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Thomas Hutchinson: Boston's Leading Citizen -- Part Two

© Brian Tubbs

Thomas Hutchinson had a new platform to champion fiscally conservative policies as well as the colony's territorial concerns. He was now a member of the prestigious Governor's Council, a body associated much more with the royal establishment in Massachusetts Bay and, in many respects, far closer to the center of power than the legislature.

While this appointment may have established a closer relationship between Hutchinson and the royal authorities, namely the governor, it is likely that he was making enemies as well. It is possible that the rift between Hutchinson and the Adams family may have opened at this juncture of Hutchinson's career. Deacon Adams, the father of Sam Adams and an active player in local politics, had been expected to receive an appointment to the Governor's Council just a few short years earlier, but was passed over. It was a slight that deeply offended the father, and one the son would never forget. For Hutchinson, a colleague of the elder Adams in the Massachusetts House, to receive the prestigious honor so soon thereafter could not have gone over well in the Adams household. Furthermore, Hutchinson's support for hard money policies may not have endeared him to the Adams family in light of their misfortune in the painful Land Bank fiasco. Over time, this rift would only widen, as Hutchinson became more associated with and firmly supportive of Crown policies, while the younger Adams became the Crown's leading critic in the colony.

For the most part, however, Hutchinson earned the respect of those who knew him, even winning the praise of many who would one day condemn him as a traitor. He was a conscientious and honest public figure, thoroughly professional in his conduct and demeanor. He was fast becoming Boston's leading citizen. In fact, in the years ahead, he would become both chief justice of Massachusetts Bay and the colony's lieutenant governor. Holding both of these offices was highly unusual, and it would draw the wrath of Sam Adams and his allies.

In 1754, with the outbreak of the French and Indian War, Thomas Hutchinson represented Massachusetts in the Albany Congress, a body instituted to help foster closer ties between the various colonies. He was a strong proponent of restructuring intercolonial relations, and worked closely with Pennsylvania's Benjamin Franklin in drafting a report to the Albany Congress that proposed an intercolonial union. The report was accepted and the concept of a union was unanimously approved. Nevertheless, due to the slow pace of British politics and the delicacy of several aspects of the final Albany Plan (written by Franklin), Hutchinson's dream of a North American intercolonial union did not come to pass ... that is, until many years later, under very different circumstances.