The Loyalists of Massachusetts and the Other Side of the American RevolutionStark, James Henry
History
The Loyalists of Massachusetts and the Other Side of the American Revolution
Stark, James Henry
American loyalists -- Massachusetts; Massachusetts -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783
But the treasure came, seventeen trucks were required to cart from the
ship to the Treasury, two hundred and seventeen chests of Spanish
dollars, while ten trucks, conveyed one hundred casks of coined copper.
At once a favorable change took place. There was no _shock_ but of the
pleasantest kind, a revulsion of popular feeling followed speedily,
until Hutchinson, from being threatened at every street corner, became a
thorough favorite. Twelve years after this time Hutchinson wrote, "I
think I may be allowed to call myself the father of the present fixed
medium." There is no doubt of it. He alone saw the way out of the
difficulty, and nothing but his tact, and persistency, pushed the
measure to success. This is admitted by his enemy, John Adams, who
thirty years after Hutchinson's death said, "If I was the witch of
Endor, I would wake the ghost of Hutchinson, and give him absolute power
over the currency of the United States, and every part of it, provided
always that he should meddle with nothing but the currency. As little as
I revere his memory, I will acknowledge that he understood the subject
of coin and commerce better than any man I ever knew in this country. He
was a merchant, and there can be no scientific merchant, without a
perfect knowledge of a theory of a medium of trade."[105] Hutchinson, in
the third volume of his history of Massachusetts, remarks that the
people of Massachusetts Bay were never more easy and happy, than in 1749
when, through the application of the Louisburg reimbursement to the
extinction of the irredeemable bills, the currency was in an excellent
condition. It excited the envy of the other colonies where paper was the
principal currency.
[105] Curwen's Journal p. 456.
In 1750 he was again elected to the Assembly and "he was praised as much
for his firm" as he had before been abused for "his obstinate
perseverance." He was made chairman of a commission to negotiate a
treaty with the Indians of Casco Bay. He also settled the boundary
question with Connecticut, and Rhode Island, as he had done previously
with New Hampshire. Massachusetts became greatly the gainer by this
settlement of its boundaries. The present boundaries of Massachusetts
are those established by Hutchinson. In 1752 he was appointed Judge of
Probate, and Justice of the Common Pleas, for the County of Suffolk. In
the spring of 1754 he lost his wife. With her dying voice and with eyes
fixed on him she uttered three words, "Best of husbands." He loved her
tenderly; twenty years later, taking thought for her grave, as we shall
see later on in this article (where his countrymen could not let her
bones rest in peace, but they must desecrate her grave on Copps Hill.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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