On this day 250 years ago in Boston, the Massachusetts General Assembly petitioned the Royal Governor to remove Peter Oliver, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court from his post. Oliver had accepted payment from the British government to supplement the salary approved by the Massachusetts Assembly, even though his fellow justices had refused the supplement. The Assembly stated that Oliver had “proved himself an Enemy to the Constitution of this Province; and has placed himself under an undue Byass; detached himself totally from his Connection with this People and lost their Confidence. And that he hath rendered himself altogether disqualified to hold and act any longer in the office of a Justice of the said Superior Court.”

Source: https://www.masshist.org/dorr/volume/4/sequence/533

Note: This post originally stated that the Massachusetts Assembly “passed articles of impeachment” on February 21, 1774, however I was misinterpreting the source document. The Massachusetts Assembly was considering impeachment on February 21, but the actual Articles of Impeachment were not completed and presented in the Assembly until February 24. See my post for February 24, 1774.

On this day 250 years ago in London, John Temple wrote to his father-in-law James Bowdoin in Boston that

Dr. Franklin is dismissed from his office of Post-Master in America; but it is impossible the Province will let him be a loser by it, they must fall upon some Means of raising Money for paying their Agent . . . I should think that in their several Town taxes over the Mode of which the Governor hath no Controul, a sum might be raised for this purpose. You have Nothing to hope or expect from the Justice of Ministry, who after all will be afraid to come to extremities with you. You must be firm Resolute and Cautious; but discover no Marks of temidity, for they will take advantage of [them] to teize [tease] you in mean pitifull ways. The next thing hoped for, and expected by the friends of America, and in perticular the Dr. himself is that Boston, New York, and Philadelphia will immediately fall upon a Method to Starve the Post Office which hath always been given as a president for taxing the Colonies. This may be done the Dr. says in the easiest Manner, by a private Carriers being set up by one person, and the Merchants of York Boston and Philadelphia subscribing each such a sum as they suppose their postage now Costs them, which will be much more than Sufficient to Maintain such a Carrier and all poor peoples letters go Gratis. . . . I hope a small Committe from Boston will immediately treat with the two other Colonies to whom letters are written on the subject. You cannot expect any very explicit letters on this subject from the Dr. or any other of the friends to America; hints must be sufficient. You may rely on it, that prudent, yet manly and resolute Conduct on your parts is what will Carry you through. The Eyes of all Europe are watchfully on you, and will not suffer Tyranny to prevail against you, but there must be firm spirit on your parts. . . .  In writing this, you will consider what I have said as being the sentiments of your Best friends to be Communicated for the Public good of America. It is also thought by Dr. Lee, Dr. F. and other friends to America that it would be proper for the Assembly of Massachusetts Bay to pass some spirited resolves in Contempt of Mr. Wedderburn the Soliciter General for his Scurilous treatment of the Assembly and province,

Bowdoin was a prominent Patriot and would continue as a leader of the Patriots of Massachusetts throughout the Revolution, including serving as Governor of Massachusetts. Although John Temple was an enthusiastic supporter of the Patriot cause, he remained in England during the War and served as Britain’s first Consul to the United States after the War.

Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%2220%20February%201774%22&s=1111311111&r=2

On this day 250 years ago in London, the British Cabinet began drafting what would become the Boston Port Act. This bill would order the closing of the port of Boston until the East India Company was repaid for the Destruction of the Tea. The bill would become the first of the “Intolerable Acts” Parliament would pass in response to the Boston Tea Party although the British used what they presumed would be the less offensive term “Coercive Acts” for the bills.

Source: https://historyofmassachusetts.org/british-react-boston-tea-party/

On this day 250 years ago from London Benjamin Franklin wrote his friend and ally Joseph Galloway, Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly an optimistic assessment of the future of America after the coming war with Britain concluded:

I must soon quit the scene, but you may live to see our country flourish; as it will amazingly and rapidly after the war is over; like a field of young Indian corn, which long fair weather and sunshine had enfeebled and discolored, and which in that weak state, by a sudden gust of violent wind, hail, and rain, seemed to be threatened with absolute destruction; yet the storm being past, it recovers fresh verdure, shoots up with double vigor, and delights the eye not of its owners only, but of every observing traveler.

Ironically, Galloway would not participate in the optimistic future for America predicted by Franklin. After serving in the First Continental Congress, Galloway became one of the leading Loyalists opposing Independence and supporting British forces in the Revolutionary War. Fleeing to Britain at the end of the War, Galloway never returned to America.

Source: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/benjamin-franklin-quotes/

On this day 250 years ago, George Washington wrote to Andrew Lewis that Lord Hillsborough, the former Secretary of State for the Colonies, had held a “malignant disposition towards Americans,” so Washington disregarded Hillsborough’s interpretation “that Provincial officers were not comprehended in that Proclamation” authorizing land grants to veterans of the French and Indian War. Washington reasoned that “the services of a Provincial Officer” were “as worthy as those of a regular one”, and that the Proclamation land grants could “only be withheld from him with injustice.”

Source: https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/71162a0b-144f-48cd-b6da-567f105ba785/content at p. 94.

On this day 250 years ago the Pennsylvania Gazette reported that “we hear from Princeton, in New Jersey, that the officers and students of the college, have unanimously agreed to drink no more TEA.”

Source: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Revolutionary_Princeton_1774_1783/2SMAEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22January+31,+1774%22&pg=PT291&printsec=frontcover

On this day 250 years ago in London, Benjamin Franklin wrote to Speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly (and future member of the Continental Congress and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts) Thomas Cushing about Franklin’s humiliation by the Privy Council in January. Franklin explained that he was insulted for merely looking out for the interests of Massachusetts colony that he was representing and that “Where complaining is a crime, hope becomes despair.”

Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/359133?read-now=1&seq=14#page_scan_tab_contents at p. 384.

On this day 250 years ago the South Carolina Gazette reported on the warfare on the Georgia border with the Creek Nation including the massacre of the William White family on December 25, the massacre of the William, Sherrill family on January 14, the rout on January 23 of the force of 100 Georgia militia sent to the border to protect the settlers and the torture and murder of Lieutenant Daniel Grant following the militia’s defeat.

Source: https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/haynes_joshua_s_201308_phd.pdf at 62-65.

On this day 250 years ago in Charleston, South Carolina, Superintendent of Indian Affairs John Stuart wrote Lord Dartmouth about the torture and murder of Lieutenant Daniel Grant of the Georgia militia by Creek Indians in January. This incident and associated raids conducted by the Creeks and Cherokees against white settlers in the Carolina backcountry would lead to widespread warfare on the Frontier in the early days of the Revolution.

Source: https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/haynes_joshua_s_201308_phd.pdf at p. 64

On this day 250 years ago in London, Lord Dartmouth wrote to his friend John Thornton about the resistance of the Patriots in Boston:

How fatally and effectually they have now shut the door against all possibility of present relief for any of the things they complain of, and how utterly vain it must be to expect that Parliament will ever give it to them till there appears to be a change in their temper and conduct

Interestingly both Dartmouth and Thornton were involved in the founding of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire during this time period.

Source: https://allthingsliberty.com/2017/11/earl-dartmouth-secretary-state-colonies-second-year-november-1773-august-1774/