Suffolk County, Massachusetts - The whole text, 1894 (part 2 of 17)

"The relief and delight occasioned in America by the intelligence of the repeal of the stamp act were increased by the further action of the home government in relaxing the revenue regulations which had caused offence." The reservation of its prerogative in the matter of taxation, made by Parliament in the declaratory act which accompanied the measure for repeal, did not give much concern at the first, but was regarded as the "bridge of gold "' which " should always be allowed to a retreating assailant." The London merchants entreated their American friends to take no offence at the declaration, although, as Hutchinson says in his history, the)^ could give no assurance that the principle would not be enforced. " Every newspaper and pamphlet, every public and private letter, which arrived in America from England, seemed to breathe a spirit of benevolence, tenderness and generosity. " Thus wrote John Adams in his diary, and he added : ' ' The utmost delicacy was observed in all the state papers in the choice of expressions, that no unkind impressions might be left upon the minds of the people in America." In all this we trace the hand of William Pitt, who had come into power and who had been raised to the peerage as Earl of Chatliam, but, most unfortunately, was compelled almost immediately by severe illness to retire from public affairs, "and his withdrawal robbed his colleagues of all vigor or union." The enemies of the colonies were ever on the alert for mischief, and, at the same time, the course pursued by Governor Bernard and his "loyalist" supporters in Massachusetts had the effect to neutralize any spirit of conciliation which for a time prevailed in England.

In June, 1767, Charles Townshend, chancellor of the exchequer, as a reply to the taunts of George Grenville that he and his colleagues were afraid of the Americans and did not dare to tax them, secured the passage of a bill imposing duties on paper, glass, painter's colors, tea, and certain other articles imported into the colonies. The new duties were to be payable in sterling money, and were to go into effect in the fifth month after the enactment; just before this time arrived, three commissioners made their appearance in Boston, clothed with what were supposed to be adequate powers for the collection of the duties. Townshend's act was more objectionable than Grenville's stamp act had been, in this respeet, that the receipts under the latter were to be covered into the imperial treasury and to be subject to the disposition of Parliament, while those under the former were to remain in America, and to be applied in making provision for the charges attending the administration of justice and the support of the civil government here. The officers of the crown were thus to be made independent, so far as their support was concerned, of the colonial legislatures. The new act, therefore, "was a menace of perpetual servitude." It was determined to nullify it by abstaining from the importation of the articles designated in it, thus preventing a revenue from them, and to extend the arrangement to all other commodities brought from England, thus interesting the English merchants and manufacturers for a repeal of the law. The patriots of Boston resolved to form a combination " to eat nothing, drink nothing, wear nothing imported from Great Britain. " Many of the merchants entered into an agreement in harmony with this resolution; the governor thought this "impracticable," and his remedy, and that of the officials tmder him, for the existing difficulties, was this: " Ships of war and a regiment are needed to ensure tranquillity." A young merchant, William Palfrey, writing to his correspondent in London, April 14, 17(i8, of the proposed stoppage of importations, said: " This salutary regulation is not to take place till the first of October next, and to be binding till the present grievous restrictions are taken off our trade." A few weeks later the same merchant wrote: " Where it will end I know not, but imagine there will be blood shed before it is over. You can't think how we are treated by those bashaws [the commissioners of customs] ; our coasters, nay, our fishing and pleasure boats, are disturbed, fired at, and threatened." The time for nullification was still further postponed until January 1, 1?G9, after which date the merchants and traders had agreed that they would not import into the province ' ' any tea, paper, glass, or painter's colors, until the act imposing duties on those articles shall be repealed." The agreement provided further, that during the year li(ji) there should be no importation of goods or merchandise from Great Britain excepting salt, coals, fish-hooks, lines, hemp, duck, bar-lead, shot, wool-cards, and card-wire. Indirect importations by way of any of the sister colonies were also forbidden. According to Bradford, from twelve to fifteen ships had been arriving annually at the port of Boston, laden with the products and manufactures of Great Britain; but in 1707 the amount of these importations was less by ^1<J5,0U() than in Kii-t, and in 1708 a large ship with English goods was sent back without unloading.

Vengeance was denounced by the more violent supporters of the government in England against " the insolent town of Boston," but the firmness of the attitude which had been taken by it in opposition to the new revenue exactions produced its legitimate effect, and that without long delay. The House of Commons had passed a series of resolves in which the proceedings of the people in town meeting were declared "illegal and unconstitutional, and calculated to excite seditions and insurrections." Among those who had opposed these resolves was Thomas Pownall, an enlightened and liberal man, whose experience during three or four years as governor of Massachusetts should have given his opinions more weight with his fellow members than they seem to have had. Mr. Pownall warned Parliament in advance against the course which it had persisted in taking, and he now (April, 1769) moved for the repeal of Mr. Townshend'a act, and spoke at length in support of his motion ; but the session was too far advanced for its consideration. A few weeks later the Earl of Hillsborough, as head of the Colonial Department, which had succeeded to the functions relating to the colonies of the "Lords of Trade," sent a circular to the governors announcing "the intention of his Majesty's ministers to propose in the next session of Parliament taking off the duties upon glass, paper, and colors, on consideration of such duties having been laid contrary to the true principles of commerce, and assuring them that at no time had they [the government] entertained any design to propose to Parliament to lay any further taxes on America for the purpose of raising a revenue." This letter, however, was not satisfactory to the merchants of Boston, who argued, and reasonably, that if the taxes on glass and paper were " contrary to the true principles of commerce," the tax on tea must be equally so. They declared it as their opinion that the proposed repeal was only a pretence, and that the duty on tea was to be retained to save the " right " of taxation; and they renewed the mutual obligation, previously made, to import no more goods from England, a few specified articles only excepted, unless the revenue laws should be fully repealed. The inhabitants of the town were invited to an agreement to purchase nbthing from those who might violate the terms of this engagement. A son of the late governor, vSir Francis Bernard, and two sons of the acting governor, Thomas Hutchinson, were among the merchants who refused to concur in these measures.

"the merchants and traders of London trading to North America " was presented in the House of Commons setting forth "the alarming state of suspense " into which commerce had fallen, and that this interruption of trade, as the petitioners apprehended, was "principally owing to certain duties imposed on tea, paper, glass, and painter's colors imported into the colonies. " " For the recovery of so important a branch of commerce," they prayed for such .relief as to the House might seem meet. Lord North, who had just become prime minister, called for the reading of the act petitioned against, and then, after observing that it had been "the occasion of most dangerous, violent and illegal combinations in America," he admitted that it had been absurd to lay a tax upon many of the articles mentioned, and that "for commercial reasons " it was necessary to repeal the duties upon them. He had favored, he said, the circular which gave promise to the colonies of a repeal of part of the act, and this he had done'" as a persuasive to bring them back to their duty, by a measure which would not at the same time relax the reins of government over them; and he could have wi-shed to have repealed the whole if it could have been done without giving' up such absolute right." But, as the colonies " totally denied the power of Great Britain to tax them, it became more absolutely necessary to compel the observance of the laws, to vindicate the rights of Parliament." He therefore moved "that leave be given to bring in a bill to repeal so much of the said act as lays duties upon glass, red lead, white lead, painter's colors, paper, pasteboards, mill boards, and scale boards, of the produce or manufacture of Great Britain, imported into any of his Majesty's colonies in America." When the measure was before the House of Commons,' ex-Governor Pownall moved an amendment proposing " a total repeal in every part " of Mr. Townshend's act; and this he did, not as "an American measure," but rather in consideration of the exigencies of British commerce. He insisted that the Americans had been arrogantly and wantonly oppressed, and that it was only justice to them to withdraw impositions which they ' ' suffered and endured with a determined and alarming silence." It was not to be expected that the amendment would prevail, but it received one hundred and forty-two votes. Repeal was carried except in reference to one article. " The question of present action for the British Parliament was now in point of fact narrowed down to the question of the constitutionality of the duty on tea; but the yirinciple of a right to tax the colonies was affirmed by the most emphatic and solemn legislation." For this fatal insistence to tax the colonies, as all historians are now agreed, the ting, who was in point of fact sole minister during these eventful years, was personally responsible. "Dull and petty as his temper was," says Green, "he was clear as to his purpose, and obstinate in the pursiiit of it." " The shame of the darkest hour in English history lies wholly at his door."

For the moment there was a seeming promise of less turbulent times in Massachusetts, and of returning- commercial prosperity. The debt incurred by the province during the seven years of war, 1755 to 1702, had been paid off, and no local taxation was necessary. The British troops, which were the occasion if not the cause of the massacre iinder the shadow of the town-house on King street, had been withdrawn at the demand of the citizens through their spokesman, Samuel Adams ; and the revenue exacted by the mother country was now limited to a single article of merchandise.

