– The lucrative commission which he obtain’d while in England, in consequence of the passing of the act of parliament, whereby he was appointed one of the principal managers of this very revenue, affords but little room to doubt what his intention was in his voyage to London, notwithstanding his warm professions of concern for his native country – It is not always a security against a man’s sacrificing a country, that he was born and educated in it. The Tyrants of Rome were Natives of Rome. Such men indeed incur a guilt of a much deeper dye, than Strangers, who commit no such violation of duty and of feeling. – There was another of the cabal who embark’d about the same time, but he was call’d out of this life before he reach’d London, and de mortuis nil dico – Of the living I shall speak, as occasion shall call for it, with a becoming freedom.
The whole continent was justly alarmed at the parliament’s resuming the measure of raising a revenue in America without their consent, which had so nearly operated the ruin of the whole British empire but a few months before; & that this odious measure should be taken, so soon after the happy coalition between Britain and the colonies which the repeal of the stamp-act had occasion’d for if one may judge by the most likely appearances, the affections of her colonists, were upon this great event, more strongly attached to the mother country if possible, than ever they had been. But the great men there had been made to believe otherwise – Nay the governor of this province had gone such a length as to assure them, that the design of the Americans in their opposition to the stamp-act, was to bring the authority of parliament into contempt – Many of his adherents privately wrote to the same purpose – All which had a tendency to break that harmony, which after the only interruption that had ever taken place and that of short continuance, had been renewed, and doubtless would have been confirmed to mutual advantage for ages, had it not been for that pestilent few, who first to aggrandize themselves and their families, interrupted the harmony, and then to preserve their own importance, took every step their malice could invent, with the advantage they had gain’d of a confidence with the ministry, to prevent it’s ever being restored.
Upon the fatal news (fatal, I call it, for I very much fear it will prove so in its consequences, how remote I will not take upon me to predict) upon the news of the passing of another revenue act, the colonies immediately took such measures as were dictated to them, not by passion and rude clamour, but by the voice of reason and a just regard to the safety of themselves and their posterity. The assembly of this province, being the first I suppose who had the opportunity of meeting, prepared and forwarded a humble, dutiful & loyal petition to the King1 and wrote letters to such of the British nobility2 and gentry as had before discovered themselves friends to the rights of America & of mankind, beseeching their interposition and influence on their behalf. At the same time they wrote a circular letter to each of the other colonies3, letting them know the steps they had taken and desiring their advice & joint Assistance – This letter had its different effects; on the one hand, in the deep resentment of my Lord of Hillsborough, who was pleased to call it “a measure of an inflamatory nature – Evidently tending to create unwarrantable combinations, to excite an unjustifiable opposition to the constitutional authority of parliament and to revive unhappy divisions and distractions,” &c. While on the other hand, the colonies, as appears by their respective polite answers, receiv’d it with the highest marks of approbation, as a token of sincere affection to them, & a regard to the common safety; and they severally proceeded to take concurrent measures. No one step I believe, united the colonies more than this letter; excepting his lordship’s endeavors by his own circular letter to the colonies, to give it a different turn – But however decent and loyal -However warrantable by or rather conformable to the spirit and the written rules of the British constitution, the petitions of right and other applications of the distressed Americans were, they shared the same fate which those of London, Westminster, Middlesex, & other great cities & counties have since met with! No redress of grievances ensued: Not even the least disposition in administration to listen to our petitions; which is not so much to be wondered at, when we consider the temper of the ministry, which was incessantly acted upon by Governor Bernard in such kind of language as this “The authority of the King, the supremacy of parliament, the superiority of government are the real objects of the attack”; while nothing is more certain, than that the house of representatives of this province in their petition to the king, and in all their letters, that in particular which was address’d to the other colonies, the sentiment of which was recogniz’d by them, expressly declare, “that his Majesty’s high court of parliament is the supreme legislative power over the whole empire, in all cases which can consist with the fundamental rights of the constitution,” and that “it was never questioned in this province, nor as they conceive in any other.” They indeed in all their letters insist upon the right of granting their own money, as a right founded in nature, the exercise of which no man ever relinquished to another & remain’d free – A right therefore which no power on earth, not even the acknowledged supreme legislative power over the whole empire hath any authority to divest them of – “The supreme power says Mr. Locke, is not, nor can possibly be absolutely arbitrary, over the lives and fortunes of the people – The supreme power cannot take from any man any part of his property without his own consent. For the preservation of property being the end of government, and that for which men enter into society; it necessarily supposes and requires that the people should have property, without which they must be supposed to lose that by entering into society, which was the end for which they entered into it. Men therefore in society having property, they have such a right to the goods which by the law of the community are theirs, that no body hath a right to take their substance or any part of it from them without their consent. Without this, they have no property at all: For I have truly no property in that, which another can by right take from me when he pleases, against my consent” – These are the principles upon which alone, the Americans founded their opposition to the late acts of parliament. How then could governor Bernard with any colour of truth declare to a minister of state in general terms, that “the authority of the King, the supremacy of parliament, the superiority of government, were the objects of the attack?” Upon the principles of reason and nature, their opposition is justifiable: For by those acts the property of the Colonists is taken from them without their consent. It is by no means sufficient to console us, that the duty is reduced to the single article of Tea, which by the way is not a fact; but if it should be admitted, it is because the parliament for the present are pleased to demand no more of us: Should we acquiesce in their taking three pence only because they please, we at least tacitly consent that they should have the sovereign controul of our purses; and when they please they will claim an equal right, and perhaps plead a precedent for it, to take a shilling or a pound – At present we have the remedy in our own hands; we can easily avoid paying the TRIBUTE, by abstaining from the use of those articles by which it is extorted from us: – and further, we can look upon our haughty imperious taskmasters, and all those who are sent here to aid and abet them, together with those sons of servility, who from very false notions of politeness, can seek and court opportunities of cringing and fawning at their feet, of whom, thro’ favor, there are but few among us: we may look down upon all these, with that sovereign contempt and indignation, with which those who feel their own dignity and freedom, will for ever view the men, who would attempt to reduce them to the disgraceful state of SLAVERY.
I shall continue to send you an account of facts, as my leisure will admit. In the mean time,
I am yours,
CANDIDUS.
1 Vol. I., page 162.
2 Vol. I., pages 152, i66, 169, 173, 180. 3 Vol. I., page 184.
ARTICLE SIGNED “CANDIDUS.”
[Boston Gazette, September 16, 1771.]
Messieurs EDES & GILL,
1 have already mentioned the circular letter written by the house of representatives of this province to the other colonies, dated the 11th of February, 1768; and the very different treatment it met with from the Earl of Hillsborough and the respectable bodies to whom it was addressed. And also the circular letter which his lordship himself was pleased to send to those colonies, wherein he recommended to them “to treat it with the contempt it deserved ” – But as the sentiments contained in the letter of the house were so exactly similar to those of the other colonies, and the subject of it was of equal importance to them all, it was not in the power of his lordship to efface the impressions it made, or to disturb that harmony which was the happy effect of it – Vis unita fortior – That union of the colonies in their common danger, by which they became powerful, was the occasion of the greatest perplexity to their enemies on both sides the atlantick; and it has been ever since their constant endeavor by all manner of arts to destroy it. In this, it must be confess’d, they have discovered an unanimity, zeal and perseverance, worthy to be imitated by those who are embark’d in the cause of American freedom. – It is by united councils, a steady zeal, and a manly fortitude, that this continent must expect to recover its violated rights and liberties.
Such was the resentment which the circular letter enkindled in the breasts of administration, that it was immediately followed by a Mandate from lord Hillsborough to governor Bernard, to require the succeeding house to rescind the resolution which had given birth to it, upon pain of a dissolution of the assembly in case of a refusal. – Governor Bernard added to the severity of this mandate by assuring the house in a message to them, that “if he should be obliged to dissolve the general court, he should not think himself at liberty to call another, till he should receive his Majesty’s command for that purpose.” – It appeared that administration had been greatly misinformed with regard to the circumstances of this resolution of the house, particularly in a representation that it was brought on when the members present were few, and at the end of the session; and that it was therefore a very unfair proceeding procured by surprize and contrary to the real sense of the house – But the house made it evident in their letter to his lordship afterwards, from their own minutes and journals, that it was the declared sense of a large majority when the house was full – It was the constant practice of governor Bernard and his adherents, to represent the opposition of the house to the pernicious designs of the enemies of the colonies, which generally consisted of full three quarters of the members and sometimes more, as the feeble efforts of an expiring faction.
This direct and peremptory requisition, of a new and strange constructure, and so strenuously urg’d by the governor, was taken into consideration by the house, on the next day after it was laid before them; and as is usual in all matters of importance, was then referred to a large committee further to consider it, and report their opinion of what was expedient to be done: As the governor had assured the house in his message, that “their resolution thereon would have the most important consequences to the province,” the committee were the more deliberate in their consultations; very reasonably expecting, that after such an assurance given to the house, the governor would indulge them with sufficient time thoroughly to digest it.However sanguine the expectation of lord Hills-borough might be, through the artful insinuation of governor Bernard that, the “attempts of a desperate faction (as his lordship expressed it) would be discountenanced, and that the execution of the measure recommended would not meet with any difficulty;” the governor himself, who was fully acquainted with the sentiments of the house, as well as of the generality of the people without doors, had no “grounds to hope” that the requisition would be comply’d with; and therefore as a dissolution was to be the immediate consequence of a refusal, and as his lordship had directed the governor to “transmit to him an account of their proceedings to be laid before his Majesty, to the end that his Majesty might, if he tho’t proper, lay the whole matter before his parliament,” it might have been well supposed that a longer time was necessary for them to state the reasons of their own conduct, and to set the transactions of the former house, which had been grossly misrepresented, in a true point of light, in order to vindicate themselves, when their whole proceedings should be laid before his Majesty and the parliament.
But before the committee were ready to make their report, the governor sent down a message to the house, signifying that it was full a week since he had laid his Majesty’s requisition before them, and that he could not admit of a much longer delay, without considering it as an answer in the negative – Upon which the house, being desirous that the sense of the people concerning this important matter might be known as explicitly as possible, which would also have determined beyond all doubt, their sense of the revenue acts, and the opposition made to them by the American assemblies, requested a recess of the general court, that they might have the opportunity of taking the instructions of their constituents. But though his lordship in his letter to the governor, express’d a satisfaction in “that spirit of decency and love of order which has discovered itself in the conduct of the most considerable of the inhabitants of the province;” and the governor himself in his speech at the close of the preceeding assembly, insinuated that matters had been conducted by a party in the house; and declared that “the evils which threatened this injured country, arose from the machinations of a few, very few discontented men” – “false patriots who were sacrificing their country to the gratification of their own passions,” and that it was “by no means to be charged upon the generality of the people,” yet he did not think it proper to comply with the request of the house for a recess, that the sentiment of the generality of” this good people,” as he calls them in this same speech, might be taken. Had he not the fairest opportunity upon this motion of the house, if there had been any grounds for his representations that the opposition to the revenue acts was confined to a few, very few discontented men, to have made it evident beyond all contradiction? But he dared not rest the matter upon this issue: He knew very well that it would put an end to his darling topic; and that the determination of the generality of the people, would put it out of his power any longer to hold up an expiring faction to administration with success – A low piece of cunning, of which he was a perfect master, and which he had constantly practiced to induce them to a perseverance in their measures.
