ABINGTON AND NETHER WINCHENDON
IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES OF THE STAMP ACT Secretary Oliver appointed Stamp Distributor-Attack on Mr. Oliver's HouseRiots at Boston-Wrecking of Lieut.-Governor Hutchinson's PropertyGovernor Bernard's Remonstrances to the British Government on the Defenceless State of his Province-His Speech to the Assembly on the Stamp Act-The Assembly's Reply-Governor Bernard's Reply theretoAdoption by the Assembly of Fourteen Resolutions against Great Britain's Claim to Tax America-Governor Bernard's Objections to the Stamp ActHis Views on the Subject of American Representation.
THE moderate and courteous tone hitherto observable in the Assembly's answers to the Governor, which breathe a spirit of loyalty to the Crown and of regard for its representative in Massachusetts, renders the subsequent outbursts difficult to understand. But they were undoubtedly the result of secret influence, and of inflammatory newspaper articles prompted by that influence. Few persons, even in Boston, appear to have anticipated the full extent of the evil, except the agitators and some of the followers whom they had instructed, although it was, no doubt, a time of great anxiety to the loyalists.
The intelligence that the obnoxious tax had become law arrived at an unlucky moment,' when the annual general
1 For the events narrated in this and the succeeding paragraphs see Bancroft, History of the United States (Edn. 1885), Epoch ii.; Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts from 1749 to 1774, ch. ii.; Life of John Adams (begun by J. Q. Adams, and completed by Charles F. Adams), ch. ii. (written by J. Q. Adams, son of John Adams).