Chap. XXXIV.} 1768. June. |
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adopted the last session by the Assembly, but
rejected by the Minister.
And showing the impossibility of their consenting to rescind measures of an Assembly which had ceased to exist, measures which had already been executed, measures which they more and more approved of, ‘I hope,’ said he, ‘another Congress will take place.1 When Lord Hillsborough knows that we will not rescind our acts, he should apply to Parliament to rescind theirs.
Let Britain rescind their measures or they are lost for ever.’2
Meantime the Governor became ludicrously panicstruck.
At one moment he fancied that the people would rise and take possession of the castle; and, in the next he wished to withdraw to the castle for security.
The Assembly were aware that they were deliberating upon more important subjects than had ever engaged the attention of an American Legislature.
They knew that the Ministry was bent on humbling them.
The continent was watching to see if they dared be firm.
They were consoled by the sympathy of Connecticut,3 and New Jersey.4 But when the letter from Virginia5 was received, it gave courage more than all the rest.
‘This is a glorious ’
1 Bernard to Hillsborough, 28 June, 1768. Letter 42.
2 Ms. postscript to Bernard's Letter to Hillsborough, No. 9 of 25 June to 1 July, 1768.
3 Connecticut Speaker to Massachusetts, 11 June, 1768; Prior Documents, 216.
4 New Jersey Speaker to Massachusetts, 9 May, 1768. Governor W. Franklin to Hillsborough, 11 July, 1768.
5 Peyton Randolph, the Speaker of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, to the Massachusetts Speaker, Prior Documents, 213. Bradford's History of Massachusetts, i. 145. The passage quoted is in Bradford but not in Prior Documents.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1859.
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