Novanglus, and Massachusettensis
by John Adams · English · Gutenberg #45205 · 920,694 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Novanglus, and Massachusettensis
Author: John Adams
Daniel Leonard
Release date: March 25, 2014 [eBook #45205]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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[Transcriber's Note: Obvious printer errors have been corrected
without note; obsolete and inconsistent spelling, punctuation,
hyphenation, and capitalization have been preserved as they appear
in the original. Errors that appear in the original Errata list
are noted as [Errata: text]. Less obvious errors are marked with a
[Transcriber's Note].
This e-book was created from a presentation copy from the printers
to John Adams, now in the John Adams Library at the Boston Public
Library, and available in digitized form at the Internet Archive,
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NOVANGLUS,
AND
MASSACHUSETTENSIS;
OR
POLITICAL ESSAYS,
PUBLISHED
IN THE YEARS 1774 AND 1775,
ON THE PRINCIPAL POINTS OF CONTROVERSY, BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND HER
COLONIES.
THE FORMER BY
JOHN ADAMS,
LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES;
THE LATTER BY
JONATHAN SEWALL,
THEN KING'S ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE PROVINCE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY.
_TO WHICH ARE ADDED_
A NUMBER OF LETTERS, LATELY WRITTEN BY
PRESIDENT ADAMS,
TO
THE HONOURABLE WILLIAM TUDOR;
SOME OF WHICH WERE NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.
BOSTON:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HEWS & GOSS,
1819.
DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT,
_District Clerk's Office._
BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the thirtieth day of March, A. D. 1819,
and of the Forty-fourth Year of the Independence of the United
States of America, HEWS & GOSS, of the said District, have deposited
in this Office, the title of a Book, the Right whereof they claim
as Proprietors, in the words following, to wit:--"Novanglus and
Massachusettensis; or Political Essays, published in the years 1774
and 1775, on the principal points of controversy, between Great
Britain and her colonies. The former by John Adams, late President
of the United States; the latter by Jonathan Sewall, then king's
Attorney General of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. To which are
added a number of letters, lately written by President Adams, to the
Hon. William Tudor; some of which were never before published."
In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States,
entitled "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the
Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of
such Copies, during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an Act,
entitled "An Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled, An Act for the
Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts
and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the
times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the
Arts of Designing, Engraving and Etching Historical and other Prints."
JOHN W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts.
TO THE PUBLIC.
For the last twenty years, our political opinions have partaken
so much of feeling, in the contest between the two great European
rivals, that the happiness, the interests, and even the character
of America seem to have been almost forgotten. But the spirit of
party has now most happily so far subsided, that a disposition to
look into, and examine the history of our own dear country, and its
concerns, very generally prevails. Perhaps there is no part of that
history, that is more interesting, than the controversy between Great
Britain and her colonies, which produced the war of the revolution,
and their final separation.
It is important, that the rising generation should be well acquainted
with the principles and justice of that cause, which eventuated in
our Independence, and to which we are indebted for our present envied
state of prosperity and happiness.
The principles of that controversy were ably discussed by various
writers, both in England and America; but it has been supposed,
that the sentiments and conduct of each party were more elaborately
displayed, in certain essays published in Boston, a short time
previous to the commencement of hostilities, over the signatures of
_Novanglus_ and _Massachusettensis_, than in any other productions
whatever.
The former were written by JOHN ADAMS, then a distinguished
citizen of Boston, one of the noblest assertors of the rights and
privileges of the colonies, and who has since been elected to the
most important and honourable offices in the gift of the nation.
The latter were written by JONATHAN SEWALL, then king's
Attorney General of the province of Massachusetts; a gentleman of
education and talents--the champion--and possessing the confidence of
what were then called the government party.
By an attentive perusal of these essays, a correct judgment may be
formed of all the principal and leading points of the controversy,
between the colonies and the mother country.
Confiding in the correctness of these sentiments, and the patronage
of an enlightened public, we have re-published the above mentioned
essays; to which are added, all those interesting letters, written
by President ADAMS, and addressed to the Hon. WILLIAM TUDOR, lately
printed in the Boston Daily Advertiser, together with others never
before published.
The venerable and patriotic author of _Novanglus_, now lives to
behold and enjoy the blessed fruits of his labours, and that of his
compatriots, and possesses, in the highest degree, the intellect of
his most intellectual days.
In offering this volume to the public, we please ourselves with
the hope, that it will be a valuable acquisition to all classes of
citizens, who wish to become acquainted with those principles of
civil liberty, for which our ancestors so nobly, and so successfully
contended. To the gentlemen of the bar, to legislators, and to
politicians generally, we conceive it will be an inestimable treasure.
We are forcibly impressed with the wonderful effect the essays
of Novanglus must have produced, in the times in which they were
published, by convincing the great body of the people, that the
_parliament_ of Great Britain had no right to tax the colonies in
America. But in reflecting on the CONSEQUENCES of that glorious
revolution which these essays greatly tended to produce, the mind
is imperatively drawn to a contemplation of the present political
condition of Europe. Representative governments are gradually
introducing themselves into every part of that country; and we hope
the day is not far distant, when the whole world shall be emancipated
from tyranny. As AMERICANS we feel a _conscious_ pride, that the
resistance which our ancestors made to the arbitrary machinations of
an Hutchinson, a Bute, a Mansfield and a North, will terminate in the
civil and political freedom of ALL MANKIND.
HEWS & GOSS.
BOSTON, JULY 1, 1819.
_ERRATA._
PAGE. LINE.
24 26 from the top, for _procreations_, read _procurations_.
32 14 from the top, for _terms_ read _terrors_.
18 from the bottom, read _more_ after _much_.
44 9 from the top, for _their_ read _these_.
55 20 from the top, for _shewing_ read _knowing_.
69 1 from the bottom, for _articles_ read _artifices_
[Transcriber's Note: original already reads 'artifices'].
100 12 from the top, for _knew_ read _know_, and for _know_ read _knew_.
100 2 from the bottom, for _amity_ read _anxiety_.
120 7 from the bottom [Transcriber's Note: top], _dele-suo_.
120 6 from the bottom, for _compact_ read _conquest_.
240 8 from the bottom, for _expected_ read _respected_.
PREFACE.
Jonathan Sewall was descended from Mitchills and Hulls and
Sewalls, and I believe Higginsons, _i. e._ from several of the
ancient and venerable of New England families. But, as I am no
genealogist, I must refer to my aged classmate and highly esteemed
friend Judge Sewall of York, whose researches will, one day, explain
the whole.
Mr. SEWALL's father was unfortunate; died young, leaving his
son destitute; but as the child had discovered a pregnant genius, he
was educated by the charitable contribution of his friends, of whom
Dr. Samuel Cooper was one of the most active and successful, among
his opulent parishoners. Mr. SEWALL graduated at college
in 1748; kept a Latin school in Salem, till 1756, when Chambers
Russell, of Lincoln, a Judge of the Supreme Court and a Judge of
Admiralty, from a principle of disinterested benevolence, received
him into his family; instructed him in law; furnished him with books
and introduced him to the practise at the bar. In 1757 and 1758,
he attended the Supreme Court in Worcester, and spent his evenings
with me in the office of Colonel James Putnam, a gentleman of great
acuteness of mind, and very extensive and successful in practise, and
an able lawyer; in whose family I boarded and under whose auspices
I studied law. Here commenced between Mr. SEWALL and me,
a personal friendship, which continued, with none but political
interruptions, till his death. He commenced practice in Charlestown,
in the County of Middlesex, I, in that parish of the ancient town of
Braintree, now called Quincy, then in the County of Suffolk, now of
Norfolk. We attended the Courts in Boston, Cambridge, Charlestown,
and Concord; lived together, frequently slept in the same chamber,
and not seldom, in the same bed. Mr. SEWALL was then a patriot;
his sentiments were purely American. To James Otis, who took a
kind notice of us both, we constantly applied for advice in any
difficulty, and he would attend to us, advise us, and look into books
for us, and point out authorities to us, as kindly as if we had been
his pupils or his sons.
After the surrender of Montreal in 1759, rumours were every where
spread that the English would now new model the Colonies, demolish
the charters and reduce all to royal governments. These rumours I had
heard as often as he had. One morning I met him, accidentally, on the
floor of the old Town House. "John" said he, "I want to speak with
you;" he always called me John, and I him Jonathan, and often said to
him, I wish my name were David. He took me to a window seat and said;
"these Englishmen are going to play the devil with us. They will
overturn every thing. We must resist them and that by force. I wish
you would write in the Newspapers, and urge a general attention to
the Militia, to their exercises and discipline, for we must resist in
arms." I answered, "All this I fear is true; but why do you not write
yourself? You are older than I am; have more experience than I have,
are more intimate with the grandees than I am, and you can write ten
times better than I can." There had been a correspondence between
us, by which I knew his refined style as well as he knew my coarse
one. "Why," said Mr. SEWALL, "I would write, but Goffe will
find me out and I shall grieve his righteous soul, and you know
what influence he has in Middlesex." This Goffe had been Attorney
General for twenty years, and commanded the practise in Middlesex and
Worcester and several other Counties. He had power to crush, by his
frown or his nod any young Lawyer in his County. He was afterwards
Judge Trowbridge, but at that time as ardent as any of Hutchinson's
disciples, though he afterwards became alienated from his pursuits
and principles.
In December 1760, or January 1761, Stephen Sewall, Chief Justice
died, deeply lamented, though insolvent. My friend JONATHAN,
his nephew, the son of his brother, who tenderly loved and deeply
revered his uncle, could not bear the thought, that the memory of
the Chief Justice should lie under the imputation of bankruptcy. At
that time bankruptcy was infamous; now it is scarcely disgraceful.
JONATHAN undertook the administration of his uncle's estate.
Finding insolvency inevitable, he drew a petition to the General
Court to grant a sum of money, sufficient, to pay the Chief Justice's
debts. If my friend had known the character of his countrymen, or
the nature of that Assembly, he never would have conceived such a
project; but he did conceive it and applied to James Otis, and his
father, Colonel Otis, to patronize and support it. The Otis's knew
their countrymen better than he did. They received and presented
the petition, but without much hope of success. The petition was
rejected, and my friend SEWALL conceived a suspicion, that
it was not promoted with so much zeal, by the Otis's, as he thought
they might have exerted. He imputed the failure to their coldness;
was much mortified and conceived a violent resentment, which he
expressed with too much freedom and feeling in all companies.
Goffe, Hutchinson and all the courtiers soon heard of it and
instantly fastened their eyes upon SEWALL; courted his society;
sounded his fame; promoted his practise, and soon after made him
Solicitor General by creating a new office, expressly for him. Mr.
SEWALL, had a soft, smooth, insinuating eloquence, which gliding
imperceptibly into the minds of a Jury, gave him as much power over
that tribunal as any lawyer ought ever to possess. He was also
capable of discussing before the court, any intricate question
of law, which gave him, at least, as much influence there as was
consistent with an impartial administration of justice. He was a
gentleman and a scholar; had a fund of wit, humour and satire,
which he used with great discretion at the bar, but poured out
with unbounded profusion in the newspapers. Witness his voluminous
productions in the newspapers, signed _long J._ and _Philanthropos_.
These accomplishments richly qualified him to serve the purposes of
the gentlemen, who courted him into their service.
Mr. SEWALL soon fell in love with Miss Esther Quincy, the
fourth daughter of Edmund Quincy, Esq. an eminent merchant and
magistrate, and a grand daughter of that Edmund Quincy, who was
eighteen years a Judge of the Superior Court, who died of the small
pox in the agency of the province at the Court of St. James's,
and whose monument was erected, at the expense of the Province,
in Bun-hill-fields, London. This young lady, who was celebrated
for her beauty, her vivacity and spirit, lived with her father in
this parish, now called Quincy. Mr. SEWALL's courtship was extended
for several years, and he came up very constantly on Saturdays and
remained here until Mondays; and I was sure to be invited to meet him
on every Sunday evening. During all these years, there was a constant
correspondence between us, and he concealed nothing from me, so that
I knew him by his style whenever he appeared in print.
In 1766, he married the object of his affections, and an excellent
wife he found her. He was soon appointed Attorney General. In 1768,
he was employed by Governor Barnard to offer me the office of
Advocate General, in the Court of Admiralty, which I decidedly and
peremptorily though respectfully refused.
We continued our friendship and confidential intercourse, though
professedly in boxes of politics, as opposite as East and West,
until the year 1774, when we both attended the Superior Court in
Falmouth, Casco-bay, now Portland. I had then been chosen a delegate
to Congress. Mr. SEWALL invited me to take a walk with him, very
early in the morning, on the great hill. In the course of our rambles
he very soon begun to remonstrate against my going to Congress. He
said "that Great Britain was determined on her system; her power was
irresistible and would certainly be destructive to me, and to all
those who should persevere in opposition to her designs." I answered,
"that I knew Great Britain was determined on her system, and that
very determination, determined me on mine; that he knew I had been
constant and uniform in opposition to all her measures; that the die
was now cast; I had passed the Rubicon; swim or sink, live or die,
survive or perish with my country, was my unalterable determination."
The conversation was protracted into length, but this was the
substance of the whole. It terminated in my saying to him, "I see we
must part, and with a bleeding heart I say, I fear forever; but you
may depend upon it, this adieu is the sharpest thorn on which I ever
sat my foot." I never conversed with him again 'till the year 1788.
Mr. SEWALL retired in 1775 to England, where he remained and resided
in Bristol.
On my return from Congress in the month of November 1774, I found
the Massachusetts Gazette teeming with political speculations, and
Massachusettensis shining like the moon among the lesser stars.
I instantly knew him to be my friend SEWALL, and was told he excited
great exultation among the tories and many gloomy apprehensions among
the whigs. I instantly resolved to enter the lists with him, and this
is the history of the following volume.
In 1788, Mr. SEWALL came to London to embark for Halifax. I
enquired for his lodgings and instantly drove to them, laying aside
all etiquette, to make him a visit. I ordered my servant to announce
John Adams, was instantly admitted, and both of us forgetting that we
had ever been enemies, embraced each other as cordially as ever. I
had two hours conversation with him in a most delightful freedom upon
a multitude of subjects. He told me he had lived for the sake of his
two children; he had spared no pains nor expense in their education,
and he was going to Halifax in hope of making some provision for
them. They are now two of the most respectable gentlemen in Canada.
One of them a Chief Justice; the other an Attorney General. Their
father lived but a short time after his return to America; evidently
broken down by his anxieties and probably dying of a broken heart. He
always lamented the conduct of Great Britain towards America. No man
more constantly congratulated me, while we lived together in America,
upon any news, true or false, favorable to a repeal of the obnoxious
Statutes and a redress of our grievances; but the society in which he
lived had convinced him that all resistance was not only useless but
ruinous.
More conscious than ever of the faults in the style and arrangement,
if not in the matter of my part of the following papers, I shall see
them in print with more anxiety than when they were first published.
The principles however are those on which I then conscientiously
acted, and which I now most cordially approve.
To the candour of an indulgent nation, whom I congratulate on their
present prosperity and pleasing prospects, and for whose happiness I
shall offer up my dying supplications to Heaven, I commit the volume
with all its imperfections.
JOHN ADAMS.
_Quincy_, _January_ 1, 1819.
ADDRESSED
_To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay_,
January 23, 1775.
MY FRIENDS,
A writer, under the signature of Massachusettensis, has addressed
you, in a series of papers, on the great national subject of the
present quarrel between the British administration and the Colonies.
As I have not in my possession, more than one of his Essays, and that
is in the Gazette of December 26, I will take the liberty, in the
spirit of candor, and decency, to bespeak your attention, upon the
same subject.
There may be occasion, to say very severe things, before I shall have
finished what I propose, in opposition to this writer but there ought
to be no reviling. _Rem ipsam dic, mitte male loqui_, which may be
justly translated, speak out the whole truth boldly, but use no bad
language.
It is not very material to enquire, as others have done, who is the
author of the speculations in question. If he is a disinterested
writer, and has nothing to gain or to lose, to hope or to fear, for
himself more than other individuals of your community; but engages
in this controversy from the purest principles, the noblest motives
of benevolence to men, and of love to his country, he ought to have
no influence with you, further than truth and justice will support
his argument. On the other hand, if he hopes to acquire or preserve
a lucrative employment, to screen himself from the just detestation
of his countrymen, or whatever other sinister inducement he may have,
as far as the truth of facts and the weight of argument, are in his
favor, he ought to be duly regarded.
He tells you "that the temporal salvation of this province depends
upon an entire and speedy change of measures, which must depend upon
a change of sentiments respecting our own conduct and the justice of
the British nation."
The task, of effecting these great changes, this courageous writer,
has undertaken in a course of publications in a newspaper. _Nil
desperandum_ is a good motto, and _Nil admirari_, is another. He is
welcome to the first, and I hope will be willing that I should assume
the last. The public, if they are not mistaken in their conjecture,
have been so long acquainted with this gentleman, and have seen him
so often disappointed, that if they were not habituated to strange
things, they would wonder at his hopes, at this time to accomplish,
the most unpromising project of his whole life. In the character
of Philanthrop, he attempted to reconcile you to Mr. Bernard. But
the only fruit of his labor was, to expose his client to more
general examination, and consequently to more general resentment
and aversion. In the character of Philalethes, he essayed to prove
Mr. Hutchinson a patriot, and his letters not only innocent, but
meritorious. But the more you read and considered, the more you
were convinced of the ambition and avarice, the simulation and
dissimulation, the hypocricy and perfidy of that destroying angel.
This illfated and unsuccessful, though persevering writer, still
hopes to change your sentiments and conduct--by which it is
supposed that he means to convince you that the system of Colony
administration, which has been pursued for these ten or twelve
years past, is a wise, righteous and humane plan; that sir Francis
Bernard and Mr. Hutchinson, with their connections, who have been the
principal instruments of it, are your best friends;--and that those
gentle in this province, and in all the other Colonies, who have been
in opposition to it, are from ignorance, error, or from worse and
baser causes, your worst enemies.
This is certainly an inquiry that is worthy of you; and I promise to
accompany this writer, in his ingenious labours to assist you in it.
And I earnestly intreat you, as the result of all shall be, to change
your sentiments or persevere in them, as the evidence shall appear to
you, upon the most dispassionate and impartial consideration, without
regard to his opinion or mine.
He promises to avoid personal reflections, but to penetrate the
arcana, and expose the wretched policy of the whigs. The cause of
the whigs is not conducted by intrigues at a distant court, but
by constant appeals to a sensible and virtuous people; it depends
intirely on their good will, and cannot be pursued a single step
without their concurrence, to obtain which of all designs, measures,
and means, are constantly published to the collective body. The
whigs therefore can have no arcana; but if they had, I dare say they
were never so left, as to communicate them to this writer; you will
therefore be disappointed if you expect from him any thing which is
true, but what has been as public as records and newspapers could
make it.
