The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 307 pages of information about The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 307 pages of information about The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863.

A spell of silence followed this appeal.  Then there was low conversation, to a whisper, between the Lieutenant-Governor and Colonel Dalrymple, who, in the spirit of the unbending soldier, was for resisting this demand, as he had been for summary proceedings in the case of the meetings.  “It is impossible for me,” he had said this afternoon, “to go any further lengths in this matter.  The information given of the intended rebellion is sufficient reason against the removal of His Majesty’s troops.”  But he now said in a loud tone, “I am ready to obey your orders,” which threw the responsibility on Hutchinson.  All the members of the committee urged the demand.  “Every one of them,” Hutchinson says, “deliberately gave his opinion at large, and generally gave this reason to support it,—­that the people would most certainly drive out the troops, and that the inhabitants of the other towns would join in it; and several of the gentlemen, declared that they did not judge from the general temper of the people only, but they knew it to be the determination, not of a mob, but of the generality of the principal inhabitants; and they added, that all the blood would be charged to me alone, for refusing to follow their unanimous advice, in desiring that the quarters of a single regiment might be changed, in order to put an end to the animosities between the troops and the inhabitants, seeing Colonel Dalrymple would consent to it.”  After the committee withdrew, the debates of the Council were long and earnest; and, as they went on, Hutchinson asked, “What protection would there be for the Commissioners, if both regiments were ordered to the Castle?” Several said, “They would be safe, and always had been safe.”  “As safe,” said Gray, “without the troops as with them.”  And Irving said, “They never had been in danger, and he would pawn his life that they should receive no injury.”  “Unless the troops were removed,” it was said, “before evening there would be ten thousand men on the Common.”  “The people in general,” Tyler said, “were resolved to have the troops removed, without which they would not be satisfied; that, failing of other means, they were determined to effect their removal by force, let the act be deemed rebellion or otherwise.”  As the Council deliberated, the people were impatient, and the members were repeatedly called out to give information as to the result, This at length was unanimity.  This body resolved, that, to preserve the peace, it was absolutely necessary that the troops should be removed; and they advised the Lieutenant-Governor to communicate that conclusion to Colonel Dalrymple, and to request that he would order his whole command to Castle William.

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The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.