re can be no
fitness for acts of piety. In the mean time the assembly of Massachusets
Bay met at Boston, on the 25th of May, for the last time. On that day,
General Gage laid before them some common business of the province, and
then announced the painful necessity he was under of removing them and
all public offices to Salem, by the first of June, in conformity with
the recent acts of parliament. He adjourned them to the 7th of June,
then to meet at Salem, and on that day they re-assembled at the place
appointed, and named a committee to consider and report the state of
the province. Some of the committee named were for pursuing mild and
conciliatory measures, and seeing this, Mr. Samuel Adams conferred with
Mr. Warren on the necessity of obtaining a better display of spirit.
Warren engaged to keep the committee in play, while Adams should be
secretly engaged in winning over members to their party. In a few days
Adams succeeded in gaining over and concerting measures with more than
thirty members, and it was then resolved to proceed at once to business.
On the 17th of May they ordered the doors to be locked, and that no one
should be permitted to go in or out. They hoped by this plan to keep
all friends of government from giving any information concerning
their councils, and to finish their business before the governor could
interfere with a prorogation or dissolution. One member favourable to
government, however, contrived to get out, and to give information of
what was doing within. The governor sent his secretary to dissolve
them, but he was refused admittance, and he read the proclamation of
dissolution upon the stairs leading to the chamber in the hearing of
several members, who, like himself, could not obtain admittance. By this
time, however, the committee had done all they wanted to do: they had
appointed a committee to meet other provincial committees on the 1st
of September, at Philadelphia; had voted L500 for its use; had chosen
a treasurer; and having no money in hand, had recommended the towns and
districts of the province to raise the sum by equitable proportions,
according to the last provincial tax. This was a gross insult to the
governor, and the committee exulted in having had the opportunity of
offering it. Their feelings of triumph, however, do no honour to human
nature, since that triumph, such as it was, was obtained by the paltry
artifice of obtaining possession of the house to the exclusion of all