Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/648

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
ABC—XYZ

616 M A S M A S through its agent in London, endeavoured to secure a separate existence by royal charter, but accepted finally union with Massa chusetts when association with New York became the alternative. The province of Maine was also united in the new provincial charter of 1691, and Sir William Phips came over with it, commissioned the first royal governor. He was a native of Maine, a rough sailor, who had got his knighthood because he had raised treasure from a Spanish wreck in the West Indies. He was a parishioner of Mather in Boston, and, it was thought, received the appointment through Mather s influence. Throughout the continuance of the government under the pro vincial charter, there was a constant struggle between the preroga tive party, headed by the royal governor, and the popular party, who cherished recollections of their practical independence under the colonial charter, and who were nursing the sentiments which finally took the form of resistance in 1775. The popular majority kept up the feeling of hostility to the royal authority in recurrent combats in the legislative assembly over the salary to be voted to the governor. These antagonisms were from time to time forgotten in the wars with the French and Indians, and early in Phips s administration by the unfortunate austerities of the Salem witch craft delusion. During the earl of Bellomont s administration, New York was again united with Massachusetts, under the same executive. The scenes of the recurrent wars were mostly distant from Massachusetts proper, either in Maine or on Canadian or Acadian territory, although some savage inroads of the Indians were now and then made on the exposed frontier towns, as, for instance, upon Deerfield in 1704, and upon Haverhill in 1708. Phips, who had succeeded in an attack on Port Eoyal, had ignominiously failed when he led the Massachusetts fleet against Quebec in 1690. The later expedition of 1711 was no less a failure. The most note worthy administration was that of William Shirley (1741-49 and 1753-56), who at one time was the commanding officer of the British forces in North America. He made a brilliant success of the expedition against Louisburg in 1745, William Pepperell, a Maine officer, being in immediate command. Shirley with Massachusetts troops also took part in the Oswego expedition of 1755 ; and Massa chusetts proposed, and lent the chief assistance in, the expedition to Nova Scotia in 1755, which ended in the removal of the Acadians. Her officers and troops played an important part in the Crown Point and second Louisburg expedition (1758). The beginning of the active opposition to the crown may be placed in the resistance, led by James Otis, to the issuing of writs to compel citizens to assist the revenue officers, followed later by the outburst of feeling at the imposition of the Stamp Act, when Massachusetts took the lead in confronting the royal power. The governors put in office at this time by the crown were not of con ciliatory temperaments, and the measures instituted in parliament served to increase bitterness of feeling. Royal troops sent to Boston irritated the populace, who were highly excited at the time, when an outbreak, known as the Boston massacre, occurred in 1770, and a file of the garrison troops, in self-defence, shot down a few citizens among the crowd which assailed them. The merchants combined to prevent the importation of goods which by law would yield the crown a revenue ; and the patriots, as the anti-prerogative party called themselves, opened communication with those of the other colonies through "committees of correspondence," a method of the utmost advantage thereafter in forcing on the revolution, by inten sifying the resistance of the towns in the colony, and by inducing the leaguing of the other colonies. In 17/3 a party of citizens, dis guised as Indians, and instigated by popular meetings, boarded some tea-ships in the harbour of Boston, and, to prevent the landing of their taxable cargoes, threw them into the sea, an act known in history as the Boston tea-party. " Parliament in retaliation closed the port of Boston, a proceeding which only aroused more bitter feeling in the country towns, and enlisted the sympathy of the other colonies. The governorship was now given to General Thomas Gage, who commanded the troops which had been sent to Boston. Everything foreboded an outbreak. Most of the families of the highest social position were averse to extreme measures, and a large number were not won over and became expatriated loyalists. The popular agitators, at whose head was Samuel Adams, with whom John Hancock, an opulent merchant, and one of the few of the richer people who deserted the crown, leagued himself, forced on the movement, which became war in April 1775, when Gage sent an ex pedition to Concord and Lexington to destroy military stores accumu lated by the patriots. This detachment, commanded by Lord Percy, was assaulted, and returned with heavy loss. The country towns now poured in their militia to Cambridge, opposite Boston ; troops came from neighbouring colonies, and a Massachusetts general was placed in command of the irregular force which, with superior numbers, at once shut the royal army up in Boston. An attempt of the provincials to seize a commanding hill in Charlestown