The Founders' Second Amendment

by Stephen P. Halbrook

  The Crown forcibly purchased arms and ammunition held in the inventory of merchants, and an order went out that the inhabitants must turn in their arms.45 Thus, despite the Council’s failure officially to adopt the latter measure, Gage apparently decreed the same result—albeit without necessarily trying to enforce it.

  New England patriots hastened toward Boston. A Connecticut patriot named McNeil reported on September 2 how women and children were fully engaged in supporting the men:

  All along were armed men rushing forward—some on horseback. At every house, women and children making cartridges, running [i.e., casting molten lead into] bullets, making wallets, baking biscuits, crying and bemoaning and at the same time animating their husbands and sons to fight for their liberties, though not knowing whether they should ever see them again.46

  Probably out of breath, Gage reported few details to Dartmouth, noting that a crowd assembled at the house of Lieutenant Governor Oliver partly “on Account of some Ammunition belonging to the Province in the Arsenal in Cambridge, which I had before sent a Detachment to secure, and lodged it in Castle William.”47 (The Charlestown powder house was actually located between that town and Cambridge.48)

  Both the Redcoats and the patriots reacted to each others’ escalating actions, spiraling tensions upward. John Andrews wrote on September 5 that “The alarm caus’d by the movement of the country has induc’d the Governor to order a number of field pieces up to the neck guard, and this morning has got a number of workmen there, to build blockhouses and otherways repair the fortification.” The next day, Andrews continued, “Its allowed, by the best calculations, that at least a hundred thousand men were equipt with arms, and moving towards us from different parts of the country.”49

  Numerous accounts of the powder seizure with varied allegations were published throughout the colonies. One report stated:

  General Gage seized the public Stock of Gunpowder in the Magazine at Cambridge, about 250 Quarter Barrels, . . . ordered it to the Castle, and a Detachment of his Troops were proceeding to Medford, a Town adjoining Charlestown, for the same Purpose. This Measure gives great Umbrage to the People (it is said they were armed) gathered at Cambridge last week; the Report here yesterday Morning was, that there were 30,000 of them, but the latest Accounts bring them down to 1500; that upon hearing the Resignation of several of the Counselors they said they were satisfied, and retired to their respective Homes.50

  Another account alleged that 250 British troops seized the powder and that 30 other Redcoats seized two field pieces belonging to the Cambridge militia:

  The Report of this Maneuver, exaggerated no Doubt in the Country, brought this Morning [September 2], on Cambridge Common, at least 3000 People from different Parts of the Country, in Order to learn the Truth of the Matter. They were unarmed, and demanded the public Resignation of two Counselors, Inhabitants of Cambridge, which was complied with; and after choosing several Persons to stop the great Numbers coming in from the distant Parts, said to be many Thousands, and being satisfied that the Governor had seized only the King’s Powder, they peaceably dispersed.51

  The alarm spread into Connecticut, whose patriots were prepared to relieve their brethren in Boston. “It is said the Governor [Gage] is determined not to risk any Troops in the Country, till he is reinforced, being apprehensive of their loss, from the amazing number and fury of our People, who are all provided with Arms and Ammunition, &c.”52

  Rumors abounded in this highly charged atmosphere. The Continental Congress had just convened in Philadelphia for the first time, where on September 6 Patrick Henry of Virginia insisted “that by the oppression of Parliament all Government was dissolved, and that we were reduced to a State of Nature.”53 As if to buttress his speech, an express arrived with intelligence “that the soldiers had seized the powder in one of the Towns near Boston, That a party was sent to take this, and that six of the Inhabitants had been killd in the skirmish, That all the Country was in arms down to [blank] in Connecticut, That the cannon fired upon the Town the whole Night.”54 Fortunately, the accounts of deaths and cannon fire were baseless rumors. As John Adams, a delegate at the Congress, wrote in his diary two days later: “The happy news were brought us from Boston, that no blood had been spilled, but that General Gage had taken away the provincial powder from the magazine at Cambridge.”55

