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NOTE 41. British Troops Occupy Boston

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Volume 3, Chapter 41, British Troops Occupy Boston

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Perhaps these events helped build the optimism of Sam Adams and Dr. Benjamin Church of the

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Boston Radicals, who called for resistance to any invasion by British troops on the ground

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that Britain was a tottering empire.

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The erratic James Otis also took heart.

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In late June, at a meeting of the Massachusetts Assembly, Otis extolled the memory of Oliver

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Robert Cromwell and the execution of King Charles. Aroused from shock, Governor Bernard

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denounced Otis's speech as the most violent, insolent, abusive, treasonable declaration

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that perhaps was ever delivered. A few weeks later, Otis urged one and all to defend our

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liberties and privileges even unto blood, and to don the sword and musket in that cause.

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Thus, by the latter half of 1768, Americans were pursuing two courses of resistance against

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the exactions of the Townshend-Hillsboro program.

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The first was general, though it concentrated necessarily on the port towns, expansion of

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non-consumption and, especially, non-importation agreements in boycott of British goods.

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The second was largely limited to Boston, resistance against a crackdown on illegal

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trade by the new Board of Commissioners of the Customs stationed there.

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This reign of rigid enforcement was primarily aimed at Boston, against such measures mere

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boycotting was not enough and had to be supplemented by direct mass action.

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The decision to send troops to Boston made that port the acute center of conflict in

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the colonies. Word of the decision to send an army of occupation to Boston galvanized

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the people of Massachusetts into action. Sparking the opposition to heights of revolutionary

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fervor was Samuel Adams. Rather than submit to military rule, Adams proclaimed, we will

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He promised that thousands of Massachusetts farmers would sweep down to aid the embattled

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people of Boston.

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Rumors spread of two secret meetings of the Sons of Liberty, which plotted to incite the

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people of Massachusetts against the troops and to seize the Boston Harbor fortress of

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Castle William in behalf of the Sons of Liberty.

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With the May Assembly dissolved by Governor Bernard for disobedience, the Boston town

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meeting took the lead in organizing the resistance. Other assemblies that would eventually be

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dissolved by the royal governors for favoring pressure against the Townsend laws were those

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of New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. The town meeting was now the

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The only legal body that could serve as a focus of resistance against Great Britain.

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Accordingly, the Boston town meeting met on September 12 in a session planned and organized

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by radical leaders Otis, Sam Adams, Joseph Warren and other Sons of Liberty.

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The meeting again stressed that taxation without their representation violated the British

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The Boston Town Meeting also used the clever excuse of an approaching war with France,

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a cherished policy of Chatham and Shelburne to order all citizens to bear arms so as to

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resist any French invasion.

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The Bostonians knew very well whose invasion they had in mind. With a meeting of the assembly

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denied to it, Boston summoned a newly created convention of delegates from all the towns

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to take proper action. In this way, an extra-legal revolutionary institution was created by the

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people of Massachusetts to aid them in their struggle. Meanwhile, preparations continued

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for Armed Uprising Against the British Invasion. Before it was removed by the Council and Sheriff,

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a beacon was set on top of Beacon Hill in Boston, which was to be burned as a signal

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to armed farmers to rally to Boston's aid. The Massachusetts Convention met on September

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22 with most of the towns, 96 in all, sending delegates and instructions of support. Its

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This composition was very similar to that of the regular lower house. It is not clear

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what the radicals desired the convention to accomplish. Having imitated the prescribed

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assembly by selecting the conservatively inclined Thomas Cushing as chairman, the convention

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confined itself to issuing a protest against the British troops. The arrival of these troops

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on September 29 caused the Convention to disband in haste after doing little more than setting

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a useful revolutionary precedent by its very existence. Also, the Sons of Liberty talked

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of mounting an armed resistance, but it never materialized. It is doubtful that all-out armed

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resistance by Boston at that time would have drawn in other towns and colonies, and an

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Isolated Boston Uprising would have had very little chance of succeeding.

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The Massachusetts Council, the town of Boston, and later the new Massachusetts Assembly refused

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to permit the British troops to quarter in the town, but General Gage quartered them

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there, nevertheless.

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The council was controlled by the House and by the popular forces, and the governor could

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would not dismiss any magistrates without its approval.

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With the military refusing to enter civilian disputes, the popular Liberal Party still

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controlled the town of Boston.

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Furthermore, despite Herculean efforts, smuggling was still far from being stamped out.

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The settling of an armed occupation did not cowl the town or the province.

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The liberals swept the Massachusetts Spring elections of 1769, and Boston condemned the

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British and praised the American merchants for their boycott of British goods.

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A distinguished liberal congregational minister, the Reverend Samuel Cooper of Boston, wrote

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that the entire province was united in its stand against the British troops and the Townsend

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Acts.

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The radical-dominated assembly proceeded to purge four Tories from the council. The conservatives

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were now routed from the assembly and in the court of public opinion. The popular liberals

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won another signal victory in the winter of 1768-69 in connection with the prosecution

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of their leading merchant John Hancock. In his trial for smuggling, Hancock was defended

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by the brilliant young Boston lawyer John Adams, who moved from technical issues to

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the unconstitutionality of the statute, since the colonies had not been represented in Parliament,

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and the unconstitutionality of trial without jury. As months went by in the lengthy trial,

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Thomas Kirk became an increasingly flimsy and untenable witness, and John Hancock became

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from a hero among the press and throughout the colonies. Finally, at the end of March

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1769, the prosecution dropped the case. Hancock was free, and the popular forces had triumphed

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again.