TATE HOUSE IN 1801.]

The 29th regiment repaired to the spot prepared for firing, and there
would have been a fierce contest but for the excellent conduct of the
acting governor, Hutchinson. He took Captain Preston severely to task
for firing at the people without the orders of a civil magistrate, and
then, quickly working his way to the State House, took his stand in the
balcony of the council-chamber looking down King Street, and made an
address promising that the law should prevail and justice should be done
to all. The next morning Hutchinson was waited upon by the selectmen who
informed him that there would be no peace until the soldiers should
depart. Hutchinson claimed, however, that the regiments were not under
his command.

A mass meeting was soon held in Faneuil Hall, and was addressed by
Samuel Adams. It may readily be believed that he advocated no
compromise, and a committee of fifteen was immediately appointed of
which Adams was a member. According to instructions, they at once
repaired to the council chamber, and demanded the instant removal of the
troops. At three o'clock a regular town meeting assembled in Faneuil
Hall, but, owing to the great number present, adjourned to the Old South
Meeting House. Then the committee of fifteen appeared making their way
from the council-chamber to the meeting-house. Samuel Adams was at the
head, and as the crowd made way on either hand he bared his head, and,
inclining to the right and left, as he passed through the line, kept
repeating: "Both regiments or none!" "Both regiments or none!"

[Illustration: STATUE IN ADAMS SQUARE.]

In the presence of the dense multitude in the Old South, the governor's
reply was rendered: the 29th regiment should go to the castle, but the
14th must remain. Then the cry arose, "Both regiments or none!" and as
the shout echoed from every quarter it was plain that the people had
caught the meaning of the watchword, given shortly before by Adams. A
new committee, also including Adams, was appointed and sent back to the
governor, and as they stood in the council chamber the scene was one
that John Adams pronounced long after as worthy a historical painting. A
few sentences from Adams' address to Hutchinson are clear enough to show
the intense earnestness and patriotism of the man.

"It is well known," he said, "that acting as governor of the Province,
you are by its charter the commander-in-chief of the military forces
within it; a