tury.[359] The men in England who lived on the money
wrung from the slave-trade, the members of the Royal African Company,
came to the rescue of the institution of slavery. In order to maintain
it by law in the American colonies, it had to be recognized in
England. The people of Massachusetts took a lively interest in the
question. In 1761, at a meeting "in the old court-house," James
Otis,[360] in a speech against the "writs of assistance," struck a
popular chord on the questions of "The Rights of the Colonies,"
afterwards published (1764) by order of the Legislature. He took the
broad ground, "that the colonists, black and white, born here, are
free-born British subjects and entitled to all the essential rights of
such."[361] In 1766 Nathaniel Appleton and James Swan distinguished
themselves in their defence of the doctrines of "liberty for all." It
became the general topic of discussion in private and public, and
country lyceums and college societies took it up as a subject of
forensic disputation.[362] In the month of May, 1766, the
representatives of the people were instructed to advocate the total
abolition of slavery. And on the 16th of March, 1767, a resolution was
offered to see whether the instructions should be adhered to, and was
unanimously carried in the affirmative. But it should be remembered
that British troops were in the colony, in the streets of Boston. The
mutterings of the distant thunder of revolution could be heard. Public
sentiment was greatly tempered toward the Negroes. On the 31st of May,
1609, the House of Representatives of Massachusetts resolved against
the presence of troops, and besought the governor to remove them. His
Excellency disclaimed any power under the circumstances to interfere.
The House denounced a standing army in time of peace, without the
consent of the General Court, as "without precedent, and
unconstitutional."[363] In 1769 one of the courts of Massachusetts
gave a decision friendly to a slave, who was the plaintiff. This
stimulated the Negroes to an exertion for freedom. The entire colony
was in a feverish state of excitement. An anonymous Tory writer
reproached Bostonians for desiring freedom when they themselves
enslaved others.

"'What!' cries our good people here, 'Negro slaves in
Boston! It cannot be.' It is nevertheless true. For though
the Bostonians have grounded their rebellion on the
'immutable laws of nature,' yet, notwithstanding their