Thus law was a threefold cord wherewith to bind the strong Puritan. But his eyes were not put out--not then. Blindness came at a later day--when he had laid his head in the lap of a not attractive Delilah. With such judges and governors, backed by a standing army of hirelings--how soon would her liberty go down, and the Anglo-American States resemble Spanish America! In 1760 Francis Bernard was made governor of Massachusetts, and thus officially put at the head of the Judiciary, a man wholly devoted to the Crown, expecting to be made a baronet! He did not wish an annual election of councillors, but wanted the sovereign power to enforce its decrees by violent measures. Thus Thomas Hutchinson was made Chief Justice in 1760, and afterwards Lieutenant-Governor,--continually hostile to the constitution of his native land. Thus Andrew Oliver--"Governor Oliver," "hungry for office and power," was appointed Secretary, Commissioner of Stamps and Lieutenant-Governor; and Peter Oliver--"Judge Oliver"--though not bred a lawyer, was made Chief Justice, the man who refused to receive his salary from the treasury of Massachusetts, preferring the money of the crown which owned him. In the revolutionary times of the _five Judges of Massachusetts four were Tories_! Accordingly, when the Stamp Act was passed--22d March, 1765--there were Judicial officers in the Colonies ready to declare it "constitutional;" executive magistrates ready to carry out any measures intrusted to them. "I will cram the stamps down their throat with the end of my sword," said an officer at New York. Governor Bernard wanted soldiers sent to Boston to enforce submission; so did Hutchinson and "Governor Oliver." The Governor of New York thought, "if _Judges be sent from England_, with an able attorney-general and solicitor-general to _make examples of some very few_, the Colony will remain quiet."[104] [Footnote 104: 5 Bancroft, 358.] In 1768 John Hancock was arrested at Boston--for a "misdemeanor;" I suppose, "obstructing an officer," or some such offence.[105] The government long sought to procure indictments against James Otis--who was so busy in fencing out despotism--Samuel Adams, and several other leading friends of the colony. But I suppose the judge did not succeed in getting his brother-in-law put on the grand-jury, and so the scheme fell through. No indictment for that "misdemeanor" then. Boston had the right men to do any thing for the crown, but they did not contrive to get upon the grand-jury. [Footnote 105: 6 Bancroft, 213.]