Letters of Thomas Hutchinson by Thomas Hutchinson | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Letters of Thomas Hutchinson by Thomas Hutchinson

Letters of Thomas Hutchinson

Published in 1768–69; excerpted from The Life of Thomas Hutchinson, Royal Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay

"I never think of the measures necessary for the peace and good order of the colonies without pain…. there must be a great restraint of natural liberty."

Thomas Hutchinson

At the time he wrote the two letters that follow, Thomas Hutchinson (1711–1780) held two important government offices at the same time: lieutenant governor of Massachusetts (in August 1769, he would become governor) and chief justice of the Massachusetts superior court. He was a scholarly, intelligent, law-abiding person, the man in charge of making sure that British laws were obeyed in Massachusetts. The tax laws had so angered Americans that when British-appointed agents and British soldiers tried to collect taxes, they were threatened and attacked by mobs. As far as Hutchinson was concerned, the taxes might be unpopular, but they were the law, and it was his job to uphold the law. Hutchinson was dismayed by the violent mobs who were protesting British taxes. He remarked: "The people seem to me in a state of absolute dementation [madness]."

Hutchinson's letters were written to a Mr.

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