s and
Elisha Hutchinson, was thrown into Boston harbor, the great crisis,
which Samuel Adams had done so much to make inevitable by virtue of
thinking it so, was at last a reality. It was a limitation of Thomas
Hutchinson's excellent administrative mind that lie was wholly unaware
of this crisis. In February of the next year, finding that "a little
discreet conduct," or indeed any conduct on his part, was altogether
without good effect, the Governor announced that he had "obtained leave
from the King to go to England." On the 1st of June, driving from his
home to the foot of Dorchester Heights, he embarked on the Minerva and
arrived in London one month later. It was his expectation that after a
brief absence, when General Gage by a show of military force should have
brought the province to a reasonable frame of mind, he would return and
assume again the responsibilities of his office. He never returned, but
died in England on June 3, 1780, an unhappy and a homesick exile from
the country which he loved.

CHAPTER VI. Testing The Issue

The die is now cast; the colonies must either submit or
triumph.--George III.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.--Thomas Jefferson.

Two months and ten days after Mr. Hutchinson embarked for England, John
Adams, the Hon. Thomas Cushing, Mr. Samuel Adams, and Robert Treat Paine
set out "from Boston, from Mr. Cushing's house, and rode to Coolidge's,
where they dined... with a large company of gentlemen, who went out and
prepared an entertainment for them at that place. A most kindly and
affectionate meeting we had, and about four in the afternoon we took
leave of them, amidst the kindest wishes and fervent prayers of every
man in the company for our health and success. The scene was truly
affecting, beyond all description affecting." The four men who in
this manner left Boston on the 10th of August, 1774, were bound for
Philadelphia to attend the first Continental Congress. Even Samuel
Adams, in excellent spirits, a little resplendent and doubtless a little
uncomfortable in his new suit and new silk hose, could scarcely have
known that they were about to share in one of the decisive events in the
history of the modern world.

The calling of the Continental Congress had followed