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HISTORY OF COHASSET. 



king, if both were arbitrary, as both would be, if both could 

 levy taxes without Parliament," A cry of "treason" 

 greeted this bold statement ; but it was the sort of treason 

 that many patriots were beginning to feel over the tyran- 

 nical methods of King George's taxation of our colonies. 

 Then came the Stamp Act with its threat of compelling 

 free American subjects of the king to pay taxes on legal 

 documents as no other subjects of that king were com- 

 pelled to do. In defense of the rights of Americans the 

 great William Pitt hastened from a sick bed to Parliament, 

 where his mighty bursts of eloquence glorified American 

 resistance and accomplished the repeal of the odious Stamp 

 Act in the year 1766. 



At that time we were only a precinct with a population 

 of less than one hundred and sixty voters, but these polit- 

 ical events excited the whole community. 



Some one, perhaps many, owned a bronze medal struck 

 off in honor of William Pitt with this fond inscription: 

 "The man who having saved the parent pleaded with 

 success for her children." One of these was found a few 

 years ago, buried some four feet underground, in laying our 

 water pipes near the creek at the head of the Cove, 

 evidently lost there at the time when the roadway was filled 

 in upon the marsh at the creek. The love for the great 

 Earl of Chatham, which throbbed then in the hearts of 

 Cohasseters, may be guessed from this bronze token. 



William Pitt Medal — 1766. 



