recommending that the whole of this action in behalf of the rights of America be collected in a volume, in order that posterity may know what their ancestors did in the cause of freedom; and each town, however small, was desired and expected to publish its sentiments to the world, in order that its name, with the names already printed, might be included in this catalogue of fame, and handed down to future ages! So firm in the faith were this generation, that the rising in the horizon was not a rushlight, but a sun, destined to illumine the political heavens; and that future ages would hail with acclaim the early gleams of its dawn.

The blindness of Toryism was remarkable. Its leaders piled ridicule on the origin of this movement, its object, and its execution. They said there were not twenty men in Faneuil Hall when the "Circular Letter" was voted upon, when the selectmen deemed it necessary to certificate three hundred; they discharged volleys of rhetorical criticism on portions of the phraseology of the report; and they scornfully asked what the band of corresponding committees could do: Hutchinson, unusually obtuse, declaring the plan to be foolish; Franklin, of New Jersey, saying it was only a scheme to keep the party alive; and not one of them seeing the national power that was germinating. But, in after But, in after years, Hutchinson says in his history, "Such principles in government were avowed as would be sufficient to justify the colonies in revolting, and forming an independent state; and such in

town, however small, will at this time publish their sentiments to the world, that their names, with those who have already published, may be recorded in this catalogue of fame, and handed down to future ages. - Boston Gazette, Jan. 18, 1773.

stances are given of the infringement of their rights by the exercise of parliamentary authority, as, upon like reasons, would justify an exception to the authority in all cases whatsoever: nevertheless, there was color for alleging that it was not expressly denied in every case. The whole frame of it, however, was calculated to strike the colonists with a just claim to independence, and to stimulate them to assert it."

The closer the story of our national life is studied, the greater must be the attention which the formation and direction of public opinion will command. This appeal of Boston reached the body of the people, and revealed the thought that was in their minds, prior to their doing a great revolutionary deed. Before this appeal, there were apathy and a feeling of false security; after it, there was a general sense of danger: before this movement, there was no party organization; after it, the Whigs became connected by a trustworthy representation throughout the province, which widened until it became colonial, and each local committee felt the inspiration of being co-workers with a national party. The scheme found the ball of revolution moving sluggishly: it imparted an irresistible momentum. The report was to the American cause what the Grand Remonstrance was to the English Revolution. A step had been taken, in inaugurating the regular action of popular power, towards that Union which was destined to place on Public Liberty the most beautiful face that ever adorned that angelform.1

1 Daniel Webster's Works, vi. 226

28

CHAPTER IX.

DESTRUCTION OF THE TEA.

WARREN ON NEW-YEAR'S DAY.-THE PATRIOTS AND UNION.-HUTCHINSON'S SPEECH. - DEATH OF ELIZABETH WARREN. THE CALL FOR A CONGRESS. TEA IMPORTATION. ACTION OF PHILADELPHIA. PROCEEDINGS OF BOSTON. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEA.-CONTEMPORARY VINDICATION.

1773. JANUARY TO DECEMBER.

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WARREN was required to devote himself still more to the public service, by being a member of the committee of correspondence. Its records attest his continuous labors in the patriot cause. This committee, as the executive power of the Whigs, took the lead in the measures that resulted in the destruction of the tea in Boston harbor; and Warren was in the foreground of the whole action in this great crisis. I know of no revolutionary deed more worthy of a careful analysis and a grateful remembrance. It brought into requisition the press, the club, the public meeting, and the new party organization. This act of self-preservation, like a decisive battle, influenced the course of events.1

1 It is said, in a political review in the "Independent Chronicle," Dec. 25, 1777, that it is "certain the consequences of the destruction of the tea" were "a dissolution of civil government, the seizure of the capital, the commerce of it interdicted, and a military government, supported by a formidable armament, both by sea and land." William C. Rives ("Life of James Madison," i. 40), says, "This memorable occurrence was undoubtedly, in the immediate sequence of the events which it produced, the proximate cause of the American Revolution." The late Joseph T. Buckingham ("Annals of Mass. Charitable Associa

Warren passed the evening of New-year's Day with a circle of kindred spirits, among whom were Cushing, Pemberton, and John Adams, whose diary supplies a glimpse of this social occasion. The conversation, mostly political, turned on matters in Rhode Island, the judges' salaries, the town-meetings, and recent lucubrations by General Brattle, a Tory; and there was good-natured badinage on each other's characters. Adams remarked of Cushing, that he never knew a pendulum to swing so clear; Warren repeated a remark of Pemberton, that John Adams was the proudest and cunningest fellow he ever knew, - adding, "that he (Adams) was rather a cautious man, but he could not say he ever trimmed: when he spoke at all, he spoke his sentiments." Adams, in his diary of this day, renewed his determination to devote himself to the pleasures and duties of private life. In another place he writes, "I have never known a period in which the seeds of great events have been so plentifully sown as this winter. A providence is visible in that concurrence of causes which produced the debates and controversies."

The political horizon, aglow with the harbingers of a new American day, seemed to the learned and the unlettered the sign of a providence beckoning them on. This feeling is seen in every great step towards the goal of nationality. I state a fact as certain as the Revolution. What was then faith is now sight. tion," 19), says, "It is an event which has never yet been so copiously described, nor so elaborately considered in its effects, as it deserves by the philosophical historian."

1 Washington, on taking the oath as President of the United States, said: "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency."

It is plain that these signs were indications of the under-current that was setting towards independence. Still, it was a tendency rather than an aim, - the working of ideas rather than the plan of man. The immediate object of the Whigs, as they formed themselves into a national party, whether they acted in Virginia or in Massachusetts, was, in the common expression of their great thought, a union of all the colonies on the continent. They saw in this union not merely the unconquerable arm of America, but a blessing to mankind.1 It became a part of their religion to promote it. They yearned for it as though they appreciated what it would be in its development; as though they felt there was hanging on it

The declarations of the towns, in answer to the Boston November meeting, manifested great similarity of political sentiment; and, besides zeal for union, they showed a determination to hold on to their local government. The Boston committee of

1 The national sentiment found in the press, during the eight months preceding the destruction of the tea, is remarkable. I copy from an article in the "Boston Gazette" of June 14, 1773, Supplement, to show the feeling of the time:

"Messrs. Printers, I have lived ten years in America, and I am fully convinced from history, that no people since the world has been inhabited ever equalled the Americans in the progress they have made in settlement, manufactures, learning, &c.; and it is evident that they will soon surpass all nations in those things which constitute the dignity and happiness of mankind. The UNION of the colonies, which now is the grand object the Americans are pursuing, will fix their rights and liberties upon an immovable basis, and at once secure them against all their designing enemies, foreign and domestic, British, French, Spanish, and all others. The unconquered and unconquerable arm of America, whenever it is lifted up, will make its foes tremble. . . . Americans, your sources of wealth and power are boundless; be sensible of your dignity, feel your true importance, act in character, and you will be for ever free."