United States

UNITED STATES : History.) The questions were largely financial, although the Quebec act which recognized the entity of the Ro man Catholic church in that province, gave the Protestant citizenship in the Colonies some uneasiness. The first important outward manifestation of dis content came in Boston when Paxton, the collector of customs, through a deputy at Salem petitioned the court for "writs of assistance" established under Charles II., which would enable the customs officers to enter homes and warehouses in the exercise of their duty. On a hearing of the petition, James Otis made a dramatic plea built largely around the legal axiom that "an Eng lishman's house is his castle." The writs having been established in legislation by the British Parliament, the court sustained the officers of the Crown. But Otis had profoundly stirred the people and as John Adams afterwards said, "then and there the child independence was born." This was in 1761. The Sugar act of 1764 was followed by the Stamp act of 1765, which was strenu ously resisted. On Aug. 26, 1765, the most destructive and dis graceful riot of the period attacked the house of Hutchinson, then lieutenant governor, and later chief justice, gutted it and destroyed his magnificent library containing many irreplaceable sources of Massachusetts history.

Other and soberer methods were legitimately and effectively used. Business men refused to use the stamps. Trade came to a practical standstill as the tax stamps had to be affixed to invoices and other written evidences of transactions. Even the courts closed for lack of triable causes, for the writs and all other docu ments had to be stamped. The Stamp Act was a failure and noth ing remained for Parliament to do but to repeal it, which it did in 1766. Of all the American towns Boston was the most en thusiastic in this opposition and at the back of Boston was the Caucus Club of active citizens bent on influencing opinion and action. The most influential member of this club was Samuel Adams, whose activities have given him the title of Father of the American Revolution. With the repeal of the Stamp Act came the Declaratory Act in which Parliament declared its right to tax the Colonies. Under this declaration of policy the Townshend Acts were passed, placing duties on lead, glass, papers, paint and tea. This led to a prompt boycott by the Boston merchants. The merchant class were not revolutionaries at heart but they made common cause with Samuel Adams and the proletariat for trade purposes. Probably they thought they were making use of Samuel Adams for their own purposes while he was quite as cer tain that he was using them for his. The time was to come when he would lead them farther than they probably intended and they found themselves in a position from which they could not draw back. The matter was now so acute that it had mounted to chronic defiance and two regiments of regulars were despatched to the town and camped on the Common, being denied housing among the citizens. Friction was inevitable. At last, on March 5, 1770, a group began to harass a sentinel on King (now State) street near the town house. Finally the squad called to his sup port, fired, killing several men. The Boston Massacre, as it came to be called, showed that in view of the feeling of the moment, troops could not be quartered in the town without danger both to the citizens and the troops themselves. A committee with Samuel Adams as its head, demanded the withdrawal of the regiments to the castle. Hutchinson, now acting governor, demurred and sought to compromise on one regiment but to Adams's reply "both regi ments or none," he yielded. It became evident to the British Parliament that these Acts could not be enforced and they were repealed except the tax on tea which was kept for the assertion of the principle involved. Samuel Adams and his associates led the opposition to the principle. Finally, three ships bearing cargoes of tea arrived in the harbour and were moored at Griffin's wharf. For several days there were conferences and meetings in which Adams played the leading part, looking toward the return of the ships without landing the tea. On Dec. 16, 1773, at the close of a town meeting, which adjourned with Adams's statement : "This meeting can do nothing more to save the country," a group of citizens, largely responsible men, disguised more or less thor oughly as Indians, proceeded to the wharf, boarded the vessels, opened their chests and threw the tea into Boston harbour. So entirely was the mob an orderly one and the radical act so con servatively carried out that it evinced not a spontaneous act, but a carefully premeditated one. It was an act which could only be passed unnoticed if the Government intended to waive all but ostensible sovereignty. This it was not prepared to do and the Boston Port bill was the result. This closed the port of Boston and, as this meant the ruin of the city, it precipitated formal re volt. More troops were sent to preserve order. Gage, in com mand, was a rather mild administrator and did his best in trying circumstances. The Colonies formed a skeleton military organ ization called Minute Men, prepared to muster on the shortest possible notice, and gathered ammunition and supplies. Gage promptly sent a detachment to that part of Charlestown now Somerville and destroyed some of these stores. In April 1775 he decided to send a secret expedition to capture or destroy military stores at Concord. His plans were suspected by the insurgents and his movements noted. On the evening of April 18 an expedi tion was sent out. By an agreed plan of signals Paul Revere, waiting at the Charlestown shore, learned the route by which it had started and on a horse borrowed for that purpose, rode through the country arousing the inhabitants. He was joined by William Dawes, who had left Boston by another route and by the time the regulars reached Lexington green, their pathway was obstructed by a small company of Minute Men. This was the first armed resistance. After an exchange of volleys, in which eight of the militia were killed, they gave way. The regulars pro ceeded to Concord but found that the greater part of the stores had been carried to safety. There occurred the fight at the Bridge (in which both sides lost men) and the withdrawal of the Brit ish. As the Minute Men came in from the country they harassed the British column until the withdrawal became a retreat and the retreat a rout. Thus the American Revolution began with British troops out of Boston, contesting with militia aroused by Boston men. The war was accepted by the colonies. Siege was immedi ately laid to the town by a half ring of forts erected on the land side. These New Englanders were reinforced by troops from the other Colonies. The Continental Congress, though it had not yet declared independence, made George Washington commander-in chief of the American armies. Before he reached Cambridge, Gen. Ward, then in command, sent a detachment of troops under Pres cott and Putnam, to fortify Bunker hill in Charlestown, which commanded the town on the north. Howe, then in command of the British forces, decided to carry the hill by storm. The colo nials were courageous men and excellent marksmen. They re pelled the first attack with great slaughter; a second was made, the steady Britishers reforming and mounting the hill again only to meet another sanguinary repulse. On the third attack the am munition of the colonials was exhausted and after a bayonet struggle, they made an orderly and soldierly retreat. Technically a victory for the British, it was purchased at such a cost that it gave the colonies great encouragement and its anniversary is celebrated in Boston to this day. The siege continued unabated until, after the Colonials occupied Dorchester Heights closely overlooking the town, Howe evacuated the city on March 17, 17 76. Boston was never again in the theatre of the war during the Revo lution. Its entire population was not in accord with the revolt. Howe carried with him great numbers of loyalists to Halifax and others remained to bear reprisals.

