52 CAPTAIN ZACHARY G. LAMSON 



ment by the new and, 'till now, unheard of 

 executive power of a British Parliament, 

 another and another will be tried until the 

 measure of despotism be filled up." For- 

 tunately for the United States and New 

 England, the parallelism between embargo 

 and revolutionary days was not completed 

 by a Boston massacre. For several weeks, 

 however, the Federal authorities were set 

 at defiance, vessels were armed 1 to resist 

 the law, and it only needed a little more 

 audacity on one side, or a little less re- 

 straint 2 on the other, to precipitate a con- 



1 The brig "Mary Jane,'* 156 tons, belonging to a 

 Bath firm, was armed and loaded for the West Indies. 

 No attempt was made to conceal her intention to run the 

 embargo, and the United States cutter was waiting for 

 her. She cleared for no port, ran down the river exchang- 

 ing broadsides with the government vessel, sustained the 

 fire of the fort at the mouth of the river and put to sea. 

 PARKER McCoBB READ, History of Bath. 



2 "Letter from Providence. We are under martial law. 

 The Governor has called out four military companies to 

 protect the embargo. The companies met and decided to 

 return to their homes. The streets were thronged and had 

 a shot been fired, the whole military force would have 