brought on the battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775), in which the provin cials _were driven from the ground, although they lost much less heavily than the royal troops. Washington, chosen by the con tinental congress to command the army, arrived in Cambridge in July 1775, and, stretching his lines around Boston, forced its evacuation in March 1776. The State was not again the scene of any conflict during the war. Generals Knox and Lincoln were the most distinguished officers contributed by the State to the revolu tionary army. Out of an assessment at one time upon the States of $5,000,000 for the expenses of the war, Massachusetts tvas charged with $820,000, the next highest being $800,000 for Virginia. Of the 231,791 troops sent by all the colonies into the field, reckoning by annual terms, Massachusetts sent 67,907, the next highest being 31,939 from Connecticut, Virginia only furnishing 26,678. After the outbreak of the war a provisional government was in power till a constitution was adopted in 1780, when John Hancock became the first governor. His most eminent successors have been Samuel Adams (1794-97), Elbridge Gerry (1810-12), Edward Everett (1836-40), and John A. Andrew (1861-66). Governor Bowdoin in 1786 put down an insurrection known as Shay s Rebellion. The Federal Constitution was accepted by Massachusetts by a small majority, and its rejection was at one time imminent. But Massachusetts became a strong Federal State, and suffered heavily under the Embargo Act of 1807, which was laid in the interests of the democratic party. The sentiment of the State was also against the war with England in 1812-14 ; but much of the naval success of the war was due to Massachusetts sailors. In aw apportionment of troops at the time, out of 100,000 Massachusetts was to furnish 10,000, Pennsylvania with 14,000, New York 13,500, and Virginia 12,000, now exceeding her quota. During the interval till the outbreak of the civil war of 1861. Massachusetts was foremost in political change or progress. She opposed the policy which led to the Mexican War ; but the State sent one regiment (1057 men) into the field, under the command of Caleb dishing. The Liberty party, forerunner of the Frcesoil and Republican parties, arose among her people, led on by such men as William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips. The Federal domination had been succeeded by the Whig rule in the State, and when its greatest exponent, Daniel Webster, died in 1852, -the Freesoil party was gathering force, and after an interval became the Republican party, with new affiliations, which drew off a majority of the old Whig party. This last political organization expired under the operation, as it lost also its minority by their joining the Democratic ranks. Charles Sumner became the most eminent exponent of the new party, and he became the State s senator in the Federal Congress. The feelings which grew up and the move ments that were fostered, till they rendered the civil war inevitable, received something of the same impulse from Massa chusetts which she had given a century before to the feelings and movements forerunning the revolution. When the war broke, it was her troops who first received hostile fire in Baltimore, and, turning their mechanical training to account, opened the obstructed railroad to Washington. In the war which was thus begun, she built, equipped, and manned many vessels for the Federal navy, but during the early years of the conflict she was not allowed any credit for these sailors on her quota of men; and, when allowance was finally made in 1864, she showed a record of 22,360 men who had since 1861 enlisted in the navy. In 1862, out of 300,000 men called for, Massachusetts was required to furnish 15,000. During the war all but twelve small towns furnished troops in excess of what was called for, the excess throughout the State amounting in all to over 15,000 men, while the total recruits to the Federal army were 153,165 men, of which less than 1200 were raised by draft. The State, as such, and the towns spent $42,605,517 19 in the war ; and private contributions of citizens are reckoned in addition at about $9,000,000. This does not include the aid to families of soldiers, paid then and later by the State. Since the close of the war the State has remained generally steadfast in adherence to the principles of the Republican party, and has continued to develop its resources. Navigation, which was formerly the distinctive feature of its business prosperity, has, under the pressure of laws and circumstances, given place to manufactures, and the developing of carrying facilities on the land rather than on the sea. (J. WI.) MASS^NA, ANDRE (1758-1817), duke of Rivoli, prince of Essling, and marshal of France, the greatest soldier and greatest general of all Napoleon s marshals, and the one man who with education and ambition might have been Napoleon s rival, was the son of a small wine merchant, it is said of Jewish origin, and was born at Nice on May 6, 1758. His parents were very poor, and he began life as a cabin boy. He did not care much for the sea, and in 1775 enlisted in the Regiment Royal Italien, a regiment of Italians in the pay of France. He quickly rose to be under - officer-adjutant; but, finding his birth would prevent his ever getting a commission, he left the army in 1789, retired

to his native city, and married. At the sound of war,