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provincial law which had received the approval of William and Mary, permitted two meetings annually, in which town officers and representatives might be chosen, but no other matter be introduced; every other assembling of a town was forbidden, except by the written leave of the governor, and then only for business expressed in that leave. The king trampled under foot the customs, laws, and privileges of the people of Massachusetts. He was willing to spare them an explicit consent to the power of parliament in all cases whatever; but he required proof that Boston had compensated the East India company, that the tax on tea could be safely collected, and that the province would peacefully acquiesce in the change of its charter.

With the regulating act, Gage received copies of two other acts, designed to facilitate its enforcement. By one of them he was authorized to quarter his army in towns; by the other, to transfer to another colony or to Great Britain any persons informed against or indicted for crimes committed in supporting the revenue laws or suppressing riots.

The regulating act went into effect on the moment of its being received, and precipitated the choice between submission and resistance. Within a week, eleven of the mandamus councillors took the oath of office, and were followed in a few days by fourteen more. They were persuaded that the province could by no possibility hold out, and that the promise of assistance from other colonies was a delusion. No assembly existed in the province to remonstrate; and Gage might delay or wholly omit to send out writs for a new election. But a people who were trained to read and write; to discuss all political questions, privately and in public; to strive to exhibit in their lives the Christian system of ethics, the beauty of holiness, and the unselfish nature of virtue; to reason on the great ends of God in creation; to believe in their own immortality; and to venerate their ancestry as above all others pure, enlightened, and free-could never forego the civil rights which were their most cherished inheritance.

"Being stationed by Providence in the front rank of the conflict," such was the letter of the committee of Boston to all the other towns in the province, "we trust we shall not be left by heaven to do anything derogatory to our common lib

erties, unworthy of the fame of our ancestors, or inconsistent with our former professions. Though surrounded with a large body of armed men, who, having the sword, have also our blood in their hands, we are yet undaunted. To you, our brethren and dear companions in the cause of God, we apply. From you we have received that countenance and aid which have strengthened our hands, and that bounty which hath occasioned smiles on the face of distress. To you, therefore, we look for that advice and example which, with the blessing of God, shall save us from destruction."

The earnest message was borne to the northern border of the province, where the brooks run to the Nashua, and the upland farms yielded but scanty returns to the hardest toil. The husbandmen in that region had already sent many loads of rye to the poor of Boston. In the coming storm they clustered round William Prescott of Pepperell, who stood as firm as Monadnock that rose in sight of his homestead; and, on the day after the first mandamus councillors took their oath of office, his townsmen put their soul into his words as he wrote for them to the men of Boston: "Be not dismayed nor disheartened in this day of great trials. We heartily sympathize with you, and are always ready to do all in our power for your support, comfort, and relief, knowing that Providence has placed you where you must stand the first shock. We consider we are all embarked in one bottom, and must sink or swim together. We think, if we submit to these regulations, all is gone. Our forefathers passed the vast Atlantic, spent their blood and treasure that they might enjoy their liberties, both civil and religious, and transmit them to their posterity. Their children have waded through seas of difficulty, to leave us free and happy in the enjoyment of English privileges. Now, if we should give them up, can our children rise up and call us blessed? Is a glorious death in defence of our liberties better than a short infamous life, and our memories to be had in detestation to the latest posterity? Let us all be of one heart, and stand fast in the liberties wherewith Christ hath made us free; and may he of his infinite mercy grant us deliverance out of all our troubles."

Everywhere the rural population of Massachusetts were

weighing the issues in which they were involved, and one spirit moved through them all. From the hills of Berkshire to the Penobscot they debated the great question of resistance as though God were hearkening; and they took counsel reverently with their ministers, and the aged, the pious, and the brave in their villages. Adjoining towns held conferences. The shire of Worcester, in August, set the example of a county congress, which disclaimed the jurisdiction of the British house of commons, asserted the exclusive right of the colonies to originate their laws, rested their duty of allegiance on the charter of the province, and declared the violation of that charter a dissolution of their union with Britain.

Thomas Gardner, of Cambridge, promised a like convention of the county of Middlesex. "Friends and brethren," he wrote to Boston, as if at once to allay its anxiety and prophesy his own approaching end, "the time is come that every one that has a tongue and an arm is called upon by his country to stand forth in its behalf. I consider the call as the call of God, and desire to be all obedience. The people will choose rather to fall gloriously in the cause of their country than meanly submit to slavery."