I, on my part, may perhaps in a course of papers, penetrate arcana
too. Shew the wicked policy of the tories--trace their plan from its
first rude sketches to its present complete draught. Shew that it
has been much longer in contemplation, than is generally known,--who
were the first in it--their views, motives and secret springs of
action--and the means they have employed. This will necessarily
bring before your eyes many characters, living and dead. From such
a research and detail of facts, it will clearly appear, who were
the aggressors--and who have acted on the defensive from first to
last--who are still struggling, at the expense of their ease,
health, peace, wealth and preferment, against the encroachments of
the tories on their country--and who are determined to continue
struggling, at much greater hazards still, and like the Prince of
Orange, resolve never to see its entire subjection to arbitrary
power, but rather to die fighting against it, in the last ditch.
It is true, as this writer observes, "that the bulk of the people
are generally, but little versed in the affairs of State; that they
left the affairs of government where accident has placed them." If
this had not been true, the designs of the tories had been many years
ago, entirely defeated. It was clearly seen, by a few, more than ten
years since, that they were planning and pursuing the very measures,
we now see executing. The people were informed of it, and warned of
their danger: But they had been accustomed to confide in certain
persons, and could never be persuaded to believe, until prophecy,
became history. Now they see and feel, that the horrible calamities
are come upon them, which were foretold so many years ago, and they
now sufficiently execrate the men who have brought these things upon
them. Now alas! when perhaps it is too late. If they had withdrawn
their confidence from them in season, they would have wholly disarmed
them.
The same game, with the same success, has been played in all ages
and countries as Massachusettensis observes. When a favourable
conjuncture has presented, some of the most intrigueing and powerful
citizens have conceived the design of enslaving their country, and
building their own greatness on its ruins. Philip and Alexander,
are examples of this in Greece--Cæsar in Rome--Charles the fifth in
Spain--Lewis the eleventh in France--and ten thousand others.
"There is a latent spark in the breasts of the people capable of
being kindled into a flame, and to do this has always been the
employment of the disaffected." What is this latent spark? The love
of Liberty? _a Deo hominis est indita naturæ._ Human nature itself is
evermore an advocate for liberty. There is also in human nature, a
resentment of injury, and indignation against wrong. A love of truth
and a veneration for virtue.
These amiable passions, are the "latent spark" to which those whom
this writer calls the "disaffected" apply. If the people are capable
of understanding, seeing and feeling the difference between true and
false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can
the friends of mankind apply, than to the sense of this difference.
Is it better to apply as this writer and his friends do, to the
basest passions in the human breast to their fear, their vanity,
their avarice, ambition, and every kind of corruption? I appeal to
all experience, and to universal history, if it has ever been in
the power of popular leaders, uninvested with other authority than
what is conferred by the popular suffrage, to persuade a large
people, for any length of time together, to think themselves wronged,
injured, and oppressed, unless they really were, and saw and felt it
to be so.
"They," the popular leaders, "begin by reminding the people of the
elevated rank they hold in the universe as men; that all men by
nature are equal; that kings are but the ministers of the people;
that their authority is delegated to them by the people, for their
good, and they have a right to resume it, and place it in other
hands, or keep it themselves, whenever it is made use of to oppress
them. Doubtless there have been instances, when these principles have
been inculcated to obtain a redress of real grievances, but they have
been much oftener perverted to the worst of purposes."
These are what are called revolution principles. They are the
principles of Aristotle and Plato, of Livy and Cicero, and Sydney,
Harrington and Locke. The principles of nature and eternal reason.
The principles on which the whole government over us, now stands.
It is therefore astonishing, if any thing can be so, that writers,
who call themselves friends of government, should in this age and
country, be so inconsistent with themselves, so indiscreet, so
immodest, as to insinuate a doubt concerning them.
Yet we find that these principles stand in the way of
Massachusettensis, and all the writers of his class. The veteran, in
his letter to the officers of the army, allows them to be noble, and
true, but says the application of them to particular cases is wild
and utopian. How they can be in general true, and not applicable to
particular cases, I cannot comprehend. I thought their being true in
general, was because they were applicable in most particular cases.
Gravity is a principle in nature. Why? because all particular bodies
are found to gravitate. How would it sound to say, that bodies in
general are heavy; yet to apply this to particular bodies and say,
that a guinea, or a ball is heavy, is wild, &c.--"Adopted in private
life," says the honest amiable veteran, "they would introduce
perpetual discord." This I deny, and I think it plain, that there
never was an happy private family where they were not adopted. "In
the State perpetual discord." This I deny, and affirm that order,
concord and stability in this State, never was or can be preserved
without them. "The least failure in the reciprocal duties of worship
and obedience in the matrimonial contract would justify a divorce."
This is no consequence from those principles,--a total departure from
the ends and designs of the contract it is true, as elopement and
adultery, would by these principles justify a divorce, but not the
least failure, or many smaller failures in the reciprocal duties,
&c. "In the political compact, the smallest defect in the Prince a
revolution"--By no means. But a manifest design in the Prince, to
annul the contract on his part, will annul it on the part of the
people. A settled plan to deprive the people of all the benefits,
blessings and ends of the contract, to subvert the fundamentals
of the constitution, to deprive them of all share in making and
executing laws, will justify a revolution.
The author of a "Friendly Address to all reasonable Americans,"
discovers his rancour against these principles, in a more explicit
manner, and makes no scruples to advance the principles of Hobbs and
Filmer, boldly, and to pronounce damnation, _ore rotundo_, on all
who do not practice implicit passive obedience, to an established
government, of whatever character it may be. It is not reviling, it
is not bad language, it is strictly decent to say, that this angry
bigot, this ignorant dogmatist, this foul mouthed scold, deserves no
other answer than silent contempt. Massachusettensis and the veteran,
I admire, the first for his art, the last for his honesty.
Massachusettensis, is more discreet than either of the others;
sensible that these principles would be very troublesome to him, yet
conscious of their truth, he has neither admitted nor denied them.
But we have a right to his opinion of them, before we dispute with
him. He finds fault with the application of them. They have been
invariably applied in support of the revolution and the present
establishment--against the Stuart's, the Charles' and the James',--in
support of the reformation and the Protestant religion, against the
worst tyranny, that the genius of toryism, has ever yet invented, I
mean the Roman superstition. Does this writer rank the revolution and
present establishment, the reformation and Protestant religion among
his worst of purposes? What "worse purpose" is there than established
tyranny? Were these principles ever inculcated in favor of such
tyranny? Have they not always been used against such tyrannies,
when the people have had knowledge enough to be apprized of them,
and courage to assert them? Do not those who aim at depriving the
people of their liberties, always inculcate opposite principles, or
discredit these.
"A small mistake in point of policy," says he, "often furnishes
a pretence to libel government and persuade the people that
their rulers are tyrants, and the whole government, a system of
oppression." This is not only untrue, but inconsistent with what he
said before. The people are in their nature so gentle, that there
never was a government yet, in which thousands of mistakes were
not overlooked. The most sensible and jealous people are so little
attentive to government, that there are no instances of resistance,
until repeated, multiplied oppressions have placed it beyond a doubt,
that their rulers had formed settled plans to deprive them of their
liberties; not to oppress an individual or a few, but to break down
the fences of a free constitution, and deprive the people at large
of all share in the government and all the checks by which it is
limited. Even Machiavel himself allows, that not ingratitude to their
rulers, but much love is the constant fault of the people.
This writer is equally mistaken, when he says, the people are sure to
be loosers in the end. They can hardly be loosers, if unsuccessful;
because if they live, they can but be slaves, after an unfortunate
effort, and slaves they would have been, if they had not resisted.
So that nothing is lost. If they die, they cannot be said to lose,
for death is better than slavery. If they succeed, their gains are
immense. They preserve their liberties. The instances in antiquity,
which this writer alludes to, are not mentioned, and therefore
cannot be answered, but that in the country from whence we are
derived, is the most unfortunate for his purpose, that could have
been chosen. The resistance to Charles the First and the case of
Cromwell, no doubt he means. But the people of England, and the cause
of liberty, truth, virtue and humanity, gained infinite advantages
by that resistance. In all human probability, liberty civil and
religious, not only in England but in all Europe, would have been
lost. Charles would undoubtedly have established the Romish religion
and a despotism as wild as any in the world. And as England has
been a principal bulwark from that period to this, of civil liberty
and the Protestant religion in all Europe, if Charles' schemes had
succeeded, there is great reason to apprehend that the right of
science would have been extinguished, and mankind, drawn back to a
state of darkness and misery, like that which prevailed from the
fourth to the fourteenth century. It is true and to be lamented that
Cromwell did not establish a government as free, as he might and
ought; but his government was infinitely more glorious and happy to
the people than Charles'. Did not the people gain by the resistance
to James the second? Did not the Romans gain by the resistance to
Tarquin? Throughout that resistance and the liberty that was restored
by it, would the great Roman orators, poets and historians, the great
teachers of humanity and politeness, the pride of human nature, and
the delight and glory of mankind, for seventeen hundred years, ever
have existed? Did not the Romans gain by resistance to the Decemvirs?
Did not the English gain by resistance to John, when Magna Charta was
obtained? Did not the seven united provinces gain by resistance to
Philip, Alva, and Granvell? Did not the Swiss Cantons, the Genevans
and Grissons, gain by resistance to Albert and Grisler?
NOVANGLUS.
ADDRESSED
_To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay_,
January 30, 1775.
MY FRIENDS,
I have heretofore intimated my intention, of pursuing the tories,
through all their dark intrigues, and wicked machinations; and to
shew the rise, and progress of their schemes for enslaving this
country. The honor of inventing and contriving these measures, is
not their due. They have been but servile copiers of the designs of
Andross, Randolph, Dudley, and other champions of their cause towards
the close of the last century. These latter worthies accomplished
but little; and their plans had been buried with them, for a long
course of years, until in the administration of the late Governor
Shirley, they were revived, by the persons who are now principally
concerned in carrying them into execution. Shirley, was a crafty,
busy, ambitious, intrigueing, enterprising man; and having mounted,
no matter by what means, to the chair of this province, he saw, in a
young growing country, vast prospects of ambition opening before his
eyes, and he conceived great designs of aggrandizing himself, his
family and his friends. Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Oliver, the two famous
letter writers, were his principal ministers of State. Russell,
Paxton, Ruggles, and a few others, were _subordinate_ instruments.
Among other schemes of this Junto, one was to have a Revenue in
America by authority of Parliament.
In order to effect their purpose it was necessary to concert measures
with the other Colonies. Dr. Franklin, who was known to be an active,
and very able man, and to have great influence, in the province
of Pennsylvania, was in Boston, in the year 1754, and Mr. Shirley
communicated to him the profound secret, the great design of taxing
the Colonies by act of Parliament. This sagacious gentleman, this
eminent philosopher, and distinguished patriot, to his lasting honor,
sent the Governor an answer in writing with the following remarks
upon his scheme. Remarks which would have discouraged any honest man
from the pursuit. The remarks are these:--
"That the people always bear the burden best, when they have, or
think they have, some _share_ in the direction.
"That when public measures are generally distasteful to the people,
the wheels of government must move more heavily.
"That excluding the people of America from all share in the choice of
a grand council for their own defence, and taxing them in Parliament,
where they have no representative, would probably give extreme
dissatisfaction.
"That there was no reason to doubt the willingness of the Colonists
to contribute for their own defence. That the people themselves,
whose all was at stake, could better judge of the force necessary for
their defence, and of the means for raising money for the purpose,
than a British Parliament at so great distance.
"That natives of America, would be as likely to consult wisely and
faithfully for the safety of their native country, as the Governors
sent from Britain, whose object is generally to make fortunes, and
then return home, and who might therefore be expected to carry on the
war against France, rather in a way, by which themselves were likely
to be gainers, than for the greatest advantage of the cause.
"That compelling the Colonies to pay money for their own defence,
without their consent, would shew a suspicion of their loyalty, or of
their regard for their country, or of their common sense, and would
be treating them as conquered enemies, and not as free Britains,
who hold it for their undoubted right not to be taxed by their own
consent, given through their representatives.
"That parliamentary taxes, once laid on, are often continued, after
the necessity for laying them on, ceases; but that if the Colonists
were trusted to tax themselves, they would remove the burden from the
people, as soon as it should become unnecessary for them to bear it
any longer.
"That if Parliament is to tax the Colonies, their assemblies of
representatives may be dismissed as useless.
"That taxing the Colonies in Parliament for their own defence against
the French, is not more just, than it would be to oblige the cinque
ports, and other parts of Britain, to maintain a force against
France, and to tax them for this purpose, without allowing them
representatives in Parliament.
"That the Colonists have always been indirectly taxed by the mother
country (besides paying the taxes necessarily laid on by their own
assemblies) inasmuch as they are obliged to purchase the manufactures
of Britain, charged with innumerable heavy taxes; some of which
manufactures they could make, and others could purchase cheaper at
other markets.
"That the Colonists are besides taxed by the mother country, by being
obliged to carry great part of their produce to Britain, and accept a
lower price, than they might have at other markets. The difference is
a tax paid to Britain.
"That the whole wealth of the Colonists centres at last in the mother
country, which enables her to pay her taxes.
"That the Colonies have, at the hazard of their lives and fortunes,
extended the dominions, and increased the commerce and riches of the
mother country, that therefore the Colonists do not deserve to be
deprived of the native right of Britons, the right of being taxed
only by representatives chosen by themselves.
"That an adequate representation in parliament would probably be
acceptable to the Colonists, and would best raise the views and
interests of the whole empire."
The last of these propositions seems not to have been well
considered, because an adequate representation in parliament,
is totally impracticable; but the others have exhausted the
subject. If any one should ask what authority or evidence I have
of this anecdote, I refer to the second volume of the Political
Disquisitions, page 276, 7, 8, 9. A book which ought to be in the
hands of every American who has learned to read.
Whether the ministry at home or the junto here, were discouraged
by these masterly remarks, or by any other cause, the project of
taxing the Colonies was laid aside. Mr. Shirley was removed from this
government, and Mr. Pownal was placed in his stead.
Mr. Pownal seems to have been a friend to liberty and to our
Constitution, and to have had an aversion to all plots against
either, and consequently to have given his confidence to other
persons than Hutchinson and Oliver, who, stung with envy against
Mr. Pratt and others, who had the lead in affairs, set themselves,
by propagating slanders against the Governor, among the people, and
especially among the clergy, to raise discontents, and make him
uneasy in his seat. Pownal averse to wrangling, and fond of the
delights of England, solicited to be recalled, and after some time
Mr. Bernard was removed from New Jersey to the chair of this Province.
Bernard was the man for the purpose of the junto; educated in the
highest principles of monarchy, naturally daring and courageous,
skilled enough in law and policy to do mischief, and avaricious
to a most infamous degree; needy at the same time, and having a
numerous family to provide for,--he was an instrument, suitable
in every respect, excepting one, for this junto, to employ. The
exception I mean, was blunt frankness, very opposite to that cautious
cunning, that deep dissimulation, to which they had by long practice
disciplined themselves. However, they did not despair of teaching him
this necessary artful quality by degrees, and the event shewed they
were not wholly unsuccessful, in their endeavors to do it.
While the war lasted, these simple Provinces were of too much
importance in the conduct of it, to be disgusted, by any open attempt
against their liberties. The junto therefore, contented themselves
with preparing their ground by extending their connection and
correspondencies in England, and by conciliating the friendship of
the crown officers occasionally here, and insinuating their designs
as necessary to be undertaken in some future favorable opportunity,
for the good of the empire, as well as of the Colonies.
The designs of Providence are inscrutable. It affords to bad men
conjunctures favourable for their designs, as well as to good.
The conclusion of the peace, was the most critical opportunity
for our junto, that could have presented. A peace founded on the
destruction of that system of policy, the most glorious for the
nation, that ever was formed, and which was never equalled in the
conduct of the English government, except in the interregnum, and
perhaps in the reign of Elizabeth; which system however, by its being
abruptly broken off and its chief conductor discarded before it was
completed, proved unfortunate to the nation by leaving it sinking in
a bottomless gulf of debt, oppressed and borne down with taxes.
At this lucky time, when the British financier, was driven out of his
wits for ways and means, to supply the demands upon him, Bernard is
employed by the junto, to suggest to him the project of taxing the
Colonies by act of Parliament.
I do not advance this without evidence. I appeal to a publication
made by Sir Francis Bernard himself, the last year of his own select
letters on the trade and government of America, and the principles of
law and polity applied to the American Colonies. I shall make much
use of this pamphlet before I have done.
In the year 1764, Mr. Bernard transmitted home to different noblemen,
and gentlemen, four copies of his principles of law and polity,
with a preface, which proves incontestibly, that the project of
new regulating the American Colonies were not first suggested to
him by the ministry, but by him to them. The words of this preface
are these:--"The present expectation, that a new regulation of the
American governments will soon take place, probably arises more from
the opinion the public has of the abilities of the present ministry,
than from any thing that has transpired from the cabinet; it cannot
be supposed that their penetration can overlook the necessity of
such a regulation, nor their public spirit fail to carry it into
execution. But it may be a question, whether the present is a proper
time for this work; more urgent business may stand before it, some
preparatory steps may be required to precede it; but these will only
serve to postpone. As we may expect that this reformation, like all
others, will be opposed by powerful prejudices, it may not be amiss
to reason with them at leisure, and endeavor to take off their force
before they become opposed to government."
These are the words of that arch enemy of North America, written in
1764, and then transmitted to four persons, with a desire that they
might be communicated to others.
Upon these words, it is impossible not to observe, first, That the
ministry had never signified to him, any intention of new regulating
the Colonies; and therefore, that it was he who most officiously
and impertinently put them upon the pursuit of this _will with a
whisp_, which has led him and them into so much mire. 2. The artful
flattery with which he insinuates these projects into the minds of
the ministry, as matters of absolute necessity, which their great
penetration could not fail to discover, nor their great regard to
the public, omit. 3. The importunity with which he urges a speedy
accomplishment of his pretended reformation of the governments, and
4. His consciousness that these schemes would be opposed, although
he affects to expect from powerful prejudices only, that opposition,
which all Americans say, has been dictated by sound reason, true
policy, and eternal justice. The last thing I shall take notice of
is, the artful, yet most false and wicked insinuation, that such
new regulations were then generally expected. This is so absolutely
false, that excepting Bernard himself, and his junto, scarcely any
body on this side the water had any suspicion of it,--insomuch that
if Bernard had made public, at that time, his preface and principles,
as he sent them to the ministry, it is much to be doubted whether he
could have lived in this country--certain it is, he would have had no
friends in this province out of the junto.
