not leave us; we shall have warm work, and want
you.'"[23] But in other cases Adams succeeded: one by one John Hancock,
Josiah Quincy, Jr., John Adams, and Joseph Warren were by him brought
into prominence. And at the same time he began to accustom men's minds
to new methods of political activity.

This Adams did in the present difficulty, when, in default of the
Assembly, he yet needed an expression of the opinion of the province.
Through his means was called a convention of the towns of Massachusetts,
which met in Faneuil Hall, on the 22d of September, 1768.

The convention was self-restrained. It called upon the governor to
convene the Assembly, and approved all the acts which had caused the
Assembly's dismissal; it resolved to preserve order, and quietly
dissolved itself. "I doubt," said the British Attorney-General, "whether
they have committed an overt act of treason, but I am sure they have
come within a hair's breadth of it."

Immediately afterwards arrived the ships with troops. These were landed
with much parade, to find a peaceful town, yet one which from the first
was able to annoy them. Demand was made for quarters for the soldiers;
the Selectmen and Council replied by referring to the law which forbade
such a requisition until the barracks at Castle William should be
filled. By neither subtlety nor threats could the town be induced to
yield; the troops camped on the Common until, at great expense, the
crown officials were forced to hire quarters. It was but the beginning
of the discomfort of the troops, openly scorned in a town where
three-quarters of the people were against them. Where few women except
their own camp-followers would have to do with the soldiers, where the
men despised them and the boys jeered, where "lobster-back" was the
mildest term that was flung at them, there was no satisfaction in
wearing the king's uniform.

[Illustration: FANEUIL HALL]

Eighteen months of this life wore upon the soldiers. The townsfolk
became adepts at subtle irritations, against which there was not even
the solace of interesting occupation; for except for daily drill there
was nothing to do. In time the more violent among the troops were ripe
for any affray; while the lower classes among the inhabitants, stanch
Whigs and sober livers, were sick of the noisy ribaldry which for so
long had made unpleasant the streets of the town. Out of these
conditions grew what has been called the Boston Massacre.

The bes