In the midst of the excitement, troops were ordered to Boston "to reduce the dogs to reason," an extraordinary movement, for up to that time no English soldiers had been seen in New England except in war time, and then only as they passed towards the unprotected frontier. The people refused to provide for them, and the town meeting in Faneuil Hall (September, 1768) requested the inhabitants to provide themselves with arms-for sudden danger "in case of a war with France," so they euphemistically expressed it. It was voted "that the inhabitants of the town of Boston will, at the utmost peril of their lives and fortunes, maintain and defend their rights, liberties, privileges and immunities." Samuel Adams said, "We will take up arms and spend our last drop of blood, before the King and Parliament shall impose on us, or settle Crown officers independent of the Colonial legislature to dragoon us." It was not long before Washington, from Mount Vernon, echoed the words, saying, "Our lordly masters in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less than the deprivation of American freedom. Something should be done to maintain the liberty which we have derived from our ancestors. No man should hesitate a moment to use arms in defence of so valuable a blessing. Yet arms should be the last resource." In the next month (May, 1769) the legislature of Virginia met at Williamsburgh, followed the example of Massachusetts and Connecticut by declaring that the Writs of Assistance were illegal, and asked every Legislature in America to unite in concerted effort to protect their violated rights. Pennsylvania approved this action, Delaware passed the same reso

THE FIRST BLOODSHEDDING.

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lutions, and every Colony south of Virginia followed in time. By the end of the year, New York had invited each Colony to elect delegates to a legislative body which should make laws for all, and though the plan was not carried out, it pointed again to union.

The presence of troops in Boston led to the first bloodshedding.* It was on the evening of the fifth of March, 1770. The people irritated the soldiers, and they at last fired, killing three, mortally wounding two, and slightly wounding six others. This affray, called "the Boston Massacre," occurred in what is now State street (then King street), opposite the Old State House. Governor Hutchinson was forced to remove the troops, and until 1774, no more were quartered in Boston. A town-meeting was held on the sixth of March, in Faneuil Hall, but that place not being large enough, it adjourned to the Old South Meeting-house, where Samuel Adams was placed at the head of a committee directed to demand the removal of the troops. The Governor remembered the fate of Andros, and faltered before. the strong man whom he had endeavored to have sent to England for trial as a traitor. It was one of the most pregnant moments in American history. England had been defied, and had given way, but revolution had been postponed.

In June, 1772, the Gaspee, which had been stationed at Providence to search vessels, all of which

"The first blood shed in defence of the rights of America," says Henry Dawson, in "New York during the American Revolution," "flowed from the veins of the inhabitants in New York, on the Golden Hill, [between Burling Slip and Maiden Lane,] January 18, 1770." The affair did not, however, attain the historic importance of the Boston Massacre.

were suspected of violating the revenue acts, was burned by citizens who boarded it, bound the officers and crew, and took them to shore. It was proposed to carry the perpetrators of this act to England for trial, but the proposal resulted in nothing but more excitement. The royal commission took no action.*

The next outbreak was the " Boston Tea Party," as it has been called. On the sixteenth of December, 1773, a meeting of citizens in the "Old South Meetinghouse," at Boston, was broken up by the cry, "Hurrah for Griffin's wharf!" Three ships had arrived, laden with tea, on which the tax was still laid, and the

*The Rev. Ezra Stiles, of Newport, Rhode Island (afterwards President of Yale College), writing to an Englishman, evidently friendly to the Colonies, in 1772, said: "You may think it best to come first to Charleston, South Carolina. There you will find Mr. Gadsden, and other friends of public liberty. From thence, by water, you may come to Virginia, where you will find an Assembly firm in the cause of liberty. From Williamsburgh it may be best to travel by land to the northward. In Maryland you may find the sensible Mr. Dulany. At Philadelphia you will find Doctor Allison, Doctor Dickinson, Chief Justice Allen, and many other patriots. At New York, among others, you will take satisfaction in seeing Mr. William Livingston and Mr John Morin Scott. Travelling along through Connecticut, you may see Governor Trumbull and others. In your way to Newport, where you will find Mr. Merchant, Mr. Ellery, Mr. Bowler, and among them I, myself, shall be happy in waiting upon you. The late Governor Ward and Governor Hopkins, both now living in the Colony, will take pleasure in seeing you. You will then proceed to Boston, and find Mr. Otis, Mr. Adams, Mr. Cushing, Mr. Hancock and the Reverend Doctor Chauncy. I flatter myself you may find agreeable entertainment among them. You will proceed to Piscataqua, and, returning to Boston, may make an excursion across New England to Springfield, on Connecticut River, and so down to Hartford; thence across the new towns to Albany, and so down along Hudson's River to New York." This shows what portions of the continent a man of learning thought worth seeing, and hints at the persons of most note, besides showing the names of some who had at that time espoused the idea of independence.