No More Learning

They had reproduced on a national
scale a type of organization and a species of tactics that in
many parts of British America had enabled a determined
minority to seize control of affairs. It is not too fantastic
to say that they had snatched from the merchant class the
weapons which the latter had fashioned to advance their own
selfish interests in former years, and had now reversed the
weapons on them in an attempt to secure ends desired solely
by the radicals. Finally, they had defined -- nationalized -- the
issue at stake in such a manner as to afford prestige to rad-
ical groups, wherever they were to be found, and to weaken
the hold of the moderate elements, on the ground that the
latter were at variance with the Continental Congress!
An ultra-radical interpretation of the radical victory was
made at the time in these words: "The American Congress
derives all its power, wisdom and justice, not from scrolls
of parchment signed by Kings, but from the People. A
more august, and a more equitable Legislative body never
existed in any quarter of the globe . . . The Congress,
like other Legislative bodies, have annexed penalties to their
laws. They do not consist of the gallows, the rack, and the
stake . . . but INFAMY, a species of infamy . . . more
432
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? RATIFICATION OF THE ASSOCIATION
433
dreadful to a freeman than the gallows, the rack, or the
stake. It is this, he shall be declared in the publick papers
to be an enemy to his country. . . . The least deviation
from the Resolves of the Congress will be treason:--such
treason as few villains have ever had an opportunity of
committing. It will be treason against the present inhabi-
tants of the Colonies: Against the millions of unborn gen-
erations who are to exist hereafter in America: Against
the only liberty and happiness which remain to mankind:
Against the last hopes of the wretched in every corner of
the world. --In a word, it will be treason against God. " *
Such sentiments stiffened the radical party in all parts of
the continent, and it hardly occasions wonder that a rever-
end divine of Charleston, S. C, should have been dismissed
from his congregation "for his audacity in standing up in his
pulpit, and impudently saying that mechanics and country
clowns had no right to dispute about politics, or what kings,
lords and commons had done! " Nor was it necessary for
the Newport Mercury to add that: "All such divines should
be taught to know that mechanics and country clowns (in-
famously so called) are the real and absolute masters of
king, lords, commons and priests . . . " 2
The moderates began to realize that they had committed
an error in lending countenance to the movement for an
extra-legal congress. In the eyes of many of them, any
direct connection with this congress and its committees be-
came equivalent to rebellion; typical of this group, Joseph
Galloway now withdrew from the extra-legal activities alto-
gether. Others, like Isaac Low. lingered in the movement.
1"Political Observations, without Order; Addressed to the People
of America," Pa. Packet, Nov. 14, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp.
976-977. This article created wide interest . Two replies appeared in
the N. Y. Gasetteer, Dec. 1, 1774-
1 Newport Merc. , Sept. 26, 1774; also Pinkney's Va. Gas. , Oct. 13.
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? 434 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1783-1776
persuaded that they could salvage in their local politics what
had seemed shipwrecked in the Continental Congress, or
because, like John Andrews of Boston, they were swayed
by the impalpable influences of environment, temperament,
habit, education or social connections. 1 As the months
1John Andrews was a well-to-do merchant of Boston, who sat com-
placently at home drinking tea while the mob made their descent upon
the East India Company's shipments at the wharf. He wrote a witty
letter about it a few days later, and did not discover his indignation
over the destruction until it became apparent to him that, between the
Scylla of the Boston Port Act and the Charybdis of the radicals'
Solemn League and Covenant, his business would surely be wrecked.
At this time he had stock on his shelves amounting to about ? 2000
sterling and almost as much more out in debts. He could say with
feeling that he opposed "Tyranny exerciz'd either in England or
America. " He was disposed to favor the opening of the port of
Boston through reimbursing the East India Company for their losses.
