James Bowdoin II ( ; August 7, 1726 – November 6, 1790) was an American politician and merchant who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1785 to 1787. Born in Boston in what was then colonial Massachusetts into a wealthy mercantile family, he rose to prominence by following his father's career. Between the 1750s and 1770s Bowdoin served in both branches of the Massachusetts General Court, where he was initially a supporter of the colony's royal governors before opposing British policy towards its North American colonies and eventually becoming an prominent advocate of colonial independence. Bowdoin authored a highly politicized report on the 1770 Boston Massacre which has been described as one of the most influential pieces of writing that shaped colonial public opinion.
From 1775 to 1777, Bowdoin served as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress's executive council, the de facto head of the Massachusetts government during the American Revolutionary War. He was elected president of the Constitutional Convention that drafted the state's constitution in 1779, and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1780, losing to John Hancock. In 1785, following Hancock's resignation, Bowdoin was elected governor. Due to the large debts Massachusetts incurred from the Revolutionary War, he ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility. During his two years in office, a combination of poor economic conditions and the harsh fiscal policy laid down by Bowdoin's administration led to Shays' Rebellion. Bowdoin personally funded militia forces that were instrumental in putting down the uprising. His high-handed treatment of the rebels may have contributed to his loss of the 1787 election, in which the populist Hancock was returned to office.
In addition to his political activities, Bowdoin was active in scientific pursuits, collaborating with Benjamin Franklin in his pioneering research on electricity. He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society and was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1787. He was a founder and first president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, to whom he bequeathed his library. Bowdoin College in Maine was named in his honor after a bequest by his son James Bowdoin III.
Early life
James Bowdoin II was born in Boston to Hannah Portage Bowdoin and James Bowdoin, a wealthy Boston merchant.Danver, p. 217 His grandfather, Pierre Baudouin, was a Huguenot refugee from France. Pierre took his family first to Ireland, then to eastern Massachusetts (present-day Maine), before finally settling in Boston in 1690.Winthrop, pp. 91–94 James Bowdoin I had a modest inheritance from his parents, but greatly expanded his father's merchant business and land holdings to become one of the wealthiest men in the province. Young James attended the South Grammar School (now Boston Latin School), then graduated from Harvard College in 1745. When his father died in 1747, he inherited a considerable fortune.Winthrop, p. 94 He married Elizabeth Erving, sister of his Harvard roommate, in 1748.Kershaw, p. 11 They had two children.Manuel and Manuel, p. 44 That same year, he received his master's degree from Harvard.Kershaw, p. 10
Scientific and other pursuits
Bowdoin may have met Benjamin Franklin as early as 1743, and the two became frequent collaborators and correspondents on scientific subjects. During his Harvard years, he was educated in the sciences by John Winthrop, and developed an interest in electricity and astronomy. In 1750, Bowdoin traveled to Philadelphia to meet with Franklin. Bowdoin was interested in Franklin's experiments on electricity, and Franklin solicited his advice on papers he prepared for submission to the Royal Society. Through the offices of Franklin, some of Bowdoin's letters were read to the Society.Manuel and Manuel, p. 74 Bowdoin was instrumental in gaining support in the provincial assembly for an expedition to Newfoundland to observe the 1761 transit of Venus across the sun,Woolf, pp. 501–502 and in the same year published a treatise suggesting improvements to the telescope. In 1785 he published a series of memoirs arguing against Isaac Newton's theory that light was transmitted by "corpuscles", citing both natural observations and Scripture.Greene, pp. 355–356
Bowdoin maintained a lifelong interest in the sciences. In 1780 he was one of the founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as its first president until his death and left the society his library. Bowdoin published not only scientific papers, but poetry in both English and Latin. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Edinburgh and made a fellow of Harvard. His 1788 election to the Royal Society of London was the first such honor bestowed on an American after independence.Stearns, pp. 243–244
