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Boston Port Bill
March 31, 1774
The
persuasions and warnings of the Opposition fell upon prejudiced and
dull ears, and the famous Boston Port Bill was passed by an almost
unanimous vote. The exultant king signed it on the 31st of March,
1774, and it became a law. It was the fatal knife of vivisection that
severed the American people from their unnatural mother. The wound was
made not healable from the searing given it by the unrighteous acts
which followed.
The vote on the Port Bill stimulated Lord North to work the engine of
oppression with greater vigor, and it was followed by other punitory
acts of Parliament prepared by the skillful hand of Mansfield, the
lord-chancellor.
The Port Bill was followed by another "for better regulating the
government of Massachusetts Bay." It provided for the appointment
of the governor's council and the judges of the supreme court by the
crown; for the selection of jurors by the sheriffs instead of the
selectmen; the nomination of all other executive, military, and
judicial officers by the governor without consulting his council, and
for prohibiting town-meetings except for elections. It was really a
bill for the subversion of the charter of Massachusetts--an act for
the inauguration of a radical revolution--a declaration of war upon
the rights of the people of that province. "What can Americans
believe," said Burke, who lifted up his voice most earnestly
against the injustice, "but that England wishes to despoil
America of all liberty, of all franchise, and by the reduction of the
charters to reduce them to a state of the most abject slavery."
Others warned ministers to pause; and Pownall prophesied in the ears
of the House of Commons that these harsh measures would drive the
Americans to the calling of a General Congress, and perhaps a resort
to arms. In the House of Lords, Sheffield denounced the measure with
vehemence, and eleven peers signed a protest; but logic and warnings
were in vain; the bill passed both houses by very large majorities.
North now gave a third turn to his engine of oppression conceived by
the king, and introduced a bill intended to screen crown-officers from
punishment. It provided for trial in England of all persons charged in
the colonies with murders committed in support of government. It was
intended as a guaranty of comparative safety to those who might shoot
or bayonet rebels in the name of the king. "This," said
Colonel Barre, in debate, "is, indeed, the most extraordinary
resolution ever heard in the Parliament of England. It offers new
encouragement to military insolence already so insupportable. By this
law Americans are deprived of a right which belongs to every human
creature--that of demanding justice before a tribunal of impartial
judges. Even Captain Preston, who, in their own city of Boston, had
shed the blood of citizens, found among them a fair trial and
equitable judges. Another member (Alderman Saw-bridge), declared that
it was ridiculous and cruel--meant to enslave the Americans; and
expressed a hope that they would not allow one of the bills to be
executed; that they would reject them all. "If they do not,"
he said, "they are the most abject slaves upon earth, and nothing
the ministers can do is base enough for them." This bill also
passed both Houses by large majorities, and became a law by receiving
the signature of the king on the 20th of May.
Satisfied that these measures would have to be enforced by the
military arm, the king caused a fourth bill to be introduced providing
for the quartering of troops in America. Rose Fuller, who was a
moderate supporter of the ministry, tried to break the severity of the
new laws by a proposition to repeal the act imposing the duty on tea.
His resolution was negatived by a large majority. When the result was
announced, he arose and uttered with solemnity these remarkable words:
"I will now take my leave of the whole plan; you will commence
your ruin from this day! I am sorry to say that not only the House has
fallen into this error, but the people approve of the measure. The
people, I am sorry to say, have been misled. But a short time will
prove the evil tendency of this bill. If ever there was a nation
rushing headlong to ruin, it is this." The bill took the course
of the others and became a law.
These measures gave the ministers just apprehensions of open rebellion
in America. The loyalty of the French in Canada, who were nearly all
Roman Catholics, was not assured. It was a matter of vital importance
to the government that their loyalty should be secured. So the King
and Parliament, for state purposes, performed an inconsistent act. A
bill was passed by the latter and confirmed by the former, which
sanctioned the "free exercise of the religion of the Church of
Rome, and confirmed to the clergy of that church their accustomed dues
and rights." That King and Parliament, who would not acknowledge
the legal existence of a Roman Catholic in Ireland, now, by the Quebec
Act, so called, acknowledged the legal existence of a whole Roman
Catholic state within the realm of England. Why? Because from the
River St. Lawrence the government might more easily send instruments
to enslave the English-American colonies than from any other point.
We have observed that the petition from Massachusetts to the king,
praying for the removal of the governor and lieutenant-governor of
that province, was laid before the Privy Council by the monarch; also
that Franklin had taken the whole responsibility of the act of sending
to Boston the offensive letters of Hutchinson, Oliver, and others. His
candid public avowal--" I alone am the person who obtained and
transmitted to Boston the letters in question," without
explanation, raised a storm of indignation against him from almost
every quarter, and led the government into acts of petty malice
unworthy of a great nation. Franklin was then, and had been for some
time, postmaster-general of the American colonies--an office of
distinction and profit to the holder. This office and his reputation
were now imperiled by his manly act. From the forum, the pulpit, and
legislatures, as well as through the newspapers all over the land, the
Port Bill was denounced, and a General Congress was advocated. At the
head of some of the newspapers reappeared the device used during the
stamp-act excitement-a disjointed snake, with the words JOIN or DIE.
The cause of Boston was the cause of all the colonies.
The utter prostration of all business in Boston soon produced
widespread suffering. All classes felt the scourge of the unnatural
oppressor. With faith that deliverance would come, they bore the
severe chastisement with wonderful equanimity. Soldiers to enslave
them appeared at every turn; and cannon to overawe them soon menaced
their lives and property from every eminence on the peninsula; yet no
rash act incited by anger or suffering, marred the dignity of their
fortitude. The sympathy of the people everywhere was warmly excited.
The Press and the Pulpit suggested the sending of relief to the
smitten inhabitants, and very soon money, grain, flour and live-stock
were on their way toward Boston, accompanied by letters of condolence.
This food for the suffering poor seemed like relief sent to a
beleagured garrison, on whose existence a great cause depended.
"Hold on; and hold out to the last; as you are placed in the
front rank, if you fail all will be over," said a letter
accompanying a substantial gift. "Don't pay for an ounce of the
damned tea," wrote Christopher Gadsden of Charleston, when, at
the middle of June, he shipped the first contribution of rice from the
Carolina planters. Georgians sent sixty barrels of rice; and from the
more northerly colonies went grain and sheep and beeves, with money.
The city of London, in its corporate capacity, sent three-quarters of
a million dollars for the relief of the poor of Boston. The people of
Marblehead and Salem offered the free use of their wharves and stores
to the Boston merchants, for they scorned to profit by the misfortunes
of their neighbors. |
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