Latest / Life and Times of Joseph Warren / Chapter 10 Part 2 - Boston Port Act and The American Union - December 1773 to June 1774

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Chapter 10 Part 2 - Boston Port Act and The American Union - December 1773 to June 1774 · Life and Times of Joseph Warren

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  Chapter ten, Part two of Life and Times of Joseph Warren by Richard Frothingham.
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  This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Boston records say that
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  doctor Warren acquainted the town that they the committee thought best to defer making a
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  report till they had heard from the other governments, whereupon they were directed to
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  sit again. It was stated that there had been much talk out of doors,
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  as well as writing in the papers, concerning payment for the tea,
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  and the request was made that in case any gentleman had anything to offer on
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  the subject, he would speak freely, in order that a matter of so
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  much importance might be fairly discussed in the presence of the body of the people.
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  Among others, Thomas Boyleston, a wealthy merchant and a public benefactor,
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  spoke on this question, but he had not gone far before the people became
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  impatient and tried to stop him. The moderator interposed to check the confusion,
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  and expressed his mortification that a citizen of mister Boyleston's age, sense and experience
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  of life was not listened to with the respect which he was entitled. Instead,
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  the moderator said he witnessed what he could describe best. In the words
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  of Milton, I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs by the
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  known rules of ancient liberty, when straight a barbarous noise environs me of owls
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  and cuckoos, asses, apes and dogs, uttering the last line with uncommon
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  emphasis, and with gestures pointing to the part of the hall from which the
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  noise came. Though the rebuke restored order, mister Boyleston declined to go on.
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  Young, a zealous patriot, the next day wrote in Vain, where
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  the esconae called upon to expose proportions fit only to be whispered in the conclave
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  of the addressers, composed of a few men. The meeting adjourned until the
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  afternoon. At three o'clock, the committee of correspondents laid before the town,
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  probably through Warren, the answers that had been received to their appeal. It
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  is not necessary to present an abstract of them. Some acceded to the proposition
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  to stop the trade. Others preferred to await the decision of a congress,
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  which was proposed by Providence in New York, and all urged the necessity of
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  making united effort. The town passed an admirable resolution in joining the Committee of
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  Correspondence to write to all the other colonies and to equate them, that the
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  town was deliberating on the steps to be taken on the present exigency, and
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  were awaiting with anxiety the result of a Continental Congress, whose meeting they impatiently
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  desired, in whose wisdom they could confide, and in whose determination they should
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  cheerfully acquiesce. This meeting was again adjourned. It proved to be uncommonly satisfactory
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  to the patriots. The journals say that it was as full and respectable as
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  ever was known, and was never exceeded in firmness and unanimity, that its
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  speeches on the state of affairs would do honor to any assembly, that not
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  one, though called upon, had anything to say in favor of paying for
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  the tea, and that all were forwithstanding the utmost efforts of tyranny, rather
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  than make free surrender of the rights of America. While the patriots, guided
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  by Warren, were thus successful in the Town meeting, their brethren in Salem,
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  under the lead of Samuel Adams, were adopting an important measure in the
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  General Court. A glance at the proceedings of which seems to be required to
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  show the progress of events. For months, indeed, for years, the
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  call had been frequent in the colonies for a union after the manner of the
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  United Provinces, and for a Congress as the necessary step towards it. Such
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  a body was formally proposed by a town meeting in Providence, and the Committees
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  of Correspondence of Philadelphia, New York, and Connecticut, and the Assembly of
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  Virginia, and the New York Committee requested the Patriots of Massachusetts to appoint the
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  time and place. It was resolved to do this today in the General Court,
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  Samuel Adams, having reason to fear executive interference, locked the door of
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  the hall in which the House of Representatives were assembled, and proposed the resolves,
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  which provided for a Congress to be convened on the first of September at
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  Philadelphia. While these resolves were under consideration, Secretary Flucker appeared at the door,
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  and, on being denied admission, sent in a messenger to inform the
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  House that he had a message from the governor. The messenger was informed that
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  the House had ordered the door to be kept locked. The Secretary, standing
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  on the stairs leading to the hall, read a large number of people a
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  proclamation by Governor Gage dissolving the General Court. The House, however, went
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  on and completed its business. The resolves were adopted. James Bodwin, Samuel
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  Adams, John Adams, and Thomas Cushing were selected as the delegates of Massachusetts.
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  Bodwin subsequently declining, Robert treet Hayne was selected in his place, and
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  attax was laid to defray their expenses. The House also recommended contributions to be
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  made for the relief of Boston and the neighboring town of Charlestown, which were
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  the most affected by the Port Act. The Boston representatives could not know that
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  British authority was at an end in Massachusetts, or that the moderator of that
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  day's town meeting in a few years would be the chief magistrate of an independent
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  nation. But as they returned from Salem that afternoon, they could feel that,
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  in a spirit of fidelity to duty, they had taken the leading steps
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  to promote a union which were expected by their countrymen. In the evening,
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  Adams, Cushing, Quincy Warren, Young, and other popular leaders assembled at
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  Warren's residence, forming a very important and agreeable company, and as they communed
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  with each other. One home, at least in the distressed town was lighted
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  as with the glory of the after time. Their hearts were gladdened by the
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  high spirit evinced in the town meeting, by the zeal of the yeomanry in
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  signing the League and Covenant, and by the general refusal to pay for the
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  tea. For neither in the general Assembly of the Province, nor in the
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  Grand Meeting of the Capitol, was there a single symptom of inclination to comply
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  with the demand, though enforced by a distressing blockade. Then the evidences were
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  increasing of the outpour of generous sympathy which the naked injustice of the port Act
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  occasioned. Besides the voice from Baltimore already cited and the cheering intelligence in the
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  journals, there was read a letter from New York which was pronounced to be
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  as encouraging as anything they had from any part of the continent. There was
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  now a genuine communion of feeling, a noble surrender of the American mind to
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  the grand emotion of fraternity, and well might the popular leaders feel a glow
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  of inspiration. One of the exalting band wrote, our rejoicing was full from
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  an interchange of interesting advices from all quarters. A cluster of morning stars of
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  a new constellation were rejoicing in the blossoming of American nationality. End of Chapter
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  ten, Part two,