On the 30th June 1768, the committee, having maturely considered the requisition made to the house in its nature and consequences reported a letter to the Earl of Hillsborough1 his Majesty’s secretary of state for the American department, and laid it on the table; wherein they observe to his lordship, that a requisition of such a nature, to a British house of commons had been very unusual and perhaps altogether unprecedented since the revolution: That some very aggravated representations must have been made to his Majesty of the resolution of the former house, to induce him to require this house to rescind it, upon pain of forfeiting their existence – That the people in this province had attended with anxiety to the acts of the British parliament for raising a revenue in America – That this concern was not limited within the circle of a few inconsiderate persons; the most respectable for fortune, rank and station, as well as probity and understanding in the province, with very few exceptions, being alarm’d with apprehensions of the fatal consequences, of a power exercised in any part of the British empire, to command and apply the property of their fellow subjects at discretion: That as all his Majesty’s North American subjects were alike affected by those revenue acts, the former house very justly supposed that each of the assemblies on the continent would take such methods of obtaining redress as should be thought by them respectively to be regular and proper; and being desirous that the several applications should harmonize with each other, they resolved on their circular letter; wherein they only acquainted their sister colonies with the measures they had taken, without calling upon them to adopt those measures or any other – That this was perfectly consistent with the constitution, and that, so far from being criminal, or a measure “of an inflammatory nature,’ it had a natural tendency to compose his majesty’s subjects in the colonies, till they should obtain relief; at a time when it seem’d to be the evident design of a party, they might have said a faction, to prevent calm, deliberate, rational and constitutional measures being pursued, or to stop the distresses of the people from reaching his Majesty’s ear, and consequently to precipitate them into a state of desperation. They therefore leave it to his lordship’s impartial judgment, whether the representations that had been made of this resolution, were not injurious to the house, and an affront to his Majesty himself. And after proceeding to give his lordship a full detail of all the circumstances relating to the resolution which gave birth to the circular letter, and which they were required to rescind, they add, that they rely upon it that to petition his Majesty will not be deemed by him to be inconsistent with the British constitution; that to acquaint their fellow subjects, involved in the same distress, even if they had invited the union of all America in one joint supplication, would not be discountenanced by his Majesty as a “measure of an inflammatory nature;” and that “when his lordship shall injustice lay a true state of those matters before his Majesty, he will no longer consider them as tending to create unwarrantable combinations, or to excitte an unjustifiable opposition to the constitutional authority of parliament.” This is the substance of the letter; which being twice read in the house, was accepted by a large majority of ninety-two out of one hundred and five members, and ordered to be transmitted by the speaker to his lordship as soon as might be. After which it was immediately mov’d, that the question be put, Whether the house would rescind the resolution of the last house which gave birth to the circular letter; and the question being accordingly put, it pass’d in the negative, there appearing on a division upon the question to be seventeen yeas and ninety-two nays. Thus the house determined upon as extraordinary a mandate as perhaps was ever laid before a free assembly. – It is to us, said the house in their message to the governor, altogether incomprehensible, that we should be required on the peril of a dissolution of the great and general court or assembly of this province, to rescind a resolution of a former house of representatives, when it is evident that such resolution has no existence, but as a mere historical fact. Your excellency must know, that the resolution referred to, is, to speak in the language of the common law, not now “executory,” but to all intents and purposes “executed.” The circular letter has been sent and answered by many of the colonies: These answers are now in the public papers; the public will judge of the proposals, purposes and answers. We could as well rescind those letters as the resolves; and both would be equally fruitless, if by rescinding, as the word properly imports, is meant a repeal and nullifying of the resolution referred to. But if, as is most probable, by the word, rescinding, is intended the passing a vote of this house, in direct and express disapprobation of the measure above mentioned, as “illegal, inflammatory and tending to promote unjustifiable combinations” against his Majesty’s peace, crown and dignity, we take the liberty to testify and publickly to declare, that it is the native, inherent and indefeasible right of the subject, jointly or severally, to petition the King for the redress of grievances. – And we are clearly and very firmly of Opinion that the petition of the late dutiful and loyal house, and the other very orderly applications for the redress of grievances, have had the most desirable tendencies and effects – In another part they say, “we cannot but express our deep concern, that a measure of the late house in all respects so innocent, in most so virtuous and laudable, and as we conceive, so truly patriotic, should be represented to administration in the odious light of a party and factious measure,” and finally they say, that in refusing to comply with the requisition, “they have been actuated by a conscientious and a clear and determined sense of duty to God, their King, their country, and their latest posterity.” This determination of the house gave general satisfaction, not only to the people of this province, but of the other colonies also; as well as the friends of liberty in Britain. It was spoken of by all except the disappointed few, with great applause. Indeed the essential rights of all were involved in the question: A different determination would therefore have been to the last degree infamous and attended with fatal consequences. Not only the right of the subjects jointly to petition for the redress of grievances which all alike suffer, but also that of communicating their sentiments freely to each other upon the subject of grievances, and the means of redress, which was the sole purport of the circular letter, would in effect have been given up. I have often thought that in this time of common distress, it would be the wisdom of the colonists, more frequently to correspond with, and to be more attentive to the particular circumstances of each other. It seems of late to have been the policy of the enemies of America to point their artillery against one province only; and artfully to draw off the attention of the other colonies, and if possible to render that single province odious to them, while it is suffering ministerial vengeance for the sake of the common cause. But it is hoped that the colonies will be aware of this artifice. At this juncture an attempt to subdue one province to despotic power, is justly to be considered as an attempt to enslave the whole. The colonies “form one political body, of which each is a member.” -The liberties of the whole are invaded – It is therefore the interest of the whole to support each individual with all their weight and influence. When the legislative of the colony of New-York was suspended, the house of representatives of this province consider’d it “as alarming to all the colonies;” and bore their testimony against it, in a letter to their agent, the sentiments of which they directed him to make known to his Majesty’s ministers. – That suspension, says the patriotic Pennsylvania Farmer, is a parliamentary assertion of the supreme authority of the British legislature over these colonies in point of taxation; and is intended to COMPEL New-York into a submission to that authority. It seems therefore to me as much a violation of the liberty of the people of that province, and consequently of all these Colonies, as if the Parliament had sent a number of regiments (which has since been the fate of this province) to be quartered upon them till they should comply. – Whoever, says he, seriously considers the matter, must perceive, that a dreadful stroke is aimed at the liberty of these Colonies: For the cause of one is the cause of all. If the parliament may lawfully deprive New-York of any of its Rights, it may deprive any or all the other Colonies of their Rights; and nothing can so much encourage such attempts, as a mutual inattention to the interests of each other. To divide and thus to destroy, is the first political maxim in attacking those who are powerful by their union. – When Mr. Hampden’s ship money cause for three shillings and four pence was tried, all the people of England, with anxious expectation, interested themselves in the important decision: And when the slightest point touching the freedom of a single Colony is agitated, I earnestly wish, that all the rest may with equal ardour support their sister. – These are the generous sentiments of that celebrated writer, whom several have made feeble attempts to answer, but no one has yet done it. May the British American Colonies be upon their guard; and take care lest by a mutual inattention to the interest of each other, they at length become supine and careless of the grand cause of American Liberty, and finally fall a prey to the MERCILESS HAND OF TYRANNY.
I am,
Your’s,
CANDIDUS.
1Vol. I., page 219.
ARTICLE SIGNED “CANDIDUS.”
[Boston Gazette, September 23, 1771.]
Messieurs EDES & GILL,
The consequence of the determination of the house of Representatives not to rescind the resolution of the former house, of which I gave you a particular account in my last, was an immediate prorogation of the general assembly, and the next day a dissolution, agreeable to the orders of a minister of state! – Governor Bernard in a subsequent letter to lord Hillsborough, pressed his lordship for further orders respecting the calling a new assembly; and acquainted him that “when the usual time should come, it would be quite necessary that the governor should be able to vouch positive orders for his not calling the assembly, if he was not to do it,” and he adds that, “with regard to calling the new assembly in May, it would require much consideration.” By the Charter of this province, which is a Compact between the Crown and the People, it is ordained that a General Assembly shall be called on every last Wednesday in May yearly: Did gov. Bernard then think that his lordship, to whom in one instance at least, he had surrendered the power of the governor of the province, could by another order rescind that effectual Right of the Charter? It would in truth require much consideration with one, even of his lordship’s peculiar turn of mind, before he would assume an authority to put an end to the constitution of the province: He had gone far enough already. – The Charter further ordains, that the assembly shall be held “at all such other times as the governor shall think fit.” Not as lord Hillsborough shall think fit, for he is not the governor. Could the governor think that the people were so stupid as to be satisfied with his vouching – orders for neglecting that which it was his indispensable duty to do as governor of the province; and by neglecting which, either with or without his lordship’s orders, there would be an end to the supreme legislative power; the establishing of which, as Mr. Locke says, is the first and fundamental positive law of the commonwealth. The general assembly is constituted by the charter, the legislative of the province; having full power and authority to make all such orders, laws, statutes, &c. not repugnant to the laws of England, as they shall judge to be for the good and welfare of the province. – “The first framers of the government, not being able by any foresight to prefix so just periods of return and duration to the assemblies of the legislative, in all times to come, that might exactly answer all the emergencies of the commonwealth, the best method that could be found, was to trust this to the prudence of one, who was always to be present, and whose business it should be to watch over the commonwealth.” Hence the charter provides, that the governor who is to reside in the province, and who, being always present, must be acquainted with the state and exigences of the public affairs, shall have full power and authority to adjourn or dissolve the assembly, and call a new one from time to time as he shall judge necessary: But our governors have of late given up this power of judging – to a minister of state; residing at a thousand leagues distance, and therefore utterly unable to determine, if it was lawful for him to do it, at what time the necessities of the state might require the immediate exertion of legislative power. This ministerial manoeuvre, to speak in modern language, which threatens the destruction of the constitution, will, it is hoped, be the subject of national enquiry, when the present confusion in Britain and America shall, as it must soon, be brought to a happy issue. “The legislative is sacred and unalterable in the hands where the community has fixed it.” In this province it is fixed by the community, in the hands of the Governor, Council and House of Representatives: In their hands therefore, it ought to rest sacred and unalterable; to be sure as long as the express conditions of the compact are fulfilled. – Lord Stafford, and many lords and great men before him, suffered death for attempting to overthrow the constitution of the state. – Their crime was called, and I supposed justly called, Treason: It surely could not have been treason therefore, to have disturbed and resisted them in their mad attempts, even though they might have produced the orders of a king – What punishment awaits those who have manifestly attempted to overthrow the constitution of the American colonies, the time which we hope for, and is hastening on, will determine. If the very being of the legislative of this province is for the future to depend upon the mere will and pleasure of an arbitrary minister – if he may take it upon him to dictate such measures as he pleases, and to dissolve them, or which is the same thing, order an obsequious governor to