Thomas Hutchinson (Governor)

Portrait of Thomas Hutchinson

Thomas Hutchinson (born September 9, 1711 in Boston , Province of Massachusetts Bay , † June 3, 1780 in Brompton , England ) was a businessman, historian and prominent politician of the Loyalists in the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the years before the American Revolution . He held leadership positions in government for many years; among other things, he was governor of the province from 1769 to 1774. As a politician, he was very polarized, as he was against the parliamentary tax laws directed at the colonies, but was branded by John Adams and Samuel Adams as a real supporter of the hated British taxes. Lord North , who was British Prime Minister at the time , accused him of having contributed significantly to the tensions that ultimately led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War .

Hutchinson's Boston property, described by a later architectural historian as "the first fully developed example of Provincial Palladianism in New England ", was looted in 1765 during protests against the Stamp Act . His collection of materials from the early history of Massachusetts was badly damaged. As deputy governor, after the Boston massacre in 1770, he exposed himself to the attack of an angry mob and ordered the troops to retreat to Castle William . His letters , in which he called for a restriction of colonial rights, reached the public in 1773 and further increased his unpopularity. In May 1774 he was replaced in the office of governor by General Thomas Gage , whereupon he emigrated to England into exile . There he advised the government on negotiations with the Americans.

Hutchinson was very interested in colonial history and had a very large collection of historical documents. His History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay comprised three volumes, the last of which was not published until after his death.

Early life

Thomas Hutchinson was born in Boston's North End, the fourth of twelve children. His parents were Thomas and Sarah Foster Hutchinson , both of whom were descended from wealthy New England merchant families . Anne Hutchinson was also one of her ancestors . His father was also a merchant, but was also involved in political, military and welfare circles and served on the provincial council.

Thomas Jr. attended Harvard College at age 12 and graduated from Harvard College in 1727. His father introduced him to the business world at an early age, where he demonstrated extraordinary skill. For example, at the age of 21, he converted a gift from his father that consisted of five hundredweight of fish for £ 400 to £ 500 . He gained his first political experience in 1732 when he accompanied Governor Jonathan Belcher on a trip to Casco Bay for negotiations with the Abenaki . Hutchinson was a partner in the ship they were traveling on. In 1734 he married Margaret Sanford the granddaughter of the Governor of Rhode Island Peleg Sanford . Both families had long business relationships and good personal connections - in fact Margaret was a distant relative of Thomas .

Career

Legislator and City Council

Governor William Shirley

In 1737, Hutchinson was elected to the Boston Board of Selectmen , which began his political career. In the same year he received a seat in the Massachusetts General Court . He spoke out against the usual practice of the province of issuing bill of credits as a means of payment, the inflationary decline in value of which severely affected the local economy. However, with this position he was very unpopular and was not re-elected in 1739. He was sent to England as an agent to represent the interests of the landowners who were affected by a new demarcation between Massachusetts and the Province of New Hampshire , decreed by George II , which particularly favored New Hampshire. However, his mission was unsuccessful, although he brought with him permission to build a new chapel at Harvard College . This still stands today and is known as Holden Chapel .

In 1742 he was re-elected to the General Court and held his mandate until 1749. For the last three years he was the speaker there . His ongoing currency reform efforts angered the populist faction so much that he thought about placing his holdings in Boston and Milton under special protection. When the British government was persuaded to reimburse the province for the 1745 siege of Louisbourg , Hutchinson made every effort to use the sizeable funds of about £ 180,000 in gold and silver to recover the province's currency. Despite considerable resistance, he brought a corresponding motion through the General Court in 1749 , which was not only approved by the Governor's Council, but also signed by Governor William Shirley . Many opponents of this decree were pleasantly surprised that exchanging paper for coins did not cause financial shocks, and the popularity of Hutchinson rose rapidly.

