The Eve of the Revolution; A Chronicle of the Breach with EnglandBecker, Carl L. (Carl Lotus)
History
The Eve of the Revolution; A Chronicle of the Breach with England
Becker, Carl L. (Carl Lotus)
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783
Mr. Oliver hastened to resign his office, which doubtless led many
people to think the methods taken to induce him to do so were very good
ones and such as might well be made further use of. It was in fact not
long afterwards, about dusk of the evening of the 26th of August, that
a mob of men, more deliberately organized than before, ransacked the
office of William Story, Deputy Registrar of the Court of Admiralty,
and, after burning the obnoxious records kept there, they forcibly
entered the house, and the cellar too, of Benjamin Hallowell,
Comptroller of the Customs. "Then the Monsters," says Deacon Tudor,
"being enflam'd with Rum & Wine which they got in sd. Hallowell's
cellar, proceeded with Shouts to the Dwelling House of the Hon-l. Thos.
Hutchinson, Esq., Lieut. Governor, & enter'd in a voyalent manner." At
that moment the Lieutenant-Governor was sitting comfortably at dinner
and had barely time to escape with his family before the massive front
door was broken in with axes. As young Mr. Hutchinson went out by the
back way he heard someone say: "Damn him, he's upstairs, we'll have him
yet." They did not indeed accomplish this purpose; but when the morning
broke the splendid house was seen to be completely gutted, the partition
walls broken in, the roof partly off, and the priceless possessions of
the owner ruined past repair: mahogany and walnut furniture finished
in morocco and crimson damask, tapestries and Turkey carpets, rare
paintings, cabinets of fine glass and old china, stores of immaculate
linen, India paduasoy gowns and red Genoa robes, a choice collection of
books richly bound in leather and many manuscript documents, the fruit
of thirty years' labor in collecting--all broken and cut and cast about
to make a rubbish heap and a bonfire. From the mire of the street there
was afterwards picked up a manuscript history of Massachusetts which is
preserved to this day, the soiled pages of which may still be seen in
the Boston library. Mr. Hutchinson was no friend of the Stamp Act;
but he was a rich man, Lieutenant-Governor of the province, and
brother-in-law of Andrew Oliver.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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