  There would be more happy news from Adams’ hometown of Braintree, located 10 miles southeast of Boston. Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John that the patriots had seized the gunpowder from the powder house and that they had jokingly offered her some:

  In consequence of the powders being taken from Charlstown, a general alarm spread thro many Towns and was caught pretty soon here. . . . [A]bout 8 o clock a Sunday evening there passed by here about 200 men, preceeded by a horse cart, and marches down to the powder house from whence they took the powder and carried it into the other parish and there secreeted it. I opened the window upon there return. They pass’d without any noise, not a word among them till they came against this house, when some them perceiving me, askd me if I wanted any powder. I replied not since it was in so good hands. The reason they have for taking it, was that we had so many Tories here they dare not trust us with it.56

  During this period, Gage had under two thousand soldiers in Boston “to control a well-armed population of about fifteen thousand,” not to mention that “the country people conducted militia drills in deadly earnest and squirreled away a growing stockpile of arms and ammunition.”57 John Andrews wrote on September 12 that many inhabitants wanted to leave Boston, anticipating that Gage—despite assurances to the contrary—would confine them in the town once it was sufficiently fortified. “But if they should come to disarming the inhabitants, the matter is settled with the town at once; for blood and carnage must inevitably ensue—which God forbid! should ever take place.”58

  What Andrews described as “the County Committee” met with Gage, who asked them to “make yourselves easy, and I’ll be so.” The general grilled them, “What is the reason that the cannon were remov’d from Charlestown?—And why do the country people go in and out of the town arm’d?” The committee promised to respond in writing the next day. Andrews commented: “In regard to the people coming in arm’d, I never understood that they did; but as to their going out so is very common, for every man in the country not possess’d of a firelock making it a point to procure one, so that I suppose for a month past, or more, not a day has pass’d but a hundred or more are carried out of town by’em.”59

  Lord Hugh Percy, of His Majesty’s forces, also wrote a letter on September 12, deploring that “the People here openly oppose the New Acts. They have taken up arms in almost every part of this Province, & have drove in the Govr & most of the Council.” Percy groused about his superior Gage: “The General’s great lenity and moderation serve only to make them more daring & insolent.” Percy then added:

  What makes an insurrection here always more formidable than in other places, is that there is a law of this Province, wh[ich] obliges every inhabitant to be furnished with a firelock, bayonet, & pretty considerable quantity of ammunition. Besides wh[ich], every township is obliged by the same law to have a large magazine of all kinds of military stores.

  They are, moreover, trained four times in each year, so that they do not make a despicable appearance as soldiers, tho’ they were never yet known to behave themselves even decently in the field.60

  Percy was particularly peeved that Gage had not clamped down on the citizens who were carrying arms: “The Gen[era]l has not yet molested them in the least. They have even free access to and from this town, tho’ armed with firelocks, provided they only come in small nos.”61

  Yet Gage was no pansy. He had already incensed the colonists by seizing large quantities of ammunition from the powder houses. Cutting off arms and ammunition at the source was a superior strategy to singling out individuals carrying arms and seizing them, thereby violating the guarantee in the English Bill of Ri
ghts “That the Subjects which are Protestants, may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Condition, and as are allowed by Law.”62 As governor, Gage could not just ignore this act of Parliament, any more than the Council could repeal it. But he was well aware of the seriousness of the situation, writing to Dartmouth the same day (or perhaps that night by candlelight):

  The Country People are exercising in Arms in this Province, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and getting Magazines of Arms and Ammunition in the Country, and such Artillery, as they can procure good and bad. They threaten to attack the Troops in Boston, and are very angry at a Work throwing up at the Entrance of the Town . . . .63

  While Gage’s troops could shut down the powder houses, no pretense yet existed to seize lawfully imported gunpowder from abroad. John Andrews noted on September 21: “Captain Scott arriv’d yesterday at Salem in 7 weeks from London. He has brought a quantity of powder, which comes very seasonably at this time, as it’s now five or six weeks since the Governor has allow’d any to be taken out of the magazine here, whereby for some weeks there has not been a pound to be sold or bought in town.”64

