isely, he remonstrated against the
imposition of the Stamp Tax, and yet he grew into one of the sturdiest
of the defenders of the supremacy of Parliament in all cases whatsoever.
He exhibited the usual characteristics of public men who from unworthy
considerations change their principles and desert their party. No man
urged a more arbitrary course; no man passed more discreditable
judgments on his patriot contemporaries; and if in that way he won the
smiles of the court which he was swift to serve, he earned the hatred of
the land which he professed to love. The more his political career is
studied, the greater will be the wonder that one who was reared on
republican soil, and had antecedents so honorable, should have become so
complete an exponent of arbitrary power.

Hutchinson was not so blinded by party-spirit or love of money or of
place as not to see the living realities of his time; for he wrote that
a thirst for liberty seemed to be the ruling passion, not only of
America, but of the age, and that a mighty empire was rising on this
continent, the progress of which would be a theme for speculative and
ingenious minds in distant ages. It was the vision of the cold and clear
intellect, distrusting the march of events and the capacity and
intelligence of the people, he had no heart to admire, he had not even
the justice to recognize, the greatness that was making an immortal
record,--the sublime faith, the divine enthusiasm, the dauntless
resolve, the priceless consciousness of being in the right, that were
the life and inspiration of the lovers of freedom. He conceded, however,
that the body of the people were honest, but acted on the belief,
inspired by wrong-headed leaders, that their liberties were in danger;
and while, with the calculation of the man of the world, he dreaded, and
endeavored to stem, still, with a statesman's foresight, he appreciated
and held in respect, the mysterious element of public opinion. He felt
that it was rising as a power. He saw this power already intrenched in
the impregnable lines of free institutions. Seeking to know its springs,
he was a close and at times a shrewd observer, as well from a habit of
research, in tracing the currents of the past, as from occupying a
position which made it a duty to watch the growth of what influenced the
present. His letters, very voluminous, deal with causes as well as with
facts, and are often fine tributes to the life-giving power of vital
poli