CHAP. V. AP. hend and secure for trial, all persons who might publish, or sign, or invite others to sign the covenant." 1774. June. No act could have been more futile or more unwise. The malignity of the imputation of treason was heightened by the pretended rule of law that the persons so accused might be dragged for trial to England. For any purpose of making arrests the proclamation was useless; but as the exponent of the temper of an administration which chose the gallows to avenge the simple agreement not to buy English goods, it was read throughout the continent with uncontrollable indignation. In Boston the report prevailed that as soon as more soldiers should be landed, six or seven of the leading patriots would be seized; and it was in truth the project of Gage to fasten charges of rebellion on individuals as a pretext July. for sending them to jail. On Friday, the first of July, Admiral Graves arrived in the "Preston," of sixty guns; on Saturday the train of artillery was encamped on the common by the side of two regiments that were there before. On Monday these were reenforced by the fifth and thirty-eighth. Arrests, it was confidently reported, were now to be made. In this moment of greatest danger, the Boston committee of correspondence, Samuel Adams, the two Greenleafs, Molyneux, Warren and others being present, considered the rumor that some of them were to be taken up, and voted unanimously "that they would attend their business as usual, unless prevented by brutal force." "The attempt to intimidate," said the patriots, "is lost labor." The spirit of defiance gave an impulse to the covenant. At Plymouth the subscribers V. July. increased at once to about a hundred. The general CHAP. who had undertaken to frighten the people, excused himself from executing his threats, by his dread of 1774. the edicts of town meetings, which, he complained to the king, controlled the pulpit, the press, and the multitude, overawed the judges, and screened "the guilty." "The usurpation," said he, "has by time acquired a firmness that is not to be annihilated at once, or by ordinary methods." The arrival of Hutchinson in England lulled the king into momentary security. Tryon from New York had said, that the ministers must put forth the whole power of Great Britain, if they would bring America to their feet; Carleton, the governor of Canada, thought it not safe to undertake a march from the Saint Lawrence to New York with an army of less than ten thousand men; but Hutchinson, who, on reaching London, was hurried by Dartmouth to the royal presence without time to change his clothes, assured the king, that the port-bill was "the only wise and effective method" of bringing the people of Boston to submission; that it had occasioned among them extreme alarm; that no one colony would comply with their request for a general suspension of commerce; that Rhode Island had accompanied its refusal with a sneer at their selfishness. The king listened eagerly. He had been greedy for all kinds of stories respecting Boston; had been told, and had believed that Hutchinson had needed a guard for his personal safety; that the New England ministers, for the sake of promoting liberty, preached a toleration for any immoralities; that Hancock's bills, to a large amount, had been dishonored. He had himself given July. CHAP. close attention to the appointments to office in MassaV. chusetts. He knew something of the political opin1774. ions even of the Boston ministers, not of Chauncy and Cooper only, but also of Pemberton, whom, as a friend to government, he esteemed "a very good man," though a dissenter. The name of John Adams, who had only in June commenced his active public career, had not yet been heard in the palace which he was so soon to enter as the minister of a republic. Of Cushing, he estimated the importance too highly. Aware of the controlling power of Samuel Adams, he asked, "What gives him his influence?" and Hutchinson answered, "A great pretended zeal for liberty, and a most inflexible natural temper. He was the first who asserted the independency of the colonies upon the supreme authority of the kingdom." For nearly two hours, the king continued inquiries respecting Massachusetts and other provinces, and was encouraged in the delusion that Boston would be left unsupported. The author of the pleasing intelligence became at once a favorite, obtained a large pension, was offered the rank of baronet, and was consulted as an oracle by Gibbon, the historian, and other politicians of the 'court. "I have just seen the governor of Massachusetts," wrote the king to Lord North, at the end of their interview, "and I am now well convinced the province will soon submit;" and he gloried in the efficacy of his favorite measure, the Boston port-act. But as soon as the true character of that act became known in America, every colony, every city, every village, and, as it were, the inmates of every farm-house, felt it as a wound of their affections. The towns of Mas V. 1774. July. sachusetts abounded in kind offices. The colonies CHAP. vied with each other in liberality. The record kept at Boston shows that "the patriotic and generous people" of South Carolina were the first to minister to the sufferers, sending early in June two hundred barrels of rice, and promising eight hundred more. At Wilmington, North Carolina, the sum of two thousand pounds currency was raised in a few days; the women of the place gave liberally; Parker Quince offered his vessel to carry a load of provisions freight free, and master and mariners volunteered to navigate her without wages. Lord North had called the American union a rope of sand; "it is a rope of sand that will hang him," said the people of Wilmington. Hartford was the first place in Connecticut to pledge its assistance; but the earliest donation received, was of two hundred and fifty-eight sheep from Windham. "The taking away of civil liberty will involve the ruin of religious liberty also," wrote the ministers of Connecticut to the ministers of Boston, cheering them to bear their heavy load "with vigorous Christian fortitude and resolution." complain to Heaven and earth of the cruel oppression we are under, we ascribe righteousness to God," was the answer. "The surprising union of the colonies affords encouragement. It is an inexhaustible source of comfort that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." "While we The small parish of Brooklyn, in Connecticut, through their committee, of which Israel Putnam was a member, opened a correspondence with Bos"Your zeal in favor of liberty," they said, "has gained a name that shall perish but with the glorious constellations of Heaven;" and they made an ton. CHAP. offering of flocks of sheep and lambs. Throughout V. New England the towns sent rye, flour, peas, cattle, July. sheep, oil, fish; whatever land or sea could furnish, 1774. and sometimes gifts of money. The French inhabitants of Quebec, joining with those of English origin, shipped a thousand and forty bushels of wheat. Delaware was so much in earnest, that it devised plans for sending relief annually. A special chronicle could hardly enumerate all the generous deeds. Maryland and Virginia contributed liberally; being resolved that the men of Boston, who were deprived of their daily labor, should not lose their daily bread, nor be compelled to change their residence for want. Washington headed a subscription paper with a gift of fifty pounds; and he presided at a convention of Fairfax county, where twenty-four very comprehensive resolutions, which had been drafted by George Mason and carefully revised and corrected by a committee, were, with but one dissentient voice, adopted by the freeholders and inhabitants. They derived the settlement of Virginia from a solemn compact with the crown, conceded no right of legislation to the British parliament, acknowledged only a conditional acquiescence in the acts of navigation, enumerated the various infringements of American rights, proposed non-importation and, if necessary, non-exportation as means of temporary resistance, urged the appointment of a congress of deputies from all the colonies, and recommended that that congress should conjure the king, "not to reduce his faithful subjects to a state of desperation, and to reflect, that from their sovereign there could be but one appeal." As to the further importation of slaves, their words were: |