Radio Script #439

Little Talks on Common Things

December 20, 1959

Tonight we shall conclude our discussion of the famous diary of Thomas Smith, Portland’s first minister. Let us see what Parson Smith had to say about events which led up to the Revolutionary War. His first reference to that conflict came on August 1, 1765 when he wrote: “Last night there was a great mob in Boston that destroyed the new stamp house and attacked the Secretarys.” That is a reference to the notorious Stamp Act, resisted vigorously in all the Colonies, but particularly in Massachusetts.

On August 22 Smith put into his diary an account of violence in Boston: “On Monday there was a mob that damaged Captain Storey’s house and almost ruined the Lieutenant Governor’s. The loss is computed at 30,000 pounds. Intoxicated by liquor found in Mr. Halloway’s cellar, the rioters directed their course to the the house of Lt. Gov. Hutchinson, whose family was instantly dispersed. After attempting to save himself within doors, Hutchinson was also constrained to depart, to save his life. By 4:00 A.M. one of the best houses in the Province was completely in ruins, nothing remaining but the bare walls and floors. The plate, family pictures, most of the furniture and wearing apparel, about 900 pounds sterling in money, and the books which Mr. Hutchinson had been thirty years collecting, besides many public papers in his custody, were either carried off or destroyed.”

Most of us have been brought up to believe that our New England ancestors who precipitated the Revolution had all right on their side. To oppose the Stamp Act, the Navigation Acts, the duty on tea, and the closing of the port of Boston, was indeed a patriotic right, but it is never anyone’s right to resort to destructive violence, whether it be in Boston in 1765 or in Little Rock in 1959.

By September, 1765 the situation was getting worse, with the prospect that it would get completely out of control. On September 10 Parson Smith wrote: “A mob lately attacked with great outrage Mr. Bennett’s property in Boston. We hear of mobs continually at Newport, Conn., and in other parts of that province. Affairs seem to be ripening to a universal mob, all aimed at the stamp officers, who are obliged to give up their commissions.”

On September 25, 1765 Smith wrote: “The General Court was called together with respect to the distressed state of the country and the universal uneasiness caused by opposition to the Stamp Act.”

Early in 1766 the mob spirit hit Portland itself. The Smith diary entry for January 8 of that year tells us: “A mob assembled here, threatening the custom house.”

On February 12 Smith recorded news of better prospects ahead: “We have heard news for a good while of a change in the ministry at home in England. The Duke of Grafton and General Conway, secretaries in place of the execrable Earl of Bute and Mr. Grenville, give us hope of a redress of our colonial grievances.”

Two weeks later Smith wrote: “We have had several vessels come in from England, with news of the Stamp Act, mostly promising a repeal, or at least a suspension of it. The nation at home (City and country, merchants and manufacturers) are in a mighty toss about It. Parliament knows not what to do between a desire to relieve us and to save the government’s face. The Stamp Act was a rash thing, suggested by Governor Hutchinson and other New England men, then put into effect by Mr. Grenville and the old ministry.”

In March Smith wrote that the fiery William Pitt was fighting the colonial cause in Parliament. At last on May 16 the diary contained this statement: “Captain Tate, in a large mast ship, came here in thirty days from London,bringing news that the Stamp Act is repealed. Our people are mad with drink and joy, bells ringing, drums beating, colors flying, and a deluge of drunkenness. Our house was illuminated and a great many others.”

But, as our study of American history long ago taught us, the repeal of the Stamp Act did not end the difficulty. In February, 1767 Parson Smith wrote: “The controversy and uneasiness with the government increases.” Then, six months later, in September, 1767 he said: “We have melancholy news from home. Parliament has passed a bill to prevent the Province of New York from acting in General Court until they comply with the billeting of the King’s troops there.”

By the summer of 1768 the tension had become decidedly worse. Smith set down in the diary on June 20 of that year: “There was a mob in Boston on Friday, caused by seizing Mr. Hancock’s sloop. The town is in uproar. The commissioners have fled to the Castle (Castle Island in Boston Harbor) which is guarded by a man-of-war. In Boston the Governor has dissolved the assembly.”

Then Portland was again drawn into the controversy. September 18, 1768: “An express arrived from Boston to ascertain the opinion of the several towns in the District of Maine with respect to the King’s troops expected in Boston.” September 21: “We held a town meeting to consider the express from Boston. Chose Brigadier Preble to go to Boston to join the proposed Committee of Safety for the Province, in respect to the present distress.”

On October first Parson Smith wrote: “The King’s ship came into Boston Harbor and the troops landed in the town. Things are in a sad pass in the country.”

When we consider today the great clamor caused by the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770, and its sacred place in our New England history, it is noteworthy how briefly and comparatively calmly the incident was treated by Parson Smith, a hundred miles away, down in Portland. This is Smith’s comment on the famous Boston Massacre: “There have been of late many frays between the soldiers and the inhabitants of Boston, occasioned by abuses committed by the soldiers. Last Monday evening there was such an incident, more tragic than its predecessors. The soldiers in King Street fired on the people and killed four on the spot, mortally wounded two more, besides slightly wounding several others. The town is in a great ferment and met today in town meeting, as did also the Governor and Council. The captain and the murderous soldiers were apprehended and committed to jail and the troops were pulled out of the town and sent to the Castle.”

