The Emancipation of Massachusetts Part 29

MY DEAR SON, I am under great affliction at hearing the bitterest reproaches uttered against you, for having become an advocate for those criminals who are charged with the murder of their fellow-citizens. Good G.o.d! Is it possible? I will not believe it.

Just before I returned home from Boston, I knew, indeed, that on the day those criminals were committed to prison, a sergeant had inquired for you at your brother's house; but I had no apprehension that it was possible an application would be made to you to undertake their defence.

Since then I have been told that you have actually engaged for Captain Preston; and I have heard the severest reflections made upon the occasion, by men who had just before manifested the highest esteem for you, as one destined to be a saviour of your country. I must own to you, it has filled the bosom of your aged and infirm parent with anxiety and distress, lest it should not only prove true, but destructive of your reputation and interest; and I repeat, I will not believe it, unless it be confirmed by your own mouth, or under your own hand.

Your anxious and distressed parent,

JOSIAH QUINCY.

BOSTON, March 26, 1770.

HONOURED SIR, I have little leisure, and less inclination, either to know or to take notice of those ignorant slanderers who have dared to utter their "bitter reproaches" in your hearing against me, for having become an advocate for criminals charged with murder.... Before pouring their reproaches into the ear of the aged and infirm, if they had been friends, they would have surely spared a little reflection on the nature of an attorney's oath and duty....

Let such be told, sir, that these criminals, charged with murder, are not yet legally proved guilty, and therefore, however criminal, are ent.i.tled, by the laws of G.o.d and man, to all legal counsel and aid; that my duty as a man obliged me to undertake; that my duty as a lawyer strengthened the obligation.... This and much more might be told with great truth; and I dare affirm that you and this whole people will one day rejoice that I became an advocate for the aforesaid "criminals,"

charged with the murder of our fellow-citizens.

I never harboured the expectation, nor any great desire, that all men should speak well of me. To enquire my duty, and to do it, is my aim....

When a plan of conduct is formed with an honest deliberation, neither murmuring, slander, nor reproaches move.... There are honest men in all sects,--I wish their approbation;--there are wicked bigots in all parties,--I abhor them.

I am, truly and affectionately, your son,

JOSIAH QUINCY, Jr. [Footnote: _Memoir of Josiah Quincy, Jr._ pp. 26, 27.]

Many of the most respected citizens a.s.serted and believed that the soldiers had fired with premeditated malice, for the purpose of revenge; and popular indignation was so deep and strong that even the judges were inclined to shrink. As Hutchinson was acting governor at the time, the chief responsibility fell on Benjamin Lynde, the senior a.s.sociate, who was by good fortune tolerably competent. He was the son of the elder Lynde, who, with the exception of Paul Dudley, was the only provincial chief justice worthy to be called a lawyer.

The juries were of course drawn from among those men who afterward fought at Lexington and Bunker Hill, and, like the presiding judge and the counsel, they sympathized with the Revolutionary cause. Yet the prisoners were patiently tried according to the law and the evidence; all that skill, learning, and courage could do for them was done, the court charged impartially, and the verdicts were, Not guilty.

CHAPTER XI.

THE REVOLUTION.

Status appears to be that stage of civilisation whence advancing communities emerge into the era of individual liberty. In its most perfect development it takes the form of caste, and the presumption is the movement toward caste begins upon the abandonment of a wandering life, and varies in intensity with the environment and temperament of each race, the feebler sinking into a state of equilibrium, when change by spontaneous growth ceases to be perceptible. So long as the brain remains too feeble for sustained original thought, and man therefore lacks the energy to rebel against routine, this condition of existence must continue, and its inevitable tendency is toward rigid distinctions of rank, and as a necessary consequence toward the limitation of the range of ambition, by the conventional lines dividing the occupations of the cla.s.ses. Such at least in a general way was the progression of the Jews, and in a less marked degree of the barbarians who overran the Roman Empire. Yet even these, when they acquired permanent abodes, gravitated strongly enough toward caste to produce a social system based on monopoly and privilege which lasted through many centuries. On the other hand, the democratic formula of "equality before the law" best defines the modern conception of human relations, and this maxim indicates a tone of thought directly the converse of that which begot status; for whereas the one strove to raise impa.s.sable barriers against free compet.i.tion in the struggle for existence, the ideal of the other is to offer the fullest scope for the expansion of the faculties.