Four years before the treaty of peace was signed, a convention was held in Boston and formed a State Government for Massa chusetts. The town, under the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution maintained the old town-meeting system.

Post-Revolutionary Period.

From the time of the ratifica tion of the treaty of peace until 1822 when it became a city, the history of Boston is blended with the broader history of na tional and State politics. It early became Federalist in its tenden cies and was the chief Federalist centre of the country so long as that party existed, wavering but once and then briefly at the time of the negotiation of Jay's treaty. During the Shays's rebellion it strongly supported the firm policy of Gov. Bowdoin and returned a substantial majority for his re-election, although he was defeated in the State. It strongly supported the ratification of the Federal Constitution. The town was vigorously anti-Jeffersonian especially upon his embargo policy. Although the town was not averse to a declaration of war at the moment, this peaceful commercial war fare was almost as destructive to its life, as the Port bill had been a third of a century before. It was at this time that John Quincy Adams warned the administration that treason and secession were afoot in Boston. Although things did not go so far as that, there certainly was much discussion as to the State's relations to the Union and the possibilities contained in a separation. Bostonians were sent as delegates to the Hartford convention and its chair man, George Cabot, was a Bostonian. The action of this body, set New England and its chief city apart from the rest of the country, in the eyes of many of the inhabitants of other States as an independent thinking, superior feeling, critical section, a feeling to be soon intensified by the anti-slavery movement which had its beginning 20 years later.

