etail Photos copyright by Detroit Publishing Co. 1. THE OLD CORNER BOOK STORE. (The first brick building in Boston.) PETITION TO THE KING; COÖPERATION INVITED. 257 tempt was made to dispute the authority of Parliament in all cases consistent with the fundamental rights of nature and the constitution.* They proceed as follows:+ "It is with the deepest concern that your humble suppliants would represent to your Majesty, that your Parliament, the rectitude of whose intentions is never to be questioned, has thought proper to pass divers acts imposing taxes on your subjects in America, with the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue. If your Majesty's subjects here shall be deprived of the enjoy their privileges, civil and religious. Their being threatened with the loss of both at once must throw them into a disagreeable situation. We hope in God such an establishment will never take place in America, and we desire you would strenuously oppose it. The revenue raised in America, for aught we can tell, may be as constitutionally applied towards the support of prelacy as of soldiers and pensioners." In addition to this petition to the king, letters were sent to the Marquis of Rockingham, Lord Shelburne, General Conway, Lords Camden and honor and privilege of voluntarily contributing Chatham, and the Lords Commissiontheir aid to your Majesty, in supporting your government and authority in the province, and defending and securing your rights and territories in America, which they have always hitherto done with the utmost cheerfulness; if these acts of Par ers of the Treasury.† In February, 1768, a circular letter was sent also to the other colonies, requesting that liament shall remain in force, and your Majesty's they unite with Massachusetts in a Commons in Great Britain shall continue to exercise the power of granting the property of their fellow subjects in this province; your people must then regret their unhappy fate in having only the name left of free subjects. With all humility we conceive that a representation of this province in Parliament, considering their local circumstances, is utterly impracticable. Your Majesty has therefore been graciously pleased to order your requisitions to be laid before the representatives of your people in the General Assembly, who have never failed to afford the necessary aid, to the extent of their ability, and sometimes beyond it, and it would be ever grievous to your Majesty's faithful subjects, to be called upon in a way that should appear to them to imply a distrust of their most ready and willing compliance." Regarding the encroachments of prelacy, the circular letter contains this passage: "The establishment of a Protestant episcopate in America is also very zealously contended for; and it is very alarming to a people whose fathers, from the hardships they suffered under such an establishment, were obliged to flee their native country into a wilderness, in order peaceably to *See Lecky, History of England, vol. iv., pp. 113-114. See also Tudor, Life of Otis, pp. 301-312, where other extracts are given. common defence of all their rights, the letter concluding with an expression of their "firm confidence in the king, their common head and father," and the hope that "the united and dutiful supplications of his distressed American subjects will meet with his royal and favorable acceptance."+ The majority of the colonies replied favorably, pledging support to Massachusetts which was subsequently unstintingly given.|| * Hosmer, Samuel Adams, pp. 104-105. Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, pp. 209211; Bancroft, vol. iii., pp. 271-275. Tudor, in his Life of Otis, pp. 292-300, gives extracts from some of these letters. These petitions, instructions, letters, etc., were the work of Otis and were revised by Samue! Adams. See Wells, Life of Samuel Adams, vol. i., pp. 152-158, 170; Tudor, Life of Otis, pp. 313-317. See also Fisher, Struggle for American Independence, vol. i., pp. 119-121; Trevelyan, American Revolution, vol. i., p. 8; Hosmer, Samuel Adams, P. 156. Frothingham, pp. 211-214. 