I talked very freely with them, but postponed giving a formal answer till the next day, as it should be in writing.  I then had wine handed round, and they left me highly pleased with their reception, especially that part of them which had not been used to an interview with me.”  Considering the Governor’s state of mind, the committee could not have been more highly pleased when they left than he was when they arrived; but his perturbations were over when Hutchinson came in, and there was no occasion for unusual political action.

The Governor’s reply to the town, on the next day, was conciliatory.  The petition which the committee presented to him was regarded by Hutchinson as going beyond anything that had yet been advanced in the way of a practical denial of Parliamentary authority; but the Governor wisely declined to argue the vexed question of that day, and as wisely promised redress for the press-gang outrage, all of which was highly satisfactory to the meeting.  The chairman, James Otis, made the reply more satisfactory by acknowledging the Governor’s hospitality.  Still the men who filled the Old South to overflowing did not omit the duty of stern-worded protest against the aggressions of Parliament; and in an elaborate and admirable paper, marked with Joseph Warren’s energy of soul, they alleged the unconstitutional imposition of taxes as the groundwork of the recent troubles.  It was oppression, and it “came down upon the people like an armed man, though they were the subjects of an empire which was the toast of the nations for freedom and liberty.”

It was now the current rumor that this and other aggressions were to be enforced by arms.  The idea was abhorrent to the people.  A committee, to whom was referred the subject of the rumored introduction of troops, reported to the meeting a resolve to the effect that whoever had urged this measure was “a tyrant in his heart, a traitor and an open enemy to his country”; but though this resolve was advocated by William Cooper, the faithful and intrepid town-clerk, and by others, the resolution finally adopted declared only that any person who should solicit or promote the importation of any troops at this time was an enemy to the town and the Province, and a disturber of the peace and good order of both.

The Governor was now on good terms with the people.  He was in the habit of saying that nothing which he had done would bring troops into the town,—­that he was desirous of promoting harmony between the Province and the mother-country,—­and the memorial to the Ministry in their behalf contained the assurance that they bore “the same sentiments of loyalty and duty towards their gracious King, and the same reverence for the great council of the nation, the British Parliament, as ever.”  This was the truth, touchingly expressed.  The Bostonians never considered the Parliament to be such an embodiment of Imperialism that it could rightfully mould their local institutions, or control their congregations