A movement which had a deep effect on the life of Bostonians was the shift of religious belief from the Trinitarian to Unitarian Congregationalism, marking the disintegration in many of the old historic churches of the Puritan theology. Jonathan Mayhew, one of the patriot ministers of the middle of the 13th century, began the movement. It progressed slowly at first but with increasing momentum. By 1780 many pulpits were filled by liberal minis ters. The rector of King's chapel, at the time of its separation after the Revolution from the Church of England, made his own revision of the prayer book, leaving out the Trinity. He was re fused ordination by two American bishops and in 1782 he was ordained by the congregation. This was the first Unitarian Church organization in America (see UNITARIANISM). In 1825 the Amer ican Unitarian Association was organized and its headquarters has always been maintained in the city.

The City of Boston.

In 1822 Boston outgrew the town meet ing. It then adopted a city charter, with a mayor, a board of aldermen and a common council. The legislative branch for many years had certain administrative functions through its committees and elected certain officers such as assistant assessors. The first mayor was John Phillips, elected after one trial which had re sulted in a stalemate between Josiah Quincy and Harrison Gray Otis. Both were chosen subsequently. Josiah Quincy, the second mayor, even to-day, goes down as the executive of the greatest activity, broadest municipal outlook, and practical sense of any mayor the city has had. The original charter has been changed many times by the State legislature. The mayor's term was ex tended, first to two years, then to four. The administrative func tions of the committees of the city council have been abolished, and the police department put under State control, obviating or at least minimizing such scandals coming from the control of the police by predatory political machines, as have risen in other cities. The board of aldermen and the common council have been abolished, and a comparatively small single chamber has been sub stituted with powers greatly curtailed. A Finance commission has been created, appointed by the governor of the State, with powers of summoning witnesses and administering oaths; it has some times been effectual in uncovering official corruption and even more by the restraint its very existence puts on administrative abuses. Numerous efforts to abolish it on the part of corrupt poli ticians at elections have so far been fruitless. Party designations at elections have been abolished with the intent to concentrate municipal thought on local rather than national issues. Candidates are nominated on petition, thus abolishing party responsibility but leaving nothing else in its place.

After the organizing of the city under the original charter, the next important event was the Boston Anti-Slavery movement. The abolition movement began in 1831 when `'William Lloyd Gar rison, a native of Newburyport, removed to Boston and began the publication of The Liberator. A year later the New England Anti Slavery Society was organized by a small number of the uninflu ential citizens. Their opponents consisted of the wealthy and aristocratic class. They had southern investments in business which was adjusted to slavery both north and south. In 1835 a public pro-slavery meeting was called and was presided over by the mayor of the city with the most aristocratic and exclusive Bos tonians among the vice presidents and speakers. The sentiments of this meeting led to the mobbing of Garrison in his office on Oct. 21, 1835. Garrison was soon joined in his activities by Wen dell Phillips, son of the first mayor, a young lawyer, stung to espouse the cause very largely by the defence of the conservatives in the murder of Lovejoy in Ohio. They attracted others. Even "the best people" found their enthusiastic kinsmen joining the movement. In 1850 the south played into the hands of the Aboli tionists by the passage of the Fugitive Slave law. Opposition to the act reached its peak following the arrest of Anthony Burns on rendition process on May 24, 1854. The anti-slavery leaders de termined upon mob violence. Clergymen, philanthropists, scholars, felt it their duty to engage in this attempt. But the sortie, which was planned to follow a protest meeting, failed through the tenta tive plans leaking out. Burns was carried to the ship by the entire military strength of the county, with loaded muskets and cannon loaded with grape at street corners, between rows of buildings draped in black as though for the death of a national ruler. Lin coln himself once inferentially stated that Boston more than any other city was responsible for the agitation which led to secession and the Civil War.

In the Civil War, Boston sent organized troops at Lincoln's first call to the relief of Washington. It organized the S4th Regiment consisting of coloured soldiers, the first black gesture of earned freedom. Like all large cities it had its disloyal elements whose disturbances culminated in a riot at the Cooper street armory at which the commander of the artillery swept the street with grape shot.