Bowdoin also had extensive business interests. Although he was often characterized as a merchant, and he engaged in the Atlantic trade, his principal interest was in land. His inheritance included major tracts of land, most of which he kept, in present-day Maine as well as in the agriculturally rich Elizabeth Islands off the state's south coast. Bowdoin expanded his holdings, eventually acquiring property in all of the New England states except Rhode Island. He was one of the managing proprietors of a large territory on the Kennebec River, where he was frequently involved in legal proceedings with squatters on the land, and with competing land interests. The dealings with squatters in particular left Bowdoin with a dislike of the lower classes in Massachusetts society, something that affected his politics.Kersaw, pp. 62, 66–69 His inheritance also included an ironworks in Attleboro (now Bridgewater) that he sold in 1770, apparently because it was too time-consuming to manage.Kersaw, p. 62 Despite the upheavals of the Revolution, Bowdoin was careful to always manage his financial affairs. He supported the cause of independence financially, but he did so without damaging his own business interests, unlike John Hancock, whose business suffered from neglect.Manuel and Manuel, pp. 52–57
In later years he served as the first president of the Massachusetts Bank in 1784 and was also the first president of the Massachusetts Humane Society (an organization initially devoted to rescuing survivors from shipwrecks and other water-based disasters).Manuel and Manuel, pp. 53, 84
Governor's Council and opposition to British rule
Bowdoin was elected to the provincial assembly in 1753 and served there until named to the governor's council in 1756. Although at first supportive of the royal governor, his politics became more radical as British colonial policy became increasingly unpopular, and Bowdoin believed those policies would have a negative effect on the New England economy. Personal factors may also have played a role in Bowdoin's shift in views: John Temple, the local customs commissioner and Bowdoin's son in law, was embroiled in nasty disputes with Governor Francis Bernard in the 1760s.Walett, p. 321Manuel and Manuel, p. 88 By 1769 Bowdoin was one of the principal spokesmen of the opposition to the governor on the council.Manuel and Manuel, p. 86 In that year Bernard rejected Bowdoin's renewed election to the council. Bowdoin, however, was instrumental in causing Bernard's downfall from office. Private letters critical of the provincial government that Bernard had written were published in 1769 to great outrage. Bowdoin rebutted the charges and claims made in Bernard's letters, and published a highly polemic pamphlet arguing for Bernard's removal that was sent to the colonial secretary, Lord Hillsborough.Walett, pp. 324–325
Bowdoin won reelection to the assembly in 1770, and was promptly reelected to the council the same year, soon after Bernard left the province.Alexander, p. 112 Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson acquiesced to Bowdoin's return to the council, reasoning that he was less dangerous there than as an outspoken critic in the lower house.Winthrop, p. 104 However, the seat Bowdoin vacated in the assembly was taken by Samuel Adams, another leading political opponent of the royal governors, and Hutchinson was faced with the prospect of opposition on both fronts.
After the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, Bowdoin was chosen by the Boston town meeting to serve on a committee that investigated the affair. The committee took depositions and produced a report describing the event that was published as A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre. The work was highly critical not only of the governor, but also the behavior of the British regulars occupying Boston, and is characterized by historian Francis Walett as one of the major propaganda pieces influencing public opinion in the colonies.Walett, p. 333 Bowdoin's opposition to British policies continued during the Hutchinson administration, and when letters by Hutchinson were published to outrage similar to the Bernard letters affair, Bowdoin again penned works highly critical of the governor and calling for his removal.Walett, p. 327 Hutchinson's successor, General Thomas Gage, vetoed Bowdoin's reelection to the council in 1774, citing "express orders from His Majesty" that he be excluded from that body.
Government of Massachusetts
Bowdoin as named as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774 but did not attend, citing Elizabeth's poor health.Morse, p. 22 A bout of poor health, probably caused by tuberculosis, at the time also affected him.Manuel and Manuel, p. 93 Bowdoin was again ill in 1775 when the American Revolutionary War broke out, and the family was relocated from British-occupied Boston (which was then under siege by area militia) first to Dorchester, and eventually to Middleborough, where he resided until 1778. (Bowdoin's Beacon Street mansion was occupied by General John Burgoyne.)Manuel and Manuel, pp. 96–97 Despite his convalescence he was kept apprised of events occurring in and around Boston, and was elected president of the executive council of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. This position, which he held until 1777, made him the de facto head of the Massachusetts government.Winthrop, pp. 58–60 Citing his ongoing poor health, he resigned the post and withdrew from public view. He continued to correspond with other revolutionaries, and enjoyed their confidence, although his absence from the war effort would lead to later political difficulties.Manuel and Manuel, p. 101 He began to return to public life in 1778, and when Massachusetts wrote its own constitution in 1779, he was president of the Constitutional Convention called to create it, and chairman of the committee that drafted it. John Adams, also a committee member, is generally credited as the major author of the new constitution, although Bowdoin and Samuel Adams likely made significant contributions.Winthrop, pp. 60–61Manuel and Manuel, pp. 109–110