colonies, and excited a feeling of brotherhood and union against England. General Gage arrived at Boston May 13, 1774, as commander-in-chief of the king's forces, and as Governor of Massachusetts. "The Episcopal clergy" and others addressed Governor Hutchinson, just before he sailed for England, June 1st, "expressing their approbation of his public conduct, and their affectionate wishes for his prosperity," though he was execrated by all others. On his arrival there he found that the ministry had adopted the policy advised in his letters of 1768-9, and annulled the charter, as to the executive and judicial powers, and thus he saw the ruin of his country, if it could be effected, the work of his own ingratitude and selfish ambition. And, as if intended for a beacon, and an exemplar to the other colonies of the animus and real principles of their enemies, another act established in Canada the Papal Church and a civil despotism in harmony with the history and genius of that hierarchy.

In one of their letters, the patriots say, "that a people long inured to hardships lose by degrees the very notions of liberty; they look upon themselves as creatures, at mercy, and that all impositions laid on by superior hands are legal and obligatory; so debased that they even rejoice at being subject to the caprice and arbitrary power of a tyrant, and kiss their chains. But, thank Heaven! this is not yet verified in America. We have yet some share of public virtue remaining. We are not afraid of poverty, but disdain slavery. The fate of nations is so precarious, and revolutions in states so often take place at an unexpected moment, when the hand of power has secured every avenue of retreat, and the mind of the subject so debased to its purpose, that it becomes every well-wisher to his country, while it has any remains of freedom, to keep an eagle eye upon every innovation and stretch of power in those that have the rule over us. Let us disappoint the men who are raising themselves

on the ruin of this country."

The rapid course of events in 1774 electrified the Sons of Liberty. The arrogance of the ministry, and the severity and abruptness of their acts in Parliament, were met by a spirit of stern defiance, and there swept along the Atlantic shores of the American colonies such a chorus for liberty as was never heard before in national tragedy. The Provincial Congress, ― representatives of freemen, assembled now, not by virtue of paltry parchments from blasphemous "sacred Majesty," but by charter from the ALMIGHTY, to whom they make solemn appeal, assumes every power of a legal government; for" says General Gage-"their edicts are implicitly obeyed throughout the continent." They "resolve," and

the treasury is supplied; to their call for "immediate defence," minutemen, armed hosts, come with alacrity from peaceful life, the artisan from his shop, the farmer from his plough, the fisherman from his shallop, the lawyer from his brief, the merchant from his ledger, and the chaplain from his parish - from field and flood they proffer all for liberty, and matron and maid, with eager hands and hearts, help them to their holy duty. Dr. Joseph Warren wrote to Josiah Quincy in November, 1774: “It is the united voice of America to preserve their freedom, or lose their lives in defence of it. Their resolutions are not the effects of inconsiderate rashness, but the sound result of sober inquiry and deliberation. I am convinced that the true spirit of liberty was never so universally diffused throughout all ranks and orders of people, in any country on the face of the earth, as it now is through all North America." Of the state documents of the General Congress at Philadelphia, Chatham, in the House of Lords, said: "For myself, I must declare and avow, that in all my reading and observation, — I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master states of the world, that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such complication of circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the General Congress at Philadelphia."

The Provincial Congress, assembled at the meeting-house in Concord, October 13, 1774, in a message to Governor Gage, signed by John Hancock, President, said, "that the sole end of government is protection and security of the people. Whenever, therefore, that power which was originally instituted to effect these important and valuable purposes is

1 The Blacksmiths' Convention of Worcester County, Massachusetts, November 8, 1774, illustrates the fervid determination of the people. They resolved that, "deeply impressed with a sense of our duty to our country, paternal affection for our children and unborn millions, as also for our personal rights and liberties, we solemnly covenant that we will not do or perform any for any person or persons mandamus coun

blacksmith's work, or business of any kind,

commonly known by the name of tories,

...

sellors, . . for every person who addressed Governor Hutchinson at his departure from this province; all of whom should be held in contempt, and those who are connected with them ought to separate from them, laborers to shun their vineyards, merchants, husbandmen, and others, to withhold their commerce and supplies." This, signed by forty-three of the best men, with strong arms and great hearts, Ross WYMAN, of Shrewsbury, President, and TIMOTHY BIGELOW, of Worcester, Clerk, was widely distributed in handbills, and published in the newspapers.

Lincoln's History of Worcester, chapters vi.-ix., admirably illustrates the spirit of the Revolution.

employed to harass, distress, or enslave the people, in this case it becomes a curse rather than a blessing; and we request that you immediately desist from the fortress now constructing at the south entrance into the town of Boston, and restore the pass to its natural state." To which the governor answered: "The fortress, unless annoyed, will annoy nobody; ... and I warn you of the rock you are upon, and require you to desist from such illegal and unconstitutional proceedings."

