts bay it could scarcely be maintained that he had ever lacked frankness in the expression of his opinions and while his opinions might be thought destructive of the constitution it was rather late to be amazed at them in any case the assembly was assured by the governor that his letters neither tended nor were designed to subvert but rather to preserve entire the constitution of government as established by the charter of the province a great many people besides the governor desired to see letters the substance of which could be so differently understood samuel adams probably preferred not to be forced to print them knowing their contents he may have thought that here was a case of those dangers which being known lose half their power for evil besides having pledged his word he wished to keep it yet the pressure of public opinion becoming every day greater was difficult to resist particularly by men who were firm believers in the wisdom of the people moreover it presently appeared that there was no longer any point in refusing to publish the letters in as much as mr hancock assured the house that men on the street were in some way not known possessed of copies some of which had been placed in his hands mr hancock's copies being found on comparison to be accurate rescripts of the letters which had been read in the house the committee was accordingly appointed to consider how the house might come into honorable possession of the originals from which committee mr holly soon reported that samuel adams had informed them that the gentleman from whom he had received the letters now consented to their being copied seeing that they had already been copied and printed seeing that they were already widely circulated whereupon the house considering itself in honorable possession ordered the letters all published nevertheless it was thought expedient before issuing the letters to print and circulate such a series of results as might prepare the public mind for what was to come later this was accordingly done the results bearing date of june 16 1773 indicated clearly and at length the precise significance of the letters declared it to be the humble opinion of the house that it was not to the interest of the crown to continue in high places persons who are known to have with great industry those secretly endeavored to undermine alter and overthrow the constitution of the province and concluded by praying that his majesty would be pleased to remove forever from the government thereof the honorable andrew oliver and his excellency thomas hutchinson his majesty did not remove mr hutchinson but the governor's usefulness from every point of view was at an end when the notorious letters were finally printed it appeared that there were 17 and all of which six were written by mr hutchinson in the years 1768 and 1769 these letter documents did not in fact add anything to the world's stock of knowledge but they have been so heralded ushered in with so much portentous explication that they scarcely needed to be read to be understood have they been chevy chased the governor said the people would have believed them full of evil and treason it was indeed the perfect fruit of samuel adams's labors that the significance of mr hutchinson's letters had in some manner become independent of their contents so awake where the people did the danger of being deceived that whatever the governor now said or ever had written was taken to be but the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen meanwhile the attention of all patriots was diverted from the letters to a far more serious matter and when on december 16 1773 a cargo of the east india companies t consigned among others to thomas and elizia hutchinson was thrown into boston harbour the great crisis which samuel adams had done so much to make inevitable by virtue of thinking it so was at last a reality it was a limitation of thomas hutchinson's excellent administrative mind that he was wholly unaware of this crisis in february of the next year finding that a little discrete conduct or indeed any conduct on his part was altogether without good effect the governor announced that he had obtained leave from the king to go to england on the first of june driving from his home to the foot of doorchester heights he embarked on the manoeuvre and arrived in london one month later it was his expectation that after a brief absence when general gaige by a show of military force should have brought the province to a reasonable frame of mind he would return and assume again the responsibilities of his office he never returned but died in england on june 3 1780 and unhappy and a homesick exile from the country which he loved end of chapter five part two chapter six part one of eve of the revolution by carol becker this leverbox recording is in the public domain testing the issue the die is now cast the colonies must either submit or triumph george the third we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness thomas jefferson two months and ten days after mr hutchinson embarked for england john adams the honorable thomas kushing mr samuel adams and robert treed pain set out from boston from mr kushing's house and rode to coulages where they dined with a large company of gentlemen who went out and prepared an entertainment for them at that place a most kindly and affectionate meeting we had and about four in the afternoon we took leave of them amidst the kindest wishes and fervent prayers of every man in the company for our health and success the scene was truly affecting beyond all description affecting the four men who in this manner left boston on the 10th of august 1774 were bound for philadelphia to attend the first continental congress even samuel adams in excellent spirits a little resplendent and doubtless a little uncomfortable in his new suit and new silk hoes could scarce they have known that they were about to share in one of the decisive events in the history of the modern world the calling of the continental congress had followed hard upon those recent measures of the british government which no reasonable man could doubt were designed to reduce the colonies to a state of slavery in may 1773 the east india company whose privileges in india had just been greatly restricted was given permission to export