Later, he entertained hopes that the Continental Congress would af-
ford relief that would be "lasting and permanent. " About this time
it would appear that he began to be affected by the excited state of
public opinion and was himself much irritated by the rudeness and
immorality of the soldiers. He wrote on August 20, 1774: "When
I seriously reflect on the unhappy situation we are in, I cant but be
uneasy least ye trade of the town should never be reinstated again: but
on the other hand, when I consider that our future welfare depends
altogether upon a steady and firm adherence to the common cause, I
console myself with the thoughts that if, after using every effort in
our power, we are finally oblig"d to submit, we shall leave this testi-
mony behind us, that, not being able to stem the stream, we were of
necessity borne down by the torrent. " However, his mood became less
exalted in October, and he wrote, with reference to mob violence:
"every day's experience tells me that not only good policy, but our
own quiet, absolutely depends upon a bare acquiescence at least.
Therefore I esteem them very blameable who have persisted in
opposition to them, as vox populi, vox Dei--and their resentment is
so great in return, that it's a chance whether (if their struggles should
produce better times) they will ever admit of such passing their future
days uninterrupted among "em. " Andrews became more closely identi-
fied with the radical side as time passed and was a patriot at the time
of the Declaration of Independence. / M. H. S. Procs. , vol. viii, pp.
326-331, 339, 343-344, 377-
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? RATIFICATION OF THE ASSOCIATION
435
passed, there was presented to every merchant, with in-
creasing sharpness, the alternative of adhering to Congress,
even if it meant rebellion and independence, to which his
class had always been opposed, or of adhering to Great
Britain, even if that meant submission to those parliamen-
tary measures to which his class were also opposed. The
increasing tendency of the moderates was to follow the
counsel offered by one who himself had once been zealous
in meetings and organizations of the people: "As we have
already done what we ought not to have done, and left un-
done what we ought to have done, let us . . . in time re-
turn to our Constitution, and by our Representatives, like
honest men, state our grievances, and ask relief of the
mother state; let us do this with that plainness and decency
of language that will . . . remove every suspicion that we
have the least intention or desire to be independent. " 1
The_ publication oj the Continental Association was
greeted w1rh a *tr,rm nf protit *rnIn the moderate press in
the leading commercial provinces. These tracts were rem-
iniscent of the controversial literature produced under
somewhat similar circumstances by Drayton at Charleston
and by the writers in Mein's Boston Chronicle in the years
1769-1770. 8 The chief plaint was directed against those
l"Z" in N. Y. Gasetteer, Dec. 1, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp.
987-989. (For identity of "Z," vide ibid. , pp. 1096-1097. ) Vide also
Seabury, Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Continental Con-
gress . . . (New York, 1774), p. 29: "Renounce all dependence on
Congress and committees. . . . Turn your eyes to your constitutional
representatives . . . "
1 The principal writings were: the articles by "Massachusettensis"
(Daniel Leonard) in Mass. Gas. & Post-Boy, at intervals from Dec. 12,
1774, to April 3, 1775, afterwards published as a pamphlet; a series,
addressed "To the Honourable Peyton Randolph, Esq. , late President
of the American Continental Congress," by "Grotius" in the same
newspaper; the anonymous pamphlets, What Think Ye of Congress
Now? , Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Continental Congress
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? 436 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
provisions which seemed to establish the Continental Con-
gress as a sort of de facto government. "Massachusettensis"
claimed that the Association contained all the constituent
parts of a law, including an enacting clause, the establish-
ment of rules of conduct, and the affixing of pains and
penalties. Although the terms "request" and "recom-
mend '' were sometimes used, the usual style was that used
by an authoritative assemblage--that such and such a
thing "be" done. VllBy their assuming the powers of
legislation, the Congress have not only superseded our pro-
vincial legislatures, but have excluded every idea of mon-
archy; and not content with the havock already made in our
constitution, in the plenitude of their power have appointed
another Congress to be held in May. "JLJ The Association,
according to another writer, " is calculated for the meridian
of a Spanish Inquisition; it is subversive of, inconsistent
with, the wholesome laws of our happy Constitution; it ab-
rogates or suspends many of them essential to the peace
and order of Government; it takes the Government out of
the hands of the Governour, Council, and General Assem-
bly; and the execution of the laws out of the hands of the
Civil Magistrates and Juries. " a
A third writer agreed that the committees appointed to
enforce the Association were " a court established upon the
same principles with the popish Inquisition. No proofs, no
evidence are called for. . . . No jury is to be impannelled.
