1774 - Political Events

Political Events

France's Louis XV dies of smallpox at Versailles May 10 at age 64 after a reign of nearly 59 years, mourned by his final mistress, Mme. du Barry, now 31, who bravely kissed his hands May 3 when she first noticed the pustules on them. His grandson, now 19, will rule until 1792 as Louis XVI with his wife, Marie Antoinette, as queen. Cardinal de la Roche Aymon, grand almoner of France, has forced the dying king to dictate a lettre de cachet ordering that the comtesse du Barry be sent as a prisoner of state to the ancient Abbaye de Pont aux Dames, where she will remain for nearly a year, winning the friendship of the nuns and even of the stern abbess.

Politician Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland (of Foxley), dies at Kensington, outside London, July 1 at age 68, having used his cabinet positions during the Seven Years' War to line his own pocket (a petition of the livery of the City of London against the minister 5 years ago referred to him as "the public defaulter of unaccounted millions," but proceedings against him in the Court of Exchequer were stayed by a royal warrant.

France's new king Louis XVI appoints economist Jacques Turgot secretary of the navy in July and makes him controller general of finances August 24, with virtually all the powers of a prime minister (see 1761). Turgot sees a desperate need for major reforms, he urges the king September 13 to restore free circulation of grain, but he proceeds cautiously lest he antagonize the privileged classes, limiting his immediate actions to reducing government expenditures by eliminating useless positions and abolishing financial assistance to courtiers; as a "friend of the philosophers" who does not attend Mass he is suspected of favoring Protestants (see 1776).

The Treaty of Kuchuk-Kaainardji signed July 16 ends a six-year Russo-Turkish war. Moldavia and Wallachia return to Ottoman control, Russia acquires control of much of the northern Black Sea coast, and the Crimea gains independence.

Russian forces suppress a year-long Cossack revolt in September.

British East India Company forces go to war with Afghan Rohilla tribesmen (see 1773). Parliament exonerates Robert Clive, Baron Clive of Plassey, of charges brought 7 years ago that he mishandled the East India Company's affairs, but Clive commits suicide at his house in London November 22 at age 49 (see 1775).

News of last year's "Boston Tea Party" reaches London in January via John Hancock's ship Hayley. Parliament acts on the advice of Britain's military governor for North America General Thomas Gage and passes the Coercive Acts (Massachusetts colonists call them the Intolerable Acts) to bring the Americans to heel. George III gives assent March 31 to the Boston Port Bill, and Boston Harbor is closed June 1 until the East India Company shall have been reimbursed for its tea and British authorities feel that trade can be resumed and duties collected (see 1773). The colonists thwart London's efforts to starve Boston into submission: Marblehead sends in codfish, Charleston sends rice, Baltimore sends bread and rye whiskey. Colonel Israel Putnam, 56, of Connecticut joins with citizens of Windham to drive a flock of 258 sheep to Boston.

New York's colonial governor William Tryon sails for England in April, having been recalled to answer charges that he had a personal interest in 40,000 acres of land involved in a dispute arising out of land purchases from Mohawk tribespeople. He will return to New York in June of next year (see 1776).

The British ship London docks at New York April 22, and the Sons of Liberty prepare to follow the example set at Boston 4 months earlier, but while they are making themselves up as Mohawks an impatient crowd on the pier boards the vessel and heaves her cargo of tea into the Hudson. Colonists at York, Maine, and Annapolis, Maryland, conduct "tea parties" like the one at Boston.

Virginia's colonial governor John Murray, 4th earl of Dunmore, removes the powder from Williamsburg's magazine in April in hopes of forestalling rebel violence, but his action incites so much antagonism that he pays for the powder out of his own pocket. The Virginia House of Burgesses votes May 24 to set June 1 aside as a day of fasting and prayer in sympathy with Boston (see 1773), Governor Dunmore dissolves the House May 26 (he did the same thing last year), and the Burgesses meet May 27 at Williamsburg's Raleigh Tavern in an unofficial session that adopts a resolution calling for an annual intercolonial congress (copies are sent to other colonial legislatures).

"Observations on the Act of Parliament, Commonly Called the Boston Port Bill; with Thoughts on Civil Society and Standing Armies" by lawyer Josiah Quincy, now 30, is published as a pamphlet in May. "Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament" by Philadelphia lawyer James Wilson, 32, is published following Quincy's pamphlet.

British authorities in Massachusetts declare martial law June 2.

A new Quartering Act passed by Parliament June 2 updates the 1765 act and differs from other Coercive Acts in that it applies not only to Massachusetts but to all the colonies; it requires colonists to house British troops in their own homes where barracks, barns, or public inns are not available.

The Quebec Act passed by Parliament June 22 extends the colony of Quebec south to the Ohio River and west to the Mississippi (see 1763). Former governor General Guy Tarleton returned to England 4 years ago to persuade Lord North that his policy in Canada would help the British obtain French support in their conflict with the colonies to the south. The new act grants permission for Catholics in the colony to hold public office, legitimizes French civil (but not criminal) law, includes French-speaking settlements, recognizes the legitimacy of the French language and the Roman Catholic faith, gives the Church power to enforce collection of tithes, stipulates that an appointed council (rather than an elected assembly) is to advise the royal governor, and ignores the western land claims of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia.

