Chap. XXX.} 1767. Oct. |
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Province called to province.
‘A revolution must
inevitably ensue,’ said a great student of scripture prophecies,1 in a village of Connecticut.
‘We have discouraging tidings from a mother country,’ thought Trumbull.2 ‘The Americans have been firmly attached to Great Britain; nothing but severity will dissolve the union.’
At Boston, revolution was rapidly advancing.
Faith in the integrity of Parliament was undermined;3 men were convinced that arbitrary will might be made the sole rule of government by a concert with Parliament; and they called to mind the words of Locke, that when the constitution is broken by the obstinacy of the Prince, ‘the people must appeal to Heaven.’4 The nation had the right to resist; and they who deserved to enjoy liberty would find the means.
A petition to the Governor5 to convene the Legislature having been rejected with ‘contempt,’6 the inhabitants of Boston, ever sensitive to ‘the sound of Liberty,’7 assembled on the twenty-eighth of October, in Town Meeting, and voted to forbear the importation and use of a great number of articles of British produce and manufacture.
They appointed a committee for obtaining a general subscription to such an agreement, and, to extend the confederacy, ordered
1 B. Gale of Killingworth to Ezra Stiles, 15 Oct. 1767.
2 The L. Governor of Connecticut to the Agent of Connecticut in London, 17 November, 1767.
3 From the Craftsman, in the Boston Gazette, 12 October, 1767. 654, 2, 2.
4 Boston Gazette, 19 Oct. 1767; 655, 1, 1 and 2. Locke on Civil Government, c. XIV.
5 Cushing and others to Bernard, 7 Oct. 1767.
6 Bernard to Shelburne, 8 and 15 of October.
7 Hutchinson to [T. Pownall, probably,] 10 Nov. 1767.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1859.
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