tea from its english warehouses directly to america free of all english customs and excise duties the three penny duty in america was indeed retained but this small tax would not prevent the company from selling its teas in america at a lower price than other importers either smugglers or legitimate traders could afford it was true the americans were opposed to the three penny tax and they had bound themselves not to import any dutyed tea yet neither the opposition to the tax nor the non-importation agreements entered into had prevented american merchants from importing during the last three years about 580 831 pounds of english tea upon which the duty had been paid without occasioning much comment with these facts in mind hard-headed american merchants to whom the company applied for information about the state of the tea trade in the colonies assured the directors that the americans drank a great deal of tea which the two had been largely smuggled from holland and that although they were in principle much opposed to the tax mankind in general are bound by interest and the company can afford their teas cheaper than the americans can smuggle them from foreigners which puts the success of the design beyond a doubt the hard-headed merchants were doubtless much surprised at the universal outcry which was raised when it became known that the east india company was preparing to import its teas into the colonies and yet the strenuous opposition everywhere exhibited rather confirmed than refuted the philosophical reflection that mankind in general are bound by interest neither the new york and philadelphia merchants who smuggle tea from holland nor the boston and charleston merchants who imported duty tea from england could see any advantage to them in having this profitable business taken over by the east india company mr hancock for example was one of the boston merchants who imported a good deal of duty tea from england a fact which was better known then than it has been since and at philadelphia john adams was questioned rather closely about mr hancock's violation of the non-importation agreement in reply to which he could only say mr hancock i believe is justifiable but i'm not certain whether he is strictly so justifiable or not mr hancock would not wish to see the entire tea trade of america in the hands of the east india company and indeed to whose interest would it be to have an english company granted a monopoly of a thriving branch of american trade to those doubtless who were the consignees of the company such as the sons of thomas hutchinson or mr abram lot of new york certainly no private merchant who is acquainted with the operation of a monopoly will send out or order tea to america when those who have it at first hand send to the same market and therefore since the company have the whole supply america will ultimately be at their mercy to extort what price they please for their tea and when they find their success in this article they will obtain liberty to export their spices silks etc this was the light in which the matter appeared to the new york committee of correspondence john dickinson saw the matter in the same light a light which his superior abilities enabled him to portray in more lurid colors the conduct of the east india company in asia he said has given ample proof how little they regard the laws of nations the rights liberties or lives of men they have levied war excited rebellions dethroned princes and sacrifice millions for the sake of gain the revenues of mighty kingdoms have centered in their coffers and these not being sufficient to glut their avarice they have by the most unparalleled barbarities extortions and monopolies stripped the miserable inhabitants of their property and reduced whole provinces to indigents and ruin thus having drained the sources of that immense wealth they now it seems cast their eyes on america a new theater where on to exercise their talents of rapine oppression and cruelty the monopoly of tea is i dare say but a small part of the plan they have formed to strip us of our property but thank god we are not see poise nor maracas but british subjects who are born to liberty who know its worth and who prized it high for all of these reasons therefore because they were in principle opposed to taxation without consent and by interest opposed to an english company monopolizing the tea trade and perhaps because they desired to give a signal demonstration of the fact that they were neither see poise nor maracas americans were willing to resort to the use of force in order to maintain their own rights by depriving the east india company of its privileges when captain curling's ship arrived in charleston the people in that town assembled to deal with the grave crisis were somewhat uncertain what to do with the company's tea on the very ship which brought the company's tea there were some chests consigned to private merchants and certain enthusiastic patriots attending the meeting of citizens affirmed that the importation of duty tea by private merchants contrary to the non-importation agreement was no less destructive to liberty than the importation of tea by the east india company all this it was said events to desire of not entering hastily into measures in the end the company's tea was seized by the collector and stored in the vaults under the exchange and new york and philadelphia the company's tea ships were required to return to england without landing and it was only at boston where governor hutchinson whose sons had been appointed by the company as its consignees refused return clearance papers that the tea some 14 000 pounds worth of it was thrown into the harbor throwing the tea into the harbor raised a sharp sense of resentment in the minds of britain's the common feeling was that unless the british government was prepared to renounce all pretence of governing the colonies something must be done there were a few such as josia tucker who thought that the thing to do was to give up the colonies in their opinion colonies were in any case more of a burden than an advantage the supposed advantages of colonies being bound up with restrictions on trade and restrictions on trade being contrary to the natural law by which commerce should be free but the natural law was only a recent discovery