American Rebels by Nina Sankovitch

American Rebels by Nina Sankovitch

Author:Nina Sankovitch
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group


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Four days after receiving news of the Boston Port Act, Josiah Quincy Jr. published an eighty-two-page critique of it, titled Observations on the Act of Parliament Commonly Called the Boston Port-Bill. Addressed to “the FREEHOLDERS AND YEOMANRY of my country … in you … do I place my confidence, Under God,” Josiah beseeched his fellow colonists to acknowledge the “insidious arts, and … detestable practices … used to deceive, disunite and enslave the good people of this Continent,” and warned them that “the extirpation of bondage, and the reestablishment of freedom are not of easy acquisition … trial and conflicts you must endure; hazards and jeopardies—of life and fortune—will attend the struggle.”26

But he also reminded them that “nothing glorious is accomplished, nothing great is attained, nothing valuable is secured without magnanimity of mind and devotion of heart to service … dedicate yourselves at this day to the service of your country; and henceforth live A LIFE OF LIBERTY AND GLORY.”27 His rhetoric enflamed all who read it, of all classes, infuriating the Loyalists and encouraging patriots across the board.

Copies of Josiah’s essay flew around Boston and out to the villages and towns of Massachusetts. Messengers on horseback, just returned from delivering news of the Port Act itself to points south, including New York City and Philadelphia, now turned around and went back again, this time carrying satchel-loads of Josiah’s pamphlet. Reprints made in Philadelphia found their way farther south, to Maryland, North Carolina, and all the way to South Carolina.

Within a few weeks, Ben Franklin in London received his copy of Josiah’s pamphlet, which he then reprinted and circulated widely to the colonies’ supporters and sympathetic members of Parliament; nonsympathetic members had to wait a bit longer, but soon they too would read Quincy’s scathing attack on Parliament and on those “Legislators, who could condemn a whole town.”28

Josiah’s final warning was lost on no one, from Boston to Charleston to London—and Castle Island, where Gage still remained holed up with the former governor, Thomas Hutchinson: “America hath … her Patriots and Heroes, who will form a BAND OF BROTHERS: men who will have … courage, that shall inflame their ardent bosoms, till their hands cleave to their swords—and their swords in their Enemies hearts.”29 Josiah still used the word “sword” as a metaphor, the pen being his favorite weapon and the field of public opinion his favorite battleground.

Josiah was certain that Hutchinson, with his false tales and exaggerated accounts of what was going on in Massachusetts, had been behind the harsh retributions passed by Lord North and Parliament. If leaders in England could be shown the true facts of what had been occurring in Massachusetts and understand how determined the colonists were in retaining their rights as English citizens—and at the same time, how much they wished to contribute to the British empire of trade and its promulgation of freedom and liberty, reason, and intellect—Josiah was certain that peace between the mother country and its colony could be reached.



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