do it, upon their non-compliance with his will and pleasure, surely we have little to boast of in such an assembly. The charter may be taken away in tarts as well as in the whole: And it seems by some later ministerial mandates and measures, as if there was a design to deprive us of our Charter-Rights by degrees. An attempt upon the whole by one stroke would perhaps be thought too bold an undertaking. His lordship could not indeed have chosen a more effectual step to deprive us of the whole benefit of a free constitution, than by attempting to controul the debates and determinations of the House of Representatives, which ought forever to be free, and suspending the legislative power of the province, for their refusing to obey any mandate, especially when it is not only contrary to their judgments and consciences, but, as it appeared to them, absurd. It is a pitiful constitution indeed, which so far from being fixed and permanent as it should be – sacred and unalterable in the hands of those where the community has placed it, depends entirely upon the breath of a minister, or of any man: But it is to be feared from this as well as other more recent instances, that there is a design to rase the foundations of the constitutions of these colonies, and place them upon this precarious and sandy foundation. – I have seen a letter from the agent of this province to the government here, dated so long ago as March the 7th, 1750; wherein he says, “I am afraid there is at bottom in the minds of some, a fixed design of getting a parliamentary sanction of some kind or other, if possible, to the King’s instructions on this occasion;” which was the redressing the inconveniencies proceeding from the paper bills. And in another letter of the 12th of April following, he writes, “Since my last, I have found too great reason to confirm my apprehensions, that some persons of consequence here, are determined, if possible, to put the future use of the credit of the several governments of New England, wholly under the power of an instruction; and what tendency that may have to introduce the King’s instructions into the government of the other colonies, in other instances, I need not observe This design seems to be conducted with great art.” The fears of that watchful agent, there is reason to apprehend, from the perfect good understanding that now exists between the ruling men in the American department, on both sides the atlantic, may very soon be far from appearing groundless. Instructions have of late been so frequent, and in every instance so punctiliously obeyed, that there is reason to fear, unless greater attention is had to them, they soon will be established as rules of administration, not only to governors as servants of the crown, but to legislatures. The enforcing them seems to be conducted with equal art on this side of the water at present, to that with which the original design of introducing them was conducted on the other side, when that agent wrote. They may soon therefore be regarded as fixed laws in the colonies, even without the sanction or intervention of parliament Principiis obsta, is a maxim worth regarding in politics as well as morals, and it is more especially to be observed, when those who are the most assiduous in their endeavours to alter the civil Constitution, are not less so in persuading us to go to sleep and dream that we are in a state of perfect security. – What benefit is it to us to have a governor residing in the province, invested with certain powers of judging -, and acting according to his own judgment, for the good of the people, if he submit to be made a man of wire, & for the sake of preserving the emolument of a governor, with the name only, is turned this way or that, as the minister directs, without any judgment of his own? And of what use can a legislative be to us, without the free exercise of the powers of legislation? Liable to be thrown out of existence for not acting in conformity to the will of another? Can there be any material difference between such a legislative and none at all? The original constitution of this province, the charter, required the convening of a new general assembly in May: The public exigencies might have required it sooner: But governor Bernard was determined in neither of these cases to convene an assembly, if he could but vouch the positive orders of the minister, who had no right or legal authority at all to interpose in the matter. “The using of force upon the people without authority, and contrary to the trust reposed in him that does so, is a state of war with the people;” This is the judgment of one of the greatest men that ever wrote. “If the executive power, being possessed of the power of the commonwealth, shall make use of that force to hinder the meeting and acting of the legislative, when the original constitution or the public exigencies shall require it, the people have a right to reinstate their legislative in the exercise of their power: For having erected a legislative, with an intent they should exercise the power of making laws, either at certain set times or when there is need of it, if they are hindered by any force from what is so necessary to the society, and wherein the safety and preservation of the people consists, they have a right to remove it by force.” From this instance of the dissolution of the assembly of this province, as well as that of the suspension of the legislative of New York, for refusing to execute an act of parliament, requiring them to give and grant away their own and their constituents money for the support of a standing army, posterity will form a judgment of the temper of the British administration at that time: Whether a different disposition has since prevailed, will appear from the measures they have taken in general; and particularly from the answers to the addresses, petitions and remonstrances which we have lately seen. One would have thought that the American legislative assemblies had become too harmless bodies to have been the object of ministerial rage, since the passing of acts of parliament for the sole purpose of raising revenues at the expence of the colonists, without their consent, and for appropriating those revenues as they should think proper. The most essential Rights of American legislation, are those of raising and applying their own monies for the support of their own government, and for their own defence: By the late revenue acts, these rights are in effect superseded; the parliament having already granted, such sums as they please, out of the purses of the colonists, for the same purposes. Thus the shadow of legislation only remains to them: Their importance is at an end. They may indeed, as the Pennsylvania farmer observes, whose works I wish every American would read over again, “They may perhaps be allowed to make laws for yoking of hogs or pounding of stray cattle: Their influence will hardly be permitted to extend so high as the keeping roads in repair; as that business may more properly be executed by those who receive the public cash.” Their substantial rights and powers, lord Hillsborough himself should know, are as really annihilated by these acts, as they would be, if they were deprived of all existence. “Upon what occasion, says that elegant writer, will the crown ever call our assemblies together, when, the charges of the administration of justice, the support of civil government, and the expences of protecting, defending and securing us, are provided for” by the parliament? “Some few of them may meet of their own accord, by virtue of their several charters: But what will they have to do when they are met? To what shadows will they be reduced? The men, whose deliberations heretofore, had an influence on every matter relating to the liberty and happiness of themselves and their constituents, and whose authority in domestic affairs at least, might well be compared to that of Roman senators, will find their determinations to be of no more consequence than that of constables.” – And this will not be the utmost extent of our misery and infamy
CANDIDUS.
TO ARTHUR LEE.
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library; a text, with variations, is in R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, vol. ii., pp. 177-183.]
BOSTON Sept 27 1771
SIR
I am greatly indebted to you for your several Letters of [the 10th and 14th of June].
To let you know that I am far from being inattentive to the favors you have done me I inclose you a Letter I wrote you some time past, but was prevented putting it in the Bag by an Accident. I have since been confind to my house by Sickness & by a late Excursion into the Country I have fully recoverd my Health.
I take particular Notice of the Reasons you assign for a whole Session of parliamt being spent without one offensive Measure to America. You account for our being flatterd that all Designs against the Charter of the Colony are laid aside, in a manner perfectly corresponding with the Sentiments I had preconceivd of it. The opinion you have formd of the ruling men on both sides the Atlantick, is exactly mine and as I have the most unfavorable Idea of the Heads or the Hearts of the present Administration, I cannot hope for much Good from the Services of any man who can submit to be dependent on them.
I was pleasd with the petition & remonstrance of the City of London – but are not the Ministry lost to all Sensibility to the peoples Complaints, & like the Egyptian Tyrant, do they not harden their Hearts against their repeated Demands for a redress of Grievances. Does it not fully appear not only that they neither fear God nor regard Man, but that they are not even to be wearied, as one of their ancient predecessors was, by frequent Applications. What do you conceive to be the Step next to be taken by an abused people? For another must be taken either by the ministry or the people or in my opinion the nation will fall into that ruin of which they seem to me to be now at the very precipice. May God afford them that Prudence, Strength & fortitude by which they may be animated to maintain their own Liberties at all Events. By your last letter you appear to resolve well; if ever the Spirit of impeaching should rise in Britain. But how is it possible such a Spirit should rise. In all former Struggles the House of Commons has naturally taken Sides with the people against oppressing Ministers & Favorites. But whether that is the Case at present or not, is no secret to the World. We have indeed heard little of the Business of impeaching since the Revolution. A corrupt ministerial Influence has been gradually & too insensibly increasing from that OEra, & is at length become so powerful (for which I think the Nation is particularly beholden to Sir R. Walpole) as to render it impracticable to have even one capital Object of the peoples just Vengeance impeachd. The proposals you were so kind as [to] favor me with, I cannot but highly approve of. I communicated them to two or three intimate & judicious friends who equally approvd of them. But they cannot be carried into Execution till the present parliamt is at an End. And if it is not to be dissolvd before the End of its septennial Duration, is it not to be feard that before its Expiration there will be an End of Liberty. If I mistake not there is an Act of parliamt whereby the Seats of placemen and pensioners in the House of Commons (who were not such at the time of their Election) shall be vacated, & their Electors have a right to the Choice of another if they see proper. Perhaps there never was a time when the Advantages of this Law were more apparent. Would it not then be doing the most important Service to the Cause of Liberty if the Gentlemen of the Bill of Rights, who I pray God may be united in their Councils, would exert their utmost Influence to prevail upon the Constituents of such rotten Members to claim that privilege & make a good Use of it? If there is any Virtue among the people, I should think this might easily be done. If it be impracticable, I fear another general Election wd only serve to convince all of what many are apprehensive, that there is a total Depravation of principles & manners in the Nation, or in other Words that it is already irrecoverably undone.
We are in a State of perfect Despotism. Our Governmt is essentially alterd. Instead of having a Gov exercising Authority within the Rules & Circumscription of the Charter which is the Compact between the King & the People, & dependent upon the people for his Support, we have a Man with the Name of a Governor only. He is indeed commissiond by the King, but under the Controul of the Minister, to whose Instrucctions he yields an unlimitted Obedience, while he is subsisted with the Money of that very people who are thus governd, by virtue of an Assumd Authority of the British Parliament to oblige them to grant him such an annual Stipend as the King shall order. Can you tell me who is Governor of this province? Surely not Hutchinson, for I cannot conceive that he exercises the power of judging vested in him by the Constitution, in one Act of Govt which appears to him to be important. The Govt is shifted into the Hands of the Earl of Hillsborough whose sole Councellor is the Nettleham Baronet. Upon this Governor aided by the Advice of this Councellor depends the time & place of the Sitting of the legislative Assembly or whether it shall sit at all. If they are allowd to sit, they are to be dictated by this duumvirate, thro the Instrumentality of a third, & may be thrown out of Existence for failing in one point to conform to their sovereign pleasure, a Legislative to be sure worthy to be boasted of by a free people. If our nominal Governor by all the Arts of perswasion, can prevail upon us to be easy under such a Mode of Government, he will do a singular piece of Service to his Lordship, as it will save him the trouble of geting our Charter vacated by the formal Decision of parliamt & the tedious process of Law.
The Grievances of Britain & the Colonies as you observe spring from the same root of Bitterness & are of the same pernicious Growth. The Union of Britain & the Colonies is therefore by all means to be cultivated. If in every Colony Societies should be formd out of the most respectable Inhabitants, similar to that of the Bill of Rights, who should once in the year meet by their Deputies, and correspond with such a Society in London, would it not effectually promote such an Union? And if conducted with a proper spirit, would it not afford reason for the Enemies of our common Liberty, however great, to tremble. This is a sudden Thought & drops undigested from my pen. It would be an arduous Task for any man to attempt to awaken a sufficient Number in the Colonies to so grand an Undertaking. Nothing however should be despaird of.
