42 THOMAS HUTCHINSON 



As Dr. Ellis has well said, it was a case of " the most 

 vehement possible cry with the slightest possible 

 amount of wool." Strong emphasis was laid upon the 

 phrase " abridgment of what are called English liber- 

 ties," and serious injustice was done by tearing it from 

 its context. Nothing could show this more clearly 

 than the governor's own frank and manly statement : 

 " I differ in my principles from the present leaders of 

 the people. ... I think that by the constitution of 

 the colonies the Parliament has a supreme authority 

 over them. I have nevertheless always been an advo- 

 cate for as large a power of legislation within each 

 colony as can consist with a supreme control. I have 

 declared against a forcible opposition to the execution 

 of acts of Parliament which have laid taxes on the 

 people of America; I have, notwithstanding, ever 

 wished that such acts might not be made as the 

 Stamp Act in particular. I have done everything in 

 my power that they might be repealed. I do not see 

 how the people in the colonies can enjoy every liberty 

 which the people in England enjoy, because in Eng- 

 land every man may be represented in Parliament 

 . . . ; but in the colonies, the people, I conceive, can- 

 not have representatives in Parliament to any advan- 

 tage, ft gives me pain when I think it must be so. 

 I wish also that we may enjoy every privilege of an 

 Englishman which our remote situation will admit of. 

 These are sentiments which I have without reserve 

 declared among my private friends, in my speeches 

 and messages to the General Court, in my correspond- 

 ence with the ministers of state, and I have published 

 them to the world in my history ; and yet I have 

 been declared an enemy and a traitor to my country 



