THE BILLETING OF SOLDIERS

43

overlook. Here resistance was made, as in the previous case, and we find now the beginnings of a matter which developed into great importance.'

The plain fact is that the Governor and Council were proceeding to provide for the soldiers according to the provisions of the Mutiny or Billeting Act, the only Act which appeared at all applicable to the circumstances. But as that Act had been passed in the same session as the Stamp Act, it was obnoxious, and there was a pretext for asserting that the British Parliament had exceeded its powers in the one case as much as the other by thus legislating for the colonies. The opportunity was, of course, eagerly grasped, and every hindrance thrown in the way of feeding these destitute soldiers and sheltering them from the inclemency of a Boston winter. The Governor's arrangements were censured by the House of Representatives in February 1767, and the Mutiny Act stigmatised as tyrannical and unjustifiable. But after the Governor had been worried by this protest, the matter was allowed to drop, and the soldiers remained undisturbed in the quarters which had been provided for them.

This ebullition would probably not have occurred in Massachusetts but for the insubordination of the Legislature in a neighbouring colony, whose example was contagious.

The first instance of a refusal to submit to the authority of Parliament [writes Mr. Hutchinson] that took place after the repeal of the Stamp Act was in the province of New York. By an Act of Parliament the Assemblies in the colonies were required to make provision for quartering the King's troops. The Assembly of New York made provision in part only. Sir Henry Moore, the Governor, consented to the Act and gave this reason, that the articles not provided by the Assembly were only such as were not provided for troops in barracks in England. This was not thought a sufficient reason, and the Assembly was informed by a letter

6

1 Hosmer, Samuel Adams, ch. vii., The True Sentiments of America.' 2 Particulars of these transactions are to be found in Hutchinson, Bancroft, &c.

from Lord Shelburne, then Secretary of State, to the Governor that the King expected a due and cheerful obedience to the Act in the full extent and meaning of it. The Assembly resolved not to comply, and in their answer to the Governor's speech to them called in question the authority of Parliament. The Parliament thereupon passed an Act to suspend the legislative power of the Assembly of New York, so long as the Act of Parliament for quartering troops shall remain not complied with.1

When this altercation became known in Massachusetts, the Whigs began their attack, and Mr. Hutchinson considered that Governor Bernard made a mistake at the outset in alluding to the Mutiny Act, instead of taking his stand on provincial law and custom, as shown by various precedents. This would, however, have been only a subterfuge, easily detected, and likely to embolden the agitators. The same writer adds:

These proceedings of the two Assemblies, of New York and Massachusetts, were disapproved of by some of their best friends in England, and even by some of their chief advocates in America, as tending unnecessarily to revive that flame, which, it was to be wished, might have been suffered to expire. . . . It was rumoured, that it had been at first designed to suspend the legislative power of Massachusetts Bay in like manner with that of New York; but as the offence of the former consisted in words only, the same provision for the troops which the Mutiny Act required having been made in another way, the design was laid aside.

Apparently it must have been at the opening of this winter session that Governor Bernard had desired his Lieutenant-Governor to drive with him in his coach to the State House;

and after the Governor had delivered his speech they left the Council together. In the speech the Governor had recommended 'the support of the authority of Government and the maintenance of the honour of the province.' The House in their answer to the speech noted the Lieutenant-Governor's appearance in Council, and remarked that if the honourable gentleman was introduced by your Excellency, we apprehend that the happiest means of supporting the authority of the Government, or maintaining the

1 Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., ch. ii.

ACADIANS IN BOSTON

45

honour of the province, were not consulted therein. But if he came and took a seat of his own motion, we are constrained to say that it affords a new and additional instance of ambition and a lust of power to what we have hitherto observed.' 1

This insult originated with Joseph Hawley, one of the popular leaders.

Two other episodes of this memorable year 1766 deserve attention.2 At the meeting of the Legislature in May the representatives of the people were, it is said, instructed to advocate the total abolition of slavery. This sudden animosity to an institution hitherto tolerated by all and admired by many was probably designed to embarrass the Governor, who had no power to deal with any such resolution, and was likely to produce unrest amongst the coloured population. But it was dropped for the moment as impracticable.

3

The year was also noticeable for the appearance of a body of Acadians in Boston. Soon after the peace, there had been a rush of these exiles to their old home from various parts of the provinces to which they had been deported. Most of these, however, settled in Canada. Some, who had been unable to join their fellow-sufferers at that time, arranged to meet in Boston in the spring of 1766, and from there wended their way through Maine, ""on foot and almost without provisions. across six hundred miles of forests and uninhabited mountains."'4 Some women gave birth to children on the way, many persons succumbed to their hardships, and the band of exiles arrived at the goals of all their hopes only to find their lands in the possession of others, and even the old names effaced.

Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., ch. ii.

2 Williams (George W.), History of the Negro Race in America, ch. xiv. Richard (Edouard), Missing Links of a Lost Chapter in American History, vol. ii. ch. xlii.

• Richard quotes from Rameau de St. Père, Une Colonie Féodale, vol. ii. Some members of the d'Entremont family were in Boston in 1765, and sailed to Halifax. They were exceptionally fortunate in recovering their Acadian property.

I do not find any mention of Governor Bernard in connection with these unhappy wanderers, for whose sad case it has been shown that he felt much compassion. What he may have done as a private gentleman is not on record; it can have been but little towards alleviating the sufferings of eight hundred persons, even if his example induced some friends to help. As a public man his hands were tied. Had the Boston 'Sons of Liberty' combined to succour these victims of oppression, instead of clamouring about their own infinitely smaller grievances, they would surely appear in a more amiable light to posterity.

SAMUEL ADAMS

47

CHAPTER XVIII

THE POLITICAL LEADERS

Samuel Adams-The Origin of 'Caucus '-Hutchinson's Genius for FinanceJoseph Hawley-John Adams-The Caucus Club'-John HancockJonathan Sewall- Timothy Ruggles - Dismay of the Loyalists at the Weakness of the British Government-Constant Changes of Ministry-Governor Bernard's Relations with the Secretaries of State-Publication of his Confidential Despatches.

THERE is one man who has already been often mentioned in these pages as a popular leader, but as yet without further attempt to make it clear what manner of man he was who thus became such an important factor in the commencement and progress of the revolution. The attentive reader must naturally ask, Who was Samuel Adams? From what class did he spring? How did he acquire the influence with which he is credited? He was not one of those showy characters whose deeds history delights to blazon, yet Hosmer boldly asserts that he deserved the surname of Father of America'1 better than Washington, who, indeed, was not heard of as a patriot till some years later. A sketch of Adams's early career, accompanied by notices of his principal followers, some of whom have been better remembered in Europe than himself, will answer the questions which have just been put.

2

Samuel Adams was the son of another Samuel. They sprang from a family of settlers farming their own small extent of land; but the elder Samuel took to town life,

1 Hosmer, Samuel Adams, ch. xxi., Character and Service of Samuel Adams.'

2 Ibid. i., 'The Youth and his Surroundings,' from which this account of Adams is taken when not otherwise stated.