If it should ever become a practicable thing to impeach a corrupt Administration I hope the Minister who advisd to the introducing arbitrary power into America will not be overlookd. Such a Victim I imagine will make a figure equal to Lord Strafford in the Reign of Charles, or de le Pole & others in former times. “The Conduct of the Judges touching ‘Juries” appears to be alarming on both sides of the, Water & ought to be strictly enquired into. And are they not establishing the civil Law which Mr Blackstone says is only permitted in England to the prejudice of the Common Law, the Consequence of which will prove fatal to the happy Constitution. I observe that one of your proposals is that a Law may be made “subjecting each Candidate to an Oath against having used Bribery” to obtain his Election. Would there not be a danger that a Law by which a Candidate may purge himself by his Oath would exclude some other more certain Evidence than the Oath of one who has already prostituted his Conscience for a Seat than his own Declaration of his Innocence even upon Oath? I am of opinion that He who can be so sordid as to gain an Election by Bribery or any other illegal means, must be lost to all such feelings as those of Honor or Conscience or the Obligation of an Oath. With Regard the Grievances of the Americans it must be owned that the Violation of the essential Right of taxing themselves is a Capital one. This Right is founded in Nature. It is unalienable & therefore it belongs to us exclusively. The least Infringement on it is Sacrilege. But there are other Methods taken by Lord Hillsbro & punctually put into Execution by Govr Hutchinson, which in my Opinion would give a mortal Stab to Our essential Rights, if the Parliament had not by their declaratory Act claimd Authority to make use of our money to establish a standing army over us & an host of pensioners and placemen civil & ecclesiastical, which are as terrible as an Army of Soldiers. And if the Commons of this province cannot impeach, we have nothing to rely upon but the Interposition of our friends in Britain, or the ultima Ratio.
Inclosd you have a Copy of the protests of divers patriotick Clergymen in Virginia against an Episcopate in America. It is part of the plan the design of which is to secure a ministerial Influence in America, which in all Reason is full strong enough without the Aid of the Clergy. The Junction of the Cannon & the feudal Law you know has been fatal to the Liberties of Mankind. The Design of the first Settlers of New England in particular was to settle a plan of govt upon the true principles of Liberty in which the Clergy should have no Authority. It is no Wonder then that we should be alarmd at the Designs of establishing such a power. It is a singular pleasure to us that the Colony of Virginia tho episcopalian should appear against it as you will see by the Vote of thanks of the House of Burgesses to the protesting Gentlemen; they declare their protest to be “a wise & well timed opposition.” I wish it could be publishd in London. I had the pleasure of knowing Mr Hewet who was in this Town about two years ago in Company with Mr Eyre of Northhampton County, in Virginia, who is a member of the House of Burgesses. I did not then know that Mr Hewet was a Clergyman.
I fear I have tired your patience & conclude by assuring you that I am in strict Truth
Sir Your friend & hume servt
P.S.-The Bearer hereof is William Story Esqr formerly of this Town, but now of Ipswich a Town about 30 Miles East. He was Deputy Register in the Court of Vice Admiraltry before & at the time of the Stamp Act & would then have given up the Place as he declared but his Friends advisd him against it – he sufferd the Resentment of the people on the 26 of August 1765, together with Lt Govr Hutchinson & others for which he was recompencd by the Genl Assembly, as he declares in part only. He tells me that his Design in going home is to settle an Affair of his own relating to the Admiraltry Court, in which the Commissioners of the Customs as he says declare it is out of their power to do him Justice. One would think it was never in their Power or Inclination to do any man Justice. Mr Story has always professd himself a Friend to Liberty for many years past. I tell him that I make no doubt but you will befriend him as far as shall be in your power in obtaining Justice, in which you will very much oblige,
ARTICLE SIGNED “CANDIDUS.”
[Boston Gazette, September 30, 1771.]
Messieurs EDES & GILL,
A General Assembly, when actuated with a becoming spirit of public liberty against the attacks of arbitrary and despotic ministers, appeared to be as disgustful to Gov. Bernard, as parliaments were to James the first; with whom it was even an aphorism that the lords and commons were two bad co-partners with a monarch: Having got rid of such a troublesome assembly at least for one year, he was more at leisure, in conjunction with the commissioners of the customs and his other confederates, to attend to the plan which their hearts had been long set upon, of introducing into the province a military power for their aid. -Accordingly every little occurrence, which a man of sense who had no political designs in view would not have thought worth his notice such as frequently happen in the most orderly cities, was gathered up with uncommon industry and made the subject of representation to the ministry – He even descended so low as to give lord Hillsborough a detail of the diversion of a few boys in the street with a drum, which at no time is unusual in populous places, and pictured it to his lordship, who, it seems gave it its full weight, as a prelude to a designed insurrection, in which “persons of all kinds, sexes and ages,” were to bear their part – The common amusements of children were construed rebellion, and his lordship had minute accounts of them sent to him by this busy journalist, as grounds upon which he might form measures of administration. But his letters, together with those of general Gage and commodore Hood, and the memorials, &c. of the commissioners of the customs, have already been sufficiently animadverted upon-” No one, says the town of Boston, in a pamphlet, entitled, An appeal to the World,2 can read them without being astonished at seeing a person in so important a department as governor Bernard sustained, descending in his letters to a minister of state to such trifling circumstances and such slanderous chit-chat: Boasting as he does in one of them of his over-reaching those with whom he was transacting publick business; and in order to prejudice the most respectable bodies, meanly filching from individuals belonging to those bodies, what had been drop’d in the course of business or debate: Journalizing every idle report bro’t to him, and in short acting the part of a pimp rather than a governor.” Sufficient however were they finally to prevail upon administration, which had before been full ready eno’ to employ the military force in England, to order four regiments and part of a fifth, for the preservation of the peace in the town of Boston. The only disorders in the town that could give any colouring to measures so severe, and not more severe than unjustifiable by the constitution, happened on the 18th of March and 10th of June, 1768 – The first was nothing more than the parading of the lower sort of people thro’ the streets at the close of an anniversary festivity; when no injury was offered to any person whatever, no harm was done, nor did even Governor Bernard himself pretend that any was intended. General Gage, in a letter to Lord Hillsborough, mentioned this disorder as “trifling.” The other was occasioned by the unprecedented and unlawful manner of seizing a vessel by the collector and comptroller – His Majesty’s Council after full enquiry into this disorder and the cause of it, declared, that it “was occasioned by the making a seizure (in a manner unprecedented) in the town of Boston on the 10th of June,1 a little before sun-set, when a vessel was seized by the officers of the customs; and immediately after, upon a signal given by one of said officers, in consequence of a preconcerted plan, several armed boats from the Romney man-of-war took possession of her.” – The officers who made the seizure were insulted, some of the windows of their dwelling houses were broke, and other disorders were committed – But the council further declared, that it was “highly probable that no such disorders would have been committed if the vessel had not been with an armed force and with many circumstances of insults & threats carried away from the wharf.” They also say, that the disorder “seemed to spring wholly from the persons who complained of it,” and that it “was probable that an uproar was hoped for, and intended to be occasioned by the manner of proceeding in making the seizure.” This representation of the matter was made by those very gentlemen, of whom governor Bernard not above 3 or 4 months before, had given this ample testimony to Lord Hillsborough; that “they had shown great attention to the support of government,” and “upon many occasions a resolution and steadiness in promoting his Majesty’s service, which would have done honor to his Majesty’s appointment, if they had held their places under it:” And to whom he about the same time very warmly returned his thanks, “for their steady, uniform and patriotic conduct, which had shown them impressed with a full sense of their duty both to their king & their country.” A representation of matters of fact, made by gentlemen whom governor Bernard had so highly applauded for their attention to the support of government, and resolution and steadiness in promoting his majesty’s service, must surely meet with full credit with the friends of government; and induce a conclusion, even in their minds, that if there was a necessity of troops in the town of Boston to keep the peace, it arose not from the “madness of the people,” (a decent expression of General Gage) but altogether from the extravagance of the servants of the crown; who after a preconcerted plan, according to the account given by the council, hoped for, and intended that an uproar should be occasion’d, by the manner of their proceeding with an armed force, and many circumstances of insult and threats in making a seizure. -This disturbance, after a few hours, wholly subsided, thro’ the interposition of the inhabitants of the town, & no great mischief was done; yet the most aggravated accounts were given of it by the Cabal, to answer their own purposes. The Romney ship of war, had before been ordered by commodore Hood to this place, in consequence of information sent to him of a factious and turbulent spirit among the people. The captain thought it his duty to acquaint the commodore of this fresh disturbance; and the Beaver sloop, being then in the harbour, and preparing for her station at Philadelphia, was remanded back to Halifax for that purpose, and with such speed as to be obliged to leave part of her provisions behind – Large packets were sent by this vessel to the commodore, and others for England, where it was proposed by the cabal she should be immediately dispatched from Halifax. The comptroller of the customs embark’d on board the same sloop very privately, by whom letters in abundance were sent to London. In these letters a number of gentlemen, who were called the leaders of the faction, were proscribed. Some of the cabal could not conceal their designs; for it was even then given out by them, that troops would probably soon arrive from Halifax, and that two regiments of Irish troops were to be sent to this town; all which accordingly took place in about four months afterwards, being the time in which they might have been expected by orders of the ministry in consequence of these letters. Indeed we have since been made certain by a publication of their own letters, that they had earnestly sollicited the sending of troops about this time. The commissioners of the customs in a letter to the lords of the treasury, acquainted that board “that there had been a long concerted and extensive plan of resistance to the authority of Great Britain, and that the seizure had hastened the people to the commission of actual violence sooner than was intended” and further, “that nothing but the exertion of military power would prevent an open revolt in this town, which would probably spread throughout the provinces.” The collector and comptroller in their letters upon this occasion to the commissioners, which was laid before administration tell their honors, “that it appeared evident to them that a plan of insurrection of a very dangerous and extensive nature had long been in agitation, & now brought nearly to a crisis.” But it is needless to repeat the many exaggerated accounts given by the governor and his confederates, of this occurrence, which on the part of the people was altogether unexpected; and as the Council observed, “seem’d to have sprang wholly from the persons who complained of it.” – To crown all, the Commissioners pretended that “they had reason to expect further violences,” and fled, Bernard says in a letter to lord Hillsborough, “were driven” to Castle William; where they represented to the lords of the treasury that the “protection afforded them by Commodore Hood, viz, the Romney and one or two sloops of war, was the most seasonable, as without it they should not have considered themselves (even there) in safety, nor his Majesty’s Castle secured from falling into the hands of the people,” and “that it was impossible for them to set foot in Boston, until there were two or three regiments in the town, to restore and support government.” – However true it may be, that the Commissioners had rendered themselves the objects of the publick resentment, which their letters and memorials have had no tendency to abate, they never had been, to use an expression of Gov. Bernard, the objects of popular fury; not the least injury had ever been offer’d to their persons or property. They had landed without opposition, and had lived in the town many months, if despis’d and hated, yet unmolested: For this we have the testimony of his Majesty’s Council; “They were not, say they, oblig’d to quit the town – it was a voluntary act of their own – there never had been any insult offer’d Them – and when they were at the Castle there was no occasion for men of war to protect them.” And even after their voluntary flight, they often made excursions upon the main, for the purpose of amusement and recreation, for which, having quitted the severe exercises of their employment in the town, they now had sufficient leisure: There, they might easily have been insulted if there had been any such disposition in the people. It has long been evident that all this pretended apprehension of danger, and their flight first to the Romney ship of war, and then to the castle for protection, was intended to cooperate with & confirm the letters and memorials sent home, and to facilitate the prosecution of their design. Such were the methods us’d by a restless set of men, to hold up this town and province, to the nation and to the world, in a false and odious light. It was therefore peculiarly incumbent upon all, and those persons especially, who were entrusted by the publick, to be vigilant for it, at a time when they who were seeking its ruin, were remarkably attentive to and active in prosecuting their plans. And can any one say there is reason to think that a minister of the temper of Lord H—h, perpetually acted upon by the implacable hatred of Bernard, has yet abandon’d, or is likely to abandon, his favorite system, while there is ONE left on this side the water who is ready to put it in execution? – No – The disputes with the court of Spain and the city of London during the late session of parliament, may have prov’d so embarrassing to A—n as to have caus’d a suspension of the execution of it for a while; but to trust that it is therefore wholly laid aside, is a degree of credulity and infatuation, which I hope will never be impos’d by any man on this country. Great pains we know are taken to perswade and assure us, that as long as we continue quiet, nothing will be done to our prejudice: But let us beware of these soothing arts. – Has anything been done for our relief? – Has any one grievance which we have complained of been redressed? On the contrary, are not our just causes of complaint and remonstrance daily increasing, at a time when we were flattered that a change of men would produce a change of measures? Have our petitions for the redress of grievances ever been answered or even listened to? If not, what can be intended by all the fair promises made to us by tools and sycophants, but to lull us into that quietude and sleep by which slavery is always preceeded. – While treachery and imposition is the fort of any man, let us remember, there is always most danger when his professions are warmest.
