250 Years Ago: The Summer of Coercion and the Road to the Revolutionary War

A cold civil war permeated Britain’s American colonies in the summer of 1774, chilling the Patriots (Whigs), Loyalists (Tories), and the Royal Authority. For the previous decade, these disturbances primarily originated from Britain’s Parliament. Its members claimed to have the authority to rule all British subjects throughout the world.
Such claims divided friends and families who had chosen opposing sides and bred resentment toward politicians writing the laws and toward officials enforcing them. Numerous protests spilled over into violence, alarming officials on both sides of the Atlantic.
No event or protest caught more attention or stunned more officials throughout the British Empire than the Boston Tea Party (then known as the “Destruction of the Tea”). This act of defiance toward authority, coupled with the crown’s response, became the catalyst that doomed the once-tranquil relationship between the colonies and their mother country, steering both parties toward war. Unbeknown to all, war would not occur until April 19, 1775. Before that fateful day, both sides had opportunities to de-escalate tensions.
In a sense ironic, Gen. Gage met with King George III in February 1774 and advised the king to be firm.
“They will be Lyons whilst we are Lambs, but if we take the resolute part, they will undoubtedly prove very meek,” Gen. Gage said.
Both men agreed that previous concessions made by Parliament showed weakness, which had emboldened the Americans. They believed that severe punishment would not only put a stop to the disobedience but also serve as a warning to other colonies displaying similar behavior. The spoiled child needed discipline, and sparing the rod was no longer an option.
They may also have discussed the petition for the removal of Gov. Thomas Hutchinson, which had been adopted by the Massachusetts Bay Assembly the previous June and delivered to the Privy Council by Benjamin Franklin and Lord Dartmouth (William Legge). During the subsequent discussions, the king’s ministers devised a clever plan to outwit the troublesome colonists and serve them their just desserts by granting their request to remove Hutchinson, a civilian, and replace him with a military governor. And who better to fill that role than Gen. Thomas Gage himself?
The high five was invented in the 1970s, but if a similar gesture between English gentlemen existed in the 1770s, it is highly likely the king’s ministers would have taken part in such an expression.
Gen. Gage accepted his appointment as the new military governor of Massachusetts Bay and set sail for Boston aboard the HMS Lively on April 16. His primary role would be the enforcement of the recently passed Boston Port Act (also known as the Port Bill)—the first of a series of bills known as the Coercive Acts (dubbed by the Americans as the Intolerable Acts).
Gen. Gage remained at the island fortress before sailing into Boston four days later amid much celebration. Eager to greet their new governor, onlookers from Boston and the surrounding areas lined the streets near the town’s Long Wharf, where Gen. Gage disembarked. The atmosphere was festive, as most Bostonians were more than happy to bid their former governor a long-awaited farewell. As a clear sign of Hutchinson’s unpopularity, the crowd hissed loudly during Gen. Gage’s toast to the outgoing governor.
This show of disrespect would occur later that day in Faneuil Hall. For the moment, however, Gen. Gage was relishing the adoration from the welcoming crowds. Yet amid all the hoopla, he couldn’t help but notice when John Hancock, colonel of the governor’s honor guard, failed to salute him.
Hutchinson departed for London on June 1, the day the Port Bill took effect. He believed his recall was temporary and that he would soon return to Boston to resume his duties as governor. For now, Hutchinson was set to meet with the king and his ministers. With his reputation harmed by the Boston Tea Party and the Hutchinson Letters Affair (when Benjamin Franklin released Hutchinson’s private letters that were held by the late Thomas Whately), Hutchinson was determined to clear his name. He also intended to plead with Parliament for the repeal of the Port Bill.
Apart from Hancock’s insult, Gen. Gage felt welcomed in his new role as governor. But there was still the Port Bill that needed enforcement come June 1. His concerns were replaced with optimism after a group of Bostonians offered to fully reimburse the East India Company for its destroyed tea. Gen. Gage supported the offer in hopes that this would resolve the impasse and put an end to the hostilities between colony and crown.
“The tyranny of the bill lay in its qualifications for rescindment. ‘The test of the Bostonians will not be the indemnification of the East India Company alone, it will remain in the breast of the King not to restore the port until peace and obedience shall be observed in the port of Boston.’ In other words, only when the Ministry was satisfied that the people of Boston were sufficiently pacified would the port be reopened,” he wrote.
Parliament’s Whig minority, which included Edmund Burke, Isaac Barré, Rose Fuller, Charles Fox, and Lord Chatham (William Pitt), appealed to their colleagues for sanity in their dealings with the Americans. They argued that reimbursement for the destroyed tea was a reasonable response, but placing a boot on their necks was extremely unwise.
According to Benjamin Woods Labaree’s “The Boston Tea Party,” MP Rose Fuller viewed the Boston Port Act as too severe a response to the Destruction of the Tea. He warned his colleagues that if the people of Boston did not submit to the harsh measures inflicted upon them, then the Crown would have “no choice ‘but to burn their town and knock the people on the head.’ If troops were sent to enforce the bill, the Americans would unite to crush them, he predicted, pointing out that in America the men all had arms and knew how to use them.”
As predicted by Fuller, the other colonies joined Massachusetts Bay in steadfast defiance of royal authority. Their political leaders organized, and their militias trained for combat. Meanwhile, Gen. Gage deployed additional regiments of soldiers and marines to Boston, while Lord North advocated for new punitive measures well into 1775, the year the Revolutionary War started.