History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

1772.] REVOLUTION—PRELIMINARY EVENTS. 341
fraction upon the rights granted the inhabitants by the
royal charter," was adopted by the Legishiture by a vote
of eighty-five to nineteen. This was soon followed by a
provision fixing and paying the salaries of the Judges of
the courts from the royal coffers. When this last measure
was promulgated the Legislature was not in session. The
patriots of Boston called a town-meeting and petitioned the
Governor to refer the whole matter of salaries to the General
Court. Gov. Hutchinson not only refused to grant
this request, but declined to convene the Legislature in December,
to which time it had been prorogued. From this
action was evolved the first of those movements which resulted
in the American Revolution. Boston immediately
appointed a committee of correspondence, consisting of
twenty-one persons. Among other measures adopted by
this committee to acquaint the people with the facts, was a
letter sent to each town in the Province, in which the posi-
tion of affairs was clearly stated, and a request made that
each should give an expression of opinion upon the situation.
A response to this stirring appeal was made by
nearly all the towns during the fall and winter of 1772.
Northampton, however, seems to have been among those"
towns which failed to notice the letter. " On Monday, the
twenty-eighth day of December," says Bancroft, "towns
were in session from the Kennebec to Buzzard's Bay." The
people of Northampton were convened in town-meeting on
that day, but no words of response to the suggestions of
their compatriots were pronounced therein. From all parts
of the Province came patriotic responses to the earnest appeal
of the people of Boston, but the home