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owed their eminence in political knowledge to the tyrannies of those reigns. The prospect now before us in America ought, in the same manner, to engage the attention of every man of learning to matters of power and right, that we may be neither led nor driven blindfolded to irretrievable destruction. Nothing less than this seems to have been meditated by somebody or other in Great Britain. There seems to be a direct and formal design on foot, to enslave all America. This however must be done by degrees. The first step that is intended seems to be an entire subversion of the whole system of our fathers, by the introduction of the canon and feudal law into America. The canon and feudal systems though greatly mutilated in England, are not yet destroyed. Like the temples and palaces, in which the great contrivers of them were once worshipped and inhabited, they exist in ruins; and much of the domineering spirit of them still remains. The designs and labours of a certain society to introduce the former of them into America, have been well exposed to the public, by a writer of great abilities; and the further attempts to the same purpose that may be made by that society, or by the ministry or parliament, I leave to the conjectures of the thoughtful. But it seems very manifest from the stamp act itself, that a design is formed to strip us in a great measure of the means of knowledge, by loading the press, the colleges, and even an almanac and a newspaper, with restraints and duties; and to introduce the inequalities and dependencies of the feudal system, by taking from the poorer sort of people all their little subsistence, and conferring it on a set of stamp officers, distributors and their deputies. But I must proceed no farther at present. The sequel, whenever I shall find health and leisure to pursue it, will be a 'disquisition of the policy of the stamp act.' In the mean time, however, let me add, these are not the vapours of a melancholy mind, nor

the effusions of envy, disappointed ambition, nor of a spirit of opposition to government; but the emanations of a heart that burns for its country's welfare. No one of any feeling, born and educated in this once happy country, can consider the numerous distresses, the gross indignities, the barbarous ignorance, the haughty usurpations, that we have reason to fear are meditating for ourselves, our children, our neighbours, in short for all our countrymen, and all their posterity, without the utmost agonies of heart, and many tears."

The publication of this admirable work brought him rapidly forward into general notice, and in the same year he was associated with Otis and other master spirits in appearing before the governor and council, and arguing there that the courts should administer justice without stamped paper.

He was not a member of the congress which met at New York, in October, 1765, to consult and prepare new petitions, and adjourn. But he had now become a public man, and was associated with Robert Treat Paine, Otis, Quincy, Samuel Adams and other distinguished patriots, all older than himself, in every endeavour to counteract the schemes of the ministry.

Under the influence of such men, the general assembly would probably have been impelled into very bold and perhaps very rash measures; if the news of George Grenville's dismissal, and the repeal of the stamp act, had not for the time removed the necessity of immediate decision.

In 1766, he removed his residence to the town of Boston, still continuing his attendance on the neighbouring circuits, and not unfrequently called to remote parts of the province.

The repeal of the stamp act, and the accession of Lord Chatham to the ministry, would perhaps have quieted the discontents in Massachusetts; had it not been for the declaratory act that parliament had been induced by a false pride VOL. I.-L

to attach to the repeal, claiming the right to tax the colonies, although for the present they chose to postpone its exercise.

There were however abundant sources of controversy between governor Bernard and the people, among which the introduction of two regiments of king's troops into the town of Boston, was not the least irritating.

Mr. Adams persevered with his friends Warren, Otis, Thacher and others, as well as his distinguished namesake Samuel Adams, in their labours, such as he had proposed in his essay on the canon and feudal law. In the year 1768 the importance of his services, and the influence of his writings had become so well known and appreciated, as to induce governor Bernard to think him worth buying over; and to make the same attempt with him, which we have already seen was tried without success on Hancock and Samuel Adams. For this purpose his intimate personal friend Sewall, the recently appointed attorney general, was commissioned by the governor to offer him the appointment of advocate general in the court of admiralty, a very lucrative office at that period. He was then but in his thirty-third year, with an increasing family to support; the office tendered to his acceptance would have been a promotion in the line of his profession, would have ensured him a considerable income, and required no direct abandonment of his friends or his principles; but he could not bear to be put in any sort of trammels, he considered the offer as merely insidious, and peremptorily declined it.

He was chosen by the citizens of Boston, in 1769, one of a committee, which was appointed, according to a custom of the time, before alluded to, to prepare instructions to their representatives, and the instructions drawn up accordingly, were full of opposition to the measures of the governor,

and particularly were aimed against allowing the troops to remain in the town.

The soldiers were not removed, however, and a series of squabbles between them and the town's people led finally to the bloody affray, on the fifth of March, 1770, commonly designated as "the massacre." The principal circumstances which caused and attended this event, have been already described with sufficient minuteness in a previous biography; but we may add with great propriety a sketch of the proceedings that resulted from it, vividly though slightly drawn in the following language by the subject of this memoir, who was himself an actor as well as a spectator, and at a distance of more than forty years could take pleasure in looking back on scenes that, at the moment of their occurrence, must have been of very painful interest.

"The people assembled," he said, "first at Faneuil Hall, and adjourned to the old South Church, to the number, as was conjectured, of ten or twelve hundred men, among whom were the most virtuous, substantial, independent, disinterested and intelligent citizens. They formed themselves into a regular deliberative body, chose their moderator and secretary, entered into discussions, deliberations and debates, adopted resolutions, appointed committees. Their resolutions in public were conformable to those of every man in private, who dared to express his thoughts or his feelings, that the regular soldiers should be banished from the town, at all hazards.' Jonathan Williams, a very pious, inoffensive and conscientious gentleman, was their moderator. A remon

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strance to the governor, or the governor and council, was ordained, and a demand that the regular troops should be removed from the town. A committee was appointed to present this remonstrance, of which Samuel Adams was chairman.

only of England but of Christendom. Had this however been otherwise, their enthusiasm, considering the principles in which it was founded and the end to which it was directed, far from being a reproach to them, was greatly to their honour; for I believe it will be found universally true, that no great enterprise, for the honour or happiness of mankind, was ever achieved without a large mixture of that noble infirmity."

He then describes the system established by these first settlers, as a mild limited monarchy, with a total rejection of all the principles of the feudal and the canon law, in which he includes "the whole system of diocesan episcopacy," and the "ridiculous fancies of sanctified effluvia from episcopal fingers."

He asserts that they equally laid aside all the "base services and servile dependencies of the feudal system." "They knew that government was a plain, simple intelligible thing, founded in nature and reason, and quite comprehensible by common sense." "They were convinced by their knowledge of human nature, derived from history and their own experience, that nothing could preserve their posterity from the encroachments of the two systems of tyranny, in opposition to which, as has been observed already, they erected their government in church and state, but knowledge diffused generally through the whole body of the people. Their civil and religious principles, therefore, conspired to prompt them to use every measure, and take every precaution in their power to propagate and perpetuate knowledge. For this purpose they laid very early the foundations of colleges, and invested them with ample privileges and emoluments; and it is remarkable, that they have left among their posterity, so universal an affection and veneration for those seminaries, and for liberal education, that the meanest of the people contribute

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