Despite this success, Hutchinson was expelled from the congregation in 1749, but was immediately appointed to the governor's council. In the same year he headed a commission to negotiate a contract with the Indians in the District of Maine , which at that time still belonged to Massachusetts. He also worked on commissions to determine the boundaries of Connecticut Colony and Rhode Island . In 1752 he was appointed will judge and judge on the Court of Common Pleas . After the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1754 he became a delegate to the Albany Congress . At this meeting he took part in the discussions and worked with Benjamin Franklin on a plan for the unification of the colonies. Hutchinson agreed with Franklin that the prevailing disagreement put the British colonies at risk and that a decision had to be made to unite the all too often competing colonies into a common whole. Hutchinson's report concluded by stating that the colonies should be asked to "create a unity of Her Majesty's various governments on the continent so that their bodies, assets and troops are comparable to those of their common enemies".

His wife died unexpectedly in 1754, after which Hutchinson threw himself into his work. This, however, was not exclusively political in nature - as well he supported Acadian refugees from their Catholic home in Nova Scotia sold were, although this to him in the Protestant earned no friends Massachusetts. He also looked after the needs of soldiers fighting in the war by supporting needy families of veterans .

Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts

Governor Thomas Pownall

John Adams (portrayed here by Charles Willson Peale ) was always opposed to Hutchinson's ascent to the highest legal office in Massachusetts.

After Governor Shirley was recalled in 1757, Hutchinson sought and got the recognition of the British military leader John Campbell , who supported him in his efforts to succeed Shirley as governor. At that time, due to the age and frailty of Deputy Governor Spencer Phips , Hutchinson was already the de facto leading politician in the province of Massachusetts. His application for the office was unsuccessful, but in 1758 he was appointed lieutenant governor under Thomas Pownall . The relationship between the two was difficult, with Pownall at the center of political activity that had driven out Governor Shirley , under whose patronage Hutchinson had grown in power and influence. Pownall had ties with the populist factions in the state and sought to remove the influence of Shirley's supporters . Every now and then he asked Hutchinson to turn against the people he had previously supported. However, the latter refused to implement this, as he viewed it as the arbitrariness of the incumbent governor and saw the stability of the province endangered by such activities. Pownall , whose distrust of Hutchinson was based on mutuality, applied for his transfer back to England in late 1759. Political opposition from Shirley's supporters and the death of some of his leading populists may have contributed to this decision. He left the province on June 3, 1760, leaving Hutchinson as acting governor. A few months later met Francis Bernard as a substitute for Pownall one to take over the official duties.

Auxiliary decrees

One of Bernard's first acts was to appoint Hutchinson to replace James Otis, Sr. as President of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court . This brought the populists in Massachusetts, whose spokesmen James Otis, Sr. and his son James Otis, Jr. were promptly against both Hutchinson and Bernard on what long-term impact on the reputation of Hutchinson had. This was particularly tragic for him, as he had no legal expertise and had not aspired to the post. Other lawyers, including a young lawyer named John Adams , were also shocked by this.

In 1761, Hutchinson caused a storm of protests and criticism against himself when he issued relief orders authorizing customs to conduct arbitrary searches. Although some of these decrees had been issued earlier (and ironically, against Hutchinson's objection) and others were merely renewals of pre-existing decrees brought about by the accession of George III. had become necessary, took Adams and the Otis family this opportunity against the power monopoly of Hutchinson , who is also deputy governor was and had a seat in the State Council, and to protest his lack of qualifications again for the post of Chief Justice.

Taxes and the Stamp Act

In the course of the discussions surrounding the Sugar Act in 1763, it was proposed that Hutchinson be sent to England to represent the colony's rejection of the proposal. However, Governor Bernard refused to send his deputy, so the law came into effect. Widespread protests from the colony ensued, and Hutchinson agreed with the opinion of the Otis family (who at the time began to use the phrase " no taxation without representation ") that the law was affecting the Massachusetts economy. In the ensuing debates, however, differences arose between Hutchinson and other stakeholders over the supremacy of parliament and the feasibility of formal colonial representation in that body. These were exacerbated by the personal animosities that had developed between the Hutchinson and the Otis family.