As in Western Europe church and state alike rested upon the customs of the Middle Ages, a change so fundamental must have wrought the overthrow, not only of the vastest vested interests, but of the profoundest religious prejudices, consequently, it could not have been accomplished peaceably; and in point of fact the conservatives were routed in two terrific outbreaks, whereof the second was the sequence of the first, though following it after a considerable interval of time.

By the wars of the Reformation freedom of thought was gained; by the revolutions of the eighteenth century, which swept away the incubus of feudalism, liberty of action was won; and as Ma.s.sachusetts had been colonized by the radicals of the first insurrection, it was not unnatural that their children should have led the second. So much may be readily conceded, and yet the inherited tendency toward liberalism alone would have been insufficient to have inspired the peculiar unanimity of sentiment which animated her people in their resistance to Great Britain, and which perhaps was stronger among her clergy, whose instincts regarding domestic affairs were intensely conservative, than among any other portion of her population. The reasons for this phenomenon are worthy of investigation, for they are not only interesting in themselves, but they furnish an admirable ill.u.s.tration of the irresistible action of antecedent and external causes on the human mind.

Under the Puritan Commonwealth the church gave distinction and power, and therefore monopolized the ability which sought professional life; but under the provincial government new careers were opened, and intellectual activity began to flow in broader channels. John Adams ill.u.s.trates the effect produced by the changed environment; when only twenty he made this suggestive entry in his Diary: "The following questions may be answered some time or other, namely,--Where do we find a precept in the Gospel requiring Ecclesiastical Synods? Convocations?

Councils? Decrees? Creeds? Confessions? Oaths? Subscriptions? and whole cart-loads of other trumpery that we find religion enc.u.mbered with in these days?" [Footnote: _Works of J. Adams_, ii. 5.]

Such men became lawyers, doctors, or merchants; theology ceased to occupy their minds; and gradually the secular thought of New England grew to be coincident with that of the other colonies.

Throughout America the inst.i.tutions favored individuality. No privileged cla.s.s existed among the whites. Under the careless rule of Great Britain habits of personal liberty had taken root, which showed themselves in the tenacity wherewith the people clung to their customs of self-government; and so long as these usages were respected, under which they had always lived, and which they believed to be as well established as Magna Charta, there were not in all the king's broad dominions more loyal subjects than men like Washington, Jefferson, and Jay.

The generation now living can read the history of the Revolution dispa.s.sionately, and to them it is growing clear that our ancestors were technically in the wrong. For centuries Parliament has been theoretically absolute; therefore it might const.i.tutionally tax the colonies, or do whatsoever else with them it pleased. Practically, however, it is self-evident that the most perfect despotism must be limited by the extent to which subjects will obey, and this is a matter of habit; rebellions, therefore, are usually caused by the conservative instinct, represented by the will of the sovereign, attempting to enforce obedience to customs which a people have outgrown.

In 1776, though the Middle Ages had pa.s.sed, their traditions still prevailed in Europe, and probably the antagonism between this survival of a dead civilization and the modern democracy of America was too deep for any arbitrament save trial by battle. Identically the same dispute had arisen in England the century before, when the commons rebelled against the prerogatives of the crown, and Cromwell fought like Washington, in the cause of individual emanc.i.p.ation; but the movement in Great Britain was too radical for the age, and was followed by a reaction whose force was not spent when George III. came to the throne.

Precedent is only inflexible among stationary races, and advancing nations glory in their capacity for change; hence it is precisely those who have led revolt successfully who have won the brightest fame. If, therefore, it be admitted that they should rank among mankind's n.o.blest benefactors, who have risked their lives to win the freedom we enjoy, and which seems destined to endure, there are few to whom posterity owes a deeper debt than to our early statesmen; nor, judging their handiwork by the test of time, have many lived who in genius have surpa.s.sed them.

In the fourth article of their Declaration of Rights, the Continental Congress resolved that the colonists "are ent.i.tled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, ... in all cases of taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their sovereign, in such manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed. But, ... we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of Parliament as are, _bona fide_, restrained to the regulation of our external commerce."

