Part 37 (1/2)
”The Boston committee of correspondence has been likened to a political party manager. It provided for regular meetings, consulted with similar bodies in the vicinity, stimulated the spread of committees in surrounding towns, kept up a correspondence with them, prepared political matter for the press, circulated it in newspapers and broadsides, matured political measures, created and guided public sentiment--in short, heated the popular temper to the boiling point of revolution and then drew from it the authority to act.”
Standing committees of correspondence.--Aroused by the _Gaspee_ inquiry, the Virginia burgesses on March 12, 1773, adopted resolutions which provided for a standing committee of correspondence and inquiry whose business was ”to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all such acts and resolutions of the British Parliament, or proceedings of Administration, as may relate to or affect the British colonies in America, and to keep up and maintain a correspondence and communication with our sister colonies, respecting these important considerations; and the result of such their proceedings, from time to time, to lay before this House.” The committee was also instructed to obtain information regarding ”the principles and authority on which was const.i.tuted a court of inquiry, said to have been lately held in Rhode Island, with powers to transmit persons accused of offences committed in America to places beyond the seas to be tried.” The speaker was instructed to transmit to the speakers of the different a.s.semblies of the British colonies on the continent copies of the resolutions, that they might lay them before their a.s.semblies and request them to appoint a person or persons to communicate from time to time with the committee of the burgesses.
The Virginia suggestion was first acted upon by the Rhode Island a.s.sembly, which on May 15 informed Virginia of the appointment of a committee of correspondence. Before the close of the month the a.s.semblies of Connecticut, New Hamps.h.i.+re, and Ma.s.sachusetts had appointed similar committees. The South Carolina a.s.sembly acted in July, Georgia in September, Maryland and Delaware in October, and North Carolina in December. The New York a.s.sembly appointed its committee on January 20, 1774, and New Jersey on February 8. The Pennsylvania a.s.sembly dissolved without taking action.
The committees did not prove to be active agents, because (1) ”there was little or nothing for them to do;” (2) they ”were chosen from members of the a.s.sembly, all of whom were desirous of going home when the a.s.sembly adjourned”; (3) ”the a.s.sembly committees were extremely cautious about acting on their own authority.” ”However, the choice of such committees was not entirely without result. The popular a.s.sembly in each colony received preliminary testing. Const.i.tutional questions were raised and discussed, and arguments disseminated.... More important still had been the demonstration that a body could be created which might continue to act in successful opposition to the crown when the royal governors dissolved or prorogued the a.s.semblies.”
THE TEA CONTROVERSY
Attempted relief of the East India Company.--During this period George III and his ministers took the fatal step of attempting to force tea upon the colonies. The colonists had refrained from using tea which paid a duty and had supplied themselves with smuggled tea from France, Sweden, and Holland. At this time the East India Company was on the verge of bankruptcy, a condition due in part to the loss of American customers. In the company's warehouses a vast amount of tea had acc.u.mulated. As a measure of relief the directors of the company advised the repeal of the tea duty, but ”a course which went direct to the point was not of a nature to find favor with George the Third and his Ministers.” Instead they allowed the company a drawback of the entire tea duty in England, but the tea was to be subject to the three penny tax payable in the colonies.
The tea arrives.--George III was soon to learn that he could not force tea down colonial throats. Late in 1773 several tea-laden s.h.i.+ps arrived at American ports. In Charleston the agents of the company resigned, and when the duty was not paid, the collector seized the tea and stored it in a damp cellar. In Philadelphia a public meeting resolved that the duty on tea was illegal and persons who a.s.sisted in its being landed were declared public enemies. Under pressure of public opinion the consignees resigned and the captain of the tea vessel wisely decided not to unload his cargo. ”When New York learned that the tea-s.h.i.+ps allotted to it had been driven by a gale off the coast, men scanned the horizon, like the garrison of Londonderry watching for the English fleet in Lough Foyle, in their fear lest fate should rob them of their opportunity of proving themselves not inferior in mettle to the Bostonians.”