Led by James Otis, Jr. and Oxenbridge Thacher , the anti-parliamentary faction seized the opportunity to rail against Hutchinson and his monopoly on power, no matter how small. At first, the attacked person did not attach particular importance to the ongoing attacks, since he was convinced that his opponents were either misguided or were misguided. In doing so, however, he underestimated the effects of these attacks, which built a united opposition with the aim of gaining power himself, and overlooked the damage this caused his own reputation.

During the debates that ultimately led to the Enactment of the Stamp Act in 1765 , both Hutchinson and Bernard London secretly warned not to pursue the matter. Hutchinson wrote: “It cannot be good to tax Americans. [...] You will lose more than you gain. ”When a petition was to be formulated to London at a session of the State Assembly in October 1764, Hutchinson protested against the adoption of the language of the radical forces in the paper and pushed through more moderate formulations. The Massachusetts petition was then deemed too weak compared to the other colonies, and Hutchinson was widely scourged for secretly seeking to enforce the Stamp Act . He has also been labeled a traitor and a deceiver of his country. The news about the enactment of the Stamp Act transported by Samuel Adams one of the most vocal opponents of parliamentary supremacy in a greater role of the provincial policy. In private, Hutchinson supported efforts to repeal the Stamp Act , but his unwillingness to express this stance publicly only provided his opponents with more ammunition.

Street fighting

The Hutchinson house on Garden Court Street in Boston's North End

Colonial Secretary Andrew Oliver , a brother-in-law of Hutchinson , was appointed Stamp Master , who was responsible for enforcing the Stamp Act in the province. Although Hutchinson apparently had no influence on his appointment, his opponents accused him of another double game. His explanations provided his opponents with even more material that reiterated his early unpopular laws and challenged his motives. On August 13, 1765, a mob stormed Oliver's home and office and looted both buildings. The following night, Hutchinson's Boston house was surrounded and the crowd demanded that he formally refuse to speak favorably of the Stamp Act in his correspondence with London . He refused, and only the intervention of a moderate leader prevented worse that night.

Twelve days later, on the evening of August 26, the house was again surrounded by a mob. This time the angry crowd broke into the house and systematically ransacked it. Hutchinson barely escaped with his family. The violence lasted all night and the damage was enormous - not only furnishings such as the family silver, but also parts of the building's fabric were stolen or destroyed. Even Hutchinson's collection of historically significant manuscripts suffered considerable damage. Having detailed records of his possessions, Hutchinson was able to estimate the value of the damage done at £ 2,200 and received more than £ 3,100 in compensation from the province. After the incident, he first fled to Castle William and then moved his primary residence to his home in Milton .

Massachusetts Governor

A 1771 Hutchinson proclamation

Because of the controversy surrounding the Stamp Act , the radical faction gained control of both the State Assembly and the Board of Governors in 1766. Amid heightened tension following the enforcement of the Townshend Acts in 1767, Governor Bernard sought and received military protection for officials of the British Crown. Letters in which Bernard described the situation in the province fell into the hands of the radical opposition and were published, which led to Bernard's recall . On August 1, 1769, he left the province for England, leaving Hutchinson as acting governor.

Hutchinson's attempts to distance himself from the unpopular administration under Bernard were unsuccessful, so that he continued to face attacks in the State Assembly and the local press. Nevertheless, he tried to get a formal appointment as governor. He categorically refused to serve again as deputy under a different governor, preferring instead either a transfer to another location or the resignation as lieutenant governor. He was still acting governor when protests against Townshend taxes culminated in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770 . British soldiers fired into the crowd, killing five people in the process. Hutchinson rushed to the scene immediately after the shooting and promised that the legal process would be fair. The next day he had all British soldiers involved in the incident arrested, but ongoing unrest in the city forced him to call on British troops to retreat to Castle William . The soldiers had to undergo a trial in the course of which two of them were convicted of negligent homicide with reduced sentences . This shattered Hutchinson's confidence in his ability to handle incidents in the province and prompted him to draft a resignation letter.

