George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition.

[310]

The daybreak of Wednesday, the fourteenth of

chap. XVI.} 1765. Aug.

August, saw the effigy of Oliver tricked out with emblems of Bute and Grenville, swinging on the bough of a stately elm, the pride of the neighborhood, known as the Great Tree, standing near what was then the entrance to the town. The pageant had been secretly prepared by Boston mechanics,¹ true born Sons of liberty, Benjamin Edes, the printer, Thomas Crafts, the painter; John Smith and Stephen Cleverly, the braziers; and the younger Avery; Thomas Chase, a fiery hater of kings;² Henry Bass, and Henry Welles. The passers-by stopped to gaze on the grotesque spectacle, and their report collected thousands. Hutchinson, as chief justice, ordered the sheriff to remove the image. ‘We will take them down ourselves at evening,’ said the people.

Bernard summoned his council. ‘The country, whatever may be the consequence,’ said some of them, ‘will never submit to the execution of the Stamp Act.’ The majority spoke against interfering with the people. The day passed, and evening came, and Bernard and Hutchinson were still engaged in impotent altercations with their advisers, when, just after dark, an ‘amazing?’ multitude, moving in the greatest order and following the images borne on a bier, after passing down the main street, marched directly through the old State House and under the council-chamber itself, shouting at the top of their voices: ‘Liberty, Property, and no Stamps.’ Giving three huzzas of defiance, they next, in Kilby-street, demolished a frame which they thought Oliver was building for a Stamp-Office, and with the wooden trophies made a funeral pyre for his effigy in front of his house on Fort Hill.