The intention of the junto, was, to procure a revenue to be raised
in America by act of parliament. Nothing was further from their
designs and wishes, than the drawing or sending this revenue into the
exchequer in England to be spent there in discharging the national
debt, and lessening the burdens of the poor people there. They
were more selfish. They chose to have the fingering of the money
themselves. Their design was, that the money should be applied, first
in a large salary to the governor. This would gratify Bernard's
avarice, and then it would render him and all other governors, not
only independent of the people, but still more absolutely a slave to
the will of the minister. They intended likewise a salary for the
lieutenant governor. This would appease in some degree the gnawings
of Hutchinson's avidity, in which he was not a whit behind Bernard
himself. In the next place, they intended a salary to the judges of
the common law, as well as admiralty. And thus the whole government,
executive and judicial, was to be rendered wholly independent of the
people, (and their representatives rendered useless, insignificant
and even burthensome) and absolutely dependant upon, and under the
direction of the will of the minister of State. They intended further
to new model the whole continent of North America, make an entire
new division of it, into distinct, though more extensive and less
numerous Colonies, to sweep away all the charters upon the continent,
with the destroying besom of an act of parliament, and reduce all the
governments to the plan of the royal governments, with a nobility in
each Colony, not hereditary indeed, at first, but for life. They did
indeed flatter the ministry and people in England, with distant hopes
of a revenue from America, at some future period, to be appropriated
to national uses there. But this was not to happen in their minds
for some time. The governments must be new modelled, new regulated,
reformed first and then the governments here would be able and
willing to carry into execution any acts of Parliament or measures of
the ministry, for fleecing the people here, to pay debts, or support
pensioners, on the American establishment, or bribe electors, or
members of parliament, or any other purpose that a virtuous ministry
could desire.
But as ill luck would have it, the British financier, was as selfish
as themselves, and instead of raising money for them, chose to raise
it for himself. He put the cart before the horse. He chose to get
the revenue into the exchequer, because he had hungry cormorants
enough about him in England whose _cooings_ were more troublesome to
his ears, than the croaking of the ravens in America. And he thought
if America could afford any revenue at all, and he could get it by
authority of parliament, he might have it himself, to give to his
friends, as well as raise it for the junto here, to spend themselves,
or give to theirs. This unfortunate preposterous improvement of Mr.
Grenville, upon the plan of the junto, had well nigh ruined the whole.
I will proceed no further without producing my evidence. Indeed to
a man who was acquainted with this junto, and had any opportunity
to watch their motions, observe their language, and remark their
countenances, for these last twelve years, no other evidence is
necessary; it was plain to such persons, what this junto was about.
But we have evidence enough now under their own hands of the whole of
what was said of them by their opposers, through this whole period.
Governor Bernard, in his letter July 11, 1764, says, "that a general
reformation of the American governments would become not only a
desirable but a necessary measure." What his idea was, of a general
reformation of the American governments, is to be learnt from his
principles of law and polity, which he sent to the ministry in 1764.
I shall select a few of them in his own words; but I wish the whole
of them could be printed in the newspapers, that America might know
more generally the principles and designs and exertions of our junto.
His 29th proposition is, "The rule that a British subject shall not
be bound by laws, or liable to taxes, but what he has consented
to, by his representatives, must be confined to the inhabitants of
Great Britain only; and is not strictly true even there. 30. The
parliament of Great Britain, as well from its rights of sovereignty,
as from occasional exigences, has a right to make laws for and impose
taxes upon its subjects in its external dominions, although they are
not represented in such parliament. But 31. Taxes imposed upon the
external dominions, ought to be applied to the use of the people,
from whom they are raised. 32. The parliament of Great Britain has
a right and duty to take care to provide for the defence of the
American Colonies; especially as such Colonies are unable to defend
themselves. 33. The parliament of Great Britain has a right and a
duty to take care that provision be made for a sufficient support of
the American governments. Because 34. The support of the government
is one of the principal conditions upon which a Colony is allowed the
power of legislation. Also because 35. Some of the American Colonies
have shewn themselves deficient in the support of their several
governments, both as to sufficiency and independency."
His 75th proposition is, "Every American government is capable of
having its constitution altered for the better. 76. The grants of the
powers of governments to the American Colonies by charters cannot
be understood to be intended for other than their infant or growing
States. 77. They cannot be intended for their mature state, that is
for perpetuity; because they are in many things unconstitutional
and contrary to the very nature of a British government; therefore
78. They must be considered as designed only as temporary means,
for settling and bringing forward the peopling the Colonies; which
being effected, the cause of the peculiarity of their constitution
ceases. 79. If the charters can be pleaded against the authority of
Parliament they amount to an alienation of the dominions of Great
Britain, and are in effect acts of dismembering the British empire,
and will operate as such, if care is not taken to prevent it. 83.
The notion which has heretofore prevailed, that the dividing America
into many governments, and different modes of government will be
the means to prevent their uniting to revolt, is ill founded;
since, if the governments were ever so much consolidated, it will
be necessary to have so many distinct States, as to make a union to
revolt, impracticable. Whereas 84. The splitting America into many
small governments, weakens the governing power, and strengthens that
of the people; and thereby makes revolting more probable and more
practicable. 85. To prevent revolts in future times (for there is
no room to fear them in the present) the most effectual means would
be, to make the governments large and respectable, and balance the
powers of them. 86. There is no government in America at present,
whose powers are properly balanced; there not being in any of them,
a real and distinct third legislative power mediating between the
king and the people, which is the peculiar excellence of the British
constitution. 87. The want of such a third legislative power, adds
weight to the popular, and lightens the royal scale; so as to destroy
the balance between the royal and popular powers. 88. Although
America is not now (and probably will not be for many years to come)
ripe enough for an hereditary nobility; yet it is now capable of a
nobility for life. 89. A nobility appointed by the king for life,
and made independent, would probably give strength and stability to
the American governments, as effectually as an hereditary nobility
does to that of Great Britain. 90. The reformation of American
governments should not be controuled by the present boundaries of
the Colonies; as they were mostly settled upon partial, occasional,
and accidental considerations, without any regard to a whole. 91. To
settle the American governments to the greatest possible advantage,
it will be necessary to reduce the number of them; in some places to
unite and consolidate, in others to separate and transfer; and in
general to divide by natural boundaries, instead of imaginary lines.
92. If there should be but one form of government established for
all the North American provinces, it would greatly facilitate the
reformation of them; since, if the mode of government was every where
the same, people would be more indifferent under what division they
were ranged. 93. No objections ought to arise to the alteration of
the boundaries of provinces from proprietors, on account of their
property only; since there is no occasion that it should in the least
affect the boundaries of properties. 94. The present distinction of
one government being more free or more popular than another, tend
to embarrass and to weaken the whole; and should not be allowed
to subsist among people, subject to one king and one law, and all
equally fit for one form of government. 95. The American Colonies, in
general, are, at this time, arrived at that state, which qualifies
them to receive the most perfect form of government; which their
situation and relation to Great Britain, make them capable of. 96.
The people of North America, at this time, expect a revisal and
reformation of the American governments, and are better disposed to
submit to it, than ever they were, or perhaps ever will be again.
97. This is therefore the proper, and critical time to reform the
American governments, upon a general, constitutional, firm, and
durable plan; and if it is not done now, it will probably every day
grow more difficult, till at last it becomes impracticable."
My friends, these are the words, the plans, principles, and
endeavours of governor Bernard in the year 1764. That Hutchinson and
Oliver, notwithstanding all their disguises which you well remember,
were in unison with him in the whole of his measures, can be doubted
by no man. It appeared sufficiently in the part they all along acted,
notwithstanding their professions. And it appears incontestibly from
their detected letters, of which more hereafter.
Now let me ask you, if the parliament of Great Britain, had all the
natural foundations of authority, wisdom, goodness, justice, power,
in as great perfection as they ever existed in any body of men since
Adam's fall; and if the English nation was the most virtuous, pure
and free, that ever was; would not such an unlimited subjection
of three millions of people to that parliament, at three thousand
miles distance be real slavery? There are but two sorts of men in
the world, freemen and slaves. The very definition of a freeman, is
one who is bound by no law to which he has not consented. Americans
would have no way of giving or withholding their consent to the acts
of this parliament, therefore they would not be freemen. But, when
luxury, effeminacy and venality are arrived at such a shocking pitch
in England, when both electors and elected, are become one mass
of corruption, when the nation is oppressed to death with debts
and taxes, owing to their own extravagance, and want of wisdom,
what would be your condition under such an absolute subjection to
parliament? You would not only be slaves. But the most abject sort
of slaves to the worst sort of masters! at least this is my opinion.
Judge you for yourselves between Massachusettensis and
NOVANGLUS.
ADDRESSED
_To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay_,
February 6, 1775.
MY FRIENDS,
The history of the tories, began in my last, will be interrupted for
some time; but it shall be reassumed, and minutely related, in some
future papers. Massachusettensis, who shall now be pursued, in his
own serpentine path; in his first paper, complains, that the press is
not free, that a party has gained the ascendency so far as to become
the licencers of it; by playing off the resentment of the populace,
against printers and authors: That the press is become an engine
of oppression and licentiousness, much devoted to the partisans of
liberty, who have been indulged in publishing what they pleased, _fas
vel nefas_, while little has been published on the part of government.
The art of this writer which appears in all his productions, is very
conspicuous in this. It is intended to excite a resentment against
the friends of liberty, for tyrannically depriving their antagonists,
of so important a branch of freedom, and a compassion towards the
tories, in the breasts of the people in the other Colonies and in
Great Britain, by insinuating, that they have not had equal terms.
But nothing can be more injurious, nothing farther from the truth.
Let us take a retrospective view of the period, since the last
peace, and see, whether they have not uniformly had the press at
their service, without the least molestation to authors or printers.
Indeed, I believe that the Massachusetts Spy, if not the Boston
Gazette have been open to them as well as to others. The Evening
Post, Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Chronicle, have certainly been
always as free for their use as the air. Let us dismiss prejudice
and passion, and examine impartially, whether the tories have not
been chargeable with at least as many libels, as much licentiousness
of the press, as the whigs? Dr. Mayhew was a whig of the first
magnitude, a clergyman equalled by very few of any denomination in
piety, virtue, genius or learning, whose works will maintain his
character, as long as New England shall be free, integrity esteemed,
or wit, spirit, humour, or reason and knowledge admired. How was he
treated from the press? Did not the reverend tories who were pleased
to write against him, the missionaries of defamation as well as
bigotry and passive obedience, in their pamphlets, and news papers,
bespatter him all over with their filth? With equal falsehood and
malice charge him with every thing evil? Mr. Otis, was in civil life;
and a senator, whose parts, literature, eloquence and integrity,
proved him a character in the world, equal to any of the time in
which he flourished, of any party in the province. Now be pleased
to recollect the Evening Post. For a long course of years, that
gentleman, his friends and connexions, of whom the world has, and
grateful posterity will have a better opinion than Massachusettensis
will acknowledge, were pelted with the most infernally malicious,
false, and atrocious libels, that ever issued from any press in
Boston. I will mention no other names, lest I give too much offence
to the modesty of some, and the envy and rancour of others.
There never was before, in any part of the world, a whole town
insulted to their faces, as Boston was, by the Boston Chronicle. Yet
the printer was not molested for printing, it was his mad attack upon
other printers with his clubs, and upon other gentlemen with his
pistols, that was the cause of his flight, or rather the pretence.
The truth was, he became too polite to attend his business, his shop
was neglected, procreations [Errata: procurations] were coming for
more than 2000 sterling, which he had no inclination to pay.
Printers may have been less eager after the productions of the tories
than of the whigs, and the reason has been because the latter have
been more consonant to the general taste and sense, and consequently
more in demand. Notwithstanding this, the former have ever found
one press at least devoted to their service, and have used it as
licentiously as they could wish. Whether the revenue chest has kept
it alive and made it profitable against the general sense, or not,
I wot not. Thus much is certain that 200, 3, 4, 5, 600, 800, 1500
sterling a year, has been the constant reward of every scribbler,
who has taken up the pen on the side of the ministry, with any
reputation, and commissions have been given here for the most
wretched productions of dulness itself. Whereas the writers on the
side of liberty, have been rewarded only with the consciousness of
endeavouring to do good, with the approbation of the virtuous and the
malice of men in power.
But this is not the first time, that writers have taken advantage of
the times. Massachusettensis knows the critical situation of this
Province. The danger it is in, without government or law: The army
in Boston.--The people irritated and exasperated, in such a manner
as was never before borne by any people under Heaven. Much depends
upon their patience at this critical time, and such an example of
patience and order, this people have exhibited in a state of nature,
under such cruel insults, distresses and provocations, as the history
of mankind cannot parallel. In this state of things protected by
an army, the whole junto are now pouring forth the whole torrents
of their Billingsgate, propagating thousands of the most palpable
falsehoods, when they know that the writers on the other side have
been restrained by their prudence and caution from engaging in a
controversy that must excite heats, lest it should have unhappy and
tragical consequences.
There is nothing in this world so excellent that it may not be
abused. The abuses of the press are notorious. It is much to be
desired that writers on all sides would be more careful of truth and
decency: but upon the most impartial estimate, the tories will be
found to have been the least so, of any party among us.
The honest Veteran, who ought not to be forgotten, in this place,
says, "if an inhabitant of Bern or Amsterdam, could read the
newspapers, &c. he would be at a loss how to reconcile oppression
with such unbounded licence of the press: and would laugh at the
charge, as something much more than a paradox, as a palpable
contradiction." But with all his taste, and manly spirit, the Veteran
is little of a statesman. His ideas of liberty are quite inadequate;
his notions of government very superficial. License of the press
is no proof of liberty. When a people is corrupted, the press may
be made an engine to complete their ruin: and it is now notorious,
that the ministry, are daily employing it to encrease and establish
corruption, and to pluck up virtue by the roots. Liberty can no more
exist without virtue and independence, than the body can live and
move without a soul. When these are gone, and the popular branch
of the constitution is become dependant on the minister, as it is
in England, or cut off as it is in America, all other forms of the
constitution may remain; but if you look for liberty, you will grope
in vain, and the freedom of the press, instead of promoting the cause
of liberty, will but hasten its destruction, as the best cordials
taken by patients, in some distempers, become the most rancid and
corrosive poisons.
The language of the Veteran, however, is like the style of the
minister and his scribblers in England boasting of the unbounded
freedom of the press, and assuring the people that all is safe, while
that continues; and thus the people are to be cheated with libels in
exchange for their liberties.
A stronger proof cannot be wished, of the scandalous license of the
tory presses, than the swarms of pamphlets and speculations, in New
York and Boston, since last October. "Madness, folly, delusion,
delirium, infatuation, phrensy, high treason and rebellion," are
charged in every page, upon three millions of as good and loyal, as
sensible and virtuous people, as any in the empire: nay upon that
congress, which was as full and free a representative, as ever was
constituted by any people, chosen universally without solicitation,
or the least tincture of corruption: that congress which consisted
of governors, counsellors, some of them by mandamus too, judges of
supreme courts, speakers of assemblies, planters and merchants of the
first fortune and character, and lawyers of the highest class, many
of them educated at the temple, called to the bar in England, and of
abilities and integrity equal to any there.
Massachusettensis, conscious that the people of this continent have
the utmost abhorrence of treason and rebellion, labours to avail
himself of the magic in these words. But his artifice is vain. The
people are not to be intimidated by hard words, from a necessary
defence of their liberties: Their attachment to their constitution
so dearly purchased by their own and their ancestors blood and
treasure, their aversion to the late innovations, their horror of
arbitrary power and the Romish religion, are much deeper rooted
than their dread of rude sounds and unmannerly language. They do
not want the advice of an honest lawyer, if such an one could be
found, nor will they be deceived by a dishonest one. They know what
offence it is, to assemble, armed and forcibly obstruct the course
of justice. They have been many years considering and inquiring,
they have been instructed by Massachusettensis and his friends, in
the nature of treason, and the consequences of their own principles
and actions. They know upon what hinge the whole dispute turns. That
the _fundamentals_ of the government over them, are disputed, that
the minister pretends and had the influence to obtain the voice
of the last parliament in his favour, that parliament is the only
supreme, sovereign, absolute and uncontroulable legislative over
all the Colonies, that therefore the minister and all his advocates
will call resistance, to acts of parliament, by the names of treason
and rebellion. But at the same time they know, that in their own
opinions, and in the opinions of all the Colonies, parliament has
no authority over them, excepting to regulate their trade, and this
not by any principle of common law, but merely by the consent of the
Colonies, founded on the obvious necessity of a case, which was never
in contemplation of that law, nor provided for by it; that therefore
they have as good a right to charge that minister, Massachusettensis
and the whole army to which he has fled for protection, with treason
and rebellion. For if the parliament has not a legal authority to
overturn their constitution, and subject them to such acts as are
lately passed, every man, who accepts of any commission and takes any
steps to carry those acts into execution, is guilty of overt acts
of treason and rebellion against his majesty, his royal crown and
dignity, as much as if he should take arms against his troops, or
attempt his sacred life. They know that the resistance against the
stampt act, which was made through all America, was in the opinion
of Massachusettensis, and George Grenville, high treason, and that
Brigadier Ruggles, and good Mr. Ogden, pretended at the congress
at New York, to be of the same mind, and have been held in utter
contempt and derision by the whole continent, for the same reason,
ever since; because in their own opinion, that resistance was a noble
stand against tyranny, and the only opposition to it, which could
have been effectual. That if the American resistance to the act for
destroying your charter, and to the resolves for arresting persons
here and sending them to England for trial is treason, the lords and
commons, and the whole nation, were traitors at the revolution.
They know that all America is united in sentiment, and in the plan of
opposition to the claims of administration and parliament. The junto
in Boston, with their little flocks of adherents in the country, are
not worth taking into the account; and the army and navy, though
these are divided among themselves, are no part of America; in
order to judge of this union, they begin at the commencement of the
dispute, and run through the whole course of it. At the time of the
Stamp Act, every Colony expressed its sentiments by resolves of their
assemblies, and every one agreed that parliament had no right to
tax the Colonies. The house of representatives of the Massachusetts
Bay, then consisted of many persons, who have since figured as
friends to government; yet every member of that house concurred most
cheerfully in the resolves then passed. The congress which met that
year at New York, expressed the same opinion in their resolves, after
the paint, paper and tea act was passed. The several assemblies
expressed the same sentiments, and when your Colony wrote the famous
circular letter, notwithstanding all the mandates and threats, and
cajoling of the minister and the several governors, and all the crown
officers through the continent, the assemblies with one voice echoed
their entire approbation of that letter, and their applause to your
Colony for sending it. In the year 1768, when a non importation was
suggested and planned by a few gentlemen at a private club, in one
of our large towns, as soon as it was proposed to the public, did it
not spread through the whole continent? Was it not regarded, like the
laws of the Medes and Persians, in almost all the Colonies? When the
paint and paper act was repealed, the southern Colonies agreed to
depart from the association in all things but the dutied articles,
but they have kept strictly to their agreement against importing
them, so that no tea worth the mentioning, has been imported into
any of them from Great Britain to this day. In the year 1770, when
a number of persons were slaughtered in King Street, such was the
brotherly sympathy of all the Colonies, such their resentment against
an hostile administration; that the innocent blood then spilt, has
never been forgotten, nor the murderous minister and governors, who
brought the troops here, forgiven, by any part of the continent,
and never will be. When a certain masterly statesman, invented a
committee of correspondence in Boston, which has provoked so much of
the spleen of Massachusettensis, of which much more hereafter; did
not every Colony, nay every county, city, hundred and town upon the
whole continent, adopt the measure? I had almost said, as if it had
been a revelation from above, as the happiest means of cementing the
union and acting in concert? What proofs of union have been given
since the last March? Look over the resolves of the several Colonies,
and you will see that one understanding governs, one heart animates
the whole body. Assemblies, conventions, congresses, towns, cities,
and private clubs and circles, have been actuated by one great, wise,
active and noble spirit, one masterly soul, animating one vigorous
body.
