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from his resistance or opposition to the stamp-act. This bold association originated in New-York, and prevailed throughout New-England, and, had not the act been repealed, must have led to civil war. The restrictive measures produced distress and tumults in England; large numbers of the manufacturers being thrown out of employment, and more than forty thousand, with black flags, appeared in the streets in London, and surrounded the royal palace and parliament house. Fortunately a change of ministry took place, in consequence of what was called the regency bill, and Lord Grenville was succeeded by the Marquis of Rockingham, as first lord of the treasury, and the Duke of Grafton and General Conway were appointed secretaries of state. In January the parliament met; the affairs of America occupied the principal attention, and the first talents of the house were engaged in the discussion. Mr. Pitt, who had been confined to his bed by sickness, when the stamp-act was passed, now came forward as the great champion of the rights of the Americans, and with his manly and all-powerful eloquence, opposed the unjust, unconstitutional and dangerous measure; he even justified the Americans in their resistance of an act of tyranny and oppression. After a long and animated discussion, the act was repealed, accompanied, however, with a declaration, that the king and parliament had, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force to bind the colonies, and his majesty's subjects in them, in all cases whatsoever." An act of indemnity was also passed.

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The repeal of the obnoxious act occasioned universal joy, both in Great Britain and America; the ships in the Thames displayed their colours, and the whole city of London was illuminated; and in the colonies, notwithstanding the declaratory act, asserting the principle of taxation, the joy and rejoicings were universal; the non-importation resolutions were rescinded; animosities, illtreatment, and every thing past, were forgotten, and commercial intercourse with Great Britain was resumed with greater activity than ever before had been witnessed. The colonies hoped and believed, that harmony would now be restored, and did every thing in their power to promote this desirable object. But the officers of the crown, the minions of power, and the expectants of place, kept up a correspondence with the officers of the British government at home, and attempted to promote their own selfish views by misrepresenting their countrymen. Governor Bernard, of Massachusetts, was the head of this party, which contributed so much to breed difficulties and bring matters to a crisis. Notwithstanding that the declaratory act still hung over the heads of the colonies, like a portentous cloud, it was not generally expected that the British government would very soon make another so dangerous an experiment. But these reasonable expectations, however, soon proved to be fallacious, and all reliance on the justice or liberality of Britain, were found to be deceptive and dangerous. Notwithstanding the distraction into which the colonies had been thrown, by the stamp-act, within a few months after its repeal, and e the wounds it had occasioned had

sad time to heal, the chancellor of the exchequer, Charles Townsend, came forward with a new scheme of taxing America, and was so sanguine in his views, that he pledged his character for the success of the project. The new revenue scheme was, to take off the duties on teas, which were paid in Great Britain, and to levy three pence per pound on all that was purchased in Amersca, and also a duty on paper, glass and several other articles. A board of customs was established, and commissioners appointed to set in Boston to collect the duties; and the custom-officers were to be paid from the revenue thus raised; and the governor, udges of the superior court, and other officers in Massachusetts, who had hitherto been dependant for their salaries on the assembly, to render them independent of the people, and more devoted Great Britain, were also to be paid from these revenues. And to carry the iniquitous system into effect (as unjust laws can only be enforced by unjust means,) the powers of the court of admiralty were greatly extended, so as to deprive the people of trial by ury in prosecutions for violating the revenue laws. Writs of Assistance, as they were called, issued by the governor, or any officer of the revenue, authorised searching the house of the most respectable inhabitant in the province, on suspicion of the concealment of contraband or smuggled goods.

