Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/103

Life of Henry. of quartering large bodies of troops upon the chief towns in the colonies, and demanding of the several colonial legislatures, a provision for their comfortable support and accommodation. A measure more replete with exasperation could scarcely have been devised. The very presence of those myrmidons was an insult; for it was a direct reflection on the fidelity of the colonists. Their object was perfectly understood: it was to curb the just and honourable spirit of the people; to dragoon them into submission to the parliamentary claim of taxation, and reduce them to the condition of vassals, governed by the right of conquest. The rudeness of the soldiery too, was well calculated to keep up and increase the irritation, which their presence alone would have been sufficient to excite. In Boston, they were in the habit of stopping the most respectable citizens in the streets and compelling them to answer insulting inquiries, or committing them to confinement on their refusal, assigning, as the ground of their conduct, that the town was a garrisoned town. In New York, they provoked a contest with the people by making war upon a liberty pole, which was the first object of their earthly devotions, and which the soldiers continually destroyed or attempted to destroy, as soon as it could be replaced. And as if all this insult and humiliation were not enough, the colonies were to be constrained to tax themselves, to foster and cherish those instruments of their degradation.

The legislature of New York, in a tone, at least sufficiently submissive for the occasion, and on the false ground of the inability of the colony, begged to be excused from making the provision. For this high offence, the legislative power of that colony was abohshed by act of parliament, until they should submit to make