gitation to be
"unnatural, causeless, wanton, and wicked."[10] Such Americans were, in
the inevitable struggle, truly martyrs to their beliefs.

Nevertheless, just as there was naturally more profit or prominence (and
the two were often the same) on the king's side, so his party had the
more self-seekers. "The cause is not worth dying for," said Ingersoll,
facing the Connecticut farmers, and spoke the sentiment of all the
stamp-officers who resigned their positions at the demand of the people.
The cause, however, did seem worth working for. There were many, in
England and America, who, like those whom Otis saw around him, "built
much upon the fine salaries they should receive from the plantation
branch of the revenue." Position, pay, and the chance to exploit the
revenues as this was done in England, were the temptations which brought
many to the side of the king, and which made men unite to urge upon him
the acts which he desired for less selfish reasons.

Urged by principle, then, or excited by self-interest, the proposers of
new measures were strong. The earliest act of the king's reign showed
what could and what would be done, and brought upon the Boston stage the
first of the actors in the drama. On the one hand were the governor, the
justices, and the minor officials, on the other the people's
self-appointed--but willingly accepted--leaders.

Francis Bernard was the first Massachusetts governor under George III.
Bernard arrived August 2, 1760; the old king died on October 25; and in
November the customs officials, stimulated by orders from home to
enforce the provisions of the Sugar Act of 1733, petitioned for "writs
of assistance," to empower them to summon help in forcible entries in
search of smuggled goods. Now there can be no doubt that there was
smuggling in the colony, even in Boston itself. On the other hand, the
officials were inquisitorial and rapacious. Once they were armed with
writs of assistance, no dwelling would be safe from entry by them. The
struggle was at once begun, and in the council chamber of the old Town
House was fought out before the eyes of the province.

The scene is pictured on the walls of the modern State House. Chief
among the justices sat Thomas Hutchinson, a man of property and
education, and an excellent historian, but the very type of
office-holder, and by prejudice and interest a partisan of the king.
Against him stood James Otis, the first of the Massachusetts orators of