as all garded as necessary to the good of both countries; but we conceive no suffering will induce the colonies to acknowledge a right in Parliament to tax us at pleasure." July 5th they "find already an almost total cessation of business." September 3d they write to London, “ Law is now at an end, we are left at the mercy of those who are indebted to us to pay us at their own time. We are satisfied with the honor and integrity of most of those with whom we deal, but how far they may be rendered unable to pay us from their debtors availing themselves of the times, we are unable to say." Social life precedes political. Politics are the essence of the main current of history, but history is not mere politics. The social condition of a people expresses itself outwardly in the great activities of industry and trade; then it is formulated in the ways of political action. Statutes, edicts, administration of law directed and adapted to the common life of the people, make politics. If the law and its administration does not formulate actual living in this way, then trouble and revolution must follow, until government fits itself to the wants and ways of the governed. The largeness of the political principles involved in the small movements of these obscure citizens, in a little community, was not apparent even to the near-by observers of these events, as they occurred. A curious misconception of the springs and causes of colonial revolt possessed England then; she has not altogether recovered from it now. It was said that, just after the battle of Lexington and Concord, the local courts were long occupied in taking testimony to prove that the militia were right and the royal troops were wrong. Even the logic of rebellion could not convince these German-descended English freemen that they were in revolution against lawful authority. The technical points of this process of law were as nothing, 1763-75.] ORDER IN REBELLION. 729 but the orderly spirit of such courts was everything. Notwithstanding this orderly conduct of disorder, Englishmen could see nothing wrong in their own administration. Mackenzie, a British officer stationed at Boston, though born in Virginia, and knowing George Washington, prejudiced him by correspondence against the Boston leaders. When Washington met the Massachusetts delegates at Philadelphia, he tested them for himself. "Instead of noisy, brawling demagogues, meaning mischief only, he found plain, downright practical men, seeking safety from oppression.' 1 י י New England developed itself partly by a polity, and more by a lack of polity. A growing people, accumulating wealth through evasions of Navigation and Sugar Acts, through neglect of excise laws, found an easy way to open resistance of the Stamp and Tea Acts. In resisting constituted authority that oppressed their daily living, they learned to establish a constitution of their own. The evolutions of town government in New Hampshire are worthy of study. A curious instance may Town and be found at Dunstable in 1762.2 A meeting of community. the proprietors adjourned and came together again without the moderator or clerk. A part of the proprietors joined in electing a new clerk. The new officers sued the old clerk for possession of the records, but the court found "many Difficultys" in a decision. Therefore the House of Representatives, on petition, appointed a commission with authority to organise the meeting of proprietors. Taverns were controlled by license.3 In the present district of Maine, communities were pushing out to found new settlements, as at Machias in 1763.4 Twenty-five persons, mostly from Scarborough, including a 1 Proc. M. H. S. 1858-60, p. 69. 2 Town Pap. N. H., ix. 207. 4 Smith, Machias, p. 20. millwright and a blacksmith, made the basis. The towns would not repair roads by a general tax, but each man turned out to do his portion.1 While these primitive steps were being taken in the far districts, Boston, the "metropolis," was adorning herself in 1774 with 200 or 300 street lamps.2 Haverhill, Mass., organised a fire club. The basis of government is in taxation, and the tax list of Haverhill is interesting enough to cite in detail. Perhaps no communities, before or since, have so thoroughly distributed and adjusted the burdens of state as these carefully regulated towns. 1763-75.] MANUFACTURES. results. 731 Woollen We must now consider the direct economic results of the changes in the political condition of the col- Economic onies. While the various manufactures developed steadily, it seems quite certain that they did not keep pace with the increasing capital of the country gained from other sources. The "News Letter" cited from a London writer showing that the export of British goods to America increased faster than the population.1 He stated that working braziers, cutlers, pewterers, even hatters, settling in the colonies, would soon drop the working part of their business, and import their goods from England. Burnaby 2 states that the rise of labor caused by the French war hindered manufactures in Massachusetts, especially in the linen industry. He says that all the colonies were trying to make woollens, but not "to any manufac degree of perfection." His critical opinion in this department was not worth much; he condemns the wool as coarse, and too short in staple, only seven inches. He did not know that this staple was better for carding and felting in the goods generally made in Massachusetts than the twenty-two inch Leicestershire wool which he commends. In 17663 Governor Moore reported for New York that there were two kinds of woollen made there; one coarse of all wool, the other Linsey woolsey of linen in the warp and wool in the woof." Nearly every household carded and spun, employing its own inmates, including children. Then itinerant weavers wove the yarns on the household loom. The custom was the same in New England. 66 ture. After the troubles caused by the Stamp Act, we note a growing desire for American goods, with a con- Colonial stant social pressure to encourage the use of manufac them, and the manufacture on a larger scale. 1 Bos. News Letter, August 7, 1760. 2 Travels in N. A., pp. 137, 138. 8 Doc. N. York, vii. 888. In tures. 1766 "the Daughters of Liberty" had sessions all day long for spinning 1 in Providence. As one result of this movement, the president and first graduating class of Rhode Island College, at Commencement in 1769, were clothed in fabrics of American manufacture.2 In Northboro', Mass., forty-four women spun 2,223 knots yarn, and gave it to the soldiers. In 1767 one "small country town" of Massachusetts manufactured 30,000 yards of cloth, and Peter Etter & Sons, of Braintree, made woollen and worsted stockings and other hosiery, selling their product at wholesale. In 1768 Boston revived the old linen industry, and Brookfield started a woollen manufactory, proposing "to keep a large number of looms constantly at work."5 Young ladies at Newbury imitated their sisters of Rhode Island in spinning. The towns generally recommended "economy and manufactures.” At Newport, R. I.,8 families made from 500 to 700 yards of cloth each in a year. Windham, Ct., moved in the same direction. A "blue-dyer" went from Boston to Norwich, and could dye cotton, tow, or linen in indigo. He had extraordinary versatility, took "genteel boarders;" had a handsome chaise to let; and ladies' gauze caps, "flys," handkerchiefs, and aprons, "ready made in the newest taste," were to be found at his house.10 6 "North American manufactured mens and womens wear," including blue, black, claret broadcloth, was offered for sale in Boston, or it would be received in exchange for English goods.11 Premiums were offered to 1 Arnold, R. I., ii. 266. 8 Essex Inst., xiv. 263. 4 Bos. Eve. Post, Nov. 2 and 23, 1767. 6 Coffin, p. 234. 2 Ibid., ii. 299. 5 Ibid., Oct. 10, 1768. Butler, Groton, p. 116; Morse, Holliston, p. 329. 8 Bos. News. Let., Jan. 21, June 2, 1768. 9 Ibid., Feb. 11, 1768. 10 Caulkins, Norwich, p. 360. 11 Bos. Eve. Post, May 8, 1769; Bos. News Let., June 1, 1769; Jan. 25, 1770. |