CANDIDUS.
1See Vol. I., page 396.
2 See Vol. I., page 245.
TO ARTHUR LEE.
[R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, vol. ii., p. 183.]
BOSTON, Oct. 2d, 1771.
SIR,
I have already written to you by this conveyance, and there mentioned to you Mr. Story, a gentleman to whose care I committed that letter. I have since heard that he has a letter to Lord Hillsborough from Gov. Hutchinson, which may possibly recommend him for some place by way of compensation for his joint sufferings with the governor. I do not think it possible for any man to receive his lordship’s favour, without purchasing it by having done or promising to do some kind of jobs. If Mr. Story should form connexions with administration upon any principles inconsistent with those of a friend to liberty, he will then appear to be a different character from that which I recommended to your friendship. I mention this for your caution, and in confidence; and am with great regard sir, your humble servant,
ARTICLE SIGNED “CANDIDUS.”
[Boston Gazette, October 7, 1771.]
Messieurs EDES & GILL,
Instead of voted Aid,
“Th’ illegal imposition followed harsh With Execration given, or ruthless squeez’d From an insulted People.”
THOMPSON.
I Think it necessary the publick should be inform’d, that his Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, Esq; Governor of this Province, has lately receiv’d, a warrant from the Lords of the Treasury in England, for the Sum of Twenty-two Hundred and fifty Pounds Sterling for his Services for one year and a half, being at the rate of Fifteen Hundred Sterling or Two Thousand L. M. per Ann. – The payment is to be made out of the Commissioners Chest; wherein are reposited the Treasures that are daily collected, tho’ perhaps insensibly, from the Earnings and Industry of the honest Yeomen, Merchants and Tradesmen, of this continent, against their Consent; and if his friends speak the truth, against his own private judgment. – This treasure is to be appropriated according to the act of parliament so justly and loudly complain’d of by Americans, for the support of civil government, the payment of the charges of the administration of justice, and the defence of the colonies: And it may hereafter be made use of, for the support of standing armies and ships of war; episcopates & their numerous ecclesiastical retinue; pensioners, placemen and other jobbers, for an abandon’d and shameless ministry; hirelings, pimps, parasites, panders, prostitutes and whores – His Excellency had repeatedly refused to accept the usual Salary out of the treasury of this province; which leads us to think that his eminent patron the Earl of Hillsborough, or his most respected friend Sir Francis Bernard, who is ever at his Lordship’s elbow, had given him certain information that this honorable stipend would be allow’d to him – Whether he tho’t the generous grant of a thousand sterling, annually made to his predecessors, and offer’d to him, by the assembly, not adequate to his important services to the province in supporting and vindicating its charter and constitutional rights and liberties; or whether he was forbid by instruction from his Lordship to receive it, which is probable from his own words, “I could not consistent with my duty to the King”; or lastly, and which is still more probable, Whether he was ambitious of being, beyond any of his predecessors, a Governor independent of the free grants of the assembly, which is no doubt reconcileable with his Excellency’s idea of a constitutional governor of a free people, are matters problematical. – Adulating Priestlings and others, who have sounded his high praises in the news-papers, and in the church of God, as well as in other solemn assemblies, may perhaps echo the fallacious reasoning from one of his publick speeches, “The people will not blame (him) for being willing to avoid burdening them with his support, by the increase of the tax upon their polls and estates,” since it is now “provided for another way.” In all ages the supercilious part of the clergy have adored the Great Man, and shown a thorough contempt of the understanding of the people. But the people, and a great part, I hope, of the clergy of this enlightened country, have understanding enough to know, that a Governor independent of the people for his support, as well as his political Being, is in fact, a MASTER; and may be, and probably, such is the nature of uncontroulable power, soon will be a TYRANT. It will be recorded by the faithful historian, for the information of posterity, that the first American Pensioner – the first independent Governor of this province, was, not a stranger, but one “born and educated” in it – Not an ANDROSS or a RANDOLPH; but that cordial friend to our civil constitution -that main Pillar of the Religion and the Learning of this country; the Man, upon whom she has, (I will not say wantonly) heaped all the Honors she had to bestow – HUTCHINSON!! – We are told that the Justices of the Superior Court are also to receive fixed salaries out of this American revenue! – “Is it possible to form an idea of slavery, more compleat, more miserable, more disgraceful, than that of a people, where justice is administer’d, government exercis’d, and a standing army maintain’d, at the expence of the people, and yet without the least dependence upon them? If we can find no relief from this infamous situation” – I repeat it, “If we can find no relief from this infamous situation “, let the ministry who have stripped us of our property and liberty, deprive us of our understanding too; that unconscious of what we have been or are, and ungoaded by tormenting reflections, we may tamely bow down our necks, with all the stupid serenity of servitude, to any drudgery which our lords & masters may please to command” – I appeal to the common sense of mankind. To what a state of misery and infamy must a people be reduced! To have a governor by the sole appointment of the crown, under the absolute controul of a weak and arbitrary minister, to whose dictates he is to yield an unlimited obedience, or forfeit his political existence while he is to be supported at the expence of the people, by virtue of an authority claimed by strangers, to oblige them to contribute for him such an annual stipend, however unbounded, as the crown shall be advised to order! If this be not a state of despotism, what is? Could such a governor, by all the arts of persuasion, prevail upon a people to be quiet and contented under such a mode of government, his noble patron might spare himself the trouble of getting their Charter vacated by a formal decision of parliament, or in the tedious process of law – Whenever the relentless enemies of America shall have compleated their system, which they are still, though more silently pursuing, by subtle arts, deep dissimulation, and manners calculated to deceive, our condition will then be more humiliating and miserable, and perhaps more inextricable too, than that of the people of England in the infamous reigns of the Stuarts, which blacken the pages of history; when,
“Oppression stalk’d at large and pour’d abroad Her unrelenting Train; Informers – Spies – Hateful Projectors of aggrieving Schemes To sell the starving many to the few,
And drain a thousand Ways th’ exhausted Land… And on the venal Bench
Instead of Justice, Party held the Scale, And Violence the Sword.”
Your’s,
CANDIDUS.
ARTICLE SIGNED “CANDIDUS.”
[Boston Gazette, October 14, 1771.]
Messieurs EDES & GILL,
“Ambition saw that stooping Rome could bear A MASTER, nor had Virtue to be free.”
I Believe that no people ever yet groaned under the heavy yoke of slavery, but when they deserv’d it. This may be called a severe censure upon by far the greatest part of the nations in the world who are involv’d in the misery of servitude: But however they may be thought by some to deserve commiseration, the censure is just. Zuinglius, one of the first reformers, in his friendly admonition to the republic of the Switzers, discourses much of his countrymens throwing off the yoke: He says, that they who lie under oppression deserve what they suffer, and a great more; and he bids them perish with their oppressors. The truth is, All might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they ought. Is it possible that millions could be enslaved by a few, which is a notorious fact, if all possessed the independent spirit of Brutus, who to his immortal honor, expelled the proud Tyrant of Rome, and his “royal and rebellious race?” If therefore a people will not be free; if they have not virtue enough to maintain their liberty against a presumptuous invader, they deserve no pity, and are to be treated with contempt and ignominy. Had not Caesar seen that Rome was ready to stoop, he would not have dared to make himself the master of that once brave people. He was indeed, as a great writer observes, a smooth and subtle tyrant, who led them gently into slavery; “and on his brow, ‘ore daring vice deluding virtue smil’d”. By pretending to be the peoples greatest friend, he gain’d the ascendency over them: By beguiling arts, hypocrisy and flattery, which are even more fatal than the sword, he obtain’d that supreme power which his ambitious soul had long thirsted for: The people were finally prevail’d upon to consent to their own ruin: By the force of perswasion, or rather by cajoling arts and tricks always made use of by men who have ambitious views, they enacted their Lex Regia: whereby Quod placuit principi legis habuit vigorem; that is, the Will and pleasure of the Prince had the force of law. His minions had taken infinite pains to paint to their imaginations the god-like virtues of Caesar: They first persuaded them to believe that he was a deity, and then to sacrifice to him those Rights and Liberties which their ancestors had so long maintained, with unexampled bravery, and with blood & treasure. By this act they fixed a precedent fatal to all posterity: The Roman people afterwards, influenced no doubt by this pernicious example, renew’d it to his successors, not at the end of every ten years, but for life. They transfer’d all their right and power to Charles the Great: In eum transtulit omne suum jus et poteslatem. Thus, they voluntarily and ignominiously surrendered their own liberty, and exchanged a free constitution for a TYRANNY!
It is not my design at present to form the comparison between the state of this country now, and that of the Roman Empire in those dregs of time; or between the disposition of Caesar, and that of —; The comparison, I confess, would not in all parts hold good: The Tyrant of Rome, to do him justice, had learning, courage, and great abilities. It behoves us however to awake and advert to the danger we are in. The Tragedy of American Freedom, it is to be feared is nearly compleated: A Tyranny seems to be at the very door. It is to little purpose then to go about cooly to rehearse the gradual steps that have been taken, the means that have been used, and the instruments employed, to encompass the ruin of the public liberty: We know them and we detest them. But what will this avail, if we have not courage and resolution to prevent the completion of their system?