The congress at Philadelphia, have expressed the same sentiments
with the people of New England, approved of the opposition to the
late innovations, unanimously advised us to persevere in it, and
assured us that if force is attempted to carry these measures
against us, all America ought to support us. Maryland and the lower
counties on Delaware, have, already, to shew to all the world their
approbation of the measures of New England, and their determination
to join in them, with a generosity, a wisdom and magnanimity, which
ought to make the tories consider, taken the power of the militia
into the hands of the people, without the governor, or minister,
and established it, by their own authority, for the defence of the
Massachusetts, as well as of themselves. Other Colonies are only
waiting to see if the necessity of it will become more obvious.
Virginia, and the Carolinas, are preparing for military defence, and
have been for some time. When we consider the variety of climates,
soils, religious, civil governments, commercial interests, &c. which
were represented at the congress, and the various occupations,
educations, and characters of the gentlemen who composed it, the
harmony and unanimity which prevailed in it, can scarcely be
paralleled in any assembly that ever met. When we consider, that
at the revolution, such mighty questions, as whether the throne
was vacant or not, and whether the Prince of Orange should be
king or not, were determined in the convention of parliament by
small majorities of two or three; and four or five only; the great
majorities, the almost unanimity with which all great questions have
been decided in your house of representatives, and other assemblies,
and especially in the continental congress, cannot be considered in
any other light than as the happiest omens indeed, as providential
dispensations in our favour, as well as the clearest demonstrations
of the cordial, firm, radical and indissoluble union of the Colonies.
The grand aphorism of the policy of the whigs has been to unite the
people of America, and divide those of Great Britain: The reverse
of this has been the maxim of the tories, viz:--To unite the people
of Great Britain, and divide those of America: All the movements,
marches and countermarches of both parties, on both sides of the
Atlantic, may be reduced to one or the other of these rules. I have
shewn, in opposition to Massachusettensis, that the people of
America are united more perfectly than the most sanguine whig could
ever have hoped, or than the most timid tory could have feared. Let
us now examine whether the people of Great Britain are equally united
against us. For if the contending countries were equally united, the
prospect of success in the quarrel would depend upon the comparative
wisdom, firmness, strength and other advantages of each. And if such
a comparison was made, it would not appear to a demonstration that
Great Britain could so easily subdue and conquer. It is not so easy
a thing for the most powerful State to conquer a country a thousand
leagues off. How many years time, how many millions of money, did it
take, with five and thirty thousand men, to conquer the poor province
of Canada? And after all the battles and victories, it never would
have submitted without a capitulation, which secured to them their
religion and properties.
But we know that the people of Great Britain are not united against
us. We distinguish between the ministry, the house of commons, the
officers of the army, navy, excise, customs, &c. who are dependent on
the ministry and tempted, if not obliged, to echo their voices; and
the body of the people. We are assured by thousands of letters from
persons of good intelligence, by the general strain of publications
in public papers, pamphlets, and magazines, and by some larger works
written for posterity, that the body of the people are friends to
America, and wish us success in our struggles against the claims of
parliament and administration. We know that millions in England and
Scotland, will think it unrighteous, impolitic and ruinous, to make
war upon us, and a minister, though he may have a marble heart, will
proceed with a diffident, desponding spirit. We know that London
and Bristol the two greatest commercial cities in the empire, have
declared themselves in the most decisive manner, in favor of our
cause. So explicitly that the former has bound her members under
their hands to assist us, and the latter has chosen two known friends
of America, one attached to us by principle, birth, and the most
ardent affection, the other an able advocate for us on several great
occasions. We know that many of the most virtuous and independent of
the nobility and gentry, are for us, and among them the best bishop
that adorns the bench, as great a judge as the nation can boast, and
the greatest statesman it ever saw. We know that the nation is loaded
with debts and taxes by the folly and iniquity of its ministers, and
that without the trade of America, it can neither long support its
fleet and army, nor pay the interest of its debt.
But we are told that the nation is now united against us, that they
hold they have a right to tax us and legislate for us as firmly as
we deny it. That we are a part of the British empire, that every
State must have an uncontroulable power co-extensive with the
empire, that there is little probability of serving ourselves by
ingenious distinctions between external and internal taxes. If we
are not a part of the state, and subject to the supreme authority of
parliament, Great Britain will make us so; that if this opportunity
of reclaiming the Colonies is lost, they will be dismembered from the
empire; and although they may continue their allegiance to the king
they will own none to the imperial crown.
To all this I answer, that the nation is not so united; that they do
not so universally hold they have such a right, and my reasons I have
given before. That the terms "British Empire" are not the language
of the common law, but the language of newspapers and political
pamphlets. That the dominions of the king of Great Britain has no
uncontroulable power co-extensive with them. I would ask by what law
the Parliament has authority over America? By the law of GOD
in the Old and New Testament, it has none: By the law of nature and
nations, it has none. By the common law of England is has none.
For the common law, and the authority of parliament founded on it,
never extended beyond the four seas. By statute law it has none, for
no statute was made before the settlement of the Colonies for this
purpose; and the declaratory act made in 1766, was made without our
consent, by a parliament which had no authority beyond the four seas.
What religious, moral or political obligations then are we under,
to submit to parliament as a supreme legislative? None at all. When
it is said, that if we are not subject to the supreme authority
of parliament, Great Britain will make us so, all other laws and
obligations are given up, and recourse is had to the _ratio ultima_
of Louis the 14th, and the _suprema lex_ of the king of Sardinia, to
the law of brickbats and cannon balls, which can be answered only by
brickbats and balls.
This language "the imperial crown of Great Britain," is not the
style of the common law but of court sycophants. It was introduced
in allusion to the Roman empire, and intended to insinuate that
the prerogative of the imperial crown of England, was like that of
the Roman emperor, after the maxim was established, _quod principi
placuit legis habet vigorem_, and so far from including the two
houses of parliament in the idea of this imperial crown, it was
intended to insinuate that the crown was absolute, and had no need of
lords or commons to make or dispense with laws. Yet even these court
sycophants when driven to an explanation, never dared to put any
other sense upon the words imperial crown than this, that the crown
of England was independent of France, Spain, and all other kings and
states in the world.
When he says that the king's dominions must have an uncontroulable
power, co-extensive with them. I ask whether they have such a power
or not? And utterly deny that they have by any law but that of Louis
the 14th, and the king of Sardinia. If they have not, and it is
necessary that they should have, it then follows that there is a
defect in what he calls the British empire; and how shall this defect
be supplied? It cannot be supplied consistently with reason, justice,
policy, morality, or humanity, without the consent of the Colonies
and some new plan of connection. But if Great Britain will set all
these at defiance, and resort to the _ratio ultima_, all Europe will
pronounce her a tyrant, and America never will submit to her, be the
danger of disobedience as great as it will.
But there is no need of any other power than that of regulating
trade, and this the Colonies ever have been and will be ready and
willing to concede to her. But she will never obtain from America any
further concession while she exists. We are then asked, "for what
she protected and defended the Colonies against the maritime power
of Europe from their first settlement to this day?" I answer for her
own interest, because all the profits of our trade centered in her
lap. But it ought to be remembered, that her name, not her purse, nor
her fleets and armies, ever protected us, until the last war, and
then the minister who conducted that war, informs us, that the annual
millions from America enabled her to do it.
We are then asked for what she purchased New York of the Dutch? I
answer she never did. The Dutch never owned it, were never more
than trespassers and intruders there, and were finally expelled by
conquest. It was ceded it is true by the treaty of Breda, and it is
said in some authors, that some other territory in India was ceded to
the Dutch in lieu of it. But this was the transaction of the king,
not of parliament, and therefore makes nothing to the argument. But
admitting for argument sake, (since the cautious Massachusettensis
will urge us into the discussion of such questions) what is not a
supposable case, that the nation should be so sunk in sloth, luxury,
and corruption, as to suffer their minister to persevere in his mad
blunders and send fire and sword against us, how shall we defend
ourselves? The Colonies south of Pennsylvania have no men to spare we
are told. But we know better--we know that all those Colonies have a
back country which is inhabited by an hardy, robust people, many of
whom are emigrants from New England, and habituated like multitudes
of New England men, to carry their fuzees or rifles upon one shoulder
to defend themselves against the Indians, while they carried their
axes, scythes and hoes upon the other to till the ground. Did not
those Colonies furnish men the last war excepting Maryland? Did
not Virginia furnish men, one regiment particularly equal to any
regular regiment in the service? Does the soft Massachusettensis
imagine that in the unnatural horrid war, he is now supposing their
exertions would be less? If he does he is very ill informed of their
principles, their present sentiments and temper. But "have you arms
and ammunition?" I answer we have; but if we had not, we could make
a sufficient quantity for both. What should hinder? We have many
manufacturers of fire arms now, whose arms are as good as any in
the world. Powder has been made here, and may be again, and so may
salt-petre. What should hinder? We have all the materials in great
abundance, and the process is very simple. But if we neither had
them nor could make them, we could import them. But "the British
navy" aye there's the rub. But let us consider, since the prudent
Massachusettensis will have these questions debated. How many ships
are taken to blockade Boston harbour? How many ships can Britain
spare to carry on this humane and political war, the object of which
is a pepper corn! let her send all the ships she has round her
island. What if her ill natured neighbours, France and Spain should
strike a blow in their absence? In order to judge what they could
all do when they arrived here we should consider what they are all
able to do round the island of Great Britain. We know that the utmost
vigilance and exertions of them added to all the terms [Errata:
terrors] of sanguinary laws, are not sufficient to prevent continual
smuggling, into their own island. Are there not fifty bays, harbours,
creeks and inlets upon the whole coast of North America, where there
is one round the island of Great Britain. Is it to be supposed then,
that the whole British navy could prevent the importation of arms
and ammunition into America, if she should have occasion for them to
defend herself against the hellish warfare that is here supposed.
But what will you do for discipline and subordination? I answer we
will have them in as great perfection as the regular troops. If the
provincials were not brought in the last war to a proper discipline,
what was the reason? Because regular generals would not let them
fight, which they ardently wished, but employed them in cutting
roads. If they had been allowed to fight they would have brought the
war to a conclusion too soon. The provincials did submit to martial
law, and to the mutiny and desertion act the last war, and such an
act may be made here by a legislature which they will obey with much
[Errata: missing 'more'] alacrity than an act of parliament.
The new fangled militia as the specious Massachusettensis calls
it, is such a militia as he never saw. They are commanded through
the province, not by men who procured their commissions from a
governor as a reward for making themselves pimps to his tools, and by
discovering a hatred of the people but by gentlemen whose estates,
abilities and benevolence have rendered them the delight of the
soldiers, and there is an esteem and respect for them visible through
the province, which has not been used in the militia. Nor is there
that unsteadiness that is charged upon them. In some places, where
companies have been split into two or three, it has only served by
exciting an emulation between the companies to increase the martial
spirit and skill.
The plausible Massachusettensis may write as he will, but in a land
war, this continent might defend itself against all the world. We
have men enough, and those men have as good natural understandings,
and as much natural courage as any other men. If they were wholly
ignorant now, they might learn the art of war. But at sea we are
defenceless. A navy might burn our seaport towns. What then? If
the insinuating Massachusettensis has ever read any speculations,
concerning an Agrarian law, and I know he has, he will be satisfied
that 350,000 landholders will not give up their rights and the
constitution, by which they hold them, to save fifty thousand
inhabitants of maritime towns. Will the minister be nearer his mark,
after he has burnt a beautiful town and murdered 30,000 innocent
people? So far from it, that one such event, would occasion the loss
of all the Colonies to Great Britain forever. It is not so clear
that our trade, fishery and navigation, could be taken from us. Some
persons, who understand this subject better than Massachusettensis,
with all his sprightly imaginations, are of a different opinion.
They think that our trade would be increased. But I will not enlarge
upon this subject, because I wish the trade of this continent may be
confined to Great Britain, at least as much of it, as it can do her
any good to restrain.
The Canadians and Savages are brought in to thicken the horrors of
a picture, with which the lively fancy of this writer has terrified
him. But although we are sensible that the Quebec act has laid a
foundation for a fabric, which if not seasonably demolished, may be
formidable, if not ruinous to the Colonies, in future times, yet we
know that these times are yet at a distance; at present we hold the
power of the Canadians as nothing. But we know their dispositions are
not unfriendly to us.
The Savages will be more likely to be our friends than enemies; but
if they should not, we know well enough how to defend ourselves
against them.
I ought to apologize for the immoderate length of this paper. But
general assertions are only to be confuted by an examination of
particulars, which necessarily fills up much space. I will trespass
on the reader's patience only while I make one observation more upon
the art, I had almost said chicanery of this writer.
He affirms that we are not united in this province, and that
associations are forming in several parts of the province. The
association he means has been laid before the public, and a
very curious piece of legerdemain it is. Is there any article
acknowledging the authority of parliament, the unlimited authority
of parliament? Brigadier Ruggles himself, Massachusettensis himself,
could not have signed it if there had, consistent with their known
declared opinions. They associate to stand by the king's laws, and
this every whig will subscribe. But after all, what a wretched
fortune has this association made in the world! the numbers who
have signed it, would appear so inconsiderable, that I dare say the
Brigadier will never publish to the world their numbers or names. But
"has not Great Britain been a nursing mother to us?" Yes, and we have
behaved as nurse children commonly do, been very fond of her, and
rewarded her all along ten fold for all her care and expense in our
nurture.
But "is not our distraction owing to parliament's taking off a
shilling duty on tea and imposing three pence, and is not this a more
unaccountable phrensy, more disgraceful to the annals of America,
than the witchcraft?"
Is the three pence upon tea our only grievance? Are we not in this
province deprived of the priviledge of paying our governors, judges,
&c.? Are not trials by jury taken from us? Are we not sent to England
for trial? Is not a military government put over us? Is not our
constitution demolished to the foundation? Have not the ministry
shewn by the Quebec bill, that we have no security against them for
our religion any more than our property, if we once submit to the
unlimited claims of parliament? This is so gross an attempt to impose
on the most ignorant of the people, that it is a shame to answer it.
_Obsta principiis_--Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is
the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.
When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers and destroyers
press upon them so fast that there is no resisting afterwards. The
nature of the encroachment upon American constitution is such, as
to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer, it
eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners
and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less
steady, spirited and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more
corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependants and
expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity and
frugality, become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity,
luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality
swallow up the whole society.
NOVANGLUS.
ADDRESSED
_To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay_,
February 13, 1775.
MY FRIENDS,
Massachusettensis, whose pen can wheedle with the tonge of king
Richard the third, in his first paper, threatens you with the
vengeance of Great Britain, and assures you that if she had no
authority over you, yet she would support her claims by her fleets
and armies, Canadians and Indians. In his next he alters his tone,
and soothes you with the generosity, justice and humanity of the
nation.
I shall leave him to show how a nation can claim an authority which
they have not by right, and support it by fire and sword, and yet
be generous and just. The nation I believe is not vindictive, but
the minister has discovered himself to be so, in a degree that would
disgrace a warrior of a savage tribe.
The wily Massachusettensis thinks our present calamity is to be
attributed to the bad policy of a popular party, whose measures,
whatever their intentions were, have been opposite to their
profession, the public good. The present calamity seems to be nothing
more nor less, than reviving the plans of Mr. Bernard and the junto,
and Mr. Grenville and his friends in 1764. Surely this party, are and
have been rather unpopular. The popular party did not write Bernard's
letters, who so long ago pressed for the demolition of all the
charters upon the continent, and a parliamentary taxation to support
government, and the administration of justice in America.
The popular party did not write Oliver's letters, who enforces
Bernard's plans, nor Hutchinson's, who pleads with all his eloquence
and pathos for parliamentary penalties, ministerial vengeance and an
abridgement of English liberties.
There is not in human nature a more wonderful phenomenon; nor in
the whole theory of it, a more intricate speculation; than the
_shiftings_, _turnings_, _windings_ and _evasions_ of a guilty
conscience. Such is our unalterable moral constitution, that an
internal inclination to do wrong, is criminal; and a wicked thought,
stains the mind with guilt, and makes it tingle with pain. Hence it
comes to pass that the guilty mind, can never bear to think that its
guilt is known to God or man, no, nor to itself.
----Cur tamen hos tu
Evasisse putes, quos diri conscia facti
Mens habet attonitos, et surdo verbere cædit
Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum?
Poena autem vehemens ac multo sævior illis,
Quas et Cædicius gravis invenit et Rhadamanthus,
Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem.
JUV. SAT. 13. 192.
Massachusettensis and his friends the tories, are startled at the
calamities they have brought upon their country, and their conscious
guilt, their smarting, wounded mind, will not suffer them to confess,
even to themselves, what they have done. Their silly denials of their
own share in it before a people, who they know have abundant evidence
against them, never fail to remind me of an ancient _fugitive_, whose
conscience could not bear the recollection of what he had done.
"I know not, am I my brother's keeper?" He replies, with all the
apparent simplicity of truth and innocence, to one from whom he was
very sensible his guilt could not be hid. The still more absurd and
ridiculous attempts of the tories, to throw off the blame of these
calamities from themselves to the whigs, remind me of another story,
which I have read in the Old Testament. When Joseph's brethren had
sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, in order to
conceal their own avarice, malice and envy, they dip the coat of many
colours in the blood of a kid, and say that an evil beast had rent
him in pieces and devoured him.
However, what the sons of Israel intended for ruin to Joseph, proved
the salvation of the family; and I hope and believe that the whigs,
will have the magnanimity, like him, to suppress their resentment,
and the felicity of saving their ungrateful brothers.
This writer has a faculty of insinuating errors into the mind, almost
imperceptibly, he dresses them so in the guise of truth. He says
"that the revenue to the crown, from America amounted to but little
more than the charges of collecting it," at the close of the last
war. I believe it did not amount to so much. The truth is, there
was never any pretence of raising a revenue in America before that
time, and when the claim was first set up, it gave an alarm, like a
warlike expedition against us. True it is that some duties had been
laid before by parliament, under pretence of regulating our trade,
and by a collusion and combination between the West India planters,
and the North American governors, some years before, duties had been
laid upon molasses, &c. under the same pretence, but in reality
merely to advance the value of the estates of the planters in the
West India Islands, and to put some plunder, under the name of thirds
of seisures into the pockets of the governors. But these duties,
though more had been collected in this province, than in any other in
proportion, were never regularly collected in any of the Colonies. So
that the idea of an American revenue for one purpose or another had
never, at this time, been formed in American minds.
Our writer goes on, "She, (Great Britain,) thought it as reasonable
that the Colonies should bear a part of the national burdens, as that
they should share in the national benefit."