. . . by a Farmer, and The Congress Canvassed . . . by A. W. Farmer,
probably written by Samuel Seabury; a pamphlet, Alarm to the Legis-
lature of New York . . . . by Isaac Wilkins; articles in the N. Y.
Gasetteer by "Z," "A Freeholder of Essex," and others.
1Mow. Gas. & Post-Boy, Mch. 27, 1775. Vide also Congress Can-
vassed, p. 14.
W. K. Gasetteer, Feb. 16, 1775; also 4 Am. Areh. , vol. i, pp. 1211-
1213. Vide also Congress Canvassed, p. 20; Alarm to Legislature,
PP. 7, 9-
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? RATIFICATION OF THE ASSOCIATION
437
No check is appointed upon this court; no appeal from its
determination. " * The means prescribed for carrying out
the Association, affirmed "Grotius" in an open letter to
the recent president of Congress, " would shock the soul of
a savage; your tenth, eleventh and fourteenth articles con-
tain such a system of lawless tyranny as a Turk would
startle at; it is a barbarous inroad upon the first rights of
men in a social state; it is a violent attack upon the lawfully
acquired property of honest, industrious individuals. " 2
One unworldly Connecticut parson furnished another
ground for objection: "The Saviour of the world, whose
servant I am, hath commanded me to feed the hungry, tc
give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked . . . Here it
will be to no purpose to say that such and such persons are
mine ENEMIES; because our Lord hath expressly . . .
commanded me to extend my good offices to mine enemies
as such. And I beg the Committee to remember that Min-
isters of the gospel are. Jn a particular manner, commanded
to keep hospitality. " * \^ Had an Act of Parliament formed
such an inquisition . . .
," declared another writer, "how
should we have heard of the liberty of the subject, his right
to trial by his peers, &c. , &c. Yet these men, at the same
time they arraign the highest authority on earth, insolently
trample on the liberties of their fellow-subjects; and, with-
out the shadow of a trial, take from them their property,
grant it to others, and not content with all this, hold them
up to contempt, and expose them to the vilest injuries. "^
1 Congress Canvassed, p. 14.
1 Mass. Gas. & Post-Boy, Feb. 6, 1775.
1"I am no politician, am not connected with politicians as such;
and never will be either," he added. Rev. John Sayre, Fairfield, Conn. ,
in N. Y. Journ. , Sept. 28, 1775. For a scriptural answer, vide ibid. ,
Oct. a6.
4"Z" in N. Y. Gasetteer, Dec. 1, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , voL i,
pp. 987-^89.
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? 438 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
The opinion of the average moderate was well expressed
by the sentiment :t If I must be enslaved, let it be by a
KING at least, and not by a parcel of upstart lawless Com-
mittee-men. If I must be devoured, let me be devoured by
the jaws of a lion, and not gnawed to death by rats and
vermin. " J
A great deal was said about the impracticability of the
Association as a means of redress. The pamphlet, Free
Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Continental Congress,
went extensively into the matter. It was predictedJ that
there would be twenty times as much confusion and distress
in America as in Great Britain; that prices would soar;
that the American merchants would lose their trade per-
manently, for Great Britain would look elsewhere for raw
materials; that Parliament would block up all American
ports; that legal processes would be suspended; that the
farmers would be the chief sufferers; and all this calamity
in a fruitless effort to obtain results which should be sought
only through the usual legal channels.
The moderate members of Congress were frankly accused
of having been outwitted and outmaneuvered by the radicals.