Our enemies would fain have us lie down on the bed of sloth and security, and persuade ourselves that there is no danger They are daily administering the opiate with multiplied arts and delusions, and I am sorry to observe, that the gilded pill is so alluring to some who call themselves the friends of Liberty. But is there no danger when the very foundations of our civil constitution tremble? – When an attempt was first made to disturb the corner-stone of the fabrick, we were universally and justly alarmed: And can we be cool spectators, when we see it already removed from its place? With what resentment and indignation did we first receive the intelligence of a design to make us tributary, not to natural enemies, but infinitely more humiliating, to fellow subjects? And yet with unparallelled insolence we are told to be quiet, when we see that very money which is torn from us by lawless force, made use of still further to oppress us – to feed and pamper a set of infamous wretches, who swarm like the locusts of Egypt; and some of them expect to revel in wealth and riot on the spoils of our country. – Is it a time for us to sleep when our free government is essentially changed, and a new one is forming upon a quite different system? A government without the least dependance upon the people: A government under the absolute controul of a minister of state; upon whose sovereign dictates is to depend not only the time when, and the place where, the legislative assembly shall sit, but whether it shall sit at all: And if it is allowed to meet, it shall be liable immediately to be thrown out of existence, if in any one point it fails in obedience to his arbitrary mandates. Have we not already seen specimens of what we are to expect under such a government, in the instructions which Mr. HUTCHINSON has received, and which he has publickly avow’d, and declared he is bound to obey? – By one, he is to refuse his assent to a tax-bill, unless the Commissioners of the Customs and other favorites are exempted: And if these may be freed from taxes by the order of a minister, may not all his tools and drudges, or any others who are subservient to his designs, expect the same indulgence? By another he is to forbid to pass a grant of the assembly to any agent, but one to whose election he has given his consent; which is in effect to put it out of our power to take the necessary and legal steps for the redress of those grievances which we suffer by the arts and machinations of ministers, and their minions here. What difference is there between the present state of this province, which in course will be the deplorable state of all America, and that of Rome, under the law before mention’d? The difference is only this, that they gave their formal consent to the change, which we have not yet done. But let us be upon our guard against even a negative submission; for agreeable to the sentiments of a celebrated writer, who thoroughly understood his subject, if we are voluntarily silent, as the conspirators would have us to be, it will be consider’d as an approbation of the change. “By the fundamental laws of England, the two houses of parliament in concert with the King, exercise the legislative power: But if the two houses should be so infatuated, as to resolve to suppress their powers, and invest the King with the full and absolute government, certainly the nation would not suffer it.” And if a minister shall usurp the supreme and absolute government of America, and set up his instructions as laws in the colonies, and their Governors shall be so weak or so wicked, as for the sake of keeping their places, to be made the instruments in putting them in execution, who will presume to say that the people have not a right, or that it is not their indispensible duty to God and their Country, by all rational means in their power to RESIST THEM.
“Be firm, my friends, nor let UNMANLY SLOTH Twine round your hearts indissoluble chains. Ne’er yet by force was freedom overcome. Unless CORRUPTION first dejects the pride, And guardian vigour of the free-born soul, All crude attempts of violence are vain. Determined, hold
Your INDEPENDENCE; for, that once destroy’d, Unfounded Freedom is a morning dream.”
The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have receiv’d them as a fair Inheritance from our worthy Ancestors: They purchas’d them for us with toil and danger and expence of treasure and blood; and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightned as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle; or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. Of the latter we are in most danger at present: Let us therefore be aware of it. Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity; and resolve to maintain the rights bequeath’d to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. – Instead of sitting down satisfied with the efforts we have already made, which is the wish of our enemies, the necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude and perseverance. Let us remember, that “if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.” It is a very serious consideration, which should deeply impress our minds, that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers in the event.
CANDIDUS.
ARTICLE SIGNED VALERIUS POPLICOLA.”1
[Boston Gazette, October 28, 1771; the text is also in W. V. Wells, Life of Samuel Adams, vol. 1., pp. 427-432.]
Messieurs EDES & GILL,
THE writer of the history of Massachusetts Bay tells us, that “our ancestors apprehended the acts of trade to be an invasion of the rights, liberties and properties of the subjects of his Majesty in the colony, they not being represented in parliament; and according to the usual sayings of the learned in the law, the laws of England were bounded within the four seas, and did not reach America. However, they made provision by an act of the colony, that they, i.e. the acts of trade should be strictly attended from time to time” –
The passing of this law of the colony, and thus making it an act of their own legislature, he says, “plainly shows the wrong sense they had of the relation they stood in to England ” – And he further adds, that “tho’ their posterity have as high notions of English Liberties as they had, yet they are sensible that they are Colonists, and therefore subject to the controul of the parent state.” As I am not disposed to yield an implicit assent to any authority whatever, I should have been glad if this historian, since he thought proper to pronounce upon so important a matter, had shown us what was the political relation our ancestors stood in to England, and how far, if at all, their posterity are subject to the controul of the parent state. – If he had vouchsafed to have done this, when he published his history, he would have rendered the greatest service both to Great-Britain and America, and eased the minds of multitudes who have been unsatisfied in points of such interesting importance.
Mr. Locke, in his treatise on government discovers the weakness of this position, That every man is born a subject to his Prince, and therefore is under the perpetual tie of subjection and allegiance; and he shows that express consent alone, makes any one a member of any commonwealth. He holds that submission to the laws of any country, & living quietly & enjoying privileges & protection under them, does not make a man a member of that society, or a perpetual subject of that commonwealth, any more than it would make a man subject to another, in whose family he found it convenient to abide for some time, tho’ while he continued under it, he were obliged to comply with the laws, and submit to the government he found there. Every man was born naturally free; nothing can make a man a subject of any commonwealth, but his actually entering into it by positive engagement, and express promise & compact.
If the sentiments of this great man are well grounded, our historian before he asserted so peremptorily that the ancestors of this country as colonists were subject to the controul of the parent state, should have first made it appear that by positive engagement, or express promise or contract, they had thus bound themselves.
Every man being born free, says another distinguished writer, the son of a citizen, arrived at the years of discretion, may examine whether it be convenient for him to join in the society for which he was destined by birth. If he finds that it will be no advantage for him to remain in it, he is at liberty to leave it, preserving as much as his new engagements will allow him, the love and gratitude he owes it.2 He further says, “There are cases in which a citizen has an absolute right to renounce his country, and abandon it for ever”; which is widely different from the sentiment of the historian, that “allegiance is not local, but perpetual and unalienable”: And among other cases in which a citizen has this absolute right, he mentions that, when the sovereign, or the greater part of the nation will permit the exercise of only one religion in the state; which was the case when our ancestors forsook their native country.
They were denied the rights of conscience. They left, it however with the consent of the nation: It is allowed by this historian that they departed the kingdom with the leave of their prince. They removed at their own expence and not the nation’s, into a country claimed and possessed by independent princes, whose right to the lordship and dominion thereof has been acknowledged by English kings; and they fairly purchased the lands of the rightful owners, and settled them at their own and not the nation’s expence. It is incumbent then upon this historian to show, by what rule of equity or right, unless they expressly consented to it, they became subject to the controul of the parent state. – The obligation they had been under to submit to the government of the nation, by virtue of their enjoyment of lands which were under its jurisdiction, according to Mr. Locke, began and ended with the enjoyment. That was but a tacit consent to the government; and when by donation, sale or otherwise, they quitted the possession of those lands, they were at liberty, unless it can be made to appear they were otherwise bound by positive engagement or express contract, to incorporate into any other commonwealth, or begin a new one in vacuis locis, in any part of the world they could find free and unpossessed. – They entered into a compact, it is true, with the king of England, and upon certain conditions become his voluntary subjects, not his slaves. But did they enter into an express promise to be subject to the controul of the parent state? What is there to show that they were any way bound to obey the acts of the British parliament, but those very acts themselves? Is there any thing but the mere ipse dixit of an historian, who for ought any one can tell, design’d to make a sacrifice to the ruling powers of Great-Britain, to show that the parent state might exercise the least controul over them as Colonists, any more than the English parliament could exercise controul over the dominions which the Kings formerly held in France, or than it can now over the inhabitants of the moon, if there be any?
By the charter of this province, the legislative power is in the Governor, who is appointed by the King, the Council and House of Representatives. The legislative of any commonwealth must be the supreme power. But if any edict or instruction of any body else, in what form soever conceiv’d, or by what power soever backed, can have the force and obligation of a law in the province which has not its sanction from that legislative, it cannot be the supreme power. Its laws however salutary, are liable at any time to be abrogated at the pleasure of a superior power. No body can have a power to make laws over a free people, but by their own consent, and by authority receiv’d from them: It follows then, either that the people of this province have consented & given authority to the parent state to make laws over them, or that she has no such authority. No one I believe will pretend that the parent state receives any authority from the people of this province to make laws for them, or that they have ever consented she should. If the people of this province are a part of the body politick of Great Britain, they have as such a right to be consulted in the making of all acts of the British parliament of what nature soever. If they are a separate body politick, and are free, they have a right equal to that of the people of Great Britain to make laws for themselves, and are no more than they, subject to the controul of any legislature but their own. “The lawful power of making laws to command whole politick societies of men, belongs so properly unto the same intire societies, that for any prince or potentate of what kind soever upon earth to exercise the same of himself, and not by express commission immediately and personally receiv’d from God, or else from authority deriv’d at the first from their consent, upon whose persons they impose laws, is no better than mere tyranny. Laws therefore they are not which publick approbation hath not made so.3 This was the reason given by our ancestors why they should not be bound by the acts of parliament, because not being represented in parliament, the publick approbation of the province had not made them laws. And this is the reason why their posterity do not hold themselves rightly oblig’d to submit to the revenue acts now in being, because they never consented to them. The former, under their circumstances, thought it prudent to adopt the acts of trade, by passing a law of their own, and thus formally consenting that they should be observ’d. But the latter I presume will never think it expedient to copy after their example.
The historian tells his readers that “They (the people of this province) humbly hope for all that tenderness and indulgence from a British parliament, which the Roman senate, while Rome remain’d free, shewed to Roman colonies” – Why the conduct of Rome towards her colonies should be recommended as an example to our parent state, rather than that of Greece, is difficult to conjecture, unless it was because as has been observed, the latter was more generous and a better mother to her colonies than the former. Be that as it may, the colonists have a right to expect from the parent state all possible tenderness; not only as they sprang from her, and are subjects of the same King, but as they have greatly contributed to her wealth & grandeur: And we are willing to render to her respect and certain expressions of honor and reverence as the Grecian colonies did to the city from whence they deriv’d their origin, as Grotius says, so long as the colonies were well treated. By our compact with our King, wherein is contain’d the rule of his government and the measure of our submission, we have all the liberties and immunities of Englishmen, to all intents, purposes and constructions whatever; and no King of Great-Britain, were he inclin’d, could have a right either with or without his parliament, to deprive us of those liberties – They are originally from God and nature, recognized in the Charter, and entail’d to us and our posterity: It is our duty therefore to contend for them whenever attempts are made to violate them.
He also says that “the people of Ireland were under the same mistake” with our ancestors; that is, in thinking themselves exempt from the controul of English acts of parliament. But nothing drops from his pen to shew that this was a mistake, excepting that “particular persons in Ireland did pennance for advancing and adhering to those principles.” The same mighty force of reasoning is used to prove that this colony was mistaken, viz. “They suffer’d the loss of the charter.” Such arguments may serve to evince the power of the parent state, but neither its wisdom nor justice appears from them. The sense of the nation however was very different after the revolution. The House of Commons voted the judgment against the Charter a Grievance; and a bill was brought in and passed that house for restoring the Charters, among which that of this province was expresly mentioned; notwithstanding the mistake abovemention’d was one great article of charge against it. But the parliament was proroug’d sooner than was expected, by reason of the King’s going to Ireland.
Our historian tells his readers by way of consolation, that “it may serve as some excuse for our ancestors, but they were not alone in their mistaken apprehensions of the nature of their subjection”; and he appears to be mighty glad that “so sensible a gentleman as Mr. Molineux, the friend of Mr. Locke, engag’d in the cause”. But we want no excuse for any supposed mistakes of our ancestors. Let us first see it prov’d that they were mistakes. ‘Till then we must hold ourselves obliged to them for sentiments transmitted to us so worthy of their character, and so important to our security: And we shall esteem the arguments of so sensible, and it might justly be added, so learned a gentleman as Mr. Molineux, especially as they had the approbation of his friend Mr. Locke to be valid, while we see nothing to oppose them, but the unsupported opinion of Mr. Hutchinson.
VALERIUS POPLICOLA.
1 Attributed to Adams by Wells and by Bancroft, and also by the annotations of the Dorr file of the Gazette. 2 Mr. Vattel, law of nature and nations. 3 Hooker’s Eccl. Poi.
TO ARTHUR LEE.
[Ms., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library a text with variations is in R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, vol. ii., pp. 184-187.] BOSTON Octob 31 1771.
Sir
I Inclose a printed Copy of a Resolve of the Council of this province, whereby Junius Americanus is censurd for asserting that the late Secretary Oliver stood recorded in the Councils Books as a perjurd traitor. You may easily suppose that the Friends of America for whom that Writer has been & is a firm & able Advocate, resent this Conduct of the Council whose Ingratitude to say nothing of the Injustice of this proceeding is the more extraordinary as Junius Americanus has taken so much pains to vindicate that very Body against the malignant Aspersions of Bernard & others. There was however only Eight of twenty six Councellors present when they were prevaild upon by an artful man to pass this Resolve. You will see by the inclosd some remarks upon the former proceedings of the Council, or rather a recital of parts of them, by which I think it appears that the Assertion could not be groundless nor malicious; nor can it be false if their own publication is true. I can conceive that the Design of the first mover of this Resolve was to injure the Credit of all the Writings of Junius Americanus, which I believe he very sensibly feels, & also to make it appear to the World that the Council, as they had before said of the House, had departed from & disavowd the Sentiments of former Assemblys; and that this Change has been effected by the Influence of Mr. Hutchinson. With Regard to the Council, it is hardly possible for any one at a distance to ascertain their political Sentiments from what they see of their determinations publishd here in general, for it has been the practice of the Governor to summon a general Council at the Time when the Assembly is sitting & of Course the whole Number of Councillors is present – but in their Capacity of Advisers to the Governor they are adjournd from week to week during the Session of the Assembly & till it is over when the Country Gentlemen Members of Council return home. Thus the general Council being kept alive by Adjournments, the principal & most important part of the Business of their executive department is done by seven or eight who live in & about the Town, & if the Governor can manage a Majority of so small a Number, Matters will be conducted according to his mind. I believe I may safely affirm that by far the greater Number of civil officers have been appointed at these adjournments; so that it is much the same as if they were appointed solely by our ostensible Governor or rather by his Master, the Minister for the time being. You will not then be surprisd if I tell you that among the five Judges of our Superior Court of Justice, there are the following near Connections with the first & second in Station in the province. Mr Lynde is Chiefe Justice; his Daughter is married to the Son of Mr Oliver, the Lt Govr; Mr Oliver another of the Judges is his Brother; his Son married Gov Hutchinsons Daughter; & Judge Hutchinson lately appointed, who is also Judge of the probate of Wills for the first County, an important department, is the Govrs brother. Besides which the young Mr Oliver is a Justice of the Common pleas for the County of Essex. Mr Cotton a Brother in Law of the Govr is deputy Secretary of the province & Register in the probate office under Mr Hutchinson; a cousin german of the Govr was sent for out of another province to fill up the place of Clerk to the Common pleas in this County; & the eldest Son of the Govr will probably soon be appointed a Justice of the same Court in the room of his Uncle advancd to the superior bench. I should have first mentiond that the Gov & the Lt Gov’ are Brothers by Marriage.
The House of Representatives, notwithstanding the Advantages which a new Governor always has in his hands I have reason to think will be so firm as at least not to give up any Right. The Body of the people are uneasy at the large Strides that are made & making towards an absolute Tyranny – many are alarmd but are of different Sentiments with regard to the next step to be taken – some indeed think that every Step has been taken but one & the ultima Ratio would require prudence unanimity and fortitude. The Conspirators against our Liberties are employing all their Influence to divide the people, partly by intimidating them for which purpose a fleet of Ships lies within gun Shot of the Town & the Capital Fort within three miles of it is garrisond by the Kings Troops, and partly by Arts & Intrigue; by flattering those who are pleasd with Flattery; forming Connections with them, introducing Levity Luxury & Indolence & assuring them that if they are quiet the Ministry will alter their Measures. I fear some of the Southern Colonies are taken with this Bait, for we see hardly anything in their publick papers but Advertisements of the Baubles of Britain for sale. This is the general Appearance of things here while the people are anxiously waiting for some happy Event from your side the Water – for my own part I confess I have no great Expectations from thence, & have long been of Opinion that America herself under God must finally work out her own Salvation.
I have been told by a friend that a Manuscript has been sent from hence upon the Subject of the Tryals of Preston & the Soldiers, for your perusal entitled a Hue & Cry &c. Had I seen & thought it answerable to what I have heard of it, I should have endeavord to have had it publishd here. I wish it had been or still might be publishd in London if you have seen it & think it worth while, subject entirely to your Correction and Amendment. But after all what will the best & most animating publications signify, if the many are willing to submit & be enslavd by the few.
I wrote you about a fortnight past by Capt. Hood1 & can add nothing more at present but that I am sincerely
your friend & hbl servt
1 See above, page 230.
TO JOSEPH ALLEN.
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library; a text is in W. V. Wells, Life of Samuel Adams, vol. i., pp. 342, 343.]
Nov 7 1771
DEAR KINSMAN
As you are just now setting out on the Journey of Life, give me leave to express to you my ardent Wish that you may meet with all that prosperity which shall be consistent with your real happiness. I cannot but think you have a good prospect; yet your path will in all probability be uneven: Sometimes you must expect like all other Travellers, to meet with Difficulties on the Road; let me therefore recommend to you the Advice of one of the Ancients, a Man of sterling Sense, tho a Heathen. “OEquam memento Rebus in arduis, servare mentem.” In the busy Scenes of Life, you may now and then be disposd to drive on hard, & make rather too much haste to be rich; you will then be upon your Guard against Temptations which if yielded to, will poison the Streams of all future Comfort: You will then in a more particular manner, impress upon your mind the advice of an inspired writer, to “maintain a Conscience void of offence.” I do not flatter you when I say, you have hitherto supported a good reputation: You will still preserve it unsullied; remembering that a good name is your Life.
ARTICLE SIGNED “CANDIDUS.”
[Boston Gazette, November 11, 1771.]
Messieurs EDES & GILL,
WE read that “Jeroboam the Son of Nebat made Israel to sin”: For this he “stands recorded” and repeatedly stigmatiz’d, in the sacred volumn, as a “perjur’d Traitor,” and a Rebel against GOD and his Country. However mysterious fawning priests and flatterers may affect to think it, Kings and Governors may be guilty of treason and rebellion: And they have in general in all ages and countries been more frequently guilty of it, than their subjects. Nay, what has been commonly called rebellion in the people, has often been nothing else but a manly & glorious struggle in opposition to the lawless power of rebellious Kings and Princes; who being elevated above the rest of mankind, and paid by them only to be their protectors, have been taught by enthusiasts to believe they were authoriz’d by GOD to enslave and butcher them! It is not uncommon for men, by their own inattention and folly, to suffer those things which an all-gracious providence design’d for their good, to become the greatest evils. If we look into the present state of the world, I believe this will hold good with regard to civil government in general: And the history of past ages will inform us, that even those civil institutions which have been best calculated for the safety and happiness of the people, have sooner or later degenerated into settled tyranny; which can no more be called civil government, and is in fact upon some accounts a state much more to be deprecated than anarchy itself. It may be said of each, that it is a state of war: And it is beyond measure astonishing that free people can see the miseries of such a state approaching to them with large and hasty strides, and suffer themselves to be deluded by the artful insinuations of a man in tower, and his indefatigable sychophants, into a full perswasion that their liberties are in no danger. May we not be allow’d to adopt the language of scripture, and apply it upon so important a consideration; that seeing, men will see and not perceive, and hearing, they will hear and not understand?