not yet widely accepted in england and it did not occur to the average britain that the colonies should be given up the colonies he supposed were english colonies and he thought the time had come to establish that fact he had heard that the colonies had grievances all he knew was that the government had good-naturedly made concessions for the last 10 years and as for this new grievance about tea the average britain made out only that the americans could buy their tea cheaper than he could himself obviously the time had come for old england to set the colonies right by showing less concession and more power for regiments as general gauge said would do the business the average britain therefore gave his cordial approval to four coercive measures passed by overwhelming majorities in parliament which remodeled the massachusetts charter authorized the governor to transfer to courts and other colonies or to england any cases involving a breach of the peace or the conduct of public officers provided for quartering troops on the inhabitants and closed the port of boston until the east india company should have been compensated for the loss of its tea in order to make these measures effective general gauge commander of the american forces was made governor of massachusetts to what extent he would find it necessary to use the military depended upon the bostonians the dies now cast the king wrote to lord north the colonists must either submit or triumph the king's judgment was not always good but it must be conceded that in this instance he had penetrated to the very center of the situation massachusetts very naturally wished not to submit but whether she could triumph without the support of the other colonies was more than doubtful and it was to obtain the support to devise if possible a method of resistance agreeable to all that the congress was now assembling at philadelphia the spirit in which the colonies received the news of the boston port bill augured well for union for in every colony it was felt that this was a challenge which could not be evaded without giving the lie to ten years of high talk about the inalienable rights of englishmen as charles james fox said all were taught to consider the town of boston as suffering in the common cause this sentiment john adams found everywhere expressed found everywhere as he took his leisurely journey southward that people were very firm in their determination to support massachusetts against the oppression of the british government in respect to the measures which should be adopted to achieve the end desire there was not the same unanimity mr adams at the age of 38 years never having been out of new england kept his eyes very wide open as he entered the foreign colonies of new york and pennsylvania in new york he was much impressed with the elegant country seats with a bountiful hospitality and the lavish way of living a more elegant breakfast i never saw this was at mr scott's house rich played a very large silver coffee pot a very large silver teapot napkins of the finest materials toast and bread and butter in great perfection and then to top it off a plate of beautiful peaches and other pairs and another plums and musk melon were placed upon the table nevertheless in spite of the friendliness shown to him personally in spite of the sympathy which abstractly considered the new yorkers expressed for the sad state of boston mr adams was made to understand that if it came to practical measures for the support of massachusetts many diverse currents of opinion and interest would make themselves felt new york was very firm in the cause certainly but mr madougal gave a caution to avoid every expression which looked like an allusion to the last appeal he says there is a powerful party here who are intimidated by fears of a civil war and they've been induced to acquiesce by assurances that there was no danger and that a peaceful cessation of commerce would affect relief another party says are intimidated lest the leveling spirit of the new england colonies should propagate itself into new york another party are instigated by biscapian prejudices against new england another party are merchants largely concerned in navigation and they're for afraid of non-importation non-consumption and non-exportation agreements another party are those who are looking up to government for favors these interests were doubtless well enough represented by the new york deputies to the congress whom mr adams now saw for the first time mr jay it was said was a good student of the law and a hard worker mr lowe they say will profess attachment to the cause of liberty but his sincerity is doubted mr al sap was thought to be a good heart but unequal as mr scott affirmed to the trust in point of abilities mr dwayne this was mr adams's own impression has a sly surveying eye very sensible i think and very artful and finally there was mr livingston a downright straightforward man who reminded mr adams that massachusetts had once hung some quakers affirmed positively that civil war would follow the renunciation of allegiance to britain and threw out vague hints of the goss and vandals confiding these matters to his diary and keeping his own opinion mr adams passed on to philadelphia there the massachusetts men were cordially welcomed twice over but straight way cautioned against two gentlemen one of whom was dr smith the provost of the college who is looking up to government for an american episcopate and a pair of lawn sleeves a very soft polite man insinuating adulating sensible learned insidious indefatigable with art enough and refinement upon art to make impressions even upon mr dickinson and mr reed in pennsylvania as in every colony mr adams found there was a tribe of people exactly like the tribe in the massachusetts of hutch and sonyan addresses some of this tribe had managed to elbow their way into the committees of deputies to the congress at least from the middle colonies and probably from south carolina as well the most spirited and consistent of any of the deputies were the gentlemen from virginia among whom were mr henry and mr rh lee said to be the demasthenese and the cicero of america the latter mr adams liked much a masterly man it was very strong for the most vigorous measures but it seemed that even mr lee was