Ill 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



AND THE FEDERALIST PARTY 



THE 6th of July, 1774, was a memorable day in the 

 history of New York. The question as to how far 

 that colony would go in support of Massachusetts in 

 its defiance of Parliament was pressing for an answer. 

 Parliament had in April passed an act which deprived 

 Massachusetts of her charter, and another which shut 

 up the port of Boston until the town should see fit to 

 pay the East India Company for the tea which had 

 been thrown into the harbour. On the ist of June 

 Hutchinson had sailed for England, hoping through 

 a personal interview with the king to effect a repeal 

 of these tyrannical acts, and on the same day Thomas 

 Gage, intrusted with the work of enforcing them, as- 

 sumed military command over Massachusetts. Troops 

 were encamped on Boston Common, frigates rode at 

 anchor in the harbour, great merchantmen lay idle at 

 the wharves while sailors and shipwrights roamed the 

 streets or sat drinking in the taverns. The legislature 

 was convened at Salem, where on the I7th Samuel 

 Adams achieved a master stroke and carried the reso- 

 lutions inviting all the sister colonies to join in a Con- 

 tinental Congress, to meet at Philadelphia on the ist 

 of September. Rhode Island and Maryland had at 

 once elected delegates to attend the proposed Con- 

 gress. In Virginia a convention was about to be 



101 