Before and after the Civil War Boston was the.literary centre of the United States. America's chief essayists, historians, poets, philosophers and novelists lived in and around the city. Nearly contemporary with one another were Emerson, Hawthorne, Ban croft, Prescott, Motley, Parkman, Thoreau, Whittier, Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell, R. H. Dana, Jr., and later Thomas Bailey Aldrich.

The greatest physical calamity within the history of the city was the great fire of Nov. 9-10, 1872. It broke out on a Saturday night in the wholesale district and spread rapidly over 67ac. on which stood 767 buildings filled with merchandise. Property, real and personal, to the estimated amount of over $75,000,000 was destroyed in less than 24 hours. Beyond the loss of 14 lives, the disaster was almost entirely commercial, as there was little residen tial property within the burned district. The city made a quick recovery and a new district was soon built of better material, with streets straightened and widened.

In Sept. 1919, the Boston Social club, formed of the great ma jority of the police patrolmen of Boston, began to agitate for cer tain reforms in their conditions, especially concerning salary. The commissioner (a State officer) was Edwin U. Curtis, ex-mayor of the city. He endeavoured to obtain a rise in pay for the force, but was balked by the mayor of the city. The members of the Social club then sought to join the American Federation of Labor and to organize a policemen's union. Curtis, treating his force as a military body in which a union can have no place, forbade the police from joining such a union. It was formed in face of his orders. Curtis ordered the leaders before a court of inquiry by whom they were found guilty and dismissed from the force. This was followed by the overwhelming majority of the patrolmen of Boston going on strike. A night of pillage ensued, followed by several days of spasmodic out-breaks in different parts of the city. A small force of volunteers joined the few loyal patrolmen, but no effective action could be taken because of friction between the mayor and the commissioner. Governor (later President) Coolidge then ordered out the entire State Guard and as commander-in-chief took control of the situation and immediately recalled Curtis to active command. Order was restored and the State guard con tinued to do police duty until a practically new police department was recruited and organized. The strikers were deemed deserters and have never been reinstated, though efforts have been made in their behalf.

Until the middle of the i9th century Boston, though it had changed in some measure in the prevailing religious opinions and had increased in population, had altered very little indeed in its racial balance. There was the same prevailing New England stock, coming with more or less directness from the i 7th century settlers and about the same proportion of other nationalities which it has always possessed. But with the famine in Ireland, the Irish immi gration began. It came in an ever increasing flood. Other na tionalities, Hebrew (very largely from Russia), Italian, Canadian, Polish, Scandinavian, Armenian, Lithuanian and Balkan peoples have followed in large numbers. By the beginning of the loth century it had become a non-Anglo-Saxon city, with strong influen tial threads of old time English, Scotch and Scotch-Irish running through the fabric. In influence it is predominantly Irish, as any list of its city government within 20 years will clearly show. It has been Puritan, then Unitarian ; it is now Roman Catholic. It has had its spasms of ill feeling, its religiously proscriptive movements. Now the change is accepted and recognized. The Protestant churches have faced a difficult problem. Largely the old congrega tions have moved outside the city limits and there has been much church consolidation. The city, for years conservative in ordinary matters, has become largely, if not philosophically, radical. All the inevitable shifting of population which comes with great met ropolitan growth, has come about in Boston. Yet it is only fair to say that its historical heritage has been potent and is cherished by its present population. It is no longer the centre of the New England idea but a typical American city, lacking in racial homo geneity, and having characteristics shared by its sister municipali ties of metropolitan proportions.

Gardner Museum.—The Isabella Stewart Gardner museum is in the Back bay fens. It was originally built for a residence by Mrs. Gardner, in imitation of an Italian palace. Here she brought many art treasures. By her will the building and its contents were left to the public and is open to it at stated intervals. It is less formal than most art museums, and has the appearance of being inhabited.

Charles River Basin.—The Charles river dam was completed in 1910. This piece of engineering has removed the flats previously exposed at low water. The dam and machinery of control main tains the water of the basin at an even height. Covered canals on either side of the river take the excess sewage and deposit it beyond the dam in the tide water. The basin and the embank ments are used for perch purposes and on the Boston side are memorials to Oliver Wendell Holmes and Edwin U. Curtis.