is salary from the
treasury of Massachusetts, preferring the money of the crown which
owned him. In the revolutionary times of the _five Judges of
Massachusetts four were Tories_!

Accordingly, when the Stamp Act was passed--22d March, 1765--there
were Judicial officers in the Colonies ready to declare it
"constitutional;" executive magistrates ready to carry out any
measures intrusted to them. "I will cram the stamps down their throat
with the end of my sword," said an officer at New York. Governor
Bernard wanted soldiers sent to Boston to enforce submission; so did
Hutchinson and "Governor Oliver." The Governor of New York thought,
"if _Judges be sent from England_, with an able attorney-general and
solicitor-general to _make examples of some very few_, the Colony will
remain quiet."[104]

[Footnote 104: 5 Bancroft, 358.]

In 1768 John Hancock was arrested at Boston--for a "misdemeanor;" I
suppose, "obstructing an officer," or some such offence.[105] The
government long sought to procure indictments against James Otis--who
was so busy in fencing out despotism--Samuel Adams, and several other
leading friends of the colony. But I suppose the judge did not succeed
in getting his brother-in-law put on the grand-jury, and so the scheme
fell through. No indictment for that "misdemeanor" then. Boston had
the right men to do any thing for the crown, but they did not contrive
to get upon the grand-jury.

[Footnote 105: 6 Bancroft, 213.]

The King, it was George III., in his parliament, spoke of the Patriots
of Boston, as "those turbulent and seditious persons." In the House of
Commons, Stanley called Boston an "insolent town;" its inhabitants
"must be treated as aliens;" its "charter and laws must be so changed
as to give the King the appointment of the Council, and to the
_sheriffs the sole power of returning jurors_;" then the Stamp Act
could be carried out, and a revenue raised without the consent of the
people. The plan was admirably laid; an excellent counsel! Suppose, as
a pure conjecture, an hypothesis of illustration--that there were in
Boston a fugitive slave bill court, eager to kidnap men and so gain
further advancement from the slave power, which alone distributes the
federal offices; suppose the court should appoint its creatures,
relatives, nay, its uterine brother--its brother in birth--as fugitive
slave bill commissioners to hunt men; and then should get its
matrimonial brother--its brother-in-law--on th