Betsy Ross Flag - Network Design



Protocols of Liberty: Communication, Innovation, and teh American Revolution [Book Banner from Title Page Image] Betsy Ross Flag - Network Design
William Warner [Author Name]
The University of Chicago Press [Publisher Name]
Overview [Link]
Introduction [Link]
Chapter 1 [Link]
Chapter 2 [Link]
Chapter 3 [Link]
Chapter 4 [Link]
Chapter 5 [Link]
Chapter 6 [Link]
Conclusion [Link]

A Chronology of the Political Agon Opened 28 October - 20 November 1772
Between the Whigs of the Boston Town Meeting and the Governor of Massachusetts

LINKS: Crisis Temporality -- Boston (March 1770) -- Boston (November 1772) -- Boston (Spring 1773) -- Williamsburg (May 1774) --"Join or Die" -- London (1765-1783)

In the fall of 1772, Boston Whigs learned of a development that they viewed as precipitating a serious political crisis: British imperial administrators in Whitehall had secretly decided to pay the salaries of the justices of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts and other legal officals in the province. This opened a political agon between the Governor, who refused to acknowledge this new policy, and the town meeting, who had learned of this new policy through back channels. If change is often borne of conflict, then the words and deeds performed within that conflict often shape the change that results from conflict. It is therefore important to examine the means used by Boston Whigs to initiate new forms of political communications. This involved 1) the calling of a town meeting to request information from the Governor, which the leaders of the town meeting expected to be turned aside; 2) followed by a formal petition to the Governor for a convening of the General Court, which the town leaders expected to be rejected; and finally, 3) the formation of a committee of correspondence to draft a pamphlet that can serve as the opening communication upon the political crisis with the 260 other towns and districts of Massachusetts. To be successful this initiative would need to appear fair and reasonable to the public who would follow the resulting political agon in the newspapers.

Monday





October 14





Petition to the Selectmen for a town meeting is signed by 106 and submitted to the selectmen asking for a meeting (after 2 earlier petitions had been turned down): “We …desire you would …call a Meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of this Town, to enquire into the truth of a report…and [if found true] to deliberate consult and determine what measures are proper to be taken by the Town…” 
Monday

October 21

Selectmen of the town vote unanimously to issue a warrant for the meeting at 10:00AM on Wednesday the 28th
Wednesday





October 28





first session of town meeting convenes at Faneuil Hall to consider judges salaries (and petition governor of information); John Hancock is elected moderator; it results in a request for information to the Governor: “It is therefore the humble request of the town, that your Excellency would be pleased to inform them, whether you have received any such advice relating to” the matter of the Crown’s direct payment of the judges of the Superior Court.  
Thursday

October 29

Committee of 7 presents to the Governor the town meeting’s request for information about the rumored direct payment of judges
Friday














October 30














in second session of town meeting the response of the Governor is read: “GENTLEMEN, It is by no Means proper for me to lay before the Inhabitants of any Town whatsoever, in Consequence of their Votes and Proceedings in Town-Meeting, any Part of my Correspondence as Governor of the Province, or to acquaint them whether I have or have not received any Advices related to public Affairs of the Government.
The town then replies with a Petition to the Governor, “of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, legally assembled by Adjournment in Faneuil Hall” reiterating their alarm, and makes this request: “It is therefore [our] earnest and humble Request, that your Excellency would be pleased to allow the General Assembly to meet at the Time to which it now stand Prorogued (2 December 1772); in order, that the that Constitutional Body, with whom it is to inquire into Grievance and redress them, the joint wisdom of the Province may be employed, in deliberating and determining on a Matters so important and Alarming.”
Saturday October 31 Committee of 7 presents petition to the Governor at Province House (?)
Monday














November 2














third session of town meeting: receive Governor’s rejection of the petition: “GENTLEMEN, The Royal Charter reserves to the Governor full Power and Authority from Time to Time, as he shall judge necessary to adjourn, prorogue and dissolve the General Assembly. …If…I should …meet the Assembly, as such Time as you judge necessary, I should, in effect, yield to you the exercise of that part of the Prerogative, and should be unable to justify my Conduct to the King.” This response was read several times and voted “unsatisfactory.” Samuel Adams then rose and made this motion: “Moved, That a Committee of Correspondence be appointed to consist of Twenty-one Persons, to state the Rights of the Colonists, and of this Province in particular, as Men, as Christians, and as Subjects; to communicate and publish the same to the several Towns, in this Province, and to the World, as the Sense of the Town, with the Infringements and Violations thereof that have been made. …--Also, requesting of each Town a free communication of their Sentiments on this Subject.”
Tuesday



November 3



The first meeting of Boston Committee of Correspondence is held in the selectmen’s chamber at Faneuil Hall; it begins with a pledge of secrecy, and follows with the appointment of three drafting committees, each charged with reporting back a draft of one section of the pamphlet.
Tuesday


November 3 BY THE GOVERNOR: A PROCLAMATION: “I have thought fit, for His Majesty’s service, to prorogue the General Court” from 2 December 1772 to 6 January 1773. 
Monday

November 16

Selectmen issue warrant for a meeting to receive the report of the Boston committee.
Thursday


November 20


At the meeting, with John Hancock as moderator, the town meeting receives the report of the committee, approves it as an expression of the town, and orders its publication and distribution to the 260 other towns and districts of Massachusetts.