  Gage, still trying to bring Dartmouth up to date, wrote of the alarming situation, both in terms of the spread to other colonies of the armed insubordination to authority and the more drastic solution being proposed:

  We hear of Nothing but Extravagancies in some Part or other, and of military Preparations from this place to the Province of New York, in which the whole seems ro be united. Upon a Rumour propagated with uncommon Dispatch thro’ the Country, that the Soldiers had killed six People, and that the Ships and Troops were firing upon Boston, the whole Country was in Arms, and in Motion, and numerous Bodies of the Connecticut People had made some Marches before the Report was contradict’d. From present Appearances there is no Prospect of putting the late Acts in Force, bur by first making a Conquest of the New-England Provinces.65

  Gage did not reckon well, in the words of historian David Hackett Fischer, that “the people of New England were jealous of their liberties, including their liberty to keep and bear arms.”66 Gage’s deprivation of privately owned gunpowder became a major complaint of the Suffolk County Resolutions of September 6, which were widely published and acclaimed throughout the colonies. (Boston was the county seat of Suffolk County.) In a series of charges penned by Dr. Joseph Warren, the patriot doctor who carried pistols when making his rounds,67 the Suffolk delegates resolved in part: “That the Fortifications begun and now carrying upon Boston Neck are justly alarming to this County, and give us reason to apprehend some hostile intention against that town, more especially as the Commander in Chief has in a very extraordinary manner removed the powder from the magazine at Charlestown, and has also forbidden the keeper of the magazine at Boston to deliver out to the owners the powder which they had lodged in said magazine.”68

  Paul Revere rushed copies of the Suffolk Resolutions to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, which had just assembled for the first time the day before and which unanimously denounced “these wicked ministerial measures.”69 In a letter to Dartmouth that would be published in the proceedings of Parliament, Gage responded to the Suffolk allegations, noting: “No private Property has been touched, unless they mean an order to the Storekeeper not to deliver out any Powder from the Magazine, where the Merchants deposit it, which I judged a very Necessary and prudent Measure in the present Circumstances, as well as removing the Ammunition from the Provincial Arsenal at Cambridge.”70

  The Suffolk delegates sent a committee led by Dr. Joseph Warren to meet with Gage. The committee’s list of grievances, dated September 9, included the charge that “the ferment now excited in the minds of the people, is occasioned” in part “by withholding the powder lodged in the magazine of the town of Boston, from the legal proprietors, insulting, beating, and abusing passengers to and from the town of Boston, by the soldiery . . . .” Ignoring the accusations, Gage responded with a countercharge: “I would ask what occasion there is for such numbers going armed in and out of the Town, and through the country in an hostile manner? or why were the guns removed privately in the night, from the battery at Charlestown?”71

  There is another account of Warren meeting with Gage, although it is unclear if it was the same meeting or a subsequent one on behalf of the Committee of Correspondence, of which Warren was president. Warren demanded an explanation for the fortifications and for Gage’s recent purchase of a large quantity of military stores from a private vendor (to which the patriots strongly objected). Gage responded that “the country people were all armed, and collecting cannon and military stores from all quarters, which, as they were not soldiers by profession, or under the least apprehension of any invasion, could indicate nothing but their intention of attacking his Majesty’s forces in that town . . . .” Gage added that the fortifications were defensive, and the inhabitants had not been annoyed. However, Gage insisted, “it is notorious that many cannon have been conveyed, notwithstanding the works, from thence; and arms are carried out openly by every man that goes out of Boston without molestation.”72

  However, the Boston Committee of Correspondence charged that “a number of Cannon, the property of a private gentleman, were a few days ago seized and taken from his wharf by order of the General . . . .”73 Moreover, despite the Mandamus Counselors having found an official ban on firearms temporarily impolitic, Gage’s forces had begun to seize them without lawful authority. Dr. Warren wrote to Samuel Adams on September 29:

