… That in January 1775, Lincoln was ready for economic sacrifice in defiance of British rule, but not yet ready for war?
Lincoln’s own pledge in August 1774 of non-purchase/non-consumption (annotated for clarity). Aren’t we all glad that the word “boycott” was finally invented in 1880?
Lincoln rarely (if ever) held a town meeting in the month of January. But it did on January 9, 1775. And the town was in a defiant mood, ready to make patriotic sacrifices — up to a point.
In the summer of 1774, Parliament had passed the Coercive Acts, shutting Boston harbor and effectively ending 150 years of self-rule in Massachusetts. Lincoln joined other towns in defiance. In quick order, at the January meeting, Lincoln elected Eleazer Brooks as its representative to the Provincial Congress, convened by Massachusetts towns after the royal governor, General Thomas Gage, had dissolved the elected colonial legislature in October 1774. Town meeting agreed to give the Provincial Congress all the tax money that the town in the past would have sent to the royal governor.
Town meeting also reached agreement on what could have been a very contentious issue—setting up a Committee of Inspection. Back in August 1774, town meeting had called for a pledge by Lincoln families not to purchase or consume any imported British products. The pledge was signed by seventy-eight men—an impressive number, but well short of unanimous. Similar efforts at non-purchase/non-consumption had been tried in past confrontations with Britain. The intent was that the loss of American markets would inflict economic pain on British merchants, and they would compel Parliament to change its policies.
However, most of those prior efforts had failed. Unless there were universal compliance, loyalist tradesmen could prosper while patriotic tradesmen would suffer. To cope with this problem, when the Continental Congress in Philadelphia agreed upon a policy of non-purchase/non-consumption for all the colonies, it called upon communities to appoint committees of inspection, to enforce the policy. Monitoring merchants in the town of Lincoln would be easy—there were hardly any. But would this Committee of Inspection now encourage Lincoln residents to spy upon their neighbors for any suspicious purchases made in other towns? If anyone raised such concerns, they were outvoted.
Economic sacrifice was one matter. Was the town was prepared for even greater sacrifice?
Back in October 1774, the Provincial Congress called upon all towns to form special militia units, to be composed of men “who shall equip and hold themselves in readiness, on the shortest notice … to march to the place of rendezvous.” These would be the town’s minute men, and the Congress urged each town “to pay their own minute men reasonable compensation for their services.”
On January 9, 1775, Lincoln had not yet formed a minute company. But town meeting took up the question whether the town “will pay minute men in case any are appointed.” The decision was: “to make some allowance to minute men if they should be drawn out; voted that further consideration of this article be referred to the next March meeting.” In fact, no decision on equipping and paying the minute men would be made at the next March meeting. Nor the meeting after that, nor the next.
The repeated postponement of this issue suggests deep disagreement in town. But the terse town record is silent on what those disagreements may have been. Might we imagine what arguments would be heard today, if Lincoln’s town meeting took up such an issue? Would we prepare for war?
Donald L. Hafner
The Lincoln Historical Society
March 2025