Chap. XXIX.} 1767. May. |
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Rockingham, pretending to wish a more lenient mea-
sure, yet joining with Grenville who spoke for one more severe, effective and general.
But Townshend, by surpassing eloquence, brought the House back to his first Resolutions, which were adopted at about nine in the evening without a division.
Grenville then moved that many of the Colonies denied and oppugned the sovereignty of Great Britain; in other words, were in a state of open rebellion; and wished that they might be reduced to submission by force; but a large majority was against him. In the midst of one of his speeches, the implacable man stopped short, and, looking up to the gallery, said, ‘I hope there are no American Agents present; I must hold such language as I would not have them hear.’
‘I have expressly ordered the sergeant to admit none,’ said the Speaker, ‘and you may be assured there are none present.’
Yet Johnson, of Connecticut, had braved the danger of an arrest, and sat in the gallery to record the incidents of the evening for the warning of his countrymen.1 The persevering Grenville next moved his Test for America; but the House dreaded to re-produce a union2 of the Colonies.
‘At least, then,’ renewed Grenville, ‘take some notice of those in America, who have suffered for their loyal support of your sovereignty;’ and naming Ingersoll,3 Hutchinson, Oliver, Howard, and others, he moved an Address in
1 On the fifteenth, W. S. Johnson, at the risk of imprisonment, was present at the Debate. His report of the Debate is before me; so too is that of Garth, which is very full as to the substance of the debate, though names are omitted. W. S. Johnson to Pitkin, 16 May, 1767; Garth to South Carolina, 17 May, 1767.
2 W. S. Johnson to his father, 18 May, 1767.
3 W. S. Johnson to Jared Ingersoll, 16 May, 1767.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1859.
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