Bernard thought he had a solution to his dilemma, in that he would slip in a hint of the arrival of the redcoats in a private conversation, which was guaranteed to spread quickly throughout the city. Very soon, Adams and several other associates called on Bernard, asking the MA governor if he expected British regulars. Bernard’s prepared response (and he was very proud of himself for thinking of it) was that he heard private hints, but nothing official. Adams sensed Bernard’s duplicity, but could not do much about it, at least officially, since the MA House was still dissolved. Adams urged Bernard to reconvene the MA House, but Bernard said he could not do so without a command from King George III.
If Adams had been allowed to roam through Bernard’s house, he would have seen that the MA governor was in the process of packing, since he had been informed that his new posting would be VA. Boston answered Bernard’s half-answer with a shocking response of its own. On 12 September 1768, Adams, Otis, and Warren gave a series of speeches, arranged like a play (e.g. Acts 1, 2, 3). Boston responded by insisting that the redcoat invaders be resisted by force, and that precious liberties had been crushed. Soon enough, Bostonians were encouraged to arm themselves with muskets and ammunition.
convention of MA towns. Ninety-six towns sent representatives to Boston for what was in essence an unofficial MA House session. Bernard needed to break up the convention, since it was an affront to British authority, but he didn’t know how to do so, and he was also justifiably afraid. Bernard ordered the assembly to dissolve, and the convention simply ignored him. Bernard soon learned that during the convention, Adams was selected as clerk, and that factions had formed, with one preferring to do nothing, and another wanted quiet until the British regulars arrived. Adams was more aggressive, but not as reckless as the faction that claimed they would die before allowing a single redcoat to step foot in Boston.
Adams argued that going after officials and commissioners were one thing, but British regulars were a whole new ball game. Adams discovered that Boston’s point-of-view concerning the arrival of the British regulars didn’t necessarily match that of the rest of MA, something that Adams would not forget in the future, but he still vowed to stand alone if necessary. Moderation prevailed during the convention, when a majority settled on a modest letter of protest to Bernard, who refused to accept it. The convention was not the resounding success Adams envisioned, with Hutchinson thinking that the convention had exposed Adams and his crowd as ridiculous and out-of-touch. However, in November 1768, when the news of the MA convention reached London, it sent shockwaves through the corridors of power. After receiving the news, London believed that the MA convention advocated armed insurrection, and stocks plunged in value due to the “Revolt in New England”.
Hutchinson thought the rabble rousers were scared to death, and Adams thought the MA convention had set the tone of moderation over resistance when the redcoats arrived. There was no sign of any insurrection of which the British regulars were sent to crush. It soon became apparent that the redcoats were not marauders, and Otis and Hancock actually called on the British commander, Commodore Samuel Hood, while Adams did his best to make Bernard appear ridiculous for sending for the regiments. In essence, Adams stated that only a dimwit would oppose the redcoats. Adams pointed out that it was an insult for Boston to be surrounded by 14 warships and invaded by one redcoat for every three adult Bostonians, which was an intolerable situation. To the immense frustration of Commodore Hood, it was discovered that Bernard had not made any preparations for “room and board” for the redcoats. Five hundred were billeted in The Castle, with the rest temporarily housed in government buildings, including the Council chamber. Redcoats even slept in a file room, and one entire regiment simply pitched tents on Boston Common.
General Thomas Gage arrived in Boston from NYC in order to review the troops, as well as the vexing situation. Gage was cordially received by the city, but he faced the same stonewalling with which Hood had been dealing. On 17 October 1768, a bare majority in the Council voted to clear the huge Manufactory House in the center of Boston in order to accommodate one regiment. The problem was that the Sons of Liberty had packed the building with squatters, with Otis advising these Bostonians to stay put. Two attempts to persuade the squatters to leave the building were unsuccessful. The third attempt, on 17 October 1768, led to the 65 year old sheriff breaking a window in order to enter the building, after which he was held hostage. locked in the basement.
Redcoats marched to the building, trailed by a crowd. The sheriff was allowed to leave the building, but the squatters defiantly remained, and a cordon was established which surrounded the Manufactory House. The next day through the open windows, hungry children were seen and heard crying, but the redcoats turned away the baker who had brought bread. Very soon thereafter, members in the crowd simply threw bread over the heads of the redcoats through as many windows as possible. Gage had to settle for lodging redcoats in converted warehouses and commercial buildings, with the high rents paid for by the Crown. Adams had the British redcoats where he wanted them, in that if they were to be in Boston, he wanted them to be very inconvenienced, and to be seen as morally in the wrong by the throng. Adams soon called the stand-off at the Manufactory House the “first open and avowed effort of military tyranny”.
Adams needed to find a way to get the news of what was occurring in Boston to the rest of the Colonies. Adams and a few associates created the Journal of Occurrences, whose mission was to share what was going on in Boston since the arrival of the unwanted redcoats. Adams had no problem finding daily information of which to write concerning situations involving Bostonians and the redcoats. This secretly put together newspaper was a form of propaganda that was new to the Colonies, and pages were sent to NYC and Philadelphia for publication, and then back to Boston: doing so was in effect “publication laundering”. As far south as GA, Colonists read about the standoff at the Manufactory House; as Samual Adams wanted, Boston appeared to be a martyr, not a mob, to other Colonists.
Adams succeeded in getting other Colonists to not only commiserate with Boston, but to also think that if Boston’s liberties were trampled, their colony might be next. At least eleven Colonial newspapers carried reports from the Journal. Another advantage of the way the Journal was published and distributed was that what was described was between six to eight weeks old, with the dated news seeming like current news to readers, which created the “New Facts”.
During the Winter of 1768 - 1769, British desertions continued, and the remaining redcoats discovered cheap Boston rum. Adams took advantage of the plight of the typical redcoat in that life in the British army was harsh, but life in the Colonies was so much better in comparison. British desertions introduced a new irritant, in that sentries posted at Boston’s entry/exit points reminded citizens that they were a “Garrison Town”. Bostonians needed to identify themselves to pass through, and were often delayed or even detained. The truth of what was happening was sensational enough, but Adams kept taking the truth to new levels in the Journal, even revisiting and revising years–old grudges and events.
During 1769, Philadelphia and NYC joined Boston in the Non-Importation Agreement (boycott), which meant that the largest three Colonial ports were closed to British imports. By the end of January 1769, Adams et al heard that they were to be arrested on the charge of treason, and then quietly transported out of Boston for trial in London.