THE

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.

HE joint pastorate whose institution we recorded at the close of the last chapter was destined to be both brief and troubled. Almost at the outset Mr. Bacon, through inadvertence, no doubt, gave offence to some of the patriot party in his congregation. The public mind was excitable and sensitive, and at such a time a young minister, a comparative stranger in the town and province, might easily be misunderstood and become the subject of misrepresentation. Governor Hutchinson had issued a proclamation for a day of general thanksgiving, and had called upon the people to give thanks to God particu

AN UNPOPULAR PROCLAMAȚION.

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larly for the continuance of their religious and civil liberties. Mr. Hunt was absent, on a visit to Northampton; and the proclamation, coming into the hands of Mr. Bacon, was read by him on the next Lord's Day. What followed we find reported in the Boston Gazette, November 11, 1771:

It is said the Worshipping Assembly at the Old South Church, whose Pastor had so prematurely as well as unexpectedly in the Absence of his senior Colleague, read the Governor's Proclamation with the exceptionable Clause, stopped after divine Service was ended Yesterday, and express'd their great Dissatisfaction at that Part of the Rev. Mr. Bacon's conduct.

We hear the Proclamation which has given so much Offence to the good People of this Province, was read in no other Congregational Church in this Town than the American Manufactor'd Doctors, which gave so much Uneasiness to his Hearers, that many of them took their Hatts and walk'd out while he was reading it.1

A fortnight later, a long letter appeared in the Gazette, signed S. C., from which we quote the most important sentences:

Mr. Bacon desired the brethren of the church and congregation to stop after divine service was ended, in order (as is usual before our anniversary thanksgiving) to vote a collection for charitable and pious uses; after which a motion was made, the import of which was to consider whether our public thanks should be agreeable to the tenor of the exceptionable clause in the Proclamation; not a word was said in the meeting about Mr. Bacon's conduct. It is generally supposed (and I have reason to think justly) that Mr. Bacon being a stranger, and not having been informed of the usual time of reading the proclamation, conceived a propriety in its being read as soon as might conveniently be done after it came to hand. Nor do I know of any reason that can be given why it is not as proper to be read three Sabbaths before the day appointed for publick thanksgiving, as two; especially as custom is various in this respect.

It seems to be represented as a great piece of imprudence in Mr. Bacon to presume to read the proclamation in the absence of his senior colleague. As to the terms junior and senior, I think them hardly worth mentioning, and I hope our kind Pastors will never be disposed to contend for the chief rooms, or who shall be the greatest. I shall not undertake to determine what it is that constitutes seniority

1 [Mr. Pemberton had received the doctorate from Princeton the year before. Dr. Chauncy, Dr. Cooper, and Dr. Eliot received their degrees from Edinburgh, and Dr. Mayhew and Dr. Byles from Aberdeen. Harvard College for

the first time gave the degree of D. D. in 1771 to the Rev. Mr. Appleton, of Cambridge, who had been a Fellow more than fifty years; and in 1773 it conferred it on the Rev. Samuel Locke and the Rev. Samuel Mather.]

in a minister of the gospel; whether a senior pastor is one of an higher order, or of older standing in the ministry, is left with every one to determine for himself: Some have supposed the former, and some the latter; and for this reason I suppose it is that these have sometimes consider'd Paul as the youngest of the apostles. However, I believe, there has not generally been supposed to be so great a distinction between colleague pastors among us, as that it should be thought criminal for the junior to read a proclamation in the absence of his senior.1

Samuel Adams said of the proclamation and of its reception by the clergy and the people, in a letter to Arthur Lee, who was in London, dated November 13:

This, I imagine, was contrived to try the feelings of the people; and if the Governor could dupe the clergy, as he had the Council, and they the people, so that the proclamation should be read as usual in our churches, he would have nothing to do but acquaint Lord Hillsborough that the people in general acquiesced in the measures of government since they had appeared to admit with himself, that notwithstanding the faction and turbulence of a party, their liberties were continued and their trade enlarged. I am at a loss to say, whether this measure is more insolent to the people or affrontive to the majesty of Heaven, neither of whom, however, a modern politician regards, if at all, so much as the smiles of his noble patron. But the people saw through it in general, and openly declared that they would not hear the proclamation read; the consequence of which was, that it was read in only two of all the churches in this town, consisting of twelve, besides three Episcopal churches; there, indeed, it has not been customary ever to read them. Of those two clergymen who read it, one of them being a stranger in the Province, and having been settled but about six weeks, performed a servile task about a week before the usual time, when the people were not aware of it. They were, however, much disgusted at it. The other is a known flatterer of the Governor, and is the very person who formed the fulsome address of which I wrote you some time ago. He was deserted by a great number of his auditory in the midst of his reading.2

Dr. Pemberton was the divine of whom Mr. Adams wrote thus severely, at whose Princeton degree the Gazette cast a sneer, and to whom the same paper referred at another time, as "the old, rich, reverend doctor." Dr. Chandler Robbins, in an historical discourse preached at the New Brick, just before its demolition, thus spoke of the waning popularity of his prede

cessor:

1 [Boston Gazette, November 25, 1771.]