Letters of the famous tory churchman, Peters, of Connecticut, were laid on the President's table. One, dated September 28, 66 said: Six regiments are coming over from England, and sundry men-of-war. So soon as they come, HANGING WORK will go on. DESTRUCTION Will attend first the seaport towns. The lintel sprinkled on the sidepost will preserve the faithful," i. e., the Episcopalians. On the first of October he wrote to Rev. Dr. Auchmuty, of New York: "The"Episcopal - "churches in Connecticut must fall a sacrifice, very soon, to the rage of the Puritan mobility, if the old serpent, that dragon, is not bound. Spiritual iniquity rides in high places, with halberts, pistols, and swords. See the proclamation I sent you by my nephew, on their pious Sabbath day, the fourth of last month, when the preachers and magistrates left the pulpit, etc., for the gun and drum, and set off for Boston, cursing the king and Lord North, General Gage, the bishops and their cursed curates, and the Church of England."

The occasion of the discourse appears in the following "Resolve recommending to the people of this province"- Massachusetts - "to observe a day of public THANKSGIVING throughout the same," passed by the First Provincial Congress, held in the meeting-house, at Cambridge, October 22, 1774:

"From a consideration of the continuance of the gospel among us, and the smiles of Divine Providence upon us with regard to the seasons of the year, and the general health which has been enjoyed; and in particular, from a consideration of the union which so remarkably prevails, not only in this province, but throughout the continent, at this alarming crisis, it is resolved, as the sense of this Congress, that it is highly proper that a day of public thanksgiving should be observed throughout this province; and it is accordingly recommended to the several religious assemblies in the province, that Thursday, the fifteenth day of December next, be observed as a day of thanksgiving, to render thanks to Almighty God for all the blessings we enjoy. And, at the same time, we think it incumbent on this people to humble themselves before God, on account of their sins,

for which he hath been pleased, in his righteous judgment, to suffer so great a calamity to befall us as the present controversy between Great Britain and the colonies; as also to implore the Divine blessing upon us, that, by the assistance of his grace, we may be enabled to reform whatever is amiss among us; that so God may be pleased to continue to us the blessings we enjoy, and remove the tokens of his displeasure, by causing harmony and union to be restored between Great Britain and these colonies, that we may again rejoice in the smiles of our sovereign, and in possession of those privileges which have been transmitted to us, and have the hopeful prospect that they shall be handed down entire to posterity under the Protestant succession in the illustrious House of Hanover. JOHN HANCOCK, PRESIDENT."

The preacher, Mr. Gordon, born at Hitchin, in England, pastor of an Independent church at Ipswich, removed to America in 1770, and was ordained pastor of the Jamaica Plain Church, in Roxbury, July 6, 1772. "His soul was engaged in " the American cause. He was chaplain to the Provincial Congress; and several sermons on public occasions during the struggle show his zeal and prudence as a Son of Liberty. He improved his excellent opportunities for fulness and fidelity in his "History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America: including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies from their origin to that period," first published in 1788,- -a candid and impartial work, of which there have been several editions. He returned to England in 1786, and died at Ipswich, October 19, 1807, aged 77. - Allibone, Allen.

This sermon excited the indignation of “the king's friends,” one of whom, a friend to peace and good order," published "observations"

66

upon it as "daring and treasonable,

a firebrand of sedition,

. . absurd and impertinent, audacious and wicked;" so awful

to "every honest man, every virtuous citizen," that "to let it pass disregarded would argue an inattention to the welfare of the public wholly inexcusable." "Where could this reverend politician, clerical disclaimer,

Christian sower of sedition,

notable empiric,

general, . . have learnt to preach up doctrines of sedition, rebellion, carnage, and blood? Not, I am sure, from the merciful divulger of his religion, for he only taught the precepts of peace and forgiveness.

I most heartily wish, for the peace of America, that he and many others of his profession would confine themselves to gospel truths."

DISCOURSE IV.

A THANKSGIVING SERMON.

IT IS OF THE LORD'S MERCIES THAT WE ARE NOT CONSUMED, BECAUSE HIS COMPASSIONS FAIL NOT. Lam. iii. 22.

THE pulpit is devoted, in general, to more important purposes than the fate of kingdoms, or the civil rights of human nature, being intended to recover men from the slavery of sin and Satan, to point out their escape from future misery through faith in a crucified Jesus, and to assist them in their preparations for an eternal blessedness. But still there are special times and seasons when it may treat of politics. And, surely, if it is allowable for some who occupy it, by preaching up the doctrines of non-resistance and passive obedience,' to vilify the principles and to sap the foundations of that glorious revolution that exalted the House of Hanover to the British throne, it ought to be no transgression in others, nor to be construed into a want of loyalty, to speak consistently with those approved tenets that have made George the Third the first of European sovereigns, who otherwise,

1 The publications of the period abound in such finger-points to these "missionaries," who were considered as simply ecclesiastical corps of sappers and miners, busy among the people, disguised as teachers of religion, disseminating doctrines subversive of liberty, and who were secretly in heart as zealous for the British ministry as were their more honorable brethren, the chaplains of the mercenary armies, who took the hazards of open war. Perhaps the sacrifices of the former were the greater. - ED.