CHAPTER V

IN THE REVOLUTION: 1775-1783

*' Little did we think of such an event as this, when we began the struggle for our
invaded privileges. The growing injustice of the British Administration—their
accumulated injuries—opened it upon us, and forced us into the measure, as the
only alternative to save our oppressed land. It was this or the most abject slavery.
A dread alternative, indeed, . . . but which an all-governing Providence has wisely
overruled for our salvation."—John Rodgers, "The Divine Goodness Displayed in
the American Revolution," p. 11.

"If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt
send them, and shall pray unto the Lord, toward the city which thou hast chosen,
and toward the house which I have built for thy name; then hear thou in heaven
their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause."—1 Kings 8 : 44 /.

ON Sunday, April 23d, 1775, when the stirrmg
news from Lexington reached the city, the
inadequacy of the conservative policy be¬
came suddenly evident and, for a time, the sway of
the ardent patriots again increased. A party of
them under the leadership, we are told, of Peter R.
Livingston, a Presbyterian, seized at once upon a
sloop loaded with lumber for the barracks in Boston
and threw the cargo into the harbor, the people at
the same time being urged to arm themselves by an
attack upon the arsenal. In the meeting of His Maj¬
esty's Council at the house of the Lieutenant Gov¬
ernor, that afternoon, William Smith, of whom we
read in the last chapter, took the position that the
excitement then prevailing was general throughout
the city, and that it was not without due cause in the
obstinate injustice of the British Ministry.   He op-

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