  The troops are availing themselves of every opportunity to make themselves more formidable, and render the people less able to oppose them. They keep a constant search for every thing which will be serviceable in battle; and whenever they espy any instruments which may serve or disserve them,—whether they are the property of individuals or the public is immaterial,—they are seized, and carried into the camp or on board the ships of war.74

  As an example, Warren noted that “Mr. Samuel Phillips, jun., of Andover, was this day carrying about a dozen fire-arms over Charleston ferry. The sloop-of-war lying in the river dispatched a boat, and seized them.”75 Boston merchant John Andrews wrote in more detail that this ship:

  seiz’d a parcell of Merchandize to the amount of about fifty pounds, lawful money, which were a dozen firelocks, the property of Mr. Phillips of Andover. He waited on Captain Bishop to obtain a release of them; but most people would be glad to have the matters come to a tryal, in order to have it determin’d whether they have a right to seize any article, transported across the harbour, or not.76

  But military rule may have by now precluded intervention by the courts to challenge seizures of private arms. And given that the courts were either filled with the Crown’s appointees or were not open because the patriots had pressured Crown judges to resign, a test case was most improbable.

  An apologist for Gage wrote to Peyton Randolph, president of the Continental Congress, denying that the general had seized private property. A commander of one of His Majesty’s ships, not Gage, had seized several cannon, because they were water-borne and intended to be smuggled. No one had claimed them in the Court of Admiralty. Regarding the merchants’ gunpowder, the writer conceded that “the General did, for a short time, very wisely and prudently prohibit the Keeper of the Magazine from delivering out any Powder—but this is, at most, only in the nature of an embargo, and is no more an invasion of private property than an embargo on ships is.”77

  The patriots were more likely to challenge the Redcoats in places outside the courts. But nonjudicial test cases were at hand. John Andrews recorded an incident in which soldiers were shooting at a target in a stream at Boston Common. A countryman standing by laughed when the whole regiment could not hit the target. The officer in charge challenged the man to shoot better. He did so repeatedly, hitting the target exactly where the officer directed him. Andrews noted:

  The officers as well as the soldiers star’d, and tho’t the Devil was in the man. Why, says the countryman, I’ll tell
you naow. I have got a boy at home that will toss up an apple and shoot out all the seeds as its coming down.78

  The country people were not only honing up their sharpshooter skills, they were organizing their own militias from the bottom up rather than the top down. John Andrews commented:

  The Country towns, in general, have chose their own officers, and muster for exercise once a week at least—when the parson as well as the Squire stands in the Ranks with a firelock.—In particular at Marblehead, they turn out three or four times a week, when Col. Lee as well as the Clergy men there are not asham’d to appear in the ranks, to be taught the manual exercise, in particular.79

  While Massachusetts was the hotbed of the trouble, the people of other colonies were arming themselves too. Gage noted in a missive to Dartmouth that “they talk even in that Province [Pennsylvania] of taking Arms with an Indifference, as if it was a Matter of little Importance. I don’t suppose People were ever more possessed with Zeal and Enthusiasm.”80

  By now the Redcoats had instituted a general policy of searching places for arms and seizing them, which only induced the populace to arm themselves further. The address from Worcester County presented to General Gage stated:

  This County are constrained to observe, they apprehend the People justified in providing for their own Defence, while they understood there was no passing the Neck without Examination, the Cannon at the North-Battery spiked up, & many places searched, where Arms and Ammunition were suspected to be; and if found seized; yet as the People have never acted offensively, nor discovered any disposition so to do, as above related, the County apprehend this can never justify the seizure of private Property.81

  Gage denied any hostile intent, but as usual, refused to respond to the specific charges.82 The same day as the above was published, Gage wrote privately to Dartmouth, enclosing the Worcester address and similar resolves: