Having backed down on the Stamp Act, having rescinded all but one of the Townshend duties, and having defanged the remaining tea duty by eliminating the middleman markup, the British were livid that Massachusetts should countenance such law-breaking (under the apparent pretext of a tax protest) to advance the interests of John Hancock and other Boston merchants, and, on March 25, 1774, the British Parliament retaliated by ordering that, in the absense of just compensation, the Port of Boston be closed (as of June 1st) and Massachusetts be governed by martial law under British General Thomas Gage. All public gatherings, whether in simple town meeting or in Mohawk disguise, would henceforth be prohibited.682
The imposition of martial law and the outlawing of town meetings angered all Massachusetts citizens. Shifting Massachusetts’ entry port from Boston north to Salem would (and did) cost thousands of Bostonian jobs. When news that the port would be closed reached Boston in May, Bostonians met at Fanueil Hall and resolved to end trade with Britain until the port reopened. They resolved to create a Solemn League and Covenant by which other colonies could join the Massachusetts boycott, and they urged other colonies to meet in congress to consider the crisis. Boston silversmith Paul Revere carried the news. Other colonies agreed to attend.
During that summer of 1774, extralegal colonial committees chose delegates for a First Continental Congress of the American colonies, which was held in Philadelphia at the end of the summer (starting September 5th) to consider the Boston Harbor closing and the Massachusetts hope for a unified response. While the Continental Congress was meeting, Massachusetts adopted additional “Suffolk Resolves” (which were sent to the Congress via messenger Paul Revere), urging no obedience be paid to British acts, no taxes be paid to the royal government, military preparations (like the stockpiling of arms) be made in case British troops in Boston moved against protesters, and, if the British were to seize any patriot leaders, a plan to respond in kind.
Fifty-five delegates from twelve colonies attended Philadelphia’s First Continental Congress. Boston’s prominent lawyer John Adams and powerful merchant/smuggler John Hancock were among the Massachusetts delegates. Handsome land developer and erstwhile colonel in Virginia’s militia George Washington adorned the Virginia delegation. Ben Franklin, America’s foremost representative in Europe, remained in London as colonial agent for Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia.
At the First Continental Congress, the colonies agreed (as a “Continental Association”) not to import or consume British goods and, should Britain not repeal the “coercive” acts within the next year, no longer to export American products to Britain. The delegates approved Massachusetts’ “Suffolk Resolves” with the caveat that colonists refrain from violence, and Congress compiled a list of grievances to be presented to King George III.
In asserting their rights and petitioning the British King, Americans were not objecting to living under a monarchy. To the contrary, they sought a stronger monarchy, not a weaker monarchy, to reverse the intolerable and coercive acts of Britain’s most democratic institution, the British House of Commons. It was Parliament, after all, that was infringing on the king’s prerogative to grant colonial self-government (a prerogative the king had exercised, the colonists argued, in chartering the colonies).683 How ironic for King George’s American subjects—and how little appreciated—that the same evolution of British liberties that allowed them to petition their British king now precluded their British king from reversing the acts of the British Parliament!
On October 26, 1774, America’s First Continental Congress adjourned, recommending that the thirteen colonies quickly choose delegates for a Second Continental Congress (to convene next May 10th if Britain did not redress colonial grievances). Until May 10th, Philadelphia and the rest of America would await the king’s response.
Although the following period of American history finds me, William Duane, taking up my pen against the British monarch in Ireland, India, and England,684 I will, nevertheless, journalize this important time for you, dear reader, on the same day-to-day basis as I used in Book One.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1774 685
The Pennsylvania Gazette
[British] General [Thomas] Gage [in Boston] hath absolute orders from the Court to prevent the meetings of the Congress and to seize all such people as attempt to assemble …
The idea of sending another cargo of tea to Boston, with a military force, is most contemptibly ridiculous …
It is not the people of Boston only who are resolved not to pay the tax upon tea, but the common cause of all the American colonies …
Today, a thirty-seven-year-old Englishman whom Benjamin Franklin will describe as “my adopted political son”686 disembarks at Philadelphia from the London Packet. He bears a letter of introduction from Ben Franklin (now ten years in London) to Benny Bache’s father, Richard Bache:
The bearer, Mr. Thomas Paine, is very well recommended … He goes to Pennsylvania with a view of settling there. I request you to give him your best advice and countenance, as he is quite a stranger there. If you can put him in a way of obtaining employment … you will do well … My love to Sally and the boys.687
Tom Paine:
The favor of Dr. Franklin’s friendship I possessed in England, and my introduction to this part of the world was through his patronage.688
Saturday, March 4, 1775. Today, settled on Philadelphia’s Front-street across from the London Coffee House, Tom Paine writes a letter to Benjamin Franklin:
I am just now informed by Mr. [Richard] Bache of a vessel preparing to sail for London tomorrow, and lest I should not have an other opportunity as soon as I might wish, to acquaint you, I have taken this to acquaint you as laconically as I can of the services your good favors have been to me …
Your countenancing me has obtained me many friends and much reputation, for which, please accept my sincere thanks … [A] Printer and Bookseller here … has lately attempted a magazine, but having little or no turn that way himself, has applied to me for assistance. He had not above 600 subscribers when I first assisted him. We have now upwards of 1500 and daily increasing …689
Tuesday, April 18, 1775. Tonight, toward midnight, eight hundred British soldiers prepare to cross Boston’s Charles River for an early-morning surprise raid on a stockpile of ammunition that colonists have illegally accumulated in Concord, Massachusetts. As the British soldiers prepare to depart, Boston silversmith Paul Revere and other messengers get ready to set off on horseback to forewarn Concord (and nearby Lexington, along the route). Fearing British soldiers might capture him before he gets clear of the city, Paul Revere sends a signal to comrades across the river in Charlestown. Paul Revere:
I agreed with a Colonel Conant and some other gentlemen [in Charlestown across the river] that if the British went out by water, we would shew two lanthorns in the North Church steeple, and if by land, one … for we were apprehensive it would be difficult [for us] to cross the Charles River or git over Boston neck.690
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1775
The Pennsylvania Gazette
Extract of a letter from London …
The determination of the ensuing [American] Congress [to meet May 10th] will be final and decisive … I am of the opinion that nothing will move the King and his Ministers, but absolute submission or a successful resistance. But an offer from you of such a contribution to the relief of this country from its debt would disarm them of their only popular argument … [O]ur forefathers purchased their undoubted rights in Magna Carta by the gift of a sum of money to the King, and I think we need not blush to follow so great an example …
The SPEECH of the LORD MAYOR …
But, Sir, it will be said, is America then to enjoy the protection of Great-Britain and to contribute nothing toward the support of that very state which has so long given it protection and security, which has nursed it up to its present greatness? …
A number of families are moving themselves and their most valuable effects
from the town of Boston into the country in consequence of the late advices from England …
[London] Orders are sent to Woolrich for a train of artillery to be got ready with all expedition to be shipped with the troops destined for Boston.
Early this morning, an event occurs in Lexington, Massachusetts that will relieve John Adams’ “painful drudgery” in appearing daily before Boston’s Admiralty Court to defend John Hancock against smuggling charges.691 The eight-hundred-man British force which left Boston last night to seize an arms depot in Concord encounters about one hundred farmer-soldiers (“ready in a minute” militia) exercising on the Lexington village green, and when these country folk refuse to disarm and stand aside, the British brigade fires on, charges, and disperses the crowd, and continues their march toward Concord. By this action, America’s war with Britain will begin.
Once the British soldiers arrive in Concord, find the stockpile of arms vanished, and prepare to return to Boston, “the shot heard ’round the world” sounds at Concord’s Old North Bridge, and a withering barrage of gunfire arrests the British force. Only reinforcements of one thousand soldiers allow the British to retreat through the clanging of church bells and a corridor of musket fire to Charlestown, whence they recross the water to Boston.692
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1775
The Pennsylvania Gazette
Watertown [Massachusetts], Wednesday Morning [April 19], near 10 of the Clock.
To all Friends of American Liberty, be it known that this Morning before Break of Day, a Brigade of about 1000 or 1200 Men landed at Phipps’s Farm at Cambridge, and marched to Lexington, where they found a Company of our Colony Militia in Arms upon whom they fired without any Provocation, and killed 6 Men and wounded 4 more.
Since the above-written we have received the following by a Second Express. Thursday [April 20], 3 o’Clock Afternoon …
I am this Moment informed by An Express from Woodstock, then two of the Clock Afternoon—That the Contest between the first Brigade that marched to Concord was still continuing this Morning at the Town of Lexington, to which said Brigade had retreated, that another Brigade had … landed with a quantity of Artillery … The Regulars, when in Concord, burnt the Court-House, took two Pieces of Cannon which they rendered useless, and began to take up Concord Bridge, on which Capt.—– (who, with many on both sides, were killed) made an Attack upon the King’s Troops, on which they retreated to Lexington …
A letter has … been received from Newport dated last Friday Evening [April 22] at 7 o’clock, which mentions the latest advices received there, in substance, is “That the Brigade [of British troops] left Boston in Boats on Tuesday Night, landed at Watertown in the Morning, where they fired on the Minute Men; then proceeded to Concord, destroyed about fifty barrels of flour, and spiked up four Cannon; that on their Return they were fired upon by 3 or 400 Men; 40 of the King’s Troops fell, and about 40 more Prisoners; that the Troops retreated; and were fired upon by a large number at Cambridge; and lost about 40 more;… that the Troops got into Boston; that Col. [of the Militia Artemis] Ward had 17,000 of the Colony Troops collected near the Place; that it was proposed to attack the General in Boston. Col. Putnam with a very large Number from Connecticut were on their March, and others from all Parts of the Massachusetts Colony…”
LONDON. We are assured from undoubted authority that the three Major Generals and the troops, both horse and foot, that are destined for America, are to embark with all possible expedition …
The Troops destined for America are now on their March for the Sea-Ports, where the Transport Vessels are ready prepared to receive them…
I find in Messiers Bradford’s Journal, No. 1687, “A Plan of an union of the several colonies, &c. proposed by Benjamin Franklin, Esq., and unanimously agreed on by all the commissioners of the several colonies, met, by order of the Crown, at Albany in July, 1754.” …
A word about “Albany in July, 1754” … In July of 1754 (while George Washington was unsuccessfully engaging Lieutenant Jumonville’s half brother at Fort Necessity), Ben Franklin attended a colonial meeting in Albany, New York, to organize a common defense against frontier Indians. At this meeting, Ben Franklin proposed his “Albany Plan” of colonial union which “framed that form of combination for the whole of the colonies by their delegates which properly assumed the name of Congress—a name and a system which was the basis of all the subsequent assemblies of the United States.”693 Though the colonial governments refused, in 1754, to accept Franklin’s plan, the colonies can now reconsider Franklin’s plan in coordinating a military response to the British threat.
Today, not knowing that Benjamin Franklin is en route to Philadelphia aboard the Pennsylvania Packet, a Massachusetts provincial assembly at Watertown addresses a letter to him as Massachusetts’ colonial agent in London:
From the entire confidence we repose in your faithfulness and abilities, we consider it the happiness of this Colony that the important trust of Agency for it, in this day of unequalled distress, is devolved on your hands …
Our enemies, we are told, have dispatched to G[reat] Britain a Fallacious Account of the Tragedy they have begun; to prevent the operation of which … we most ardently wish, that the Several papers herewith Inclosed, may be immediately printed, and Disperced thro’ every Town in England …
JOSEPH WARREN, President, P. T.694
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 1775
The Pennsylvania Gazette
Extract of a letter from Boston. [Massachusetts] … We have been closely besieged, and no provision brought to market for several days which has reduced us to an allowance … The town was besieged by 20,000 men who it was expected would attack the fortifications.
The wounded officers and soldiers were treated with great humanity by the inhabitants of Charlestown on their return …
Extract of a Letter from New York … [W]e learn that General Gage had dispatched a frigate to England a few hours after the defeat of his troops. That the British Officers and Soldiers have done ample justice to the bravery and conduct of the Massachusetts Militia—they say that no troops ever behaved with more resolution …
Today, the Massachusetts provincial assembly petitions the Second Continental Congress which is to convene in a week (on May 10th):
The Congress of this colony … request the direction and assistance of your respectable Assembly …
We have … passed an unanimous Resolve for thirteen thousand six hundred Men, to be forthwith raised by this Colony; and proposals are made by us to the Congress of New Hampshire, and Governments of Rhode Island and Connecticut Colonies, for furnishing men in the same proportion … Reinforcement from Great Britain is daily expected in this Colony, and we are now reduced to the sad alternative of defending ourselves by arms, or submitting to be slaughtered …
JOSEPH WARREN, President, P.T.695
WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 1775
The Pennsylvania Gazette
PHILADELPHIA. On Friday evening arrived here Capt. Osborne, from London, in whom came passenger the worthy Dr. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Agent for Massachusetts government and this province …
Yesterday arrived … George Washington, Patrick Henry … Delegates from Virginia…
And this Day the Hon. John Hancock … Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treate Paine, Esquires, Delegates for the Province of Massachusetts-Bay …
Today, the Second Continental Congress of the thirteen provinces opens in Philadelphia. Delegates are aware that, following hostilities at Concord and Lexington, twenty thousand militiamen from the four New England colonies have descended on Boston and surround the city.
After ten years in London as colonial agent and spokesman for Pennsylvania and, since 1770, for Massachusetts, Ben Franklin is now back in Philadelphia, having returned on Friday aboard the Pennsylvania Packet and having been chosen Saturday to join Pennsylvania’s delegation to the Continental Congress. Deborah Read Franklin, Ben Franklin’s wife of over forty-four years,696 died before Christmas wh
ile Franklin was still in London, but their daughter, Sarah, and her husband, Richard Bache, welcome him back to Franklin Court. There he meets for the first time his five-year-old697 namesake grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache.
Today, as the Congress meets, a detachment of eighty-three militiamen, sponsored by Massachusetts and Connecticut and led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, surprise a small garrison of British soldiers and their wives and children at the British fort at Ticonderoga and Crown Point which guards the approaches to Lake Champlain in upper New York. Fearing that British reinforcements, entering from Canada, might use the fort’s large store of cannon and artillery against the colonists, the colonists’ plan is to seize these armaments. There is no fight. The British families surrender, and the Americans take possession of the cannon and other artillery.698
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