February 23rd, 2012
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/23/2012
Newspaper, The Boston Chronicle, October 10 -17, 1768, 8pp., plus 4pp., Supplement. From the front page, “The following are the proceedings of Council ...” running two pages, responds to the Boston riot of June 10, 1768. In essence, customs officials seized the Liberty, a sloop owned by leading Boston merchant John Hancock, on allegations that the ship had been involved in smuggling. Bostonians, already angry because the captain of the Romney had been impressing local sailors, began to riot. Customs officials fled to Castle William for protection. then from pg3, “A Council held at the Province House, “Col.Dalrymple ..recieved orders ... from General Gage to land two regiments from Halifax at Boston ... and he .. demanded quarters for them ...” Then, a full page letter by the Council, in part “The Inhabitants of a number of Towns within this Province having at their several Town Meetings legally called, taken under their most mature consideration the great & prevailing uneasiness among the people of the province in general; Arising from an apprehension that their charter and constitutional rights and liberties are infring'd by the late Acts of Parliament for the raising a Revenue in America, without their consent; and also from the immediate prospect of a standing army to enforce the execution of these acts ... The late Stamp Act made for this purpose was ordered repealed, But other acts of the same nature & tendency tho' perhaps not so apparently obnoxious, are in full force and dayly executing.... We cannot help taking notice here of a notorious instance of the inveterate temper of our enemies, in a representation made of this riotous assembly having burnt a beautiful Barge belonging to the Collector of the Custom before Mr. Hancock's door....” Also on pg3, an ad for “Liberty Song,” Americas first patriotic song and the first use of “United We Stand.” From the Supplement, “There are 4000 troops ordered for Boston which it is thought, will sufficiently intimidate those people to comply with the laws enacted in England & especially as the other colonies seem to have deserted them, the congress which they had entered into being broken.”
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