Jeroboam must needs have been a very wicked Governor: And he discover’d so much of the malignancy of treason against his people, in making them to sin against the supreme Being upon whose power and protection the welfare of nations as well as individuals so manifestly depends, and by whose goodness that people in particular were so greatly oblig’d, that one would have thought, they would upon a retrospect of their folly, in being thus seduc’d, have testified to future generations their just resentment and indignation, by at least dethroning so impious a traitor. Perhaps they relented when they consider’d that their Governor was “born and educated among them”: But this heightened his wickedness; as it might have convinc’d them, that he was as destitute of the common feelings of love for one’s native country, as he was of religion and piety. This, and many other instances of later date may serve to show, that the people have no solid reason to depend upon every man that he will be a good Governor, merely because of his having had his birth and education among them; as well as the folly and wickedness of priests and minions, who would from such a circumstance endeavor to dupe the people into a perswasion of their security under any man’s administration. – The sin which the people of Israel were prevail’d upon by Jeroboam the son of Nebat to commit, respected their religious worship on a Thanksgiving day: He had ordained a solemn festival to be kept at Bethel; in which, it seems, he had a particular view to serve a political purpose: And the people knew it, although he had artfully endeavored to colour it with a plausible appearance. At this festival, through his influence, they sacrificed unto Calves! This was the dire effect of their foolish adulation of their Governor, while they professed to observe a day set apart in honor to the King of kings. – Their thanksgiving began with prophaness & ended in idolatry; or rather it began & ended with both. There is no question but the priests were the vicegerents of the Governor, or his heralds to publish his impious proclamations to the people. But is it not strange that the people were so king-ridden and priest-ridden, especially in matters which concern’d their Religion, as to look upon the joint authority of their Governor and Clergy, sufficient to justify them in sinning against the authority of God himself: and in acting in open violation of his law, revealed to them from Heaven with signs and miracles at Mount Sinai, and register’d in their book of the law, as well as engrav’d on the tables of their hearts! – It is no unusual thing for people to complement their Governors with the sacrifice of their consciences, after they have surrender’d to them their civil liberty, which had been the folly of that people long before; for they grew weary of their liberty in the days of Samuel the prophet, and exchanged that civil government which the wisdom of heaven had prescribed to them, for an absolute despotic monarchy; that they might in that regard be like the nations round about them. – Even in these enlightened times, the people in some parts of the world are so bewitched by the enchantments of priest-craft and king- craft, as to believe that tho’ they sin against their own consciences, in compliance with the instruction of the one, or in obedience to the command of the other, they shall never suffer, but shall be rewarded in the world to come, for being so implicitly subject to the higher powers: And the experience of the world tells us that there are, and always have been various ways of rewarding them for it in this world. On the contrary, if they hesitate to declare a blind belief in the most palpable absurdities in government and religion, they are sure to fall into the immediate hands of spiritual inquisitors, to be whipped and tortured into an acknowledgment of the error, or threatened with the further pains of eternal damnation if they persist in their contumacy. Thanks be to GOD, there is not yet so formidable a junction of the secular and ecclesiastical powers in this country; and there is reason to hope there are but few of the clergy who would desire it. Yet such is the deplorable condition we are in, and so notorious is it to all, that should any man, be he who he may, tell me that our civil liberties were continued, or that our religious privileges were not in danger, I should detest him, if in his senses, as a perfidious man. And if any clergyman should in compliance with the humours or designs of a man in power, echo such a false declaration in the church of GOD, he would in my opinion do well seriously to consider, whether an excessive complaisance may not have betrayed him into the sin of Ananias and Saphira, in lying against the Holy Ghost! This is a most weighty consideration: But the times require plain dealing. We hope and believe, nay we know that there are more than seven thousand who will never bow the knee to Baal, or servilely submit to Tyranny, temporal or spiritual: But are we not fallen into an age when some even of the Clergy think it no shame to flatter the Idol; and thereby to lay the people, as in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, under a temptation to commit great wickedness, and sin against God? Let us beware of the poison of flattery – If the people are tainted with this folly, they will never have VIRTUE enough to demand a restoration of their liberties in the very face of a TYRANT, if the necessity of the times should call for so noble an exertion. And how soon there may be such NECESSITY, GOD only knows. May HE grant them FORTITUDE as well as SOUND PRUDENCE in the day of TRIAL! He who can flatter a despot, or be flattered by him, without feeling the remonstrances of his own mind against it, may be remarkable for the guise and appearance of sanctity, but he has very little if any true religion – If he habitually allows himself in it, without any remorse, he is a hardened impenitent sinner against GOD and his COUNTRY. Whatever his profession may be, he is not fit to be trusted; and when once discover’d, he will never be trusted by any but fools and children. To complement a great man to the injury of truth and liberty, may be in the opinion of a very degenerate age, the part of a polite and well-bred gentleman – Wise men however will denominate him a Traitor or a Fool. But how much more aggravated must be the folly and madness of those, who instead of worshipping GOD in the solemn assembly, “in spirit and in truth,” can utter a lie TO HIM!! -in order to render themselves acceptable to a man who is a worm or to the son of a man who is a worm.
CANDIDUS.
TO ARTHUR LEE.
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library; a text with variations is in R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, vol. ii., pp. 187-189.]
BOSTON Novr 13 1771.
MY DEAR SIR, – Several Vessells have lately arrivd from London, but I have not had the pleasure of a Line from you by either of them. Since the Resolve of Council, by which Junius Americanus was so severely censurd, there has been a proclamation issued by the Governor with their Advice, for a general Thanksgiving which has been the practice of the Country at this time of the year from its first Settlement. The pious proclamation has given the greatest offence to the people in general, as it appears evidently to be calculated to serve the purpose of the British Administration, rather than that of Religion. We were the last year called upon to thank the Almighty for the Blessings of the Administration of Government, in this Province, which many lookd upon as an impious Farce. Now we are demurely exhorted to render our hearty & humble Thanks to the same omniscient Being for the Continuance of our civil & religious Privileges & the Enlargement of our Trade. This I imagine was contrivd to try the feelings of the people; and if the Governor could dupe the Clergy as he had the Council, & they the people, so that the proclamation should be read as usual in our Churches, he would have nothing to do but acquaint Lord Hillsborough that most certainly the people in General acquiescd in the measures of Government, since they had appealed even to God himself that notwithstanding the faction & turbulence of a party, their Liberties were continued & their Trade enlargd. I am at a loss to say whether this measure was more insolent to the people or affrontive to the Majesty of Heaven, neither of whom however a modern Politician regards, if at all, so much as the Smiles of his noble Patron. But the people saw thro it in general, & openly declared that they would not hear the proclamation read. The Consequence was, that it was read in but two of all our Churches in this Town consisting of twelve besides three Episcopalian Churches; there indeed it has not been customary ever to read them. Of those two Clergymen who read it, one of them being a Stranger in the province, & having been settled but about Six Weeks, performd the servile task a week before the usual Time when the people were not aware of it, they were however much disgusted at it. The Minister of the other is a known Flatterer of the Governor & is the very person who formd the fulsome Address of which I wrote you some time ago – he was deserted by a great number of his Auditory in the midst of his reading. Thus every Art is practisd & every Tool employd to make it appear as if this people were easy in their Chains, & that this great revolution is brought about by the inimitable Address of Mr Hutchinson. There is one part of the proclamation which I think deserves Notice on your side the Water, & that relates to the Accommodation with the Spaniards in the Affair of Faulkland Island. This must have been referrd to under the Terms of the preservation of the peace of Europe. From what I wrote you last you cannot wonder if the Governor carrys any thing he pleases in his Divan here. His last Manoevre has exposd him more than any thing. Ne lude cum sacris is a proverb. Should he once lose the Reputation which his friends have with the utmost pains been building for him among the Clergy for these thirty years past, as a consummate Saint, he must fall like Samson when his Locks were cut off. The people are determind to keep their Day of Festivity but not for all the purposes of the infamous proclamation. I beg you would omit no Opportunity of writing to me & be assured that I am in a Stile too much out of fashion
Your Friend
ARTICLE SIGNED “COTTON MATHER.”1
[Boston Gazette, November 25, 1771.]
MESSIEURS EDES & GILL,
Mucius SCAEVOLA, a writer whom I very much admire, tells us, “A Massachusetts Governor the King by Compact may nominate and appoint, but not pay: For his support he must stipulate with the people, & until he does, he is no legal Governor; without this, if he undertakes to rule he is a USURPER.” – These sentiments have given great disgust to the Governor & Council, and the publisher, it is said, is to be prosecuted: But if he has spoken the words of truth and soberness, why should he be punished? Is there any man in the community that can procure harm in a process of law, to him who speaks necessary and important truths? If there be such a man, mark him for a Tyrant. Is there any man whose publick conduct will not bear the scrutiny of truth? he is a Traitor, and it is high time he was pointed out.
I have upon this occasion looked into the Charter of the province in which the COMPACT between the King and the people is contain’d, and I find not a single word about the King’s paying his Governor. If therefore the Charter is altogether silent about it, Mucius is certainly to be justified in saying that by the compact the King may not pay him; that is, there is nothing in the Charter to warrant it. But it is asked, whether the King may not pay his Governor notwithstanding? And ought it not to be looked upon as a mark of royal bounty and goodness, thus to save the people from being “burdened by a tax upon their polls and estates for a Governor’s support?” This is the Court language; and great pains have been taken by some gentlemen, whose particular business it is to ride through the several counties, to spread it in every part of the province. But it has a tendency to mislead and ensnare. It no doubt sounds very agreeably in the ears of an unwary man, that by this ministerial manoeuvre, the province have a saving of a thousand pounds sterling every year, for the support of a Governor. Let us consider the matter a little. Did not our ancestors, when they accepted this Charter, understand that they had contracted for a free government? And did not the King on his part intend that it should be so? Was it not understood, that by this contract every power of government was to be under a check adequate to the importance of it, without which, according to the best reasoners on government, and the experience of mankind in all ages of the world, that power must be a tyranny? Undoubtedly it was the sense of both parties in the contract, that the government to be erected by the Charter, should be a free government, and that every power of it should be properly controuled in order to constitute it so. I would then ask, what weight remains in the scale of the democratick part of the constitution to check the monarchick in the hands of the governor, if the king has not only an uncontroulable power to nominate and appoint a governor, but may pay him too? If any one will point out to me a sufficient weight to balance the scale, I will differ from Mucius: But until that is done, I must be of his mind, that the king has no right to pay his governor: “For that, he must stipulate with the people;” otherwise our civil constitution is rendered materially different from what the contracting parties intended it should be, viz, a free constitution. It places the governor in such a state of independency as must make any man formidable. – It puts it in his power in many instances to act the tyrant, even under the appearance of all the forms of the constitution. The man who is possessed of a power to act the tyrant when he thinks proper, let him become possessed of it as he may, is at least an USURPER of power that cannot belong to him in any free state – Power is intoxicating: There have been few men, if any, who when possessed of an unrestrained power, have not made a very bad use of it – They have generally exercised such a power to the terror both of the good and the evil, and of the good more than the evil – While a governor is possessed of a power without any other check than that which the constitution has provided, upon a supposition that the king by charter may pay him as well as appoint him, for aught I can see, under such an administration as the present, I mean in England, he may make the people slaves as soon as he pleases and keep them so as long as he pleases. I have heard it asked, What! may not the king make a present to his governor of fifteen hundred sterling every year, if he sees fit? Is not his MAJESTY allowed to be upon a footing with even a private subject? This reasoning is very plausible, but I think not just. In some respects the king is more restrained than the lowest of his subjects. He may not for instance, turn a Roman Catholic, or marry one of that religion and hold his crown: He forfeits it by law if he does. And why? Because it has been found that the Roman Catholic principles are inconsistent with the principles of the British constitution, which is the rule of his government. And there is the same reason why the governor who is appointed by the crown, should stipulate with the people for his support, if that mutual check among the several powers of government, which is essential to every free constitution, is otherwise destroyed. – If the king’s paying or making yearly presents to his governor, renders him a different being in the state from that which the Charter intends he shall be, and that to the prejudice of the people, the king by the compact may not pay him, for in such a case, it would be inconsistent with the principles of our constitution – No king can have a right to put it in the power of his governor to become a tyrant, or govern arbitrarily; for he cannot be a tyrant or govern arbitrarily himself.
I beg leave to make a supposition; If his Holiness the Pope, for the sake of once more having a Catholic King seated on the British throne, should make him a present yearly of eight hundred thousand pounds sterling, for the support of himself and his household, it would be a great saving indeed to the nation; but would the people, think you, consent to it because of that saving? Should we not hear the faithful Commons objecting to it as an innovation big with danger to the rights and liberties of the nation? I believe it would be in vain to flatter them that their constituents would be eas’d of a burden of a tax upon their polls and estates, by means which would render their king thus independent of them, and place him in a state of absolute dependance, for his support, upon another, who had especially for a long course of years, tried every art and machination to overthrow their constitution in church and state – Would not the people justly think there would be danger that such a king thus dependent on the pope, and oblig’d by him, would be as subservient to the admonitions of his Holiness, or his Legate in his name, as a certain provincial governor, we know, has been to the instructions of a minister of state, upon the bare prospect of his being made independent of the people for his support.
COTTON MATHER.