Upon this subject Americans have a great deal to say. The national
debt before the last war, was near an hundred millions. Surely
America had no share in running into that debt. What is the reason
then that she should pay it? But a small part of the sixty
millions spent in the last war, was for her benefit. Did she not bear
her full share of the burden of the last war in America? Did not the
province pay twelve shillings in the pound in taxes for the support
of it; and send a sixth or seventh part of her sons into actual
service? And at the conclusion of the war, was she not left half a
million sterling in debt? Did not all the rest of New England exert
itself in proportion? What is the reason that the Massachusetts has
paid its debt, and the British minister in thirteen years of peace
has paid none of his? Much of it might have been paid in this time,
had not such extravagance and speculation prevailed, as ought to be
an eternal warning to America, never to trust such a minister with
her money. What is the reason that the great and necessary virtues
of simplicity, frugality and economy cannot live in England, Scotland
and Ireland, as well as America?
We have much more to say still. Great Britain has confined all our
trade to herself. We are willing she should, as far as it can be for
the good of the empire. But we say that we ought to be allowed as
credit, in the account of public burdens and expenses, so much paid
in taxes, as we are obliged to sell our commodities to her cheaper
than we could get for them at foreign markets. The difference is
really a tax upon us, for the good of the empire. We are obliged to
take from Great Britain commodities, that we could purchase cheaper
elsewhere. This difference is a tax upon us for the good of the
empire. We submit to this cheerfully, but insist that we ought to
have credit for it, in the account of the expenses of the empire,
because it is really a tax upon us. Another thing. I will venture
a bold assertion. Let Massachusettensis, or any other friend of
the minister, confute me. The three million Americans, by the tax
aforesaid, upon what they are obliged to export to Great Britain
only, what they are obliged to import from Great Britain only, and
the quantities of British manufactures which in these climates they
are obliged to consume, more than the like number of people in any
part of the three kingdoms, ultimately pay more of the taxes and
duties that are apparently paid in Great Britain, than any three
million subjects in the three kingdoms. All this may be computed
and reduced to stubborn figures, by the minister, if he pleases.
We cannot do it. We have not the accounts, records, &c. Now let
this account be fairly stated, and I will engage for America,
upon any penalty, that she will pay the overplus, if any, in her
own constitutional way, provided it is to be applied for national
purposes, as paying off the national debt, maintaining the fleet, &c.
not to the support of a standing army in time of peace, placemen,
pensioners, &c.
Besides, every farthing of expense which has been incurred on
pretence of protecting, defending and securing America, since the
last war, has been worse than thrown away; it has been applied to do
mischief. Keeping an army in America has been nothing but a public
nuisance.
Furthermore, we see that all the public money that is raised here,
and have reason to believe all that will or can be raised, will be
applied not for public purposes, national or provincial, but merely
to corrupt the sons of America, and create a faction to destroy its
interest and happiness.
There are scarcely three sentences together, in all the voluminous
productions of this plausible writer, which do not convey some error
in fact or principle, tinged with a colouring to make it pass for
truth. He says, "the idea, that the stamps were a tax, not only
exceeding our proportion, but beyond our utmost ability to pay,
united the Colonies generally in opposing it." That we thought it
beyond our proportion and ability is true, but it was not this
thought which united the Colonies in opposing it. When he says that
at first, we did not dream of denying the authority of parliament to
tax us, much less to legislate for us, he discovers plainly either
a total inattention to the sentiments of America at that time, or a
disregard of what he affirms.
The truth is, the authority of parliament was never generally
acknowledged in America. More than a century since, Massachusetts
and Virginia, both protested against even the act of navigation
and refused obedience, for this very reason, because they were
not represented in parliament and were therefore not bound; and
afterwards confirmed it by their own provincial authority. And from
that time to this, the general sense of the Colonies has been, that
the authority of parliament was confined to the regulation of trade,
and did not extend to taxation or internal legislation.
In the year 1764, your house of representatives sent home a petition
to the king, against the plan of taxing them. Mr. Hutchinson, Oliver
and their relations and connections were then in the legislature, and
had great influence there. It was by their influence that the two
houses were induced to wave the word rights, and an express denial of
the right of parliament to tax us, to the great grief and distress
of the friends of liberty in both houses. Mr. Otis and Mr. Thatcher
laboured in the committee to obtain an express denial. Mr. Hutchinson
expressly said he agreed with them in opinion, that parliament had
no right, but thought it ill policy to express this opinion in the
petition. In truth, I will be bold to say, there was not any member
of either house, who thought that parliament had such a right at
that time. The house of representatives, at that time, gave their
approbation to Mr. Otis's rights of the Colonies, in which it was
shewn to be inconsistent with the right of British subjects to be
taxed, but by their own representatives.
In 1765, our house expressly resolved against the right of
parliament to tax us. The congress at New York resolved 3. "That
it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the
undoubted right of Englishmen, that no tax be imposed on them, but
with their own consent given personally, or by their representatives.
4. That the people of the Colonies are not, and from their local
circumstances cannot be represented in the house of commons of Great
Britain. 5. That the only representatives of the people of the
Colonies, are the persons chosen therein by themselves; and that no
taxes ever have been or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but
by their respective legislatures." Is it not a striking disregard to
truth in the artful Massachusettensis to say, that at first we did
not dream of denying the right of parliament to tax us? It was the
principle that united the Colonies to oppose it, not the quantum of
the tax. Did not Dr. Franklin deny the right in 1754, in his remarks
upon governor Shirley's scheme, and supposed that all America would
deny it? We had considered ourselves as connected with Great Britain,
but we never thought parliament the supreme legislature over us. We
never generally supposed it to have any authority over us, but from
necessity, and that necessity we thought confined to the regulation
of trade, and to such matters as concerned all the colonies together.
We never allowed them any authority in our internal concerns.
This writer says, acts of parliament for regulating our internal
polity were familiar. This I deny. So far otherwise, that the
hatter's act was never regarded; the act to destroy the Land Bank
Scheme raised a greater ferment in this province, than the stamp-act
did, which was appeased only by passing province laws directly in
opposition to it. The act against slitting mills, and tilt hammers,
never was executed here. As to the postage, it was so useful a
regulation, so few persons paid it, and they found such a benefit
by it, that little opposition was made to it. Yet every man who
thought about it called it an usurpation. Duties for regulating
trade we paid, because we thought it just and necessary that they
should regulate the trade which their power protected. As for duties
for a revenue, none were ever laid by parliament for that purpose
until 1764, when, and ever since, its authority to do it has been
constantly denied. Nor is this complaisant writer near the truth,
when he says, "We know that in all those acts of government, the good
of the whole had been consulted." On the contrary, we know that the
private interest of provincial governors and West India planters, had
been consulted in the duties on foreign molasses, &c. and the private
interest of a few Portugal merchants, in obliging us to touch at
Falmouth with fruit, &c. in opposition to the good of the whole, and
in many other instances.
The resolves of the house of Burgesses of Virginia, upon the stamp
act, did great honor to that province, and to the eminent patriot
Patrick Henry, Esq. who composed them. But these resolves made no
alteration in the opinion of the Colonies, concerning the right of
parliament to make that act. They expressed the universal opinion of
the continent at that time, and the alacrity with which every other
Colony, and the congress at New York, adopted the same sentiment in
similar resolves, proves the entire union of the Colonies in it, and
their universal determination to avow and support it.
What follows here, that it became so popular that his life was in
danger, who suggested the contrary, and that the press was open to
one side only, are direct misrepresentations and wicked calumnies.
Then we are told, by this sincere writer, that when we obtained a
partial repeal of the statute imposing duties on glass, paper, and
teas, this was the lucky moment, when to have closed the dispute.
What? With a Board of commissioners remaining the sole end of
whose creation was to form and conduct a revenue--with an act of
parliament remaining, the professed design of which expressed in the
preamble, was to raise a revenue, and appropriate it to the payment
of governors' and judges' salaries, the duty remaining too upon an
article, which must raise a large sum, the consumption of which
would constantly increase? Was this a time to retreat? Let me ask
this sincere writer a simple question. Does he seriously believe
that the designs of imposing other taxes, and of new modelling our
governments, would have been bid aside, by the ministry or by the
servants of the crown here? Does he think that Mr. Bernard, Mr.
Hutchinson, the commissioners and others, would have been content
then to have desisted? If he really thinks so, he knows little of
the human heart, and still less of those gentlemen's hearts. It was
at this very time that the salary was given to the governor, and an
order soliciting for that to the judges.
Then we are entertained with a great deal of ingenious talk about
whigs and tories, and at last are told that some of the whigs owed
all their importance to popularity. And what then? Did not as many
of the tories owe their importance to popularity?--And did not many
more owe all their importance to unpopularity? If it had not been
for their taking an active part on the side of the ministry, would
not some of the most conspicuous and eminent of them have been
unimportant enough? Indeed, through the two last administrations to
despise and hate the people, and to be despised and hated by them
were the principal recommendations to the favours of government, and
all the qualification that was required.
The tories, says he, were for closing the controversy. That is, they
were for contending no more, and it was equally true that they never
were for contending at all, but lying at mercy. It was the very end
they had aimed at from the beginning. They had now got the governor's
salary out of the revenue--a number of pensions and places, and
they knew they could at any time get the judges' salaries from the
same fountain, and they wanted to get the people reconciled and
familiarised to this, before they went upon any new projects.
The whigs were averse to restoring government, they even refused
to revive a temporary riot act, which expired about this time.
Government had as much vigour then as ever, excepting only in those
cases which affected this dispute. The riot act expired in 1770,
immediately after the massacre in King Street. It was not revived and
never will be in this Colony, nor will any one ever be made in any
other, while a standing army is illegally posted here, to butcher
the people, whenever a governor, or a magistrate, who may be a tool,
shall order it. "Perhaps the whigs thought that mobs were a necessary
ingredient in their system of opposition." Whether they did or no, it
is certain that mobs have been thought a necessary ingredient by the
tories in their system of administration, mobs of the worst sort with
red coats, fuzees and bayonets, and the lives and limbs of the whigs
have been in greater danger from these, than ever the tories were
from others.
"The scheme of the whigs flattered the people with the idea of
independence; the tories' plan supposed a degree of subordination."
This is artful enough, as usual not to say jesuitical. The word
independence is one of those, which this writer uses, as he does
treason and rebellion, to impose upon the undistinguishing on both
sides of the Atlantic. But let us take him to pieces. What does he
mean by independence? Does he mean independent of the crown of Great
Britain, and an independent republic in America, or a confederation
of independent republics? No doubt he intended the undistinguishing
should understand him so. If he did; nothing can be more wicked,
or a greater slander on the whigs; because he knows there is not a
man in the province, among the whigs, nor ever was, who harbours
a wish of that sort. Does he mean that the people were flattered
with the idea of total independence on parliament? If he does,
this is equally malicious and injurious; because he knows that the
equity and necessity of parliament's regulating trade has always
been acknowledged, our determination to consent and submit to such
regulations constantly expressed, and all the acts of trade in fact,
to this very day, much more submitted to and strictly executed in
this province, than any other in America.
There is equal ambiguity in the words "degree of subordination."
The whigs acknowledge a subordination to the king, in as strict and
strong a sense as the tories. The whigs acknowledge a voluntary
subordination to parliament, as far as the regulation of trade. What
degree of subordination then do the tories acknowledge? An absolute
dependance upon parliament as their supreme legislative, in all cases
whatever, in their internal polity as well as taxation? This would
be too gross and would lose him all his readers; for there is nobody
here who will expose his understanding so much, as explicitly to
adopt such a sentiment. Yet it is such an absolute dependance and
submission, that these writers would persuade us to, or else there is
no need of changing our sentiments and conduct. Why will not these
gentlemen speak out, shew us plainly their opinion that the new
government, they have fabricated for this province, is better than
the old, and that all the other measures, we complain of, are for our
and the public good, and exhort us directly to submit to them? The
reason is, because they know they should lose their readers.
"The whigs were sensible that there was no oppression that could be
seen or felt." The tories have so often said and wrote this to one
another, that I sometimes suspect they believe it to be true. But
it is quite otherwise. The castle of the province was taken out of
their hand and garrisoned by regular soldiers: this they could see,
and they thought it indicated an hostile intention and disposition
towards them. They continually paid their money to collectors of
duties: this they could both see and feel. An host of placemen, whose
whole business it was to collect a revenue, were continually rolling
before them in their chariots. These they saw. Their governor was no
longer paid by themselves, according to their charter, but out of the
new revenue, in order to render their assemblies useless and indeed
contemptible. The judges' salaries were threatened every day to be
paid in the same unconstitutional manner. The dullest eye-sight could
not but see to what all this tended, viz.; to prepare the way for
greater innovations and oppressions. They knew a minister would never
spend his money in this way, if he had not some end to answer by it.
Another thing they both saw and felt. Every man, of every character,
who by voting, writing, speaking, or otherwise, had favoured the
stamp act, the tea act, and every other measure of a minister or
governor, who they knew was aiming at the destruction of their form
of government, and introducing parliamentary taxation, was uniformly,
in some department or other, promoted to some place of honour or
profit for ten years together: and, on the other hand, every man who
favoured the people in their opposition to those innovations, was
depressed, degraded and persecuted, as far as it was in the power of
the government to do it.
This they considered as a systematical means of encouraging every
man of abilities to espouse the cause of parliamentary taxation, and
the plan of destroying their charter privilege, and to discourage
all from exerting themselves, in opposition to them. This they
thought a plan to enslave them, for they uniformly think that the
destruction of their charter, making the council and judges wholly
dependant on the crown, and the people subject to the unlimited power
of parliament, as their supreme legislative, is slavery. They were
certainly rightly told, then, that the ministry and their governors
together had formed a design to enslave them; and that when once this
was done, they had the highest reason to expect window taxes, hearth
taxes, land taxes and all others: and that these were only paving the
way for reducing the country to lordships. Were the people mistaken
in these suspicions? Is it not now certain that governor Bernard
in 1764, had formed a design of this sort? Read his principles of
polity--And that lieutenant governor Oliver as late as 1768 or 9,
inforced the same plan? Read his letters.
Now if Massachusettensis will be ingenuous, avow this design, shew
the people its utility, and that it ought to be done by parliament,
he will act the part of an honest man. But to insinuate that there
was no such plan, when he knows there was, is acting the part of one
of the junto.
It is true that the people of this country in general, and of this
province in special, have an hereditary apprehension of and aversion
to lordships, temporal and spiritual. Their ancestors fled to this
wilderness to avoid them--they suffered sufficiently under them in
England. And there are few of the present generation, who have not
been warned of the danger of them by their fathers or grandfathers,
and injoined to oppose them. And neither Bernard nor Oliver ever
dared to avow, before them, the designs which they had certainly
formed to introduce them. Nor does Massachusettensis dare to avow
his opinion in their favour. I do not mean that such avowal would
expose their persons to danger, but their characters and writings to
universal contempt.
When you were told that the people of England were depraved, the
parliament venal, and the ministry corrupt, were you not told most
melancholy truths? Will Massachusettensis deny any of them? Does
not every man, who comes from England, whig or tory, tell you the
same thing? Do they make any secret of it, or use any delicacy about
it? Do they not most of them avow that corruption is so established
there, as to be incurable, and a necessary instrument of government?
Is not the British constitution arrived nearly to that point, where
the Roman republic was, when Jugurtha left it, and pronounced it a
venal city ripe for destruction, if it can only find a purchaser? If
Massachusettensis can prove that it is not, he will remove from my
mind, one of the heaviest loads which lies upon it.
Who has censured the tories for remissness, I know not. Whoever
it was, he did them great injustice. Every one that I know of
that character has been through the whole tempestuous period, as
indefatigable as human nature will admit, going about seeking whom
he might devour, making use of art, flattery, terror, temptation and
allurements in every shape, in which human wit could dress it up, in
public and private. But all to no purpose. The people have grown more
and more weary of them every day, until now the land mourns under
them.
Massachusettensis is then seized with a violent fit of anger at the
clergy. It is curious to observe the conduct of the tories towards
this sacred body. If a clergyman preaches against the principles of
the revolution, and tells the people that upon pain of damnation,
they must submit to an established government, of whatever character
the tories cry him up, as an excellent man, and a wonderful preacher,
invite him to their tables, procure him missions from the society,
and chaplainships to the navy, and flatter him with the hopes of lawn
sleeves. But if a clergyman preaches christianity, and tells the
magistrates that they were not distinguished from their brethren, for
their private emolument, but for the good of the people; that the
people are bound in conscience to obey a good government, but are
not bound to submit to one, that aims at destroying all the ends of
government--Oh Sedition! Treason!
The clergy in all ages and countries, and in this in particular,
are disposed enough to be on the side of government, as long as
it is tolerable. If they have not been generally, in the late
administrations, on that side, it is a demonstration that the late
administration has been universally odious.
The clergy of this province are a virtuous, sensible and learned set
of men; and they do not take their sermons from newspapers, but the
bible; unless it be a few, who preach passive obedience. These are
not generally curious enough to read Hobbs.
It is the duty of the clergy to accommodate their discourses to
the times, to preach against such sins, as are most prevalent,
and recommend such virtues, as are most wanted. For example; if
exorbitant ambition, and venality are predominant, ought they not to
warn their hearers against their [Errata: these] vices? If public
spirit is much wanted, should they not inculcate this great virtue?
If the rights and duties of christian magistrates and subjects are
disputed, should they not explain them, shew their nature, ends,
limitations and restrictions, how much soever it may move the gall of
Massachusettensis?
Let me put a supposition:--Justice is a great christian, as well
as moral duty and virtue, which the clergy ought to inculcate and
explain. Suppose a great man of a parish should for seven years
together receive 600 sterling a year, for discharging the duties of
an important office; but during the whole time, should never do one
act or take one step about it. Would not this be great injustice to
the public? And ought not the parson of that parish to cry aloud
and spare not, and shew such a bold transgressor his sin? shew that
justice was due to the public as well as to an individual? and that
cheating the public of four thousand two hundred pounds sterling,
is at least as great a sin, as taking a chicken from a private hen
roost, or perhaps a watch from a fob?
Then we are told that newspapers and preachers have excited outrages
disgraceful to humanity. Upon this subject I will venture to say,
that there have been outrages in this province, which I neither
justify, excuse or extenuate; but these were not excited, that I know
of, by newspapers or sermons: that however, if we run through the
last ten years, and consider all the tumults and outrages that have
happened, and at the same time recollect the insults, provocations
and oppressions which this people have endured; we shall find the
two characteristics of this people, religion and humanity, strongly
marked on all their proceedings. Not a life, nor, that I have ever
heard, a single limb has been lost through the whole. I will take
upon me to say, there is not another province on this continent,
nor in his majesty's dominions, where the people, under the same
indignities, would not have gone greater lengths. Consider the
tumults in the three kingdoms, consider the tumults in ancient Rome,
in the most virtuous of her periods, and compare them with ours. It
is a saying of Machiavel, which no wise man ever contradicted, which
has been literally verified in this province; that "while the mass of
the people is not corrupted, tumults do no hurt." By which he means,
that they leave no lasting ill effects behind.
But let us consider the outrages committed by the tories. Half
a dozen men shot dead in an instant, in King Street, frequent
resistance and affronts to civil officers and magistrates, officers,
watchmen, citizens, cut and mangle in a most inhuman manner. Not
to mention the shootings for desertion, and the frequent cruel
whippings for other faults, cutting and mangling men's bodies before
the eyes of citizens; spectacles which ought never to be introduced
into populous places. The worst sort of tumults and outrages, ever
committed in this province, were excited by the tories. But more of
this hereafter.
