with a resolution which insured success; you obtained your wishes; and the removal of the troops was effected without one drop of their blood being shed by the inhabitants." John Adams estimated the number who took part in the meeting on this day "at ten or twelve thousand," which is probably too high an estimate.

The withdrawal of the troops caused great surprise in England; and there were consultations in the cabinet, and angry crimination in parliament. The opposition characterized it as an indignity put upon Great Britain, and called on the ministry to resent it, or resign their places. The expectation was general, that General Gage, without waiting for the Government, would send a re-enforcement to Boston, and order the whole of the troops into town. "Every one," Governor Bernard wrote, "without exception, says it must be immediately done. Those in opposition are as loud as any. Lord Shelburne told a gentleman, who reported it to me, that it was now high time for Great Britain to act with spirit." The governor advised Hutchinson, that, should it turn out that he had been successful in preventing Captain Preston from being murdered by the mob, "Government might be reconciled to the removal of the troops." There was much outside clamor; and those who indulged in it could not overlook the fact of "six hundred regular troops giving way to two or three thousand common people, who, they say, would not have dared to attack them, if they had stood their ground;" and this class regarded the affair" as a successful bully." Colonel Barré, in the House of Commons, disposed of the question in a few words: "The

officers agreed in sending the soldiers to Castle William: what minister will dare to send them back to Boston ?"

The prudent conduct of the people of Boston on the landing of the troops, and their moderation and forbearance on the occasion of the firing upon the people, with their uniform and spirited support of the general cause, elicited the warmest encomiums from the friends of liberty; and, as these encomiums appeared in the press, they were copied into the Boston journals. A few sentences will suffice to show their tone: "Your Bostonians shine with renewed lustre." -"So much wisdom and virtue as hath been conspicuous in Bostonians will not go unrewarded."—

ee

The patriotism of Boston will be revered through every age."-"The noble conduct of the representatives, selectmen, and principal merchants of Boston, in defending and supporting the rights of America and the British Constitution, cannot fail to excite love and gratitude in the heart of every worthy person in the British Empire. They discover a dignity of soul worthy the human mind, which is the true glory of man, and merits the applause of all rational beings. Their names will shine unsullied in the bright records of fame to the latest ages; and unborn millions will rise up, and call them blessed."1

Some of the towns now passed resolves expressing similar admiration of the conduct of Boston, which were transmitted under the signature of their officials, and are among the Boston archives. One citation will show their character. The town of Medford

1 These sentences are copied from the Boston papers. The last is reprinted from a Southern journal in a Boston paper of Dec. 18, 1769.

(March 14, 1770), in a letter to the town of Boston, said it was greatly rejoiced that the metropolis had acted with such unexampled moderation as to proceed against the perpetrators of the massacre "according to the common course of justice, and, at the same time, with a laudable and unconquerable firmness of resolution becoming the character of free British subjects, insisting upon the immediate removal of the troops;" and then the letter says, "With joy and gratitude, this town embrace this opportunity also to declare their opinion, that the brave and patriotic spirit which the town of Boston has often shown in the common cause of liberty, and also the laudable, generous, and spirited behavior of its respectable merchants, in these times of trouble, justly merit the thanks of all British America, and of this province and town in particular. And this town do assure them, that they are fully determined to assist the town of Boston, at all times, in every salutary measure they shall adopt for the preservation of our inalienable rights and privileges."

This strain of eulogy on Boston constitutes an interesting feature of these times, and therefore ought to have a place in history. It was not of a local cast, for it appears in several colonies and in England; it was not manufactured by politicians, for it is seen in the private letters of the friends of constitutional liberty which have come to light subsequently to the events; it was not a transient enthusiasm, for the same strain was continued during the years preceding the war. The praise was bestowed on a town small in territory, and comparatively small in population. Such were the cities of Greece in the era of their renown.

"The territories of Athens, Sparta, and their allies," remarks Gibbon, "do not exceed a moderate province of France or England; but, after the trophies of Salamis or Platea, they expand in our fancy to the gigantic size of Asia, which had been trampled under the feet of the victorious Greeks." No trophies had been gathered in an American Platea; there was no hero upon whom public affection centered; there was, indeed, little that common constructors of history would consider to be history. Yet it was now written and made common thought by an unfettered press, "Nobler days nor deeds were never seen than at this time." This was an instinctive appreciation of a great truth; for the real American Revolution was going on in the tidal flow of thought and feeling, and in the formation of public opinion. A people, inspired by visions of better days for humanity, luxuriating in the emotions of hope and faith, yearning for the right, mastering the reasoning on which it was based, were steadily taking their fit place on the national stage, in the belief of the nearness of a mighty historic hour. And their spontaneous praise was for a community heroically acting on national principles and for a national cause. cause of this did they predict that unborn millions would hold up the men of Boston as worthy to be enrolled in the shining record of fame.

Be

1 These words occur in a warm Southern eulogy on Boston, printed in the "Gazette" of Feb. 12, 1770.

CHAPTER VII.

ORATION ON THE MASSACRE.

AN INTERVAL OF TWO YEARS. THE REPEAL OF THE TOWNSEND ACT. -APATHY OF THE COMMUNITY. — HUTCHINSON AND ADAMS. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE POPULAR LEADERS.-WARREN'S ORATION. ITS EFFECT.

MARCH, 1770, TO MARCH, 1772.

I HAVE traced the career of Warren, as, animated by the ruling passion of the love of country, he sought the press, the club, and the town-meeting as instrumentalities to promote the patriot cause. He appears on the public stage, for the most part, in company with his seniors in years; but, when he rendered his next salient service, he stood alone: it was the delivery of a discourse in commemoration of the massacre. In order to do this utterance justice, it may be well to glance at the state of affairs during an interval of two years.

Much interesting local history succeeded the Sixth of March, as the funeral of the slaughtered inhabitants, the departure of the obnoxious troops, and the trials of the accused soldiers. The superior court wisely decided to postpone the trials for a season: the public, however, were impatient; and Hutchinson relates (March 23, 1770), that "Samuel Adams, William Cooper, Warren, and others, came from Mr. Jones's,