t John Adams said of the occasion: "Then and there was
the first scene of the first act of opposition to the
arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child
Independence was born."

Later grievances were those of the Stamp Act (1765), taxes
on paints, glass, etc. (1767), and the Boston Port Bill
(1774), ordering the closing of the port on account of the
rebellious acts of the citizens, especially in the
"tea-party" of December 16, 1773, when they threw into the
waters of the harbor from English ships tea valued at
eighteen thousand pounds. As early as 1770 had occurred the
"Boston Massacre," a collision between citizens and British
soldiers, which added to earlier discontents and increased
the sensitiveness to later irritations.

The first Continental Congress, in 1774, though strongly
pacific, favored resistance to aggressions of the Crown.
During this year and the next two Provincial Congresses met
in Massachusetts, the collection of military stores was
authorized, a committee of safety was created, and the
"minute-men" were organized.

General Gage, the British commander in Boston, denounced
these proceedings as treasonable. Parliament vainly sought
to adjust the difficulties and enforce its authority.
Conciliatory efforts on both sides failing, it soon became
evident that a conflict of arms was at hand. By April 4,
1775, it was known in Boston that reenforcements were on
their way to General Gage. Soon after their arrival he was
ready for the movement with which the narrative of
Frothingham, a high authority on these events, begins.

General Gage had, in the middle of April, 1775, about four thousand men
in Boston. He resolved, by a secret expedition, to destroy the magazines
collected at Concord. This measure was neither advised by his council
nor by his officers. It was said that he was worried into it by the
importunities of the Tories; but it was undoubtedly caused by the
energetic measures of the Whigs. His own subsequent justification was
that when he saw an assembly of men, unknown to the Constitution,
wresting from him the public moneys and collecting warlike stores, it
was alike his duty and the dictate of humanity to prevent the calamity
of civil war by destroying these magazines. His previous belief was that
should the Government show a respectable