In 1778 a statute was pa.s.sed, of which an English jurist wrote in 1885: "One act, indeed, of the British Parliament might, looked at in the light of history, claim a peculiar sanct.i.ty. It is certainly an enactment of which the terms, we may safely predict, will never be repealed and the spirit never be violated.... It provides that Parliament' will not impose any duty, tax or a.s.sessment whatever, payable in any of his majesty's colonies ... except only such duties as it may be expedient to impose for the regulation of commerce.'"

[Footnote: _The Law of the Const.i.tution_, Dicey, p. 62.]

Thus is the memory of their grievance held sacred by the descendants of their adversaries after the lapse of a century, and the local self-government for which they pleaded has become the immutable policy of the empire. The principles they laid down have been equally enduring, for they proclaimed the equality of men before the law, the corner-stone of modern civilization, and the Const.i.tution they wrote still remains the fundamental charter of the liberties of the republic of the United States.

Nevertheless it remains true that secular liberalism alone could never have produced the peculiarly acrimonious hostility to Great Britain wherein Ma.s.sachusetts stood preeminent, whose causes, if traced, will be found imbedded at the very foundation of her social organization, and to have been steadily in action ever since the settlement. Too little study is given to ecclesiastical history, for probably nothing throws so much light on certain phases of development; and particularly in the case of this Commonwealth the impulses which moulded her destiny cannot be understood unless the events that stimulated the pa.s.sions of her clergy are steadily kept in view.

The early aggrandizement of her priests has been described; the inevitable conflict with the law into which their ambition plunged them, and the overthrow of the theocracy which resulted therefrom, have been related; but the causes that kept alive the old exasperation with England throughout the eighteenth century have not yet been told.

The influence of men like Leverett and Colman tended to broaden the church, but necessarily the process was slow; and there is no lack of evidence that the majority of the ministers had little relish for the toleration forced upon them by the second charter. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the sectaries soon again driven to invoke the protection of the king.

Though doubtless some monastic orders have been vowed to poverty, it will probably be generally conceded that a life of privation has not found favor with divines as a cla.s.s; and one of the earliest acts of the provincial legislature bid each town choose an able and orthodox minister to dispense the Word of G.o.d, who should be "suitably encouraged" by an a.s.sessment on all inhabitants without distinction.

This was for many years a bitter grievance to the dissenting minority; but there was worse to come; for sometimes the majority were heterodox, when pastors were elected who gave great scandal to their evangelical brethren. Therefore, for the prevention of "atheism, irreligion and prophaness," [Footnote: _Province Laws_, 1715, c. 17.] it was enacted in 1775 that the justices of the county should report any town without an orthodox minister, and thereupon the General Court should settle a candidate recommended to them by the ordained elders, and levy a special tax for his support. Nor could men animated by the fervent piety which raised the Mathers to eminence in their profession be expected to sit by tamely while blasphemers not only worshipped openly, but refused to contribute to their incomes.

"We expect no other but Satan will show his rage against us for our endeavors to lessen his kingdom of darkness. He hath grievously afflicted me (by G.o.d's permission) by infatuating or bewitching three or four who live in a corner of my parish with Quaker notions, [who]

now hold a separate meeting by themselves." [Footnote: Rev. S. Danforth, 1720. _Ma.s.s. Hist. Coll._ fourth series, i.]

The heretics, on their side, were filled with the same stubborn spirit which had caused them "obstinately and proudly" to "persecute" Norton and Endicott in earlier days. In 1722 G.o.dly preachers were settled at Dartmouth and Tiverton, under the act, the majority of whose people were Quakers and Baptists; and the Friends tell their own story in a pet.i.tion they presented to the crown in 1724: "That the said Joseph Anthony and John Siffon were appointed a.s.sessors of the taxes for the said town of Tiverton, and the said John Akin and said Philip Tabor for the town of Dartmouth, but some of the said a.s.sessors being of the people called Quakers, and others of them also dissenting from the Presbyterians and Independents, and greatest part of the inhabitants of the said towns being also Quakers or Anabaptists ... the said a.s.sessors duly a.s.sessed the other taxes ... relating to the support of government ... yet they could not in conscience a.s.sess any of the inhabitants of the said towns anything for or towards the maintenance of any ministers.

