f the province and the
people, and the occasion had impressed him already. As the meeting had
passed under his windows on the way to the Old South, a friend at his
side had remarked that this was not the kind of men that had sacked his
house. He had noted the resolute countenances of the best men of the
town, and had--to use his own words--judged their spirit to be as
strong, and their resolve as high, as those of the men who had
imprisoned Andros. Adams, narrowly watching him now, marked the tumult
in Hutchinson's mind.

"I observed his knees to tremble," said Adams afterward; "I saw his face
grow pale; and I enjoyed the sight."[27] For Hutchinson, poorly
supported and irresolute, the strain was too great. He temporized and
parleyed, but he thought again of Andros, and gave way. It was a
complete triumph for the town. The troops, until their removal to the
Castle could be effected, were virtually imprisoned in their barracks by
a patrol of citizens. From that time they bore the name of the "Sam
Adams regiments."

FOOTNOTES:

[17] Bancroft, vi, 48.

[18] Farmer's Letters, quoted in Bancroft, vi, 105.

[19] Hosmer, "Life of Samuel Adams," 48.

[20] Bancroft's "United States," vi, 128.

[21] "American Revolution," Part 1, 43.

[22] Hosmer's "Life of Adams."

[23] Sabine's "Loyalists."

[24] King Street is now State Street, and the Town House is the Old
State House.

[25] Hosmer's "Samuel Adams," 172.

[26] Bancroft, vi, 344.

[27] Bancroft, vi, 345.

CHAPTER IV

THE TEA-PARTY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

Step by step the mother country and its colonies were advancing to a
rupture. The first step was taken at the test concerning the writs of
assistance, the second at the passage of the Stamp Act and its repeal,
the third resulted in the Massacre and the withdrawal of the troops from
Boston. Each time the colonies gained the practical advantages which
they sought; each time the king's party, while yielding, became more
exasperated, and presently tested the strength of the colonies once
more; and each time it was Boston that stood as the head and front of
opposition. The town was marked for martyrdom.

In the case of the Townshend Acts, the victory of the colonists was
temporarily complete. The movement had come to a head at Boston in an
actual outbreak, the Massacre, which obscured the greater issues;
nevertheless the issues were won. America would not submit to the new
revenue laws. Very calmly it