THE FIRST BLOODSHEDDING.

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lutions, and every Colony south of Virginia followed in time. By the end of the year, New York had invited each Colony to elect delegates to a legislative body which should make laws for all, and though the plan was not carried out, it pointed again to union. The presence of troops in Boston led to the first bloodshedding.* It was on the evening of the fifth of March, 1770. The people irritated the soldiers, and they at last fired, killing three, mortally wounding two, and slightly wounding six others. This affray, called "the Boston Massacre," occurred in what is now State street (then King street), opposite the Old State House. Governor Hutchinson was forced to remove the troops, and until 1774, no more were quartered in Boston. A town-meeting was held on the sixth of March, in Faneuil Hall, but that place not being large enough, it adjourned to the Old South Meeting-house, where Samuel Adams was placed at the head of a committee directed to demand the removal of the troops. The Governor remembered the fate of Andros, and faltered before the strong man whom he had endeavored to have sent to England for trial as a traitor. It was one of the most pregnant moments in American history. England had been defied, and had given way, but revolution had been postponed.

In June, 1772, the Gaspec, which had been stationed at Providence to search vessels, all of which

* "The first blood shed in defence of the rights of America," says Henry Dawson, in "New York during the American Revolution," "flowed from the veins of the inhabitants in New York, on the Golden Hill, [between Burling Slip and Maiden Lane,] January 18, 1770." The affair did not, however, attain the historic importance of the Boston Massacre.

were suspected of violating the revenue acts, was burned by citizens who boarded it, bound the officers and crew, and took them to shore. It was proposed to carry the perpetrators of this act to England for trial, but the proposal resulted in nothing but more excitement. The royal commission took no action.*

The next outbreak was the " Boston Tea Party," as it has been called. On the sixteenth of December, 1773, a meeting of citizens in the "Old South Meetinghouse," at Boston, was broken up by the cry, "Hurrah for Griffin's wharf!" Three ships had arrived, laden with tea, on which the tax was still laid, and the

*The Rev. Ezra Stiles, of Newport, Rhode Island (afterwards President of Yale College), writing to an Englishman, evidently friendly to the Colonies, in 1772, said: “You may think it best to come first to Charleston, South Carolina. There you will find Mr. Gadsden, and other friends of public liberty. From thence, by water, you may come to Virginia, where you will find an Assembly firm in the cause of liberty. From Williamsburgh it may be best to travel by land to the northward. In Maryland you may find the sensible Mr. Dulany. At Philadelphia you will find Doctor Allison, Doctor Dickinson, Chief Justice Allen, and many other patriots. At New York, among others, you will take satisfaction in seeing Mr. William Livingston and Mr John Morin Scott. Travelling along through Connecticut, you may see Governor Trumbull and others. In your way to Newport, where you will find Mr. Merchant, Mr. Ellery, Mr. Bowler, and among them I, myself, shall be happy in waiting upon you. The late Governor Ward and Governor Hopkins, both now living in the Colony, will take pleasure in seeing you. You will then proceed to Boston, and find Mr. Otis, Mr. Adams, Mr. Cushing, Mr. Hancock and the Reverend Doctor Chauncy. I flatter myself you may find agreeable entertainment among them. You will proceed to Piscataqua, and, returning to Boston, may make an excursion across New England to Springfield, on Connecticut River, and so down to Hartford; thence across the new towns to Albany, and so down along Hudson's River to New York." This shows what portions of the continent a man of learning thought worth seeing, and hints at the persons of most note, besides showing the names of some who had at that time espoused the idea of independence.

THE BOSTON TEA PARTY.

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people had determined that it should not be landed. They had negotiated with the Governor, but he had finally refused to permit the vessels to return. Samuel Adams then rose and said, "This meeting can do nothing more to save the country." Then the cry just referred to had been uttered, and the audience left the building. An immense throng gathered at the wharf, and as they quietly looked on, a body of men disguised as Indians threw the cargoes into the harbor. Before dawn the next morning the men of Boston retired to their homes. The town was quiet, but the Revolution had begun. No one to this day has been able to give the names of all of the fifty men who, on that moonlit night, threw the tea into Boston harbor.

The next morning Samuel Adams and four others, as a Committee of Correspondence, sent Paul Revere * to New York and Philadelphia, with a declaration of what had been done. The most intense excitement followed. On the fifth of March, 1774, John Hancock suggested to a crowded audience in Boston, a congress of deputies from the several Colonies, as "the most effectual method of establishing a union for the security of our rights and liberties." On the tenth of May, news arrived at Boston that the British Government had closed its port, removing the Board of Customs to Marblehead, and the seat of government to Salem. At the same time it was announced

Revere was a native of Boston, at this time thirty-eight years of age. In 1756, he had been a Lieutenant of Artillery at Lake George. He was one of the actors in the Tea Party. He also took the news of the closing of the port of Boston to New York and Philadelphia, asking the sympathy of the inhabitants.