"That the said Joseph Anthony, John Siffon, John Akin and Philip Tabor, (on pretence of their non-compliance with the said law) were on the 25th of the month called May, 1723, committed to the jail aforesaid, where they still continue prisoners under great sufferings and hardships both to themselves and families, and where they must remain and die, if not relieved by the king's royal clemancy and favour." [Footnote: Gough's _Quakers_, iv. 222, 223.]

A hearing was had upon this pet.i.tion before the Privy Council, and in June, 1724, an order was made directing the remission of the special taxes and the release of the prisoners, who were accordingly liberated in obedience thereto, after they had been incarcerated for thirteen months.

The blow was felt to be so severe that the convention of ministers the next May decided to convene a synod, and Dr. Cotton Mather was appointed to draw up a pet.i.tion to the legislature.

"Considering the great and visible decay of piety in the country, and the growth of many miscarriages, which we fear may have provoked the glorious Lord in a series of various judgments wonderfully to distress us.... It is humbly desired that ... the ... churches ... meet by their pastors ... in a synod, and from thence offer their advice upon.... What are the miscarriages whereof we have reason to think the judgments of heaven, upon us, call us to be more generally sensible, and what may be the most evangelical and effectual expedients to put a stop unto those or the like miscarriages." [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ 3d ed. ii. 292, note.]

The "evangelical expedient" was of course to revive the Cambridge Platform; nor was such a scheme manifestly impossible, for the council voted "that the synod ... will be agreeable to this board, and the reverend ministers are desired to take their own time, for the said a.s.sembly; and it is earnestly wished the issue thereof may be a happy reformation." [Footnote: Chalmers's _Opinions_, i. 8.] In the house of representatives this resolution was read and referred to the next session.

Meanwhile the Episcopalian clergymen of Boston, in much alarm, presented a memorial to the General Court, remonstrating against the proposed measure; but the council resolved "it contained an indecent reflection on the proceedings of that board," [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 9.] and dismissed it. Nothing discouraged, the remonstrants applied for protection to the Bishop of London, who brought the matter to the attention of the law officers of the crown. In their opinion to call a synod would be "a contempt of his majesty's prerogative," and if "notwithstanding, ... they shall continue to hold their a.s.sembly, ... the princ.i.p.al actors therein [should] be prosecuted ... for a misdemeanour." [Footnote: Chalmers's _Opinions_, p. 13.]

Steadily and surely the coil was tightening which was destined to strangle the established church of Ma.s.sachusetts; but the resistance of the ministers was desperate, and lent a tinge of theological hate to the outbreak of the Revolution. They believed it would be impossible for them to remain a dominant priesthood if Episcopalianism, supported by the patronage of the crown, should be allowed to take root in the land; yet the Episcopalians represented conservatism, therefore they were forced to become radicals, and the liberalism they taught was fated to destroy their power.

Meanwhile their sacred vineyard lay open to attack upon every side. At Boston the royal governors went to King's Chapel and encouraged the use of the liturgy, while an inroad was made into Connecticut from New York.

Early in the century a certain Colonel Heathcote organized a regular system of invasion. He was a man eminently fitted for the task, being filled with zeal for the conversion of dissenters. "I have the charity to believe that, after having heard one of our ministers preach, they will not look upon our church to be such a monster as she is represented; and being convinced of some of the cheats, many of them may duly consider of the sin of schism." [Footnote: Conn. _Church Doc.u.ments_, i. 12.]

"They have abundance of odd kind of laws, to prevent any dissenting ... and endeavour to keep the people in as much blindness and unacquaintedness with any other religion as possible, but in a more particular manner the church, looking upon her as the most dangerous enemy they have to grapple withal, and abundance of pains is taken to make the ignorant think as bad as possible of her; and I really believe that more than half the people in that government think our church to be little better than the Papist, and they fail not to improve every little thing against us." [Footnote: Conn. _Church Doc.u.ments_, i. 9.]

He had little liking for the elders, whom he described as being "as absolute in their respective parishes as the Pope of Rome;" but he felt kindly toward "the pa.s.sive, obedient people, who dare not do otherwise than obey." [Footnote: _Idem_, i. 10.] He explained the details of his plan in his letters, and though he was aware of the difficulties, he did not despair, his chief anxiety being to get a suitable missionary.

He finally chose the Rev. Mr. Muirson, and in 1706 began a series of proselytizing tours. Nevertheless, the clergyman was wroth at the treatment he received.