A few extracts from the advertising columns of a newspaper in the spring of 1771 will give us a glimpse at the movement of trade and commerce at that time. The Marquis of Rockingham, Lydia, Boscawen, and other regular traders, had just arrived from London, the Aurora, from Liverpool, and the Jenny, from Glasgow. Jonathan and John Amory, King street, advertised Irish linens, " bought with the cash in Ireland;" Samuel Eliot, near the head of Dock Square, Irish linens and baizes, raven's duck and Russia duck, Testaments and snuff; vSamuel Alleyne Otis, 1 Butler's Row, Russia goods, powder and shot, flour, sugars, bar iron, anchors, brimstone, and hollow ware; Nathaniel Wheatley, King street, Russia duck, Florence oil, tin plates, whale lines, and London porter; James Perkins, King street, spices, flintglass ware, Narragansett cheese. New England starch, stone jugs, a few barrels of snake root, wines. West India rum, and Cheshire cheese; Andrew Brimmer, who had just succeeded his mother, Susannah Brimmer, " at the shop she lately improved at the .South End," English goods, pepper, spices, soap and sugar, wholesale and retail ; Bethiah Oliver, opposite the Old South meeting-house, garden seeds; Ziphion Thayer, at the Golden Lion, Cornhill, a large assortment of paper-hangings; .Samuel Minot, near the draw-bridge, and Daniel Parker, Union street, watches, jewelry and silverware; John Gore, Queen street, paints, oils and varnishes; Frederick William Geyer, Union street, English goods, nails, pepper by the bag, American pipes liy the box, and "the best of Lynn made shoes by the quantity." One of the advertisements refers to the recent importations as having arrived after a long suspension of business owing to a strict adherence to the non-importation act.

Below the surface, however, there was, on both sides of the ocean, a settled distrust, which manifested itself from time to time as occasion offered. In the summer of 1770 an order in council prepared the way for the establishment of martial law in Massachusetts, and for the closing of the port of Boston. Boston harbor was made the rendezvous of all the ships of war on the North American station, and the port was to be garrisoned by regular troops and put into a state of defence. On the other hand, the law which imposed a tax on tea was present in the minds of the people, and of their representatives, as a perpetual grievance. The latter resolved that, as the duty levied by Act of Parliament on foreign tea imported intt) the province was laid for the express purpose of raising revenue here, without the consent of those who were to pay it, they would use their utmost endeavors to prevent the use and consumption of the article in the several towns to which they belonged. This was in the spring of 177n. Three years latei-, in i-eplying to an address from Hutchinson, who had been commissioned as governor of the province, they thus protested: "With all the deference due to Parliament, we are humbly of opinion, that, as all humaij authority is, and ought to be, limited, it cannot constitutionally extend its power to the levying of taxes, in any form, on the people of this province." With these sentiments the people were in the fullest accord, and they abstained so generally from the use of the beverage, which had been such a favorite among them previously, that the merchants, for the most part, forbore to pass through the custom-house the consignments of tea which came to their care, and piled them up in the warehouses. This, of course, reacted unfavorably upon the market in London, and it added to the embarrassment of the East India Company, which, as is apt to be the case with monopolies, had been carelessly managed, and its affairs had been brought into confusion. The company held seven million pounds of tea, and the non-importation agreements in America, though but partially carried into effect, shut off all prospect of relief from that quarter. It not only could not declare dividends ; it was unable to meet its vast obligations in Asia and Europe, and, also, to pay an annual subsidy for which it was under engagement to the government. It therefore came to the government for assistance, and asked for a loan. Lord North thought he saw a way to help the company out of its difficulties, and at the same time to settle the disputed question of taxation with the colonies. Tea broug^ht into Eng-land was subject to a dut\' of a shilling a pound ; the duty, unproductive hitherto, upon that imported into the colonies was threepence. What the minister proposed and carried was as follows: First, to remit to the company the dut\' of a shillint;- a pound on such portion of its teas as it should export "to any of the British plantations in iVmerica. " Second, to " empower the Commissioners of the Treasury to grant licenses to the East India Company to export teas to the British plantations in America, or to foreign parts," on their own account. The effect of the first measure would be, as was expected, that while the American consignees, and through them the consumers, would pay the duty of threepence a pound, their tea would be cheapened to them on the whole at the rate of a shilling a potmd, the amount of the drawback allowed to the company on its exportation of the article from England. Under the second provision, the tea would be brought into the colonies, not as an importation by Americaji merchants, but under consignment to agents of the company here, who would be able to clear it at the custom-house without exposing themselves to the odium which would have attached, under the circumstances, to importers paying duties upon their own property.

The historic company which had governed an empire, which had made and unmade princes, which had its own armies and fleets, was to become a vender of teas. As the Boston merchant and patriot, William Phillips, well said: "Nothing can more evidently prove the ill conduct or mismanagement of the affairs of the East India company than their becoming exporters of tea to America - a paltry transaction, unworthy of one of the greatest associated bodies in Europe." It should be added here, that when the British government undertook to relieve the company from its difficulties, it adopted radical measures for reform in the administration of its affairs and in the government of India. By the Act of Regulation of 1773 the office of governor-general was established, and Warren Hastings received the appointment.

The compan)^ made arrangements to ship cargoes of its tea to four American ports, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston. In all these towns the aim of the patriotic citizens was to prevent payment of duty at the custom-house and the introduction of the article into the consumption of the country, and for this purpose to secure its return to England without breaking bulk. At Charleston the consignees were persuaded to resign their trust, and the tea sent to their care was brought on shore under guard, and stored in quasi bonded cellars, where in the end it was ruined by damp. The consignees in Philadelphia and New York, convinced that it would be imprudent, if not useless, to contend with the spirit which was abroad, sent back the tea-ships which had arrived at those ports. When notice had been received in Boston of the intended shipment thither, a town meeting was held at which the agreement not to purchase or use tea was revived, and the determination was taken that it should not be landed. The consignees were requested not to receive it, or to allow it to be taken out of the vessels, but they declined to give any assurances of compliance. A second meeting was convened, and it was voted that the proposed shipment of tea to the province was " a direct attack upon the liberties of the people, and that whoever should receive or vend the tea would prove himself an enemy to the country." The consignees were again requested, by a committee, to have nothing to do with the cargoes when they arrived, but they gave evasive and imsatisfactory answers, and the excitement throughout the province became intense. Not even the stamp act had created more indignation and alarm.

The Boston tea-ships were the Dartmouth, Captain Hall, the Flcanor, Captain Bruce, and the Beaver, Captain Coffin, and they brought about three hundred and fifty chests. The consignees were Thomas and Elisha Hutchinson (sons of the governor), Richard Clarke & Sons, Benjamin Faneuil, jr., and Joshua Winslow. The}- petitioned the governor and Council to take measures for the protection of the property, which, they said, should be landed and stored but not exposed for sale, until they could receive further instructions from England. The Council hesitated to interfere in the business ; and, at length, when one of the vessels, the Dartmouth, was announced as having arrived in the lower harbor, it advised the governor against doing or permitting what had been proposed. The Dartmouth came into port on vSunday, and early the next morning the people crowded in such numbers to Faneuil Hall that an adjournment to the Old South meeting-house was necessary. Here a resolution presented by vSamuel Adams was unanimously adopted, that " the tea should be sent back to the place from whence it came, at all events, and that no duty should be paid on it." The consignees asked for time for consultation, and, "out of great tenderness," this was granted. To jjrevent surprise, however, a guard of twenty-five citizens was appointed to watch the ship, which was moored at Griffin's, after- ward Liverpool, wharf. The E.lcanor and Beaver arrived a few days later, and were placed under the same watch and charge. The lOth of E)eccniber wa.s the latest day, under the customs reg-ulations, for the entry of the first cargo, and, in the mean time, negotiations had been in progress between the officers and owners of the ships and the consignees of the tea on the one hand, and the various authorities and the citizens' committees, on the other; but no satisfactory arrangement could be reached. Another mass meeting crowded the old meeting-house, in the jnilpit of which patriotic orators had spoken and devout clergymen had preached and prayed, and whose walls, not many months later, were to be subjected to sacrilegious punishment for the uses to which they had been put in the interest of the popular liberties. The session lasted from ten o'clock in the morning until darkness had fallen upon the town ; the last attempts had been made with the customs authorities and with the governor, to supply the vessels with passes for the return voyage, and had failed, and, finally, vSamuel Adams closed the proceedings with the pregnant words, "We can do no more to save the countr}'. " A momentary silence followed; and then a shout was heard like a war-whoop, and forty or fifty men, disguised as Indians, hurried down Milk street to the wharf at which the three vessels lay. The holds were opened, the tea chests were brought up to the decks and split open with hatchets, and in three hours' time all their contents were emptied into the water. No other property was injured, and the deed having been done, every man went to his own house, and the town was as quiet as if nothing had occurred. Few of the inhabitants knew beforehand that the Gordian knot was thus to be cut.

