CHAPTER 13. Revolution Impending

REVOLUTION IMPENDING

119. The Soldiers at New York and Boston.--Soldiers had been stationed at New York ever since the end of the French war because that was the most central point on the coast. The New Yorkers did not like to have the soldiers there very well, because Parliament expected them to supply the troops with certain things without getting any money in return. The New York Assembly refused to supply them, and Parliament suspended the Assembly's sittings. In 1768 two regiments came from New York to Boston to protect the customs officers.

120. The Boston Massacre, 1770.--There were not enough soldiers at Boston to protect the customs officers--if the colonists really wished to hurt them. There were quite enough soldiers at Boston to get themselves and the colonists into trouble. On March 5, 1770, a crowd gathered around the soldiers stationed on King's Street, now State Street. There was snow on the ground, and the boys began to throw snow and mud at the soldiers. The crowd grew bolder. Suddenly the soldiers fired on the people. They killed four colonists and wounded several more. Led by Samuel Adams, the people demanded the removal of the soldiers to the fort in the harbor. Hutchinson was now governor. He offered to send one regiment out of the town. "All or none," said Adams, and all were sent away.

121. Committees of Correspondence.--Up to this time the resistance of the colonists had been carried on in a haphazard sort of way. Now Committees of Correspondence began to be appointed. These committees were of two kinds. First there were town Committees of Correspondence. These were invented by Samuel Adams and were first appointed in Massachusetts. But more important were the colonial Committees of Correspondence. The first of these was appointed by Virginia in 1769. At first few colonies followed Massachusetts and Virginia in appointing committees. But as one act of tyranny succeeded another, other colonies fell into line. By 1775 all the colonies were united by a complete system of Committees of Correspondence.

122. The Tea Tax.--Of all the Townshend duties only the tax on tea was left. It happened that the British East India Company had tons of tea in its London storehouses and was greatly in need of money. The government told the company that it might send tea to America without paying any taxes in England, but the three-penny colonial tax would have to be paid in the colonies. In this way the colonists would get their tea cheaper than the people of England. But the colonists were not to be bribed into paying the tax in any such way. The East India Company sent over ship-loads of tea. The tea ships were either sent back again or the tea was stored in some safe place where no one could get it.

123. The Boston Tea Party, 1773.--In Boston things did not go so smoothly. The agents of the East India Company refused to resign. The collector of the customs refused to give the ships permission to sail away before the tea was landed. Governor Hutchinson refused to give the ship captains a pass to sail by the fort until the collector gave his permission. The commander at the fort refused to allow the ships to sail out of the harbor until they had the necessary papers. The only way to get rid of the tea was to destroy it. A party of patriots, dressed as Indians, went on board of the ships as they lay at the wharf, broke open the tea boxes, and threw the tea into the harbor.

124. Punishment of Massachusetts, 1774.--The British king, the British government, and the mass of the British people were furious when they found that the Boston people had made "tea with salt water." Parliament at once went to work passing acts to punish the colonists. One act put an end to the constitution of Massachusetts. Another act closed the port of Boston so tightly that the people could not bring hay from Charlestown to give to their starving horses. A third act provided that soldiers who fired on the people should be tried in England. And a fourth act compelled the colonists to feed and shelter the soldiers employed to punish them.

125. Sympathy with the Bostonians.--King George thought he could punish the Massachusetts people as much as he wished without the people of the other colonies objecting. It soon appeared that the people of the other colonies sympathized most heartily with the Bostonians. They sent them sheep and rice. They sent them clothes. George Washington was now a rich man. He offered to raise a thousand men with his own money, march with them to Boston, and rescue the oppressed people from their oppressors. But the time for war had not yet come although it was not far off.

126. The Quebec Act, 1774.--In the same year that Parliament passed the four acts to punish Massachusetts, it passed another act which affected the people of other colonies as well as those of Massachusetts. This was the Quebec Act. It provided that the land between the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Great Lakes should be added to the Province of Quebec. Now this land was claimed by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. These colonies were to be deprived of their rights to land in that region. The Quebec Act also provided for the establishment of a very strong government in that province. This seemed to be an attack on free institutions. All these things drove the colonists to unite. They resolved to hold a congress where the leaders of the several continental colonies might talk over matters and decide what should be done.

127. The First Continental Congress, 1774.--The members of the Continental Congress met in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, in September, 1774. Never, except in the Federal Convention (p. 137), have so many great men met together. The greatest delegation was that from Virginia. It included George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee. From Massachusetts came the two Adamses, John and Samuel. From New York came John Jay. From Pennsylvania came John Dickinson. Of all the greatest Americans only Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were absent.

128. The American Association, 1774.--It soon became clear that the members of the Congress were opposed to any hasty action. They were not willing to begin war with Great Britain. Instead of so doing they adopted a Declaration of Rights and formed the American Association. The Declaration of Rights was of slight importance. But the Association was of great importance, as the colonies joining it agreed to buy no more British goods. This policy was to be carried out by the Committees of Correspondence. Any colony refusing to join the Association should be looked upon as hostile "to the liberties of this country," and treated as an enemy. The American Association was the real beginning of the American Union.

129. The Association carried out, 1774-75.--It was soon evident that Congress in forming the Association had done precisely what the people wished to have done. For instance, in Virginia committees were chosen in every county. They examined the merchants' books. They summoned before them persons suspected of disobeying "the laws of Congress." Military companies were formed in every county and carried out the orders of the committees. The ordinary courts were entirely disregarded. In fact, the royal government had come to an end in the Old Dominion.

130. More Punishment for Massachusetts, 1774-75.--George III and his ministers refused to see that the colonies were practically united. On the contrary, they determined to punish the people of Massachusetts still further. Parliament passed acts forbidding the Massachusetts fishermen to catch fish and forbidding the Massachusetts traders to trade with the people of Virginia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and all foreign countries. The Massachusetts colonists were rebels, they should be treated as rebels. General Gage was given more soldiers and ordered to crush the rebellion.

131. Gage in Massachusetts, 1774-75.--General Gage found he had a good deal to do before he could begin to crush the rebellion. He had to find shelter for his soldiers. He also had to find food for them. The Boston carpenters would not work for him. He had to bring carpenters from Halifax and New York to do his work. The farmers of eastern Massachusetts were as firm as the Boston carpenters. They would not sell food to General Gage. So he had to bring food from England and from Halifax. He managed to buy or seize wood to warm the soldiers and hay to feed his horses. But the boats bringing these supplies to Boston were constantly upset in a most unlooked-for way. The colonists, on their part, elected a Provincial Congress to take the place of the regular government. The militia was reorganized, and military stores gathered together.

132. Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775.--Gage had said that with ten thousand men he could march all over Massachusetts. In April, 1775, he began to crush the rebellion by sending a strong force to Concord to destroy stores which his spies told him had been collected there. The soldiers began their march in the middle of the night. But Paul Revere and William Dawes were before them. "The regulars are coming," was the cry. At Lexington, the British found a few militiamen drawn up on the village green. Some one fired and a few Americans were killed. On the British marched to Concord. By this time the militiamen had gathered in large numbers. It was a hot day. The regulars were tired. They stopped to rest. Some of the militiamen attacked the regulars at Concord, and when the British started on their homeward march, the fighting began in earnest. Behind every wall and bit of rising ground were militiamen. One soldier after another was shot down and left behind. At Lexington the British met reinforcements, or they would all have been killed or captured. Soon they started again. Again the fighting began. It continued until the survivors reached a place of safety under the guns of the warships anchored off Charlestown. The Americans camped for the night at Cambridge and began the siege of Boston.

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS