REVOLUTIONARY WAR IN AMERICA 4985 REVOLUTIONARY WAR IN AMERICA 



effective in securing the repeal of the Town- 

 shend Act, excepting the provision relating to 

 a tax upon tea. This was retained to impress 

 the colonists with the mother country's right to 

 levy taxes. 



Quartering Act and Boston Massacre. In 

 1766 England imposed upon the people of the 

 colonies the duty of providing for the king's 

 soldiers, each locality to care for the troops 

 there quartered. In 1768 Boston was forced to 

 receive several regiments, in spite of its pro- 

 tests. Two years later (1770) a mob of citizens, 

 some of them probably of the irresponsible sort, 

 not able longer to endure the affront to loyal 

 English subjects, attacked the soldiers with 

 clubs and other missiles and dared them to fire. 

 What is known as the Boston Massacre re- 

 sulted. The troops fired, killing and wounding 

 several persons. Crispus Attucks, a negro, was 

 the first man to fall in the Revolutionary cause. 



Committees of Correspondence. Alarmed at 

 the constantly increasing tension between Colo- 

 nials and the English authorities and fearing 

 further trouble Boston organized a Committee 

 of Correspondence "to state the rights of the 

 colonists * * * to the several towns and to 

 tin- world." The movement was so popular that 

 soon every village in Massachusetts possessed a 

 similar committee, and by the spring of 1773 

 there were intercolonial committees which en- 

 abled all the colonies to work in harmony. See 

 COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Boston Tea Party and Its Results. 

 When the Townshend Act was repealed by Par- 

 liament a tax on tea was retained, to emphasize 

 the royal right to impose taxation. The man- 

 ner in which Boston disposed of the trouble- 

 some question is related in the article BOSTON 

 TEA PARTY (page 852). In 1774 the ruling 

 power in England further inflamed the passions 

 of colonists by the passage of five obnoxious 

 laws in retaliation for the lawless "tea party" 

 (see INTOLERABLE ACTS). 



There seemed no longer a possibility of ex- 

 istence without organized effort to abate the 

 evils which had bee n multiplying. A congress 

 of the colonies, known as the First Continental 

 Congress, met in Philadelphia in 1774 and 

 adopted a "Declaration of Colonial Rights." 

 It declared that the colonies only had the right 

 to enact local laws and to levy taxes; that th< 

 people were entitled to protection of the com- 

 mon law of England and to trial by jury in- 

 stead of deportation to England for trial ; that 

 th. severe laws passed by Parliament I 

 threatening their loyalty to the Crown. 



Declaration asked that the king, "as the loving 

 father * * * of his whole people," lessen 

 their wrongs. When the document reached 

 Parliament Burke's voice was again heard in 

 a speech which came to be known as the re- 

 markable "On Conciliation with America." 



STONE CAXXON MEMORIAL 



AT LEXINGTON 



The Inscription Is as follows : "Near this spot 

 Earl Percy, with reinforcements, planted a field 

 piece to cover the retreat of the British troops, 

 April 19, 1775." 



Pitt was now Prime Minister; he, too, pleaded 

 the cause of the colonies, but without avail. 

 Further measures cut off the colonies from for- 

 eign trade and threatened the destruction of 

 New Englandcrs by cutting off their fishing 

 privileges in Newfoundland waters. 



Lexington and Concord. The colonists began 

 to prepare for armed resistance. They were 

 stirred by Patrick Henry's- 

 Is life HO dear or peace so sweet as to be pur- 

 chased at tin- price of cli.ilns and sla 



and throughout the narrow ribbon of colonies 

 there were hurried preparations. General Gage, 

 English commander in Boston, attnnptrd to 

 seize some cannon in Salem, but failni. He 

 heard of military stores which had been se- 

 creted at Concord, twenty miles away, and sent 

 800 men to take them. Paul Revere, by 

 rangement, rode all night of April 18, 1775, 

 spreading the alarm : 



"A hurry of hoofs in a village street, 

 A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in tho l.irk. 



