destitute, to be insulted and triumphed over. I fall in the cause of government; and, whenever it shall be thought proper to supersede me, I hope for some appointment; and, calumniating Franklin as one who wished to supplant him in the government of Massachusetts, he made interest for Franklin's desirable office of deputy postmaster-general.

July.

All the summer long, the insidious letters that had 1773. come to light circulated through the province, and were discussed by the single-minded country people during the week, as they made hay or gathered in the early harvest; on Sundays, the ministers discoursed on them, and poured out their hearts in prayer for the preservation of their precious inheritance of liberty. "We devote not only what little we have in the world," said the people of Pearsontown, "but even our lives, to vindicate rights so dearly purchased by our ancestors." The town of Abington became convinced that the boasted connection with Great Britain was “not worth a rush." The natural right of mankind to improve the form of government under which they live was inculcated from the pulpit; and, at the time when the pope was abolishing the order of the Jesuits, some of the clergy of Boston predicted that "in fifteen years" the people of America would mould for themselves a new constitution.

1773. Aug.

CHAPTER L.

THE BOSTON TEA-PARTY.

AUGUST-DECEMBER, 1773.

THE East India company, who were now by act of parliament authorized to export tea to America entirely duty free in England, applied to the treasury in August for the necessary license. They were warned by Americans that their adventure would end in loss, and some difficulties occurred in details; but the scruples of the company were overruled by Lord North, who answered peremptorily: "It is to no purpose making objections, for the king will have it so. The king means to try the question with America.”

Sept.

The time was short; the danger to Boston imminent; resistance at all hazards was the purpose of its committee of correspondence; violent resistance might become necessary; and to undertake it without a certainty of union would only bring ruin on the town and on the

cause.

A congress, therefore, on "the plan of union proposed by Virginia," was the fixed purpose of Samuel Adams. He would have no delay, no waiting for increased strength; for, said he," when our liberty is gone, history and experience will teach us that an increase of inhabitants will be but an increase of slaves." Through the press, he appealed to the continent for a congress, in order to insist effectually upon such terms with England as would not admit for the interior government of the colonies any other authority than that of their respective legislatures. It was not possible to join issue with the king more precisely.

The first difficulty to be overcome existed in Boston itself.

Cushing, the speaker, who had received a private letter from Dartmouth, and was lulled into confiding in "the noble and generous sentiments" of that minister, advised that for the time the people should bear their grievances. "Our natural increase in wealth and population,” said he, "will in a course of years settle this dispute in our favor; whereas, if we persist in denying the right of parliament to legislate for us, they may think us extravagant in our demands, and there will be great danger of bringing on a rupture fatal to both countries." He thought the redress of grievances would more surely come, "if these high points about the supreme authority of parliament were to fall asleep." Against this feeble advice, the Boston committee of correspondence aimed at the union of the province, and "the confederacy of the whole continent of America." They refused to waive the claim of right, which could only divide the Americans in sentiment and confuse their counsels. "What oppressions," they asked, in their circular to all the other towns, "may we not expect in another seven years, if through a weak credulity, while the most arbitrary measures are still persisted in, we should be prevailed upon to submit our rights, as the patriotic Farmer expresses it, to the tender mercies of the ministry? Watchfulness, unity, and harmony are necessary to the salvation of ourselves and posterity from bondage. We have an animating confidence in the Supreme Disposer of events, that he will never suffer a sensible, brave, and virtuous people to be enslaved."

Sure of Boston and its committee, Samuel Adams next conciliated the favoring judgment of the patriot Hawley, whose influence in the province was deservedly great, and who had shared with him the responsibility of the measures of the assembly. "I submit to you my ideas at this time, because matters seem to me to be drawing to a crisis." Such were his words on the fourth and the thirteenth of October. "The present administration, even though the very good Lord Dartmouth is one of them, are as fixed as any of their predecessors in their resolution to carry their favorite point, an acknowledgment of

1773.

Oct.

1773. Oct.

the right of parliament to make laws binding us in all cases whatever. Some of our politicians would have the people believe that administration are disposed or determined to have all the grievances which we complain of redressed, if we will only be quiet; but this would be a fatal delusion. If the king himself should make any concessions, or také any steps contrary to the right of parliament to tax us, he would be in danger of embroiling himself with the ministry. Under the present prejudices, even the recalling an instruction to the governor is not likely to be advised. The subject-matter of our complaint is not that a burden greater than our proportion was laid upon us by parliament, - such a complaint we might have made without questioning the authority of parliament, but that the parliament has assumed and exercised the power of taxing us. His majesty, in his answer to our late petitions, implies that the parliament is the supreme legislature, and that its authority over the colonies is the constitution. All allow the minister in the American department to be a good man. The great men in England have an opinion of us as being a mightily religious people, and suppose that we shall place an entire confidence in a minister of the same character. In fact, how many were filled with the most sanguine expectations when they heard that the good Lord Dartmouth was intrusted with a share in administration. Yet without a greatness of mind equal, perhaps superior, to his goodness, it will be impossible for him singly to stem the torrent of corruption. This requires much more fortitude than I yet believe he is possessed of. The safety of the Americans depends upon their pursuing their wise plan of union in principle and conduct.'

Such were the thoughts which Samuel Adams unbosomed to his faithful fellow-laborer. The press, which he directed, continued to demand an annual " congress of American states to frame a bill of rights," or to "form an independent state, an American commonwealth." Union, then, union, was the first, the last, the only hope for America. Massachusetts, where the overruling will of Samuel Adams swayed the feebler politicians, was thoroughly united. But

that was not enough; 66 we must have a convention of all the colonies," he would say to his friends; and the measure was recognised by the royalists as "of all others the most likely to kindle a general flame." His advice was confirmed by the concurrent opinion of Franklin, to whose "greatness" he had publicly paid a tribute. His influence brought even Cushing to act as one of a select committee with himself and Heath of Roxbury; and they sent forth a secret circular, summoning all the colonies to be prepared to assert their rights, when time and circumstances should give to their claim the surest prospect of success. "And when we consider," they said, "how one great event has hurried on after another, such a time may come and such circumstances take place sooner than we are now aware of." They advised to contentment with no temporary relief. They explained that the king would certainly maintain the power of parliament to extort and to appropriate a tribute from the colonies; that the connection between Great Britain and America should be broken, unless it could be perpetuated on the terms of equal liberty; that the necessary contest must be entered upon while Oct. "the ideas of liberty" were strong in men's minds; and they closed with desiring each colony to resist the designs of the English ministry in allowing the East India company to ship its teas to America.

1773.

That company was already despatching its consignments simultaneously to Charleston, to Philadelphia, to New York, and to Boston. The system gave universal offence, not only as an enforcement of the tax on tea, but also as an odious monopoly of trade. Philadelphia, the largest town in the colonies, began the work of prevention. Its inhabitants met on the eighteenth of October in great numbers at the state house, and in eight resolutions denied the claim of parliament to tax America; specially condemned the duty on tea; declared every one who should, directly or indirectly, countenance its imposition, an enemy to his country; and requested the agents of the East India company to resign. The movement was so general and so commanding, that the agents, some cheerfully, others re