The Boston Tea Party.--The Ma.s.sachusetts people had recently been greatly irritated by certain private letters of Hutchinson, Oliver, and Paxton. The letters had been obtained in England by Franklin and had been sent under the seal of secrecy to some of the Ma.s.sachusetts leaders who, however, published them. Before the excitement subsided three tea-laden vessels arrived at Boston. Hutchinson refused to allow the s.h.i.+ps to leave until regularly cleared and this could not be done until the entire cargo had been unloaded. A ma.s.s meeting held in the Old South Church resolved that the tea should not be landed, and when the governor ordered the dispersal of the meeting, the bearer of the proclamation met with insult. Neighboring towns agreed to a.s.sist Boston, with force if necessary, and a guard watched the vessels to see that none of the tea was landed. On December 17 the cargo would be seized by the collector for non-payment of duty. On the evening of December 16, fifty or sixty men disguised as Indians boarded the tea s.h.i.+ps, rifled the chests, and threw the contents into the bay.
The course of Ma.s.sachusetts.--The British government was being sorely tried by Ma.s.sachusetts. On January 29, 1774, a pet.i.tion of the general court for the removal of Hutchinson and Oliver came before the Privy Council Committee for Foreign Plantations. The pet.i.tion was p.r.o.nounced a seditious doc.u.ment. Franklin was summoned before the committee, was charged with intercepting letters, and was dismissed from the deputy postmaster-generals.h.i.+p. Soon after the Boston Tea Party, the a.s.sembly voted to impeach Justice Oliver for accepting a salary from the crown.
In retaliation Hutchinson dissolved the a.s.sembly and soon left the colony.
LORD NORTH'S COERCIVE POLICY
The intolerable acts.--The revolutionary acts which were taking place in America, especially those in Ma.s.sachusetts, caused deep concern in England. Pitt and Burke favored conciliation as the only means of preserving the empire, but the king insisted upon repression. The ministry speedily adopted a legislative program to punish Ma.s.sachusetts, and parliament legalized the ministerial policy by pa.s.sing the so-called intolerable acts.
Boston Port Act.--The first of these acts closed the port of Boston from June 1, 1774, until such time as ”it shall be made to appear to his Majesty, in his privy council, that peace and obedience to the laws shall be so far restored in the said town of Boston, that the trade of _Great Britain_ may safely be carried on there, and his Majesty's customs duly collected.” The king was not to open the port until the inhabitants of Boston had given full satisfaction to the East India Company and to the revenue officers and others who had suffered by the recent outbreaks.
Ma.s.sachusetts Government Act.--By the ”regulating act” the people of Ma.s.sachusetts were deprived of most of their chartered rights. After July 1, 1774, the council was to be appointed by the king instead of by the a.s.sembly. The governor was to appoint and remove, without the consent of the council, all judges of the inferior courts, the attorney general, provosts, marshals, and other officers belonging to the council or courts of justice. Sheriffs were also appointed by the governor but could not be removed without the consent of the council. The chief justice and judges of the superior court were to be appointed by the governor, but were to hold their commissions during the king's pleasure, and they could not be removed unless by order of the crown. Grand and pet.i.t juries were to be summoned by the sheriffs instead of being chosen in town meetings. Except for elections, town meetings were to be called only by consent of the governor and discussion was to be limited to subjects stated in the leave. The people were still allowed to elect the a.s.sembly.
Administration of Justice Act--The third act provided, ”That if any inquisition or indictment shall be found, or if any appeal shall be sued or preferred against any person, for murther, or other capital offence, in the province of the _Ma.s.sachusetts Bay_, and it shall appear, by information given upon oath to the governor.., that the fact was committed by the person against whom such inquisition or indictment shall be found, or against whom such appeal shall be sued or preferred..., either in the execution of his duty as a magistrate, for the suppression of riots, or in the support of the laws of revenue, or in acting in his duty as an officer of revenue, or in acting under the direction and order of any magistrate, for the suppression of riots, or for the carrying into effect the laws of revenue, or in aiding and a.s.sisting in any of the cases aforesaid; and if it shall also appear, to the satisfaction of the said governor ... that an indifferent trial cannot be had within the said province, in that case, it shall and may be lawful for the governor ... to direct, with the advice and consent of the council, that the inquisition, indictment, or appeal, shall be tried in some other of his Majesty's colonies, or in _Great Britain_.” The act also made it possible to transport witnesses to the scene of the trial.
Quartering Act, June 2, 1774.--The fourth law was ent.i.tled ”An act for the better providing suitable quarters for officers and soldiers in his Majesty's service in North America.” It provided that, if any officers or soldiers should be without quarters for twenty-four hours after a proper demand had been made, the governor might order that uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings be made fit for quarters.