strong for vigorous measures only because he was absolutely certain that the same ship which carries hence the resolutions will bring back the redress if he's supposed otherwise he should be for exceptions from the first day of the congress he was known that the massachusetts men were in favor of vigorous measures vigorous measures being understood to mean the adoption of strict non-importation non-consumption and non-exportation agreements there were moments when john adams thought even these measures tame and unheroic when demasthenese god forgive the vanity of recollecting his example went ambassador from athens to the other states of greece to excited confederacy against philip he did not go to propose a non-importation or non-consumption agreement for all this the massachusetts men kept themselves well in the background knowing that there was much jealousy and some fear of new england leadership and well aware that the recent experience with non-importation agreements had greatly diminished in the mercantile colonies of new york pennsylvania and south carolina the enthusiasm for such experiments the trouble with non-importation agreements as major holly had told john adams was that they will not be faithfully observed that the congress have no power to enforce obedience to their laws that they will be like a legislator without an executive did congress have or could it assume authority to compel men to observe its resolutions to compel them to observe for example a non-importation agreement this was a delicate question upon which opinion was divided we have no legal authority said mr ruttledge and obedience to our determinations will only follow the reasonableness the apparent utility and necessity of the measures we adopt we have no coercive or legislative authority if this was so the non-intercourse policy would doubtless prove a broken read massachusetts men were likely to be of another opinion were likely to agree with patrick henry who affirmed that government is dissolved fleets and armies and the present state of things showed that government is dissolved we are in a state of nature sir if they were indeed in a state of nature it was perhaps high time that congress should assume the powers of a government in which case it might be possible to adopt and to enforce non-intercourse measures in this gingerly way did the deputies lift the curtain and peer down the road to revolution the deputies like true britain's contrived to avoid the highly theoretical question of authority and began straightway to concern themselves with the practical question of whether the congress with or without authority should recommend the adoption of strict non-intercourse agreements upon this question as the chief issue the deputies were divided into nearly equal groups mr galloway mr dwayne and mr rutledge were perhaps the leaders of those probably a majority at first who were opposed to such vigorous measures fearing that they were intended as a cloak to cover the essentially revolutionary designs of the shrewd new englanders we have too much reason to suspect that independence is aimed at mr lowe warned the congress and mr galloway could see that while the massachusetts men were in behavior very modest yet they are not so much so as not to throw out hints which like straws and feathers show from which point in the compass the wind comes in the early days of the congress if we are to believe mr hutchinson this cold north wind was so much disliked that the new york and new jersey deputies and others carried a vote against the adoption of non-intercourse agreements agreed to present the petition to the king and expected to break up when letters arrived from dr franklin which put an end to the petition the journals of the congress do not record any vote of this kind but a number of things are known to have occurred in the congress which the journals do not record on september 17 the famous suffix resolves were laid before the deputies for their approval the resolutions have been adopted by a county convention in massachusetts and in substance they recommended to the people of massachusetts to form a government independent of that of which general gauge was the governor urged them meanwhile to arm themselves in their own defense and assured them that no obedience is due from this province to either or any part of the coercive acts these were indeed vigorous measures and when the resolutions came before congress long and warm debates ensued between the parties mr galloway afterwards remembered and he says that when the vote to approve them was finally carried two of the dissenting members presumed to offer their protest to it in writing which was negative and when they then insisted that the tender of the protest and the negative should be entered on the minutes this was also rejected later in the month september 28 mr galloway introduced his famous plan for a british american parliament as a method for permanent reconciliation the motion to enter the plan on the minutes and to refer it for further consideration gave rise to long and warm debates the motion being carried by a majority of one colony but subsequently probably on october 21 it was voted to expunge the plan together with all resolutions referring to it from the minutes nothing is benjamin franklin wrote from england could so encourage the british government to persist in its oppressive policy as the knowledge that dissensions existed in the congress and since these dissensions did unfortunately exist there was a widespread feeling that it would be the part of wisdom to go and seal them as much as possible no doubt a majority of the deputies when they first read the suffix resolutions were amazed that the rash new englanders should venture to pledge themselves so frankly to rebellion certainly no one who thought himself a loyal subject of king george could even contemplate rebellion but on the other hand to leave massachusetts in the lurch after so much talk of union and the maintenance of american rights would make loyal americans look a little ridiculous that would be to show themselves lambs as soon as britains had shown themselves lions which was precisely what their enemies in england boasted they would do confronted by this difficult dilemma moderate men without decided opinions began