Parliament was in session when the news of the destruction of the tea reached England, and the anger and indignation of the court party knew no bounds. All other legislation was laid aside, Boston became the principal object of attention, and steps were at once taken for the prompt punishment of the recalcitrant town. Lord North brought in a bill, now known as the Boston Port Bill, which provided for the withdrawal of the customs officers, and forbade the landing and discharging, the lading and shipping of goods, wares and merchandise at the town or within the harbor. It was to be unlawful to load or unload any vessel with merchandise in quantity or any of any sort, except military and other stores for his Majesty's service, and except also, " any fuel or victual brought coastways from any part of the continent of America for the necessarv use and sustenance of the inhabitants of

A few days later, to "prove that conciliation, not revenge, was predominant in Britain," an immediate repeal of the tax on tea was proposed, but only forty-nine members of the House of Commons voted in favor of tlie proposal, while nearly four times that number voted against it. Edmund Burke was one of the minority, and in the course of a masterly -speech, in which he reviewed the doings of the ministry dur- - ing the previous ten years, he .said: "Let us act like men; let us act like statesmen. Let us hold some sort of consistent conduct. Leave the Americans as they anciently stood. Do not burden them by taxes. When you drive him hard, the boar will surely turn upon the hunters. If our sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, which will they take? They will cast your sovereignty in your face. Nobody will be argued into slavery."

The port bill was published in the colonies with a black border around it, as though it related to a funeral. It was to be enforced relentlessly, and a military governor for Massachusetts, General Gage, was sent over as the successor of Mr. Hutchinson. On the day of the departure of the latter from his native town, never to return, the punitive law went into effect. This was the first of June, 1774. At noon the custom house was closed, and the sessions of the courts were suspended. The people made no opposition, but the church bells were tolled, emblems of mourning were displayed, and the day was observed not only in Massachusetts, but in Virginia and other colonies, as one of fasting and prayer. To the devoted town the blow was overwhelming. In one way or another almost all its inhabitants lived by ocean commerce. Palfrey had the impression, but he did not make the statement with absolute certainty, that in 1772, when its shipping interests were already much crippled, five hundred and eighty-seven vessels were entered at its custom-house, and four hundred and eleven were cleared; that meant one thousand arrivals and departures from and to foreign ports. To close the harbor to navigation was 'to strike at everybody, " from those in easy circumstances, to those who depended for their day's living on their day's work. Business of all kinds came to a stand-still. Men of property received no rents. Mechanics had no employment. Laboring men could earn no wages. " by the calamity which had befallen the chief town. So far from this, the people at these rival ports were seeking to lighten the sufferings which Boston had incurred for their sake and for the sake of the whole country. Salem and Marblehead, the next most important places on the Massachusetts coast, offered to the Boston merchants the gratuitous use of their wharves and warehouses, and the services of their men in discharging and loading their vessels. Salem, m particular, sent a memorial to General Gage, breathing the noblest spirit, and declaring that its citizens would be dead to ever}' idea of justice, and lost to all feelings of humanity, if they conld for a moment think of raising their fortunes on the ruins of their suffering neighbors. A committee at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, wrote: "We sincerely wish you resolution and prosperity in the common cause, and shall ever view your interest as our own." Two cargoes of tea arrived at Portsmouth during tlie summer, but the popular feeling was so strong, they were speedily ordered to Halifax. In the mean time contributions for the relief of those who were destitute in Boston came in from the countr}' towns of Massachusetts, from other parts of New England, from the colonies further south, and even from Canada. Outside Massachusetts, the largest contribution came from .South Carolina, which gave about three thousand pounds. But while money, food and fuel were coming in for the use of the townspeople, the farmers refused to sell supplies for the troojjs quartered in Boston. "The straw purchased for their service was daih' burned, vessels with brick intended for the army were sunk, and carts laden with wood overturned." Lord North had said that Boston alone was to blame for having set an example of resistance and defiance, and, therefore, that Boston ought to be the principal object of attention for punishment. It was soon made apparent that Boston had not hitherto acted, and was not now suffering, for itself alone.

On the 17th of June, 1774, just twelve months before the battle of Bunker Hill, it was voted at a great meeting in Faneuil Hall, to write to the other colonies that " we are not idle; that we are deliberating upon the steps to be taken in the present exigencies of our public affairs ; that our brethren, the landed interest of this province, with an unexampled spirit and unanimity are entering into a non-consumption agreement ; and that we are waiting with anxious expectation for the result of a Continental Congress, whose meeting we impatiently desire, in whose firmness and wisdom we confide, and in whose determination wc shall cheerfully acquiesce. " When the Congress met in Philadelphia in September, the delegates resolved unanimously that after the first day of the following December there should be no importation, purchase, or use of commodities from Great Britain or Ireland, and that after a year, " unless the grievances of America are redressed before that time, exportations to those countries from the colonies should cease." To carry out these views, a "non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation agreement or association was entered into," to which each member subscribed his name "in token of binding his constituents as well as himself."

"Every eye," says Barry, " was now fixed upon Boston, once the seat of commerce and plenty, and inhabited by an enterprising and hospitable people. The cause in which it suffered was regarded as the common cause of the country. A hostile fleet lay in its harbor; hosH:ile troops paraded its streets. The tents of an army dotted its Common ; cannon were planted in commanding positions. Its port was closed ; its wharves were deserted; its commerce was paralyzed; its shops were shut ; and many were reduced from affluence to poverty. Yet a resolute spirit inspired them still." We quote from a Boston letter, dated January 21, 1775: "The town of Boston is a spectacle worthy of the attention of a Deity, suffering amazing distress, yet detennined to endure as much as human nature can, rather than betray America and posterity." Nor was this spirit confined to any one class. The mechanics, who had done so much to advance the prosperity of the town, and who now acted as patrols, warmly supported the patriot cause. In vain did the loyalists tempt them to compliance with the wishes of the authorities ; and when their services were required at the barracks, "all the carpenters of the town and country" left off work, and gold was powerless to change their purpose, though "hundreds were ruined and thousands were half starved." General Gage wrote to Lord DartmoiTth: "I was premature in telling your lordship that the Boston artificers would work for us. This refusal has thrown us into difficulties." He had to send to New York for workmen, and did not obtain them easily there.

Wc must now see how the intelligence of what was passing in New England was received in London. In opening the new Parliament, in which the ministry was stronger even than it had been in the old, the king said : " It gives mc much concern that I am obliged to inform yon that a most daring spirit of resistance and disobedience to the law still unhappily prevails in the province of the Massachusetts Bay, and has in divers parts of it broke forth in fresh violences of a very criminal nature. These proceedings have been countenanced and encouraged in other of my colonies, and unwarrantable attempts have been made to obstruct the commerce of this kingdom by tmlawful combinations.'' Lord North had assured the last Parliament that "by punishing Boston all America would be struck with a panic." "The very contrary, " now said Mr. Burke, "is the case. The cause of Boston is become the cause of all America. By these acts of oppression you have made Boston the Lord Mayor of America." The ministry, however, and the king, whose blind behest they obeyed with all subserviency, had learned nothing and could be taught nothing by experience ; and, unhappily, both ministry and king might rely implicitly on the support of a House of Commons, whose seats had become an article of brokerage and merchandise. Our present narrative has to do only with those punitive and repressive measures which bore directly upon the trade and commerce of the colonies, and under which Massachusetts and Boston suffered the more severely, because their commercial interests were so extensive and so important. All the measures adopted at this time, as Josiah Quincy was assured in London by ex-Governor Pownall, "were planned and pushed forward" by his two successors in the governorship of Massachusetts, Francis Bernard and Thomas Hutchinson.

The Restraining Bill, which was enacted in the spring of 1775, and which undertook to deal with the commerce of all New England, was ' ' calculated in no slight degree to heap fresh fuel on the flames already burning in America. " "This measure, " said Mr. Burke, "is in effect the Boston Port Bill, but upon an infinitely larger scale. " And he said further: " Evil principles are prolific; the Boston Port Bill begot this New England bill ; this New England bill will beget a Virginia bill ; again, a Carolina bill ; and that will beget a Pennsylvania bill, till, one by one, Parliament will ruin all its colonies, and root up all their commerce, and the statute book become nothing but a black and blood}^ roll of proscription, a frightful code of rigor and tyranny, a monstrous digest of acts of penalty, incapacity and general attainder; so that, open it where you will, you will find a title for destroying some trade or ruining some province." The bill in question forbade trade from New England ports, except to the British Islands and the British West India Islands. An amendment providing that the colonies might carrv coastwise, and from one port to another, "fuel, corn, meal, flour, or other victual," was rejected by a lar^-e majority. The bill also prohibited the resort of the fishino- vessels of New England to the Banks of Ncwfoimdland, "The prejudice," says Botta, in his " History of the Revolution," "that must have resulted from this act to the inhabitants of New England may be calculated from the single fact that they annually emploved in this business about forty-six thousand tons and six thousand seamen ; and the produce realized from it in foreign markets amounted to three hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling." "The trade arising from the cod-fishery alsne at that period," says Sabine, " furnished the northern colonies with nearly half of their remittances to the mother country, in payment for articles of British manufacture, and was thus the very life-blood of their commerce." From some of the questions asked when the bill was in committee, it would seem that the ministry indulged the hope that many of the fishermen would abandon their homes in Massachusetts and emigrate to the more loyal province of Nova Scotia, rather than remain idle and suffer, perhaps, for the necessaries of life, under the pressure of this restrictive legislation. But nn one who really knew these liberty-loving men could have entertained such a thought for a moment.