We are then told that the whigs erected a provincial democracy,
or republic, in the province. I wish Massachusettensis knew what
a democracy, or republic is. But this subject must be considered
another time.
NOVANGLUS.
Messieurs Printers. Instead of _Cawings_ of Cormorants, in
a former paper, you have printed _Cooings_, too dove-like a
word for the birds intended.
ADDRESSED
_To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay_,
February 20, 1775.
MY FRIENDS,
We are at length arrived at the paper, on which I made a few
strictures, some weeks ago: these I shall not repeat, but proceed to
consider the other part of it.
We are told, "It is an universal truth, that he that would excite
a rebellion, is at heart, as great a tyrant, as ever wielded the
iron rod of oppression." Be it so. We are not exciting a rebellion.
Opposition, nay open, avowed resistance by arms, against usurpation
and lawless violence, is not rebellion by the law of God, or the
land. Resistance to lawful authority makes rebellion. Hampden,
Russell, Sydney, Somers, Holt, Tillotson, Burnet, Hoadly, &c. were
no tyrants nor rebels, although some of them were in arms, and the
others undoubtedly excited resistance, against the tories. Do not
beg the question, Mr. Massachusettensis, and then give yourself airs
of triumph. Remember the frank Veteran acknowledges, that "the word
rebel is a convertible term."
This writer next attempts to trace the spirit of opposition through
the general court, and the courts of common law. "It was the policy
of the whigs, to have their questions, upon high matters, determined
by yea and nay votes, which were published in the gazettes."
And ought not great questions to be so determined? In many other
assemblies, New York particularly, they always are. What better can
be devised to discover the true sense of the people? It is extremely
provoking to courtiers, that they cannot vote, as the cabinet
direct them, against their consciences, the known sense of their
constituents, and the obvious good of the community, without being
detected. Generally, perhaps universally, no unpopular measure in
a free government, particularly the English, ought ever to pass.
Why have the people a share in the legislature, but to prevent
such measures from passing, I mean such as are disapproved by the
people at large? But did not these yea and nay votes expose the
whigs, as well as tories, to the impartial judgment of the public?
If the votes of the former were given for measures injurious to the
community, had not the latter an equal opportunity of improving
them to the disadvantage of their adversaries in the next election?
Besides, were not those few persons in the house, who generally
voted for unpopular measures, near the governor, in possession of
his confidence? Had they not the absolute disposal in their towns
and counties of the favour of government? Were not all the judges,
justices, sheriffs, coroners and military officers in their towns,
made upon their recommendation? Did not this give them a prodigious
weight and influence? Had the whigs any such advantage? And does not
the influence of these yea and nay votes, consequently prove to a
demonstration, the unanimity of the people, against the measures of
the court?
As to what is said of "severe strictures, illiberal invectives,
abuse and scurrility, upon the dissentients," there was quite as
much of all these published against the leading whigs. In truth,
the strictures, &c. against the tories were generally nothing more,
than hints at the particular place or office, which was known to be
the temptation to vote against the country. That "the dissentient
was in danger of losing his bread and involving his family in ruin,"
is equally injurious. Not an instance can be produced of a member
losing his bread, or injuring his business, by voting for unpopular
measures. On the contrary such voters never failed to obtain some
lucrative employment, title, or honorary office, as a reward from the
court.
If "one set of members in committee had always prepared the
resolves," &c. which they did not; what would this prove, but that
this set was thought by the house the fittest for the purpose? Can it
ever be otherwise? Will any popular assembly choose its worst members
for the best services? Will an assembly of patriots choose courtiers
to prepare votes against the court? No resolves against the claims
of parliament or administration, or the measures of the governor,
(excepting those against the stamp act, and perhaps the answers to
governor Hutchinson's speeches upon the supremacy of parliament) ever
passed through the house, without meeting an obstacle. The governor
had to the last hour of the house's existence, always some seekers
and expectants in the house, who never failed to oppose, and offer
the best arguments they could; and were always patiently heard:
that the lips of the dissentients were sealed up; that they sat in
silence, and beheld with regret, measures they dared not oppose, are
groundless suggestions and gross reflections upon the honour and
courage of those members. The debates of this house were public, and
every man, who has attended the gallery, knows there never was more
freedom of debate in any assembly.
Massachusettensis, in the next place, conducts us to the agent, and
tell us "there can not be a provincial agent without an appointment
by the three branches of the assembly. The whigs soon found that they
could not have such services rendered them, from a provincial agent
as would answer their purposes."
The treatment this province has received, respecting the agency,
since Mr. Hutchinson's administration commenced, is a flagrant
example of injustice. There is no law, which requires the province to
maintain any agent in England; much less is there any reason, which
necessarily requires, that the three branches should join in the
appointment. In ordinary times, indeed, when a harmony prevails among
the branches, it is well enough to have an agent constituted by all.
But in times when the foundations of the constitution are disputed,
and certainly attacked by one branch or the other, to pretend that
the house ought to join the governor in the choice, is a palpable
absurdity. It is equivalent to saying that the people shall have no
agent at all; that all communication shall be cut off; and that there
shall be no channel, through which complaints and petitions may be
conveyed to the royal ear; because a governor will not concur in an
agent whose sentiments are not like his; nor will an agent of the
governor's appointment be likely to urge accusations against them,
with any diligence or zeal, if the people have occasion to complain
against him.
Every private citizen, much more, every representative body, has an
undoubted right to petition the king, to convey such petition by
an agent, and to pay him for his service. Mr. Bernard, to do him
justice, had so much regard to these principles, as to consent to the
payment of the people's agents, while he staid. But Mr. Hutchinson
was scarcely seated in the chair, as lieutenant governor, before
we had intelligence from England, that my lord Hillsborough told
Dr. Franklin, he had received a letter from governor Hutchinson
against consenting to the salary of the agent. Such an instruction
was accordingly soon sent, and no agent for the board or house,
has received a farthing for services, since that time, though Dr.
Franklin and Mr. Bollan have taken much pains, and one of them
expended considerable sums of money. There is a meanness in this play
that would disgrace a gambler; a manifest fear that the truth should
be known to the sovereign or the people. Many persons have thought
that the province ought to have dismissed all agents from that time,
as useless and nugatory; this behaviour amounting to a declaration,
that we had no chance or hopes of justice from a minister.
But this province, at least as meritorious as any, has been long
accustomed to indignities and injustice, and to bear both with
unparalleled patience. Others, have pursued the same method before
and since; but we have never heard that their agents are unpaid. They
would scarcely have borne it with so much resignation.
It is great assurance to blame the house for this, which was both
their right and duty; but a stain in the character of his patron,
which will not be soon worn out. Indeed this passage seems to have
been brought in, chiefly for the sake of a stroke or two, addressed
to the lowest and meanest of the people; I mean the insinuation that
the two agents doubled the _expence_, which is as groundless as it
is contracted; and that the ostensible agent for the province was
only agent for a few individuals, that had got the art of wielding
the house; and that several hundred sterling a year, for attending
levees and writing letters, were worth preserving. We, my friends,
know that no members have the art of wielding us or our house, but
by concurring in our principles, and assisting us in our designs.
Numbers in both houses have turned about and expected to wield us
round with them; but they have been disappointed, and ever will be.
Such apostates have never yet failed of our utter contempt, whatever
titles, places or pensions they might obtain.
The agent has never echoed back, or transmitted to America, any
sentiments, which he did not give in substance to governor Shirley,
twenty years ago; and therefore this insinuation is but another
slander. The remainder of what is said of the agency is levelled at
Dr. Franklin, and is but a dull appendix to Wedderburn's ribaldry,
having all his malice without any of his wit or spirit. Nero murdered
Seneca, that he might pull up virtue by the roots; and the same
maxim governs the scribblers and speechifiers, on the side of the
minister. It is sufficient to discover that any man has abilities and
integrity, a love of virtue and liberty; he must be run down at all
events. Witness Pitt and Franklin and too many others.
My design in pursuing this malicious slanderer, concealed as he is,
under so soft and oily an appearance, through all the doublings
of his tedious course, is to vindicate this Colony from his base
aspersions; that strangers now among us and the impartial public
may see the wicked arts, which are still employed against us. After
the vilest abuse upon the agent of the province and the house, that
appointed him, we are brought to his majesty's council, and are told
that the "whigs reminded them of their mortality--If any one opposed
the violent measures, he lost his election next May. Half the whole
number, mostly men of the first families, note, abilities, attached
to their native country, wealthy and independent, were tumbled from
their seats in disgrace. Thus the board lost its weight, and the
political balance was destroyed."
It is impossible for any man acquainted with this subject to
read this zealous rant, without smiling, until he attends to the
wickedness of it, which will provoke his utmost indignation. Let us
however consider it soberly.
From the date of our charter, to the time of the stamp act, and
indeed since that time (notwithstanding the misrepresentations of
our charter constitution, as too popular and republican) the council
of this province have been generally on the side of the governor and
the prerogative. For the truth of this, I appeal to our whole history
and experience. The art and power of governors, and especially the
negative, have been a stronger motive on the one hand, than the
annual election of the two houses on the other. In disputes between
the governor and the house, the council have generally adhered to
the former, and in many cases have complied with his humour, when
scarcely any council by mandamus, upon this continent, would have
done it.
But in the time of the stamp act, it was found productive of many
mischiefs and dangers, to have officers of the crown, who were
dependant on the ministry, and judges of the superior court, whose
offices were thought incompatible with a voice in the legislature,
members of council.
In May 1765, Lt. Gov. Hutchinson, Sec. Oliver, and Mr. Belcher were
officers of the crown, the judges of the superior court, and some
other gentlemen, who held commissions under the governor, were
members of council. Mr. Hutchinson was chief justice and a judge of
probate for the first county, as well as lieutenant governor, and a
counsellor; too many offices for the greatest and best man in the
world to hold, too much business for any man to do; besides, that
these offices were frequently clashing and interfering with each
other. Two other justices of the superior court were counsellors,
and nearly and closely connected with him by family alliances. One
other justice was judge of admiralty during pleasure. Such a jumble
of offices never got together before in any English government. It
was found in short, that the famous triumvirate, Bernard, Hutchinson
and Oliver, the ever memorable, secret, confidential letter writers,
whom I call the junto, had by degrees, and before the people were
aware of it, erected a tyranny in the province. Bernard had all
the executive, and a negative on the legislative; Hutchinson and
Oliver, by their popular arts and secret intrigues, had elevated
to the board, such a collection of crown officers, and their own
relations, as to have too much influence there; and they had three
of a family on the superior bench, which is the supreme tribunal in
all causes civil and criminal, vested with all the powers of the
king's bench, common pleas and exchequer, which gave them power over
every act of this court. This junto therefore had the legislative and
executive in their controul, and more natural influence over the
judicial, than is ever to be trusted to any set of men in the world.
The public accordingly found all these springs and wheels in the
constitution set in motion to promote submission to the stamp act,
and to discountenance resistance to it; and they thought they had a
violent presumption, that they would forever be employed to encourage
a compliance with all ministerial measures and parliamentary claims,
of whatever character they might be.
The designs of the junto, however, were concealed as carefully as
possible. Most persons were jealous; few were certain. When the
assembly met in May, 1766, after the stamp act was repealed, the
whigs flattered themselves with hopes of peace and liberty for
the future. Mr. Otis, whose abilities and integrity, whose great
exertions, and most exemplary sacrifices of his private interest to
the public service, had entitled him to all the promotion, which
the people could bestow, was chosen speaker of the house. Bernard
negatived the choice. It can scarcely be conceived by a stranger,
what an alarm this manoeuvre gave to the public. It was thought
equivalent to a declaration, that although the people had been so
successful as to obtain a repeal of the stamp act, yet they must not
hope to be quiet long, for parliament, by the declaratory act, had
asserted its supreme authority, and new taxations and regulations
should be made, if the junto could obtain them: and every man who
should dare to oppose such projects, let his powers, or virtues, his
family or fortune be what they would, should be surely cut off from
all hopes of advancement. The electors thought it high time to be
upon their guard. All the foregoing reasons and motives prevailed
with the electors; and the crown officers and justices of the supreme
court, were left out of council in the new choice. Those who were
elected in their places were all negatived by Bernard, which was
considered as a fresh proof, that the junto still persevered in their
designs of obtaining a revenue, to divide among themselves.
The gentlemen elected anew, were of equal fortune and integrity, at
least, and not much inferior in abilities to those left out, and
indeed, in point of fortune, family, note or abilities, the councils
which have been chosen from that time to this, taken on an average,
have been very little inferior, if any, to those chosen before. Let
Massachusettensis descend if he will, to every particular gentleman
by name through the whole period, and I will make out my assertion.
Every impartial person will not only think these reasons a full
vindication of the conduct of the two houses, but that it was their
indispensable duty to their country, to act the part they did; and
the course of time, which has developed the dark intrigues of the
junto, before and since, has confirmed the rectitude and necessity
of the measure. Had Bernard's principles of polity been published
and known at that time, no member of the house, who should have
voted for any of the persons then left out, if it was known to his
constituents, would ever have obtained another election.
By the next step we rise to the chair. "With the board, the chair
fell likewise," he says. But what a slander is this? Neither fell;
both remained in as much vigour as ever. The junto it is true, and
some other gentlemen who were not in their secret, but however had
been misled to concur in their measures, were left out of council.
But the board had as much authority as ever. The board of 1766
could not have influenced the people to acknowledge the supreme
uncontroulable authority of parliament, nor could that of 1765, have
done it. So that by the chair, and the boards falling, he means
no more, if his meaning has any truth in it, than that the junto
fell; the designs of taxing the Colonies fell, and the schemes
for destroying all the charters on the continent and for erecting
lordships fell. These, it must be acknowleged, fell very low indeed,
in the esteem of the people, and the two houses.
"The governor," says our wily writer, "could do little or nothing
without the council, by the charter." "If he called upon a military
officer to raise the militia, he was answered they were there
already," &c. The council, by the charter, had nothing to do with
the militia. The governor alone had all authority over them. The
council therefore are not to blame for their conduct. If the militia
refused obedience to the captain general, or his subordinate officer,
when commanded to assist in carrying into execution the stamp act,
or in dispersing those who were opposing it, does not this prove
the universal sense and resolution of the people not to submit to
it? Did not a regular army do more to James the second? If those,
over whom the governor had the most absolute authority and decisive
influence, refused obedience, does not this show how deeply rooted
in all men's minds was the abhorrence of that unconstitutional
power which was usurping over them? "If he called upon the council
for their assistance, they must first inquire into the cause." An
unpardonable crime, no doubt! But is it the duty of a middle branch
of legislature, to do as the first shall command them, implicitly,
or to judge for themselves? Is it the duty of a privy council, to
understand the subject before they give advice, or only to lend their
names to any edict, in order to make it less unpopular? It would
be a shame to answer such observations as these, if it was not for
their wickedness. Our council, all along however did as much as any
council could have done. Was the mandamus council at New York able to
do more, to influence the people to a submission to the stamp act?
Was the chair, the board, the septennial house, with the assistance
of general Gage and his troops, able to do more, in that city, than
our branches did in this province? Not one iota. Nor could Bernard,
his council, and house, if they had been unanimous, have induced
submission. The people would have spurned them all, for they are not
to be wheedled out of their liberties by their own representatives,
anymore than by strangers. "If he wrote to government at home to
strengthen his hands, some officious person procured and sent back
his letters." At last it seems to be acknowledged, that the governor
did write for a military force, to strengthen government. For what?
to enable it to enforce stamp acts, tea acts, and other internal
regulations, the authority of which the people were determined never
to acknowledge.
But what a pity it was, that these worthy gentlemen could not be
allowed, from the dearest affection to their native country, to which
they had every possible attachment, to go on in profound confidential
secrecy, procuring troops to cut our throats, acts of parliament
to drain our purses, destroy our charters and assemblies, getting
estates and dignities for themselves and their own families, and all
the while most devoutly professing to be friends to our charter,
enemies to parliamentary taxation, and to all pensions, without being
detected? How happy! if they could have annihilated all our charters,
and yet have been beloved, nay deified by the people, as friends and
advocates for their charters? What masterly politicians! to have
made themselves nobles for life, and yet have been thought very
sorry, that the two houses were denied the privilege of choosing the
council? How sagacious, to get large pensions for themselves, and yet
be thought to mourn, that pensions and venality were introduced into
the country? How sweet and pleasant! to have been the most popular
men in the community, for being staunch and zealous dissenters, true
blue Calvinists, and able advocates for public virtue and popular
government, after they had introduced an American Episcopate,
universal corruption among the leading men, and deprived the people
of all share in their supreme legislative council? I mention an
Episcopate, for although I do not know that governors Hutchinson and
Oliver ever directly solicited for bishops, yet they must have seen,
that these would have been one effect, very soon, of establishing the
unlimited authority of parliament!
I agree with this writer, that it was not the persons of Bernard,
Hutchinson or Oliver, that made them obnoxious; but their principles
and practices. And I will agree, that if Chatham, Campden and St.
Asaph, (I beg pardon for introducing these reverend names into
such company, and for making a supposition which is absurd) had
been here, and prosecuted such schemes, they would have met with
contempt and execration from this people. But when he says, "that
had the intimations in those letters been attended to, we had now
been as happy a people as good government could make us," it is
too gross to make us angry. We can do nothing but smile. Have not
these intimations been attended to? Have not fleets and armies
been sent here, whenever they requested? Have not governors',
lieutenant governors', secretaries', judges', attorney generals',
and solicitor generals' salaries been paid out of the revenue as they
solicited? Have not taxes been laid, and continued? Have not English
liberties been abridged as Hutchinson desired? Have not "penalties
of another kind" been inflicted, as he desired? Has not our charter
been destroyed, and the council put into the king's hands, as
Bernard requested? In short, almost all the wild mock pranks of
this desperate triumvirate have been attended to and adopted, and
we are now as miserable as tyranny can well make us. That Bernard
came here with the affections of New Jersey, I never heard nor read,
but in this writer. His abilities were considerable, or he could
not have done such extensive mischief. His true British honesty and
punctuality will be acknowledged by none, but such as owe all their
importance to flattering him.
That Hutchinson was amiable and exemplary, in some respects, and very
unamiable and unexemplary, in others, is a certain truth; otherwise
he never would have retained so much popularity on one hand, nor made
so pernicious a use of it on the other. His behavior, in several
important departments, was with ability and integrity, in cases which
did not effect his political system, but he bent all his offices to
that. Had he continued stedfast to those principles in religion and
government, which in his former life he professed, and which alone
had procured him the confidence of the people and all his importance,
he would have lived and died, respected and beloved, and have done
honor to his native country. But by renouncing these principles and
that conduct, which had made him and all his ancestors respectable,
his character is now considered by all America, and the best part of
the three kingdoms, notwithstanding the countenance he receives from
the ministry, as a reproach to the province that gave him birth, as
a man who by all his actions aimed at making himself great, at the
expense of the liberties of his native country. This gentleman was
open to flattery, in so remarkable a degree, that any man who would
flatter him was sure of his friendship, and every one who would not,
was sure of his enmity. He was credulous, in a rediculous degree,
of every thing that favoured his own plans, and equally incredulous
of every thing which made against them. His natural abilities which
have been greatly exaggerated by persons whom he had advanced to
power, were far from being of the first rate. His industry was
prodigious. His knowledge lay chiefly in the laws and politics and
history of this province, in which he had a long experience. Yet
with all his advantages, he never was master of the true character
of his native country, not even of New England and the Massachusetts
Bay. Through the whole troublesome period since the last war, he
manifestly mistook the temper, principles, and opinions of this
people. He had resolved upon a system, and never could or would see
the impracticability of it.
