George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

[409] more against Adams; now seeking to lull the people

Chap. XLVII.} 1771. Dec.

into security; now boasting of his band of writers on the side of Government, Church, a professed patriot, being of the number; now triumphing at the spectacle of Otis, who was carried into the country, bound hand and foot as a maniac; now speculating on the sale of cheap teas at high prices; now urging the Government in England to remodel all the New England Provinces, even while he pretended that they were quiet and submissive. His only fears were lest the advice he had sent to the Ministry should become known in America, and lest Temple, who had gone to England and bore him contemptuous hatred, should estrange from him the confidence of Whately.

Confirmed by the seeming tranquillity in America, and by the almost unprecedented strength of the Ministry in Parliament, Hillsborough gave free scope to the conceit, wrongheadedness, obstinacy and passion, which marked his character, and perplexed and embarrassed affairs by the perverse and senseless¹ exercise of authority. To show his firmness, he still required the Legislature of Massachusetts to exempt the Commissioners from taxation, or the tax bill should be negatived; while Gage was enjoined to attend to the security of the fortress in Boston harbor.

In Georgia, Noble Wimberly Jones, a man of exemplary life and character, had been elected Speaker. Wright, who reported him to be ‘a very strong Liberty Boy,’ would not consent to the choice; and the House voted the interference a