Governor Bernard's Interference: Daughters and Liberty

In the upper House, Lord Barrington called the Americans "traitors, and worse than traitors, against the crown--traitors against the legislation of this country. The use of troops," he said, "was to bring rioters to justice." Even Camden, who opposed Pitt's declaratory act, now acquiesced in the harsh measures against Boston that were proposed, and was severely chastised by the tongue of Edmund Burke for his inconsistency. "My astonishment at the folly of his opinions is lost in indignation at the baseness of his conduct," said the gifted Irishman.

To gratify the prejudices of the king, Shelburne had been driven from the ministry, and Chatham, offended because of this act, had resigned. Lord North now commenced that long leadership of the ministry which continued until near the close of our struggle for independence. He took the initiative as the friend and champion of the king, by replying sharply to Alderman Beckford, who said: "Let the nation return to its good old nature and its old good humor; it were best to repeal the late acts and conciliate the colonies by moderation and kindness." To these wise words, North replied in falsification of history: "There has been no proof of any real return of friendship on the part of the Americans; they will give you no credit for affection; no credit for an attention to their commercial interests. If America is to be the judge, you must tax in no instance! You may regulate in no instance. Punishment will not be extended beyond the really guilty; and, if rewards shall be found necessary, rewards will be given. But what we do, we will do firmly. We shall go through our plan, now that we have brought it so near success. I am against repealing the last act of Parliament, securing to us a revenue out of America! I will never think of repealing it, until I see America prostrate at my feet."

The words of the King, Lords and Commons made a deep impression on the minds of the patriots of Massachusetts, and throughout the other provinces. Their liberties were more dangerously menaced than ever, and the instruments for their enslavement were seated in the New England capital and intrenched behind cannon. But the Sons of Liberty were more determined than ever to stand firmly by their rights, and at the same time to maintain a perfect adherence to the law. By this determination they conquered. Their worst enemies in Great Britain could not justly accuse them of treason for any act they had committed. They had a perfect right to cease trading with anybody. They had violated no law; and all the threats of the madmen in the government, and the presence of troops, could not alter their opinions. Their petitions, though rejected by the king with scorn, lost none of their vitality; and the official assurance that the monarch would not listen to "wicked men" who denied the supremacy of Parliament, did not move the patriots a single line from the path which they had prescribed for themselves. They felt that Colonel Barre prophetically read their hearts, when, in opposition to a resolution of Lord North, offered in March, 1769, to reject a respectful petition from New York, he said: "I predicted all that would happen on the passage of the stamp act; and I now warn ministers that, if they persist in their wretched course of oppression, the whole continent of North America will rise in arms, and these colonies perhaps be lost to England forever."

When the non-importation agreements were renewed, the young women heartily seconded the action of their fathers and brothers, by engaging in domestic manufactures. The Irish flax-wheel performed an important part in the feminine opposition to British oppression in the spinning of linen thread for summer fabrics; and the hum of the big Dutch wool-wheel was heard in many families converting the fleecy rolls from the hand-cards into yarn. In Boston, a party of fifty young women, calling themselves "Daughters of Liberty," met at the hose of the venerated pastor of the Scotch Presbyterian Church there, the Rev. John Moorehead, where they amused themselves with spinning two hundred and thirty-two skeins of linen yarn, some very fine, which were given to the worthy white-haired minister. Several of the young women were members of his congregation. Many persons came in to see the novel sight and admire the fair spinners. They were regaled with refreshing fruit, cakes, coffee and comfits, after which anthems and liberty-songs were sung by many fine voices of the Sons and Daughters of Liberty. There were, at that time, more than one hundred spinners in Mr. Moorehead's society. In other colonies like zeal and industry were shown by the young women, and also by whole families. "Within eighteen months past," wrote a correspondent of the New York Mercury, from Newport, Rhode Island, "four hundred and eighty-seven yards of cloth and thirty-six pairs of stockings have been spun and knit in the family of James Nixon of this town. Another family, within four years past, hath manufactured nine hundred and eighty yards of woolen cloth, besides two coverlids and two bed-ticks, and all the stocking yarn for the family. We are credibly informed that many families in this colony within the year past have each manufactured upward of seven hundred yards of cloth of different kinds."