Let us look for a moment at what Boston was at the period of transition from what we may call moral suasion to ph3\sical force. It had a population of about seventeen thousand, homogeneous, industrious, intelligent and self-respecting people. The natural features of the locality had been changed but slightly during the century and a half which had passed since it was visited for the first time by the Plymouth settlers. " The original peninsula, with its one broad avenue by land to connect it with the beautiful country by which it was surrounded, had sufficiently accommodated its population without much alteration of the land, or without much encroachment on the sea," Hutchinson said of the province of Massachusetts Bay at this time: " In no independent state in the world could the people have been more happy. " Boston, more than any other town, represented this prosperity. " It was not only the metropolis of Massachusetts and the pride of New England, but it was the commercial emporium of the colonies."

Under the provisions of the Port Bill and the Restraining Bill, everything was changed. Not only the foreign trade, but all the coastwise traffic of the port, including the movements of the humblest craft, was arrested. " Did a lighter attempt to land hay from the islands, or a boat to bring in sand from the neighboring hills, or a scow to freight to it lumber or iron, or a float to land sheep, or a farmer to carry marketing' over in the ferry-boats, the argus-eyed fleet was readv to see it, and prompt to capture or destroy. Not a raft or a keel was allowed to approach the town with merchandise. Many of the stores, especially all those on Long Wharf, were closed. In a word, Boston had entered on its season of sufl^ering. Did its inhabitants expostulate on the severity with which the law was carried out, the insulting reply was that to distress them was the very object of the bill." The story of humiliation and distress, as we read it, recalls the lamentation of the prophet: " How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributarv! "

During the month of vSeptember, KT-t, Boston Neck was fortified by Governor Oage, and from this time forward the inhabitants, so far as they were able, began to leave the town. After "the battle of the minute-men." at Lexington and Concord, on the 19th of April, 1775, this migration was increased ; for the town was cut off from all intercourse with the country, and was deprived of its usual supplies, by land as well as by water, of provisions, fuel and other necessaries. A similar exodus went forward from Charlestown, which was included in the scope of the Port Bill, and of whose population only two hundred, out of between two and three thousand, remained when the battle of Bunker Hill was fought. Before' this battle, both parties were skirmishing to secure the stock on the islands in the harlxir. On the lith of June martial law was proclaimed, and on the 17th came the battle, after which Boston was a beleaguered town. During the following month opportunity to leave it was given to those who desired to do so, as the scarcity of provisions, present and prospective, made the inhabitants a burden to General Gage, but no plate could be carried awav, or money in excess of five pounds to each person. In September a snow arrived from Cork "' laden with claret, pork and butter," and, at or about this time, a British sympathizer wrote in the best of spirits as follows: " Such is the abundance of fuel and provision for man and beast daily arriving here, that instead of being a starved, deserted town, Boston will be this winter the emporium of America for plenty and pleasure." " Our works," said Lieiitenant Carter, on the 19th of October, " are daily increasing; we are now erecting redoubts on the eminences on Boston Common, and a meeting-house [the Old South] where sedition has been often preached, is clearing out, to he made a ridina:-hovisc for the light drasjoons." But the sani,minc predictions of the autumn were not fumiled. The investment of the town by the Revolutionary army was so close and complete that scarcity and famine bejjan to stare both soldiers and citizens in the face. This is the state of things reported on the 14th of December: " The distress of the troops and inhabitants in Boston is great beyond all possible description. Neither vegetables, flour, nor pulse for the inhabitants; and the king's stores so very short, none can be spared from them ; no fuel, and the winter set in remarkably severe. The troops and inhabitants absolutely and literally starving for want of provisions and fire. Even salt provision is fifteen pence sterling per pound." The supply of fuel being exhausted, orders were issued authorizing working parties to take down the Old North meeting-house, and about one hundred old wooden houses. One of these houses was the Old South parsonage opposite School street, the venerable building in which Governor Winthrop spent the last four or five years of his life, in which the Rev. John Norton, the Rev. Samuel Willard, the Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton, the Rev. Joseph Sewall, and the Rev. Thomas Prince had lived successively, and in which Mr. Prince wrote his "Annals." It had been leased a short time previously to Benjamin Pierpont for bu.siness purposes, the tide of trade in its course southward having reached that point. The building next to it on the north, on the corner of Spring Lane, was occupied as a wholesale and retail store by Gilbert Deblois. "The pursuits of commerce and of the mechanic arts, the freedom of the press, of speech and of public meetings, the courts, the churches and the schools, were all interrupted. " Small-pox added to the horrors ; and all who were in sympathy with the patriot cause longed to leave the town, " and to breathe, though in poverty and exile, the free air of the neighboring hills." General Howe, who had succeeded General Gage in the command, was only too glad to promote their departure, and, during the first part of the winter, hundreds were permitted to go in boats to Point Shirley, whence they dispersed into the country. In January the weather moderated, the harbor was freed from ice, and, supplies having arrived, by a general order, the demolition of houses ceased. In the mean time the besieging army under General Washington was not idle. For want of ammunition it could not attempt to carry the town by assault, but the hope and purpose were by means of its strategy to compel the British army to withdraw from the peninsula. During a severe cannonade which occupied the attention of the invested troops, General Washington, on the night of the 4th of March, took possession of the Dorchester Heights. On the 7th General Howe decided to evacuate, and, ten days later, he took his departure. A ^-oung captain, jedediah Huntington, whose son, early in the next century, was to be a minister of the Old South Church, wrote to his father from the camp on the evening of March 17: "This morning we had the agreeable sight of a number of ships leaving the town of Boston with a large number of boats full of soldiers, about ten of clock several lads came to our out Gentries and itiformed us that the troops had entirelv left the town and that the selectmen were coming out to see us, soon after we had the pleasure of seeing Messrs. Austin, Scollay, Marshall, &c. , they had an interview with the general and gave him the best intelligence they could concerning the state of the town and the intentions of the enemy - the enemy are now all lying between the castle and lighthouse in full view from the town and make a very formidable appearance."

Boston was not injured so much, cither by the bombardment or by the action of the British soldiery, as had been reported. Dr. Warren, a brother of the hero who fell on Bunker Hill, and one of those who entered the town as soon as the evacuation had been accomplished, wrote in his diary : "The houses I found to be considerably abused inside, where they had been inhabited by the common soldiery, but the external parts of the houses made a tolerable appearance. The streets were clean, and, upon the whole, the town looks better than I expected." A small number of troops took formal possession, and fortifications were erected at various points to guard against possible attacks from the sea. The inhabitants returned more slowly than they would have done but for the presence of the small-pox, and although, during the spring, the selectmen reported that the disease was confined to the hospitals in the west part of the town, it was some time before the streets resumed their old appearance of cheerfulness and activity. The summer was a sickh- one, and business revived slowly. The Boston Gazette, which had been printed in Watertown during the siege, did not return to Boston until November 4, and the Provincial Congress did not convene here until November VI.

There was a wide gulf between the Boston of the provincial days and the Boston after the siege. With the Declaration of Independence provincial existence had come to an end. As has been well said : " American history is divided into two parts - the history of the cok)nies, and the history of the United vStates; and between these two portions - between the Declaration and the Treaty of Paris - lie six years of war." .Several hundred of the inhabitants of Boston, loyal notwithstanding all that had happened to the British crown, accompanied General Howe to Nova Scotia, amonj;- them many who had been most ]M-ominent in commerce, in public affairs, and in the churches. New men took the ])laces which had been made vacant in business and other circles. Salem had threatened, since the passage of the port bill, to become the rival of Boston ; but, now, the commerce of that town, and of the entire north shore, began to centre here. At first much of the business was outside strictly commercial lines, that is to say, it consisted in the fitting out and maintenance of privateers, and it proved very profitable to those engaged in it ; but this soon gave place to the movements of more regular and legitimate trade. According to an index prepared by Dr. Edward Strong, three hundred and sixty-five vessels belonging to Boston were commissioned as privateers, twenty in 1770, thirty-one in 1777, and a larger number annually as the war went on. The earliest was the Lady W'ashiugtoii, of thirty tons, April 23, 1770. She was followed b}' the Yankee, Warren, Independence, Wolfe, Sficcdivel/, I'ifier, Re/irisal, American Tartar, Reven_i;c, Sturdy Beggar, 'True ll/ue, etc., etc.

