The Hutchinson Letters by Shelly Barclay

In December of 1772, Benjamin Franklin, who was the Postmaster General in what would soon become the United States, received a group of letters from an unknown source. These letters were written by Governor Thomas Hutchinson and they were bound for England. Benjamin found the information that they contained to be important, and so he shared the letters with his peers in Boston. This was an admittedly unprofessional move on his part, though he did make it clear that he wished for their contents to remain private.

Thomas Hutchinson was born and raised in the Massachusetts Colony. However, he was a British loyalist to the bone. He was of the mind that more British soldiers were needed in the town of Boston and he expressed this thought in the intercepted letters. This was exactly what the rebels in Boston did not want. The military presence in the area was already causing unrest and animosity between citizens and regulars. The people wanted the troops removed. Hutchinson was very much against it. The rebels in Boston did not need to know this to know that they disliked Thomas. He had already roused the ire of many people in his homeland. However, they would receive this information and it would cause them to loathe him even more.

In June of 1773, some of the contents of Thomas Hutchinson's letters were published in the Boston Gazette, against Benjamin Franklin's wishes. Statements made by Hutchinson like, "… I have been begging for measures to maintain the supremacy of Parliament." infuriated non-loyalists. They did not want Parliament to reign supreme unless they were represented in it. Hutchinson was forced to flee to England in the wake of this indiscretion and Parliament was left to sort out how their man's correspondence had come to be in the Boston Gazette.

Benjamin Franklin's secret regarding Thomas Hutchinson's letters remained safe until December of 1773. Three men who had not been involved were implicating each other. Two of these men had fought a duel and were preparing to do so again. Franklin's conscience led him to confess in a letter to the London Chronicle. Here is an excerpt of his letter. "Finding that two gentlemen have been unfortunately engaged in a duel, about a transaction and its circumstance of which both are totally ignorant and innocent, I think it incumbent on me to declare (for the prevention of farther mischief, as far as such a declaration may contribute to prevent it) that I alone am the person who obtained and transmitted to Boston the letters in question."

Benjamin Franklin lost his position as Postmaster General over the Hutchinson Letters Affair. His reputation was sullied irreparably in England. This may have caused him some distress at the time. However, it hardly mattered. He would go on to become fully immersed in the patriot cause. He was even became one of the treasonous men who aided in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Hutchinson, on the other hand, became and exile from his home. He stayed in England for the rest of his life.

Sources

The Hutchinson Letters, retrieved 6/26/10, postalmuseum.si.edu/outofthemails/huthcinsonpopup.html

Raglinen, B. Franklin's Confession to Leaking Hutchinson's Letters, retrieved 6/26/10, raglinen.com/2010/02/27/b-franklins-confession-to-leaking-hutchinsons-letters

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