Then in 1773 came Parson Smith’s brief reference to the Boston Tea Party: “The people of Boston are in a great toss relating to India tea. When ships arrived with tea cargoes, spirited citizens refused to let them land. From one ship, tied up at the wharf, citizens dressed as Indians broke open the chests and threw the tea into the harbor.”

Then in 1774 came the notorious cloSing of the port of Boston. On May 14 Parson Smith wrote: “Yesterday General Gage arrived at the Castle as the new governor of the Province. Boston is shut up by Act of Parliament. The custom house has been moved to Marblehead and the commissioners to Salem.” On June 7th Smith recorded that the General Court (the Massachusetts Legislature) had convened at Salem. Ten days later he noted that the Governor had dissolved that legislature, but the members continued together until, as Smith put it, “as guardians of the people they could adopt such measures as the exigenCies of the Province required.”

On September 3rd, for the first time, Parson Smith’s diary contained mention of the Continental Congress. He wrote: “The grand Continental Congress is now meeting at Philadelphia.”

The next spring Parson Smith gave dire recognition to the first shots of the Revolution. Here are his entries for three successive days: “April 18, 1775 – General Gage sent 900 men by night to Concord to destroy the magazine there. April 19 – The King’s troops were driven back, though reinforced with 1,000 more. Hundreds of our people are collecting from the towns near Concord. The people are everywhere in the utmost consternation and distress. April 20 – The country is all in alarm, sending soldiers to Boston. A civil war has commenced.”

Notice that Parson Smith called the outbreak civil war, as indeed it was. It was an uprising of British against British, British subjects in the American colonies against an oppressive British government at home. That was the Revolution — a civil war, not a war of one sovereign nation against another. That war won our sovereignty as a separate nation.

On April 21, 1775 Parson Smith proudly noted that a company of troops had been recruited at Portland and had started overland for Boston. That company was commanded by Capt. John Brackett. At Wells it was ordered back home to defend Portland.

By May first Parson Smith could write: “We have a great army of 20,000 or more provincials at Cambridge and Roxbury, preparing to attack General Gage. who commands the King’s troops in Boston. Boston is so closely shut up by the King’s ships that there is no going out or coming in by sea.”

On May 8th Smith said: “Various are the accounts we daily receive from Boston, and little can be depended upon — only that Gen. Gage is daily securing the town, having placed entrenchments on Beacon Hill, Fort Hill and Copp’s Hill.”

It was June 19th before Parson Smith could record the happenings at Bunker Hill, which had taken place two days earlier. He then wrote: “Last Friday night some of our provincial army began to entrench on a hill in Charlestown, and on Saturday were attacked by more than 2,000 regulars, supported by the cannon of the men-of-war and the floating batteries. Our men, so vastly outnumbered, were obliged to retreat, with the loss of about fifty killed. including Dr. Joseph Warren. The regulars had a thousand killed. some say nearer fifteen hundred among them 22 officers.”

When the spring of 1776 was ushered in, Smith could note a significant event. Though it had occurred on March 17th. the Parson did not learn of it until the 27th. He then wrote: “The troops have sailed away from Boston, supposed to be on their way to Halifax.” That was the famous evacuation of Boston, forced by Washington’s command of the heights at Dorchester and Roxbury. Strangely enough the Smith diary contains no mention of the Declaration of Independence. In fact its only reference to the war during the month of July, 1776 is this: “July 30 – We have news of the repulse and defeat of Commodore Sir Peter Parker, with eight men-of-war, and of Lord Cornwallis and General Clinton with their troops, in an attack on Charleston, S.C., with great loss to them but little to us.” The Parson proved to be over-optimistic because the repulse in the South turned out to be a minor victory, and meanwhile things were going bad for the Americans near New York. As winter set in the Parson wrote on December 4: “Every fourth man is now being drafted for the army everywhere.”

Parson Smith’s first mention of George Washington came two years after the Virginian had taken command of the Continental Army. On June 2, 1777 Smith wrote: “Howe, with his army, has been a good while cooped up in Brunswick, N.J. by George Washington.”

Now let us see how, step by step, Parson Smith told the story of the great American victory at Saratoga: “July 18,1777 – We hear Ticonderoga is taken. It was deserted by General St. Clair without any fighting.

“Aug. 1 – We hear that Gen. Howe has left the Jerseys, going somewhere, either to Delaware or North River or Boston.

“Aug. 15 – Howe has now returned to New York and intends to go up the North River to join Burgoyne, who has got to Saratoga. (By the North River, Smith meant the Hudson.)

“Sept. 30 – Gen. Burgoyne is in a bad plight, enclosed by our army under Generals Gates, Arnold and Lincoln.

“Oct. 22 – We have great news of the success of our northern army that have enclosed Burgoyne’s.

“Oct. 26 – We have, by the post, authentic news of the astonishing victory of General Gates in forcing the surrender of Burgoyne’s entire army. Our people are mad with joy.”

That is how Portland’s first minister put into his diary the stirring events from the resistance to the Stamp Act in 1765 to the Battle of Saratoga in 1777.

Year: 1959