Three months before the ])romulgation of the Declaration of Independence, April 0, 1770, a measure was carried in the Continental Congress, by which the thirteen colonies abolished British customhouses, prohibited the importation of slaves, and opened all their ports to the commerce of the world, excepting those still held by the British troops. Samuel Adams wrote to Joseph Hawley that the " United Colonies had torn into shivers the British acts of trade." For a short period almost absolutely free trade prevailed.

While there was a reserve of accumulated wealth in Boston, which was of the utmost value to the town in this period of transition, and which enabled it to cope with many of the troubles involved in the great disaster of war, personal suffering and individual loss were very great. The burden of taxation bore heavily on the majority; there was a serious depreciation of the paper currency, and a correspondingadvance in the prices of commodities, and vain endeavors were made from time to time to check this advance in prices by legislative enactment. The Rev. John Eliot, writing, June 17, 1777, to his friend the Rev. Jeremy Belknap, then settled at Dover, New Hampshire, said,

"We are all starving here," and he complained that as a result of a recent "regulating bill," people would not bring provisions into the town, and it was impossible to procure the necessaries of life. In another letter, March 17, 17T'.), ]\Ir. Eliot wrote: " The iniseries of famine are now mingled with the horrors of war. The poor people in the almshouse have been destitute of grain and other necessaries these many days. Many respectable families are almost starving." A few months before, the Rev. Dr. Chauncy, minister of the First Church, in a sermon before the State authorities, made a strong representation of the injury and hardship inflicted on the clergy by the depreciation of the currency, "and withal a redress of their wrongs was decently and solemnly urged; " btxt nothing was done for their relief. Another correspondent of Dr. Belknap, Mr. Ebenezer Hazard, afterward postmaster general, wrote in 17S(): "Boston affords nothing new but complaints upon complaints. I have been credibly informed that a person who used to live well has been obliged to take the feathers out of his bed and sell them to an upholsterer to get money to buy bread. Many doubtless are exceedingly distressed, and yet, such is the infatuation of the day, that the rich, regardless of the necessities of the poor, are more luxurious and extravagant than formerly. Boston exceeds even Tyre, for not only are her merchants princes, but even her tavern-keepers are gentlemen. May it not be more tolerable for Tyre than for her ! There can be no surer sign of a decay of morals than the tavern-keepers growing rich fast." It it said that John Hancock issued invitations to a ball, November, 1780, printed on the backs of playing-cards, showing a scarcity in other things besides the necessaries of life.

We quote once more from the Rev. John Eliot, under date of March 29, 1780: "The town of Boston is really poor. If some brighter prospects do not open, it is my opinion that we cannot subsist. You are sensible how much depends upon our trade. Let this one instance of our going downwards convince you. An outward bound cargo cannot be purchased for the whole amount of the vessel and cargo returning safely to the wharf. Thus the balance is against us, supposing no risk. What then can be the emoluments of trade, when the vessels are so much exposed to every danger from the ire of Neptune equally with the attacks of British cruisers? Many widowed families add to the distress of the North End, who were in good circumstances before the commencement of this tedious season. Most of the readv monev which was in the town, the country people have drained - such was the necessity of obtaining fuel at any price. One effect these things have upon all orders of men in the sea-ports, - a hearty wish for peace, which sentiment did not pervade the mobility till the present time."

With this distress - almost side by side with it - there was an expenditure of money, and an ostentatious display; e.specially on the part of those who had just come into the possession of wealth, such as had never been knowh before in Massachusetts. We quote from an historian of the period on this point, because his statement of the case explains the reverses which followed when the inevitable reaction came : "The usual consequences of war were conspicuous upon the habits of the people of Massachusetts. Tho.se of the maritime towns relapsed into the voluptuousness which arises from the precarious wealth of naval adventures. An emulation prevailed among men of fortune to exceed each other in the full display of their riches. This was imitated among the less opulent classes of citizens, and drew them off from those principles of diligence and economy which constitute the best support of all governments, and particularly of the republican. Besides which, what was most to be lamented, the discipline and manners of the army had vitiated the taste, and relaxed the industry of the yeomen. In this disposition of the people to indulge the use of luxuries, and in the exhausted state of the country, the merchants saw a market for foreign manufactures. The political character of America, standing in a respectable view abroad, gave a confidence and credit to individuals heretofore unknown. This credit was improved, and goods were imported to a much greater amount than could be consumed and paid for. '"

Peace came at last ; and although there were public debts, State and national, to be provided for, and heavy taxation to be endured, and an inheritance of trouble, of one kind and another, left by the war, to be carried for a long time to come, every one rejoiced at the dawn of the auspicious day which seemed to be rising upon the young nation. In reply to an address from the Legislature of Massachusetts, General Washington wrote, March ^ii, ITSli: "Happy, inexpressibly happy, in the certain intelligence of a general peace, which was concluded on the 2()th of January last, I feel an additional pleasure in reflecting that this glorious event will prove a sure means to dispel the fears expressed by your Commonwealth for their northeastern boundary, that territory being by the treaty secured to the United States in its fullest extent." It w(;ukl have been well for both countries, if the sentiments expressed in the preamble to the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States could have been permanently adhered to as the basis for all their future dealings with each other: "Whereas reciprocal advantages and mutual convenience are found by experience to form the onl}^ permanent foundation of peace and friendship between states, it is agreed to form the articles of the proposed treaty on such principles of liberal equity and reciprocity, as that partial advantages, those seeds of discord, being excluded, such a beneficial and satisfactory intercourse between the two countries may be established, as to promise and secure to both, perpetual peace and harmony."

With the advent of peace, every description of merchandise arrived from abroad in large cjuantities, and prices fell rapidly. Many representatives of English houses made their appearance, and some Boston business men returned who had been living in England during the war; and all brought speculative ventures with them. The newspapers of the time are filled with advertisements of goods just received from British and other European ports. For example: "Gilbert & L. Deblois hath imported in the last ships from London a large and general assortment of piece goods and hardwares." " N. B. Those who please them with their custom may depend upon great pennyworths." "William Foster & Co. have received by the last vessels from Europe a beautiful assortment of picked goods." "William De Blois most respectfully informs the merchants, captains of ships, and the public, that he has just received from London, in the Britannia, Captain Lambert; Hope, Captain Fellows; and Minerva, Captain Hodgson, a large and compleat assortment of ship chandlery." Nathaniel Ingraham, who had just arrived in the Rosamond, Captain Love, from London, offers for sale merchandise from that and other ports, and adds: "The goods having been purchased before the peace, will be sold cheaper than any purchased since." " N. B. Excellent Cheshire cheese and a few hampers best London porter." We find this announcement under date of June 5, 1783: " This momihg arrived a ship from Cork, loaded with beef, pork and butter. " The first publication in the papers of the inward entries and the outward clearances at the custom-house appears on the 7th of August in the same year. Most of the English trade of Boston was carried on through London, with an occasional vessel arriving from or sailing for Liverpool. We read under date of November 27: "For Liverpool in Great Britain, the Brig Juno, Peter Cunningham master, lying at Tileston's Wharf." Novem- bcr lo: "Paul Revere, directl)' opposite Liberty Pole, South End, Boston, has imported and will sell 'hardware and cutlery' at a very low advance for cash."

During the years 1770 to 1775 the exports from Great Britain to all the iVmerican colonies had averaged about three millions sterling annually. Dr. Price, an able economist, and a steadfast friend of the newly independent States, estimated that this average would be reached and passed in 1783. Writing in that year he said: "Allowing for the increased quantities of rum, teas, and various entered or unentered importations from other countries than Britain, the estimate of goods from all Europe may be now put at three millions and a half sterling, exclusive of tea, brandy, rum and wine." He predicted that it would be some time before trade could " get into the regular course of circulation, and the exports be favorable to tally with the imports. " The exports from the United States were' rice, indigo, flour, tobacco, tar, beef, pork, fish, oil and lumber. The worst apprehensions of the commercial world were soon realized ; supply far outran demand ; prices declined to a ruinous point ; bankruptcies multiplied, and in the absence of exports in adequate quantity, the country began to lose its specie at a serious rate. In a London paper of March li, 1784, we read: " Two ships are arrived in our river from Boston in New England, both in ballast, not having been able to procure cargoes of any kind, though they had (what is most desirable in that country) specie to pay for all they should have brought away. It appears from hence that the northern parts of the American States are in a much worse situation than the provinces to the southward. Boston was once the most flourishing place in America, and emplo3-ed near five hundred sail of shipping, besides coasting and fishing vessels, which were numerous to a degree. Besides the trade which subsisted within themselves, they were to America what Holland has been to Europe - the carriers for all the other colonies. At present their distillery is entirely at a stand ; their peltry and fur trade, (jnce so considerable, is entirely 'over ; the fishery is exceedingly trifling; instead of the vast exports of hemp, flax, tar, pitch, turpentine, staves, lumber and provisions, the only thing that offered at Boston, when the above ships sailed, was train-oil, which they got up at a high price."