After searching the rolls of the several towns, the patriots estimated the population of the province at four hundred thousand souls; the number of men between sixteen and sixty years of age at about one hundred and twenty thousand, most of whom possessed arms, and were expert in their use. During the summer the drum and fife were heard in every hamlet, and the companies paraded for discipline. One day in August, Gage revoked Hancock's commission in the Boston cadets, upon which the company sent to him the king's standard and disbanded.

Israel Putnam, of Connecticut, the oracle of all patriot circles in his neighborhood, drove before him to Boston one hundred and thirty sheep, as a gift from the parish of Brooklyn. The "old hero" became Warren's guest, and every one's favorite. The officers whom he visited on Boston common bantered him about coming down to fight. "Twenty ships of the line and twenty regiments," said Major Small, "may be expected from England in case a submission is not speedily made

by Boston." "If they come," said the veteran, "I am ready to treat them as enemies."

The growing excitement attracted to New England Charles Lee, a restless officer, who, from having been aide-de-camp to the king of Poland, had the titular rank of a major-general. This claim, which gave him precedence over all who were likely to draw the sword for America, was, on occasion of his visit, universally acknowledged. He professed to see in the New England yeomanry the best materials for an army, and paid court to the patriots of Massachusetts.

Meantime, the delegates of Massachusetts to the general congress were escorted by great numbers as far as Watertown, where many had gathered to bid them a solemn farewell. On the Connecticut river they received a letter of advice from Hawley, the great patriot of Northampton, whose words were: "We must fight if we cannot otherwise rid ourselves of British taxation. The form of government enacted for us by the British parliament is evil against right, utterly intolerable to every man who has any idea or feeling of right or liberty. There is not heat enough yet for battle; constant and negative resistance will increase it. There is not military skill enough; that is improving, and must be encouraged. Fight we must finally, unless Britain retreats. Our salvation depends upon a persevering union. Every grievance of any one colony must be held as a grievance to the whole, and some plan be settled for a continuation of congresses, even though congresses will soon be declared by parliament to be high treason."

Hawley spoke the sentiments of western Massachusetts. When, on Tuesday, the sixteenth of August, the judges of the inferior court of Hampshire met at Great Barrington, it was known that the regulating act had received the royal approval. Before noon the town was filled with people of the county, and five hundred men from Connecticut, armed with clubs and staves. Suffering the royal courts of justice to sit seemed a recognition of the act of parliament, and the chief judge was forced to plight his honor that he and his associates would do no business. On the rumor that Gage meditated employing a part of his army to execute the new statute at Worcester, the inhabitants of that town prepared arms, musket-balls, and pow

der, and threatened to fall upon any body of soldiers who should attack them.

The mandamus councillors began to give way. Williams, of Hatfield, refused to incur certain ruin by accepting his commission; so did Worthington, of Springfield. Those who accepted dared not give advice.

Boston held a town-meeting. Gage reminded the selectmen of the act of parliament, restricting town-meetings without the governor's leave. "It is only an adjourned one," said the selectmen. "By such means," said Gage, "you may keep your meeting alive these ten years." He brought the subject before the new council. "It is a point of law," said they, "and should be referred to the crown lawyers." He asked their concurrence in removing a sheriff. "The act of parliament," they replied, "confines the power of removal to the governor alone." Several members gave an account of the frenzy which was sweeping from Berkshire over the province, and might reach them all even while sitting in the presence of the governor. “If you value your life, I advise you not to return home at present," was the warning received by Ruggles from the town of Hardwick.

By nine o'clock on the morning of the twenty-sixth, more than two thousand men marched in companies to the common in Worcester, where they forced Timothy Paine to walk with his hat off as far as the centre of their hollow square and read a written resignation of his seat at the council board. A large detachment then moved to Rutland to deal with Murray. The next day at noon, Wilder of Templeton and Holden of Princeton brought up their companies; and by three in the afternoon about fifteen hundred men had assembled, most of them armed with bludgeons. But Murray had escaped on the previous evening, just before the sentries were set round his house and along the roads; they therefore sent him a letter requiring him to resign. "The consequences of your proceedings will be rebellion, confiscation, and death," said the younger Murray. "No consequences," they replied, "are so dreadful to a free people as that of being made slaves." "This," wrote he to his brother, "is not the language of the common people only: those that have heretofore sustained the fairest character are VOL. IV.-4

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