of a militia, and for the increase of the quantity of warlike stores. The towns in the province were advised to "see that each of the minute-men, not already provided therewith, should be immediately equipped with an effective fire-arm, bayonet, pouch, knapsack, and thirty rounds of cartridge and balls, and be disciplined three times a week, and oftener as opportunity may offer."1 Other matters were taken up, and after providing for calling a future Congress, the assembly was dissolved. When the new year opened, thirty-five hundred of the king's troops were garrisoned in Boston. Gage wrote vauntingly to Dartmouth that, "if a respectable force is seen in the field, the most obnoxious of the leaders seized, and a pardon proclaimed for all others, government will come off victorious, and with less opposition than was expected a few months ago." "2 But Gage had fallen behind the truth, and had miscalculated the strength and will of his opponents. Once at Marshfield, and a second time at Salem, Gage, by the presence of a military force, sought to bring the patriots to terms of allegiance. Their vigilance, however, thwarted all his plans. About this time, Josiah Quincy, Junior, who had recently arrived in London, was attending the debates in Parliament. Hutchinson and Bernard were both urging "measures against America," and giving the "most positive assurances of success." Lord North had said, "We must try what we can do to support the authority we have claimed over America; if we are defective in power, we must sit down contented, and make the best terms we can." Said the Earl of Chatham, in the House of Lords, "The hour of danger 1 Journal Prov. Cong., 33., seq. 3 Gordon, i. 283. must arrive; unless these fatal acts of the last session are done away, it must arrive in all its horrors. There ought, therefore, to be no delay in this matter; we should proceed to it immediately. But it is not merely repealing these acts that can win back America to your bosom. You must repeal her fears and her resentments; and you may then hope for her love and gratitude. We shall be forced ultimately to retract; let us retract while we can, not when we must. Whoever advises the enforcement of these acts must do so at his peril. They must be repealed; you will repeal them; I pledge myself for it, that you will, in the end, repeal them. I stake my reputation on it. I will consent to be taken for an idiot if they are not finally repealed. Repeal, therefore, my lords; REPEAL, I say! Thus will you convince America that you mean to try her cause in the spirit and by the laws of freedom and fair inquiry, and not by codes of blood. How can she trust you, with the bayonet at her breast? She has all the reason in the world to believe you mean her death or bondage. Avoid, then, this humiliating, disgraceful necessity. To conclude, if the ministers thus persevere in misadvising and misleading the king, I will not say that they can alienate the affections of his subjects from the crown, but I will affirm that, the American jewel out of it, they will make the crown not worth his wearing. I will not say that the king is betrayed; but I will say that the nation is ruined." 1 Camden, Shelburne, and Rockingham coincided with the views expressed by Chatham. Most of the manufacturing towns in the kingdom also entertained similar opinions. But the ministers were opposed to any such reconciliation. Instead of recalling the troops, they were for sending out 1 Gordon, Am. Rev., i. 286-290. more if necessary. "I will have America at my feet," was the motto of Lord North. When, finally, the question was taken, but fifteen favored the motion of repeal, while sixtyeight opposed it. Some days later Chatham sought again to arouse the nation to a sense of its danger, but in vain. Reconciliation was not to be thought of; and the friends of America were powerless to avert the impending struggle. "Your countrymen," wrote they, "must seal their cause with their blood. They must not delay. They must resist, or be trodden down into the vilest vassalage - the scorn, the spurn of their enemies, a byword of infamy among all men."1 The time for heroic valor was already at hand; the signal had been given; the watchfires of the revolution were kindled. The day-star of Liberty was soon to rise upon America. 1 Gordon, i. 284. CHAPTER XIV. LEXINGTON AND CONCORD. In pursuance of a just policy, and in anticipation of an early collision with Great Britain, the committees of safety and supplies had collected and deposited at Concord large quantities of military stores. About the middle of March, 1775, it was rumored that General Gage was determined to destroy them; and a guard was accordingly stationed for their security, and messengers were engaged in Charlestown, Cambridge, and Roxbury to give the alarm should any such attempt be made. At this time Gage had under his command, in Boston and vicinity, no less than four thousand troops; and it was well known that Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne had been ordered to join him. Neither of these commanders had any confidence in the gallantry and strength of the provincials; but regarded them as cowards, easily intimidated and subdued. How different was the spirit that animated the patriots! "The people," wrote Cushing, "are not dismayed. Should the administration determine to carry into execution. the late acts by military force, they will make the last appeal. They are determined life and liberty shall go together." Warren wrote, "America must and will be free. The contest may be severe, the end will be glorious. We would not boast, but we think, united and prepared as we are, we have no reason to doubt of success, if we should be compelled to make the last appeal; but we mean not to make that appeal until we can be justified in doing it in the sight of God and man."1 Towards the middle of April a doubt no longer prevailed that General Gage was bent upon destroying the magazines collected at Concord; for on the pretence of learning a new military exercise, the grenadiers and light infantry were relieved from duty, and at night the boats belonging to the transport ships were launched and moored under cover of the men-of-war. Joseph Warren sent tidings of these suspicious movements to Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were in Lexington; and without delay the committee of safety took additional measures for the security of the stores, and even removed a portion of them to Sudbury and Groton. On Tuesday, the 18th, a dozen British officers, acting upon Gage's orders, stationed themselves on the roads leading out of Boston, for the purpose of interrupting expresses sent out to alarm the country. That day the committee of safety met at Wetherby's tavern, in West Cambridge, now Arlington. Three of the committee, Gerry, Orne, and Lee, passed the night at the tavern; two others, Devens and Watson, rode over towards Charlestown; but meeting several mounted officers on the way, they returned to warn their friends. A message was at once despatched to Hancock and Adams to acquaint them of what was going on, and the receipt of these tidings caused the people of Lexington to adopt precautionary measures. When Devens arrived in Charlestown, he was told that the British troops were in motion in Boston. A few moments later a lantern was displayed by Paul Revere in the upper window of the tower of the North Church in Boston, — the signal of danger which had been agreed upon. 1 Frothingham's Siege of Boston, 53, seq. |