The diversion of the able-bodied men of the country from their wonted industries in the field and forest, and on the sea, to the pursuits of war, was sufficient, of course, to account for the falling off in the supply of products suitable for shipment across the Atlantic, and the evil could not be remedied immediately. The shipment of specie could not be followed up for any lensfth of time, and the cessation of remittances at last brought disaster to those who had sold or consig-ned goods from beyond the sea. London dates to August 27, 1784, reported: " No less than five great American houses tumbled in the city yesterday, one to the tune of ^"l-i(),()()0. " Again, under date of vSeptember 3, it was said: " But few large fortunes have been made shipping goods to American houses, even before the war. Those who got monev in that country had stores of their own, kept by their partners or factors, who had no separate interest, and were anxious to make early remittances. Where the same plan has been followed (with this difference, that no credit has been given) money was got last year, and to these people the prospects of this summer are by no means discouraging. " And later (vSeptember -24) : " Very few of the last orders from America will be executed, as the tradesmen are coming to their senses. Very few dollars make their appearance now; indeed, the new States are almost exhausted of specie already."

The shipbuilding interest in New England also suffered for a time. In a London paper of August, 1784, we read: ''The merchants of London, Bristol, Liverpool, and Glasgow, who used to send agents to America to contract for building ships for our foreign trade, finding the impolicy of such a measure, have now come to a resolution of giving employment to the British subjects at home, instead of enriching the carpenters of the L^nited States. By excluding American competitors, we shall augment the valuable race of shipwrights; and the public as well as private interest will be promoted by introducing gradually from Scotland and Wales, competitors even into the Thames, by means of their cheaper fabricks. The insurance from London to any port of America is now done at five per cent."

Bradford says: " The excessive importations of 1784 and 1785, and the drain of specie which followed, had the effect of deranging the State finances ; for many who had been extravagant in their purchases thought it first necessary to pay the debts they had thus incurred, so far as they were able, and to leave the payment of their taxes to a future day. Had the taxes from 1781 to 1784 been promptly paid, the pressure in the years which followed would have been less severe."

enterprise might now have free play upon the ocean; and that although they could no longer lay claim to the precise privileges and immunities which they had formerly enjoyed as subjects of the British crown, they would be able to put in exercise on the sea, no less than on the land, all tlie rights attaching to citizens of a sovereign state. But if such was their expectation, they were soon to be disappointed. The same mischievous disposition as of old, to prescribe and to limit the channels in which American trade shotild flow, was manifested by the British government, notwithstandmg the results of war and the dismemberment of the empire which this policy, persisted in, had brought to pass. It had been found impracticable to negotiate a commercial treaty in behalf of the United States with Great Britain, and another course of restrictive legislation was now entered upon by the government of the latter country, more severe in some respects, and certainly more galling to the pet)ple of the former, than that which previously had driven them into rebellion. But for this adherence of the mother country to the old policy of selfishness and exclusion, the animosities on the part of her children and quondam subjects, which were the natural result of the war waged by them for separation and independence, might speedily have been healed. But their commercial freedom was to be assailed again, and at the very point at which they had been made to suffer previously - their intercourse with the British West India Islands. They were forbidden to carry their fish thither; American vessels were not allowed to take the products of the islands to England; only American products might be imported direct from the United States to the ports of Great Britain, not even British ships being permitted to bring West India products as formerly from New England. No wonder that these galling restrictions aroused a new spirit of resentment in those against whom they were put into exercise, culminating at length in a second war, which was to secure for them absolutely commercial freedom.

The prohibition relating to fish was promulgated in July, 1783. The order in council by which it was imposed was thought to have been secured by lo3^alist or tory influence. It was aimed, no doubt, at the American fisheries, and was intended to encourage those of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. We have already spoken of the importance of the trade with the West Indies to the merchants of Boston - the exchange of fish for sugar, rum and molasses; this trade was now destroved. Congress declared that retaliatorv measures were neces- sary in order that American commerce should not pass into the hands of foreigners, and it asked to be invested with powers from the States to provide for the exig'ency, but no adequate authority was or could be conferred upon the confederacy.

The West India merchants and planters suffered almost as much from these trade restrictions as did the people of New Eng;land. In a letter from Jamaica, dated February '^O, 1TS4, to a Boston merchant, it was said: " You cannot conceive the embarrassments we labour under from the want of produce of your coimtry. The people here are continually cursing- first the king-, then the ministry, and lastly the governor." A letter from St. Kitts, written a few weeks earlier, said: "I am happy to tell you that by the last ships from England we are to have a free trade with North America with this single restriction, that they shall not be the carriers of any of the produce of the British islands to Great Britain."

An order in council, April 17. 17S4, permitted only unmanufactured goods (except oil) and pitch, tar, turpentine, indigo, masts, yards, and bowsprits, being the growth or production of any of the United State^, to be imported directly from them into any of the ports of the United Kingdom, either in British or American ships, by British subjects or by any of the people inhabiting in or belonging to the said United States, or any of them. The products of the West India Islands could be exported to the United vStates only in British ships, and the products of the United States could be imported into the West Indies, including the Bahamas and Bermudas, only by "British subjects in British-built vessels, owned by His Majesty's subjects and navigated according to law." These are specimens of the much-vaunted navigation acts, which some among us, even at this late day, extol as the highest result of national wisdom and enlightened statesmanship, and the essential features of which they would perpetuate in the commercial legislation of the United States.

It is one thing to impose limitations upon the commerce of other nations ; it is quite another thing to accept with complacency such limitations, when proposed by others upon ourselves. Upon the enterprising merchants, who were the life of the American cities and towns over one hundred years ago, the impression made by the trade regulations of which we have spoken was one of intense indignation, and they determined to do what they could for themselves and for each other in self-defence. A meeting of merchants, traders, and others, was held in Boston, in Fanenil Hall, on the Ifith day of April, 178.5, at which resolutions were adopted which were aimed at "certain British merchants, factors and agents from England," " now residing in this town, who have received large quantities of English goods and are in expectation of receiving further supplies, imported in British bottoms or otherways, gi-eatly to the hindrance of freight in all American vessels." The honor of the citizens was pledged not to purchase from, or have business connections with, the said British merchants, factors, and agents, and not to sell or let to them warehouses, shops, houses, or any other place for the sale of their goods. A committee of correspondence with other seaports was chosen, and another committee, whose duty it was "to approbate whom they pleased." This second committee consisted of Isaac Smith, John Sweetser, Josiah Waters, Joseph Russell, Amasa Davis, John Gardner and Thomas Dawes. One of these gentlemen, Mr. Russell, wrote to a friend: "You may well suppose our commission to be very disagreeable. We have as yet approbated only one gentleman, and he was recommended by a very large number of the most respectable characters of the town - Governor Hancock wa.s one of the number - and as the recommendation came from such a large proportion of the community, we gave him a verbal permission to land and store his effects. It is a matter of doubt whether we shall give approbation to any others."

In July of the same vear the Legislature of Massachusetts passed an act for the regulation of navigation and commerce. It prohibited the exportation of any of the products of the United States from the ports of the Commonwealth in British ships, until the removal of the restrictions imposed by Great Britain which we have enumerated ; it laid a heavv tonnage duty, a light money tax, and double duties on goods brought into Massachusetts in British vessels. A Boston merchant, writing to his correspondent in Halifax, said: " After August a British vessel arriving here will be obliged to pay five pounds a ton, and twenty-five per cent, on all goods on board, so that you will govern yourself accordingly." Bradford says: "The General Court prohibited British vessels to carry the products of the State; they were also forbid entering and unlading when they brought cargoes from ports from which American vessels were excluded, and only three places of entry were allowed within the State." This legislation was made to apply at first to other countries besides Great Britain ; but it was repealed, so far as it related to them, on the 2;tth of November in the same year.

It was recognized on the other side of the ocean, as it was distinctly stated by our own public men, that the commercial restrictions and prohibitions, in fact, the whole protective policy, to which the United States resorted at the beuinning- of its history, were made use of as weapons of defence and retaliation; and the inference is plain, that a more just and liberal course on the part of Great Britain and other countries, would have been met in a corresponding- spirit of liberality here. It was said in a London newspaper: "The Americans are forming' a commercial system to meet that of this country, and of those nations who have restricted their carrying their own produce to the ports of those prohibited nations. A circular letter was written from Philadelphia to the merchants of the other great trading cities on the subject, and so generally approved that it is thought restrictions will soon be laid on the trade of all those nations, particularly the British, who, it is alleged, both in their prohibitions and strictness, of execution, have manifested greater severity than others."

Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying in 17!ll: "If particular nations grasp at undue shares of our commerce, and more especially if they seize on the means of the United States to convert them into aliment for their own strength, and withdraw them entirely from the support of those to whom they belong, defensive and protective measures become necessary on the part of the nation whose marine sources are thus invaded, or it will be disarmed of its defence, its productions will be at the mercy of the nation which has possessed itself exclusively of the means of carrying them, and its politics ma}" be influenced by those who command its commerce." The Act of Congress of 1817, relating to the foreign trade of the countr}^ was substantially a counterpart of the Briti.sh navigation acts then in force, and it contains the following suggestive proviso: " Provided, nevertheless, that this regulation shall not extend to the vessels of any foreign nation which has not adopted, and which shall not adopt, a similar regulation. " Mr. William S. Lindsay, the historian of British Shipping, expressed the opinion that the government of the LTnited States was fully justified in all the retaliatory measures adopted at this period.

To come back to Boston, in the summer of 1785, it is said that there was not a single British merchantman in the harbor. The selfish policy of England was beginning in various ways to react upon its own people. It soon became apparent, at least to the more closelj' observant, that to embarrass the American merchant was to embarrass his

Ensjlish creditor. In the month of November, London dates were received in Boston to September 3, and, among other news, it was reported: "Thursday, three capital houses in the city were obliged to stop payment, on account of the remittances from America not arriving according to promise for goods sent to that country."

The intelligence of what had been doneby the Legislature of Massachusetts made a great impression in mercantile circles in England ; but the government was not to be turned aside from the policy and purpose to which it had committed itself. A letter from the West Indies reached Boston, in April, 178(3, from which we quote: "The ministry suppose they have now put a finishing stroke to the building and increase of American vessels ; an act has lately been passed in England, and instructions arrived in February, that no American-built vessel should be employed or owned by British subjects on any pretence whatever, except such as were built before the year 1776; and in case of dispute, the carpenters of the ships of war are to determine the build. American vessels condemned for smuggling are to be burnt hereafter, not sold." It was further stated that three hundred sail of brigs, schooners, and sloops, employed in the trade among the islands, would be rendered useless by this legislation. The American shipping, heretofore employed in the foreign trade of Great Britain, had been a good deal more than half as much as the British ; 'and as ships could be built in New England and sold in Britain for one-third less than British-built vessels, there had been a constant demand there for them.

The merchants of Boston did not allow themselves to be discouraged by the annoyances and hindrances to which they were subjected, in the unequal struggle in which they were compelled to engage, (hi the contrary, they were at this very time pushing out towards more distant fields of effort and enterprise, whete they were to reap larger and richer resiilts than they had yet reached. They not only did not propose to abandon to their rivals the trade of the Atlantic which they, and their fathers before them, had prosecuted so successfully; they determined to participate in the commerce of more distant seas, expecting, no doubt, that they would thus avoid the vexatious interference with which they had long contended nearer home. The A'civ York Gazetteer said: "Thank God! the intrigues of a Christian court do not influence the wise decrees of the Eastern world."

Trade Axd Commerce

Hope," to be had at Penuel Bowen's store in Dock Square. American enterprise was now venturing beyond the Cape, and, not unnaturally, the European merchants who, thus far, had had it all their own way in that part of the world, were prompt with their predictions of failure. A London paper of March 10, 1785, made this remark: "The Americans have given up all thought of a China trade, which never can be carried on to advantage without some settlement in the East Indies. The ship the}' fitted out for China, soon after the peace, has been offered to sale in France for a sum less than the outfit. " The judgment th-us expressed was rather premature, for, two months later, almost to a day. May 18, the ship referred to, the Empress of the Seas, Captain Greene, arrived at New York from the East Indies, after a round voyage of fourteen months and twenty-four days. She had sailed from New York in February, 1784, touched at the Cape de Verdes, and reached Canton in August. vShe was a vessel of three hundred and sixty tons ; and her lading consisted, for the most part, of four hundred and forty piculs of ginseng, which she exchanged at Canton for teas and manufactured goods. The supercargo of the Enipy-ess of the Seas on this voyage was a young Bostonian, Samuel Shaw, who had served on General Knox's staff in the War of the Revolution, a man of far-reaching intelligence and scholarly accomplishments. Mr. Shaw came home full of enthusiasm as well as information ; and he must have imparted of both to his friends in Boston, for we cannot but associate with his return the following advertisement which appeared in the IndependeJit Chronicle, June 23, 1785: "Proposals for building and fitting out a ship for the East Indian trade have been approved of by a considerable number of citizens, who met at Mr. Walter Heyer's in King street, on Thursday evening last. Several gentlemen are named to receive subscriptions, and this is to give notice that another meeting is appointed on Wednesday evening next, at the same house, when any citizen who wishes to become interested may have an opportimity. A single share is only $;500. " Mr. Shaw sailed again from New York, in the Hope, Captain James Magee, February 4, 1786, having been commissioned as American consul at the port of Canton, and being accompanied by Mr. Isaac Sears and Captain Thomas Randall. We do not know whether the project, advertised as we have quoted, was carried out ; probably it was not, for money was scarce, and general confidence did not ^prevail; but the result of Mr. Shaw's visit was most important, as we shall see.

In 1 7S4 the publicaticjn of the journals of the great navigator, Captain Cook, called the attention of the commercial world to the immense u number of sea-otter to be found on the Northwest coast of America. "The fur of this animal, which was first introduced into- commerce in 1725, is described as a beautiful, soft, close, jet-black. " A young American, John Ledyard, who sailed with Captain Cook, and published his private journal in Hartford in 178:i, dedicating it to Governor Trumbull, is believed to have been the first man in America or Europe to advocate the opening of a trade in furs between the Northwest coast and China. He sought to convince the merchants of New York of the advantages of such an enterprise, but his proposal seems to have been regarded as visionary. A few of the leading merchants of Boston, after much deliberation, determined to embark in this new trade, namely, Joseph Barren, Samuel Brown, Charles Bulfinch, John Derby (or Darby), and Crowell Hatch ; and a wealthy New York merchant, John Marsden Pintard, associated himself with them. These gentlemen formed a company, and bought the ship Colninbia (built in Scituate, in 1773), two hundred and twelve tons, and the sloop Wasliiiigton, ninety tons; they put Captain John Kendrick in command of the expedition, with Captain Robert Gray in charge of the sloop. The vessels took their departure from Boston, September IjO, 17S7, and doubled Cape Horn in the following April. They carried out with them a large number of pewter medals, with a fair relief of the vessels upon them, and the following legend: '^Columbia and Washington, commanded by J. Kendrick. Fitted at Boston, N. America, for the Pacific Ocean by J. Barrell, S. Brown, C. Bulfinch, J. Darby, C. Hatch, J. M. Pintard, 1787." As the State of Massachusetts had just established a mint in Boston for the coining of cents and half-cents, the medals were probably struck there. A few were sti'uck in silver and bronze, and one of the latter is in the possession of the Massachusetts Histcrical Society, the gift of Mr. Barren in 17itl.

The old prosperity was beginning to appear again. At the session of the General Court in the spring of 17S7, it was ordered that a portion of the tax then in process of collection might be paid in public securities, and this proved a great accommodation to the people, who were able to purchase them at a price far below their nominal value. From this time forward, we are told, the commercial interests of New England began to improve. They had reached the lowest point of depression, and any change, of necessity, must have been for the better. In September, 17S7, the editor of the 6 V«////<7 quoted from a correspondent in Philadelphia, who said that a few days before "he had the curiosity to go along the docks and count the vessels loading- and unloading; and, to his great mortification, found that there were sixteen under British colours, discharging and taking in their cargoes, and but one solitary American, which was loading with lumber for the West Indies." The editor added that the case was very similar in Boston.

In the Indcpcndiiit Chronicle, February "28, 1788, we find a paragraph informing the public " that subscriptions were filling up to build three ships for the encouragement of our industrious mechanics." In the same paper a plan is urged for the establishment of Chambers of Commerce, one in each State, "for the purpose of promoting an extensive trade upon such principles as will lastingly cement the union of the whole confederacy." A chamber was organized in New York in 1708, and an attempt had already been made to establish one in Boston. A call was published February -23, 178o, " for a meeting of merchants this evening at six o'clock at the American Coffee House on that important subject, a Chamber of Commerce, and when the verj- great advantage of this institution is considered, both as to commerce and the government at large, it is presumed every merchant, who wishes well to either, will give his punctual attendance." A committee was appointed at this meeting to take definite action, but the following announcement under date of June 2!l, would seem to indicate that the merchants were apathetic on the si:bject : " The merchants are informed that the committee appointed to form a Chamber of Commerce, met at the American Coffee House on Monday evening last in order to lay before them a report - but a very thin meeting obliged them to adjourn until this evening, then to meet at the same place at seven o'clock, where a general attendance is recpiested, or the plan must be entirely dropt. " The subsequent attempt in 178s was no more successful; but some of the objects of the proposed chamber were met by the Association of the Tradesmen and Manufacturers of the town of Boston, consisting of one representative from each branch of business, which was organized in the summer of 1785, for mutual defence against the irregular trade carried on by traders and factors from abroad. A circular letter was addressed "to their brethren in the several seaports in the Union," by a committee of the association, consisting of John Gray, Gibbons Sharp, Benjamin Austin, jr., Sarson Belcher, William Hawes, and Joshua Witherlee. A Chamber of Commerce was finally established in Boston in or about the year 17015, but we know little of its history. Thomas Russell was its first president, and Stephen Higginson its first vicepresident.