"You had all the honors,--you had all the leading cards in
every sute in your own hands," one writer told the moder-
ates, "and yet, astonishing as it may appear to by-standers,
you suffered sharpers to get the odd trick. " 2 A New York
writer stated that he had reason to believe that the New
York delegates had opposed the headlong measures of Con-
gress and still disapproved of them; and he called upon
lFree Thoughts, p. 23. Vide also "A Freeholder of Essex" in N. Y.
Gasetteer, Jan. 5, 1775; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 1094-1096.
"Grotius" in Mass. Gas. & Post-Boy, Feb. 6, 1775. "Adams, with
his crew, and the haughty Sultans of the South juggled the whole con-
clave of the Delegates," was the way a Maryland merchant phrased it
in a published letter. 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 1194.
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? RATIFICATION OF THE ASSOCIATION 439
them to assert themselves despite the obligations of per-
petual secrecy. 1
The special concession granted to South Carolina in the
Association caused much comment, even in radical circles.
The writer just mentioned called upon the New York dele-
gates to state why the South Carolina delegates had suc-
ceeded better than they in securing special indulgences for
their constituents. 2 A Virginia scribbler protested that the
tobacco interests had been sacrificed to the rice planters and
wheat exporters. 8 One distracted fellow burst into verse,
eighty-two stanzas in length, in the following manner:
LIX
Suppose all truth the Congress say,
No doubt they make the worst;
Can we, my Friends, for many a day,
Be so completely curst,
LX
As have no cloaths, no grog, no tea,
To cheer our drooping spirits;
And snug in clover smugglers see,
Who have not half our merits.
LXI
Isn't it now a pretty story,
One smells it in a trice,
If I send wheat, I am a Tory,
But Charles-town may send RICE. 4
Even the Albany Committee of Correspondence, upon a
plea of the necessity for harmony, took occasion to inquire
of the New York delegates upon what principle a discrimi-
nation had been allowed in favor of South Carolina. 5
1 What Think Ye of Congress NowT, pp. 23-24. Vide also Alarm
to Legislature, p. g n.
* What Think Ye of Congress NowT, p. 40.
1N. Y. Gasetteer, Apr. 13, 1775; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. ii, p. 163.
4 Poor Man's Advice to his Poor Neighbours (New York, 1774).
*N. Y. Journ. , Feb. 16, 1775; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 1097-1098.
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? 440
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Notwithstanding the polemics of the opposition, the work
of establishing the administrative machinery for the Asso-
ciation had gotten irresistibly under way. The fact of the
matter was that the moderate elements, lacked an nrpan1M-
tion through whirh to fyr-r"fy t^H^ "ppng1^iop at this crit-
ical juncture. 1 Indeed, the logic of their own position in-
clined them to avoid all extra-legal organization even for
purposes of self-defense. 2 Furthermore, the coup of the
radicals in nationalizing the committee system shook to the
center such control as the moderates had already established
in various localities. The energies of the friends of the As-
sociation were first directed to the appointment of commit-
tees of observation and inspection in the local subdivisions of
the several provinces, and to obtaining formal sanction for
the Association from the provincial assembly or other pro-
vincial meeting, [ft was not specified in the Association that
endorsement by a provincial body was necessary--though
perhaps it was hinted at in Article xiv--but in any case it
was good politicsT) The remainder of this chapter will be
devoted to the progress that was made along these lines.
Massachusetts, being the storm centre of the contest with
Great Britain, was one of the earliest provinces to move.
The leading ports (Boston harbor being closed) led the
way: Marblehead and Newburyport appointed committees
1 Cf. Gage's view; . ; Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 981.
*" Pray examine the Province law throughout, and all other law
authorities that ever were held in repute by the English nation," de-
clared "Spectator" to the signers of a loyalist association, "and you
will not find one instance wherein they justify a number of men in
combining together in any league whatsoever to support the law, but
quite the reverse; for the law is supported in another manner; it is
maintained by Magistrates and Officers . . . and not by a number of
men combining together. " N. H. Gas. , Mch. 31, 1775; also 4 Am. Arch. ,
vol. ii, p. 252.
