Thomas Hutchinson (governor) - Legislator and Councillor

Legislator and Councillor

In 1737 Hutchinson entered politics. He was elected a Boston selectman, and later in the year, to a seat in the General Court. He spoke out against the province's practice of issuing bills of credit (as a form of paper currency), whose inflationary drop in value wrought havoc in the economy. This position was unpopular with the populist party in the province, and Hutchinson was voted out in the 1739 election. He was sent to England as an agent to plead on behalf of property owners affected by King George II's decision that determined the border between Massachusetts and New Hampshire significantly to New Hampshire's benefit. Hutchinson's embassy was unsuccessful, although when he returned he brought a bequest to Harvard College for the construction of a new chapel, which still stands today, called Holden Chapel.

In 1742 he was again elected to the General Court, where he served until 1749; from 1746 to 1749 he was the body's speaker. His continued advocacy of currency reforms so annoyed the populist faction that the need to guard his properties in Boston and Milton was discussed. When the British government was convinced to refund the province's expense for mounting the 1745 Louisbourg expedition, Hutchinson seized upon the idea of using the massive payment (about £180,000 in gold and silver) to retire the province's paper currency. Despite significant opposition, Hutchinson successfully navigated a bill implementing the idea through the assembly's general court in 1749; it received the agreement of the Governor's Council, and also the signature of Governor William Shirley. Many of the bill's opponents were pleasantly surprised when the exchange of paper for specie did not cause any financial shocks, and Hutchinson's popularity soared.

Despite the success, Hutchinson was voted out of the assembly in 1749. He was, however, immediately appointed to the Governor's Council. In 1749 he headed a commission to arrange a treaty with the Indians in the District of Maine, which was then part of Massachusetts, and he served on boundary commissions to settle disputes with Connecticut and Rhode Island. In 1752 he was appointed judge of probate and a justice of the Common Pleas. Following the outbreak of the French and Indian War in 1754, he was a delegate to the Albany Convention. In that meeting he took a leading part in the discussions, working with Benjamin Franklin to draft a plan for colonial union. Hutchinson agreed with Franklin that the present disunity endangered the British colonies, and that decisive action must be taken to knit the too-often-competing colonies into a coherent whole. Most important, the report drafted by Hutchinson concluded, the colonies must be encouraged to establish "a Union of His Majesty's several governments on the continent, that so their councils, treasure, and strength may be employed in due proportion against their common enemy".

Hutchinson's wife died quite suddenly in 1754; Hutchinson thereafter threw himself into his work. His work was not entirely of a political nature: in a humanitarian streak he supported Acadian refugees who had been expelled from their Nova Scotia homelands, even though this support of Roman Catholics was unlikely to gain friends in Protestant Massachusetts. He was also sensitive to the needs of the military men involved in the war, often helping to provide for needy families of veterans.