LAST ROYAL GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS 27 



hereafter to come up for fierce debate, it was becoming 

 apparent that the real question was concerned with 

 something even more fundamental than the interpre- 

 tation of the law. The real question was whether 

 Americans were bound to obey laws which they had 

 no voice in making. An out-and-out issue upon this 

 point was something that Hutchinson dreaded as 

 anxiously as Clay and Calhoun, in their different ways, 

 dreaded an out-and-out issue upon the slavery question. 

 He earnestly deprecated any action of Parliament 

 which should encroach upon American self-govern- 

 ment ; and by the same token he frowned upon such 

 action on the part of his fellow-citizens as might irritate 

 Parliament, and provoke it into asserting its power. 

 Should the issue be raised, he felt that the choice was 

 between anarchy and submission to Parliament, and 

 that the very love which he bore to Massachusetts 

 must urge him to a course that was likely to deprive 

 him of the esteem of valued friends, and heap cruel 

 imputations upon his character and motives. Such 

 questions of conflicting allegiance have no pity for 

 men in high positions. They were fraught with 

 sorrow to Thomas Hutchinson as to Robert Lee, and 

 many another noble and tender soul. 



- It was natural, therefore, that when the Grenville 

 ministry began to talk about a stamp act, Hutchinson 

 should have done his best to dissuade them from such 

 a rash measure. Here, as before, if his advice had 

 been taken, much trouble might have been avoided. 

 As a high public official, however, he could not with 

 propriety blazon forth what he was doing, and many 

 people misunderstood him. He condemned the re- 

 sistance which was beginning to organize itself under 