The constitution framed in 1787, and adopted by a majority of the States in 1788, was made necessary by the conditions imder which the people of the country were obliged to conduct their business affairs. For this statement we have the authority of Fisher Ames, who said in the First Congress: "I conceive, sir, that the present constitution was dictated by commercial necessity more than any other cause. The want of an efficient g-overnment to secure the manufacturing interests and to advance our commerce, was long seen by men of judgment, and pointed out by patriots solicitous to promote the general welfare." Under the influence of the same considerations, the merchants of Boston and the neighboring towns were anxious for the prompt adoption of the constitution by the State of Massachusetts. They were favorable to a strong federal authority, which should increase foreign confidence in the national stability, and lead to satisfactor}- commercial relations with European states, such as could not be expected under a less positive central government. On the other hand we are told that the long he.sitancy of Rhode Island, which was the last member of the confederacy to adopt the constitution, was largely due to her desire that " her superior advantages of location, and the possession of what was then supposed to be the best harbor on the Atlantic coast, should not be subjected to the control of a Congress, which was by that instrument expressh' authorized to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and provide that no preference should be given to the ports of any State."

The shipbuilding industry was reviving in Boston, as we have seen, and the general condition of trade was more satisfactory in the spring and summer of 1788 than it had been previously. We get a hint of this by way of London, in one of the papers of which city it was said: " Saturday some dispatches were received from Boston, which are dated July 20. They contain an account of the builders going on very fast on the shipping ; that four large ships of three hundred tons were to be launched the beginning of August ; that trade continued brisk, and that everything was quiet in that quarter. " In August the exports from the port of Boston, " for the year past," were stated to have been ;^145,- Ui; 5.S-. ic/. The principal articles were boards and staves, fish, rum, flour and provi.sions, pot and pearl ashes, furs, oil, candles, leather and shoes, tea, coffee, molasses, and naval stores. We give a few of the values: Fish, ^ (JO, 245; New England rum, ^ 50,620; . oil, ^34,804 pot and pearl ashes, ^30,485; flour, ;^ 13,420; flaxseed, ^10,300 fnrs, ^10,000. Under date of November 20, 1788, we find the ships Hercules and Oniphalc advertised for the Isles of France and India: " anv person wishing- to adventure to that part of the world may have an opportunity of sending goods on freight. The terms may be known by applying to Thomas Russell at his store in Boston." On the -2oth of December the ship -i was cleared for tl^ Isles of France; and two months later the Astra'a, belonging to Mr. Derby, of Salem, sailed for Canton with an assorted cargo, under command of Captain Magee, who had recently completed a China voyage in the Hope. It required six months at that period to make up a cargo for such a voyage ; iron was brought from the Baltic, wine from Madeira, and ginseng and specie from New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Mr. Thomas Handasyd Perkins accompanied Captain Magee as supercargo, and for the community in which he was to become an eminent merchant and an honored citizen, the voyage was to have important results.

The ship Fricndsliip arrived from Madras April 16, 1789, and Nathan Bond, a few days later, advertised for sale by auction at his store in Cornhill her cargo, consisting of chintzes, calicoes, book-muslins, ginghams, cottons, sheetings, silks, and saltpetre. Captain Cleveland in his "Voyages" refers to the " active and lucrative commerce with the Isles of France and Bourbon, which was continued up to the period of the conquest of those islands by the British (1810), since which it has nearly ceased." Of twenty-three sail of American vessels which arrived at the islands in 1780, sixteen were from Boston and Salem.

One of the first .subjects pressed upon the attention of the Federal Congress on its assembling in 1789, was the decline of the deep-sea fisheries, which were suffering not only from adverse legislation abroad but from tariff duties imposed at home. Fisher Ames said : "Unless some extraordinary measures are taken to support our fisheries, I do not see what is to prevent their inevitable ruin. It is a fact, that near one-third of our fi.shermen are taken from their profession - not for want of skill and abilities in the art, for here the5^ take the rank of every nation on earth - but from the local'' chilling policy of foreign nations, who shut us out from the avenues to market. If, instead of protection from the government, we extend to them oppression, I shudder for the consequences." Elbridge Gerry said in the same debate: " I will not reiterate the arguments respecting the fisheries: it is well known to be the best nursery for seamen ; the United States have no other, and it never can be the intention of gentlemen to leave the navig-ation of the Union to the mercy of foreign powers. It is of necessity, then, that we lay the foundation of our maritime importance as soon as may be, and this can be done only by encouraging our fisheries. It is well known that we have a number of rivals in this business desirous of excluding us from the fishing banks altogether. This consideration, of .itself, is sufficient to induce a wise legislation to extend every encouragement to so important a concern." In response to these representations and appeals, Congress passed an act allowing a bounty on dried and pickled fish exported from the United States, and imposing a duty on foreign fish imported into the country. Two or three years later a specific allowance to vessels employed in the codfishery, graduated according to the size of the vessels, was substituted for the bounty on exported fish.

It was announced in one of the papers, July 3, 1788: " Orders have been sent from an American agent in China for building a ship of eight hundred tons for that trade. We learn with pleasure that the vessel is to be built in this town." Mr. Samuel Shaw was the agent referred to, and the vessel was the Massachusetts, which, however, was not built in Boston, but at Germantown, a promontory in the present town of Ouincy. She was the largest merchant vessel which at that time had been built on this continent, her keel being one hundred and sixteen feet in length. She was a frigate-built ship, of eight hundred and twenty tons, pierced for thirty-six guns, of a remarkably fine model, and constructed in the most thorough manner. She was launched, or as the newspapers put it, she " slipt into her devoted element," in September, 1789, in the presence of thousands of spectators. Both the English and French naval commanders, at that time visiting Boston in national ships, expressed their admiration of the model of the new vessel, and it was afterward pronounced as nearly perfect as the then state of the art would permit, by naval commanders who saw her in the East Indies. The parties in interest were Messrs. M. M. Hays, State street, Samuel Parkman, Merchants' Row, William Shaw, " opposite the Golden BaTr'''' in Dock Square, and Samuel Shaw, who had returned from China to take charge of the venture. With Captain Job Prince as commander, and a crew of seventy-five officers and men, and with twenty mounted guns, the Massachusetts took her departure at the end of March, 1790, firing a federal salute as she passed the fort. She made the passage to Batavia in one hundred and fifty-eight days, landed cargo there, and proceeded to Canton, where she was sold to agents of the Portuguese government for $65,Of)0. Mr. Shaw came back to the United States to procure another ship and prepare for another voyage. - From this fourth voyage he did n(.)t Hve to return. Robert Gould Shaw, a prominent Boston merchant of the next generation, was his nephew.

A few weeks after the Massc7c/iiisi'tts had started on her long voyage, the Federalist arrived at New York from Canton, bringing news of the Colli iiibm and the Washington. These vessels had reached Nootka Sound in September, 1788, and passed the winter in Friendly Cove, on what is now known as Vancouver Island. Having secured a good cargo of furs, Captain Kendrick decided to send Captain Gray home to Boston with the Columbia while he remained cruising with the sloop. Accordingly, Captain Ciray sailed July 30, 1789, for Canton, calling at the Hawaiian Islands for provisions, with his cargo consigned to Messrs. Shaw & Randall. The furs were sold at a much lower price than had been expected ; the ship was loaded with teas and arrived in Boston August 10, 17!I0, after an absence of nearly three years, and having sailed about forty-nine thousand miles by her log. She was received with the greatest enthusiasm ; it seemed as though the whole population of the town were assembled on the wharves to welcome her, and her salutes were returned from the castle and from the town artillery. General Lincoln, the collector of the port, went on board with a party of friends, and Governor Hancock gave a reception to the owners and officers, which was largely attended. Captain Gray walked up State street in the procession with a young Hawaiian chief at his side, the first of that race ever to visit the Cnited States. It was said in one of the newspapers of the day: " To Messrs. Barrell, Brown, Bulfinch, Hatch, Darb}-, and Pintard, who planned the voyage, their country is^ indebted for this experiment in a branch of cimimercc before unessayed by Americans. . . . The Columbia and Washington are the first American vessels who have circumnavigated the globe, and the Washington, which is only of ninet)' tons burthen, is the first sloop of any nation ever sent on so great a voyage."

The arrivals from abroad at the port of Boston in the year 17'.iO were 00 ships, 7 snows, 159 brigs, 170 .schooners, 59 sloops; total, 455. This was exclusive of the vessels employed in the coasting trade, which were supposed to amount to 1,200 sail. The duties on tonnage, foreign and American, collected in Massachusetts, say on 197,3()8 tons, from October 1, 1789, to September :!o, 1790, amounted to $21,027, and the net