The law was to remain in force until March 24, 1776. Though the act was general in its terms, in reality it was intended ”to facilitate the establishment of a temporary military government in Ma.s.sachusetts.” Of ominous import was the appointment of General Gage as governor of Ma.s.sachusetts.
The Quebec Act.--The Quebec Act which extended the province of Quebec to the Ohio River also aroused the anger of Ma.s.sachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Virginia, as it deprived those colonies of large tracts of western lands which they claimed under their ancient charters. It was not intended as a coercive act, but was so considered in the colonies.
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
Call for a congress.--On May 10 a copy of the Port Act was received in Boston. On the twelfth the committee of correspondence met with eight neighboring committees and recommended non-intercourse with Great Britain. The other colonies were asked to follow the same course. While this was taking place the four additional regiments which Gage had called for began to arrive and on June 1, 1774, the port was blocked by men-of-war. Boston began to receive money and supplies from other towns and colonies, and a new impetus was given to the formation of committees of correspondence. Committees in New York and Philadelphia recommended the appointment of delegates to a general congress. The Virginia burgesses resolved to set aside June 1 as a day of fasting and prayer.
The governor dissolved the house, but the burgesses a.s.sembled on May 27 at the Raleigh Tavern and adopted a resolution calling for a congress.
Copies of the resolution were sent to the other a.s.semblies.
On June 17 the Ma.s.sachusetts a.s.sembly resolved, ”That a meeting of committees from several colonies ... is highly expedient and necessary, to consult upon the present state of the colonies, and the miseries to which they are and must be reduced by the operation of certain acts of Parliament respecting America, and to deliberate and determine upon wise and proper measures, to be by them recommended to all the colonies, for the recovery and establishment of their just rights and liberties, civil and religious, and the restoration of union and harmony between Great Britain and the colonies, most ardently desired by all good men: Therefore, resolved, that the Hon. James Bowdoin, Esq., the Hon. Thomas Cus.h.i.+ng, Esq., Mr. Samuel Adams and Robert Treat Paine, Esqrs., be appointed a committee ... to meet with such committees or delegates from the other colonies as have been or may be appointed, either by their respective houses of burgesses or representatives, or by convention, or by the committees of correspondence appointed by the respective houses of a.s.sembly, in the city of Philadelphia, or any other place that shall be judged most suitable by the committee, on the 1st day of September next; and that the speaker of the house be directed, in a letter to the speakers of the house of burgesses or representatives in the several colonies, to inform them of the substance of these resolves.”
Meeting of the First Continental Congress.--Every colony but Georgia responded to the call. In September over fifty delegates a.s.sembled in Carpenters' Hall at Philadelphia. Among them were John and Samuel Adams of Ma.s.sachusetts, John d.i.c.kinson of Pennsylvania, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry and George Was.h.i.+ngton of Virginia, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, John Jay of New York, and Edward and John Rutledge of South Carolina. ”The congress of 1774 was not thought of by the people as a congress in the modern legislative sense. It was rather a convention of amba.s.sadors of subordinate, but distinct communities which had found it needful to take counsel of one another regarding a crisis in their common relations to the parent state, in order, if possible, to adopt some common plan of action. It was essentially an advisory or consultative body. In another aspect it may be regarded as the completion of the revolutionary party organization of which the basis was laid in the committees of correspondence.”
The Suffolk Resolves approved.--The delegates were soon divided into well-defined groups; the radicals led by Samuel Adams wanted resistance, the conservatives headed by Joseph Galloway favored compromise. The radicals succeeded in getting Congress to approve the resolves recently drawn up in the Suffolk County convention in Ma.s.sachusetts. The resolves declared that no obedience to the recent acts of parliament was due from Ma.s.sachusetts, advised that no money be turned into the treasury by the tax-collectors until the restoration of the const.i.tution, denounced as enemies the king's councillors who had not resigned, and threatened armed resistance. Congress published these resolves with its resolutions commending the course of Boston.
A plan of union.--The conservatives favored a plan of union proposed by Galloway, which provided for a crown appointed president-general and a council of deputies chosen every three years by the legislatures. The acts of the council were to be subject to parliamentary veto and acts of parliament relating to the colonies might be vetoed by the council. The plan was defeated by a narrow margin.