It is very true that all his abilities, virtues, interests and
connections, were insufficient; but for what? To prevail on the
people to acquiesce in the mighty claim of parliamentary authority.
The constitution was not gone. The suggestion, that it was, is a
vile slander. It had as much vigour as ever, and even the governor
had as much power as ever, excepting in cases which affected that
claim. "The spirit" says this writer "was truly republican." It
was not so in any one case whatever; any further than the spirit
of the British constitution is republican. Even in the grand
fundamental dispute, the people arranged themselves under their
house of representatives and council, with as much order as ever,
and conducted their opposition as much by the constitution as ever.
It is true their constitution was employed against the measures of
the junto, which created their enmity to it. However I have not such
an horror of republican spirit, which is a spirit of true virtue,
and honest independence; I do not mean on the king, but on men in
power. This spirit is so far from being incompatible with the British
constitution, that it is the greatest glory of it, and the nation has
always been most prosperous, when it has most prevailed and been most
encouraged by the crown. I wish it increased in every part of the
world, especially in America; and I think the measures, the tories
are now pursuing, will increase it to a degree that will ensure us,
in the end, redress of grievances and an happy reconciliation with
Great Britain.
"Governor Hutchinson strove to convince us, by the principles of
government, our charters and acknowledgments, that our claims were
inconsistent with the subordination due to Great Britain," &c. says
this writer.
Suffer me to introduce here, a little history. In 1764, when
the system of taxing and new modelling the Colonies was first
apprehended, lieutenant governor Hutchinson's friends struggled in
several successive sessions of the general court, to get him chosen
agent for the province at the court of Great Britain. At this time
he declared freely, _that he was of the same sentiment with the
people, that parliament had no right to tax them; but differed from
the country party, only in his opinion of the policy of denying that
right, in their petitions_, &c. I would not injure him; I was told
this by three gentlemen who were of the committee of both houses,
to prepare that petition, that he made this declaration explicitly
before that committee. I have been told by other gentlemen that he
made the same declaration to them. It is possible that he might make
use of expressions studied for the purpose, which would not strictly
bear this construction. But it is certain that they understood him
so, and that this was the general opinion of his sentiments until he
came to the chair.
The country party saw, that this aspiring genius aimed at keeping
fair with the ministry, by supporting their measures, and with the
people, by pretending to be of our principles, and between both to
trim himself up to the chair. The only reason why he did not obtain
an election at one time, and was excused from the service at another,
after he had been chosen by a small majority, was because the members
knew he would not openly deny the right, and assure his majesty, the
parliament, and ministry, that the people never would submit to it.
For the same reason he was left out of council. But he continued to
cultivate his popularity, and to maintain a general opinion among the
people, that he denied the right in his private judgment, and this
idea preserved most of those who continued their esteem for him.
But upon Bernard's removal, and his taking the chair as lieutenant
governor, he had no farther expectations from the people nor
complaisance for their opinions. In one of his first speeches he took
care to advance the supreme authority of parliament. This astonished
many of his friends. They were heard to say, we have been deceived.
We thought he had been abused, but we now find what has been said of
him is true. He is determined to join in the designs against this
country. After his promotion to the government, finding that the
people had little confidence in him, and shewing [Errata: knowing]
that he had no interest at home to support him, but what he had
acquired by joining with Bernard in kicking up a dust, he determined
to strike a bold stroke, and in a formal speech to both houses,
became a champion for the unbounded authority of parliament, over the
Colonies. This he thought would lay the ministry under obligation to
support him in the government, or else to provide for him out of it,
not considering that starting that question before that assembly,
and calling upon them, as he did, to dispute with him upon it, was
scattering firebrands, arrows and death in sport. The arguments he
then advanced were inconclusive indeed: but they shall be considered,
when I come to the feeble attempt of Massachusettensis to give a
colour to the same position.
The house, thus called upon, either to acknowledge the unlimited
authority of parliament, or confute his arguments, were bound by
their duty to God, their country and posterity, to give him a full
and explicit answer. They proved incontestibly, that he was out in
his facts, inconsistent with himself, and in every principle of his
law, he had committed a blunder. Thus the fowler was caught in his
own snare; and although this country has suffered severe temporary
calamities in consequence of this speech, yet I hope they will not
be durable; but his ruin was certainly in part owing to it. Nothing
ever opened the eyes of the people so much, as his designs, excepting
his letters. Thus it is the fate of Massachusettensis to praise this
gentleman, for these things which the wise part of mankind condemn
in him, as the most insidious and mischievous of actions. If it was
out of his power to do us any more injuries, I should wish to forget
the past; but as there is reason to fear he is still to continue his
malevolent labours against this country, although he is out of our
sight, he ought not to be out of our minds. This country has every
thing to fear, in the present state of the British court, while
the lords Bute, Mansfield and North have the principal conduct of
affairs, from the deep intrigues of that artful man.
To proceed to his successor, whom Massachusettensis has been pleased
to compliment with the epithet of "amiable." I have no inclination
to detract from this praise, but have no panegyricks or invectives
for any man, much less for any governor, until satisfied of his
character and designs. This gentleman's conduct, although he came
here to support the systems of his two predecessors, and contracted
to throw himself into the arms of their connections, when he has
acted himself, and not been teased by others much less amiable and
judicious than himself, into measures which his own inclination would
have avoided, has been in general as unexceptionable as could be
expected, in his very delicate, intricate and difficult situation.
We are then told "that disaffection to Great Britain was infused
into the body of the people." The leading whigs, have ever,
systematically, and upon principle, endeavoured to preserve the
people from all disaffection to the king on the one hand, and the
body of the people on the other; but to lay the blame where it is
justly due on the ministry and their instruments.
We are next conducted into the superior court, and informed "that
the judges were dependant on the annual grants of the general court;
that their salaries were small in proportion to the salaries of
other officers, of less importance; that they often petitioned the
assembly to enlarge them, without success, and were reminded of their
dependance; that they remained unshaken amid the raging tempests,
which is to be attributed rather to their firmness than situation."
That the salaries were small, must be allowed: but not smaller
in proportion than those of other officers. All salaries in this
province have been and are small. It has been the policy of the
country to keep them so, not so much from a spirit of parsimony, as
an opinion, that the service of the public ought to be an honorary,
rather than a lucrative employment; and that the great men ought to
be obliged to set examples of simplicity and frugality before the
people.
But if we consider things maturely, and make allowance for all
circumstances, I think the country may be vindicated. This province,
during the last war, had such overbearing burdens upon it, that it
was necessitated to use economy in every thing. At the peace she
was half a million sterling in debt, nearly. She thought it the
best policy to get out of debt, before she raised the wages of her
servants; and if Great Britain had thought as wisely, she would not
now have had 140 millions to pay; and she would never have thought of
taxing America.
Low as the wages were, it was found that, whenever a vacancy
happened, the place was solicited with much more anxiety and zeal,
than the kingdom of heaven.
Another cause which had its effect was this. The judges of that court
had almost always enjoyed some other office. At the time of the stamp
act the chief justice was lieutenant governor, which yielded him
a profit, and a judge of probate for the county of Suffolk, which
yielded him another profit, and a counsellor, which if it was not
very profitable, gave him an opportunity of promoting his family and
friends to other profitable offices, an opportunity which the country
saw he most religiously improved. Another justice of this court was a
judge of admiralty, and another was judge of probate for the county
of Plymouth. The people thought therefore, that as their time was not
wholly taken up by their offices, as judges of the superior court,
there was no reason why they should be paid as much, as if it had
been.
Another reason was this: those justices had not been bred to the bar,
but taken from merchandise, husbandry and other occupations; had been
at no great expence for education, or libraries, and therefore the
people thought that equity did not demand large salaries.
It must be confessed that another motive had its weight. The people
were growing jealous of the chief justice and two other justices at
least, and therefore thought it imprudent to enlarge their salaries,
and by that means their influence.
Whether all these arguments were sufficient to vindicate the people
for not enlarging their salaries, I shall leave to you, my friends,
whose right it is to judge. But that the judges petitioned "often" to
the assembly I do not remember. I knew it was suspected by many, and
confidently affirmed by some, that judge Russell carried home with
him, in 1766, a petition to his majesty, subscribed by himself, and
chief justice Hutchinson at least, praying his majesty to take the
payment of the judges into his own hands; and that this petition,
together with the solicitations of governor Bernard, and others, had
the success to procure the act of parliament, to enable his majesty
to appropriate the revenue to the support of the administration of
justice, &c. from whence a great part of the present calamities of
America have flowed.
That the high whigs took _care_ to get themselves chosen of the grand
juries I do not believe. Nine tenths of the people were high whigs;
and therefore it was not easy to get a grand jury without nine whigs
in ten, in it. And the matter would not be much mended by the new
act of parliament. The sheriff must return the same set of jurors,
court after court, or else his juries would be nine tenths of them
high whigs still. Indeed the tories are so envenomed now with malice,
envy, revenge and disappointed ambition, that they would be willing,
for what I know, to be jurors for life, in order to give verdicts
against the whigs. And many of them would readily do it, I doubt not,
without any other law or evidence, than what they found in their
own breasts. The suggestion of legerdemain, in drawing the names of
petit jurors out of the box, is scandalous. Human wisdom cannot
devise a method of obtaining petit jurors more fairly, and better
secured against a possibility of corruption of any kind, than that
established by our provincial law. They were drawn by chance out of
a box, in open town meeting, to which the tories went, or might have
gone, as well as the whigs, and have seen with their own eyes, that
nothing unfair ever did or could take place. If the jurors consisted
of whigs, it was because the freeholders were whigs, that is honest
men. But now, it seems, if Massachusettensis can have his will, the
sheriff, who will be a person properly qualified for the purpose, is
to pick out a tory jury, if he can find one in ten, or one in twenty
of that character among the freeholders; and it is no doubt expected,
that every newspaper that presumes to deny the right of parliament
to tax us, or destroy our charter, will be presented as a libel, and
every member of a committee of correspondence, or a congress, &c. &c.
&c. are to be indicted for rebellion. These would be pleasant times
to Massachusettensis and the junto, but they will never live to see
them.
"The judges pointed out seditious libels, on governors, magistrates,
and the whole government to no effect." They did so. But the
jurors thought some of these no libels, but solemn truths. At one
time, I have heard that all the newspapers for several years, the
Massachusetts Gazette, Evening Post, Boston Chronicle, Boston
Gazette, and Massachusetts Spy, were laid before a grand jury at
once. The jurors thought there were multitudes of libels written by
the tories, and they did not know whom they should attack, if they
presented them; perhaps governor Bernard, lieut. governor Hutchinson,
secretary Oliver--possibly the attorney general. They saw so many
difficulties they knew not what to do.
As to the riots and insurrections, it is surprising that this writer
should say "scarce one offender was indicted, and I think not one
convicted." Were not many indicted, convicted, and punished too
in the county of Essex, and Middlesex, and indeed in every other
county? But perhaps he will say, he means such as were connected
with politicks. Yet this is not true, for a large number in Essex
were punished for abusing an informer, and others were indicted and
convicted in Boston for a similar offence. None were indicted for
pulling down the stamp office, because this was thought an honorable
and glorious action, not a riot. And so it must be said of several
other tumults. But was not this the case in royal as well as charter
governments? Nor will this inconvenience be remedied by a sheriff's
jury, if such an one should ever sit. For if such a jury should
convict, the people will never bear the punishment. It is in vain to
expect or hope to carry on government, against the universal bent and
genius of the people; we may whimper and whine as much as we will,
but nature made it impossible, when she made men.
If causes of _meum_ and _tuum_ were not always exempt from party
influence, the tories will get no credit by an examination into
particular cases. Though I believe there was no great blame on
either party, in this respect, where the case was not connected with
politicks.
We are then told "the whigs once flattered themselves they should be
able to divide the province between them." I suppose he means, that
they should be able to get the honorable and lucrative offices of the
province into their hands. If this was true, they would be chargeable
with only designing what the tories have actually done; with this
difference, that the whigs would have done it by saving the liberties
and the constitution of the province--whereas the tories have done it
by the destruction of both. That the whigs have ambition, a desire of
profit, and other passions, like other men, it would be foolish to
deny. But this writer cannot name a set of men in the whole British
empire, who have sacrificed their private interest to their nation's
honour, and the public good, in so remarkable a manner, as the
leading whigs have done, in the two last administrations.
"As to cutting asunder the sinews of government and breaking in
pieces the ligament of social life," as far as this has been done, I
have proved by incontestible evidence from Bernard's, Hutchinson's
and Oliver's letters, that the tories have done it, against all the
endeavours of the whigs to prevent them from first to last.
The public is then amused with two instances of the weakness of
our government, and these are, with equal artifice and injustice,
insinuated to be chargeable upon the whigs. But the whigs are as
innocent of these, as the tories. Malcom was as much against the
inclinations and judgment of the whigs as the tories. But the real
injury, he received, is exaggerated by this writer. The cruelty of
his whipping, and the danger of his life, are too highly coloured.
Malcom was such an oddity as naturally to excite the curiosity and
ridicule of the lowest class of people, wherever he went: had been
active in battle against the regulators in North Carolina, who were
thought in Boston to be an injured people. A few weeks before, he
had made a seizure at Kennebeck river, 150 miles from Boston, and by
some imprudence had excited the wrath of the people there, in such a
degree, that they tarred and feathered him over his clothes. He comes
to Boston to complain. The news of it was spread in town. It was a
critical time, when the passions of the people were warm. Malcom
attacked a lad in the street, and cut his head with a cutlass, in
return for some words from the boy, which I suppose were irritating.
The boy run bleeding through the street to his relations, of whom
he had many. As he passed the street, the people inquired into the
cause of his wounds, and a sudden heat arose against Malcom, which
neither whigs nor tories, though both endeavoured it, could restrain;
and produced the injuries of which he justly complained. But such a
coincidence of circumstances might, at any time, and in any place,
have produced such an effect; and therefore it is no evidence of the
weakness of government. Why he petitioned the general court, unless
he was advised to it by the tories, to make a noise, I know not. That
court had nothing to do with it. He might have brought his action
against the trespassers, but never did. He chose to go to England and
get 200l. a year, which would make his tarring the luckiest incident
of his life.
The hospital at Marblehead is another instance, no more owing to the
politicks of the times, than the burning of the temple at Ephesus.
This hospital was newly erected, much against the will of the
multitude. The patients were careless, some of them wantonly so,
and others were suspected of designing to spread the small pox in
the town, which was full of people, who had not passed through the
distemper. It is needless to be particular, but the apprehension
became general, the people arose and burnt the hospital. But the
whigs are so little blameable for this, that two of the principal
whigs in the province, gentlemen highly esteemed and beloved in the
town, even by those who burnt the building, were owners of it. The
principles and temper of the times had no share in this, any more
than in cutting down the market in Boston, or in demolishing mills
and dams in some parts of the country, in order to let the alewives
pass up the streams, forty years ago. Such incidents happen in all
governments at times, and it is a fresh proof of the weakness of this
writer's cause, that he is driven to such wretched shifts to defend
it.
Towards the close of this long speculation, Massachusettensis grows
more and more splenetical, peevish, angry and absurd.
He tells us, that in order to avoid the necessity of altering
our provincial constitution, government at home made the judges
independent of the grants of the general assembly. That is, in order
to avoid the hazard of taking the fort by storm, they determined to
take it by sap. In order to avoid altering our constitution, they
changed it in the most essential manner: for surely by our charter
the province was to pay the judges as well as the governor. Taking
away this privilege, and making them receive their pay from the
crown, was destroying the charter so far forth, and making them
dependent on the minister. As to their being dependent on the leading
whigs, he means they were dependent on the province. And which is
fairest to be dependent on, the province or on the minister? In all
this troublesome period, the leading whigs had never hesitated about
granting their salaries, nor ever once moved to have them lessened,
nor would the house have listened to them if they had. "This was
done, he says, to make them steady." We know that very well. Steady
to what? Steady to the plans of Bernard, Hutchinson, Oliver, North,
Mansfield and Bute; which the people thought was steadiness to
their ruin, and therefore it was found, that a determined spirit of
opposition to it arose, in every part of the province, like that to
the stamp act.
The chief justice, it is true, was accused by the house of
representatives, of receiving a bribe, a ministerial, not a royal
bribe. For the king can do no wrong, although he may be deceived in
his grant. The minister is accountable. The crime of receiving an
illegal patent, is not the less for purchasing it, even of the king
himself. Many impeachments have been for such offences.
He talks about attempts to strengthen government, and save our
charter. With what modesty can he say this, when he knows that the
overthrow of our charter was the very object which the junto had
been invariably pursuing for a long course of years? Does he think
his readers are to be deceived by such gross arts? But he says "the
whigs subverted the charter constitution, abridged the freedom of
the house, annihilated the freedom of the board, and rendered the
governor a doge of Venice." The freedom of the house was never
abridged, the freedom of the board was never lessened. The governor
had as much power as ever. The house and board, it is true, would
do nothing in favour of parliamentary taxation. Their judgments and
consciences were against it; and if they ever had done any thing in
favour of it, it would have been through fear and not freedom. The
governor found he could do nothing in favour of it, excepting to
promote, in every department in the state, men who hated the people
and were hated by them. Enough of this he did in all conscience;
and after filling offices with men who were despised, he wondered
that the officers were not revered. "They, the whigs, engrossed all
the power of the province into their own hands." That is, the house
and board were whigs; the grand juries and petit juries were whigs;
towns were whigs; the clergy were whigs; the agents were whigs; and
wherever you found people, you found all whigs; excepting those
who had commissions from the crown or the governor. This is almost
true, and it is to the eternal shame of the tories, that they should
pursue their ignis fatuus with such ungovernable fury as they have
done, after such repeated and multiplied demonstrations, that the
whole people were so universally bent against them. But nothing will
satisfy them still, but blood and carnage. The destruction of the
whigs, charters, English liberties and all, they must and will have,
if it costs the blood of tens of thousands of innocent people. This
is the benign temper of the tories.
This influence of the whigs, he calls a democracy or republic,
and then a despotism: two ideas incompatible with each other. A
democratical despotism is a contradiction in terms.
He then says, that "the good policy of the act for regulating the
government in this province, will be the subject of some future
paper." But that paper is still to come, and I suspect ever will be.
I wish to hear him upon it however.
