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HistRevolV1_001-050.indd 45 3/16/12 11:39 AM C H A P T E R I V Character of Mr. Hutchinson • Appointed Governor of Massachusetts • The attempted Assassination of Mr. Otis • Transactions on the fifth of March, one thousand seven hundred and seventy • Arrival of the East India Company's Tea-Ships • Establishment of Committees of Correspondence • The Right of Parliamentary Taxation without Representation urged by Mr. Hutchinson • Articles of Impeachment resolved on in the House ofRepresentatives against Governor Hutchinson and Lieutenant Governor Oliver • ChiefJustice ofthe Province impeached • Boston PortBill • Governor Hutchinson leaves the Province [78] It is ever painful to a candid mind to exhibit the deformed CHAP. IV features of its own species; yet truth requires a just portrait of the 1 7 6 9 public delinquent, though he may possess such a share of private virtue as would lead us to esteem the man in his domestic character, while we detest his political, and execrate his public transactions. The barriers ofthe British constitution broken over, and the ministry encouraged by their sovereign, to pursue the iniquitous system against the colonies to the most alarming extremities, they probably judged it a prudent expedient, in order to curb the refractory spirit of the Massachusetts, perhaps bolder in sentiment and earlier in opposition than some of the other colonies, to appoint a man to preside [79] over them who had renounced the quondam ideas of public virtue, and sacrificed all principle of that nature on the altar of ambition. Soon after the recal of Mr. Bernard, Thomas Hutchinson, Esq. a native of Boston, was appointed to the government of Massachusetts. All who yet remember his pernicious administration and the fatal consequences that ensued, agree, that few ages have produced a more fit instrument for the purposes of a corrupt court. He was dark, intriguing, insinuating, haughty and ambitious, while the extreme of avarice marked each feature of his character. His abilities were little 45 HistRevolV1_001-050.indd 46 3/16/12 11:39 AM 46 WARREN'S HISTORY OF THE REVOLLTION cHAP. IV elevated above the line of mediocrity; yet by dint of industry, exact 1 7 6 9 temperance, and indefatigable labor, he became master of the accomplishments necessary to acquire popular fame. Though bred a merchant , he had looked into the origin and the principles of the British constitution, and made himself acquainted with the several forms of government established in the colonies; he had acquired some knowledge of the common law of England, diligently studied the intricacies of Machiavelian policy, and never failed to recommend the Italian master as a model to his adherents. Raised and distinguished by every honor the people could bestow, he supported for several years the reputation of integrity, and generally [80] decided with equity in his judicial capacity;* and by the appearance of a tenacious regard to the religious institutions of his country, he courted the public eclat with the most profound dissimulation, while he engaged the affections of the lower classes by an amiable civility and condescension, without departing from a certain gravity of deportment mistaken by the vulgar for sanctity. The inhabitants of the Massachusetts were the lineal descendants of the puritans, who had struggled in England for liberty as early as the reign of Edward the sixth; and though obscured in the subsequent bloody persecutions, even Mr. Hume has acknowledged that to them England is indebted for the liberty she enjoys. t Attached to the religious forms of their ancestors, equally disgusted with the hierarchy of the church of England, and prejudiced by the severities their fathers had experienced before their emigration, they had, both by education and principle, been always led to consider the religious as well as the political characters of those they deputed to the highest trust. Thus a profession of their own religious mode of worship, and sometimes a tincture of superstition, was with many a higher recommendation than brilliant talents. This [81] accounts in some measure for the unlimited confidence long placed in the specious accomplishments of Mr. Hutchinson, whose character was not thoroughly investigated until some time after governor Bernard left the province. But it was known at St. James's, that in proportion as Mr. Hutchinson gained the confidence of administration, he lost the esteem of the best of his countrymen; for this reason, his advancement to the chair of government was for a time postponed or concealed, lest the people should consider themselves insulted by such an appointment, and...

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