to fix their attention less upon the exact nature of the measures they were asked to support and more upon the probable effect of such measures upon the british government it might be true in all reports from england seemed to point that way that the british government was only brandishing the sword in terrarium to see whether the americans would not run it once to cover in which case it would be wiser for all loyal subjects to pledge themselves even to rebellion the prospect being so very good that britain would quickly sheathe sword and present instead the olive branch saying this is what i intended to offer therefore rather than leave massachusetts in the lurch and so give the lie to the boasted unity of the colonies many moderate and loyal subjects voted to approve the suffix resolutions which they thought very rash and ill-advised measures whatever differences still prevailed if indeed practical men could hold out after the accomplished fact might be bridged and compromised by adopting those petitions and addresses which the timid thought sufficient and at the same time by subscribing to and recommending those non-intercourse agreements which the boulder sort thought essential this compromise was in fact defected the congress unanimously adopted the moderate addresses which lord shatum afterwards praised for their masterly exposition of true constitutional principles but it likewise adopted all so unanimously a series of resolutions known as the association to which the deputies subscribe their names by signing the association the deputies bound themselves and recommended the people and all the colonies to bind themselves not to import after december 1 1774 any commodities from great britain or ireland or molasses syrups sugars and coffee from the british plantations or east india company tea from any place or wines from madera or a foreign indigo not to consume after march 1 1775 any of these commodities and not to export after september 10 1775 any commodities whatever to great britain ireland or the west indies except rice to europe it was further recommended that a committee be formed in each city town and county whose business it should be to observe the conduct of all persons those who refuse to sound the association as well as those who signed it and to publish the names of all persons who did not observe the agreements there entered into to the end that all such foes of the rights of a british america may be publicly known and universally condemned as the enemies of american liberty and it was likewise recommended that the committees should inspect the customs entries frequently that they should seize all goods imported contrary to the recommendation of the association and reship them or if the owner preferred sell them at public auction the owner to be recompensed for the first costs the profits of any to be devoted to relieving the people of boston having thus adopted a petition to the king a memorial to the inhabitants of the british colonies and an address to the people of great britain and having recommended a certain line of conduct to be followed by all loyal americans the first continental congress adjourned it had assumed no coercive or legislative authority obedience to its determinations would doubtless depend as mr rutledge had said upon the reasonableness the apparent utility and necessity of its recommendations there can be no doubt the earl of dartmouth is reported to have said that everyone who had signed the association was guilty of treason the earl of dartmouth was not counted one of the enemies of america and if this was his opinion of the action of the first continental congress lord north's supporters in parliament a great majority since the recent elections were not likely to take a more favorable view of it nevertheless when the american question came up for consideration in the winter of 1775 conciliation was a word frequently heard on all sides and even corrupt ministers were understood to be dallying with schemes of accommodation in january and february great men were sending agents and even coming themselves to dr franklin to learn what in his opinion the colonies would be satisfied with lord jedem as might be guessed was meditating a plan on the 29th of january he came to craven street and showed it to franklin who made notes upon it and later went out to haze two hours ride from london where he remained for four hours listening to the easy flow of the great commoners eloquence without being able to get any of his own ideas presented fortified by the presence if not by the advice of franklin lord jedem laid his plan before parliament on the first of february he would have an explicit declaration of the dependence of the colonies on the crown and parliament in all matters of trade and an equally explicit declaration that no tax should be imposed upon the colonies without their consent and when the congress at philadelphia should have acknowledged the supremacy of the crown and parliament and should have made a free and perpetual grant of revenue then he would have all the obnoxious acts passed since 1764 and especially the coercive acts totally repealed lord sandwich in a warm speech move to reject these proposals at once and when the vote was taken it was found that 61 noble lords were in favor of rejecting them at once while only 31 were opposed to so doing lord north was perhaps less opposed to reconciliation than other noble lords were a few days later franklin was approached by admiral howe who was understood to know the first minister's mind to learn whether he might not suggest something for the government to go upon the venerable friend of the human race was willing enough to sit down on paper some hints which admiral howe might think advisable to show to ministers it happened however that the hints went far beyond anything the government had in mind ministers would perhaps be willing to repeal the t act and the boston port bill but they felt strongly about the act regulating the massachusetts charter must stand as an example of the power of parliament franklin on the other hand was certain that while parliament claims the right of altering american constitutions at pleasure there can be no agreement since the parties were so far apart it seemed useless to continue the informal negotiation