When intelligence of these new parliamentary regulations reached America, they occasioned universal astonishment, and revived all the excitement and alarm which prevailed during the stamp-act. In the minds of reflecting men they were regarded as more dangerous than that obnoxious act, as an indirect and disguised system of taxation had a more certain and fatal tendency to undermine the liberties and enslave the people, than direct axes. The colonies, assailed by the same injuries, had recourse o their former measures of complaint and supplication; but keir petitions were not even read, and their remonstrances 'reated with contempt, thus adding insult to injustice. These accumulated injuries and indignities aroused the fears and spirit of the colonies; and a circular letter, addressed to the other colonies, by the assembly of Massachusetts, contributed to difuse the flame and lead to concert of action. This letter was dated the 11th of February, 1768, and the sentiments it contained were reiterated by most of the colonial assemblies. From the old and determined conduct of the assembly of Massachusetts, was prorogued by the governor. Another assembly was conTened in May following, to which the governor, in his first communication, insolently demanded of them, as required by the British Secretary of State, to rescind the resolutions of the preceding assembly, which led to the circular letter, and intimated that unless they complied immediately they would be dissolved at once. But the assembly acted with a firmness which became the defenders of liberty; and instead of complying with this haughty mandate, petitioned the king for the removal of the royal governor, and charged upon him a long catalogue of crimes. The governor, exasperated at their conduct, immediately dissolythe mutinous assembly, and applied to the cominander in

chief of the king's troops, then in New-York, to have severa additional regiments sent to Boston. Alarmed at these circum stances, the inhabitants of Boston beseeched the governor t convene another assembly; but he treated their request with contempt. The crisis required something to be done, withou delay, and accordingly letters were written to every town in th colony, requesting the appointment of delegates to meet in con vention at Boston, before the arrival of the troops. Delegate from ninety-six towns met on the 22d of September. The gov ernor instantly sent them an angry message, commanding them to disperse, threatening, in case of refusal, that they would suffe the consequence of their temerity. The convention, however was not frightened into submission, but gave their reasons fo convening, continued their deliberations, and prepared a petition to the king.

On the first of October, the troops arrived and landed; and sword in hand, paraded through the streets of Boston, which were filled with vast crowds, who with sullen silence, denoting the deepest resentment, witnessed this, the first act in the great and bloody drama about to be performed. No tumult or resistance however, ensued, notwithstanding the troops were quartered in the houses of the inhabitants. The assembly met in May, 1769, and immediately adopted several spirited resolutions; that the placing an armed force where the legislature was convened, to overawe their deliberations, was a breach of privilege, and that the quartering of troops on the inhabitants in time of peace, was illegal and a violation of the rights and liberties of British subjects.

A standing army was now stationed in the capital of Massachusetts, for the avowed object of coercing the inhabitants into submission; their commerce fettered, their characters traduced, the assembly prevented from meeting, and the petitions of all classes to have the assembly convened, treated with contempt by an insolent governor, who threatened to augment the troops, and enforce at all hazards, his arbitrary and tyrannical mea sures; it cannot be surprising that the fears and exasperations of the people exceeded what had ever been witnessed before. At this alarmning conjuncture, something must be done, and there was no other alternative but submission or resistance, as petitions had been treated with such contempt, that to memorialize any branch of the British government would be equivalent to submission; and there were but two ways of resistance, either an appeal to the sword, or an entire suspension of all commercial intercourse with Great Britain, which, as was said by Mr. Pitt in his speech, furnished the means whereby Britain had carried on the war with France, and which if continued, would afford the means of their own oppression. As all the colonies were involved in one common danger, they readily entered into the most solemn engagements, that no British or India goods should be imported, except a few specified articles of necessary use. The effects of these arrangements were soon felt in England, and produced clators, and even tumults in some parts of the kingdom. But

te partizans of the crown in America, endeavored by their corspondence, to induce the ministry to persevere in their oppressive measures, and represented in the strongest terms, that he interruption of commerce was only an effort of desperation, hich could not last long. They advised the ministry, to purchase large quantities of goods, designed for the American marbet, and also to allow the merchants engaged in the American rade, a premium equal to the profits of their stock in business. "If bese measures are adopted," said Mr. Oliver, secretary in Masachusetts, in one of his letters," the game will soon be up with ay countrymen.