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? RATIFICATION OF THE ASSOCIATION
441
early in November, and Salem about a month later. Gov-
ernor Gage had deemed it unsafe to permit the Assembly
to meet; and the radical leadership of the province had
therefore devolved upon the provincial congress, which was,
to a large extent, the rejected Assembly under a different
name. When the provincial congress met on November 23,
1774, in their first session after the adjournment of the
Continental Congress, they lost no time in taking under
consideration the proceedings of the Continental Congress;
and on December 5 they voted their endorsement, recom-
mending that committees of inspection be chosen in every
town and district not already having such committees. 1
The town of Boston now acted. After unanimously
voting to continue the committee of correspondence--that
grain of mustard that had now become a great tree--the
town meeting on December 7 appointed a committee of
sixty-three, headed by Gushing, Hancock and Sam Adams,
to enforce the Association. It is significant of the trend of
events that a goodly majority of the Sixty-Three were
small shopkeepers, mechanics and other men of non-mer-
cantile employment; and that among the members appeared
such names as Thomas Chase and John Avery, the distil-
lers, Paul Revere, the silversmith, and Henry Bass, the
radical merchant,--men who had been " Sons of Liberty"
in the earlier times and had hitherto been nameless for the
purposes of the public press and committee rosters. 2 The
1 Mass. Spy, Dec. 8, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 993-998.
1 An unfriendly characterization of the Sixty-Three supplies inter-
esting facts concerning certain obscure members of this committee.
John Pull1ng was "Bully of the Mohawk tribe;" John Winthrop, Jr. .
was "Alias Joyce Jr. , Chairman of the Committee for tarring and
feathering;" Captain Ruddock, "supposed to be one Abiel Ruddock,
formerly head of the Mob on the fifth of November;" Joseph Eayres,
"carpenter, eminent for erecting Liberty poles. " 2 M. H. S. Procs. f
vol. xii, pp. 139-142.
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? 442
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
meeting recommended that the towns of the province should
follow the example of Weymouth and facilitate enforce-
ment by publishing copies of the Association in sufficient
number to supply every head of family. 1
Most of the towns followed the advice of the provincial
congress, and did not go to the trouble of appointing special
committees of observation and inspection; for they had
already established committees for the enforcement of the
Solemn League and Covenant, now superseded by the Asso-
ciation. Marshfield presented the only instance of a deter-
mination to defeat the Association by town action. The
citizens of that town had won for themselves the privilege
of drinking tea and killing sheep by obtaining the presence
of a detachment of British troops; and on February 20,
1775, a town meeting, duly licensed by Governor Gage
under the Massachusetts Government Act, rejected the re-
solves of the Continental and Provincial Congresses and all
other illegal assemblages. A minority protest, signed later
by sixty-four names, made the most of a bad situation by
charging trickery and misrepresentation. 8 In summing up,
it would appear that Massachusetts waft well e^ujppefl with
to nrever1r anv svstfnn*;- ? '"f":TCT? ments ofthe
New Hampshire had always been laggard in entering
into extra-legal organization. While the Continental Con-
gress was yet in session, organized opposition to the out-
come of the Congress was begun in Hillsborough County. *
lMtus. Spy, Dec. 8, 1774; also Bos. Town Recs. (7770- 7777), pp. 205-207.
* Bos. Eve. Post, Mch. 6, 13, 1775; also -t Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp.
1177-1178, 1249-1251.
1 Twenty-three inhabitants of Frances-Town and fifty-four inhabi-
tants of New Boston signed agreements pledging their opposition to the
unlawful proceedings of men who pretended to maintain the very
liberties that they were trampling under foot. On Nov.