With this, he and the junto ought to have begun. Bernard and the
rest, in 1764, ought to have published their objections to this
government, if they had been honest men, and produced their arguments
in favour of the alteration, convinced the people of the necessity of
it, and proposed some constitutional plan for effecting it. But the
same motives which induced them to take another course, will prevail
with Massachusettensis to wave the good policy of the act. He will
be much more cunningly employed in labouring to terrify women and
children with the horrors of a civil war, and the dread of a division
among the people. There lies your fort, Massachusettensis, make the
most of it.
NOVANGLUS.
ADDRESSED
_To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay_,
February 27, 1775.
MY FRIENDS,
Such events as the resistance to the stamp act, and to the tea act,
particularly the destruction of that which was sent by the ministry,
in the name of the East India Company, have ever been cautiously
spoken of by the whigs, because they knew the delicacy of the
subject, and they lived in continual hopes of a speedy restoration
of liberty and peace. But we are now thrown into a situation, which
would render any further delicacy upon this point criminal.
Be it remembered then, that there are tumults, seditions, popular
commotions, insurrections and civil wars, upon just occasions, as
well as unjust.
Grotius B. 1. c. 3. § 1. observes, "that some sort of private war may
be lawfully waged--It is not repugnant to the law of nature, for any
one to repel injuries by force."
§ 2. The liberty allowed before is much restrained, since the
erection of tribunals. Yet there are some cases wherein that right
still subsists; that is, when the way to legal justice is not open;
for the law which forbids a man to pursue his right any other way,
ought to be understood with this equitable restriction, that one
finds judges to whom he need apply, &c.
Sidney's discourses upon government c. 2. § 24. 'Tis in vain to seek
a government in all points free from a possibility of civil wars,
tumults and seditions: that is a blessing denied to this life, and
reserved to complete the felicity of the next. Seditions, tumults,
and wars do arise from mistake or from malice; from just occasions
or unjust. Seditions proceeding from malice are seldom or never seen
in popular governments; for they are hurtful to the people, and none
have ever willingly and knowingly hurt themselves. There may he, and
often is, malice in those who excite them; but the people is ever
deceived, and whatever is thereupon done, ought to be imputed to
error, &c. But in absolute monarchies, almost all the troubles that
arise proceed from malice; they cannot be reformed; the extinction
of them is exceeding difficult, if they have continued long enough
to corrupt the people; and those who appear against them seek only
to set up themselves or their friends. The mischiefs designed are
often dissembled, or denied, till they are past all possibility of
being cured by any other way than force; and such as are by necessity
driven to use that remedy, know they must perfect their work or
perish. He that draws his sword against the prince, say the French,
ought to throw away the scabbard; for though the design be never so
just, yet the authors are sure to be ruined if it miscarry. Peace is
seldom made, and never kept, unless the subject retain such a power
in his hands, as may oblige the prince to stand to what is agreed;
and in time some trick is found to deprive him of that benefit.
It may seem strange to some that I mention seditions, tumults and
wars, upon just occasions; but I can find no reason to retract the
terms. God, intending that men should live justly with one another,
does certainly intend that he or they, who do no wrong, should
suffer none; and the law that forbids injuries, were of no use, if
no penalty might be inflicted on those, that will not obey it. If
injustice therefore be evil, and injuries be forbidden, they are
also to be punished; and the law, instituted for their prevention,
must necessarily intend the avenging of such as cannot be prevented.
The work of the magistracy is to execute this law; the sword of
justice is put into their hands to restrain the fury of those within
the society, who will not be a law to themselves; and the sword
of war to protect the people against the violence of foreigners.
This is without exception, and would be in vain if it were not.
But the magistrate who is to protect the people from injury, may,
and is often known, not to have done it: he sometimes renders his
office _useless by neglecting to do justice_; sometimes _mischievous
by overthrowing it_. This strikes at the root of God's general
ordinance, that there should be laws; and the particular ordinances
of all societies that appoint such as seem best to them. _The
magistrate therefore is comprehended under both, and subject to both,
as well as private men._
The ways of preventing or punishing injuries are judicial or
extrajudicial. Judicial proceedings are of force against those
who submit, or may be brought to trial, but are of no effect
against those who resist, and are of such power that they cannot
be constrained. It were absurd to cite a man to appear before a
tribunal, _who can awe the judges, or has armies to defend him_;
and impious to think that he who has added treachery to his other
crimes, and usurped a power above the law, should be protected by the
enormity of his wickedness. Legal proceedings, therefore, are to be
used when the delinquent submits to the law; _and all are just; when
he will not be kept in order by the legal_.
The word sedition is generally applied to all numerous assemblies,
without or against the authority of the magistrate, or of those who
assume that power. Athaliah and Jezebel were more ready to cry out
treason, than David, &c.
Tumult is from the disorderly manner of those assemblies, where
things can seldom be done regularly; and war is that "decertatio
per vim," or trial by force, to which men come, when other ways are
ineffectual.
If the laws of God and men, are therefore of no effect, when the
magistracy is left at liberty to break them; and if the lusts of
those who are too strong for the tribunals of justice, cannot be
otherwise restrained than by sedition, tumults and war; those
seditions, tumults and wars, are justified by the laws of God and man.
I will not take upon me to enumerate all the cases in which this may
be done, but content myself with three, which have most frequently
given occasion for proceedings of this kind. The first is, when one
or more men take upon them the power and name of a magistracy, to
which they are not justly called. The second, when one or more being
justly called, continue in their magistracy longer than the laws by
which they are called, do prescribe. And the third, when he or they,
who are rightly called, do assume a power, though within the time
prescribed, that the law does not give; or turn that which the law
does give, to an end different and contrary to that which is intended
by it.
The same course is justly used against a legal magistrate, who takes
upon him to exercise a power which the law does not give; for in that
respect he is a private man. "Quia, as Grotius says, eatenus non
habet imperium," and may be restrained as well as any other, because
he is not set up to do what he lists, but what the law appoints for
the good of the people; and as he has no other power than what the
law allows, so the same law limits and directs the exercise of that
which he has.
Puffendorf's law of nature and nations L. 7. c. 8. § 5 and 6.
Barbeyrac's note on section 6. When we speak of a tyrant that may
lawfully be dethroned, we do not mean by the people, the vile
populace or rabble of the country, nor the cabal of a small number
of factious persons; but the greater and more judicious part of the
subjects of all ranks. Besides the tyranny must be so notorious and
evidently clear, as to leave no body any room to doubt of it, &c. Now
a prince may easily avoid making himself so universally suspected and
odious to his subjects; for as Mr. Locke says, in his treatise of
civil government, c. 18 § 209. "It is as impossible for a governor,
if he really means the good of the people and the preservation of
them and the laws together, not to make them see and feel it; as it
is for the father of a family, not to let his children see he loves
and takes care of them." And therefore the general insurrection of
a whole nation does not deserve the name of a rebellion. We may see
what Mr. Sidney says upon this subject in his discourse concerning
government c. 3. § 36. Neither are subjects bound to stay till the
prince has entirely finished the chains which he is preparing for
them, and put it out of their power to oppose. It is sufficient that
all the advances which he makes are manifestly tending to their
oppression, that he is marching boldly on to the ruin of the state.
In such a case, says Mr. Locke, admirably well, ubi supra § 210. "How
can a man any more hinder himself from believing in his own mind,
which way things are going, or from casting about to save himself,
than he could from believing the captain of the ship he was in, was
carrying him and the rest of his company to Algiers, when he found
him always steering that course, though cross winds, leaks in his
ship and want of men and provisions, did often force him to turn
his course another way for some time, which he steadily returned to
again, as soon as the winds, weather, and other circumstances would
let him." This chiefly takes place with respect to kings, whose power
is limited by fundamental laws.
If it is objected, that the people being ignorant, and always
discontented, to lay the foundation of government, in the unsteady
opinion and the uncertain humour of the people, is to expose it to
certain ruin; the same author will answer you, that on the contrary,
people are not so easily got out of their old forms as some are
apt to suggest. England, for instance, notwithstanding the many
revolutions that have been seen in that kingdom, has always kept
to its old legislative of king, lords, and commons; and whatever
provocations have made the crown to be taken from some of their
princes' heads, they never carried the people so far as to place
it in another line. But it will be said, this hypothesis lays a
ferment for frequent rebellion. No more, says Mr. Locke, than any
other hypothesis. For when the people are made miserable, and
find themselves exposed to the ill usage of arbitrary power; cry
up their governors as you will for sons of Jupiter, let them be
sacred and divine, descended or authorised from heaven; give them
out for whom or what you please, the same will happen. The people
generally ill treated, and contrary to right, will be ready upon any
occasion to ease themselves of a burden that sits heavy upon them.
2. Such revolutions happen not upon every little mismanagement in
public affairs. Great mistakes in the ruling part, many wrong and
inconvenient laws, and all the slips of human frailty will be borne
by the people, without mutiny and murmur. 3. This power in the people
of providing for their safety anew by a legislative, when their
legislators have acted contrary to their trust, by invading their
property, is the best fence against rebellion, and the probablest
means to hinder it; for rebellion being an opposition, not to
persons, but authority, which is founded only in the constitutions
and laws of the government; those whoever they be, _who by force
break through, and by force justify the violation of them, are truly
and properly rebels_. For when men by entering into society, and
civil government, have excluded force, and introduced laws for the
preservation of property, peace and unity, among themselves; those
who set up force again, in opposition to the laws, do rebellare,
that is, do bring back again the state of war, and are properly,
rebels, as the author shews. In the last place, he demonstrates that
there are also greater inconveniencies in allowing all to those that
govern, than in granting something to the people. But it will be
said, that ill affected and factious men may spread among the people,
and make them believe that the prince or legislative, act contrary
to their trust, when they only make use of their due prerogative.
To this Mr. Locke answers, that the people however is to judge of
all that; because no body can better judge whether his trustee or
deputy acts well, and according to the trust reposed in him, than he
who deputed him. He might make the like query, (says Mr. LeClerk,
from whom this extract is taken) and ask, whether the people being
oppressed by an authority which they set up, but for their own good,
it is just, that those who are vested with this authority, and of
which they are complaining, should themselves be judges of the
complaints made against them. The greatest flatterers of kings, dare
not say, that the people are obliged to suffer absolutely all their
humours, how irregular soever they be; and therefore must confess,
that when no regard is had to their complaints, the very foundations
of society are destroyed; the prince and people are in a state of
war with each other, like two independent states, that are doing
themselves justice, and acknowledge no person upon earth, who in a
sovereign manner, can determine the disputes between them, &c.
If there is any thing in these quotations, which is applicable to the
destruction of the tea, or any other branch of our subject, it is not
my fault; I did not make it. Surely Grotius, Puffendorf, Barbeyrac,
Locke, Sidney, and LeClerk, are writers, of sufficient weight to
put in the scale against the mercenary scribblers in New York and
Boston, who have the unexampled impudence and folly, to call these
which are revolution principles in question, and to ground their
arguments upon passive obedience as a corner stone. What an opinion
must these writers have of the principles of their patrons, the lords
Bute, Mansfield and North, when they hope to recommend themselves
by reviving that stupid doctrine, which has been infamous so many
years. Dr. Sachevaril himself tells us that his sermons were burnt by
the hands of the common hangman, by the order of the king, lords and
commons, in order to fix an eternal and indelible brand of infamy on
that doctrine.
In the Gazette of January the 2d, Massachusettensis entertains you
with an account of his own important self. This is a subject which he
has very much at heart, but it is of no consequence to you or me, and
therefore little need be said of it. If he had such a stand in the
community, that he could have seen all the political manoeuvres,
it is plain he must have shut his eyes, or he never could have
mistaken so grossly, causes for effects, and effects for causes.
He undertakes to point out the principles and motives upon which the
blockade act was made, which were according to him, the destruction
of the East India Company's tea. He might have said more properly the
ministerial tea; for such it was, and the company are no losers; they
have received from the public treasury compensation for it.
Then we are amused with a long discourse about the nature of the
British government, commerce, agriculture, arts, manufactures,
regulations of trade, custom-house officers, which, as it has no
relation to the subject, I shall pass over.
The case is shortly this. The East India Company, by their contract
with government, in their charter and statute, are bound in
consideration of their important profitable privileges to pay to the
public treasury, a revenue, annually, of four hundred thousand pounds
sterling, so long as they can hold up their dividends, at twelve per
cent. and no longer.
The mistaken policy of the ministry, in obstinately persisting in
their claim of right to tax America, and refusing to repeal the
duty on tea, with those on glass, paper and paint, had induced all
America, except a few merchants in Boston, most of whom were closely
connected with the junto, to refuse to import tea from Great Britain;
the consequence of which was a kind of stagnation in the affairs of
the company, and an immense accumulation of tea in their stores,
which they could not sell. This, among other causes, contributed
to affect their credit, and their dividends were on the point of
falling below twelve per cent. and consequently the government was
upon the point of losing 400,000l. sterling a year of revenue. The
company solicited the ministry to take off the duty in America: but
they adhering to their plan of taxing the colonies and establishing
a precedent, framed an act to enable the company to send their tea
directly to America. This was admired as a master-piece of policy.
It was thought they would accomplish four great purposes at once:
establish their precedent of taxing America; raise a large revenue
there by the duties; save the credit of the company, and the
400,000l. to the government. The company however, were so little
pleased with this, that there were great debates among the directors,
whether they should risque it, which were finally determined by a
majority of one only, and that one the chairman, being unwilling
as it is said, to interfere, in the dispute between the minister
and the colonies, and uncertain what the result would be: and this
small majority was not obtained, as it is said, until a sufficient
intimation was given that the company should not be losers.
When these designs were made known, it appeared, that American
politicians were not to be deceived; that their sight was as quick
and clear as the minister's; and that they were as steady to their
purpose, as he was to his. This was thought by all the colonies to
be the precise point of time, when it became absolutely necessary
to make a stand. If the tea should be landed, it would be sold;
if sold, the duties would amount to a large sum, which would be
instantly applied to increase the friends and advocates for more
duties, and to divide the people; and the company would get such a
footing, that no opposition afterwards could ever be effectual. And
as soon as the duties on tea should be established, they would be
ranked among post-office fees, and other precedents, and used as
arguments, both of the right and expediency of laying on others,
perhaps on all the necessaries, as well as conveniences and luxuries
of life. The whole continent was united in the sentiment, that all
opposition to parliamentary taxation must be given up forever,
if this critical moment was neglected. Accordingly, New York and
Philadelphia determined that the ships should be sent back; and
Charleston, that the tea should be stored and locked up. This was
attended with no danger in that city, because they are fully united
in sentiment and affection, and have no _Junto_ to perplex them.
Boston was under greater difficulties. The consignees at New York
and Philadelphia most readily resigned. The consignees at Boston,
the children, cousins, and most intimate connections of governor
Hutchinson, refused. I am very sorry that I cannot stir a single step
in developing the causes of my country's miseries, without stumbling
upon this gentleman. But so it is. From the near relation and most
intimate connection of the consignees with him, there is great cause
of jealousy, if not a violent presumption, that he was at the bottom
of all this business, that he had planned it, in his confidential
letters with Bernard, and both of them joined in suggesting and
recommending it to the ministry. Without this supposition, it is
difficult to account for the obstinacy with which the consignees
refused to resign, and the governor to let the vessel go. However
this might be, Boston is the only place upon the continent, perhaps
in the world, which ever breeds a species of misanthropes, who will
persist in their schemes for their private interest, with such
obstinacy, in opposition to the public good; disoblige all their
fellow citizens for a little pelf, and make themselves odious and
infamous, when they might be respected and esteemed. It must be said,
however, in vindication of the town, that this breed is spawned
chiefly by the Junto. The consignees would not resign; the custom
house refused clearances; governor Hutchinson refused passes by the
castle. The question then was, with many, whether the governor,
officers, and consignees should be compelled to send the ships hence?
An army and navy was at hand, and bloodshed was apprehended. At last,
when the continent, as well as the town and province, were waiting
the issue of this deliberation with the utmost anxiety, a number
of persons, in the night, put them out of suspense, by an oblation
to Neptune. I have heard some gentlemen say, "this was a very
unjustifiable proceeding"--"that if they had gone at noon-day, and
in their ordinary habits, and drowned it in the face of the world, it
would have been a meritorious, a most glorious action: but to go in
the night, and much more in disguise, they thought very inexcusable."
"The revenue was not the consideration before parliament," says
Massachusettensis. Let who will believe him. But if it was not, the
danger to America was the same. I take no notice of the idea of a
monopoly. If it had been only a monopoly (though in this light it
would have been a very great grievance) it would not have excited,
nor in the opinion of any one justified the step that was taken. It
was an attack upon a fundamental principle of the constitution, and
upon that supposition was resisted, after multitudes of petitions to
no purpose, and because there was no tribunal in the constitution,
from whence redress could have been obtained.
There is one passage so pretty, that I cannot refuse myself the
pleasure of transcribing it. "A smuggler and a whig are cousin
Germans, the offspring of two sisters, avarice and ambition. They
had been playing into each other's hands a long time. The smuggler
received protection from the whig, and he in his turn received
support from the smuggler. The illicit trader now demanded protection
from his kinsman, and it would have been unnatural in him to have
refused it; and beside, an opportunity presented of strengthening his
own interest."
The wit and the beauty of the style, in this place, seem to have
quite enraptured the lively juvenile imagination of this writer.
The truth of the fact he never regards, any more than the justice
of the sentiment. Some years ago, the smugglers might be pretty
equally divided between the whigs and the tories. Since that time,
they have almost all married into the tory families, for the sake of
dispensations and indulgencies. If I were to let myself into secret
history, I could tell very diverting stories of smuggling tories in
New-York and Boston. Massachusettensis is quarrelling with some of
his best friends. Let him learn more discretion.
We are then told that "the consignees offered to store the tea,
under the care of the selectmen, or a committee of the town." This
expedient might have answered, if none of the junto, nor any of
their connections, had been in Boston. But is it a wonder, that the
selectmen declined accepting such a deposit? They supposed they
should be answerable, and nobody doubted that tories might be found
who would not scruple to set fire to the store, in order to make them
liable. Besides if the tea was landed, though only to be stored, the
duty must be paid, which it was thought was giving up the point.
Another consideration, which had great weight, was, the other
colonies were grown jealous of Boston, and thought it already
deficient in point of punctuality, against the dutied articles:
and if the tea was once stored, artifices might be used, if not
violence, to disperse it abroad. But if through the continual
vigilance and activity of the committee and the people, through a
whole winter, this should be prevented; yet one thing was certain,
that the tories would write to the other colonies and to England,
thousands of falsehoods concerning it, in order to induce the
ministry to persevere, and to sow jealousies and create divisions
among the colonies.
Our acute logician then undertakes to prove the destruction of the
tea unjustifiable, even upon the principle of the whigs, that the
duty was unconstitutional. The only argument he uses is this: that
"unless we purchase the tea, we shall never pay the duty." This
argument is so frivolous, and has been so often confuted and exposed,
that if the party had any other, I think they would relinquish this.
Where will it carry us? If a duty was laid upon our horses, we may
walk;--if upon our butcher's meat, we may live upon the produce of
the dairy;--and if that should be taxed, we may subsist as well
as our fellow slaves in Ireland, upon spanish potatoes and cold
water. If a thousand pounds was laid upon the birth of every child,
if children are not begotten, none w
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