"On the Rise and Progress of the Differences between Great Britain and Her American Colonies" by Benjamin Franklin is a series of articles that appear in the London Public Advertiser. Franklin works with his physician friend John Fothergill, now 62, to devise a plan for British reconciliation with the colonies, but he no longer believes any reconciliation to be possible.

New York lawyer Gouverneur Morris, 22, writes May 10 to his friend Thomas Penn at London: "It is needless to premise, that the lower orders of mankind are more easily led by specious appearances, than those of a more exalted station . . . Men by nature are free as the air. When they enter into society, there is, there must be, an implied compact . . . that a part of this freedom shall be given up for the security of the remainder. But what part? The answer is plain. The least part, considering the circumstances of the society, which constitute what may be called its political necessity. And what does this political necessity require in the present instance? Not that Britain should lay imposts upon us for the support of government, nor for its defence. Not that she should regulate our internal police. These things affect us only. She can have no right to interfere. To these things we ourselves are competent."

"A Friendly Address to All Reasonable Americans" is published anonymously at New York, where it has been written by King's College president Myles Cooper, a Loyalist. (Boston lawyer John Adams estimates that one third of American colonists remain loyal to the British crown, one third are eager for independence, and the other third are undecided, waiting to see what will develop).

"Summary View of the Rights of Americans . . ." by Thomas Jefferson is published as a pamphlet at Williamsburg and at London.

The First Continental Congress assembles at Philadelphia's Carpenters Hall September 5 with all colonies represented except Georgia. Samuel Adams of Boston has proposed the congress; his friend John Hancock has put up money to buy the habitually disheveled Adams proper shoes, a decent suit of clothes, and a new wig; and he rides up to the Philadelphia State House after what by some accounts has been his first horseback ride. He and his cousin John are impressed by the intelligence and manner of aristocratic planters who serve as delegates from the Southern colonies but have come to discuss means of effecting a reconciliation with the mother country. "We are not revolutionaries," says the delegate from South Carolina, but some 6,000 redcoats are camped on Boston Common and a convention in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, has adopted the so-called Suffolk Resolves drawn up by Dr. Joseph Warren of Boston to protest Parliament's coercive acts; these resolves are laid before the delegates September 17 and approved. The Continental Congress adopts a Declaration of Rights and Grievances October 14; Patrick Henry says, "I am no longer a Virginian; I am an American"; but George Washington writes that no thinking man in all of North America desires independence.

"Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Continental Congress" by "Westchester farmer" Samuel Seabury, 45, is published as a pamphlet attacking the Congress. Born at Groton, Connecticut, Loyalist Seabury is a Protestant Episcopal clergyman who graduated from Yale in 1748.

King's College student Alexander Hamilton interrupts his studies at New York to join in the public debate about British rule of the colonies and publishes the first of several pamphlets that he will write in behalf of the patriot cause (see 1777).

The Association adopted October 20 by the Continental Congress is an agreement to import nothing from Britain after December 1 and to export nothing to Britain, Ireland, or the British West Indies after September 10, 1775, unless the British redress grievances against the crown. All colonies except Georgia and New York will ratify the Association within 6 months. The minutemen are established October 26 as a Massachusetts militia force to resist British rule (see 1775)

Colonial Indian agent Sir William Johnson gives a long speech in response to Iroquois complaints about trade and white encroachments but is suddenly taken ill and dies July 11 at age 59. After the death of his first wife, Katherine (née Weisenburg), he took the niece of a Mohawk chief as his housekeeper and had three children by her; he had another eight children by a woman known in English as Molly Brant, older sister of the Iroquois Nation chief Thayendenegea, known as Joseph Brant. Now 32, Brant followed Sir William into battle at age 13 and became almost a son to him; an expert interpreter, he now becomes secretary to Sir William's Irish-born successor, Guy Johnson, 34, who may be Sir William's nephew and who will give Brant a captain's commission next year before sending him to England to ascertain whether or not the British will help the Mohawk recover their lands. Sir William bequeaths his estate to his "prudent & faithfull Housekeeper" Mary (Kaonwatsi-tsiaienni), 38, and the eight children that she has borne him since 1759, the year his first wife died. Molly and her family have helped Johnson manage the Six Nations and hold them to the British cause against the French. She will be a staunch Loyalist in the next 7 years, keeping the Iroquois on the side of the British.

The Battle of Point Pleasant October 10 ends in defeat for Shawnee braves who have attacked frontiersmen at the juncture of the Ohio and Great Kanawha Rivers in western Virginia. The natives yield hunting rights in Kentucky, under terms of the Treaty of Camp Charlotte and agree to permit transportation on the Ohio to go unmolested.

Virginia's colonial governor John Murray, 4th earl of Dunmore, declares martial law in November and calls upon slaves to desert their masters and join his "Royal Ethiopian" regiment, promising them freedom in return for their support (see 1775).

Dahomey's king Tegebesu dies after a 42-year reign in which slave trading has increased to enrich himself and his family. He is succeeded by Kpengla, who will reign until 1789.