In the meantime, former Governor Bernard had taken up the matter in London and obtained a formal appointment from Hutchinson as governor. The letter of appointment signed by the king reached Boston in March 1771, when the letter with his resignation was already on its way to London. However, the colonial secretary Lord Hillsborough refused to resign. The instructions that had been sent along with the certificate of appointment were very precisely worded and left Hutchinson little leeway in shaping his policy. Among the things that particularly annoyed Samuel Adams was the orders to limit the number of meetings of the board of governors and to limit the appointment of colonial agents to those who had the approval of the governor.

Another instruction was to move the provincial assembly from Boston to Cambridge , where it would be less under the influence of radical Boston politicians. This demand, in its actual consistency, almost insignificant, led to loud complaints in the assembly about the arbitrariness of the governor's decisions and to a lively exchange of arguments, refutations and counter-arguments between Hutchinson and members of the assembly, which produced a mountain of files of several thousand pages and until 1772 lasted. This supported the radical forces, whose leaders presented Hutchinson's plan as a devious attempt to further consolidate the prerogative of the executive . The radical groups were even more upset when Hutchinson announced in 1772 that his salary, which had previously had to be approved by the congregation, would in future be paid directly by the Crown. This was seen by his opponents as another usurpation of power, which they believed belonged to the province.

The letter affair and the tea party

In 1772, some came from Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver wrote letters about colonial affairs in the possession of Benjamin Franklin , who was colonial agent in London at that time. Franklin sent this to the Speaker of the Massachusetts House Thomas Cushing , who was relatively neutral to the political dispute. However, the letters fell into the hands of Samuel Adams , secretary of the house, who published them in June 1773. In these private letters to Thomas Whately from 1767 to 1769, Hutchinson recommended that popular rule be gradually withdrawn and that the freedoms of the colonies be curtailed. He made the latter demand on the basis of the observation that the ruling of the colonies by a parliament in distant London ultimately required the loss of some rights. However, this connection was removed by his opponents, and the letters thus shortened were copied en masse in the colonies, which led to rioting as far as Philadelphia . The provincial assembly petitioned the Commerce Department demanding that Hutchinson be fired. The latter, in turn, was concerned about the consequences of the publication of the letters in London and asked for permission to travel to London to defend himself. However, his request and petition were not discussed in London until the beginning of 1774.

In the meantime, the British Parliament had repealed all taxes under the Townshend Acts except that on tea and passed the Tea Act , which allowed the British East India Company to bring tea directly to the colonies and sell it there. This cut off the colonial traders from their supply chain and ensured that the prices for smuggled Dutch tea could be significantly undercut. The merchants throughout the North American colonies then organized a counter-movement with the aim of stopping the East India Company from delivering tea. In Massachusetts, these actions led to the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773 , during which the company's tea was poured into the harbor. Hutchinson was one of the businessmen with whom the company had concluded supply contracts, but he played no role in his choice of goods recipient.

When the members of the Chamber of Commerce met to consider the motion to dismiss Hutchinson , they also discussed the Tea Party . Benjamin Franklin received harsh criticism and was fired as a colonial postmaster general . The provincial assembly's motion was rejected as "baseless" and "onerous," but Hutchinson's request for a trip to London was granted. In May 1774, General Thomas Gage arrived in Boston to assume the post of governor and implement the Coercive Acts that the British Parliament had enacted in response to the Tea Party . Hutchinson set sail for England on June 1, 1774, believing that he would only leave Massachusetts temporarily.

exile

Upon arriving in London, Hutchinson was granted an audience with the king, who questioned him on political affairs in North America. He was also graciously received by Colonial Secretary Lord Rockingham and then Prime Minister Lord North . He was criticized by the Whigs in Parliament, to which he responded in an unpublished manuscript. He continued to be treated benevolently by the king and was forced to decline the offer of the baronet title because he had lost most of his fortune due to his exile.

