A School History of the United States Part 13

%122. Boston Riot of 1770.%--And now the troops intended for the defense of the colonies began to arrive. But Ma.s.sachusetts, North Carolina, and South Carolina followed the example of New York, and refused to find them quarters. For this the legislature of North Carolina was dissolved. Everywhere the presence of the soldiers gave great offense; but in Boston the people were less patient than elsewhere. They accused the soldiers of corrupting the morals of the town; of desecrating the Sabbath with fife and drum; of striking citizens who insulted them; and of using language violent, threatening, and profane. In this state of feeling, an alarm of fire called the people into the streets on the night of March 5, 1770. The alarm was false, and a crowd of men and boys, having nothing to do, amused themselves by annoying a sentinel on guard at one of the public buildings. He called for help, and a corporal and six men were soon on the scene. But the crowd would not give way. Forty or fifty men came armed with sticks and pressed around the soldiers, shouting, "Rascals!

Lobsters! b.l.o.o.d.y-backs!" throwing s...o...b..a.l.l.s and occasionally a stone, till in the excitement of the moment a soldier fired his gun. The rest followed his example, and when the reports died away, five of the rioters lay on the ground dead or dying, and six more dangerously wounded.[1]

[Footnote 1: The soldiers were tried for murder and were defended by John Adams and Josiah Quincy. Two were found guilty of manslaughter. The rest were acquitted. On the ma.s.sacre read Frothingham's _Life of Warren,_ Chaps. 6, 7; Kidder's _The Boston Ma.s.sacre_; Joseph Warren's Oration on March 6, 1775, in _Library of American Literature_, Vol.

III., p. 256.]

This riot, this "Boston Ma.s.sacre," or, as the colonists delighted to call it, "the b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacre," excited and aroused the whole land, forced the government to remove the soldiers from Boston to an island in the bay, and did more than anything else which had yet happened, to help on the Revolution.

%123. Tea sent to America and not received.%--While these things were taking place in America--indeed, on the very day of the Boston riot--a motion was made in Parliament for the repeal of all the taxes laid by the Townshend Acts except that on tea. The tea tax of 3d. a pound, payable in the colonies, was retained in order that the right of Parliament to tax America might be vindicated. But the people held fast to their agreements not to consume articles taxed by Great Britain. No tea was drunk, save such as was smuggled from Holland, and at the end of three years' time the East India Company had 17,000,000 pounds of tea stored in its warehouses (1773). This was because the company was not permitted to send tea out of England. It might only bring tea to London and there sell it at public sale to merchants and shippers, who exported it to America. But now when the merchants could not find anybody to buy tea in the colonies, they bought less from the company, and the tea lay stored in its warehouses. To relieve the company, and if possible tempt the people to use the tea, the exportation tax was taken off and the company was given leave to export tea to America consigned to commissioners chosen by itself. Taking off the shilling a pound export tax in England, and charging but 3d. import tax in America, made it possible for the company to sell tea cheaper than could the merchants who smuggled it. Yet even this failed. The people forced the tea commissioners to resign or send the tea ships back to England. In Charleston, S.C., the tea was landed and stored for three years, when it was sold by South Carolina. In Philadelphia the people met, and having voted that the tea should not be landed, they stopped the ship as it came up the Delaware, and sent it back to London.

%124. The Boston Tea Party.%--At Boston also the people tried to send the tea ships to England, but the authorities would not allow them to leave, whereupon a band of young men disguised as Indians boarded the vessels, broke open the boxes, and threw the tea into the water.

%125. The Five Intolerable Acts.%--When Parliament heard of these events, it at once determined to punish Ma.s.sachusetts, and in order to do this pa.s.sed five laws which were so severe that the colonists called them the "Intolerable Acts." They are generally known as

1. The Boston Port Bill, which shut the port of Boston to trade and commerce, forbade ships to come in or go out, and moved the customhouse to Marblehead.

2. The Transportation Bill, which gave the governor power to send anybody accused of murder in resisting the laws, to another colony or to England for trial.

3. The Ma.s.sachusetts Bill, which changed the old charter of Ma.s.sachusetts, provided for a military governor, and forbade the people to hold public meetings for any other purpose than the election of town officers, without permission from the governor.

4. The Quartering Act, which legalized the quartering of troops on the people.

5. The Quebec Act, which enlarged the province of Quebec (pp. 111, 124) to include all the territory between the Great Lakes, the Ohio River, the Mississippi River, and Pennsylvania. This territory was claimed by Ma.s.sachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia under their "sea to sea"

charters (pp. 33, 46, 52, 156).

%126. A Congress called.%--When the Virginia legislature in May, 1774, heard of the pa.s.sage of the Boston Port Bill, it pa.s.sed a resolution that the day on which the law went into effect in Boston should be a day of "fasting, humiliation, and prayer" in Virginia. For this the governor at once dissolved the legislature. But the members met and instructed a committee to correspond with the other colonies on the expediency of holding another general congress of delegates. All the colonies approved, and New York requested Ma.s.sachusetts to name the time and place of meeting. This she did, selecting Philadelphia as the place, and September 1, 1774, as the time.

%127. The First Continental Congress.%--From September 5 to October 26, accordingly, fifty-five delegates, representing every colony except Georgia, held meetings in Carpenter's Hall at Philadelphia, and issued:

1. An address to the people of the colonies.

2. An address to the Canadians.

3. An address to the people of Great Britain.

4. An address to the King.

5. A declaration of rights.

%128. The Declaration of Rights.%[1]--In this declaration the rights of the colonists were a.s.serted to be:

1. Life, liberty, and property.

2. To tax themselves.

3. To a.s.semble peaceably to pet.i.tion for the redress of grievances.

4. To enjoy the rights of Englishmen and all the rights granted by the colonial charters.

[Footnote 1: Printed in Preston's _Doc.u.ments_, pp. 192-198. The best account of the coming of the Revolution is Frothingham's _Rise of the Republic of the United States,_ Chaps. 5-11.]

These rights it was declared had been violated:

1. By taxing the people without their consent.

2. By dissolving a.s.semblies.

3. By quartering troops on the people in time of peace.

4. By trying men without a jury.

5. By pa.s.sing the five Intolerable Acts.

Before the Congress adjourned it was ordered that another Congress should meet on May 10, 1775, in order to take action on the result of the pet.i.tion to the King.

SUMMARY

1. As soon as Great Britain acquired Canada and the eastern part of the Mississippi valley from France, and Florida from Spain, she did three things:

A. She established the provinces of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and the Indian country.

B. She drew a line round the sources of all the rivers flowing into the Atlantic from the west and northwest, and commanded the colonial governors to grant no land and to allow no settlements to be made west of this line.

C. She decided to send a standing or permanent army to America to take possession of the new territory and defend the colonies.

2. A part of the cost of keeping up this army she decided to meet by taxing the colonists. This she had never done before.

3. The chief tax was the stamp duty on paper, vellum, etc. This the colonists refused to pay, and Parliament repealed it.

4. The colonists having denied the right of Parliament to tax them, that body determined to establish its right and pa.s.sed the "Townshend Acts."

But the colonists refused to buy British goods, and Parliament repealed all the Townshend duties except that on tea.

5. As the Americans would not order tea from London, the East India Company was allowed to send it. But the people in the five cities to which the tea was sent destroyed it or sent it back.

6. Parliament thereupon attempted to punish Ma.s.sachusetts and pa.s.sed the Intolerable Acts.

7. These acts led to the calling and the meeting of the First Continental Congress.

/--------------------------------------------- France Spain /---------------- /------- Cape Breton. Florida Canada.

Louisiana east of the Mississippi.

-------------------------------------------- and cuts the new territory (1763) into Province of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, Indian country, and draws proclamation line limiting colonies in the west.

-------------------------------/ New colonial policy necessary.

/---------------------------------------------- Country to be defended by 10,000 royal troops.

Cost of troops to be paid --------------------------------------------- Partly by crown. Partly by colonies.

/---------------------------------- Share of colonies to be raised by Enforcing acts of trade and navigation.

Taxes on sugar and mola.s.ses.

Stamp tax (1765).

/---------------------------^-------------------------------- Resisted. Principle involved.

Action of Virginia and Ma.s.sachusetts.

Stamp Act Congress.

Act repealed (1766).

Declaratory Act (1766).

--------------- / Gla.s.s. Red and white lead. --------------- Painters' colors Resisted and repealed (1770) Townshend Acts Paper. (1767). Tea. / /--------^------- Enforced.

Resisted (1773).

Resistance / punished by Five Intoler- Continental able Acts. Congress called(1774).