The assembly which convened at Boston in May, set several weeks without doing any business, as they refused to act as ng as an armed force was quartered in the town, and surrounded the house where they were in session; they were finally adourned to Cambridge. They sent several messages to the govemor to have the troops removed, but after evading the matter for some time, he declared that he had no authority over the king's troops; thus admitting that the military was above the civil power in the province. Governor Bernard sent a provokng message, stating the expenditures of quartering the troops on the town, and requesting that provision be made for the payment of the same, and also for their future support; the assembly were thus called on to maintain the instruments by which they were to be oppressed and enslaved. But instead of complying with this request, they passed several spirited resolutions, censuring the conduct of the governor and General Gage, for their rash and oppressive measures, their wanton violations of the constitution, the introduction of a standing army in time of peace, and their encroachments on the liberties of the citizens and of the province. The governor had received an order to repair to England, and lay before the king the state of the colony; which be communicated to the assembly, with a request that his salary might be continued during his absence, as his office would remain. But the assembly informed him in decided terms, that they could not comply with either of his requests. On receiving this answer, he immediately, after a short, angry, and threatening speech, prorogued the legislature. He soon after set sail for Europe, then little thinking that he should never return to a Country that by his violent temper and arbitrary conduct, he had brought to the brink of civil war. His reception at court convinced the Americans of the truth of what they feared, that the governor had been sent for, as a mischievous emissary, rather han for an impartial inquiry into the real situation of the province, or an investigation of his own conduct.

Thomas Hutchinson, the lieutenant-governor, was appointed to succeed Governor Bernard. Hutchinson was a native of Boston, and had run a career of popularity; whilst, however, he was courting the people at home, he was not less assiduous in ingratiating himself into the favor of the British government, by misrepresenting his countrymen. He was artful and plausible, and possessed of popular talents; but was insidious, dark, intriguing and ambitious; and the extreme of avarice marked ever

feature of his character. His appointment was announced at the close of the year 1769. He immediately assumed a more haugh ty tone, and aimed at more high handed measures than his pre decessor, and commenced his administration by informing the assembly that he was independent of them and the people, as his majesty had made provision for his salary. Secure of the fa vor of his sovereign, he treated the people and the assembly with contempt, and answered their repeated solicitations to remove the troops from the capital, by withdrawing the garrison from a strong fortress in the harbor of Boston, who were in the pay of the province, and replacing them by two regiments of the king's troops. The ebullitions of popular feeling, were so high as to occasion great alarm with the leading patriots, that it would break out into acts of violence, which might injure the cause of the people. The miserable minions of power in America, endeavoured to promote this result, and openly avowed, "that the only method to restore tranquillity, was to take off the original incendiaries, whose writings had instilled the poison of sedition into the people." James Otis, the most active, bold and influential patriot of the day, having published under his proper signature, some severe strictures on the conduct of the officers of the crown, was assaulted in a public room, by a band of hired ruffians, with swords and bludgeons; and being covered with wounds, was left for dead. The assassins made their escape, and took refuge on board the king's ships in the harbor. Mr. Otis survived, but the lamp of his understanding which had glowed with such effulgence, was overcast with clouds and darkness. Mr. John Adams says that he "laid the foundation of the American revolution, with an energy, and with those masterly talents which no other man possessed;" and he is justly considered as the first martyr to American liberty.

The insults which the inhabitants constantly experienced, from the soldiers, increased their animosity towards them to such a degree, as to lead to violence and blood-shed. On the second of March, 1770, an affray took place between a party of soldiers of the 29th regiment, and some rope-makers, in front of Mr. Gray's rope-walk. This was followed by a more alarming outrage on the 5th the indignant populace pressed upon and insulted the soldiers, while under arms, and assailed them with clubs, sticks and snow-balls, covering stones. Being dared to fire by the mob, six of the soldiers discharged their muskets, which killed three of the citizens, and wounded five others. The effect of this was electric; the town was instantly in commotion, and the mass of the people were so exasperated, that it required the utmost exertions to prevent their rallying and driving the British myrmidons out of town; and nothing but an assurance that the troops should be withdrawn, prevented this resort to force. The captain of the party and eight men were brought to trial; two of the men were found guilty; the captain and the other men were acquitted. A general meeting of the inhabitants was immediately assembled in Faneuil Hall, who unanimously resolved that no armed force should be suffered longer to reside

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