Volume I Part 35 (1/2)
”Trained as a wrangling proctor in an Ecclesiastical Court, he had been a quarrelsome disputant rather than a statesman. His parsimony went to the extreme of meanness; his avarice was insatiable and restless. So long as he connived at smuggling, he reaped a harvest in that way; when Grenville's sternness inspired alarm, it was his study to make the most money out of forfeitures and penalties. Professing to respect the Charter, he was unwearied in zeal for its subversion; declaring his opposition to taxation by Parliament, he urged it with all his power.
a.s.serting most solemnly that he had never asked for troops, his letters reveal his perpetual importunity for s.h.i.+ps of war and an armed force.
His reports were often false--partly with design, partly from the credulity of panic. He placed everything in the most unfavourable light, and was ready to tell every tale and magnify trivial rumours into acts of treason. He was despondent when conciliation prevailed in England.
The officers of the army and navy despised him for his cowardice and duplicity, and did not conceal their contempt.” (History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap. xli., p. 291.)]
[Footnote 311: History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap. xlii., pp.
308, 309, 311. For the first non-importation resolutions adopted by the merchants of New York, see note on page 356.
”The trade between Great Britain and her colonies on the continent of America, on an average of three years (from 1766 to 1769), employed 1,078 s.h.i.+ps and 28,910 seamen. The value of goods exported from Great Britain on the same average was 3,370,900; and of goods exported from the colonies to Great Britain and elsewhere 3,924,606.” (Holmes'
Annals, etc., Vol. II., p. 162.)]
[Footnote 312: History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap, xlii., p.
311.
”To the military its inactivity was humiliating. Soldiers and officers spoke of the people angrily as rebels. The men were rendered desperate by the firmness with which the local magistrates put them on trial for every transgression of the provincial laws. Arrests provoked resistance.
'If they touch you, run them through the bodies,' said a captain of the 29th Regiment to his soldiers, and he was indicted for the speech.”--_Ib._, p. 314.]
[Footnote 313: Quoted from Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap.
iii., pp. 363, 364.]
[Footnote 314: Bancroft's History, Vol. VI., Chap, xlii., pp. 315, 316.
”The general tendency to conciliation prevailed. Since the merchants of Philadelphia chose to confine their agreement for non-importation to the repeal of Townshend's Act, the merchants of Boston, for the sake of union, gave up their more extensive covenant, and reverted to their first stipulations. The dispute about the Billeting Act had ceased in New Jersey and Pennsylvania; the Legislature of New York, pleased with the permission to issue colonial bills of credit, disregarded the appeal from Macdougall to the betrayed inhabitants of that city and colony, and sanctioned a compromise by a majority of one. South Carolina was commercially the most closely connected with England. The annual exports from Charleston reached in value about two and a quarter millions of dollars, of which three-fourths went directly or indirectly to England.
But however closely the ties of interest bound Carolina to England, the people were high-spirited; and, notwithstanding the great inconvenience to their trade, they persevered in the strict observance of their (non-importation) a.s.sociation, looking with impatient anxiety for the desired repeal of the Act complained of.”--_Ib._, pp. 317, 318.]
[Footnote 315: History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap, xlii., p.
318.]
CHAPTER XVI.
EVENTS OF 1770--AN EVENTFUL EPOCH--EXPECTATIONS OF RECONCILIATION AND UNION DISAPPOINTED.
This was the year of b.l.o.o.d.y collision and parliamentary decision, which determined the future relations between Great Britain and the American colonies. Dr. Ramsay observes:
”From the Royal and Ministerial a.s.surances given in favour of America in 1769, and the subsequent repeal in 1770 of five-sixths of the duties which had been imposed in 1767, together with the consequent renewal of the mercantile intercourse between Great Britain and her colonies, many hoped that the contention between the two countries was finally closed.
