THE KEVOLUriONARY WAR. 307 



tal, and that Lieut. James Hall claimed an allowance for 

 having to move away his family for fear of infection. 



In May of 1778 another levy of soldiers was made; this 

 time it was "eight men to go to the Southward." An 

 offer of four dollars per day and sixpence mileage was 

 made to any person willing to engage for six months upon 

 this expedition in Rhode Island against the British at 

 Newport ; but no persons would engage. Whether any 

 ever went, the town records do not say ; but James Lin- 

 coln, aged seventeen, was in Rhode Island five months 

 and twenty days, and probably other Cohasset boys were 

 there. For the next year the operations of war were con- 

 fined to the Connecticut coast and southward as far as 

 Georgia. The activity here in the North was mainly in 

 raising funds and in making experiments towards a State 

 government. In the year 1780 the Constitution of our 

 State was adopted, with its bill of rights containing the 

 words, " All men are created free and equal " ; and by that 

 word "free " we stepped far ahead of the national Consti- 

 tution, so that slavery from the first was illegal in our 

 State. September, 1780, the first State governor, John 

 Hancock,* we helped to elect. For his lieutenant we cast 

 our ballots for the great Hingham general, Benjamin Lin- 

 coln. Our first State representative was Lieut. Stephen 

 Stoddard, of Beechwood. 



The long and tedious struggle for independence was not 

 yet ended ; indeed, at this very time, when the State of 

 Massachusetts was getting organized for an independent 

 government, the success of the Continental army in the 

 face of a foe so numerous and strong as the British had 

 poured into our land was gravely doubtful. 



In the summer of 1780 nine men were sent into the 

 Continental service for six months, as the following inter- 

 esting lists will show : — 



* It is said that Governor Hancock once visited Cohasset, bringing liis servants 

 with him, and stopped with Rev. John Brown at the pastor's home by the Common. 