2 [Wells's Life of Samuel Adams, vol. i. pp. 432, 433.]

ADAMS AND HANCOCK.

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At the period of his settlement here, he enjoyed a degree of popularity such as had fallen to the lot of few who had ever stood in a Boston pulpit, and attracted to this house a crowded congregation. But he lived to experience, even beyond what is usual in such cases, the proverbial fickleness of popular favor. In the latter part of his life, his congregation sadly dwindled. Instead of the throngs which used to gather before him, his eye looked down upon only a few familiar faces scattered about amongst almost empty pews. But the declension of his fame was not more attributable to any deterioration of his ability, than to the influence of political odium. The inhabitants of the North End, as is well known, were almost all of them stanch and uncompromising whigs. Dr. Pemberton was a warm friend of Governor Hutchinson, who was a worshipper at his church, and therefore fell under the suspicion of sharing his attachment to the tory interest.1

There is no entry upon the record book of either church or congregation during the year 1772. On the 5th of March, the second anniversary of the King Street massacre, Joseph Warren delivered an oration in the Old South Meeting-House, as James Lovell, an usher in the Grammar School, had done the year before. Dr. Warren was only thirty years of age, but his reputation was already established as a writer and speaker. His oration explained the nature of the connection between Great Britain and the colonies, in a constitutional argument of the highest ability. It was listened to by a "vast concourse" of people, who were held "spell-bound by the purity and eloquence of his language, and the noble and ingenuous bearing of the gifted speaker."

At this time the prospects of the patriot cause were not very promising. Samuel Adams and John Hancock were at variance, and had held no intercourse with each other for a year. The governor wrote: "I think we have so divided the faction that it must be something very unfortunate which can unite them again." Indeed, it was reported in London that Hancock had deserted to the side of the government. The difference between the two leaders, however, had then been arranged by the friends of the parties; and Adams, in the magnanimity of his nature, took pains to relieve Hancock from the suspicions. under which he had rested, for, as it proved, all the influence of the governor and his agents had, in the end, been ineffectual to bring him over.

1 [Robbins's History of the Second Church, pp. 190, 191.]

The church in Brattle Street proceeded this summer to the erection of a brick meeting-house, the wooden building of 1699 being no longer adequate to the wants of the congregation, although it had been enlarged a few years before.

On the 19th of May, 1773, Mr. Joseph Howe was installed at the New South Church as the successor of the Rev. Penuel Bowen. Mr. Howe was a graduate of Yale College in the class of 1765, and his ordination sermon was preached by its president, the Rev. Naphtali Daggett. Dr. Chauncy and Dr. Pemberton took part in the services.1

The Hon. Thomas Hubbard, who had been a member of the Old South Church for forty-three years, and one of its deacons for a quarter of a century, died at Waltham July 14, in his seventy-first year. He resigned the deaconship in 1764, but accepted the treasurership on the death of Mr. Osborne in 1768. Mr. Hubbard "had scarcely passed the threshold of manhood before he was placed by his fellow citizens in stations of trust and confidence. He became a member of the House of Representatives, held for many successive years the speaker's chair, and finally was raised to a seat in the Council of the Province, which he resigned a short time before his death. Few men have passed through life with a higher reputation for integrity, usefulness, and fidelity in all the relations of public and private life." He was chosen treasurer of Harvard College in 1752, succeeding Edward Hutchinson, and held the position until his death. "He increased the funds of the college by his judicious and assiduous management, and to the office of treasurer united the character of benefactor." 3

Lord's Day P. M. 29th of August 1773.

The Brethren of the Church and Congregation were stayed, and voted that there be a Meeting of the Brethren of the Church and

1 Mr. Howe died at Hartford, August 25, 1775, during the siege of Boston.

2 Mr. Hubbard lived in a fine mansion in Summer Street, which had been built by Leonard Vassall on land formerly owned by Simeon Stoddard. He left £200 to the poor of Boston, and £50 to the Charitable and Pious Fund of the Old South. His executors were William Blair Townsend, his son-in-law, and Thomas Fayerweather. His daughter Mary, wife of Mr. Townsend, died in 1768, soon after her marriage. His

daughter Thankful married, in 1770, Dr. Thomas Leonard, and died in 1772. Phillis Wheatley addressed some touching lines to the parents, on the death of this second daughter. Mrs. Hubbard

Mary, daughter of Jonathan Jackson - died February 15, 1774. Mr. Hubbard's portrait by Copley is in the possession of Harvard College.

3 Quincy's History, vol. ii. p. 158. Mr. Hubbard was succeeded in the treasurership of the college by John Hancock.