In all the provinces, excepting Ma.s.sachusetts, appearances seemed to favour that opinion. Many incidents operated there to the prejudice of that harmony which had begun elsewhere to return. Stationing a military force among them was a fruitful source of uneasiness. The royal army had been brought thither with the avowed design of enforcing submission to the mother country. Speeches from the Throne and addresses from both Houses of Parliament had taught them to look upon the inhabitants of Ma.s.sachusetts as a factious, turbulent people, who aimed at throwing off all subordination to Great Britain. They, on the other hand, were accustomed to look upon the soldiery as instruments of tyranny, sent on purpose to dragoon them out of their liberties.
”Reciprocal insults soured the tempers, and mutual injuries embittered the pa.s.sions of the opposite parties. Some fiery spirits, who thought it an indignity to have troops quartered among them, were constantly exciting the townspeople to quarrel with the soldiers.
”On the 2nd of March, 1770, a fray took place near Mr. Gray's ropewalk, between a private soldier of the 20th Regiment and an inhabitant. The former was supported by his comrades, the latter by the ropemakers, till several on both sides were involved in the consequences. On the 5th a more dreadful scene was presented. The soldiers when under arms were pressed upon, insulted and pelted by the mob, armed with clubs, sticks, and s...o...b..a.l.l.s covering stones. They were also dared to fire. In this situation, one of the soldiers, who had received a blow, in resentment fired at the supposed aggressors. This was followed by a single discharge from six others. Three of the inhabitants were killed and five were dangerously wounded. The town was immediately in commotion. Such were the temper, force, and number of the inhabitants, that nothing but an engagement to remove the troops out of the town, together with the advice of moderate men, prevented the townsmen from falling on the soldiers. Capt. Preston, who commanded, and the party who fired on the inhabitants, were committed to jail, and afterwards tried. The captain and six of the men were acquitted. Two were brought in guilty of manslaughter (and were lightly punished). _It appeared on the trial that the soldiers were abused, insulted, threatened, and pelted before they fired._ It was also proved that only seven guns were fired by the eight prisoners. These circ.u.mstances induced the jury to give a favourable verdict. The result of the trial reflected great honour on John Adams and Josiah Quincy, the counsel for the prisoners (promising young lawyers and popular leaders), and also on the integrity of the jury, who ventured to give an upright verdict in defiance of popular opinion.”[316]
A further hindrance to returning harmony in Ma.s.sachusetts, as in the other colonies, was another ill-judged act of the British Ministers in making the Governor and judges wholly independent of the province in regard to their salaries, which had always been paid by the local Legislature in annual grants, but which were now, for the first time, paid by the Crown. The House of a.s.sembly remonstrated against this innovation, which struck at the very heart of public liberty, by making the administrator of the government, and the courts of law, wholly independent of the people, and wholly dependent on the Crown, all holding their offices during pleasure of the Crown, and depending upon it alone for both the amount and payment of their salaries, and that payment out of a revenue raised by taxing the people without their consent.
The House addressed the Governor and judges to know whether they would receive their salaries as heretofore, by grants of the Legislature, or as stipends from the Crown. Three out of the four judges announced that they would receive their salaries as heretofore, by grants from the local Legislature; but Governor Hutchinson and Chief Justice Oliver announced that they would receive their salaries from the Crown. They therefore became more and more odious to the inhabitants, while the discussion of the new question of the relations of the Executive and Judiciary to the people, upon the grounds of public freedom and the impartial administration of justice, greatly increased the strength of the opposition and the importance of the local House of Representatives as the counterpart of the House of Commons, and as guardians of the rights of the people.
At an early period of Canadian history, the salaries of governors and judges were determined and paid by the Crown, out of what was called a casual and territorial revenue, independent of the representatives of the people, and the judges held their places during pleasure; but after much agitation, and a determined popular struggle of several years, a civil list for both the governors and judges was agreed upon and voted by the Legislature. The tenure of the offices of judges was made that of good behaviour, instead of pleasure; and executive councillors and heads of departments were made dependent upon the confidence of the Legislature, with the control of revenues of every kind raised in the country; since which time there have been peace, loyalty, and progress throughout the provinces of the Canadian Dominion.