258 MASSACHUSETTS REFUSES TO RESCIND. As was natural, the English ministry became alarmed at the thought of a union among the colonists in resistance to Parliamentary measures, and accordingly, Lord Hillsborough, who had recently been appointed secretary for the colonies, informed Governor Bernard that the House of Representatives of Massachusetts must rescind their "rash and hasty" circular, and that in case of refusal, the House should be dissolved. Similar instructions were sent to the other royal governors* in which it was observed that, as his Majesty considers this measure to be of the most dangerous and factious tendency, calculated to inflame the minds of his good subjects in the colonies, and promote an unwarrantable combination, it is his Majesty's pleasure that you should exert your utmost influence to defeat this flagitious attempt to disturb the public peace, by prevailing upon the Assembly of your province to take no notice of it, which will be treating it with the contempt it deserves." On June 21 Bernard presented Hillsborough's instructions to the new Assembly, but they denied that the circular letter to the other colonies had been unfairly passed as Hillsborough charged, and then absolutely refused to rescind. They observed: “If by the word rescinding is intended a * Hillsborough's letters will be found in Almon's Collection of Papers, pp. 203–205, 220. See also pp. 175-193, 202-222, and Ryerson, Loyalists, vol. i., chap. xiv., and Stedman, American War, vol. i., pp. 53-63, for other documents. passing a vote of this house in direct and express disapprobation of the measure above mentioned, as illegal, inflammatory and tending to promote injustifiable combinations against his Majesty's peace, crown, and dignity,' we must take the liberty to testify and publicly to declare that we take it to be the native inherent and indefeasible right of the subject jointly or severally to petition the king for the redress of grievances. We * have now only to inform your excel- *Tudor, Life of Otis, pp. 320-321. On the proceedings see Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, pp. 215-220; Bancroft, vol. iii., pp. 288-293. See also Fiske, The American Revolu tion, vol. i., pp. 49-50; Niles, Principles and Acts of the Revolution, pp. 115, 116 (ed. 1876); Hos mer, Samuel Adams, p. 112 et seq. nor ACTION IN OTHER COLONIES; THE SLOOP LIBERTY. sent Horatio Sharpe Hillsborough's request to the Maryland Assembly, they replied: "We cannot but view this as an attempt in some of his Majesty's ministers, to suppress all communication of sentiments between the colonies, and to prevent the united supplications of America from reaching the royal ear. We have the warmest and most affectionate attachment to our most gracious sovereign, and shall ever pay the readiest and most respectful regard to the just and constitutional power of the British Parliament; but we shall not be intimidated by a few high-sounding expressions from doing what we think is right." Similar sentiments were also expressed by the Assemblies of New York, Virginia, Delaware and Georgia, and under instructions from the home government, they were dissolved by the royal governors. The Assemblies of Rhode Island, South Carolina, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina also declared their loyalty to the colonial cause.† According to instructions from the ministry, officers for collecting the customs house duties had been stationed in the colonies, and this did not tend to make matters more quiet or to allay the excitement, but, on the contrary, made a collision more imminent. Early in June, 1768, these cus Browne, Maryland, p. 252 et seq.; Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, p. 223. † For the various proceedings see Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, pp. 223-228; Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 284 et seq. 259 toms house officers seized the sloop Liberty, belonging to Hancock, under the charge that it was engaged in smuggling. The customs house officers had boarded the Liberty, and not wishing to take any chances on an attempt at her recovery by the colonists, had brought the sloop under the guns of a British war-ship in the harbor. Immediately upon hearing this, a mob collected, attacked the house of the customs officers and so severely handled the officers themselves that they narrowly escaped with their lives. The governor advised the officers that, as he was unable to protect them, it would be best that they leave Boston. The officers consequently retired first on board the Romney, a 50 gun man-of-war, and later to Castle William. Regarding these proceedings, a committee of the Council stated that while the extraordinary circumstances preceding the seizure might, in a measure, extenuate the criminal actions of the mob, still such actions were abhorrent to a large majority of the inhabitants of the city, and they requested that the governor institute criminal proceedings against such as might be found guilty.* The Assembly had at this time been dissolved, and the report was not considered by the House. Moreover, the state of pub *Howard, Preliminaries of the Revolution, pp. 193-194; Kidder, History of the Boston Massacre, p. 115; Gordon, American Revolution, vol. i., pp. 231, 237, 240 (ed. 1788); John Adams, Works, vol. ii., p. 215. Tudor, Life of Otis, p. 329. |