and on february 20 lord north laid before parliament his own plan for effecting an accommodation perhaps after all it was not his own plan for lord north much inclined to regard himself as the king's minister was likely to subordinate his wishes to those of his master king george the third at all events had his own ideas on conciliation i'm a friend to holding out the olive branch he wrote in february yet i believe that when vigorous measures appear to be the only means the colonies will submit knowing the king's ideas as well as those of dr franklin lord north accordingly introduced into parliament the resolution on conciliation which provided that when any colony should make provision for contributing their proportion to the common defense and for the support of the civil government and the administration of justice in such province it will be proper for so long as such provision shall be made to forbear in respect of such province to levy any duty tax or assessment except for the regulation of commerce the minister's resolution although by most of his supporters thought to be useless was adopted by vote of 274 to 88 it was not the intention of the government to hold out the olive branch by itself lord north and perhaps the king also hope the colonies would accept it but by all maxims of politics an olive branch was more likely to be accepted if the shining sword was presented at the same time as the only alternative as early as the 10th of february lord north had introduced into parliament a bill finally passed march 30 to restrain the trade and commerce of the new england colonies to great britain ireland and the british islands in the west indies and to exclude these colonies from carrying on any fishery on the banks of newfoundland it being highly unfit that the inhabitants of the said provinces should enjoy the same privileges of trade to which his majesties faithful and obedient subjects are entitled the provisions of this act were extended to the other colonies in april and meantime measures were taken to strengthen the naval forces the first certain information that lord north had extended the olive branch reached new york april 24 1775 two weeks before the day fixed for the meeting of the second continental congress important changes had taken place since the first congress six months earlier had sent forth its resolutions in every colony there was a sufficient number of patriots who saw the reasonableness the apparent utility and necessity of forming the committees which the association recommended and these committees everywhere with a marked degree of success immediately set about convincing their neighbors of the utility and necessity of signing the non-importation agreement or at least of observing it even if they were not disposed to sign it to deny the reasonableness of the association was now indeed much more difficult than it would have been before the congress assembled for the congress having published certain resolutions unanimously entered into had come to be the symbol of america united in defense of its rights and what american if indeed one might call him such would wish to be thought disloyal to america or an enemy of its liberties it required a degree of assurance for any man to set up his individual judgment against the deliberate and united judgment of the chosen representatives of all the colonies and that must be indeed a very subtle mind which could draw the distinction between an enemy of liberty and a friend of liberty who was unwilling to observe the association some such subtle minds there were a considerable number in most colonies who declared themselves friends of liberty but not of the association loyal to america but not to the congress one of these was samuel seaberry an episcopalian clergyman living in westchester county new york a vigorous doubt right man who at once expressed his sentiments in a forcible and logical manner and with much sarcastic humor in a series of pamphlets which were widely read and much commended by those who found in them their own views so effectively expressed this westchester farmer force so he signed himself proclaimed that he had always been and was still a friend of liberty in general and of american liberty in particular the late british measures he thought unwise and illiberal and he had hoped that the congress would be able to obtain redress perhaps even to affect a permanent reconciliation but these hopes were seen to be vain from the day when the congress approved the suffix resolutions and instead of adopting mr galleray's plan adopted the association for no sane man could doubt that under the thin disguise of recommendations congress had assumed the powers of government and council rebellion the obvious conclusion from this was that if one could not be a loyal american without submitting to congress then it was impossible to be at the same time a loyal american and a loyal british subject but if the problem were rightly considered mr seabury thought one might be loyal to america in the best sense without supporting congress for apart from any question of legality the association was highly inexpedient in as much as non-importation would injure america more than it injured england and for this reason if for no others it would be found impossible to bully and frighten the supreme government of the nation yet all this was beside the main point which was that the action of congress whether expedient or not was illegal it was illegal because it authorized the committees to enforce the association upon all alike upon those who never agreed to observe it as well as upon those who did and these committees as everyone knew were so enforcing it and were imposing penalties upon those who have presumed to violate it the congress talked loudly of the tyranny of the british government tyranny good heavens was any tyranny worse than that of self constituted committees which in the name of liberty were daily conducting the most hateful inquisition into the private affairs of free british subjects will you choose such committees will you submit to them should they be chosen by the weak foolish turbulent part of the people i will not know if i must be enslaved let it be by a king at least and not by a parcel of upstart lawless committee men end of chapter six part one