July 4, 1776 was Hutchinson of the University of Oxford the Juris Doctor awarded honorary. His enemies in Massachusetts continued their attacks on his reputation, and his absence made it impossible for him to respond and refute the allegations. His possessions, like those of other exiled loyalists , were confiscated and sold by the state. His house in Milton was bought by the married couple James Warren and Mercy Otis Warren ; ironically, Mercy was the sister of his longtime enemy James Otis, Jr.

Bitter and disappointed, Hutchinson continued his work on the history of the colony, into which he was able to contribute many decades of his own research. Two volumes were published while he was still alive: Volume 1 of the History of Massachusetts appeared in 1764, Volume 2 followed in 1767. The third volume was published posthumously and also covered his own terms as acting and acting governor. Hutchinson died at the age of 68 on June 3, 1780 in Brompton , now part of London , and was buried in Croydon .

heritage

Against the background of his exposed position and the concentration of the opposition on himself, Hutchinson's reputation in the United States was very weak for a long time; the success of his political enemies ensured that he was seen as a traitor to his home state of Massachusetts and its aspirations for freedom. It was only in the 20th century that biographers could rehabilitate him by explaining in detail how and why he was denigrated in this way.

The remains of Hutchinson's country house in Milton were preserved for posterity and are now owned by the Trustees of Reservations as Governor Hutchinson's Field . The memorial is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is open to the public to visit. A Ha-Ha built in Hutchinson's time is particularly worth seeing . Boston itself did everything in its power to rename all streets and sights named after him immediately after his departure. Today, however, there is Hutchinson Street again .

Publications

• Hutchinson, Thomas: The History of Massachusetts: From the First Settlement Thereof in 1628 Until the Year 1750 , 1764

literature

• Sharon Duffy: An Enlightened American: The Political Ideology of Thomas Hutchinson on the Eve of the Revolutionary Crisis . ProQuest, College Park, MD 2008, ISBN 978-0-549-96675-3 .
• Andrew Stephen Walmsley: Thomas Hutchinson and the Origins of the American Revolution. NYU Press, New York 1998, ISBN 9780814793411 .
• Malcolm Freiberg: Prelude to purgatory . Thomas Hutchinson in provincial Massachusetts politics, 1760-1770. Garland, New York 1990, ISBN 978-0-8240-6180-7 .
• William Pencak: America's Burke . the mind of Thomas Hutchinson. University Press of America, Washington, DC 1982, ISBN 978-0-8191-2626-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Bernard Bailyn: The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1974, ISBN 978-0-674-64160-0 .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m} James Kendall Hosmer: The life of Thomas Hutchinson, royal governor of the province of Massachusetts Bay . Houghton, Mifflin and company, Boston, New York 1896, OCLC 1527164 ( online in Google book search).
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Andrew S. Walmsley: Thomas Hutchinson and the origins of the American Revolution . New York University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 978-0-585-34195-8 .
4. ^ HW Brands: The first American . the life and times of Benjamin Franklin. Anchor eBooks, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-307-75494-3 .
5. ^ John Waters, John Schutz, Patterns of Massachusetts Colonial Politics: The Writs of Assistance and the Rivalry between the Otis and Hutchinson Families . In: The William and Mary Quarterly . 3rd series. tape 24 , no. 4 , October 1967, ISSN  0043-5597 , p. 557 , JSTOR : 1919470 .
6. ^ Edmund S. Morgan: Thomas Hutchinson and the Stamp Act . In: New England Quarterly . tape 21 , no. 4 , December 1948, ISSN  1937-2213 , pp. 459-492 , JSTOR : 361566 .
7. ^ ^{A b c d e} John R. Galvin: Three men of Boston . Crowell, New York 1976, ISBN 978-0-690-01018-3 .
8. ^ Walter Isaacson: Benjamin Franklin: an American life . Simon & Schuster, New York 2004, ISBN 978-0-7432-5807-4 .
9. ^ National Register Information System . In: National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service . Retrieved March 13, 2009.
10. ^ About Governor Hutchinson's Field. The Trustees of Reservations, accessed August 29, 2012 . 

Web links

• Thomas Hutchinson (1711–1780) , short biography, Mass.gov, English ( Memento from May 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive )