History of the United States from the discovery of the American continent

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BOSTON
PUBLISHED EriITTIE.BBOVN & C O.

BZ\?f\Vu

HISTORY

OF THE

UNITED STATES,

FEOM THE

DISCOVERY OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT.

BY

GEOKGE BANCEOFT.

Vol. IV.

TWENTY-THIRD EDITION.

0

BOSTON: ^

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

1874.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by

GEORGE BANCROFT,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern

District of New York.

Cambridge :
Presswork by John Wilson and Son.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER L

AMERICA CLAIMS LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE OF ENGLAND. — PELHAM 8
ADMINISTEATION. 1748.

The approach of Revolution, 3 — The unity of the human race, 5 — Its
progress, 8 — History records that progress, 9 — The American Revolution, 12
— Its character and extent, 12 — Relation of the Thirteen Colonies to the
Metropolis, 15 — The Duke of Newcastle as Colonial Minister, 18 — He retires,
21 — Succeeded by the Duke of Bedford, 21.

CHAPTER II.

THE ROYAL GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK APPEALS TO THE PARAMOUNT POWER OF
GREAT BRITAIN. — PELnAM's ADMINISTEATION CONTINUED. 1748 — 1749.

Congress at Albany in 1748, 24 — Plans of Clinton and Colden, 25 — The
Massachusetts Delegation to the Congress, 26 — Shirley, 26 — Oliver and
Hutchinson, 27 — Treaties with the Six Nations and the Miamis, 28 — Oliver
and Hutchinson propose the interposition of the king to provide an American
fund, 29 — Boundary claimed by the French, 30 — Indian mission and village
at Ogdensburg, 31 — Shirley and Clinton advise coercion of the Colonies by
Parliament, 32 — Murray the principal adviser, 34 — Clinton resolves to com-
pel the interposition of parliament, 34 — Spirited resistance of the New- York
Assembly, 35 — Halifax becomes head of the Board of Trade, 36 — He finds
France encroaching in America, 37 — and the colonies tending towards Inde-
pendence, 37 — South Carolina, 38 — North Carolina, 38 — Virginia, 38 — Penn-
uylvania, 39 — New England, 39 — New Jersey, 40 — Halifax seeks to confine
France by planting a new Colony in the Ohio Valley, 41 — The French take
measures to prevent it, 42 — Their claims in Acadia, 43 — Halifax plants a
British Colony in Nova Scotia, 45 — The Acadians, 46 — The Micmac Indians,

IV CONTENTS.

Indians, 47 — The Lords of Trade go to Parliament for absolute power, 48 —
Protest of the Colonies, 49 — Massachusetts becomes a Hard Money Colony,
50 — Further intrigues of the Crown Officers in America, 51 — Firmness of
the Representatives of New York, 53 — Charles Townshend enters the Board
of Trade, 54 — The Colonies develop a life of their own, 55.

CHAPTER III.

THE EXPLORATION OF OHIO. — PELIIAM's ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED.

The Ministry resolve on a new system of Colonial Administration, 56—
Zeal of Halifax and Bedford, 57 — Incessant importunities of Crown Officers
in America, 57 — Stamp tax proposed, 58 — Spirit of New England, 59 —
Jonathan Mayhew, 59— The British Ministry persevere, 61 — New Develop-
ments of the Commercial System, 62 — The Slave Trade, 62 — Restrictions on
American Manufactures, 63 — The policy unwise, 64 — Prophecy of Turgot's,
65 — Divisions in the Cabinet, 66 — The French and English in Nova Scotia,
07 — Halifax and Bedford disagree, 69— Newcastle against Bedford, 70— The
English take Chiegnecto, 71 — British and French Commissioners, 72 — A
French Brigantine seized, 73 — Vermont, 74 — The Ohio Valley, 74 — Explored
by Gist, 75 — The richness of its lands, 78 — Council at Picqua, 79 — Message
to the English, 80— To the French, 80— Gist returns, 81 — Second journey of
Croghan, 82.

CHAPTER IV.

AMERICA REFUSES TO BE RULED BY ARBITRARY INSTRUCTIONS. — PELHAm's
ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. 1751 1753.

Lords of Trade renew their design, 83— Calendar regulated, 84 — Plan for
an American Civil List, 84 — Postponed by division in the Cabinet, 86 — Colo-
nies left to protect themselves, 88 — Zeal of the French, 89— Plan of union of
the Americans, 91 — New powers of the Board of Trade, 92 — Relations with
France in America, 93 — The French begin hostilities, 95 — Council at Shaw-
nee Town, 95 — Dinwiddie's Report, 97 — State of England, 97 — Measures of
the Board of Trade, 100 — Discontent of the Western Indians, 101— Decision
of tho king, 101— The Board busy in attempting to reduce New York, 102 —
They fail, 104.

CHAPTER V.

FRANK1IN PLANS UNION FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. PELHAM'S ADMINISTRA-
TION CONTINUED. 1753 1754.

Progress of the French at the West, 106 — Protest of the Indians, 107 —
Washington's mission to Fort Le Bceuf, 108 — The first Fort at Pittsburg, 112

CONTENTS. V

— Measures of the Colonies, 113 — Plans for taxes by Parliament, 115 —
"Washington marches towards the Ohio, 116 — The French at Pittsburg, 117 —
Combat with Jumonville, 118 — The affair at Great Meadows, 120 — Congress
at Albany, 121 — Treaty with the Six Nations, 122 — Franklin's plan of union,
193 — Franklin advises colonizing the West, 126.

CHAPTER VI.

mE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES. — NEWCASTLE'S ADMINISTRATION. 1754.

The American Colonies, 127 — Their population, 127 — White, 128— Black,
129— Georgia, 130 — South Carolina, 131 — North Carolina, 132— Virginia,
133 — Maryland, 137 — Pennsylvania and Delaware, 139 — New Jersey, 142 —
New York, 144 — New England, 148 — Its traditions, 151 — Its creed, 154.

CHAPTER VII.

the ministers are advised to tax america by act of parliament. —
Newcastle's administration. 1754 — 1755.

Newcastle first Minister, 159 — Commons impatient of their subordination
to the Lords, 161 — State of the Whig party, 162 — Policy towards New York,
164 — Plan of American union by Halifax, 165 — Parliament invoked to tax
America, 167 — Grant of Lands in the Great Western Valley, 167 — Progress
of affairs with France, 168 — Duke of Cumberland, 169 — Braddock appointed
General in America, 170 — Mutiny Act, 170 — Regulation of Quotas, 171 —
Shirley's plans, 172 — Franklin's opinions of them, 173 — Shirley on Franklin,
174 — Want of concert among the Colonies, 175 — Discussions with France, 176
— Braddock and five governors recommend taxation of America by Parlia-
ment, 177 — Taxation advocated, 178 — Right of America to Independence, 181.

CHAPTER VIII.

england and france contend for the ohio valley and for acadia.—
Newcastle's administration continued. 1755.

Plan for 1755, 182 — Howe captures the Alcide and the Lys, 183 — Brad-
dock advances slowly, 184— The Ninth of July, 186— The Battle, 188— The
Defeat, 189 — Death of Braddock, 191 — General consternation, 192 — Peace
among the Southern Indians', 193 — The Acadians, 193 — Their disaffection,
196— They are disarmed, 197— The English take Beau Sgour, 197— The re-
moval of the Acadians projected, 199 — Approved of by Belcher, 201 — Ef-
fected, 202— Their sufferings, 205.

VI CONTENTS.

#

CHAPTER IX.

GREAT BRITAIN UNITES AMERICA TINDER MILITARY RULE. — NEWCASTLE'S
ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. 1755 — 1756.

American Army at Lake George, 207 — Dieskau's approach, 209 — The
battle, 210 — Shirley fails to reach Niagara, 213 — His opinion on Independ-
ence, 214 — Musings of John Adams, 215 — French ships seized, 216 — England
urges Russia to supervise Germany, 218 — Pitt opposes, 219 — Soame Jenyns
and Rigby become Lords of Trade, 220 — Plans for 1756, 221 — Shirley pro*
poses to the Ministry a Stamp Duty for America, 222 — Washington's self-
sacrificing spirit, 223 — Affairs of Pennsylvania, 224 — Supremacy of the Mili-
tary in America, 226 — Appointment of Loudoun as Commander-in-Chief, 228
—Foreign officers employed, 231 — Cumberland thought of as king, 232.

CHAPTER X.

THE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT GOVERN ENGLAND. — NEWCASTLE'S ADMINIS-
TRATION CONTINUED. 1755 — 1756.

Declaration of "War against France, 233 — Rule of '56, 233 — Delay in pre-
parations for war, 235 — "Washington neglected, 235 — Soldiers billeted in pri-
vate houses, 236 — Capture of Oswego by Montcalm, 237 — Loudoun uses his
army only against the Americans, 240 — Affair of Kittanning, 241 — Colony
on the Santilla, 242 — Intrigues in the English Court, 243 — Pitt forms a
Ministry without Newcastle, 247 — Pitt protects American Liberty, 249 — Is
dismissed, 250.

CHAPTER XI.

THE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT CONQUER CANADA. — ANARCHY IN THE
ADMINISTRATION. 1757.

Adventures near Lake George, 251 — Congress at Philadelphia, 252 — State
of Pennsylvania, 253 — Franklin, its agent, 254 — Summer wasted in America,
256 — Prince George takes an interest in the Colonies, 257 — Siege of Fort
William Henry, 258 — Its surrender, 264 — The massacre, 265 — Pusillanimity
of the British Officers, 266— General discontent, 269— The result, 270— The
Aristocracy cannot rule without the People, 271.

CONTENTS. Vll

CHAPTER XII.

THE NEW PROTESTANT POWERS AGAINST THE OATHOLIO POWERS OP THE MIDDLE
AGE — WILLIAM PITT'S MINISTRY.

No one dares take Pitt's place, 272 — He forms a Ministry with Newcastle,
273— The man of the people, 275— The Great Question, 276— The Catholic
Powers, 277— Frederic of Prussia, 279— State of France, 280— The new-
Alliances, 281 — Frederic invades Bohemia, 282 — His defeat at Colin, 282 —
His retreat and reverses, 283 — Battle of Rossbach, 285 — New reverses in
Silesia, 286— Battle of Leuthen, 287— Prussia saved, 289.

CHAPTER XIII.

CONQUEST OP THE VALLEY OF THE WEST. — WILLIAM PITT'S MINISTRY
CONTINUED. 1757 — 1758.

Pitt plans the Conquest of French America, 290 — Self-imposed taxes of
Massachusetts, 293 — Sufferings of the Canadians, 294 — -Amherst and Wolfe
sent to America, 295 — Siege of Louioburgh, 296 — Its capture, 297 — Gathering
of troops at Lake George, 298 — They embark for Ticonderoga, 300 — Death
of Lord Howe, 302 — Abercrombie defeated by Montcalm, 303 — The retreat,
806 — Skirmishes, 307 — Bradstreet takes Oswego, 308 — Expedition to the
West, 809 — Defeat of Grant, 311 — Washington in command of the advance
party, 312 — His success, 313 — The naming of Pittsburg, 813 — Honors con-
ferred on Washington, 813.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. — PITT'S "MINISTRY CONTINUED. 1759.

Plans for 1759, 315— Successes of England, 316 — Lord George Sackville,
317 — Spirit of America, 319 — Niagara taken, 320 — Inactivity of Gage, 822 —
Amherst reaches Crown Point, 322 — Wolfe and Saunders in the St. Lawrence,
324— Wolfe offers battle, 328 — Is repulsed, 329— Desponds, 330— The Briga-
diers suggest a landing above the town, 330 — Wolfe prepares to execute it,
831— The Landing, 333— The Battle, 334— Death of Wolfe, 836— Of Mont-
calm, 337 — Surrender of Quebec, 338.

VLU CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XV.

invasion of the valley of the tennessee.-
continued. 1759 — 1760.

George Townshend at Boston, 339 — Lyttleton and the Cherokees, 340— -Fie
provokes a War, 342 — The Legislature oppose, 3.45 — A Council with the
Cherokees, 345 — The march into their country, 347 — Lyttleton's Perfidy, 348
— His ill success and triumph, 349 — The Cherokees do and suffer wrong, 350
— New Expedition into their country, 351 — Hasty retreat, 354 — Fort Lou-
doun surrenders, 355 — The frontier left unprotected, 356.

CHAPTER XVI.

possession taken of michigan and the country on the lakes. — pitt's
administration continued. 1760.

Quebec besieged by the French, 358 — Relieved, 359 — Canada capitulates,
360 — Possession taken of the North-West, 361 — Earl of Bath pleads for keep-
ing Canada at the peace, 363 — William Burke and others oppose, 364 —
Franklin rejoins, 366 — Prophecy of American Independence, 369 — Plans to
prevent it, 370 — And for taxing America, 370 — Pennsylvania in strife with its
proprietaries and with the Lords of Trade, 371 — Lord Mansfield and Edmund
Burke, 375 — Increase of contraband trade, 376 — Bernard made Governor of
Massachusetts, 377 — He appoints Hutchinson Chief Justice, 378 — The Lords
of Trade advise taxing America at the peace, 379 — Death of George II., 381.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE KING AND THE ARISTOCRACY AGAINST THE GREAT COMMONER. GEORGE

THE THIRD DRIVES PITT FROM THE CABINET. 1760 1761.

Intrigues at Court, 382 — The first speech to the Council, 383 — Bute in the
Cabinet, 384 — General welcome to the new king, 385 — First impressions of
his character, 386 — His Favorite, 387 — Relations with Prussia, 389 — The
Elections, 390 — Bute becomes a Secretary of State, 391 — Negotiations with
France for peace, 392 — Choiseul, 394 — Pitt impracticable, 395 — Magnanimity
of Frederic, 397 — Pitt does not favor peace, 398— More humane views of
Bedford, 400— Affairs of Spain, 401— The Family Compact, 403— Special
Convention between France and Spain, 404 — The ultimatissimum of Franco,
105 — Pitt proposes to declare war against Spain, 406 — Is outvoted in the
Cabinet, 408 — Pitt resigns, 409 — Accepts a pension, 410.

CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTER XVIII.

TIIE ACTS OF TRADE PROVOKE REVOLUTION. — THE REMODELLING OF THE
COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS. 1761 — 1762.

George Grenville remains in office, 412 — Bedford joins the Ministry, 412—
Acts of Trade resisted in Boston, 414 — Speech of James Otis on "Writs of
Assistance, 415 — EiFects of his eloquence, 417 — His character, 419 — ITe is
chosen a representative of Boston, 420 — Virginia opposes the Slave Trade, 421
— South Carolina desires to restrain it, 422 — Expedition against the Chero-
kees, 423 — Fight on the Cowhoowee, 424 — Peace established by mutual con-
cessions, 425 — Discontent of South Carolina, 426 — The independence of the
judiciary throughout America subverted, 427.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE KING DRIVES OUT THE NEWCASTLE WHIGS. — THE DAWN OF THE NEW

REPUBLIC. 1762.

League of the Catholic Powers, 432 — Proposed Federation of Maritime
States, 433 — England oners Austria acquisitions in Italy, 433 — Firmness of
Frederic, 433 — Death of the Empress of Russia, 434 — Alliance of Russia and
Prussia, 434 — England deserts Prussia, 435 — Conquest of Martinico, 436 —
Newcastle resigns, 436 — Decline of the Whig Aristocracy, 437 — Prediction of
the decline of the great Monarchies, 438 — Reorganization of the Cabinet,
438 — Negotiations for peace opened, 439 — Liberties of America menaced
after the peace, 439 — No more Judges but at the king's will, 440 — The king
pays the Chief Justice of New- York, 440 — Maryland and Pennsylvania repri-
manded, 441 — Bedford negotiates for a Peace, 442 — Siege of Havana, 444 —
Moro Castle taken, 444 — The town surrenders, 445 — Negotiations for Peace
continued, 446 — Rupture of the king with the great Whig Lords, 446 —
Charles Townshend plans taxing America, 447 — Otis in the Massachusetts
Assembly denies the power, 447 — His theory of Government, 448 — His
popularity, 449 — General apprehension of encroachments on rights, 449.

CHAPTER XX.

engiand, grasping at the colonies of france and spain, risks her own. —
Bute's ministry. 1762 — 1763.

George III. persists in desiring peace, 451 — Choiseul yields to necessity
151 — The treaty of peace, 452 — Parliament approves the treaty, 453 — The

X CONTENTS.

intention to tax the Colonies avowed, 454 — Prussia concludes a glorious
peace, 464 — The sufferings of Europe during the war, 455 — Results of the
peace, 456 — Diffusion of the English Tongue, 456 — Hi-founded joy of England
in its conquests, 457 — France as a colonizing State, 457 — Institutions ot
New France, 458 — Institutions of New England and the other British Colo-
nies, 459 — Consequences of the acquisition of Canada predicted in 1748, 460 —
Opinion of Vergennes in 1763, 461 — The old Colonial system self-destruc-
tive. 462.

THE

AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

EPOCH FIKST.

THE OVERTHROW OF THE EUROPEAN
COLONIAL SYSTEM.

1748—1763.

VCL. IV.

THE OVEKTHKOW

OF TIIE

EUROPEAN COLONIAL SYSTEM.

♦ »

CHAPTEH I,

AMERICA CLAIMS LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE OF ENGLAND.
rELHAM'S ADMINISTRATION.

1748.

In the year of our Lord one thousand seven hun-
dred and forty-eight, Montesquieu, wisest in his age of
the reflecting statesmen of France, apprized the culti-
vated world, that a free, prosperous and great people
was fonning in the forests of America, which England
had sent forth her sons to inhabit.1 The hereditary
dynasties of Europe, all unconscious of the rapid
growth of the rising power, which was soon to in-
volve them in its new and prevailing influence were
negotiating treaties among themselves to bring their
last war of personal ambition definitively to an end.

1 De VEsprit des Lois. Liv. xix. portant avec lui la prosperity, on

clmp. xxvii. Elle [une nation li- verroit 88 former de grands pen pies

bre] donneroit aux penples de ses dans les forfits mSmes qu'elle enver-

bolonies la forme de son gonverne- roit Labiter.
ment propro : et ce gouvernement

174ft.

1748.

THE AFRICAN REVOLUTION.

The great maritime powers, weary of hopes of con-
quest and ignorant of coming reform, desired repose.
To restore possessions as they had been, or were to
have been, was accepted as the condition of peace;
and guaranties were devised to keep them safe
against vicissitude. But the eternal flow of existence
never rests, bearing the human race onwards through
continuous change. Principles grow into life by in-
forming the public mind, and in their maturity gain
the mastery over events ; following each other as
they are bidden, and ruling without a pause. No
sooner do the agitated waves begin to subside, than,
amidst the formless tossing of the billows, a new mes-
senger from the Infinite Spirit moves over the waters ;
and the bark which is freighted with the fortunes
of mankind, yields to the gentle breath as it first
whispers among the shrouds, even while the behold-
ers still doubt if the breeze is springing, and whence
it comes, and whither it will go.

The hour of revolution was at hand, promising
freedom to conscience and dominion to intelligence.
Histoiy, escaping from the dictates of authority and
the jars of insulated interests, enters upon new and
unthought-of domains of culture and equality, the
happier society where power springs freshly from
ever-renewed consent ; the life and activity of a con-
nected world.

For Europe, the crisis foreboded the struggles of
generations. The strong bonds of faith and affection,
which once united the separate classes of its cisol
hierarchy, had lost their vigor. In the impending
chaos of states, the ancient forms of society, after
convulsive agonies, were doomed to be broken in
pieces; and the fragments to become distinct, and

AMERICA CLAIMS LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE. 5

seemingly lifeless, like the dust ; ready to be whirled CIIAI>
in clouds by the tempest of public rage, with a force *-»- , — >
as deadly as that of the sand storm in the Libyan des- 1748*
ert. The voice of reform, as it passed over the desola-
tion, would inspire animation afresh ; but in the classes
whose power was crushed, as well as in the oppressed
who knew not that they were redeemed, it might also
awaken wild desires, which the ruins of a former
world could not satiate. In America, the influences
of time were moulded by the creative force of reason,
sentiment, and nature. Its political edifice rose in
lovely proportions, as if to the melodies of the lyre.
Peacefully and without crime, humanity was to make
for itself a new existence.

A few men of Anglo-Saxon descent, chiefly farm-
ers, planters, and mechanics, with their wives and
children, had crossed the Atlantic in search of free-
dom and fortune. They brought the civilization
which the past had bequeathed to Great Britain;
they were followed by the slave-ship and the African ;
their happiness invited emigrants from every lineage
of Central and Western Europe ; the mercantile sys-
tem, to which they were subjected, prevailed in the
councils of all metropolitan states, and extended its
restrictions to every continent that allured to con-
quest, commerce, or colonization. The accomplish-
ment of their independence w^ould agitate the globe,
would assert the freedom of the oceans as commercial
highways, vindicate power in the commonwealth for
the united judgment of its people, and assure to them
the right to a self-directing vitality.

The authors of the American Kevolution avowed
for their object the welfare of mankind, and believed

6 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

CHIAP- that they were in the service of their own and of all
^~ y— ' future generations. Their faith was just; for the
1748- world of mankind does not exist in fragments, nor can
a country have an insulated existence. All men are
brothers ; and all are bondsmen for one another. All
nations, too, are brothers, and each is responsible for
that federative humanity which puts the ban of exclu-
sion on none. New principles of government could
not assert themselves in one hemisphere without affect-
ing the other. The very idea of the progress of an
individual people, in its relation to universal history,
springs from the acknowledged unity of the race. .

From the dawn of social being, there has appeared
a tendency towards commerce and intercourse be-
tween the scattered inhabitants of the earth. That
mankind have ever earnestly desired this connection,
appears from their willing homage to the adventu-
rers and to every people, who have greatly enlarged
the boundaries of the world, as known to civilization.
The traditions of remotest antiquity celebrate the
half-divine wanderer who raised pillars on the shores
of the Atlantic ; and record, as a visitant from the
skies, the first traveller from Europe to the central
rivers of Asia. It is the glory of Greece, that, when
she had gathered on her islands and among her hills
the scattered beams of human intelligence, her nu-
merous colonies carried the accumulated light to the
neighborhood of the ocean and to the shores of the
Euxine. Her wisdom and her arms connected con-
tinents.

When civilization intrenched herself within the
beautiful promontory of Italy, and Rome led the van
of European reform, the same movement continued
with still vaster results ; for, though the military re-

AMERICA CLAIMS LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE. 7

public bounded the expansive spirit of independence cnIAP-
by giving dominion to property, and extended her own ■ — <—
influence by the sword, yet, heaping up conquests, 1718'
adding island to continent, crushing nationalities, offer-
ing a shrine to strange gods, and citizenship to every
vanquished people, she extended over a larger empire
the benefits of fixed principles of law, and a cosmo-
politan polytheism prevailed as the religion of the
world.

To have asserted clearly the unity of mankind
was the distinctive glory of the Christian religion.
No more were the nations to be severed by the wor-
ship of exclusive deities. The world was instructed
that all men are of one blood ; that for all there is
but one divine nature and but one moral law; and
the renovating faith taught the singleness of the race,
of which it embodied the aspirations and guided the
advancement.

The tribes of Northern Europe, emerging freshly
from the wild nurseries of nations, opened new re-
gions to culture, commerce, and refinement. The
beams of the majestic temple, which antiquity had
reared to its many gods, were already falling in ;
the roving invaders, taking to their hearts the rege-
nerating creed, became its intrepid messengers, and
bore its symbols even to Iceland and Siberia.

Still nearer were the relations of the connected
world, when an enthusiast reformer, glowing with
selfish ambition, and angry at the hollow forms of
Eastern superstition, caught life in the deserts of
Arabia, and founded a system, whose emissaries hur-
ried lightly on the camel's back beyond pathless
Bands, and, never diverging far from the warmer
zone, conducted armies from Mecca to the Ganges

8 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

CEi^p' and the Ebro. How did the two systems animate

— «— ' all the continents of the Old World to combat for

the sepulchre of Christ, till Europe, from Spain to

Scandinavia, came into conflict and intercourse with

the South and East, from Morocco to Hindostan !

In due time appeared the mariner from Genoa.
To Columbus God gave the keys that unlock the
barriers of the ocean ; so that he filled Christendom
with his glory.1 The voice of the world had whis-
pered to him that the world is one ; and as he went
forth towards the west, ploughing a wave which no
European keel had entered, it was his high purpose
not merely to open new paths to islands or to con-
tinents, but to bring together the ends of the earth,
and join all nations in commerce and spiritual life.

While the world of mankind is accomplishing its
nearer connection, it is also advancing in the power of
its intelligence. The possession of reason is the en-
gagement for that progress of which history keeps
the record. The faculties of each individual mind
are limited in their development ; the reason of the
whole2 strives for perfection, has been restlessly form-
ing itself from the first moment of human existence,
and has never met bounds to its capacity for improve-
ment. The generations of men are not like the
leaves on the trees, which fall and renew themselves
without melioration or change ; individuals disappear
like the foliage and the flowers ; the existence of our
kind is continuous, and its ages are reciprocally de-
pendent. Were it not so, there would be no great

1 Columbus to Ferdinand and nen Geschichte in Weltbiirgerlicher
Isabella on his fourth voyage. Ansicht. Saniintliche Werke. vii^

8 Kant's Idee zu einer allgemei- i. 319.

AMERICA CLAIMS LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE. 9

tmtlis inspiring action, no laws regulating human cn1Ali
achievements ; the movement of the living world *— v**
would be as the ebb and1 flow of the ocean ; and the 1748-
mind would no more be touched by the visible agen-
cy of Providence in human affairs. In the lower
creation, instinct is always equal to itself ; the beaver
builds his hut, the bee his cell, without an acquisition
of thought, or an increase of skill. " By a particular
prerogative," as Pascal has written, " not only each
man advances daily in the sciences, but all men unit-
edly make a never-ceasing progress in them, as the
universe grows older ; so that the whole succession of
human beings, during the course of so many ages,
ought to be considered as one identical man, who
subsists always, and who learns without end."

It is this idea of continuity which gives vitality to
history. No period of time has a separate being ; no
public opinion can escape the influence of previous in-
telligence. We are cheered by rays from former cen-
turies, and live in the sunny reflection of all their
light. What though thought is invisible, and even
when effective, seems as transient as the wind that
raised the cloud ? It is yet free and indestructible ;
can as little be bound in chains as the aspiring flame ;
and, when once generated, takes eternity for its guar-
dian. We are the children and the heirs of the past,
with which, as with the future, we are indissolubly
linked together ; and he that truly has sympathy
with every thing belonging to man, will, with his toils
for posterity, blend affection for the times that are
gone by, and seek to live in the vast life of the ages.1
It is by thankfully recognising those ages as a part

1 Vivre dans la grande vie des stecles.

1748,

10 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. 0£ ^.]ie grea^ existence in which we share, that his-
tory wins power to move the soul. She comes to us
with tidings of that which • for us still lives, of that
which has become the life of our life. She embalms
and preserves for us the life-blood, not of master-
spirits only, but of generations of the race.

And because the idea of improvement belongs to
that of continuous being, history is, of all pursuits, the
most cheering. It throws a halo of delight and hope
even over the sorrows of humanity, and finds promises
of joy among the ruins of empires and the graves of
nations. It sees the footsteps of Providential Intelli-
gence every where ; and hears the gentle tones of his
voice in the hour of tranquillity ;

" Nor God alone in the still calm we find ;

He mounts the storm and walks upon the wind."

Institutions may crumble and governments fall, but
it is only that they may renew a better youth, and
mount upwards like the eagle. The petals of the flow-
er wither, that fruit may form.1 The desire of per-
fection, springing always from moral power, rules even
the sword, and escapes unharmed from the field of
carnage ; giving to battles all that they can have of
lustre, and to warriors their only glory; surviving
martyrdoms, and safe amid the wreck of states. On
the banks of the stream of time, not a monument has
been raised to a hero or a nation, but tells the tale
and renews the hope of improvement. Each people
that has disappeared, every institution that has pass-
ed away, has been but a step in the ladder by which
humanity ascends towards the perfecting of its nature.

1 Kant's Werke.

AMERICA CLAIMS LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE. 11

And how has it always been advancing; to the just
judgments of the past, adding the discoveries of succes-
sive ages! The generations that hand the torch of
truth along the lines of time, themselves become dust
and ashes ; but the light still increases its ever-burning
flame, and is fed more and more plenteously with con-
secrated oil.1 How is progress manifest in religion,
from the gross symbols of the East to the sublime
philosophy of Greece, from the Fetichism of the sav-
age to the Polytheism of Rome ; from the multiplied
forms of ancient superstition and the lovely represen-
tations of deities in stone, to the clear conception of
the unity of divine power, and the idea of the pres-
ence of God in the soul ! How has mind, in its inqui-
sitive freedom, taught man to employ the elements as
mechanics do their tools, and already, in part, at least,
made him the master and possessor of nature !2 How
has knowledge not only been increased, but diffused !
How has morality been constantly tending to subdue
the supremacy of brute force, to refine passion, to en-
rich literature with the varied forms of pure thought
and delicate feeling! How has social life been im-
proved, and every variety of toil in the field and in
the workshop been ennobled by the willing industry
of freemen ! How has humanity been growing con-
scious of its unity and watchful of its own develop-
ment, till public opinion, bursting the bonds of nation-
ality, knows itself to be the spirit of the world, in
its movement on the tide of thought from generation
to generation !

1 Milton's Animadversions np- * Descartes. Discours de la Me-

on the Remonstrants' Defence. " O thode. Sixieme Partie. (Euvres i.

tliou that hast the seven stars," 192.
&(. &c.

1748

12 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. From the intelligence that had been slowly ripen-
ing in the mind of cultivated humanity, sprung the
American Revolution, which was designed to organize
social union through the establishment of personal
freedom, and thus emancipate the nations from all
authority not flowing from themselves. In the old
civilization of Europe, power moved from a superior to
inferiors and subjects ; a priesthood transmitted a
common faith, from which it would tolerate no dis-
sent ; the government esteemed itself, by compact 01
by divine right, invested with sovereignty, dispensing
protection and demanding allegiance. But a new
principle, far mightier than the church and state of
the Middle Ages, was forcing itself into power. Suc-
cessions of increasing culture and heroes in the world
of thought had conquered for mankind the idea of the
freedom of the individual ; the creative but long latent
energy that resides in the collective reason was next to
be revealed. From this the state was to emerge, like
the fabled spirit of beauty and love out of the foam
of the ever- troubled ocean. It was the office of Ame-
rica to substitute for hereditary privilege the natural
equality of man ; for the irresponsible authority of a
sovereign, a dependent government emanating from
the concord of opinion ; and as she moved forward in
her high career, the multitudes of every clime gazed
towards her example with hopes of untold happiness,
and all the nations of the earth sighed to be renewed.
The American Revolution, of which I write the
history, essaying to unfold the principles which or-
ganized its events, and bound to keep faith with the
ashes of its heroes, was most radical in its character,
yet achieved with such benign tranquillity, that even
conservatism hesitated to censure. A civil war armed

AMERICA CLAIMS LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE. 13

men of the same ancestry against each other, yet for CHAP-
the advancement of the principles of everlasting peace *— > —
and universal brotherhood. A new plebeian demo- ' •
cracy took its place by the side of the proudest em-
pires. Religion was disenthralled from civil institu-
tions. Thought obtained for itself free utterance by
speech and by the press. Industry was commissioned
to follow the bent of its own genius. The system of
commercial restrictions between states was reprobated
and shattered ; and the oceans were enfranchised for
every peaceful keel. International law was humanized
and softened ; and a new, milder and more just mari-
time code was concerted and enforced. The trade in
slaves was branded and restrained. The home of the
language of Bacon and Milton, of Chatham and Wash-
ington, became so diffused, that in every zone, and almost
in every longitude, childhood lisps the English as its
mother tongue. The equality of all men was declared ;
personal freedom secured in its complete individuality ,
and common consent recognised as the only just origin
of fundamental laws, so that the people in thirteen
separate states, with ample territory for creating more,
each formed its own political institutions. By the
side of the principle of the freedom of the individual
and the freedom of the separate states, the noblest
work of human intellect was consummated in a federa-
tive union. And that union put away every motive
to its destruction, by insuring to each successive gene-
ration the right to better its constitution, according to
the increasing intelligence of the living people.

Astonishing deeds, throughout the world, attended
these changes. Armies fought in the wilderness for
rule over the solitudes which were to be the future
dwelling-place of millions. Navies hunted each other

14 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, through every sea, engaging in battle now near the
^r^-' region of icebergs, now among the islands of the tro
■ pics. Inventive art was summoned to make war more
destructive, and to signalize sieges by new miracles of
ability and daring. Africa was invaded and, in part,
appropriated by rival nations of white men. Asia
was subjected to the influence and dominion of the
higher culture of Europe, and an adventurous com-
pany of British traders succeeded by conquest to the
empire of the Great Mogul.

For America, the period abounded in new forms of
virtue and greatness. Fidelity to principle pervaded
the masses. An unorganized people of their own
free will suspended commerce by universal assent.
Poverty rejected bribes. Heroism, greater than
that of chivalry, burst into action from lowly
men. Citizens, with their families, fled from their
homes and wealth in towns, rather than yield to op-
pression. Battalions sprung up in a night from spon-
taneous patriotism. Where eminent statesmen hesita-
ted, the instinctive action of the multitude revealed
the counsels of magnanimity. Youth and genius gave
up life freely for the liberties of mankind. A nation
without union, without magazines and arsenals, without
a treasury, without credit, without government, fought
successfully against the whole strength and wealth of
Great Britain. An army of veteran soldiers capitula-
ted to insurgent husbandmen.

The world could not watch with indifference the
spectacle. The oldest aristocracy of France, the proud-
est nobles of Poland, the bravest hearts of Germany,
sent their representatives to act as the peers of plebe-
ians, to die gloriously, or to live beloved, as the cham-
pions of humanity and freedom. Russia and the

1748.

AMERICA CLAIMS LEGISLATIVE ENDEPENDENCE. 15

northern nations protected the young republic by an c^p.
armed neutrality ; while the catholic and feudal mon-
archies of France and Spain, children of the Middle
Age, were wonderfully swayed to open the gates
of futurity to the new empire of democracy; so
that, in human affairs, God never showed more vis-
ibly his gracious providence and love.

Yet the thirteen colonies, in whom was involved,
the futurity of our race, were feeble settlements in the
wilderness, scattered along the coast of a continent,
little connected with each other, little heeded by their
metropolis, almost unknown to the world. They were
bound together only as British America, that part of
the Western hemisphere which the English mind had
appropriated. England was the mother of its language,
the home of its traditions, the source of its laws, and
the land on which its affections centred. And yet it
was an onset from England, rather than an integral
part of it ; an empire of itself, free from nobility and
prelacy, not only Protestant, but by a vast majority
dissenting from the Church of England ; attracting
the commoners and plebeian sects of the parent coun-
try, and rendered cosmopolitan by recruits from the
nations of the European continent. By the benignity
of* the law, the natives of other lands were received as
citizens ; and political liberty, as a birthright, was the
talisman, that harmoniously blended all differences
and inspired a new public life, dearer than their native
tongue, their memories and their kindred. Dutch,
French, Swede and German, renounced their national-
ity, to claim the rights of Englishmen.

The extent of those rights, as held by the colo-
nists, had never been precisely ascertained. Of all

1748.

16 THE AMEBIC AK REVOLUTION.

the forms of civil government of which they had ever
heard or read, no one appeared to them so well calcu-
lated to preserve liberty, and to secure all the most
valuable advantages of civil society as the English j1
and of this happy constitution of the mother country,
which it was usual to represent, and almost to adore,
as designed to approach perfection,2 they held their
own to be a copy, or rather an improvement, with ad-
ditional privileges not enjoyed by the common people
there.3 The elective franchise was more equally dif-
fused ; there were no decayed boroughs, or unrepre-
sented towns; representation, which was universal,
conformed more nearly to population ; in colonies
which contained more than half the inhabitants, the
legislative assembly was chosen annually and by bal-
lot, and the time for convening the legislature was
fixed by a fundamental law ; the civil list in every
colony but one was voted annually, and annually sub-
jected to scrutiny ; appropriations of money often, for
greater security against corruption and waste, included
the nomination and appointment of the agents who
were to direct the expenditures ; municipal liberties
were more independent and more extensive ; in none
of the colonies was there an ecclesiastical court, and in
most of them there was no established church or reli-
gious test of capacity for office ; the cultivator of the
soil was for the most part a freeholder ; in all the
continent the people possessed arms, and the able-bo-
died men were enrolled and trained to their use ; so
that in America there was more of personal indepen-
dence and far more of popular power than in England

1 Writings of Samael Adams in mentaries, book i. c. i. § v. Note 12.
1748. 8 Writings of Samuel Adams in

a Compare Blackstone's Com- 1748.

A3EEEICA CLAIMS LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE. 17

This colonial superiority, which had grown from m*Tt
sufferance and from circumstances, was a subject of in- ^ — ■
cessant complaint on the part of the officers of the 1748«
crown, upon whose struggles the metropolis might
cease to look with indifference ; the relations of the
colonies to Great Britain, whether to the king or to
the parliament, were still more vague and undefined.
They were planted under grants from the crown, and,
to the last, the king in council was their highest
court of appeal ; yet, while the court lawyers of the
seventeenth century asserted for the king unlimited
legislative authority in the plantations, the colonies
set bounds to the royal prerogative,. either through the
charters which the crown was induced to grant, or by
the traditionary principles of English liberty, or by the
innate energy, which, aided by distance, fearlessly as-
sumed self-direction.

The method adopted in England for superintend-
ing American affairs, by means of a Board of Commis-
sioners for Trade and Plantations, who had neither a
voice in the deliberation of the cabinet nor access to
the king, tended to involve the colonies in ever-
increasing confusion. The Board framed instructions
without power to enforce them, or to propose measures
for their efficiency. It took cognizance of all events,
and might investigate, give information, or advise;1
but it had no authority to form an ultimate decision on
any political question whatever. In those days there
were two secretaries of state charged with the manage-
ment of the foreign relations of Great Britain. The
executive power with regard to the colonies was
reserved to the Secretary of State, who had the

* Chalmers's Political Annals of chap. iii. 236. Opinions of Eminent
the United Colonies. Book ii., Lawyers ; Preface viii., ix.
vol. iv. 2

1748.

18 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

CHIAP- care of what was called the Southern Department,
^~v~^ which included the -conduct of all relations with the
Spanish peninsula and France. The Board of Trade,
framed originally to restore the commerce and en-
courage the fisheries of the metropolis, was compell-
ed to hear complaints from the executive officers in
America, to issue instructions to them, and to receive
and consider all acts of the colonial legislatures;
but it had no final responsibility for the system of
American policy that might be adopted. Hence from
their very feebleness the Lords of Trade were ever
ready to express their impatience at contradiction;
easily grew vexed at disobedience to their orders;
and were much inclined to suggest the harshest me-
thods of coercion, knowing that their petulance would
exhale itself in official papers, unless it should touch
the pride or waken the resentment of the responsible
minister, the crown and parliament.

The effect of their recommendations would depend
on the character of the person who might happen to
be the Secretary of State for the South, and on his
influence with the parliament and the king. A long
course of indecision had hitherto multiplied the ques-
tions, on which the demands and the customary pro-
cedure of the colonies were utterly at variance with
the maxims that prevailed at the Board of Trade.

In April, 1Y24, the seals for the Southern Depart-
ment and the colonies had been intrusted to the Duke
of Newcastle. His advancement by Sir Robert Wal-
pole, who shunned men of talents as latent rivals, was
owing to his rank, wealth, influence over boroughs,
and personal imbecility. For nearly four-and-twenty
years he remained minister for British America ; yet

AMERICA CLAIMS LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE. 19

to the last, the statesman, who was deeply versed in CH^P'
the statistics of elections, knew little of the continent ' — r~~
of which he was the guardian. He addressed letters, 1748«
it used to be confidently said, to " the island of New
England "! and could not tell but that Jamaica was
in the Mediterranean.2 Heaps of colonial memorials
and letters remained unread in his office ; and a paper
was almost sure of neglect, unless some agent re-
mained with him to see it opened.3 His frivolous
nature could never glow with affection, or grasp a
great idea, or analyse complex relations. After long
research, I cannot find that he ever once attended
seriously to an American question, or had a clear con-
ception of one American measure.

The power of the House of Commons in Great
Britain, rested on its exclusive right to grant annually
the supplies necessary for carrying on the govern-
ment ; thus securing the ever-recurring opportunity of
demanding the redress of wrongs. The strength of
the people in America consisted also in the exclusive
right of its assemblies to levy and to appropriate co-
lonial taxes. In England, the king obtained a civil
list for life ; in America, the rapacity of the governors
made it expedient to preserve their dependence for
their salaries on annual grants, of which the amount
was regulated, from year to year, by a consideration
of the merits of the officer, as well as the opulence of
the province. It was easy for the governors to ob-
tain of their patrons in the ministry instructions to
demand peremptorily a large, settled and permanent
support; but the assemblies treated the instructions

1 James Otis on the Rights of ten years of the reign of George II.

the Colonies. MS. Letter of J. Q. 8 Memoires, &c, i. 343. Gov.

Adams. Clinton, of New- York, to tne Earl

8 Walpole's Memoires of the last of Lincoln, April, 1748.

20 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. as binding only on executive officers, and claimed an
- — , — uncontrolled freedom of deliberation and decision.
1748. *j<0 remove the inconsistency, the king must pay his offi-
cers from an independent fund, or change his instruc-
tions. Newcastle did neither. He continued the in-
structions, which he privately consented should be
broken. Often arbitrary from thoughtlessness, he had
no system, except to weaken opposition by bestowing
office on its leaders. He was himself free from ava-
rice ; but having the patronage of a continent, in co-
lonies where consummate discretion and ability were
required, he would gratify his connections in the aris-
tocratic families of England by intrusting the royal
prerogative to men of broken fortunes, dissolute and
ignorant, too vile to be employed near home ; so that
America became the hospital of Great Britain for its
decayed members of parliament, and abandoned cour-
tiers.1 Of such officers the conduct was sure to pro-
voke jealous distrust, and to justify perpetual oppo-
sition. But Newcastle was satisfied with distributing:
places ; and acquiesced with indifference in the policy
of the colonists, to keep the salaries of all officers of
the crown dependent on the annual deliberations of
the legislature. Placed between the Lords of Trade,
who issued instructions, and the cabinet, which alone
could propose measures to enforce them, he served as
a non-conductor to the angry zeal of the former, whose
places, under such a secretary, became more and more
nearly sinecures ; while America, neglected in Eng-
land, and rightly resisting her rulers, went on her
way rejoicing towards freedom and independence.
Disputes accumulated with every year ; but New-

1 Huske to a Friend, inclosed Jan. 1758, in Phillimore's Memoirs
in Lyttelton to Ms Brother, 30th of Lord Lyttelton, ii. 604.

AMERICA CLAIMS LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE. 21

castle temporized to the last, and in February, 1748, CHA1>

on the resignation of the Earl of Chesterfield, he es- ■ — . — ■

eaped from the embarrassments of American affairs 17t8-
by taking the seals for the Northern Department.
Those of the Southern, which included the colonies,
were intrusted to the Duke of Bedford.

The new secretary was " a man of inflexible hon-
esty and good-will to his country," " untainted by
duplicity or timidity." His abilities were not bril-
liant ; but his inheritance of the rank and fortune of
his elder brother gave him political consideration.
In 1744, he had entered the Pelham ministry as First
Lord of the Admiralty, bringing with him to that
board George Grenville and the Earl of Sandwich.
In that station his orders to Warren contributed
essentially to the conquest of Louisburg. Thus his
attention was drawn to the New World as the scene
of his own glory. In the last war he had cherished
"the darling project" ot conquering Canada^ and
u the great and practicable views for America " were
said by Pitt to have " sprung from him alone." Proud
of his knowledge of trade, and accustomed to speak
readily on almost every subject, he entered without
distrust on the administratior of a continent.

Of the two dukes, who, at this epoch of the culmi-
nating power of the aristocracy, guided the external
policy of England, each hastened the independence of
America. Newcastle, who was childless, depended
on office for all his pleasure ; — Bedford, though some-
times fond of place, was too proud to covet it always.
Newcastle had no passion but business, which he con-
ducted in a fretful hurry, and never finished ; — the
graver Bedford, though fond of " theatricals and jol-

1748.

22 THE AMEBIC AN ke volution.

lity,"1 was yet capable of persevering in a system,
Newcastle was of " so fickle a head, and so treacher-
ous a heart," that Walpole called his "name Perfidy;"2
Henry Fox, the first Lord Holland, said, " he had no
friends, and deserved none;" and Lord Halifax used
to revile him, in the strongest terms, as " a knave and a
fool ;" 8 he was too unstable to be led by others, and,
from his own instinct about majorities, shifted his sails
as the wind shifted ; — Bedford, who was bold and un-
bending, and would do nothing but what he himself
thought " indisputably right," was " always governed,"
and was also "immeasurably obstinate in an opin-
ion once received;"4 being "the most ungovernable
governed man in England,"5 and the most faithful to
the vulgar and dissolute "bandits" who formed his
political connection. Neither was cruel or revenge-
ful ; but while the one " had no rancor or ill-nature,"
and no enmities but freaks of petulance, the other
carried decision into his attachments and his feuds.
Newcastle, with no elevation of mind, no dignity of
manner, lavished promises, familiar caresses, tears and
kisses,6 and cringing professions of regard with prodi-
gal hypocrisy ; — Bedford, whose hardy nature knew
no wiles, was too haughty to practise even conceal-
ment, and was blunt, unabashed, and, without being
aware of it, rudely impetuous, even in the presence of
his sovereign. Newcastle was jealous of rivals; —
Bedford was impatient of contradiction. Newcastle
was timorous without caution, and rushed into diffi-

1 Pelham to Newcastle in Coxe's 3 Bubb Dodington's Diary, 20G.
Pclham Administration, ii. 365. 4 Walpole's Memoires of George

2 Lord John Russell's Introduc- II., i. 162.

tion to the Bedford Correspondence, 6 Henry Fox, Lord Holland.

L xxvi. 6 Dodington's Diary, 149.

A3CERICA CLAIMS LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE. 23

culties which he evaded by indecision ; — the fearless, CU^F-

positive, uncompromising Bedford, energetic without ' — . — •
sagacity, and stubborn with but a narrow range of 1748*
thought, scorned to shun deciding upon any question
that might arise, grew choleric at resistance, could
not or would not foresee obstacles, and was known
throughout America as ever ready at all hazards to
vindicate authority.

CHAPTEE II.

THE ROYAL GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK APPEALS TO THE PARA-
MOUNT POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN.— PELHAM'S ADMINISTRA-
TION CONTINUED.

1748— 1749.

The sun of July, 1748, shed its radiance on the
banks of the Hudson. The unguarded passes of its
1748. Highlands derived as yet no interest, but from the
majestic wildness that enhanced the grandeur of
their forms. The shadows of the mountains, as they
bent from their silent repose to greet the infrequent
bark that spread its sails to the froward summer
breeze, were deepened by dense forests, which came
down the hill-sides to the very edges of the river.
The masses of verdant woodland were but rarely bro-
ken by openings round the houses of a thinly scatter-
ed tenantry, and by the solitary mansions of the few
proprietaries, who, under lavish royal grants, claim-
ed manors of undefined extent, and even whole coun-
ties for their inheritance. Through these scenes,
George Clinton, an unlettered British admiral, who,
being closely connected with the Duke of Newcastle
and the Duke of Bedford, had been sent to America
to mend his fortunes as governor of New York, was
making his way towards Albany, where the friendship
of the Six Nations was to be confirmed by a joint

THE ATPEAL TO THE POWEK OF GREAT BRITAIN. 25

treaty between their chiefs and the commissioners C1J£P
from several colonies, and the encroachments of
France -were to be circumscribed by a concert for
defence.

As his barge emerged from the Highlands, it near-
ed1 the western bank to receive on board Cadwallader
Golden, the oldest member of the royal council.
How often had the governor and his advisers joined
in deploring "the levelling principles2 of the people
of New York and the neighboring colonies;" "the
tendencies of American legislatures to independence f
their unwarrantable presumption in " declaring their
own rights and privileges;" their ambitious efforts
"to wrest the administration from the king's offi-
cers," by refusing fixed salaries, and compelling the
respective governors to annual capitulations for their
support! How had they conspired to dissuade the
English government from countenancing the opulent
James Delancey, then the Chief Justice of the Pro-
vince and the selfish and artful leader of the opposi-
tion ! " The inhabitants of the plantations," they re-
iterated to one another and to the ministry, " are gen-
erally educated in republican principles ; upon repub-
lican principles all is conducted. Little more than a
shadow of royal authority remains in the Northern
Colonies." 3 Very recently the importunities of Clinton
had offered the Duke of Newcastle " the dilemma of
supporting the governor's authority, or relinquishing
power to a popular faction." " It will be impossible,"

1 Clinton to the Duke of Bed- 8 MS. Memorial prepared as a reply-
ford, 15 August, 1748. to the Representation of the New

* Clinton to Colden, 11 March, York Assembly of 19 May, 1747.

174-8. Colden to Clinton, 21 March, Journals of N. Y. Assembly, ii. 149

1748. Colden to the Duke of New- -155.
castle, 21 March, 1748. Clinton to
Colden, 25 April, 1748.

26 THE AMEKICAN KEVOLUTION.

C^P* said one of his letters, which was then under consider-
— y— ation1 in England before the king, " to secure this val-
Juj8 ua^e province from the enemy, or from a* faction
within it, without the assistance of regular troops,
, two thousand men at least. There never was so mucb
silver in the country as at present, and the inhabit-
ants never were so expensive in their habits of life,
They, with the southern colonies, can well discharge
tins expense."2

The party of royalists who had devised the con-
gress, as subsidiary to the war between France and
England, were overtaken by the news, that prelimi-
naries of peace between the European belligerents
had been signed in April ; and they eagerly seized the
opportunity of returning tranquillity, to form plans
for governing and taxing the colonies by the supreme
authority of Great Britain. A colonial revenue,
through British interposition, was desired, for the
common defence of America, and to defray the civil
list in the respective provinces. Could an indepen-
dent income be obtained for either of these purposes,
it might, by degrees, be applied to both.

To the convention in Albany came William Shir-
ley, already for seven years governor of Massachu-
setts ; an English lawyer, artful, needy, and ambitious ;
a member of the Church of England ; indifferent to
the laws and the peculiar . faith of the people whom
he governed, appointed originally to restore or intro-
duce British authority, and more relied upon than any
crown officer in America.

With him appeared Andrew Oliver and Thomas

1 Board of Trade to Clinton, 29 s Clinton to Newcastle, from the
June, 1748. draught.

TIEE APPEAL TO TIIE POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN. 27

CRAP
II.

Hutchinson, both natives and residents of Boston, as
Commissioners from Massachusetts. Oliver was bred ^~ r-
at Harvard College, had solid learning and a good ^f8
knowledge of the affairs of the province, and could
write well. Distinguished for sobriety of conduct,
and for all the forms of piety, he enjoyed public con-
fidence; but at heart he was ruled by the love of
money ; and having diminished his patrimony by un-
successful traffic, was greedy of the pecuniary rewards
of office.

The complaisant, cultivated,' and truly intelligent
Hutchinson was now the Speaker of the House of
Assembly in Massachusetts ; the most plausible and
the most influential, as well as the most ambitious
man in that colony. Loving praise himself, he sooth-
ed with obsequious blandishments any one who bade
fair to advance his ends. To the congregational
clergy he paid assiduous deference, as one of their
most serious and constant supporters ; but his conduct
did not flow from a living faith ; and his pious life
and unfailing attendance " at meeting," were little more
than a continuous flattery. He was one who shunned
uttering a direct falsehood ; but he did not scruple to
conceal truth, to equivocate, and to deceive. He
courted the people, but from boyhood, inwardly dis-
liked and despised them ; and used their favor and
confidence only as steps to his own promotion, fie,
too, though well educated, and of uncommon endow-
ments, and famed at college as of great promise, so
coveted money, that he became a trader in his native
town, and like others, smuggled goods which he
sold at retail. Failing of profits in mercantile pur-
Buits, he withdrew from business in which he had ra-
ther impaired his inheritance, but his ruling passion

28 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

was unchanged ; and to gain property was the most
ardent desire of his soul ;l so that his avarice was the
great incentive to his ambition. He had once been in
England as agent of Massachusetts at the time when
the taxing America by parliament first began to be
talked of, and had thus had occasion to become ac-
quainted with British statesmen, the maxims of the
Board of Trade, and the way in which Englishmen
reasoned about the colonies. He loved the land of
his nativity, and made a study of its laws and history ;
but he knew that all considerable emoluments of
office sprung not from his frugal countrymen, but
from royal favor. He was a man of clear discern-
ment, and where unbiassed by his own interests, he
preferred to do what was right ; but his sordid nature
led him to worship power ; he could stoop to solicit
justice as a boon ; and a small temptation not only
left him without hardihood to resist oppression, but
would easily bend him to become its instrument. At
the same time he excelled in the art of dissimulation,
and knew how to veil his selfishness by the appear-
ance of public spirit.

The congress at Albany was thronged beyond ex-
ample by the many chiefs of the Six Nations and
their allies.2 They resolved to have no French with-
in their borders, nor even to send deputies to Canada,
but to leave to English mediation the recovery of
their brethren from captivity. It was announced,
that tribes of the Far West, dwelling on branches of
Eiie and the Ohio, inclined to friendship ; and nearly
at that very moment envoys from their villages w ere

1 John Eliot. Sub voce Hutch- s Minutes of the Congress held

inson. at Albany, July, 1748.

THE APPEAL TO THE POWEE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 29

at Lancaster, solemnizing a treaty of commerce with CI}£P*
Pennsylvania.1 Returning peace was hailed as the
happy moment for bringing the Miamis and their
neighbors within the covenant chain of the English,
and thus, as Europeans reasoned, extending British
jurisdiction through Western New York to the
Wabash.

The lighted calumet had been passed from mouth
to mouth ; the graves of the tawny heroes, slain in
war, had been so covered with expiating presents,
that their vengeful spirits were appeased ; the wam-
pum belts of confhxned love had been exchanged;
when the commissioners of Massachusetts, acting in
harmony with Clinton and Shirley, and adopting their
opinions and almost their language, represented to
them in a memorial, that as Massachusetts, New Hamp-
shire, and New- York were the barrier of America
against the French, the charge of defending their
frontiers ought as little to rest on those provinces, as
the charge of defending any counties in Great Britain
on such counties alone ; that the other governments
had been invited to join in concerting measures, but
all, excepting Connecticut, had declined ; they there-
fore urged an earnest application to the king so far to
interpose, as that, whilst the French were in Canada,
the remoter colonies which were not immediately .
exposed, might be obliged to contribute in a just pro-
portion towards the expense of protecting the inland
territories of New England and New York.2 " We," Au,
subjoined Clinton and Shirley, as they forwarded the

1 Narrative of George Croghan, s Memorial of Oliver, Hutchin-

M"S. Causes of tlie alienation of son and Choate, through Clinton

the Delaware and Shawanese In- and Shirley,
dians. 56, 126.

30 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

paper to the Board of trade, " agree with the memo-
rialists." 1

The attitude of the French justified cautious
watchfulness on the part of every officer of British
America. The haste or the negligence of their pleni-
potentiaries at Aix la ChapeUe had left their boun-
dary in America along its whole fine, determined
only by the vague agreement, that it should be as it
had been before the war ; and for a quarter of a
century before the war, it had never ceased to be a
subject of altercation. In this wavering condition of
an accepted treaty of peace and an undetermined
limit of jurisdiction, each party hurried to occupy in
advance as much territory as possible, without too
openly compromising their respective governments.
Acadia, according to its ancient boundaries, belonged
to Great Britain ; but France had always, even in times
of profound peace,2 urgently declared that Acadia in-
cluded only the peninsula; before the restoration of
Cape Breton, an officer from Canada had occupied the
isthmus between Baye Verte and the Bay of Funcly ;
a small colony kept possession of the mouth of the
St. John's River ; 3 and the claim to the coast as far
west as the Kennebeck had never been abandoned.4

At the West, also, France had uniformly and
frankly claimed the whole basin of the Saint Law-

1 Clinton and Shirley to the Trade, 2 June, 1749. Lords of

Board of Trade, 18 August, 1748, Trade to Bedford, 10 August,

in the collection of documents ob- 1749. De Boisherbert, French Coin-

tained for the State of New York, mandant at St. John's, to Colonel

by its agent, John Roraeyn Brod- Cornwallis, 16 August, 1749. Corn*

head. London Documents, xxviii. wallis to Lords of Trade, 20 Au-

68. gust, 1749.

8 Representation of the Board of 4 La Galissoniere to Col. Masca-

Trade to the king, 1721. rene, 15 January, 1749.

8 Col. Mascarene to the Board of

THE APrEAX TO THE POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN*. 31

tence and of the Mississippi, and in proof of its right- 0I{AP«
ful possession pointed to its castles at Crown Point, - — . —
at Niagara, among the Miamis, and within the 1748,
borders of Louisiana. Ever regarding the friendship
of the Six Nations as a bulwark essential to security,
La Galissoniere, the governor-general of Canada, in-
sisted on treating with them as the common allies of
the French and English;1 and proposed direct nego-
tiations with them for liberating their captive war-
riors. When Clinton and Shirley claimed the delivery
of the Iroquois prisoners as subjects of England, the
Canadian governor denied their subjection, and sent
the letter to be read to the tribes assembled round
the grand council-fire at Onondaga. M We have ceded
our lands to no one," spoke their indignant orator,
after due consultation; "we hold them of Heaven
alone." 2

Still further to secure the affections of the confe-
deracy, it was resolved to establish an Indian mission
on the southern bank of the St. Lawrence ; and the
self-devoted Abbe Francis Picquet,3 attracted by the
deep and safe harbor, the position at the head of the
Rapids, the height and size of the surrounding oak
forests, the surpassingly rich soil, selected Oswegat-
chie, now Ogdensburg, with a view to gather in a
village under French supremacy, so many Iroquois
converts to Christianity, as would reconcile and bind
all their kindred to the French alliance. And for the
more distant regions, orders were sent in October to
the Commandant at Detroit, to oppose every English

1 La Galissoniere to Clinton, 25 2 Nov., 1748. K Y. Paris Doc
August, 1748. Shirley to Board of x. 8.

Trade, 28 October, 1748. 3 Documentary History of N.

2 Acte Autkentique, &c., &c, Y., i. 423, &c.

32 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

CHAP.
II.

1748.

establishment on the Maumee, the Wabash, and the
Ohio, by force ; or, if his strength was insufficient, to
summon the intruder to depart, under highest perils
for disobedience.1

Plausible reasons, therefore, existed for the memo-
rial of Hutchinson and Oliver; but the more che-
rished purpose of those who directed the councils of
the Congress at Albany, was the secure enjoyment of
the emoluments of office without responsibility to the
respective American provinces. "From past expe-
riments," added Clinton and Shirley jointly, as they
forwarded the ostensibly innocent petition, "we are
convinced that the colonies will never agree on quotas,
which must, therefore, be settled by royal instruc-
tions." 2 " It is necessary for us likewise to observe to
your lordships," thus they proceeded to explain their
main design, " on many occasions there has been so
little regard paid in several colonies to the royal
instructions, that it is requisite to think of some me-
thod to enforce them." 3

What methods should be followed to reduce a
factious colony had already been settled by the
great masters of English jurisprudence. Two sys-
tems of government had long been at variance ; the
one founded on prerogative, the other on the suprema-
cy of parliament. The first opinion had been pro-
fessed by many of the earlier lawyers, who consider-
ed the colonies as dependent on the crown alone.
Even after the Revolution, the chief justice at New
York, in 1702, declared, that, "in the plantations the

1 Journal de ce qui s'est pass6, N. Y. London Doc. xxviii., 60.
&c. N. Y. Paris Doc. x. 8 Bayard's Trial at New York,

2 Clinton and Shirley to Board. 1702.

THE APPEAL TO THE POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN. 33

king governs by his prerogative ;,n and Sir John Holt CH1^r'
had said, " Virginia being a conquered country, their *— * —
law is what the king pleases." But when, in 1711, 1748-
New York, during the administration of Hunter, was
left without a revenue, the high powers of parlia-
ment were the resource of the ministers; and they
prepared a bill, reciting the neglect of the province,
and imposing all the taxes which had been discon-
tinued by its legislature. Northey and Raymond, the
attorney and the solicitor general, lawyers of the
greatest authority, approved the measure.1 When, in
1724, a similar strife occurred between the crown
and Jamaica, and some held that the king and his
Privy Council had a right to levy taxes on the in-
habitants of that island, the crown lawyers, Lord
Hardwicke, then Sir Philip Yorke, and Sir Clement
Wearg,2 made the memorable reply, that " a colony
of English subjects cannot be taxed but by some
representative body of their own, or by the parlia-
ment of England." That opinion impressed itself
early and deeply on the mind of Lord Mansfield,
and in October, 1744, when the neglect of Penn-
sylvania to render aid in the war had engaged the
attention of the ministry, Sir Dudley Rider and Lord
Mansfield, then William Murray, declared, that "a
colonial assembly cannot be compelled to do more
towards their own defence than they shall see fit,
unless by the force of an act of parliament, which
alone can prescribe rules of conduct for them."3
Away, then, with all attempts to compel by prerog-

1 Knox, Controversy Reviewed. 8 Chalmers' Introduction, MS. ii.

2 Opinions of eminent Lawyers. 86.
i. 223. Mansfield's opinion in the
case of Campbell v. Hall.

vol. iv. 3

1749,

34 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

ative, to govern by instructions, to obtain a revenue
by royal requisitions, to fix quotas by a council of
crown officers. No power but that of parliament can
overrule the colonial assemblies.

Such was the doctrine of Murray, who was him-
self able to defend his system, being unrivalled in
debate, except by William Pitt alone. The advice of
this illustrious jurist was the more authoritative, be-
cause he " had lorn? known the Americans." " I be-
gan life with them," said he, on a later occasion, " and
owe much to them, having been much concerned in
the plantation causes before the Privy Council. So
I became a good deal acquainted with American
affairs and people." l During the discussions that
are now to be related, he was often consulted by the
agents of the American royalists. His opinion, coin-
ciding with that of Hardwicke, was applauded by the
Board of Trade, and became the corner-stone of
British policy.

On this theory of parliamentary supremacy Shir-
ley and his associates placed their reliance. Under
his advice,2 it was secretly, but firmly, resolved to
bring the disputes between governors and American
assemblies to a crisis ; New York was selected as the
theatre, and the return of peace as the epoch, for the
experiment ; elaborate documents prepared the minis-
try for the struggle ; and Clinton was to extort from
the colonial legislature fixed salaries and revenues at
the royal disposition, or, by producing extreme disor-

1 Holiday's Life of Lord Mans- 1749. That Clinton acted by the
field, 248. advice of Shirley appears from se-

8 ClintOE tc Bedford, 17 Oct. veral letters.

TIT1C APPEAL TO THE POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN'. 35

der, to compel the interposition of the parliament of c^p
Great Britain.1 < — . — -

To the Assembly which met in October, 1748, 1^9
Clinton, faithful to his engagements, and choosing
New York as the opening scene in the final contest
that led to independence, declared, that the methods
adopted for colonial supplies " made it his indispen-
sable duty at the first opportunity to put a stop to
these innovations;" and he demanded, what had so
often been refused, the grant of a revenue to the
king for at least five years. The Assembly, in reply,
insisted on naming in their grants the incumbent of
each office. "From recent experience," they con-
tinue, " we are fully convinced that the method of an
annual support is most wholesome and salutary, and
are confirmed in the opinion, that the faithful rep-
resentatives of the people will never depart from it." l
Warning them of the anger of " parliament," 2 Clinton
prorogued the Assembly, and in floods of letters and
documents represented to the secretary of state, that
its members "had set up the people as the high
court of American appeal ;" that " they claimed all
the powers and privileges of parliament ;" that they
" virtually assumed all the public money into their
own hands, and issued it without warrant from the
governor ;" that " they took to themselves the sole
power of rewarding all services, and in effect, the
nomination to all offices, by granting the salary an-
nually, not to the office, but, by name, to the person

1 Clinton to Shirley, 5 August, tober, and same to same, 30 October.

1718; Shirley to Clinton, 13 An- Clinton to Bedford, 22 November,

gust; Clinton to Bedford, 15 Au- 2 Journals of N. Y. Assembly,

gust ; same to same, 20 October, ii. 246.

and same to same, 30 October. 8 Clinton to Bedford from the

Clinton to Lords of Trade, 20 Oc- Draught.

36 THE AMERICAN. REVOLUTION.

in the office" ; that the system, " if not speedily reme-
died, would affect the dependency of the colonies on
qo1?" the crown."1 And he entreated the king to "make
, a good example for all America, by regulating the
government of New York." " Till then," he added,
" I cannot meet the Assembly, without danger of ex-
posing the king's authority and myself to contempt." 2

Nov. Thus issue was joined with a view to involve the

British parliament in the administration of the colo-
nies, just at the time, when Bedford, as the secretary,
was resolving to introduce uniformity into their ad-
ministration by supporting the authority of the cen-
tral government; and his character was a guarantee
for resolute perseverance. " Considering the present
situation of things," he had declared to Newcastle,3
" it would be highly improper to have an inefficient
man at the head of the Board of Trade ;" and, at his
suggestion, on the first day of November, 1748, two
months after the peace of America and Europe had
been ratified, the Earl of Halifax, then just thirty-two
years old, entered upon his long period of service as
First Commissioner for the Plantations. He was
fond of splendor, profuse, and in debt; passionate,
overbearing, and self-willed ; " of moderate sense, and
ignorant of the world." 4 Familiar with a feeble class
of belles-lettres, he loved to declaim long passages
from Prior ; 5 but his mind was not imbued with politi-
cal theories, or invigorated by the lessons of a manly
philosophy. As a public man, he was fond of autho-

1 MS. Present state of the Pro- August, 1748. Bedford Corres-
vince of N. Y. pondence, i. 441.

2 Clinton to Bedford, 20 Octo- 4 Walpole's George II.

ber, 1748. 5 Richard Cumberland's Memoirs

8 Bedford to Newcastle, 11 of Himself.

THE APPEAL TO THE POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN*. 37

CHAP.
II.

rity ; without sagacity, yet unwilling to defer to any
one ; and not fearing application, he preferred a post s-^ —
of business to a sinecure. To the imagination of the l$*y'
British people the American plantations appeared as
boundless and inhospitable deserts, dangerous from
savages and dismally wild : — Halifax beheld in them
half a hemisphere subjected to his supervision ; and,
glowing with ambition, he resolved to elevate himself
by enlarging the dignity and power of his employment.
For this end, unlike his predecessors, he devoted
himself eagerly and zealously to the business of the
plantations, confiding in his ability to master their
affairs almost by intuition ; writing his own dispatches ;
and, with the undoubting self-reliance of a presump-
tuous novice, ready to advance fixed opinions and
propose plans of action.

The condition of the continent, whose affairs he
was to superintend, seemed to invite and to urge his
immediate and his utmost activity, to secure the pos-
sessions of Great Britain against France, and to main-
tain the authority of the central government against
the colonies themselves. As he looked on the map of
America, he saw the boundary line along the whole
frontier rendered uncertain by the claims of France ;
both nations desiring unlimited possessions ; — France,
to bound British enterprise by the Penobscot or the
Kennebeck,1 and the Alleghanies ; England, to bring
the continent under her flag, to supply the farthest
wigwam from her workshops, to fill the wilderness
with colonies that should trade only with their metro-
polis.

As he read the papers which had accumulated in

1 Galissoniere to Col. Mascarene,1 * Jan., 1749.

38 AMERICA CLAIMS LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE.

CIIAP
II.

the Board of Trade, and the dispatches which were
^—r— constantly coining in, as fast as the crown officers in
■^v8 the colonies became aware of the change in the spirit
of the administration, the affairs which he was to
manage, seemed from the irresolution of his predeces-
sors, to have become involved in universal confusion,
tending to legislative independence and rebellion.
u Here" wrote Glen, the governor of South Carolina,
" levelling principles prevail ; the frame of the civil
government is unhinged ; a governor, if he would be
idolized, must betray his trust ;! the people have got
the whole administration in their hands ; the election
of members to the assembly is by ballot ; not civil
posts only, but all ecclesiastical preferments, are in the
disposal or election of the people ; to preserve the
dependence of America in general, the Constitution
must be new modelled." 2

In North Carolina, no law for collecting quit-rents,
had been perfected ; and its frugal people, whom their
governor reported as " wild and barbarous," paid the
servants of the crown scantily, and often left them in

arreai-s.3

In Virginia, the land of light taxes and freedom
from paper money, long famed for its loyalty, where
the people had nearly doubled in twenty-one years,
and a revenue, granted in perpetuity, with a fixed
quit-rent, put aside the usual sources of colonial strife,
the insurgent spirit of freedom invaded the royal
authority in the Established Church; and in 1748,
just as Sherlock, the new bishop of London, was inter-
ceding with the king for an American episcopate,

1 Glen to Bedford, 27 July, 1748, received 17 November.
1748. 3 Gabrill Johnston to Bedford,

8 Glen to Bedford, 10 October, without date.

TTIE APPEAL TO TTIE POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN. 39

which Bedford and Halifax both favored as essential CT[f*'
to royal authority, Virginia, with the consent of ■ — . —
Gooch, its heutenant-governor, transferred by law1 the ^ ®/
patronage of all the livings to the vestries. The act
was included among the revised laws, and met with the
king's approbation.2 But from the time that its pur-
pose was perceived, Sherlock became persuaded, that
u "Virginia, formerly an orderly province, had nothing
more at heart than to lessen the influence of the
crown." 3

Letters from Pennsylvania warned the ministers,
that as the "obstinate, wrong-headed Assembly of
Quakers " in that province " pretended not to be ac-
countable to his Majesty or his government," they
" might in time apply the public money to purposes
injurious to the crown and the mother country."

But nowhere did popular power seem to the
royalists so deeply or dangerously seated as in New
England, where every village was a little self-consti-
tuted democracy, whose organization had received the
sanction of law and the confirmation of the king. Espe-
cially Boston, whose people had liberated its citizen
mariners, when impressed by a British admiral in
their harbor, was accused of ua rebellious insurrec-
tion." " The chief cause," said Shirley,4 u of the mob-
bish tnrn of a town inhabited by twenty thousand
persons, is its constitution, by which the management
of it devolves on the populace, assembled in their
town -meetings."

With the Assembly which represented the towns

1 Hening's Statutes at large, vi. 8 Bishop of London to the Board

90. xxii. Geo. II., chap, xxxiv. § 7. of Trade.

8 Dinwiddie to the Earl of llol- * Shirley to the Board of Trade,
dernesse, 5 June, 1753.

40 THE AMERICAN EE VOLUTION.

CI* ap. of Massachusetts the wary barrister declined a decided
« — i — ' rupture. When, in November, the legislature of that
^ov8' Provmce> jealous from a true instinct, reduced his
salary one third, on the plea of public distress, he
answered plausibly, that the province had doubled its
population within twenty years; had in that time
organized within its limits fi ve-and-twenty new towns ;
and, at the close of the long war, was less In debt
than at its beginning. But his hopes of sure emolu-
ments rested in England, and were connected with the
success of the applications from New- York.

The same conspiracy against the colonies extended
Dec. to New Jersey. In December, the council of that
province likewise found it "their indispensable duty
to represent to his Majesty the growing rebellion in
their province." l The conflict for lands in its eastern
moiety, where Indian title deeds, confirmed by long
occupation, were pleaded against claims derived from
grants of an English king, led to confusion which the
rules of the English law could not remedy. The
people of whole counties could not be driven from
their homesteads, or imprisoned in jails; Belcher,2
the temporizing governor, confessed that "he could
not bring the delegates into measures for suppressing
the wicked spirit of rebellion." The proprietors, who
had purchased the long dormant claim to a large part
of the province, made common cause with men in
office, invoked British interposition, and accused their
opponents of throwing off the king's authority and
treasonably and boldly denying his title to New

' James Alexander to 0. Colden, s Belcher to the Board of Trade,
3 January, 1749. Jan., 1749.

TITE APrEAL TO THE POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN. 41

Jersey. These appeals were to " tally witli and accre-
dit the representation from New- York." '

Dec.

Such was the aspect in which official records pre-
sented America to the rash and inexperienced Hali-
fax. From the first moment of his employment, he
stood forth the busy champion of the royal authority ;
and in December, 1748, his earliest official words of
any import, promised "a very serious consideration
on" what he called athe just prerogatives of the
crown, and those defects of the constitution," which
had " spread themselves over many of the plantations,
and were destructive of all order and government,"2
and he resolved on instantly effecting a thorough
change, by the agency of parliament. While await-
ing its meeting, the menaced encroachments of France
urgently claimed his attention; and with equal
promptness he determined to secure the possession of
Nova Scotia and the Ohio valley. 1749

The region beyond the Alleghanies had as yet no
English settlement, except, perhaps, a few scattered
cabins in Western Virginia. The Indians south of
Lake Erie and in the Ohio valley were, in the recent
war, friendly to the English, and were now united to
Pennsylvania by a treaty of commerce. The traders,
chiefly from Pennsylvania, who strolled from tribe to
tribe, were without fixed places of abode, but drew
many Indians over the lake to trade in skins and
furs. The colony of New York, through the Six Na-
tions, might command the Canadian passes to the
Ohio valley ; the grant to William Penn actually in-

0. Coklen to Clinton, 12 Ja- * Letter of December, to Glen

nnary, 1749. Compare too 1 1 a- of South Carolina.
milton's Speech to the Assembly of
the Jerseys at Perth Amboy.

42 TILE AMERICAN EE VOLUTION.

CI{£P- eluded a part of it; but Virginia bounded its ancient
— v— ' dominion only by Lake Erie. To secure Ohio for the
m9, English world, Lawrence Washington of Virginia,
Augustus Washington, and their associates, proposed
a colony beyond the Alleghanies. " The country
west of the great mountains is the centre of the Bri-
tish dominions," wrote Halifax and his colleagues, who
were inflamed with the hope of recovering it by hav-
ing a large tract settled ; and the favor of Henry
Pelham, with the renewed instance of the Board of
Trade,1 obtained in March, 1749, the king's instruc-
tions to the governor of Virginia, to grant to John
Hanbury and his associates in Maryland and Vir-
ginia five hundred thousand acres of land between
the Monongahela and the Kenawha, or on the north-
ern margin of the Ohio. The company were to pay
no quit-rent for ten years, within seven years to colo-
nize at least one hundred families, to select imme-
diately two-fifths of their territory, and at their own
cost to build and garrison a fort. Thomas Lee, pre-
sident of the Council of Virginia, and Robert Din-
widdie, a native of Scotland, surveyor-general for the
southern colonies, were among the shareholders.

Aware of these designs, France anticipated Eng-
land. Immediately, in 1749, La Galissioniere, whose
patriotic mind revolved great designs of empire, and
questioned futurity for the results of French power,
population, and commerce in America,2 sent De Cele-
ron de Bienville, with three hundred men, to trace
and occupy the valley of the Ohio,8 and that of the

1 Representation of the Board of s Memoire sur les Colonies de la

Trade to the kins;. Coxe's Pelham France par M. de la Galissoniere,

Administration, ii. 277, 278. Frank- N. Y. Paris Doc. x. 25.

iin's Writings, iv. 336. Shelburne 3 Compare Shirley to Lords of

to Fauquier, 8 Oct. 1707. Trade, 4 July, 1749/

THE APPEAL TO THE POWER OF GREAT' BRITAIN". 43

Saint Lawrence, as far as Detroit. On the southern if*
banks of the Ohio, opposite the point of an island, — **■*
and near the junction of a river, that officer buried,
at the foot of a primeval red-oak, a plate of lead with
the inscription, that, from the farthest ridge whence
Water trickled towards the Ohio, the country be-
longed to France : while the lilies of the Bourbons
were nailed to a forest tree in token of possession.1
" I am going down the river," said he to Indians at
Logstown, " to scourge home our children, the Mi-
amis and the Wyandots ; " and he forbade all trading
with the English. " The lands are ours," replied the
Indians, and they claimed freedom of commerce.
The French emissary proceeded to the towns of the
Miamis, expelled the English traders, and by letter
re( [nested Hamilton, the governor of Pennsylvania, to
prevent all farther intrusion. But the Indians brood-
ed over the plates which he buried at the mouth of
every remarkable creek. "We know," thus they
murmured, "it is done to steal our country from us;"
and they resolved to "go to the Onondaga council"
for protection.2

On the northeast, the well informed La Galisso-
niere took advantage of the gentle and unsuspecting
character of the Acadians themselves, and of the
doubt that existed respecting occupancy and ancient
titles. In 1710, when Port Royal, now Annapolis,
was vacated, the fort near the mouth of the St. John's
remained to France. The English had no settlement
on that river ; and though they had, on appeal to
their tribunals, exercised some sort of jurisdiction, it

1 Proccs Verbal, N. Y. Paris 9 Cro^lian's MS. Account of his
Doc. x. 9 Transactions, &c. &c.

44 . THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. ]ja{j no^ keen clearly recognised by the few inhabit-
— , — - ants, and had always been denied by the French gov-
1749. ernment. It began to be insinuated,1 that the ceded
Acadia was but a part of the peninsula lying upon
the sea between Cape Fourches and Cape Canso, and
that therefore the descendants of the French still
owed allegiance to France. The Abbe La Loutrc
missionary and curate of Messagouche, now Foil
Lawrence, which is within the peninsula, favored this
representation with alacrity ; and, sure of influence
over his people and his associate priests, he formed
the plan, with the aid of La Galissoniere and the
court of France, to entice the Acadians from their
ancient dwelling-places, and plant them on the fron-
tier as a barrier against the English.2

But even before the peace, Shirley, who always
advocated the most extended boundary of Nova Sco-
tia, represented to George the Second, that the in-
habitants near the isthmus, being French and Catho-
lic, should be removed into some other of his Majes-
ty's colonies, and that Protestant settlers should
occupy their lands.8 From this atrocious proposal,
Newcastle, who was cruel only from frivolity, did not
withhold his approbation ; but Bedford, his more
humane successor, restricting his plans of colonization
to the undisputed British territory, sought to secure
the entire obedience of the French inhabitants by in-
termixing with them colonists of English descent.4

1 La Galissoniere to Col. Masca- 8 Shirley's Memoirs of the liast
rene, 15 January, 1749. War, 77, 75.

2 Memoires sur les Affaires du 4 Bedford to the Duke of Cum-
Canada, depuis 1749, jusqu'a 1760, berland, 28 Oct., 1748.

TIIE APPEAL TO THE POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN. 45

The execution of this design, which the Duke of clluV'
Cumberland, Pelham, and Henry Fox assisted in — «— '
maturing, devolved on Halifax. Invitations went
through Europe to invite Protestants from the conti-
nent to emigrate to the British colonies. The good-
will of New England was encouraged by care for its
fisheries ; and American whalemen, stimulated by
the promise of enjoying an equal bounty1 with the
British, learned to follow their game among the ice-
bergs of the Greenland seas. But the main burden
of securing Nova Scotia fell on the British treasury.
While the General Court of Massachusetts,2 through
their agent in England, sought to prevent the French
from possessing any harbor whatever in the Bay of
Fundy, or west of it on the Atlantic, proposals were
made, in March, 1749, to disbanded officers and sol-
diers and marines, to accept and occupy lands in
Acadia ; and before the end of June, more than four-
teen hundred persons,3 under the auspices of the
British parliament, were conducted by Colonel
Edward Cornwallis, a brother of Lord Cornwallis,
into Chebucto harbor. There, on a cold and sterile
soil, covered to the water's edge with one continued
forest of spruce and pine, whose thick underwood
and gloomy shade hid rocks and the rudest wilds,
with no clear spot to be seen or heard of, rose the
Grst town of English origin east of the Penobscot.4

3 Lords of Trade to Cornwallis,

1 22 George II., c. xlv. 15 May, 1749.

2 Instructions to Massachusetts 4 Hon. Col. Cornwallis to Lords
Agent, 20 June, 1749. of Trade, 22 June, 1749, and 20

August, 1749.

46 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. prom the minister whose promptness, vigilance, and
v^-~ Spirit gave efficiency to the enterprise, it took the
1749> name of Halifax. Before winter three hundred houses
were covered in.1 At Minas, now Lower Horton, a
blockhouse was raised, and fortified by a trench and
a palisade; a fort at Pesaquid, now Windsor, pro-
tected the communications with Halifax. These,
with Annapolis on the Bay of Fundy, secured the
peninsula.

The ancient inhabitants had, in 1730, taken an
oath of fidelity and submission to the English king,
as sovereign of Acadia, and were promised indul-
gence in " the true exercise of their religion, and
exemption from bearing arms against the French or
Indians." They were known as the French Neutrals.
Their hearts were still with France, and their reli-
gion made them a part of the diocese of Quebec.
Of a sudden it was proclaimed to their deputies 2 con-
vened at Halifax, that English commissioners would
repair to their villages, and tender to them, uncondi-
tionally,3 the oath of allegiance. They could not
pledge themselves before Heaven to join in war
against the land of their origin and their love ; and,
in a letter signed by a thousand of their men, they
pleaded rather for leave to sell their lands and effects,
and abandon the peninsula for new homes, which
France would provide.4 But Cornwallis would offer
no option but between unconditional allegiance and
the confiscation of all their property. " It is for me,"

1 Cornwallis to the Board of 8 Ordonnance of Cornwallis, &o.

Trade, October, 1749. &c, 1 August, 1749.

8 Minutes of Council of Nova * Letter of tlie French Inhabi*

Scotia, 14 July, 1749. tants to Cornwallis, 7 Sept., 1749.

THE APrEAL TO TIIE POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN. 47

said he, "to command and to be obeyed";1 and he Clll^t-
looked to the Board of Trade for further instructions.2 - — . —

With the Micmac Indians, who, at the instigation
of La Loutre,3 the missionary, united with other tribes
to harass the infant settlements, the English gover-
nor dealt still more summarily. "The land on which
you sleep is mine :" such was the message of the im-
placable tribe;4 "I sprung out of it as the grass does;
I was born on it from sire to son ; it is mine forever."
So the council at Halifax5 voted all the poor Red
Men that dwelt in the peninsula 6 to be " so many ban-
ditti, ruffians, or rebels ;" and by its authority Com-
wallis, " to bring the rascals to reason," T offered for
every one of them "taken or killed" ten guineas, to
be paid on producing the savage or " his scalp." 8 But
the source of this disorder was the undefined state of
possession between the European competitors for
North America.

Meantime, La Galissoniere, having surrendered
his government to the more pacific La Jonquiere, re-
paired to France, to be employed on the commission
for adjusting the American boundaries. La Jonquiere,
saw the imminent danger of a new war, and like
Bedford would have shunned hostilities; but his in-
structions from the French ministry, although they
did not require advances beyond the isthmus, com-

1 Answer of the Governor in 5 Resolutions of Council, Hali-

Council to the French Inhabitants, fax, 1 October, 1749.

7 September, 1749. 6 u These Micmacks include the

8 Cornwallis to the Board of Cape Sable, St. John's Island, Cape

Trade, 11 September, 1749. Breton and all inhabiting the pe-

8 " One Leutre, a French Priest." ninsula." Cornwallis to the Board

Board of Trade to Bedford, 16 Oc- of Trade.

tober, 1749. " De Lutre, a priest." 7 Cornwallis to the Board of

Cornwallis. Trale. 17 October, 1749.

4 Micmac Indians to Governor 8 Proclamation against the Mio-

Oornwallis. 23 September, 1749. mac Indians, 2 October, 1749.

1749

48 TTIE AMEBIC AN KEVOLUTION.

pelled him to attempt confining the English within
the peninsula of Acadia.1

Thus, while France, with the unity of a despotic
central power, was employing all its strength in Cana-
da to make good its claims to an extended frontier,
Halifax signalized his coming into office by planting
Protestant emigrants in Nova Scotia, as a barrier
against encroachments on the North East, and by
granting lands for a Virginia colony on both banks of
the Ohio, ia order to take possession of the valley of
the Mississippi. With still greater impetuosity he
rushed precipitately towards an arbitrary solution of
all the accumulated difficulties in the administration of
the colonies.

Long experience having proved that American
assemblies insisted on the right of deliberating freely
on all subjects respecting which it was competent for
them to legislate, the Board of Trade, so soon as Hal-
ifax had become its head, revived and earnestly pro-
moted the scheme of strengthening the authority of
the prerogative by a general act of the British par-
liament. At its instance, on the third day of
March,2 1749, under the pretext of suppressing the
flagrant evils of colonial paper-money, the disappoint-
ed Horatio Walpole, who, for nearly thirty years,3 had

1 La Jonquiere to Cornwallis, Treasury and applied to any other

25 October, 1749. Cornwallis to use than what it was designed for

La Jonquiere, 1 November, 1749. by the Assembly that granted it,

John H. Lydius to Cornwallis, 1 except for a perquisite which the

December, 1749. Abbe Maillard King's Auditor of his revenue

to Gerard Beaubassin, 3 May, 1749. claimed; and you know, sir, what

9 Commons' Journals, xxv. 246. influence the governors were under

8 u I have been near thirty years at that time to make them do this."

in the Council of this Province, * * Horatio Walpole, the Auditor, was

and, in all that time, I do not re- brother to Sir Robert Walpole.

member that any public money was MS. Letter to Governor Shirley

drawn by any governor from the from New York, July 1749.

1749.

THE APPEAL TO TILE POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN. 49

vainly straggled, as auditor-general of the colonies, to CHj^p-
gain a sinecure allowance of five per cent, on all colo-
nial revenues, reported a bill to overrule charters, and
to make all oiders by the king, or under his authority,
the highest law of America.

• Such a coalition of power seemed in harmony
with that legislative supremacy, which was esteemed
the great whig doctrine of the revolution of 1683 ; it
also had the semblance of an earlier precedent. In
the reign of Henry the Eighth, parliament sanctioned
"what. a king, by his royal power, might do,"1 and
gave the energy of law to his proclamations and or-
dinances. In this it did but surrender the liberties of
its own constituents : Halifax and his board invited
the British parliament to sequester the liberties of
other communities, and transfer them to the British
crown.

The people of Connecticut,2 through their agent,
Eliakim Palmer, protested against " the unusual and
extraordinary" attempt, " so repugnant to the laws
and constitution" of Great Britain, and to their own
" inestimable privileges" and charter, " of being gov-
erned by laws of their own making." By their birth-
right, by the perils of their ancestors, by the sanctity
of royal faith, by their own affectionate duty and
zeal, by their devotion of their lives and fortunes to
their king and country, they remonstrated against the
bill. Pennsylvania and Rhode Island pleaded their
patents, and reminded parliament of the tribute al-
ready levied on them by the monopoly of their com-

2 81 Hen. VIII. c. viii. Com- 2 Journal of Commons, xxv.

pare 1 Ed. VI., c. xii., Hallam's 793.
Constitutional Hist, of England, i.
47, 48, 50.

VOL. IV. 4

50 TIIE AMERICAN REVOLUTION".

C^P- merce. For Massachusetts, William Bollan, through
— t — • " the very good-uatured Lord Baltimore," represented,
* that the bill virtually included all future orders of all
future princes, however repugnant they might be to
the constitution of Great Britain, or of the colonies ;
thus abrogating for the people of Massachusetts their
common rights as Englishmen, not less than their
charter privileges The agent of South Carolina cau-
tiously intimated, that, as obedience to instructions
was already due from the governors, whose commis-
sions depended on the royal pleasure, the deliberative
rights of the assemblies were the only colonial safe-
guard against unlimited authority.1

" Venerating the British constitution, as establish-
ed at the Be volution," Onslow, the speaker of the
House of Commons, believed that parliament had
power to tax America, but not to delegate that
power ; and, by his order, the objections to the pro-
posed measure were spread at length on the journal.2
The Board of Trade wavered, and in April consented,
reluctantly, " to drop for the present, and reserve,"
the despotic clauses ;3 but it continued to cherish the
spirit that dictated them, till it had driven the colo-
nies to independence, and had itself ceased to exist.

At the same time Massachusetts was removing
every motive to interfere with its currency by abol-
ishing its paper money. That province had demanded,
as a right, the reimbursement of its expenses for the
capture of Louisburg. Its claim, as of right, was
denied ; for its people, it was said, were the subjects,

1 Commons' Journal, xxv., 793, 3 Bollan, the Massachusetts

794, 813, 814, 815, 818. agent, to Secretary Willard,

s MS. Memoirs of Bollan's Ser- April, 1749.
vices.

TTIE APPEAL TO TIIE POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN. 51

and not the allies of England ; owing allegiance, and c^'
not entitled to subsidies. The requisite appropriation ^-r— '
was made by the equity of parliament; yet Pelham 1 49
himself, the prime minister, declared that the grant
was a boon. Massachusetts had already, in January,
1749 by the urgency of Hutchinson, voted, that its
public notes should be redeemed with the expected
remittances from the royal exchequer. Twice in the
preceding year, it had invited a convention of the
neighboring colonies, to suppress jointly the fatal
paper-currency ; but finding concert impossible, it pro-
ceeded alone. As the bills had depreciated, and were
no longer in the hands of the first holders, it was in-
sisted, that to redeem them at their original value
would impose a new tax on the first holders them-
selves; and therefore forty-five shillings of the* old
tenor, or eleven shillings and threepence of the new
emission, were, with the approbation of the king in
council, redeemed by a Spanish milled dollar. Thus
Massachusetts became the " hard-money colony" of the
North.1

The plan for enforcing all royal orders in Amer-
ica by the act of the British parliament had hardly
been abandoned, when the loyalty and vigilance of
Massachusetts were perverted to further the intrigues
against its liberty. In April, 1749, its Assembly,
which always held that Nova Scotia included all the
continent east of New England, represented to the
king " the insolent intrusions" of France on their ter-
ritory, advised that "the neighboring provinces
should be informed of the common danger," and

1 Hutchinson's Correspondence. Hutchinson's Hist. ii. Felt's Mas-
3achusetts Currency.

52 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

C^P* begged " tliat no breach might be made in any of the
*— « — ' territories of the crown on the" American "conti-
nent." It was on occasion of transmitting this ad-
dress, that Shirley developed his system. To the
Duke of Bedford1 he recommended the erecting and
garrisoning of frontier "fortresses, under the direction
of the king's engineers and officers." "A tax for
their maintenance," he urged, " should be laid by par-
liament upon the colonies, without which it will not
be done." From the prosperous condition of Amer-
ica, he argued, that " making the British subjects on
this continent contribute towards their common secu-
rity could not be thought laying a burden ;" and he
cited the Acts of Trade and the duty laid on foreign
sugars imported into the northern colonies, as prece-
dents that established the reasonableness of his pro-
posal.

Shirley's associates in New York were equally
persevering. The seventh day of May, 1749, brought
to them " the agreeable news, that all went flowingly
on"2 as they had desired. Knowing that Bedford,
Dorset, and Halifax had espoused their cause, they
convened the legislature. But it was in vain. M The
faithful representatives of the people," thus spoke the
Assembly of New York in July, " can never recede
from the method of an annual support." " I know
well," rejoined the governor, " the present sentiments
of his Majesty's ministers; and you might have
guessed at them by the bill lately brought into par-

1 Shirley to the Duke of Bed- ingly on ; Assembly to be reproved
ford, 24 April, 1749, and 18 Feb. and dissolved ; the new minister,
1748-9. viz.: Duke Bedford, Duke Dorset,

2 J. Ayscough, Clinton's pri- Lord Halifax, &c, presenting a
vate secretary, to Colden, 9 May, memorial to his Majesty in favor
1749. u Catherwood sends us the of his Excellency," &c. &c.
agreeable news, that all goes flow-

THE APPEAL TO THE POWER OF GEEAT BRITAIN". 53

liament for enforcing the king's instructions. Con-
sider," lie adds, " the great liberties you are indulged
with. Consider, likewise, what may be the conse- 1749-
quences, should our mother country suspect that you
design to lessen the prerogative of the crown in the
plantations. The Romans did not allow the same
privileges to their colonies, which the other citizens
enjoyed ; and you know in what manner the republic
of Holland governs her colonies. Endeavor, then, to
show your great thankfulness for the great privileges
you enjoy."

The representatives1 adhered unanimously to their
resolutions, pleading that "governors are generally
entire strangers to the people they are sent to govern;

they seldom regard the welfare of the people,

otherwise than as they can make it subservient to
their own particular interest ; and, as they know the
time of their continuance in their governments to be
uncertain, all methods are used, and all engines set to
work, to raise estates to themselves. Should the pub-
lic moneys be left to their disposition, what can be
expected but the grossest misapplication, under va-
rious pretences, which will never be wanting ?" To
this unanimity the governor could only oppose his de-
termination of "most earnestly" invoking the atten-
tion of the ministry and the king to " their proceed-
ings;" and then prorogued the Assembly, which he
afterwards dissolved.

To make the appeal to the ministry more effective,
Shirley, who had obtained leave to go to England,
and whose success in every point was believed to be

1 Journals of the New-York Assembly, ii. 2G7, 2G9.

54 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, most certain,1 before embarking received from Colden

— t — ' an elaborate argument, in which revenue to the

1749. crowm independent of the American people, was

urged as indispensable ; and to obtain it, " the most

prudent method," it was insisted, " would be by

application to parliament.'1 2

But before Shirley arrived in Europe, the ministry
was already won to his designs. On the first day of
June, the Board of Trade had been recruited by
a young man gifted with " a thousand talents," 3 the
daring and indefatigable Charles Townshend. A
younger son of Lord Townshend, ambitious, capable
of unwearied labor, bold, and somewhat extravagant
in his style of eloquence, yet surpassed, as a debater,
only by Murray and Pitt, he was introduced to office
through the commission for the colonies. His extra-
ordinary and restless ability rapidly obtained sway at
the board ; Halifax cherished him as a favorite, and
the parliament very soon looked up to him as u the
greatest master of American affairs."

How to regulate charters and colonial govern-
ments, and provide an American civil list indepen-
dent of American legislatures, was the earliest as
well as the latest political problem which Charles
Townshend attempted to solve. At that time, Mur-
ray, as crown lawyer, ruled the cabinet on questions
of legal right ; Dorset, the father of Lord George
Germain, was president of the Council ; Lyttelton
and George Grenville were already of the Treasury
Board ; and Sandwich, raised by his hold on the
affections of the Duke of Bedford, presided at the

1 Clinton to Colden, 6 Novem- 3 " Of a thousand talents." This
ber, 1749. praise came from David Hume.

8 Colden to Shirley, 25 July,
1749.

THE APPEAL TO THE POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN. 55

Admiralty ; Halifax, Charles Townshend, and their ci*ap.
colleagues, were busy with remodelling American con- - — . —
stitutions ; while Bedford, the head of the new party 1749,
that was in a few years to drive the more liberal
branch of the whig aristocracy from power, as Secre-
tary of State for the Southern Department, was the
organ of communication between the Board of Trade
and the crown.

These are the men who proposed to reconcile the
discrepancy between the legal pretensions of the
metropolis and the actual condition of the colonies.
In vain did they resolve to shape America at will,
and fashion it into new modes of being. The infant
republics were not like blocks of marble from the
quarry, which the artist may group by his design,
and gradually transform by the chisel from shapeless
masses to the images of his fancy; they resembled
living plants, whose inward energies obey the Divine
idea without effort or consciousness of will, and
unfold simultaneously their whole existence and the
rudiments of all their parts, harmonious, beautiful
and complete in every period of their growth.1

These British American colonies were the best tro-
phy of modern civilization ; on them, for the next forty
years, rests the chief interest in the history of man.2

1 Bacon de Augmentis Scienti- parit et producit : eodem modo,

arum. Lib. vii, cap. ii. Quemad- etc., etc. Lord Bolingbroke, in his

modum enim Statuarius, quando Idea of a Patriot King, translates

simulacmra aliquod scnlpit ant in- the words of the great master :

cidit, illius solummodo partis figu- k* Nature throws out altogether and

ram effingit,circa quam manus oecu- at once the whole system of every

pata est, non autem cajterarum, being, and the rudiments of all the

(veluti si faciem efformet, corpus parts."

reliquum rude permanet et informe s John Adams's Works, v. 405.

saxum, donee ad illud quoque per- " The history of the American Re-

venerit) e contra vero natura, volution is indeed the history of

qimndo florem molitur, aut animal, mankind during that epoch."
rudimenta partium omnium siinul

CHAPTER III.

THE EXPLORATION OF OHIO.— PELHAArS ADMINISTRATION

CONTINUED.

1749— 1750.

chap. The world had never witnessed colonies with in-
v_rl, stitutions so free as those of America ; but this result
1749. did not spring from the intention of England. On
J' the twelfth of July, 1749, all the ministers of state as-
sembled at the Board of Trade, and deliberated, from
seven in the evening till one the next morning,1 on the
political aspect of the plantations. The opinions of
Sir Dudley Eider and William Murray were before
them. They agreed, that "all accounts concurred in
representing New Jersey as in a state of disobe-
dience to law and government, attended with circum-
stances which manifested a disposition to revolt from

dependence on the crown While the governor

was so absolutely dependent on the Assembly, order
could not possibly be restored." And they avowed it
as their " fundamental " rule of American government,
that the colonial officers of the king should have
"some appointment from home." Such was "their

1 Letter from the Solicitor, F. J. Paris, in James Alexander to 0.
Colden, 25 Sept.. 1749

THE EXPLORATION OF OHIO. 57

fixed maxim and principle."1 The English ministry c^p>
viewed it as a narrow question, relating to a subordi- ' — . —
nate branch of executive administration; America 4 '
knew that it involved for the world all hope of estab-
lishing the power of the people.

The agents of the American royalists continued
indefatigable in their solicitations. They had the con-
fidential advice of Murray,2 who instructed them how
best to increase their influence with the ministry. To
this end they also fomented a jealous fear of "the
levelling principles which had crept into New York
and New Jersey," and which were believed to prevail
in New England and Pennsylvania. "Drink Lord
Halifax in a bumper," were the words of Clinton, as
he read his letters from England; "though I durst
say," he added, "the rest are as hearty." Especially
the Duke of Bedford, on the first day of November,
gave assurances to Clinton,3 that the affairs of the
colonies would be taken into consideration, and that
he might rely on receiving all proper assistance and
vigorous support in maintaining the king's delegated
authority. The secretaiy was in earnest, and for the
rest of his life remained true to his promise, not
knowing that he was the dupe of the profligate
cupidity of worthless officers.

In a document designed for the eye of Halifax,
Colden hastened to confirm the purpose. Of popular
power "the increase in the northern colonies was im-

4

1 Report of Facts agreed on by Sharpes, for they were by far the

the Board of Trade 26 July, best hands one could be in for inter-

1749, in F. J. Pari* to James Alex- est with the ministry." Letter of

ander, 26 July, 1749. Board of Gov. Clinton of 9 Feb., 1749.

Trade to Gov. Belcher, of New 3 Bedford to Clinton, 1 Novem-

Jorsey, 28 July, 1749. ber, 1749. Clinton to Colden,

8 u Solicitor Murray advised Mr. 5 Feb., 1749-50.
Catherwood not to leave the

58 THE AFRICAN REVOLUTION.

°uif • measurable." Royalty would have in New York but
— , — ' " the outward appearance " of authority, till a gover-
1749. nor an(i "proper judges" should receive "independent
salaries." " I do* not imagine," he wrote in November,
1749, "that any assembly will be induced to give up
the power, of which they are all so fond, by granting
duties for any number of years. The authority of
parliament must be made use of, and the duties on
wine and West India commodities be made general
for all North America." " The ministry," he added,
" are not aware of the number of men in North Ame-
rica able to bear arms, and daily in the use of them.
It becomes necessary that the colonies be early looked
into, in time of peace, and regulated."1 As a source
of revenue, William Douglas in Boston, a Scottish
physician, publicly proposed " a stamp duty upon all
instruments used in law affairs." 2 But the suggestion
had nothing of novelty. In 1728, Sir William Keith
had advised extending, " by act of parliament, the
duties upon parchment and stamps, to America," 8 and
eleven years later the advice had been repeated by
merchants in London, with solicitations4 that won for
the proposition the consideration of the ministry.

Thus had the future colonial policy of England
been shadowed forth to statesmen, who were very
willing to adopt it. Morris, the chief justice of New
Jersey,5 interested in lands in that province, and
trained by his father to a hatred of popular power,
was much listened to ; and the indefatigable Shirley

1 Compare Clinton to Bedford, 4Proposals for establishing by

17 Oct., 1749. Same to Lords Act of Parliament the duties upon

of Trade, same date. Stamp Paper and Parchment in all

8 Douglas: Historical and Politi- the British American colonies.

cal Summary, i. 259. 5 Gov. Belcher to Partridge, 15

8 Sir Win. Keith's Remarks on Nov., 1750.
the most Rational Means, &c, &c.

THE EXPLORATION OF OHIO. 59

not quite successful with the more reasonable Felham, C1l^'
line the eulogist and principal adviser of Cumber- — r— '
land, of Bedford, and of Halifax. Should Massachu- '

letts reduce his emoluments, he openly threatened to
bppeal to "an episcopal interest, and make himself
Independent of the Assembly for any future support."1

The menace to Massachusetts was unseasonable.
The public mind hi that province, and most of all in
Boston, was earnestly inquiring into the active powers
of man, to deduce from them the right to uncontrolled
inquiry, as the only security against religious and civil
bondage. Of that cause the champion was Jonathan
May hew, offspring of purest ancestor's, nurtured by the
OCeanVside, "sanctified" from childhood, a pupil of
New England's Cambridge. " Instructed in youth."
thus he spoke of himself, " in the doctrines of civil
liberty, as they were taught by such men as Plato,
Demosthenes, Cicero, and others among the ancients,
and such as Sidney and Milton, Locke and Hoadley,
among the moderns, I liked them; and having learned
from the Holy Scriptures, that wise, brave, and vir-
tuous men were always friends to liberty, that God
gave the Israelites a king in his anger, because they
had not sense and virtue enough to like a free com-
mon wealth, and that where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty, this made me conclude that freedom
is a great blessing." 2 From early life, Maybe w took
to his heart the right of private judgment, clinging to
it as to his religion. Truth and justice he revered as
realities which every human being had capacity to
discern. The duty of each individual to inquire and

1 Shirley to Secretary Willard, * Sermon of Mayhew's, printed
29 Nov., 1749. in 1766.

60 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

C?nP' ju%e ne deduced from the constitution of man, and
1 — i — ' held to be as universal as reason itself. At once be-
' ' coming revolutionary, he scoffed at receiving opinions
because our forefathers had embraced them ; and
pushing the principle of Protestantism to its universal
expression, he sent forth the American mind to do its
work, disburdened of prejudices. The ocean which it
had crossed had broken the trail of tradition, and it
was now to find its own paths and make for itself a
new existence, with not even its footsteps behind it,
and nothing before it but its own futurity.
175) In January, 1750, the still youthful "Mayhew, him-

self a declared " volunteer " in the service, instinc-
tively alarmed at the menaced encroachments of power,
summoned every lover of truth and of mankind to
bear a part in the defensive war against " tyranny
and priestcraft."1 He reproved the impious bargain
" between the sceptre and the surplice." He preached
resistance to "the first small beginnings of civil tyr-
anny, lest it should swell to a torrent and deluge
empires." M The doctrines," he cried, " of the divine
right of kino^ and non-resistance are as fabulous and
chimerical as the most absurd reveries of ancient or
modern visionaries." " If those who bear the title of
civil rulers do not perform the duty of civil rulers, —
if they injure and oppress, — they have not the least
pretence to be honored or obeyed. If the common
safety and utility would not be promoted by submis-
sion to the government, there is no motive for sub-
mission ;" disobedience becomes " lawful and glorious,"
— " not a crime, but a duty."

Such were the "litanies of nations"2 that burst

Sermons of Mayhew, preached 8 Ralph Waldo Emerson's Poems,
and printed in 1750. The Problem.

THE EXPLOITATION OF OIIIO. 61

from the boldest and most fervid heart in New Eng- c"|r
land, and were addressed to the multitude from the ^^
pulpit and through the press. Boston received the mo*
doctrine, and its ablest citizens delighted in the friend-
ship of the eloquent teacher.

The words of Mayhew were uttered at a time
when "the plantations engaged the whole thoughts
of the men in power,'' who were persuaded that all
America was struggling to achieve a perfect legisla-
tive independence, and that New Jersey at least was
in a state of rebellion. At a great council in Febru- *
ary, 1750, the Board of Trade1 was commanded to
propose such measures as would restore and establish
the prerogative in its utmost extent throughout
the colonies. "Bedford,2 the Lords of Trade, the
Privy Council," — all, had American affairs " much
at heart," and resolved to give ease to colonial gover-
nor's and " their successors for ever." The plea for
the interposition of the supreme legislature was found
in the apprehension that a separate empire was form-
ing. " Fools," said the elder proprietary, Penn, " are
always telling their fears that the colonies will set up
for themselves;"3 and their alarm was increased by
Franklin's plan of an Academy at Philadelphia.
Fresh importunities succeeded each other from Amer-
ica ; and when Bedford sent assurances of his purpose
to support the royal authority, he was referred by the
crown officers of New York to the papers in the
office of the Board of Trade, relating to Hunter, who,

1 R. IT. Morris of "New Jersey to 2 Earl of Lincoln to Clinton, 12
the Governor of New York, 12 February, 1750.
February, 1750. 3 Thomas Penn to James Hamil-

ton, 12 February, 1750.

1750.

62 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

°nif • from 1710 to 171 4, had struggled in that province for
the prerogative. Under the sanction of that prece-
dent, Clinton 1 urged, in March, that " it was abso-
lutely necessary to check the insolence of faction by a
powerful interposition;" and he advised imposts on
wine and West India produce. "These, if granted
by parliament, would be sufficient for supporting t lie
civil list. If made general over all the colonies, they
could be in no shape prejudicial to trade." 2 He in-
sisted, that the proposition contained its own evidence
of being for the service of the king. "This pro-
vince," he repeated, in April,3 " by its example, great-
ly affects all the other colonies. Parliament, on a
true representation of the state of the plantations,
must think it their duty to make the royal officers less
dependent on the assemblies, which may be easily
done by granting to the king the same duties and im-
posts, that, in the plantations, are usually granted
from year to year."

But neither the blunt decision of Bedford, nor the
arrogant self-reliance of Halifax, nor the restless ac-
tivity of Charles Townshend, could, of a sudden,
sway the system of England in a new direction, or
overcome the usages and policy of more than a half
century. But new developments were easily given to
the commercial and restrictive system. That the col-
onies might be filled with slaves, who should neither
trouble Great Britain with fears of encouraging poli-
tical independence, nor compete in their industry with
British workshops, nor leave their employers the en-
tire security that might prepare a revolt, liberty io

1 Clinton to Bedford, 19 March, 3 Clinton to Lords of Trade, 3
1750. April, 175, and same to Bedford, 9

2 Same to same, 26 March, 1750. April.

TIIE EXPLOITATION OF OHIO. 63

trade1 — saddest concession of freedom — to and from c^Pi
any part of Africa, between Sallee, in South Barbary, — < —
and the Cape of Good Hope, was, in 1750, extended 175°-
to all the subjects of the king of England. But for
the labor of free men new shackles were devised.

America abounded in iron ore ; its un wrought iron
was excluded by a duty from the English market ;
and its people were rapidly gaining skill at the fur-
nace and the forge. In February,2 1750, the subject
encra^ed the attention of the House of Commons.
To check the danger of American rivalry, Charles
Townshend was placed at the head of a committee,
on which Horatio Walpole, senior, and Robert Nu-
gent, afterwards Lord Clare, — a man of talents, yet
not free from "bombast and absurdities,"3 — were
among the associates. After a few days' deliberation,
he brought in a bill which permitted American iron,
in its rudest forms, to be imported duty free ; but now
that the nailers in the colonies could afford spikes
and large nails cheaper than the English, it forbade
the smiths of America to erect any mill for slitting
or rolling iron, or any plating forge to work with
a tilt-hammer, or any furnace for making steel.
"The restriction," said Penn, "is of most dangerous
consequence to prevent our making what we want

for our own use It is an attack on the rights of

fthe king's subjects in America."4 William' Bollan,

•the agent of Massachusetts, pleaded its inconsistency

with the natural rights of the colonists.5 But while

England applauded the restriction, its owners of iron

1 23 Geo. II. c. xxxi. § 1. 4 Douglas: Historical and Politi-

9 Journals of Commons, xxv., cal Summary, ii., 109.

)79, 986, 998. 5 W. Bollan to the Speaker of

3 Walpole's Memoirs of Geo. II., the Massachusetts Assembly, 5

, 171, ami Letters. April 1750.

1750.

64 THE AMERICAN EE VOLUTION.

C?n.P' mmes grudged to America a share of the market for
the rough material ; the tanners, from the threatened
inaction of the English furnaces, feared a diminished
supply of bark ; the clergy and gentry foreboded in-
jury to the price of woodlands.1 The importation of
bar iron from the colonies was therefore limited to
the port of London, which already had its supply
from, abroad. The ironmongers and smiths of Bir-
mingham thought well of importing bars of iron
free, but, from " compassion" to the " many thou-
sand families in the kingdom" who otherwise " must
be ruined," they prayed that "the American people"
might be subject not to the proposed restrictions only,
but to such others a as may secure for ever the trade
to this country." Some would have admitted the
raw material from no colony where its minute manu-
facture was carried on. The House even divided
on the proposal, that every slitting-mill in America
should be demolished ; and the clause failed only by
a majority of twenty-two. But an immediate return
was required of every mill already existing, and the
number was never to be increased.2 There was no
hope that this prohibition would ever be repealed.3

England did not know the indignation thus awak-
ened in the villages of America. Yet the royalist,
Kennedy, a member of the Council of New York,
and an advocate for parliamentary taxation, publicly
urged on the ministry,4 that " liberty and encourage-

1 Journals of Commons, xxv., 4 A. Kennedy's Observations on
1053, 1091, 1096. the Importance of the Northern

2 23 Geo. II., c. xxix. Colonies, 1750.

3 Thomas Penn to James Hamil-
ton, 1 May, 1750

1750.

THE EXPLORATION OF OHIO. 65

menl are the basis of colonies." " To supply ourselves," c ^f-
he urged, "with manufactures is practicable; and
where people in such circumstances are numerous
and free, they will push what they think is for their
interest, and all restraining laws will be thought op-
pression, especially such laws as, according to the
conceptions we have of English liberty, they have
no hand in controverting or making. . . They cannot
be kept dependent by keeping them poor;" and
he quoted to the ministry the counsel of Trenchard,1
that the way to keep them from weaning them-
selves was to keep it out of their will. But the
mother country was more and more inclined to rely on
measures of restraint and power. It began to be con-
sidered, that the guard-ships were stationed in the colo-
nies not so much for their defence, as to preserve them
in their dependence and prevent their illicit trade.2

In the same year Turgot, then but three-and-
twenty years of age, one day to be a minister of
France, and a friend to the United States, then prior
of Sorbonne, mingled with zeal for Christianity the
enthusiasm of youthful hope, as he contemplated the
destiny of the western world. "Vast regions of
America !" he exclaimed, in the presence of the assem-
bled clergy of France, just twenty-six years to a day
before the Declaration of Independence, "Equality
keeps from them both luxury and want ; and pre-
serves to them purity and simplicity with freedom.
Europe herself will find there the perfection of her po-
litical societies, and the surest support of her well-

1 Trenchard in Cato's Letters, a Memorial from New York to
1722. the Admiralty, 1750.

VOL. IV.

66 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, being." l " Colonies," added the young philosopher,2
<^J^ " are like fruits, which cling to the tree only till they
1750 ripen; as soon as America can take care of itself, it
will do what Carthage did." For a season, America
must have patience ; England's colonial policy was
destroying itself. The same motive which prevailed
to restrain colonial commerce and pursuits urged Eng-
land to encroach on the possessions of France, that
the future inhabitants of still larger regions might fall
under English rule and become subservient to English
industry. In the mercantile system lay the seeds of a
war with France for territory, and, ultimately, of the
union and independence of America.

But the attempt to establish that system of
government, which must have provoked immediate
resistance, was delayed by jealousies and divisions in
the cabinet. " Dear Brother," Pelham used to say
to Newcastle, " I must beg of you not to fret your-
self so much upon every occasion." 3 But the Duke
grew more and more petulant, and more impatient of
rivalry. " It goes to my heart," said he, " that a new,
unknown, factious young party is set up to rival me
and nose me every where ;" 4 and he resolved to drive
out of the administration the colleague whom he dis-
liked, envied and feared. For it always holds true,
that Heaven plants division in the councils of the
enemies of freedom. Selfishness breeds as many fac-
tions as there are clashing interests ; nothing unites

1 Discours de Turgot, Prieur 2 Second Discours. (Euvres de

de Sorbonne, prononce le 3 Juillet, Turgot, ii. 602. Ce que fera an

1750, in (Euvres de Turgot, ii. 591, jour l'Amerique.

592. L'Europe elle-meme y trou- 3 Pelham to Newcastle, in

vera la perfection de ses societes Coxe, i. 460.

politiques, et le plus ferme appui de 4 Newcastle to Pelham, May 9-

ea fdicite. 20. Coxe, ii. 336.

TIIE EXPLORATION OF OHIO. 67

indissolubly, but that love of man which truth and C^AP
justice and the love of all good can alone inspire.

1750.

The affairs of Nova Scotia, of which Newcastle
was ignorant, served at least his purposes of intrigue.1
The French saw with extreme anxiety the settlement
at Halifax. To counteract its influence, a large force
under the command of the recklessly sanguinary par-
tisan, La Corne, had through the winter held posses-
sion of the Isthmus of the peninsula ; and found shel-
ter among the Acadians .south of the Messagouche, in
the town of Chiegnecto, or Beaubassin, now Fort Law-
rence. The inhabitants of that village, although it
lay beyond the limits which La Corne was instructed
to defend, were compelled to take the oaths of alle-
giance to the French king ; a and in the name of three
chiefs of the Micmac Indians,3 orders had been sent to
the Acadians of the remoter settlements, to renounce
subjection to England, and take refuge with the
French.

Cornwallis, who had received the first notice of
the movement from La Jonquiere himself,4 desired
immediately to recover the town. He sought aid
from the Massachusetts ; 5 but only received for answer,
that, by the constitution of that province, the assem-
bly must first be convinced of the necessity of raising
supplies ; 6 that to insure cooperation, compulsory niea-

1 Illustrative Correspondence. March, 1750. Read at the Board,

Newcastle to Pelham. 3 May, 1750.

* Cornwallis to Bedford, 19 4 Cornwallis to Lords of Trade,

March, 1750. 7 Dec. 1749.

8 Orders of Three Indian Chiefs 5 Cornwallis to Lords of Trade,
to the Inhahitants of Pesi(|uid, 30 April, 1750.
Mines, &c. &c, inclosed in Corn- • Lieut. Gov. Phips to Corn-
wallis to the Lords of Trade, 19 wallis. Boston, 20 Feb. 1750.

68 THE AMEKICAX EE VOLUTION".

Ch1P sures must be adopted by the British government to-

' — 1-~> wards all the colonies.

1750. jje wag therefore able to send from Halifax no
more than a party of four hundred men, who, just
at sunset on the twentieth of April, arrived not far
from the town at the entrance of what is now called
Cumberland Basin. The next day the transports
sailed near the harbor ; the flag of the Bourbons was
raised on the dikes to the north of the Messagouche ;l
while, to the south of it, the priest La Loutre himself
set fire to the church in Chiegnecto, and its reluctant,
despairing inhabitants, torn by conflicting passions,
attached to their homes which stood on some of the
most fertile land 2 in the world, yet bound to France
by their religion and their oaths, consumed their
houses to ashes, and escaped across the river which
marks the limit of the peninsula.3

On Sunday, the twenty-second, Lawrence, the
English commander, having landed north of the Mes-
sagouche, had an interview with La Corne, who
avowed his purpose, under instructions from La Jon-
quiere, to defend 4 at all hazards, and keep possession
of every post as far as the river Messagouche, till the
boundaries between the two countries should be set-
tled by commissaries.

La Corne held a strong position, and had under
his command Indians, Canadians, regular troops, and
Acadian refugees, to the number, it was thought, of
twenty-five hundred. The English officer was, there-
fore, compelled for his safety to embark, on the very

1 Journal of Lawrence. s Memoires, 8.

2 Cornwallis to the Lords of * Cornwallis to Bedford, 1 May,
Trade 10 July, 1750. 1750.

THE EXPLORATION OF OHIO. 69

day on which he landed,1 leaving the French in un-
disturbed possession of the isthmus.

A swift vessel was dispatched expressly from
Halifax to inform the government, that La Corne and
La Loutre held possession of the isthmus, that a town
which was within the acknowledged British limits,
had been set on fire; that its inhabitants had
crossed over to the French side ; that the refugees,
able to bear arms, were organized as a military force ;
that the French Acadians, remaining within the penin-
sula, were rebels at heart, and unanimously wished to
abandon it rather than take the oath of allegiance to
the English king; that the savages were incited to
inroads and threats of a general massacre; that the
war was continued on the part of the French by all
open and secret means of violence and treason.2 At
the same time the governments of New Hampshire
and the Massachusetts Bay were informed of "the
audacious proceedings " of the French, and invited to
join in punishing La Corne as " a public incendiary." 8

The ~New England colonies received the news
without any disposition to undertake dislodging the
French. In England the Earl of Halifax insisted4
effectually that prompt support should be sent to the
colony, of which the settlement was due to his zeal.
Authority had already5 been given to disarm the
Acadians; new settlers were now collected to be
transported at the public expense,6 and an Irish regi-

1 Cornwallis to the Lords of 4 Lords of Trade to Bedford, 4

Trade, 30 Sept. 1750. June, 1750.

8 Cornwallis to Lords of Trade, 5 Lords of Trade to Cornwallis,

30 April, and same to Bedford, 1 16 February, 1750.

May, 1750. 6 Lords of Trade to Cornwallis,

3 Cornwallis to Lientenant-Gov- 8 June, 1750.
ernor Phips at Boston, 3 May, 1750.

CIIAP.
III.

1750

70 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

ChlP* men^ was sent over with orders, that Chiegnecto
' — <-^ should be taken, fortified, and if possible, colonized by
protestants.1 Yet a marked difference of opinion
existed between the Lords of Trade and their supe-
rior. Bedford was honorably inclined to a pacific
adjustment with France ; but Halifax was led by his
pride and his ambition to disregard all risks of war ;
and becoming impatient at his subordinate position,
he already " heartily hated " 2 his patron, and coveted
a seat in the cabinet with exclusive authority in the
department, with all the impetuous ardor of inexpe-
rienced ambition.

Newcastle was sure to seize the occasion to side
with Halifax. " Act with vigor," said he to his
brother, u and support our right to the extended boun-
dary of Nova Scotia. If you do, you may run a risk
of a war with France ; that risk is to be run." 3 But
"the great object" that filled his thoughts and dis-
turbed his rest, was the dismissal of Bedford. Even
the more cautious Pelham began to complain of the
secretary's " boyishness " and inattention to business ; 4
the king's mistress, who had thought Bedford too im-
portant a person to be trifled with, was soothed into a
willingness to have him discarded. " His office is a
sinecure," said the king, who missed the pedantry of
forms ; " he receives his pay easily ;" and to Newcastle
he added, " you, your brother and Hardwicke are the
only ministers." 5 It seemed as if Halifax would at
once obtain the seals of the Southern Department with

1 Lords of Trade to Cornwallis, 4 Pelham to Newcastle, 25 July
14 June, 1750. —5 August, 1750.. Coxe ii. 305.

2 Pelham to Newcastle in Coxe's 5 Newcastle to Pelham, 12-23
Pelham Ad. ii. 378. August, 1750, and Coxe's Pelhum

8 Newcastle to Pelham, 9-20 Ad. ii. 129.
June, 1750. Coxe ii. 345.

THE EXPLOKATTON OF OIHO. 71

CHAP

1750.

the entire charge of the colonies. " Halifax," wrote m.
Pelham, who favored his advancement, " amongst the
young ones, has the most efficient talents." 1 " He
would be more approved by the public," thought
Hardwicke, " than either Holdernesse or Waldegrave."
" He is the last man, except Sandwich, I should think
of for secretary of state," exclaimed Newcastle. " He
is so conceited of his parts, he would not be in the
cabinet one month without thinking he knew as much
or more of business than any one man. He is imprac-
ticable ; the most odious man in the kingdom.

A man of his life, spirit, and temper, will think

he knows better than any body." Newcastle would
have none of tc that young fry." But above all, he
would be rid of Bedford. " I am, I must be an errant
cipher of the worst sort," said he in his distress, "if
the Duke of Bedford remains coupled with me as sec-
re tary of state." To get rid of Bedford was still to
him " the great point," " the great point of all," 2 more
than the designation of the next emperor of Ger-
many, and more than a war with the Bourbons.

The two dukes remained at variance, leaving Corn-
wallis to " get the better in Nova Scotia without pre-
vious concert with France."8 In August a second
expedition left Halifax to take possession of Chiegnecto.
It succeeded, but not without loss of life. Indians
and Acadian refugees, aided, perhaps, by French in
disguise, altogether very few in number, had in-
trenched themselves strongly behind the dikes, and
opposed their landing. Nor were they dislodged

1 Pelham to Newcastle, 24 Aug. 8 Pelham to Newcastle in Coxe
—4 Sept., 1750. ii. 344.

8 Newcastle to Ilardwicke, 8-19
Sept. 17, 1750.

72 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

CHAP.
III.

1750.

without an intrepid assault, in which the English had
six killed and twelve wounded.1 Thus was blood first
shed after the peace of Aix la Chapelle. Fort Lawrence
was now built on the south of the Messagouche, but
the French had already fortified their position on the
opposite bank at Fort Beau Sejour as well as at Bay
Verte. Having posts also at the mouth of the St.
John's River and the alliance of the neighboring In-
dians, they held the continent from Bay Verte to the
borders of the Penobscot.

Such was the state of occupancy, when, in Septem-
ber, at Paris, Shirley, who had been placed at the head
of the British Commission, presented a memorial,
claiming for the English all the land east of the Pe-
nobscot and south of the St. Lawrence, as constituting
the ancient Acadia.2 The claim, in its full latitude,
by the law of nations, was preposterous ; by a candid
interpretation of treaties, was untenable. France
never had designed to cede, and had never ceded, to
England, the southern bank of the St. Lawrence, nor
any country north of the forty-sixth parallel of lati-
tude. In their reply to the British claim, the French
commissaries, in like manner disregarding the ob-
vious construction of treaties, narrowed Acadia to the
strip of land on the Atlantic, between Cape St. Mary
and Cape Canseau.8

There existed in France statesmen who thought
Canada itself an incumbrance, difficult to be defended,
entailing expenses more than benefits. But La Galis-
soniere4 pleaded to the ministry, that honor, glory,

1 Cornwallis to Lords of Trade. explanatory Memorial, 16 Noveni-

8 Memorials of the English Com- ber, 1750.

ruissaries, 21 Sept., 1750. 4 La Galissoniere : Memoire sur

8 Memorial of the French Com- les Colonies de la France, Decem-

missaries, 21 September, and an ber, 1750.

1750

TITE EXPLOKATION OF OHIO. 73

and religion forbade the abandonment of faithful and CI1I1fp#
affectionate colonists, and the renunciation of the
great work of converting the infidels of the wilder-
ness ; that Detroit was the natural centre of a bound-
less inland commerce ; that the country of Illinois was
in a delightful climate, an open prairie, waiting for
the plough ; that, considering the want of maritime,
strength, Canada and Louisiana were the bulwarks of
France in America against English ambition. De
Puysieux, the French minister for foreign affairs, like
the English Secretary, Bedford, was earnestly desi-
rous of avoiding war ; but a fresh collision in America
touched the sense of honor of the French nation, and
made negotiation hopeless.

A French brigantine with a schooner, laden with
provisions and warlike stores, and bound from Quebec
to the river St. John's, was met by Eous in the
British ship of war Albany off Cape Sable. He fired
a gun to bring her to ; she kept on her course : he
fired another and a third ; and the brigantine prepar-
ed for action. The English instantly poured into her
a broadside and a volley of small arms ; and after a
short action compelled her to strike. The Albany
had a midshipman and two mariners killed; the
French lost five men. The brigantine was taken to
Halifax, and condemned in the Admiralty Court.1
On the side of France, indignation knew no bounds;
it seemed that its flag had been insulted ; its mari-
time rights disregarded; its men wantonly slain in
time of peace ; its property piratically seized and con-
fiscated. There was less willingness to yield an ex-
tended boundary.

1 Cornwallis to Lords of Trade, 27 November, 1750.

74 THE AMERICAN RE VOLUTION.

CHAP.
III.

1750

The territory which is now Vermont was equally
in dispute. New York carried its limits to the Con-
necticut River, as a part of its jurisdiction ; France,
which alone had command of Lake Champlain, ex-
tended her pretensions to the crest of the Green
Mountains; while Wentworth, the only royal gov-
ernor in New England, began to convey the soil
between the Connecticut and Lake Champlain by
grants under the seal of New Hampshire.

A deeper interest hung over the valley of the
Ohio. What language shall be the mother tongue
of its future millions ? What race, the Romanic or
the Teutonic, shall form the seed of its people ? The
Six Nations expressed alarm for their friends and
allies on the Ohio, against whom the French were
making preparations, and asked what reliance they
might place on the protection of New York. After
concert with the governor of Pennsylvania, Clinton,
in September, 1750, appealed to the Assembly for
means to confirm their Indian alliances, and to assist
Pennsylvania " in securing the fidelity of the Indians
on Ohio River." l The Assembly refused ; and the
Onondagas, whose chief was a professed Roman
Catholic, whose castles contained a hundred neo-
phytes, whose warriors glittered in brave apparel
from France, scoffed with one another at the parsimo-
nious colonists.2

The tendency of the Americans themselves towards
union, and the desire on the part of England to con-
centrate its power over the colonies by the aid of

1 Journals of New York Assera- Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania,
bly, i. 283, 284. iv. 222.

8 Letter of Conrad Weisser, in

TIIE EXPLORATION OP OHIO. 75

the authority of the British parliament, were alike c5uP'
developed in connection with the necessity of resist- *— * — •
hig encroachments on the side of Canada. The unity '

of the French system of administration promised suc-
cess by ensuring obedience to "one council and one
voice." ! To counteract their designs effectually along
the tthole frontier, the best minds in New York, and
in other provinces, were busy in devising methods
for, u uniting the colonies on the main ;" for, unless
this were done, Ohio would be lost. Of all the
Southern provinces, South Carolina was most ready
to join with the rest of the continent.2 Doubting
whether union could be effected "without an im-
mediate application to his Majesty for that purpose,"
the Council of New York, after mature and re-
peated deliberation on Indian affairs, still determined,
that the governor " should write to all the governors
upon the continent,3 that have Indian nations in their
alliance, to invite commissioners from their respective
governments" to meet the savage chiefs at Albany.
But, from what Clinton called " the penurious 4 tem-
per of American assemblies," this invitation was not
generally accepted,5 though it forms one important
step in the progress of America towards union.

While Pennsylvania, in strife with its proprietaries,
neglected its western frontier, the Ohio Company
of Virginia, profiting by the intelligence of Indian
hunters,6 who had followed every stream to its head-

1 Clinton to Governor of Penn- Ayscough, Fort George, 11 Decem-

sylvania, 8 October, 1750. uer, 1750. Clinton to Governor

8 Letters of Glen, Governor of of Pennsylvania, 19 Jnne, 1751, &o.

South Carolina, to Clinton, and of * Clinton to the Board of Trade.

Clinton to Glen, July — December, 6 Belcher of New Jersey to Clin-

1750, in the New York London ton, 18 April, 1751. 'Belcher's

Documents, xxx. Letter Books, vii. 78, 79, 117.

1 Letter of Clinton's Secretary, 8 Washington's Writings, ii. 302.

76 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

CHAP.
III.

1750.

spring and crossed every gap in the mountain ranges,
discovered the path by Will's Creek to the Ohio.
Their stores of goods, in 1750, were carried no fur-
ther than that creek. There they were sold to
traders, who, with rivals from Pennsylvania, pene-
trated the West as far as the Miamis.

To search out and discover the lands westward
of " the Great Mountains," the Ohio Company l sum-
moned the adventurous Christopher Gist from his
frontier home on the Yadkin. He was instructed
to examine the Western country as far as the Falls
of the Ohio, to look for a large tract of good level
land, to mark the passes in the mountains, to trace
the courses of the rivers, to count the falls, to observe
the strength and numbers of the Indian nations.

On the last day of October,2 the bold messenger
of civilization parted from the Potomac. He passed
through snows over "the stony and broken land"
of the Alleghanies ; he halted among the twenty
Delaware families that composed Shanoppin's town
on the southeast side of the Ohio ; swimming his
horses across the river, he descended through the
rich but narrow valley to Logstown. " You are
come," said the jealous people, " to settle the In-
dians' lands: you never shall go home safe." Yet
they respected him as a messenger from the English
king. From the Great Beaver Creek he crossed to
the Muskingum, killing deer and wild turkeys. On
Elk's Eye Creek he found a village of the Ottawas,
friends to the French. The hundred families of Wy-

1 Instructions of the Ohio Com- Thomas Pownall, in the Appendix

pany to Christopher Gist, 11 Sep- to Thomas PownalFs Topographs

tember, 1750. cal Description of North America,
8 Journals of Gist, printed by

THE EXPLORATION OF OHIO. 77

CHAP.

Midots or Little Mingoes at Muskingum were divided ; ™{\l
one half adhering to the English. George Croghan, — *~~
the emissary from Pennsylvania, was already there ; l
and traders came with the news, that two of his peo-
ple were taken by a party of French and Indians, and
cai ried to the new fort at Sandusky. * Come and
live with us," said the Wyandots to Gist ; " bring
great guns and make a fort. If the French claim
the branches of the Lakes, those of the Ohio be-
long to us and our brothel's, the English." When
they heard that still another English trader had
been taken, they would have killed three French
deserters for revenge. In January, 1751, after a 175]
delay of more than a month, the Wyandots held a
council at Muskingum ; but while they welcomed
the English agents, and accepted their strings of
wampum, they deferred their decision to a general
council of their several nations. Leaving the Wy-
andots, and crossing at White Woman's Creek, where
had long stood the home of a weary New England
captive, the agent of Virginia reached the last town of
the Delawares, five miles above the mouth of the
Scioto. These, like the others of their tribe, who
counted in all five hundred warriors, promised good-
will and love to the English.

Just below the mouth of the Scioto lay the houses
of the Shawnees, on each side of the Ohio. Their
room of state was on the north side, in length ninety
feet, roofed with bark. They gratefully adhered to
the English, who had averted from them the wrath of
the Six Nations.

From the Shawnee town the envoys of the Eng-

' Croghan's MS. Journals, in New York London Documents,
xxx iv, 16.

T8 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

Cui?' -^h world crossed the Little Miami, and journeyed
• — . — ■ in February towards the Miami River ; first of while
1 * men on record, they saw that the land beyond the
Scioto, except the first twenty miles, is rich and level,
bearing walnut trees of huge size, the maple, the wild
cherry, and the ash; full of little streams and rivu-
lets ; variegated by beautiful natural prairies, covered
with wild rye, blue grass and white clover. Turkeys
abounded, and deer and elks, and most sorts of game ,
of buffaloes, thirty or forty were frequently seen
feeding in one meadow. " Nothing," they cried, " is
wanting but cultivation to make this a most delightful
country." l Their horses swam over the swollen cur-
rent of the Great Miami; on a raft of logs they
transported their goods and saddles; outside of the
town of the Picqualennees, the warriors came forth
with the peace-pipe, to smoke with them the sacred
welcome. They entered the village with the English
colors, were received as guests into the king's house,
and planted the red cross upon its roof.

The Miamis were the most powerful confederacy
of the West, excelling the Six Nations, with whom
they were in amity. Each tribe had its own chief;
of whom one, at that time the chief of the Pianke-
shaws, was chosen indifferently to rule the whole na-
tion. They formerly dwelt on the Wabash, but, for
the sake of trading with the English, drew nearer the
East. Their influence reached to the Mississippi, and
they received frequent visits from tribes beyond that
river. The town of Picqua contained about four hun-
dred families, and was one of the strongest in that
part of the continent.

* Gist's Journal in Pownall's Appendix, 11.

THE EXPLORATION OF OIIIO. 79

On the night of the arrival of the envoys from C3^p'
Virginia and Pennsylvania,1 two strings of wampum, *-v^
given at the Long House of the villages, removed 1761*
trouble from their hearts and cleared their eyes ; and
four other belts confirmed the message from the
Wyandota and Dela wares, commending the English
to their care.

In the days that followed, the traders' men helped
the men of Picqua repair their fort; and distributed
clothes and paint, that they might array themselves
for the council. When it was told that deputies from
the Wawiachtas, or, as we call them, Weas, and from
the Piankeshaws, were coming, deputies from the
Picquas went forth to meet them. The English were
summoned to the Long House, to sit for a quarter of
an hour in the silence of expectation, when two from
each tribe, commissioned by their nations to bring
the Long Pipe, entered with their message and their
calumet.

On the twenty-first day of February, after a dis-
tribution of presents, articles of peace and alliance
were drawn up between the English of Pennsylvania
on the one side, and the Weas and Piankeshaws on
the other ; were signed and sealed in duplicate, and
delivered on both sides. All the friendly tribes of
the West were also to meet the next summer at
Logstown, for a general treaty with Virginia.2

The indentures had just been exchanged,3 when
four Ottawas drew near with a present from the
governor of Canada, were admitted at once to the

1 De la Jonquiere to Clinton, * Croghan's Journal of Trans-

JO Aug. 1751. actions, iVc.

• Gist in Pownall, 12, 13.

80 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

C rn.P' council? and desired a renewal of friendship with their
■ — . — ' fathers, the French.1 The king of the Piankeshaws,
setting up the English colors in the council, as well
as the French, rose and replied : " The path to the
French is bloody, and was made so by them. We
have cleared a road for our brothers, the English,
and your fathers have made it foul, and have taken
some of our brothers prisoners." They had taken
three at the Huron village, near Detroit, and one on
the Wabash. "This," added the king, "we look
upon as done to us;" and turning suddenly from
them, he strode out of the council. At this, the
representative of the French, an Ottawa, wept and
howled, predicting sorrow for the Miarnis.

To the English the Weas and Piankeshaws, after
deliberation, sent a speech by the great orator of
the Weas. " You have taken us by the hand," were
his words, " into the great chain of friendship. There-
fore we present you with these two bundles of skins,
to make shoes for your people, and this pipe to smoke
in, to assure you our hearts are good towards you,
our brothers."

In the presence of the Ottawa ambassadors, the
great war-chief of Picqua stood up, and summoning in
imagination the French to be present, he spoke :

" Fathers ! you have desired we should go home
to you, but I tell you it is not our home ; for we have
made a path to the sun-rising, and have been taken
by the hand by our brothers, the English, the Six
Nations, the Delawares, the Shawnees, and the Wy-
andots ; and we assure you, in that road we will go.

1 Compare Des Essais d'Eta- s De la JonqnieretotheFren<

blissements des Anglais a la Belle Minister, 17 October, 1751.
Riviere. 22 Sept. 1751.

TITE EXPLORATION OF OHIO. 81

And as you threaten us with war in the spring, we c"f^.1*
tell you, if you are angry, we are ready to receive s- * — '
you, and resolve to die here, before we will go to '

yon. Tli at you may know this is our mind, we send
you this string of black wampum.

"Brothel's, the Ottawas, you hear what I say;
1 ell that to your fathers, the French; for that is our
mind, and we speak it from our hearts."

The French colors are taken down ; the Ottawas
are dismissed to the French fort at Sandusky. The
Long House, late the senate-chamber of the United
Miami's, rings with the music and the riotous motions
of the feather-dance. A war-chief strikes a post : the
music ceases, and the dancers, on the instant, are
hushed to silent listeners ; the brave recounts his
deeds in war, and proves the greatness of his mind
by throwing presents lavishly to the musicians and
the dancers. Then once more the turmoil of joy is
renewed, till another warrior rises to boast his prow-
ess, and scatter gifts in his turn.

Thus February came to an end. On the first
day of March, Gist took his leave. The Miamis, re-
solving never to give heed to the words of the
French, sent beyond the Alleghanies this message:
u Our friendship shall stand like the loftiest mountain."

The agent of the Ohio Company gazed with rap-
ture on the valley of the Great Miami, " the finest
meadows that can be." He was told, that the land
was not less fertile to the very head-springs of the
river, and west to the Wabash. He descended to the
Ohio by way of the Little Miami, still finding many
u clear fields," where herds of forty or fifty buffaloes
were feeding together on the wonderfully tall grasses.

VOL. IV. 6

82 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

CHAP.
III.

1751.

He checked his perilous course, when within fifteen
miles of the falls at Louisville ; and taking with him,
as a trophy, the tooth of a mammoth, then a novel
wonder, he passed up the valley of the Kentucky
River, and through a continuous ledge of almost in-
accessible hills and rocks and laurel thickets, found a
path to the Bluestone. g He paused on his way, to
climb what is now called " The Hawk's Nest," whence
he could " see the Kenhawa burst through the next
high mountain ;" and having proposed the union, and
appointed at Logstown a meeting of the Mingoes, the
Delawares, the Wyandots, the Shawnees, and the
Miami nations, with the English, he returned to his
employers by way of the Yadkin and the Roanoke.

In April, 1751, Croghan again repaired to the
Ohio Indians. The half-king, as the chief of the
mixed tribe on the branches of the Ohio was called
in token of his subordination to the Iroquois confed-
eracy, reported, that the news of the expedition under
Celoron had swayed the Onondaga council to allow
the English to establish a trading-house ; and a bell
of wampum, prepared with due solemnity, invite<
Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, to build a fort at th(
forks of Monongahela. l

1 Croghan's Journal of his Transactions.

CHAPTER IV.

AMERICA REFUSES TO BE RULED BY ARBITRARY INSTRUC-
TION^.—PELHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED.

1751—1753.

The thoughts of the British ministry were so chap.
engrossed by intrigues at home, as to give but little ^^
heed to the glorious country beyond the Alleghanies. 1751.
Having failed in the attempt to subject all the colo-
nies by act of parliament to all future orders of the
king, the Lords of Trade sought to gain the same end
in detail. Rhode Island, a charter government, of
which the laws were valid without the assent of the
king, continued to emit paper currency,1 and the more
freely, because Massachusetts had withdrawn its notes
and returned to hard money.2 In 1742, twenty-eight
shillings of Rhode Island currency would have pur-
chased an ounce of silver ; seven years afterwards, it
required sixty shillings; compared with sterling
money, the depreciation was as ten and a half or eleven
to one. This was pleaded as the justification of the
Board of Trade, who, in March, 1751, presented a
bill to restrain bills of credit in New England, with
an additional clause giving the authority of law to the

1 Potter's Rhode Island Cur- * J. B. Felt's Massachusetts Cur-
rency. 12. rency, 133, 134.

1751

84 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

king's instructions on that subject.1 In " the dan-
gerous precedent," Bollan, the agent for Massachusetts,
discerned the latent purpose of introducing by de-
grees the same authority to control other articles.
He argued, moreover, that " the province had a natu-
ral and lawful right to make use of its credit for its
defence and preservation."2 New York also urged
" the benefit of a paper credit." Before the bill was
engrossed, the obnoxious clause was abandoned.8
Yet there seemed to exist in the minds of " some per-
sons of consequence," a fixed design of getting a par-
liamentary sanction of some kind or other to the
king's instructions; and the scheme was conducted
with great perseverance and art.4

Meantime, parliament, by its sovereign act, on the
motion of Lord Chesterfield, changed the commence-
ment of the year, and regulated the calendar for all
the British dominions. As the earth and the moon,
in their annual rounds, differed by eleven days from
the English reckoning of time, and would not delay
their return, the legislature of a Protestant kingdom,
after centuries of obstinacy, submitted to be taught by
the heavens, and conquering a prejudice, adopted the
calendar as amended by a pope of Rome.

The Board of Trade was all the while maturing
its scheme for an American civil list.5 The royal pre-

1 Journal of the Commons, xxvi. 6 Representation of the Board
65, 119, 120, 187, 206, 265. of Trade upon the State of New

2 Compare Lind on Acts relating York, 2 April, 1751, in N. Y. Lon-
to the Colonies, 238. don Doc. xxx. 5. Compare also

8 24 Geo. II. c. liii. order of the Privy Council of 6

4 Bollan, agent for the Massa- August, 1751, ar.d the justificatory

chusetts Bay to the Speaker of its Representation of the Lords of

Assembly, 7 March, 12 April, 12 Trade, 4 April, 1754. London

July, 1751. Doc. xxxi. 39.

A3EEKTCA DISEEGARDS ARBITRARY INSTRUCTIONS. 85

rogative was still the raain-spring in their system.
With Bedford's approbation,1 they advised the ap-
pointment of a new governor for New York, with a
stricter commission and instructions ; the New York
islature should be ordered to grant a permanent
revenue, to be disbursed by royal officers, and suffi-
cient for Indian presents, as well as for the civil list.
At the same time, it was resolved to obtain an Amer-
ican revenue by acts of parliament.2 The excessive
discriminating duties in favor of the British West
Indies, "given and granted" in 1733, on the pro-
ducts of the Foreign West India Islands, imported
into the continental colonies, were prohibitory
in their character, and had never been collected.
England, which thought itself able to make such a
grant, to be levied in ports of a thinly inhabited con-
tinent, could never give effect to the statute ; and did
but discipline America to dispute its supreme author-
ity. The trade continued to be pursued with no
more than an appearance of disguise ; and Newcastle,
who had escaped from the solicitations and importuni-
ties of the British West Indians by conceding the
law, had also avoided the reproaches of the colonists
by never enforcing it.

This forbearance is, in part, also, to be ascribed to
the moderation of character of Sir Robert Walpole.
Hr rejected the proposition for a colonial stamp-tax,
being content with the tribute to British wealth from
colonial commerce ; and he held that the American
evasions of the acts of trade, by enriching the colo-
nics, did but benefit England, which was their final
mart. The policy was generous and safe ; but can a

1 Thos. Penn to Gov. Hamilton, s MSS. of William Bollan.
30 March. 1751.

CHAP
IV.

1751.

1751

86 THE AMEKICAN REVOLUTION.

minister excuse his own acts of despotic legislation by
his neglect to enforce them ? The administration of
Sir Robert Walpole had left English statutes and
American practice more at variance than ever. Woe
to the British statesman who should hold it a duty
to enforce the British laws !

In 1740, Ashley, a well informed writer, had pro-
posed to establish a fund by such " an abatement of
the duty on molasses imported into the northern col-
onies,"1 as would make it cease to be prohibitory.
" Whether this duty," he added, " should be one,
two, or three pence sterling money of Great Britain
per gallon, may be matter of consideration." The
time was come when it was resolved to discard the
policy of Walpole. Opinions were changing on the
subject of a stamp-tax ; and the Board of Trade, in
1751, entered definitively on the policy of regulating
trade, so as to uproot illicit traffic and obtain an
American revenue.2 To this end, they fostered the
jealous dispute between the continental colonies and
the favored British West Indian Islands ; that, under
the guise of lenity, they might lower the disregarded
prohibitory duties, and enrich the exchequer by the
collection of more moderate imposts.

But the perfidious jealousy with which the Duke
of Newcastle plotted against his colleague, the Duke
of Bedford, delayed for the present the decisive inter-
position of parliament in the government of America.
Besides, Halifax with his Board was equally at

8 John Ashley's Memoirs and colonies more beneficial to Great

Considerations concerning the Britain.

Trade, &c, of the British colonies, 8 Bollan's Sketch of his Services,
with proposals for rendering those

AMERICA DISREGARDS ARBITRARY INSTRUCTIONS. 87

CHAP.

1751.

variance with his superior. The former was eager to IV
foster the settlement of Nova Scotia at every hazard ;
Bedford desired to be frugal of the public money,
and was also honestly inclined to maintain peace with
France. The governor of that colony1 had writ-
ten impatiently for ships of war ; and Halifax in the
most earnest and elaborate official papers had sec-
onded Ins entreaties ;2 but Bedford was dissatisfied at
the vastness of the sums lavished on the new planta-
tion, and was, moreover, fixed in the purpose of leav-
ing to the pending negotiation an opportunity of suc-
cess. He was supported by the Admiralty, at which
Sandwich was his friend ; while Newcastle, with his
timorous brother, enforced the opinion of Halifax.
The intrigue in the cabinet had come to maturity.
Bedford's neglect of the forms of office had vexed the
king ; his independence of character had paid no de-
ference to the king's mistress. Sandwich was dismissed
from the Admiralty. Admitted in June to an audi-
ence at court, Bedford inveighed long and vehe-
mently against his treacherous colleague, and re-
signed.3 His successor was the Earl of Holdernesse,
a very courtly peer, proud of his rank, formal, and of
talents which could not excite Newcastle's jealousy,
or alarm America for its liberties. The disappointed
Halifax, not yet admitted to the cabinet, was con-
soled by obtaining a promise, that the whole patron-
age and correspondence of the colonies should be
vested in his Board. The increase of their powers
might invigorate their schemes for regulating Ameri-
ca ; for which, however, no energetic system of admin-

1 Cornwallis to Lords of Trade, Bedford, 16 Jan. and 7 March, 1751.
30 Sept. and 27 Nov., 1750. 8 Hardwicke in Coxe's Pelham

2 Halifax and Lords of Trade to Administration, ii. 189.

88 THE AMEKICAN EEVOLUTION.

chap, istration could be adopted, without the aid of the
new party of which Bedford was the head.

IV.
1751

During the progress of these changes, the colonies
were left to plan their own protection. But every
body shunned the charge of securing the valley of the
Ohio. Of the Virginia Company the means were
limited. The Assembly of Pennsylvania, from mo-
tives of economy, refused to ratify the treaty which
Croghan had negotiated at Picqua, while the propri-
etaries l of that province openly denied their liability
"to contribute to Indian or any other expenses;"2
and sought to cast the burden of a Western fort on
the equally reluctant " people of Virginia." New
York could but remonstrate with the governor ot
Canada.3

The deputies of the Six Nations were the first to
manifest zeal. At the appointed time in July, they
came down to Albany to renew their covenant chain ,
and to chide the inaction of the English, which was
certain to leave the wilderness to France.

When the congress, which Clinton had invited to
meet the Iroquois, assembled at Albany, South Caroli-
na came also,4 for the first time, to join in coun-
cil with New York, Connecticut, and Massachu-
setts, — its earliest movement towards confederation.
From the Catawbas, also, hereditary foes to the Six
Nations, deputies attended to hush the war-song
that for so many generations had lured their chiefs

1 Thomas Penn to Governor * Drayton's South Carolina, 91
Hamilton, 25 February, 1751. and 239. Clinton to Bedford, 17

2 Hamilton's Message to the July, 1751, in New York London
Pennsylvania Assembly, 21 August, Documents, xxx. 16, and Clinton to
1751, in Hazard, iv. 235. Lords of Trade, same date.

8 Clinton to La Jonquiere, 12
June, 1751.

AMERICA DISREGARDS ARBITRARY INSTRUCTIONS. 89

along the Blue Eidge to Western New York. They chap.
approached the grand council, singing the words of — , — -
reconciliation, bearing their ensigns of colored feath- 1751-
ers, not erect, as in defiance, but horizontally, as with
friends; and, accompanied by the rude music from
their calabashes, they continued their melodies, while
their great chief lighted the peace-pipe. He him-
self was the first to smoke the sacred calumet ,
then Hendrick, of the Mohawks ; and all the princi-
pal sachems in succession. Nor was the council dis-
missed, till the hatchet was buried irrecoverably deep,
and a tree of peace planted, which was to be ever
green as the laurel on the Alleghanies, and to spread
its branches till its shadow should reach from the
Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Thus was South
Carolina first included in the same bright chain with
New England. When would they meet in council
again ? Thus did the Indians, in alliance with Eng-
land, plight faith to one another, and propose mea-
sures of mutual protection.

To anticipate or prevent the consummation of these
designs remained the earnest effort of the French.
They sent priests, who were excited partly by ambi-
tion, partly by fervid enthusiasm, to proselyte the Six
Nations ; their traders were to undersell the British ;
in the summer of 1751, they launched an armed ves-
sel of unusual size on Lake Ontario,1 and converted
their trading-house at Niagara into a fortress ; 2 they
warned the governor of Pennsylvania,3 that the Eng-

1 Memorial on Indian Affairs in Clinton, 10 August. Alexander's
Clinton to Lords of Trade, 1 Octo- Remarks on tlte Letters, sent to Dr.
ber, 1751. Mitchell.

2 Clinton to De la Jonquiere, 12 3 La Jonquiere to Governor ITam-
Jnne, 1751. De la Jonquiere to ilton, of Pennsylvania, 6 June, 1751.

90 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, lish never should make a treaty in the basin of the
^ — - Ohio ; they sent troops to prevent the intended con-
1751. gress of red men ; ' and they resolved to ruin the Eng-
lish interest in the remoter West, and take vengeance
on the Miamis.

Yet Louis the Fifteenth disclaimed hostile inten-
tions; to the British minister at Paris he himself
expressed personally his concern that any cause of
offence had arisen, and affirmed his determined pur-
pose of peace. The minister of foreign relations, De
Puysieux, who, on the part of France, was respon-
sible for the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, a man of honor,
though not of ability, was equally disinclined to dis-
turb the public tranquillity. But Saint-Contest, who,
in September, 1751, succeeded him, though a feeble
statesman and fond of peace, yet aimed at a federa-
tive maritime system against England f and Bouille,
the minister of the marine department, loved war and
prepared for it. Spain wisely kept aloof. " By anti-
pathy," said the Marquis of Ensenada, the considerate
minister of Ferdinand the Sixth, " and from interest
also, the French and English will be enemies, for they
are rivals for universal commerce ;" and he urged on
his sovereign seasonable preparations, that he might,
by neutrality, recover Gibraltar, and become the arbi-
ter of the civilized world.3

Every thing seemed to portend a conflict between
England and France along their respective frontiers in
America. To be prepared for it, Clinton's advisers

1 Letter from Jonathan Edwards, sen ted to Ferdinand VI. in 1751.

August, 1751. See Coxe et Muriel : Espagne sous

* Flassan : Hist, de la Diploma- les Rois de la Maison de Bourbon,

tie Franaise, vi. 15. iv. 294.

8 De la Ensenada's Report, pre-

AFRICA DISREGARDS ARBITRARY INSTRUCTIONS. 91

recommended to secure the dominion of Lake Ontario CI[^P*
by an armed sloop and by forts upon its shore. But, « — , — »
it was asked, how is the expense to be defrayed? 175l«
And the question did but invite from the governor of
New York new proposals for " a general duty by act
of parliament ; ' because it would be a most vain ima-
gination to expect that all the colonies would severally
agree to impose it."

The receiver-general of New York, Archibald
Kennedy, urged, through the press, " an annual meet-
ing of commissioners from all the colonies at New
York or Albany." " From upwards of forty vears'
observation upon the conduct of provincial assemblies,
and the little regard paid by them to instructions," he
inferred, that " a British parliament must oblige them
to contribute, or the whole would end in altercation
and words." He advised an increase of the respective
quotas, and the enlargement of the union, so as to
comprise the Carolinas; and the whole system to be
sanctioned and enforced by an act of the British
legislature.2

" A voluntary union," said a voice from Philadel- 175 2
phia, in March, 1752, in tones which I believe were
Franklin's,3 " a voluntary union, entered into by the
colonies themselves, would be preferable to one im-
posed by parliament ; for it would be, perhaps, not
much more difficult to procure, and more easy to
alter and improve, as circumstances should require
and experience direct. It would be a very strange
thing, if Six Nations of ignorant savages should be

1 Memrrial on Indian 'Affairs, tance of gaining and preserving

Clinton to Lords of Trade, 1 Octo- the Friendship of the Indians, &c,
ber, 1751. 8 Anonymous Letter from Phil-

* Archibald Kennedy's Impor- adelphia, March, 1752.

92

TILE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, capable of forming a scheme for such an union, and

^^ be able to execute it in such a manner, as that it

1752- has subsisted for ages, and appears indissoluble ; and

yet that a like union should be impracticable for ten

or a dozen English colonies, to whom it is more

necessary, and must be more advantageous."

While the people of America were thus becoming
familiar with the thought of joining from their own
free choice in one confederacy, the government of
England took a decisive step towards that concentra-
tion of power over its remote dominions, which for
thirty years1 had been the avowed object of attain-
ment on the part of the Board of Trade. Halifax
with his colleagues, of whom Charles Townshend was
the most enterprising and most fearlessly rash, was
appointed to take charge of American affairs ; with
the entire patronage and correspondence belonging
to them.2 Yet the independence of the Board was
not perfect. On important matters governors might
still address the Secretary of State, through whom,
also, nominations to offices were to be laid before the
king in council. We draw nearer to the conflict of
authority between the central government and the
colonies. An ambitious commission, expressly ap-
pointed for the purpose, was at last invested with the
care of business, from which party struggles and court
intrigues, or love of ease and quiet had hitherto di-
verted the attention of the ministry. Nor did the
Lords of Trade delay to exercise their functions, and

1 See the very elaborate Re- 2 Order in Council, 11 March,

port of the Board of Trade, signed 1752.
by Chetwynde, Dominique, Bladen,
and Ashe, 8 September, 1721.

AJVrEKICA DISREGARDS ARBITRARY INSTRUCTIONS. 93

to form plans for an American civil list and a new chap
administration of the colonies. They were resolved _^
to attach large emoluments, independent of American 1752.
acts of assembly, to all the offices, of which they had
now acquired the undivided and very lucrative pa-
tronage. Their continued subordination served to con-
ccal their designs ; and the imbecility of Holdernesse
left them nothing to apprehend from his interference.

But in the moment of experiment, the thoughts of
the Board were distracted by the state of relations
with France.

Along the confines of Nova Scotia, the heat of
contest began to subside ; but danger lowered from
the forest on the whole American "frontier. In the
early summer of 1752, John Stark, of New Hamp-
shire, as fearless a young forester as ever bivouacked
in the wilderness, was trapping beaver along the clear
brooks that gushed from his native highlands, when
a party of St. Francis Indians stole upon his steps,
and scalped one of his companions. He, himself, by
courage and good humor, won the love of his cap-
tors ; their tribe saluted him as a young chief, and
cherished him with hearty kindness ; his Indian mas-
ter, accepting a ransom, restored him to his country.
Men of less presence of mind often fell victims to the
fury of the Indian allies of France.

At the same time, the Ohio Company, with the
express sanction1 of the Legislature of Virginia, were
forming a settlement beyond the mountains. Gist had,
on a second tour, explored the lands southeast of
the Ohio, as far as the Kenhawa. The jealousy of the

1 Laws of Virginia, February, of Lewis and Walker to Lord Bote-
1752. 25 Geo. II., c. 25. Report tourt, 2 February, 1769.

94 THE AMERICAN" REVOLUTION.

chap. Indians was excited. "Where," said the deputy of
v^^ the Delaware chiefs, "where He the lands of the In-
1752 dians? The French claim all on one side of the river,
and the English on the other."

Virginia, under the treaty of Lancaster, of 1744,
assumed the right to appropriate to her jurisdic-
tion all the lands as far west as the Mississippi. In
May, 1752, her commissioners met chiefs of the Min-
goes, Shawnees and Ohio Indians, at Logstown. It
was pretended ! that chiefs of the Six Nations were
present ; but at a general meeting at Onondaga, they
had resolved that it did not suit their customs " to
treat of affairs in the woods and weeds."2 "We
never understood," said the Half-King, "that the
lands sold in 1744, were to extend farther to the sunset-
ting than the hill on the other side the Alleghany
Hill. We now see and know that the French design
to cheat us out of our lands. They plan nothing but
mischief, for they have struck our friends, the Miamis ;
we therefore desire our brothers of Virginia may
build a strong house at the fork of Monongahela."

The permission to build a fort at the junction of
the two rivers that form the Ohio, was due to the
alarm awakened by the annually increasing power of
France, which already ruled Lake Ontario with armed
vessels, held Lake Erie by a fort at Niagara, and
would suffer no Western tribe to form alliances but
with themselves. The English were to be exclude<
from the valley of the Miamis ; and in pursuance oJ
that resolve, on the morning of the summer solstice,
two Frenchmen, with two hundred and forty French

1 Lieut. Gov. Dinwiddie of Vir- ernor Clinton, 26 March, 1753, ii
gniKi, to Gov. Glen, 23 May, 1753. New York Documentary History,

2 Col. William Johnson to Gov- ii. 624. Plain Facts, 38, 44.

AFRICA DISREGARDS ARBITRARY INSTRUCTIONS. 95

Indians, leaving thirty Frenchmen as a reserve, snd- chap.

(Icnly appeared before the town of Picqua, when most , ^

of the people were absent, hunting, and demanded the 1752.
surrender of the English traders and their effects.
Tlio king of the Piankeshaws replied: "They are
here at our invitation ; we will not do so base a thing
MS to deliver them up." The French party made an
assault on the fort ; the Piankeshaws bravely defended
themselves and their guests, till they were over-
whelmed by numbers. One white man was killed, and
five were taken prisoners; of the Miamis, fourteen
were killed ; the king of the Piankeshaws, the great
chief of the whole confederacy, was taken captive,
and, after the manner of savages, was sacrificed and
eaten.1

"When William Trent, the messenger of Virginia,
proceeded from the council-fires at Logstown to the
village of Picqua, he found it deserted, and the French
colors flying over the ruins.2 Having substituted the
English flag, he returned to the Shawnee town, at the
mouth of the Scioto, where the messengers of the
allied tribes met for condolence and concert in revenge.

"Brothers," said the Delawares to the Miamis,
"we desire the English and the Six Nations to put
their hands upon your heads, and keep the French
from hurting you. Stand fast in the chain of friend-
ship with the government of Virginia."

" Brothers," said the Miamis to the English, " your
country is smooth; your hearts are good; the dwell-

1 Lieut. Gov. Dinwiddie to Lords 221, where the date is 1751, instead

of Trade, Dec., 1752. Message of 1752. Dr. Win. Clarke's Obser-

from the Twightwees to the Gov. vations, 9.

of Pennsylvania. Indian Treaties, 8 Mr. Trent's Report and Jour-

19. Mitchell's Contest in America, nal. Board of Trade Papers.

96 THE AMEBIC AN REVOLUTION.

chap, ings of your governors are like the spring in its

^^L, bloom."

1752. "Brothers," they added to the Six Nations, hold-
ing aloft a calumet ornamented with feathers, " the
French and their Indians have struck us, yet we kept
this pipe unhurt ;" and they gave it to the Six Na-
tions, in token of friendship with them and with their
allies.

A shell and a string of black wampum were given
to signify the unity of heart ; and that, though it was
darkness to the westward, yet towards the sun-rising
it was bright and clear. Another string of black
wampum announced that the war-chiefs and braves of
the Miamis held the hatchet in their hand, ready to
strike the French. The widowed queen of the Pianke-
shaws sent a belt of black shells intermixed with
white. "Brothers," such were her words, "I am
left a poor, lonely woman, with one son, whom I com-
mend to the English, the Six Nations, the Shawnees,
and the Delawares, and pray them to take care of
him."

The Weas produced a calumet. " We have had
this feathered pipe," said they, " from the beginning
of the world; so that when it becomes cloudy, we
can sweep the clouds away. It is dark in the west,
yet we sweep all clouds away towards the sun-rising,
and leave a clear and serene sky."

Thus, on the alluvial lands of Western Ohio, be-
gan the contest that was to scatter death broadcast
through the world. All the speeches were delivered
again to the deputies of the nations, represented at
Logstown, that they might be correctly repeated to
the head council at Onondaga. An express messenger
from the Miamis hurried across the mountains, bearing

AMERICA DISREGAPwDS ARBITRARY INSTRUCTIONS. 97

to the shrewd and able Dinwiddie, the lieutenant- chap.
governor of Virginia, a belt of wampum, the scalp ^^
of a French Indian, and a feathered pipe, with letters 1752.
from the dwellers on the Maumee and on the Wabash.
" Our good brothers of Virginia," said the former,
u we must look upon ourselves as lost, if our brothers,
the English, do not stand by us and give us arms." 1
"Eldest brother," pleaded the Picts and Windaws,
u this string of wampum assures you, that the French
king's servants have spilled our blood, and eaten the
flesh of three of our men. Look upon us, and pity
us, for we are in great distress. Our chiefs have taken
up the hatchet of war. We have killed and eaten ten
of the French and two of their negroes. We are
your brothel's; and do not think this is from our
mouth only ; it is from our very hearts." 2 Thus they
solicited protection and revenge.

In December, 1752, Dinwiddie made an elaborate
report to the Board of Trade, and asked specific
instructions to regulate his conduct in resisting the
French. The possession of the Ohio valley he fore-
saw would fall to the Americans, from their numbers
and the gradual extension of their settlements, for
whose security he recommended a barrier of Western
forts ; and, urging the great advantage of cultivating
an alliance with the Miamis, he offered to cross the
mountains, and deliver a present to them in person, in
their own remote dwelling-places.

The aged and undiscerning German prince who
still sat on the British throne, methodically narrow,
swayed by his mistress more than by his minister,

1 Message of the Twightwees to 8 Message of the Picts and Win-
Dinwiddie, 21 June, 1752. daws to Dinwiddie.

VOL. IV. 7

98 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, meanly avaricious and spiritless, was too prejudiced to
v^_ gather round liim willingly the ablest statesmen, and
17 52- cared more for Hanover than for America. His min-
isters were intent only on keeping in power. " To be
well together with Lady Yarmouth," Pelham wrote,
" is the best ground to stand on." * " If the good -will
of the king's mistress," continued England's primo-
minister to its principal secretary of state, M if that
shakes, we have no resource." The whig aristocracy
had held exclusive possession of the government for
nearly forty years ; its authority was now culminating ;
and it had nothing better to offer the British people,
than an administration which openly spoke of seats in
parliament as "a marketable commodity," 2 and gov-
erned the king by paying court to his vices.

The heir to the throne was a boy of fourteen, of
whose education royalists and the more liberal aristo-
cracy were disputing the charge. His birth was
probably premature, as it occurred within less than
ten months of that of his oldest sister ; and his organi-
zation was marked by a nervous irritability, whicl
increased with years. " He shows no disposition
any great excess," said Dodington to his mother.
" He is a very honest boy," answered the princess,
who still wished him " more forward and less childish."
" The young people of quality," she added, " are s<
ill educated and so very vicious, that they frightei
me ;" and she secluded her son from their society
The prince, from his own serious nature, favored this
retirement ; when angry, he would hide his passion in tbi
solitude of his chamber; and as he grew up, his strid

1 Pelham to Newcastle, 12-24 8 Bubb Dodington's Diary.
October, 1752, in Coxe's Pelham,
Ad. ii. 463.

AMERICA DISREGARDS ARBITRARY INSTRUCTIONS. 99

sobriety and also his constitutional fondness for domes- chap.

IV.

tic life were alike observable. He never loved study ; ^^
but when he excused his want of application as idle- 1752.
ness, " Yours," retorted Scott, " is not idleness ; you
must not call being asleep all day being idle." 1 " I
really do not well know," said his mother,2 " what his
preceptors teach him ; but, to speak freely, I am afraid
not much ;" and she thought logic, in which the
1 >ishop, his tutor, instructed him, " a very odd study
for a child of his condition." " I do not much regard
books," rejoined her adviser, Dodington ; " but his
Royal Highness should be informed of the general
frame of this government and constitution, and the
general course of business." " I am of your opinion,"
answered the princess ; " and Stone tells me, upon
those subjects the prince seems to give a proper atten-
tion, and make pertinent remarks." " I know no-
thing," she added, " of the Jacobitism attempted to
be instilled into the child; I cannot conceive what
they mean ;" for to a German princess the supremacy
of regal authority seemed a tenet very proper to be
inculcated. But Lord Harcourt, the governor, "com-
plained strongly to the king, that dangerous notions
and arbitrary principles were instilled into the prince ;
that he could be of no use, unless the instillers of that
doctrine, Stone, Cresset, and Scott, were dismissed ;"
and the Earl of Waldegrave, Harcourt's successor,
" found Prince George uncommonly full of princely pre-
judices, contracted in the nursery, and improved by the /
Bociety of bed-chamber women, and pages of the back *
Stairs. A. right system of education seemed impracti-
cable."8

1 Waldegrave's Memoirs. 8 Waldegrave's Memoirs.

2 Dodinsjton's Diary.

100 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. Neither the king nor the court of the Prince of
^^, Wales was, therefore, ready to heed the communica-
1753. tion of Dinwiddie; but it found the Lords of Trade
bent on sustaining the extended limits of America.
In the study of the "Western World no one of them
was so persevering and indefatigable as Charles Town •
shend. The elaborate memorial on the limits of
Acadia, delivered in Paris, by the English commis-
sioners, in January, 1753, was entirely his work,1 and,
though unsound in its foundation, won for him great
praise 2 for research and ability. He now joined with
his colleagues in advising the secretary of state to the
immediate occupation of the eastern bank of the Ohio,
lest the valley of the " beautiful river " should be
gained by France.

Many proposals, too, were " made for laying taxes
on North America." The Board of Trade had not
ceased to be urgent "for a revenue with which to
fix settled salaries on the Northern governors, and
defray the cost of Indian alliances." u Persons of con-
sequence," we are told, " had repeatedly, and without
concealment, expressed undigested notions of raising
revenues out of the colonies."3 Some proposed to
obtain them from the post-office, a modification of the
acts of trade, and a general stamp act for America.4
With Pelham's concurrence, the Board of Trade5 ou

1 Reply of the English Cora- « Political Register, i. 248. The
missaries, in All the Memorials, &c. paper, here referred to, mixes error
Note to page 195. Jasper Mau- with much that is confirmed from
duit to the Speaker of the Massa- more trustworthy sources,
chusetts Assembly, 12 March, 1763. 5 Walpole's Memoirs of George

2 North Briton, No. 20. II. Letter of Wm. Bollan, of

3 Thomas Penn to James Ham- Charles, the New York Agent of
ilt.on, 9 January, 1753. Wm. Bol- the Proprietary of Pennsylvania.
Ian to Secretary Willard, 10 July,
1752, and 24 May, 1753.

AFRICA DISREGARDS ARBITRARY INSTRUCTIONS. 101

the eighth day of March, 1753, announced to the chap.
House of Commons the want of a colonial revenue ; ^^L,
as the first expedient, it was proposed to abolish the 1758.
export duty in the British West Indies, from which
no revenue accrued ; and with a slight discrimination
in their favor, to substitute imposts on all West In-
dian produce brought into the northern colonies.
This project was delayed at that time for the purpose
of inquiries, that were to serve to adjust its details ;
but the measure itself was already looked upon as the
determined policy of Great Britain.

Meantime the Indians of Ohio were growing
weary with the indecision of England and its colo-
nies. A hundred of them, at Winchester, in 1753,
renewed to Virginia the proposal for an English
fort on the Ohio, and promised aid in repelling the
French.1 They repaired to Pennsylvania with the
same message, and were met by evasions.

The ministry which had, from the first, endeavored
to put upon America the expenses of Indian treaties
and of colonial defence, continued to receive early
and accurate intelligence from Dinwiddie.2 The sys-
tem they adopted gave evidence not only of the reck-
less zeal of the Lords of Trade to extend the jurisdic-
tion of Great Britain beyond the Alleghanies, but
also of the imbecility of the cabinet. The king in
council, swayed by the representations of the Board,
decided, that the valley of the Ohio was in the west-
ern part of the colony of Virginia; and that "the
march of certain Europeans to erect a fort in parts"
claimed to be of his dominions, was to be resisted as

1 Dinwiddie to Glen of S. C. 2 Lieutenant Gov. Dinwiddie to
23 Ma.y, 1753. Lords of Trade, 16 June, 1753.

102 THE AMEKICAN KEVOLUTICXN".

chap, an act of hostility. Having thus invited a conflict
■ — ^ with France by instructions necessarily involving war,
1753. the cabinet took no effective measures to sustain the
momentous claims on which it solemnly resolved to
insist. The governor of Virginia was reminded of
the great number of men enrolled in the militia of that
province. These he was to draw forth in whole or in
part ; with their aid, and at the cost of the colony
itself, to build forts on the Ohio ; to keep the Indians
in subjection ; and to repel and drive out the French
by force. But neither troops, nor money, nor ships
of war were sent over ; nor was any thing, but a few
guns from the ordnance stores, contributed by Eng-
land. The Old Dominion was itself to make the con-
quest of the West. France was defied and attacked :
and no preparation was made beyond a secretary's
letters,1 and the king's instructions.2 A general but
less explicit circular was also sent to every one of the
colonies, vaguely requiring them to aid each other in
repelling all encroachments of France on "the undoubt-
ed"3 territory of England. Such was the mode
in which Holdernesse and Newcastle gave effect
to the intimations of the Board of Trade.

That Board, of itself, had as yet no access to the
king ; but still it assumed the direction of affairs in its
department. Busily persevering in the plan of reform-
ing the government of the colonies, it made one last
great effort to conduct the American administration
by means of the prerogative. New York remained

1 Earl of Holdernesse to Lieut. * Circular of Holdernesse to the

(iov. Dinwiddie, August, 1751. American Governors, 28 August,

8 Instructions to Lieut. Governor 1753.
Dinwiddie, August, 1753.

AMERICA DISREGARDS ARBITRARY INSTRUCTIONS. 103

the scene of the experiment, and Sir Dan vers Os- chap.
borne, brother-in-law to the Earl of Halifax, having t>v^
Thomas Pownall for his secretary, was commissioned 1753,
■8 its governor, with instructions which were princi-
pally "advised"1 by Halifax and Charles Townshend,
and were confirmed by the Privy Council,2 in the
presence of the king.

The new governor, just as he was embarking, was
also charged " to apply his thoughts very closely to
Indian affairs;1'3 and hardly had he sailed, when, in
September, the Lords of Trade directed commission-
el's from the northern colonies to meet the next sum-
mer at Albany, and make a common treaty with the
Six Nations. On the relations of France and Ens:-
land with those tribes and their Western allies,
hung the issues of universal peace and American
union.

During the voyage across the Atlantic, the agita-
ted mind of Osborne, already reeling with private
grief, brooded despondingly over the task he had as-
sumed. On the tenth of October, he took the oaths
of office at New York ; and the people who welcomed
him with acclamations, hooted his predecessor. "I
expect the like treatment," said he to Clinton, " be-
fore I leave the government." On the same day, he
was startled by an address from the city council,
who declared they would not " brook any infringe-
ment of their inestimable liberties, civil and religious."
On the next, he communicated to the Council his in-
structions, which required the Assembly " to recede
from all encroachments on the prerogative," and "to

Representation of Ilalifax and 8 Thomas Penn to James Ham*
Townshend, &c 5 July, 1753. ilton, 12 August, 1753.

8 Order in Council, 10 August,
1753.

104 THE AMEKICAN KEVOLUTION.

chap, consider, without delay, of a proper law for a perma-
^^ nent revenue, solid, definite, and without limitation."
175 3. All public money was to be applied by the governor's
warrant, with the consent of Council, and the Assem-
bly should never be allowed to examine accounts.
With a distressed countenance and a plaintive voice,
he asked if these instructions would be obeyed.1 All
agreed that the Assembly never would comply. He
sighed, turned about, reclined against the window-
frame, and exclaimed, " Then, why am I come here P
Being of morbid sensitiveness, honest, and scru-
pulous of his word, the unhappy man spent the night
in arranging his private affairs, and towards morning
hanged himself against the fence in the garden. Thus
was British authority surrendered by his despair.
His death left the government in the hands of James
Delancey, a man of ability and great possessions. A
native of New York, of Huguenot ancestry, he had
won his way to political influence as the leader of op-
position in the colonial Assembly ; and Newcastle had
endeavored to conciliate his neutrality by a commis-
sion as lieutenant-governor. He discerned, and acknow-
ledged, that the custom of annual grants could never
be surrendered. " Dissolve us as often as you will,"
said his old associates in opposition, " we will never
give it up." But they relinquished claims to executive
power, and consented that all disbursements of pub-
lic money should require the warrant of the governor
and council, except only for the payment of their own
clerk and their agent in England. Nor did public
opinion in Great Britain favor the instructions.
Charles Townshend was, indeed, ever ready to defend

1 Smith's History of New York, ii. 159, 160.

AMEKICA DISREGARDS ARBITRARY INSTRUCTIONS. 105

them to the last ; but to the younger Horace Walpole chap.
they seemed "better calculated for the latitude of ^^
Mexico and for a Spanish tribunal, than for free, rich 1753.
British settlements, in such opulence and haughtiness,
that suspicions had long been conceived of their
meditating to throw off their dependence on the
mother country.'

» i

Walpole's Memoires of George II.

CHAPTER V.

FRANKLIN PLANS UNION FOR THE AMERICAN FEOPLE.—
PELHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED.

1753—1754.

New York offered no resistance to the progress
of the French in America. From Virginia the Ohio
1753. Company, in 1753, opened a road by Will's Creek,
into the Western valley ; and Gist established a plan-
tation near the Youghiogeny, just beyond Laurel Hill.
Eleven families settled in his vicinity ; a town and fort
were marked out on Shurtee's Creek ; but the British
government did nothing to win the valley of the Ohio,
leaving the feeble company exposed to the wavering
jealousy of the red men, and without protection
against the impending encroachments of France.

The young men of the Six Nations had been
hunting, in April, near the rapids of the St. Law-
rence. Suddenly they beheld a large body of French
and Indians, equipped for war, marching towards On-
tario ; and their two fleetest runners hurried through
the forest as messengers to the grand council at Onon-
daga. In eight-and-forty hours the decision of the
council was borne by fresh posts to the nearest Eng-
lish station ; and on the nineteenth of April, at mid-
night, the two Indians from Canajoharie, escorted by

FRANKLIN PLANS UNION FOR TIIE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 107

Mohawk warriors, that filled the air with their whoops chap
{iiid haUoos, presented to Johnson the belt of warning ^^
which should urge the English to protect the Ohio 1758
Indians and the Miamis.1 In May more than thirty
canoes were counted as they passed Oswego; part of
an army going to "the Beautiful River" of the French.2
The Six Nations foamed with eagerness to take up the
hatchet; for, said they, " Ohio is ours."

On the report that a body of twelve hundred men
had been detached from Montreal, by the brave
Duquesne, the successor of La Jonquiere, to occupy
the Ohio valley, the Indians on the banks of that
river, — promiscuous bands of Delawares, Shawnees,
and J Lingoes, or emigrant Iroquois, — after a council
at Logstown, resolved to stay the progress of the
white men. Their envoy met the French, in April, at
Niagara, and gave them the first warning to turn
back. As the message sent from the council-fires of
the tribes was unheeded, Tanacharisson, the Half-King,
himself repaired to them at the newly discovered
harbor of Erie, and, undismayed by a rude reception,
delivered his speech.

" Fathers ! you are disturbers in this land, by
taking it away unknown to us and by force. This is
our land, and not yours. Fathers! both you and
the English are white ; we live in a country between.
Therefore the land belong to neither the one nor the
other of you. But the Great Being above allowed it to
be a dwelling-place for us ; so, Fathers, I desire you to
will id raw, as I have done our brothers, the English;"
and he gave the belt of wampum.

1 Col. Johnson to the Governor Mav, 1753. Holland to Clinton,
of New York, 20 April, 1753. 15 May, 1753. Smith to Shirley,

8 Stoddard to Johnson, 15 24 Decemher, 1753.

108 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION".

chap. The French officer treated with derision the sim-

v.
^^ pie words of the red chieftain of vagrants of the

1753. wilderness, men who belonged to no confederacy,
except as they were subordinate to the Six Nations.
" Child," he replied, " you talk foolishly ; you say this
land belongs to you ; but not so much of it as the
black of your nail is yours. It is my land ; and I
will have it, let who will stand up against it ;" and
he threw back the belt of wampum in token of con-
tempt.

The words of the French commander filled the
Half-King with dismay. In September, the mightiest
men of the Mingo clan, of the Delawares, the Shaw-
nees, the Wyandots, and the Miamis, met Franklin, of
Pennsylvania, with two colleagues, at Carlisle. They
wished neither French nor English to settle in their
country ; if the English would lend aid, they would
repel the French. The calm statesman distributed
presents to all, but especially gifts of condolence to
the tribe that dwelt at Picqua ; l and returning, he
made known that the French had successively estab-
lished posts at Erie, at Waterford, and at Venango,
and were preparing to occupy the banks of the Mo-
nongahela.

Sanctioned by the orders from the king, Dinwid-
die,2 of Virginia, resolved to send "a person of dis-
tinction to the commander of the French forces on
the Ohio River, to know his reasons for invading the
British dominions, while a solid peace subsisted."
The envoy whom he selected was George Washington.
The young man, then just twenty-one, a pupil of the

1 Hazard's Register, iv. 236.

~ Dinwiddie to Sharpe, of Maryland, 24 Nov., 1753.

FRANKLIN PLAIN'S UNION FOE TILE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 109

wilderness, and as heroic as La Salle, entered with chap

.v.
alacrity on the perilous winter's journey from Wil- ^^1^

liamsburg to the streams of Lake Erie. 1753.

In the middle of November, with an interpreter
and four attendants, and Christopher Gist, as a guide,
lie left Will's Creek, and following the Indian trace
through forest solitudes, gloomy with the fallen leaves
aud solemn sadness of late autumn, across mountains,
rocky ravines, and streams, through sleet and snows,
he rode in nine days to the fork of the Ohio. How
lonely was the spot, where, so long unheeded of men,
the rapid Alleghany met nearly at right angles " the
deep and still " water of the Monongahela ! At once
Washington foresaw the destiny of the place. " I
spent some time," said he, u in viewing the rivers f
" the land in the Fork has the absolute command of
both." " The flat, well timbered land all around the
point lies very convenient for building." After
creating in imagination a fortress and a city, he and
his paily swam their horses across the Alleghany, and
wrapt their blankets around them for the night, on its
northwest bank.

From the Fork the chief of the Delawares con-
ducted Washington through rich alluvial fields to the
pleasing valley at Logstown. There deserters from
Louisiana discoursed of the route from New Orleans to
Quebec, by way of the Wabash and the Maumee, and
of a detachment from the lower province on its way
to meet the French troops from Lake Erie, while
Washington held close colloquy with the Half-King ;
the one anxious to gain the West as a part of the ter-
ritory of the Ancient Dominion, the other to preserve
it for the red men. " We are brothers," said the Half
King in council ; " we are one people ; I will send back

I

110 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION".

chap, the French speech-belt, and will make the Shawnees

^^, and the Delawares do the same."

1753. On the night of the twenty-ninth of Novembe
the council-fire was kindled ; an aged orator was
selected to address the French ; the speech which he
was to deliver was debated and rehearsed; it was
agreed, that, unless the French would heed this third
warning to quit the land, the Delawares also would be
their enemies ; and a very large string of black and
white wampum was sent to the Six Nations as a
prayer for aid.

After these preparations the party of Washington,
attended by the Half-King, and envoys of the Dela-
wares, moved onwards to the post of the French at
Venango. The officers there avowed the purpose of
taking possession of the Ohio ; and they mingled the
praises of La Salle with boasts of their forts at Le
Bceuf and Erie, at Niagara, Toronto, and Frontenac.
" The English," said they, " can raise two men to our
one ; but they are too dilatory to prevent any enter-
prise of ours." The Delawares were intimidated or
debauched ; but the Half-King clung to Washington
like a brother, and delivered up his belt as he had
promised.

The rains of December had swollen the creeks.
The messengers could pass them only by felling trees
for bridges. Thus they proceeded, now killing a
buck and now a bear, delayed by excessive rains and
snows, by mire and swamps, while' Washington's quick
eye discerned all the richness of the meadows.

At Waterford, the limit of his journey, he found
Fort Le Bceuf defended by cannon. Around it stood
the barracks of the soldiers, rude log-cabins, roofed
with bark. Fifty birch-bark canoes, and one hun-

FRANKLIN PLANS UNION FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Ill

dred and seventy boats of pine were already prepared cnAi\

for the descent of the river, and materials were col- , , L_

lected for building more. The commander, Gardeur 1758,
do St. Pierre, an officer of integrity1 and experience,
and, for his dauntless courage, both feared and be-
loved by the red men, refused to discuss questions of
right. "I am here," said he, "by the orders of my
general, to which I shall conform with exactness and
i esolution." And he avowed his purpose of seizing
every Englishman within the Ohio valley. France
was resolved on possessing the great territory which
her missionaries and travellers had revealed to the
world.

Breaking away from courtesies, Washington has-
tened homewards to Virginia. The rapid current of
French Creek dashed his party against rocks; in
shallow places they waded, the water congealing on
their clothes ; where the ice had lodged in the bend
of the rivers, they carried their canoe across the neck.
At Venango, they found their horses, but so weak,
the travellers went still on foot, heedless of the storm.
The cold increased very fast ; the paths grew " worse
by a deep snow continually freezing." Impatient to
get back with his despatches, the young envoy, wrap-
ping himself in an Indian dress, with gun in hand
and pack on his back, the day after Christmas quitted
the usual path, and, with Gist for his sole companion,
by aid of the compass, steered the nearest way across
the country for the Fork. An Indian, who had lain
in wait for him, fired at him from not fifteen steps'
distance, but, missing him, became his prisoner. " I
would have killed him," wrote Gist, u but Washing*

1 La Galissoniere to- the minister, 23 Oct. 1748.

112 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, ton forbade. Dismissing their captive at night, they
. — , — - walked about hall' a mile, then kindled a fire, fixed

1753. their course by the compass, and continued travel-
ling all night, and all the next day, till quite dark.
Not till then did the weary wanderers " think them-
selves safe enough to sleep," and they encamped, with
no shelter but the leafless forest-tree.

On reaching the Alleghany, with one poor hatchet
and a whole day's work, a raft was constructed and
launched. But before they were half over the river,
they were caught in the running ice, expecting every
moment to be crushed, unable to reach either shore.
Putting out the setting-pole to stop the raft, Wash-
ington was jerked into the deep water, and saved
himself only by grasping at the raft-logs. They were
obliged to make for an island. There lay Washing-
ton, imprisoned by the elements ; but the late De-
cember night was intensely cold, and in the morning
he found the river frozen. Not till he reached Gist's

1754. settlement, in January, 1754, were his toils lightened.

Washington's report was followed by immediate
activity. The Ohio Company agreed to build a fort
at the Fork, and he himself was stationed at Alexan-
dria to enlist recruits. In February, the General
Assembly,1 unwilling to engage with France, yet
ready to protect the settlers beyond the mountains,
agreed to borrow ten thousand pounds, taking care
to place the disbursement of the money under the
superintendence of their own committee. "The
House of Burgesses," Dinwiddie complained, " were
in a republican way of thinking ;" but he confessed

1 Herring's Statutes at large, vi. 417.

FRANKLIN PLANS UNION FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 113

himself unable " to bring them to order." The As- chap.

v
sembly of Virginia, pleading their want of means, ^^^

single-handed, " to answer all the ends designed," ap- 1754.
pealed to the " royal beneficence." '

In England, it was the " opinion of the greatest
men," that the colonies should do something for
themselves, and contribute jointly towards their de-
fence.2 The ministry as yet did nothing but order
the independent companies, stationed at New York
and at Charleston, to take part in defence of Western
Virginia. Glen, the governor of South Carolina, pro-
posed a meeting, in Virginia, of all the continental
governors, to adjust a quota from each colony, to be
employed on the Ohio. " The Assembly of this Do-
minion," observed Dinwiddie,8 " will not be directed
what supplies to grant, and will always be guided by
their own free determinations ; they would think it
an insult on their privileges, that they are so veiy
fond of, to be under any restraint or direction."
North Carolina voted twelve thousand pounds of its
paper money for the service ; yet little good came of
it. Maryland accomplished nothing, for it coupled its
offers of aid with a diminution of the privileges of the
proprietary.4

Massachusetts saw the French taking post on its
eastern frontier, and holding Crown Point on the
northwest. The province had never intrusted its
affairs to so arbitrary5 a set of men, as the Council
and Assembly of that day. They adopted the re-
Virginia Address to the King. 8 Dinwiddie to H. Sharpe, 8
Knox, Controversy Reviewed, 129, April, 1754.

180. 4 H. Sharpe to Lord Baltimore,

a Penn to Hamilton, 29 Jan. 2 May, 1754. Same to C. Calvert
1754. H. Sharpe to Calvert, Se- 29 Nov. 1753. 3 May, 1754.
eretary fur Maryland in England, 6 Opinion of Samuel Adams.

& May, 1754.

vol. iv. 8

114 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

crap, commendations of Hutchinson and Oliver. "The
^^w French," said they, " have but one interest ; the Eng-
1754. hsh governments are disunited; some of them have
their frontiers covered by their neighboring govern-
ments, and, not being immediately affected, seem un-
concerned." They therefore solicited urgently the
interposition of the king, that the French forts within
his territories might be removed. " We are very
sensible," 1 they added, " of the necessity of the colo-
nies affording each other mutual assistance ; and we
make no doubt but this province will, at all times,
with great cheerfulness, furnish their just and reason-
able quota towards it." Shirley was at hand to make
the same use of this message, as of a similar petition six
years before. But his influence was become greater.
He had conducted the commission for adjusting the
line of boundary with France, had propitiated the
ftivor of Halifax and Cumberland by flattery, and had
been made acquainted with the designs of the Board
of Trade. His counsels, which were now, in some
sense, the echo of the thoughts of his superiors, were
sure to be received with deference, and to be
cited as conclusive; and he repeatedly assured the
ministry, that unless the king should himself deter-
mine for each colony the quota of men or money,
which it should contribute to the common cause, and
unless the colonies should be obliged, in some effectual
manner, to conform to that determination, there could .
be no general plan for the defence of America.
Without such a settlement, and a method to enforce
it, there could be no union.2 Thus was the opinion,

1 Message from the General January, 1754. The day of the

Assembly of Massachusetts Bay to month is not given. Referred to

Governor Shirley, 4 January, 1754. the Secretary, to be laid before the

a Shirley to the Lords of Trade, King, 4 April, 1754.

1754.

FRANK LEN" PLANS UNION FOR TILE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 115

which was one day to lead to momentous conse-
quences, more and more definitively formed.

Pennsylvania, like Maryland, fell into a strife with
the proprietaries, and, incensed at their parsimony,
the province, at that time, perfected no grant, al-
though the French were within its borders, and were
preparing to take possession of all that part of it that
lay west of the Alleghany. Ignorant of the unequiv-
ocal orders to Virginia, they seized on the strict in-
junctions of Holdernesse, in his circular, " not to
make use of armed force, excepting within the un-
doubted limits of his Majesty's dominions ;" of which
they thought "it would be highly presumptuous in
them to judge."

In April, the Assembly of New York voted a
thousand pounds to Virginia, but declined assisting
to repel the French from a post which lay within the
proprietary domain of Pennsylvania.1 The Assembly
of New Jersey would not even send commissioners to
the congress at Albany. In the universal reluctance
of the single colonies, all voices began to demand a
union. "A gentle land-tax," said Kennedy, through
the press of New York and of London, " a gentle
land-tax, being the most equitable, must be our last
resort." He looked forward with hope to the con-
gress at Albany, but his dependence was on the par-
liament ; for u with parliament there would be no
contending. And when their hands are in," he
added, " who knows but that they may lay the foun-
dation of a regular government amongst us, by fixing

1 New York Assembly Journals for April, 1754. Smith's New
York, ii. 173.

116 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, a support for the officers of the crown, independent of

.>*-,_■. an assembly V*

1754. James Alexander, of New York,2 the same who,
with the elder William Smith, had limited the pre-
rogative, by introducing the custom of granting but
an annual support, thought that the British parlia-
ment should establish the duties for a colonial reve-
nue, which the future American Grand Council, to be
composed of deputies from all the provinces, should
have no power to diminish. The royalist, Colden,
saw no mode of obtaining the necessary funds but by
parliamentary taxation ; the members of the Grand
Council, unless removable by the crown, might be-
come dangerous. The privilege of fixed meetings at
stated times and places, was one which neither the
parliament nor the Privy Council enjoyed, and would
tend to subvert the constitution. England, he was
assured, "will, and can, keep its colonies dependent."
But Franklin looked for greater liberties than such as
the British parliament might inaugurate. Having for
his motto, " Join or die," he busied himself in sketch-
ing to his friends the outline of a confederacy which
should truly represent the whole American people.

Dinwiddie was all the while persevering in his
plans at the West. Trent was already there ; and
Washington, now a lieutenant-colonel, with a regi-
ment of but one hundred and fifty " self-willed, un-
governable" men, was ordered to join him at the
fork of the Ohio, " to finish the fort already begun
there by the Ohio Company ;" and u to make prison-
ers, kill, or destroy all who interrupted the English
settlements."

1 Kennedy's Serious Considera- 2 T. Sedgwick's Life of W. Liv-
tions, 21, 23, &c. ingston.

FRANKLIN" PLANS UNION FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 117

But as soon as spring opened the Western rivers, chap.
and before Washington could reach Will's Creek, the ^^
French, led by Contrecceur, came down from Venan- 1754.
go, and summoned the English at the Fork to surren-
der. Only thirty-three in number, they, on the sev-
enteenth of April, capitulated and withdrew. Con-
trecceur occupied the post, which he fortified, and,
from the governor of New France, named Duquesne.
The near forest-trees were felled and burned ; cabins
of bark, for barracks, were built round the fort, and
at once, among the charred stumps, wheat and maize
sprung up on the scorched fields where now is
Pittsburgh.

" Come to our assistance as soon as you can f
such was the message sent by the Half-King's wam-
pum to Washington ; " come soon, or we are lost, and
shall never meet again. I speak it in the grief of my
heart." And a belt in reply announced the approach
of the Half-King's "brother and friend." The raw
recruits, led by their young commander, could ad-
vance but slowly, fording deep streams, and painfully
dragging their few cannon. In the cold and wet sea-
son, they were without tents or shelter from the wea-
ther ; without a supply of clothes ; often in want of
provisions; without any thing to make the service
agreeable. On the twenty-fifth of May, the wary
Half-King sent word, " Be on your guard ; the
French army intend to strike the first English whom
they shall see."

The same day, another report came, that the
French were but eighteen miles distant, at the
crossing of the Youghiogeny. Washington hurried
to the Great Meadows, where, u with nature's assist-

118 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, aiice, he made a good intrenchment, and, by clearing
v_y_, the bushes out of the meadows, prepared" what
1754. he called "a chairning field for an encounter." A
small, light detachment, sent out on wagon-horses to
reconnoitre, returned without being able to find any
one. By the rules of wilderness warfare, a party that
skulks and hides is an enemy. At night the little
army was alarmed, and remained under arms from
two o'clock till near sunrise. On the morning of
the twenty-seventh, Gist arrived. He had seen the
trail of the French within five miles of the American
camp.

In the evening of that day, about nine o'clock,
an express came from the Half-King, that the armed
body of the French was not far off. Through a heavy
rain, in a night as dark as can be conceived, with but
forty men, marching in single file along a most nar-
row trace, Washington made his way to the camp of
the Half-King. After council, it was agreed to go
hand in hand, and strike the invaders. Two Indians,
following the trail of the French, discovered their
lodgment, away from the path, concealed among
rocks. With the Mingo chiefs Washington made
arrangements to come upon them by surprise. Per-
ceiving the English approach, they ran to seize their
arms. " Fire !" said Washington, and, with his own
musket, gave the example. That word of command
kindled the world into a flame. It was the signal for
the first great war of revolution. There, in the
Western forest, began the battle which was to banish
from the soil and neighborhood of our republic the
institutions of the Middle Age, and to inflict on them
fatal wounds throughout the continent of Europe. In
repelling France from the basin of the Ohio, Wash-

FRANKLIN PLANS UNION FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 119

ington broke the repose of mankind, and waked a chap.
struggle, which could admit only of a truce, till the ^^
ancient bulwarks of Catholic legitimacy were thrown 1754.
down.

An action of about a quarter of an hour ensued.
Ten of the French were killed ; among them Jumon-
ville, the commander of the party; and twenty-one
Were made prisoners.

When the tidings of this affray crossed the Atlan-
tic, the name of Washington was, for the first time,
heard in the saloons of Paris. The partisans of abso-
lute monarchy pronounced it with execration. They
foreboded the loss of the Western World ; and the
flatterers of Louis the Fifteenth and of Madame Pom-
padour, the high-born panders to royal lust, out-
raged the fair fame of the spotless hero as a violator
of the laws of nations. What courtier, academician, or
palace menial would have exchanged his hope of fame
with that of the calumniated American ? The death
of Jumonville became the subject for loudest com-
plaint; this martyr to the cause of feudalism and
despotism was celebrated in heroic verse, and conti-
nents were invoked to weep for his fall. And at
the very time when the name of Washington became
known to France, the child was just born who was
one day to stretch out his hand for the relief of
America and the triumph of popular power and free-
dom. How many defeated interests bent over the
grave of Jumonville ! How many hopes clustered
round the cradle of the infant Louis ! 1

1 See the last part of the last est Thomme de cour on d'Acade-

voiume of Chateaubriand's Etudes niie, qui auroit voulu changer k

Historiques, the Analyse Raison- cette i poque son nom coutre celui

nee de Tilistoire de France. Quel de ce plauteur Anitricain, &c. &c.

120 THE AMEBIC AN KE VOLUTION.

chap. The dead were scalped by the Indians, and the

^^L^ chieftain, Monacawache, bore a scalp and a hatchet to

1754 each of the tribes of the Miamis, inviting their great

war-chiefs and braves to go hand in hand with the

Six Nations and the English.

While Washington was looking wistfully for aid
from the banks of the Muskingum, the Miami, and
the Wabash, from Maryland and Pennsylvania, and
from all the six provinces to which appeals had been
made, no relief arrived. An independent company
came, indeed, from South Carolina ; but its captaiu,
proud of his commission from the king, weakened the
little army by wrangling for precedence over the
provincial commander of the Virginia regiment ; and
it is the sober judgment of the well-informed,1 that,
if Washington had remained undisputed chief, the
defeat that followed would have been avoided. While
he, with his Virginians, constructed a road for about
thirteen miles through the gorge in the mountains to
Gist's settlement, and a party was clearing a path as
far as the mouth of the Redstone, the Half-King saw
with anger that the independent company remained in
idleness at Great Meadows " from one full moon to the
other ;" 2 and, foreboding evil, he removed his wife
and children to a place of safety.

The numbers of the French were constantly in-
creasing. Washington, whom so many colonies had
been vainly solicited to succor, was, on the first day
of July, compelled to fall back upon Fort Necessity.
the rude stockade at Great Meadows. The royal
troops had done nothing to make it tenable. The
little intrenchment was in a glade between two emi-

1 Lieut. Gov. Sharpe to Lord 8 Hazard's Register,
Bury, 5 November, 1754.

FTCAJTCLIN PLANS UNION FOE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 121

nences covered with trees, except within sixty yards chap
of it. On the third day of July, about noon, six ^^
hundred French, with one hundred Indians, came1 in 1754,
sight, and took possession of one of the eminences,
where every soldier found a large tree for his shelter,
and could fire in security on the troops beneath. For
nine hours, in a heavy rain, the fire was returned.
The tranquil courage of Washington spread its influ-
ence through the raw provincial levies, so inferior to
the French in numbers and in position. At last,2 after
thirty of the English, and but three of the French
had been killed, De Villiers himself fearing his ammu-
nition would give out, proposed a parley. The terms
of capitulation which were offered were interpreted
to Washington, who did not understand French, and,
as interpreted, were accepted. On the fourth day of
July, the English garrison, retaining all its effects,
withdrew from the basin of the Ohio. In the whole
valley of the Mississippi, to its head-springs in the
Alleghanies, no standard floated but that of France.

Hope might dawn from Albany. There, on the
nineteenth day of June, 1754, assembled the mem-
orable congress 3 of commissioners from every colony
north of the Potomac. The Virginia government,
too, was represented by the presiding officer, Delan-
cey, the lieutenant-governor of New York. They
met to concert measures of defence, and to treat with
the Six Nations and the tribes in their alliance.
America had never seen an assembly so venerable for

1 Journal of De Villiers in New 8 II. Sharpe to his Brother,
Yoik Paris Documents. Varin to Annapolis, 19 April, 1755.
Bigot, 24 July, 1754. Correspond- 3 Massachusetts Historical Col-
cnce of H. Sharpe lections, xxx. New York Docu-

mentary History, ii.

1754.

122 THE AMERICAN KE VOLUTION.

the States that were represented, or for the great and
able men who composed it. Every voice declared a
union of all the colonies to be absolutely necessary.
And, as a province might recede at will from an
unratified covenant, the experienced Hutchinson, of
Massachusetts, proud of having rescued that colony
from thraldom to paper money, Hopkins, a patriot of
Rhode Island, the wise and faithful Pitkin, of Con-
necticut, Tasker, of Maryland, the' liberal Smith, of
New York, and Franklin, the most benignant of
statesmen, were deputed to prepare a constitution for
a perpetual confederacy of the continent ; but Frank-
lin had already " projected" a plan, and had brought
the heads of it with him.1

The representatives of the Six Nations assembled
tardily, but urged union and action. They accepted
the tokens of peace. They agreed to look upon
" Virginia and Carolina" as also present. " We thank
you," said Hendrick, the great Mohawk chief, " we
thank you for renewing and brightening the covenant
chain. We will take this belt to Onondaga, where
our council-fire always burns, and keep it so securely
that neither the thunderbolt nor the lightning shall
break it. Strengthen yourselves, and bring as many
as you can into this covenant chain." " You desired
us to open our minds and hearts to you," added the
indignant brave. " Look at the French ; they are men ;
they are fortifying every where. But, we are ashamed
to say it, you are like women, without any fortifica-
tions. It is but one step from Canada hither, and the
French may easily come and turn you out of doors.''

The distrust of the Six Nations was still stronger

1 Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, iii. 21.

1754.

FRANKLIN' PLANS UNION FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 123

tli an was expressed. Though presents in unusual cn^p-
abundance had been provided, and a general invita-
tion had been given, but one hundred and fifty war-
riors appeared. Half of the Onandagas had with-
drawn, and joined the settlement formed at Oswegat-
chie under French auspices. Even Mohawks went to
the delegates from Massachusetts to complain of
fraudulent transfers of their soil, — that the ground
on which they slept, and where burned the fires by
which they sat, had never been sold, but had yet been
surveyed and stolen from them in the night.1 The
lands on the Ohio they called their own ; and as Con-
necticut was claiming a part of Pennsylvania, because
by its charter its jurisdiction extended west to the
Pacific, they advised the respective claimants to
remain at peace.

The red men having held their last council, and
the congress, by its president, having spoken to them
farewell, the discussion of the federative compact was
renewed, and the project of Franklin being accepted,
he was deputed alone to make a draught of it. On
the tenth day of July, he produced the finished plan
of perpetual union, which was read paragraph by
paragraph, and debated all day long.

The seat of the proposed federal government
was to be Philadelphia, a central city, which it was
thought could be reached even from New Hampshire
or South Carolina in fifteen or twenty days. The
constitution was a compromise between the preroga-
tive and popular power. The king was to name and
to support a governor-general, who should have a nega-

1 Alexander Colden to C. Colden, July, 1754.

124 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, tive on all laws ; the people of the colonies, through
w^_ their legislatures, were to elect triennially a grand
1754. council, which alone could originate bills. Each colony
was to send a number of members in proportion to
its contributions, yet not less than two, nor more than
seven. The governor-general was to nominate mili
tary officers, subject to the advice of the council,
which, in turn, was to nominate all civil officers. No
money was to be issued but by their joint order.
Each colony was to retain its domestic constitution;
the federal government was to regulate all relations of
peace or war with the Indians, affairs of trade, and
purchases of lands not within the bounds of particular
colonies ; to establish, organize, and temporarily to
govern new settlements ; to raise soldiers, and equip
vessels of force on the seas, rivers, or lakes ; to make
laws, and levy just and equal taxes. The grand coun-
cil were to meet once a year, to choose their own
speaker, and neither to be dissolved nor prorogued,
nor continue sitting longer than six weeks at any one
time, but by their own consent.

The warmest friend of union and "the principal
hand in forming the plan," * was Benjamin Franklin.
He encountered a great deal of disputation about it ;
almost every article being contested by one or ano-
ther.2 His warmest supporters were the delegates
from New England ; yet Connecticut feared the
negative power of the governor-general. On the roy-
alist side none opposed but Delancey. He would have
reserved to the colonial governors a negative on all
elections to the grand council; but it was ausweied,

1 Shirley to Sir Thomas Robin- 2 MS. Letter from Benjamin
son, 24 December, 1754. Franklin, of 21 July, 1754.

FUANKLTNT PLANS UNION FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 125

that tlie colonies would then be virtually taxed by a crap.
congress of governors. The sources of revenue sug- ^^

ted in debate were a duty on spirits and a gene- 1754.
ral stamp-tax.1 At length after much debate, in which
Franklin manifested consummate address, the commis-
sioners agreed on the proposed confederacy " pretty
unanimously." " It is not altogether to my mind,"
said Franklin," giving an account of the result; "but
it is as I could get it," 2 and copies were ordered, that
every member might " lay the plan of union before his
constituents for consideration ;" a copy was also to be
transmitted to the governor of each colony not repre-
sented in the congress.

New England colonies in their infancy had given
birth to a confederacy. William Penn, in 1697, had
proposed an annual congress of a]l the provinces on
the continent of America, with power to regulate com-
merce. Franklin revived the great idea, and breathed
into it enduring life. As he descended the Hudson,
the people of New York thronged about him to wel-
come him ; 8 and he, who had first entered their city
as a runaway apprentice, was revered as the mover of
American union.

Yet the system was not altogether acceptable
either to Great Britain or to America. The fervid at-
tachment of each colony to its own individual liberties
repelled the overruling influence of a central power.
Connecticut rejected it ; even New York showed it
little favor ; Massachusetts charged her agent to op-

1 Smith's New York, ii. 185. July, 1754. " Gentlemen have, for

Gordon's History of the American this hour past, been going in and

Revolution, i. coming out from paying their com-

MS. Letter of Franklin. pliments to Mr. Franklin."

8 Letter from New York, 17

I

126 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, pose it.1 The Board of Trade, on receiving the
^^1^ minutes of the congress, were astonished at a plan of
1754. general government "complete in itself.2 Reflecting
men in England dreaded American union as the key-
stone of independence.

But in the mind of Franklin the love for union
assumed still more majestic proportions, and com pre
hended " the great country back of the Apalachian
mountains." He directed attention to the extreme
richness of its land ; the healthy temperature of its
air ; the mildness of the climate ; and the vast con-
venience of inland navigation by the Lakes and great
rivers. " In less than a century," said he with the
gift of prophecy, "it must undoubtedly become a
populous and powerful dominion." And through
Thomas Pownall, who had been present at Albany
during the deliberations of the congress, he advised
the immediate organization of two new colonies in
the west; with powers of self-direction and govern-
ment like those of Connecticut and Rhode Island:
the one on Lake Erie ; the other in the valley of the
Ohio, with its capital on the banks of the Scioto.

Thus did the freedom of the American colonies,
their union, and their extension through the west, be-
come the three great objects of the remaining years of
Franklin. Heaven, in its mercy, gave the illustrious
statesman length of days, so that he lived to witness
the fulfilment of his hopes in all their grandeur.

1 Massachusetts to Bollan, 31 Trade, 29 October, 1754, in Planta-
December, 1754. tions Gen. B. 7. xlii. ; and at Albany

8 Representation of the Board of London Documents, xxxi. 64.

CHAPTER VI.

THE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES.— NEWCASTLE'S
ADMINISTRATION.

1754.

In 1754 David Hume, whose penetrating mind chap
had discovered the hollowness of the prevailing systems v^^
of thought in Europe, yet without offering any better 1754.
substitute in philosophy than a selfish ideal skepticism,
or hoping for any other euthanasia to the British
constitution than its absorption in monarchy, said of
America in words which he never need have erased,
and in a spirit which he never disavowed, " The seeds
of many a noble state have been sown in climates,
kept desolate by the wild manners of the ancient in-
habitants, and an asylum is secured in that solitary
world for liberty and science." The thirteen Ameri-
can colonies, of which the union was projected, con-
tained, at that day, about one million one hundred and
sixty-five thousand white inhabitants, and two hun-
dred sixty-three thousand negroes ; in all, one million
four hundred and twenty-eight thousand souls. The
Hoard of Trade * sometimes reckoned a few thousands

1 The representation of the Board eluded Nova Scotia, and according
to the king, founded in part on mus- to the authority of Chalmers in
ter-rolls and returns of taxables, in- the History of the Revolt, estimated

128

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, more; and some, on revising their judgment, stated

^^_ the amount at less.

1754. Of persons of European ancestry, perhaps fifty
thousand dwelt in New Hampshire, two hundred and
seven thousand in Massachusetts, thirty-five thousand
in Rhode Island, and one hundred and thirty-three
thousand in Connecticut; in New England, therefore,
four hundred and twenty-five thousand souls.

Of the Middle Colonies, New York may have had
eighty-five thousand ; New Jersey, seventy-three thou-

the population of British
nental America, in 1754, at
1,192,896 whites,
292,738 blacks,

Conti-

1,485,634 souls.
Thomas Pownall, whose brother was
secretary to the Board of Trade,
adhering more closely to the lists
as they were made out, states the
amount, for the thirteen colonies,
at 1,250,000. See A Memorial most
humbly addressed to the sovereigns
of Europe on the present state of
affairs between the Old and the
New World. The Report of the
Board of Trade on the 29 August,
1755, constructed in part from
conjecture, makes the whole num-
ber of white inhabitants, 1,062,-
000. Shirley, in a letter to Sir
Thomas Robinson, 15 August, 1755,

writes that "the inhabitants may
be now set at 1,200,000 whites at
least." The estimate in the text
rests on the consideration of many
details and opinions of that day,
private journals and letters, re-
ports to the Board of Trade, and
official papers of the provincial
governments. Nearly all are im-
perfect. The greatest discrepancy
in judgments relates to' Pennsylva-
nia and the Carolinas. lie who
like II. C. Carey, in his Principles
of Political Economy, part iii. 25,
will construct retrospectively gene-
ral tables from the rule of increase
in America, since 1790, will err
very little. From many returns
and computations I deduce the an-
nexed table, as some approximation
to exactness.

POPULATION

OF THE UNITED

STATES, FEOM

1750 to 1790.

White.

Black.

Total

1750,

1,040,000,

220,000,

1,260,000.

1754,

1,165,000,

260,000,

1,425,000.

1760,

1,385,000,

310,000,

1,695,000.

1770,

1,850,000,

462,000,

2,312,000.

1780,

2,383,000,

562,000,

2,945,000.

1790,

3,177,257,

752,069,

3,929,326.

Tho estimates

of the Board

of

that of

George the Second, and

Trade in 1714,

on the accession

in 1754,

were

, according to Glial-

of George the First, in 1727,

on

mers,

White.

Black.

• Total

1714,

375,750,

58,850,

434,600.

1727,

502,000,

78,000,

580,000.

1764,

1,192,896,

292,738,

1,485,634.

THE OLD THIKTEEN COLONIES, 129

sand ; Pennsylvania, with Delaware, one hundred and chap
ninety-five thousand; Maryland, one hundred and four ^^
thousand; in all, not far from four hundred and fifty- 17 54.
seven thousand.

For the Southern Provinces, where the mild climate
invited emigrants to the inland glades, — where the
crown lands were often occupied on warrants of sur-
veys without patents, or even without warrants, —
where the people were never assembled but at mus-
ters, there was room for glaring mistakes in the enu-
merations. To Virginia may be assigned one hundred
and sixty-eight thousand white inhabitants ; to North
Carolina, scarcely less than seventy thousand ; to South
Carolina, forty thousand ; to Georgia, not more than
five thousand; to the whole country south of the
Potomac, two hundred and eighty-three thousand.1

The white population of any one of five^ or per-
haps even of six of the American provinces, was
greater singly than that of all Canada, and the aggre-
gate in America exceeded that in Canada fourteen
fold.

Of persons of African lineage the home was chiefly
determined by climate. New Hampshire, Massachu-
setts, and Maine may have had six thousand ne-
groes ; Rhode Island, four thousand five hundred ;
Connecticut, three thousand five hundred ; all New
England, therefore, about fourteen thousand.

New York alone had not far from eleven thou-

1 The Board of Trade in August, Delaware, 220,000 ; to New Jersey,

1755. assign to Georgia, 3,000 white 75,000; to New- York, 55,000; to

inhabitants: to South Carolina, Connecticut, 100,000; to Rhode

25,000; to North Carolina, 50,000; Island, 30,000; to Massachusetts

to Virginia, 125,000; to Maryland, Bay, 200,000; to New Hampshire,

100,000; to Pennsylvania, with 75,000.

VOL. IV. 9

130 TIIE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

ci^ap. sand ; 1 New Jersey, about half that number ; Pennsyl-
— , — - vania, with Delaware, eleven thousand; Maryland,
17G4. forty-four thousand ; the Central Colonies, collectively,
seventy-one thousand.

In Virginia there were not less than one hundred
and sixteen thousand ; in North Carolina, perhaps
more than twenty thousand ; in South Carolina, full
forty thousand ; in Georgia, about two thousand ,
so that the country south of the Potomac, may have
had one hundred and seventy-eight thousand.

Of the Southern group, Georgia2 — the chosen
asylum of misfortune — had been languishing under
the guardianship of a corporation, whose benefits had
not equalled the benevolence of its designs. The
council of its trustees had granted no legislative rights
to those whom they assumed to protect, but, meeting
at a London tavern,8 by their own power imposed
taxes on its Indian trade. Industry was disheart-
ened by the entail of freeholds ; summer, extending
through months not its own, engendered pestilent
vapors from the lowlands, as they were opened to the
sun ; American silk, it is true, was admitted into
London duty-free, but the wants of the wilderness left
no leisure to feed the silkworm and reel its thread ;
nor had the cultivator learned to gather cotton from
the down of the cotton plant ; the indigent, for whom
charity had proposed a refuge, murmured at an exile
that had sorrows of its own ; the few men of sub-
stance withdrew to Carolina. In December, 1751,
the trustees unanimously desired to surrender their

1 O'Callaghan's Documentary Ilis- 8 Knox, 162, 164. Stokes on the
tory of New-York, Hi., 843. Colonies, 164.

2' Chalmers' Revolt, ii., 803.

THE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES. 131

charter, and, with the approbation of Murray,1 all chap.
authority for two years emanated from the king - — , —
alone. In 1754,2 when the first royal governor with 1754.
a royal council entered upon office, a legislative as-
sembly convened under the sanction of his commis-
sion. The crown instituted the courts, and appointed
executive officers and judges, with fixed salaries paid
by England ; but the people, intrenching itself in the
representative body, and imitating the precedents of
older colonies, gained vigor in its infancy to restrain
every form of delegated authority.

South Carolina prospered and was happy. Its
fiery people, impatient of foreign restraint, easily
kindling into a flame, had increased their power by
every method of encroachment on the executive, and
every claim to legislative self-direction ; but they did
not excite English jealousy by competing with En-
glish industry, or engaging largely in illicit trade;
and British legislation was ever lenient to their in-
terests. In favor of rice, whose culture annually
covered their inexhaustibly fertile swamps with its
expanse of verdure, the Laws of Navigation were
mitigated ; the planting of indigo, which grew wild
among their woodlands, was cherished, like the pro-
duction of naval stores, by a bounty from the British
exchequer ; and they thought it in return no hard-
ship to receive through England even foreign manu-
factures, which, by the system of partial drawbacks,
came to them burdened with a tax, yet at a less cost
than to the consumer in the metropolis. They had

1 Chalmers' Opinions of Eminent Reynolds, 24 July, 1754. Sir James
Lawyers, i., 187, 188. Wright to Hillsborough, 28 Feb.,

* Lords of Trade to Governor 1771.

132 THE AJHERICAN" BEVOLUTION.

chap, desired and had obtained the presence of troops to
^~J^, intimidate the wild tribes on their frontiers and to
1754 overawe their slaves. The people were yeomen,
owing the king small quitrents, which could never
be rigorously exacted ; a title to portions of the royal
domain was granted on easy terms ; and who would
disturb the adventurer that, at his own will, built
his cabin and pastured his herds in savannas and
forests which had never been owned in severalty ?
The slave-merchant too willingly supplied laborers
on credit. Free from excessive taxation, protected by
soldiers in British pay, the frugal planter enjoyed
the undivided returns of his enterprise, and might
double his capital in three or four years. The love
for rural life prevailed universally; the thrifty me-
chanic exchanged his workshop, the merchant aban-
doned the exciting risks of the sea, to plant estates of
their own.

North Carolina, with nearly twice as many white
inhabitants as its southern neighbor, had not one con-
siderable village. Its rich swamps near the sea pro-
duced rice ; its alluvial lands teemed with maize ;
free labor, little aided by negroes, busily drew tur-
pentine and tar from the pines of its white, sandy
plains ; a hardy and rapidly increasing people, mas-
ters of their own free wills, lay scattered among its
fertile uplands. There, through the boundless wilder-
ness, hardy emigrants, careless of the strifes of Eu-
rope, ignorant of deceit, free from tithes, answerable
to no master, fearlessly occupied lands that seemed
without an owner. Their swine had the range of the
forest ; the open greenwood was the pasture of their
untold herds ; their young men, disciplined to frugal-

THE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES. 133

ity and patient of toil, trolled along the brooks that ciiap.
abounded in fish, and took their pleasant sleep under ^^^
the forest-tree ; or trapped the beaver ; or, with gun 1754.
and pouch, lay in wait for the deer, as it slaked its
thirst at the running stream ; or, in small parties,
roved the spurs of the Alleghanies, in quest of mar-
vel nble skins. How could royal authority force its
way into such a region ? If Arthur Dobbs, the royal
governor, an author of some repute, insisted on intro-
ducing the king's prerogative, the legislature did not
scruple to leave the whole expense of government
unprovided for. Did he attempt to establish the
Anglican Church ? The children of nature, free
from bigotry and from sectarian prejudices, were
ready to welcome the institution of public worship, if
their own vestries might choose their ministers. Did
he seek to collect quitrents from a people who were
nearly all tenants of the king ? They deferred indefi-
nitely the adjustment of the rent-roll.

For the Carolinas and for Virginia, as well as
other royal governments, the king, under his sign
manual, appointed the governor and the council ;
these constituted, also, a court of chancery ; the pro-
vincial judges, selected by the king or the royal
governor, held office at the royal pleasure ; * for the
courts of vice-admiralty the Lords of the Admiralty
named a judge, register, and marshal; the commis-
sioners of the customs appointed the comptrollers and
the collectors, of whom one was stationed at each
considerable harbor; the justices and the militia
officers were named by the governor in council. The

1 Opinions of Eminent Lawyers, i. 222, 223.

134 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, freeholders elected but one branch of the legislature,
^^ and here, as in every royal government, the council
1754 formed another. In Virginia there was less strife
than elsewhere between the executive and the As-
sembly, partly because the king had a permanent
revenue from quitrents and perpetual grants, partly
because the governor resided in England, and was
careful that his deputy should not hazard his sinecure
by controversy. In consequence, the Council, by its
weight of personal character, gained unusual influ-
ence. The Church of England was supported by
legislative authority, and the plebeian sects were as yet
proscribed, but the great extent of the parishes pre-
vented all unity of public worship. Bedford, when
in office, had favored the appointment of an Anglican
bishop in America ; but, as his decisive opinion and
the importunities of Sherlock and Seeker had not
pre vailed, the benefices were filled by priests ordained
in England, and for the most part of English birth,
too often ill-educated and licentious men, whose
crimes quickened Virginia to assume the advowson of
its churches. The province had not one large town ;
the scattered mode of life made free schools not
easily practicable. Sometimes the sons of wealthy
planter's repaired to Europe ; here and there a man
of great learning, some Scottish loyalist, some exile
around whom misfortune spread a mystery, sought
safety and gave instruction in Virginia. The country
within tide-water was divided among planters, who,
in the culture of tobacco, were favored by British
legislation. Insulated on their large estates, they
were cordially hospitable. In the quiet of their soli-
tary life, unaided by an active press, they learned
from nature what others caught from philosophy, to

THE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES. 135

reason "boldly, to bound their freedom of mind only chap
by self-circumscribed limits. They were philosophers v^-L
after the pattern of Montaigne, without having heard 1754
of him. The horse was their pride ; the county
eourts their holidays ; the race-course their delight.
On permitting the increase of negro slavery opinions
bere nearly equally divided ; but England kept
slave-marts open at every court-house, as far, at least,
as the Southwest Mountain, — partly to enrich her
slave-merchants, partly, by balancing the races, to
weaken the power of colonial resistance. The indus-
try of the Virginians did not compete with that of
the mother country ; they had few mariners, took no
part in the fisheries, and built no ships for sale.
British factors purchased their products and furnished
their supplies. Their connection with the metropolis
was more intimate than with the northern colonies.
England was their market and their storehouse, and
was still called their " home."

Yet the prerogative had little support in Virginia.
Its Assembly sent, when it would, its own special
agent to England, elected the colonial treasurer, and
conducted its deliberations with dignity and inde-
pendence. Among the inhabitants, the pride of indi-
vidual freedom paralyzed all royal influence. They
were the more independent, because they were
the oldest colony, the most numerous, the most opu-
lent, and, in territory, by far the most extensive.
The property of the crown in its unascertained
domain was admitted, yet the mind easily made
theories that invested the ownership rightfully in the
colony itself. Its people spread more and more
widely over the mild, productive, and enchanting ter-
ritory They ascended rivers to the uplands, and

136 THE AMERICAN EE VOLUTION.

chap, gathered in numbers in the valleys of its lovely
_^_ mountain ranges, where the productive red soil bore
1754. wheat luxuriantly, and gave to fruits the most deli-
cate flavor. In the pleasant region of Orange County,
among its half-opened forests, in a home of plenty,1
there sported already on the lawn the child, Madison,
round whose gentle nature clustered the hopes of
American union. Deeper in the wilderness, on the
Highlands of Albemarle, Thomas Jefferson, son of a
surveyor, of whose ancestral descent memory pre-
served but one generation, dwelt on the skirt of for-
est life, and from boyhood gazed on the loveliest of
scenes, with no intercepting ridge between his dwell-
ing-place and the far distant ocean ; a diligent stu-
dent of the languages of Greece and Rome, and of
France, treading the mountain-side with elastic step in
pursuit of game. Beyond the Blue Ridge men came
southward from the glades of Pennsylvania ; of most
various nations, Irish, Scottish, and German; ever
in strife with the royal officers ; occupying lands
without allotment, or on mere warrants of survey,
without patents or payment of quitrents ; baffling to
the last the settled policy of England. Everywhere
in Virginia the sentiment of individuality was the
parent of its republicanism. Its dauntless mind, not
dissenting from established forms, was impatient of
restraint, and submitted only to self-direction.

1 The illustrious Madison detailed whole charge for keeping the boy
to me incidents in his career from and his horse was eight pounds,
his boyhood to his old age. He Virginia currency, for the year;
was sent to school in King and for tuition, forty shillings a year.
Queen's County to Donald Robert- In the former generation, Madi-
son, a good scholar, an emigrant son's father went to school to
from the Highlands of Scotland, Chancellor Pendleton's elder broth-
suspected of having joined in the er, a good teacher, and the whole
rebellion of 1745, and of being a cost of board and instruction was
Roman Catholic. Madison, when five pounds per annum.
at school, had a pony, and the

THE OLD THIRTEEN COLOTOES. 137

North of the Potomac, at the centre of America, chap

VI

were the proprietary governments of Maryland and v^^L,
of Pennsylvania, with Delaware. There the king 1754.
had no officers but in the customs and the admiralty
courts ; his name was hardly known in the acts of
government, and could not set bounds to popular
influence.

During the last war, Maryland enjoyed unbroken
quiet, furnishing no levies of men for the army, and
very small contributions of money. Its legislature
hardly looked beyond its own internal affairs; and
its rapid increase in numbers proved its prosperity.
The youthful Frederic, Lord Baltimore, sixth of that
title, dissolute and riotous, fond of wine to madness,
and of women to folly, as a prince zealous for
prerogative, though negligent of business, was the
sole landlord of the province. To him seemed to
belong the right of initiating all laws, though the
popular branch of the legislature had assumed that
power, leaving only to the proprietary a triple veto,
by his council, by his deputy, and by himself. He
established courts and appointed all their officer's;
punished convicted offenders, or pardoned them;
appointed at pleasure councillors, all officers of the
colony, and all the considerable county officers ; and
possessed exclusively the unappropriated domain.
Reserving choice lands for his own manors, he had
the whole people for his tenants on quitrents, which,
in 1754, exceeded twenty-five thousand dollars a year,
and were rapidly increasing. On every new grant
from the wild domain he received caution money ;
his were all escheats, wardships, and fruits of the
feudal tenures. Fines of alienation, though abolished
in England, were paid for his benefit on every trans-

138 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, fer, and fines upon devises were still exacted. He

^^s enjoyed a perpetual port duty of fourteen pence a

1754. ton, on vessels not owned in the province, yielding

not far from five thousand dollars a year ; and he

also exacted a tribute for licenses to hawkers and

pedlers, and to ordinaries.

These were the private income of Lord Baltimore.
For the public service he needed no annual grants.
By an act of 1704/ which was held to be perma-
nent, an export tax of a shilling on every hogshead
of tobacco gave an annually increasing income of
already not much less than seven thousand dollars,
more than enough for the salary of his lieutenant-
governor ; while other officers were paid by fees and
perquisites. Thus the Assembly scarcely had occasion
to impose taxes, except for the wages of its own
members.

Beside the power of appointing colonial officers,
independent of the people, Lord Baltimore, as prince
palatine, could raise his liegemen to defend his prov-
ince. His was also the power to pass ordinances
for the preservation of order ; to erect towns and
cities; to grant titles of honor; and his the ad vow-
son of every benefice.2 The colonial act of 1702 had
divided Maryland into parishes, and established the
Anglican Church by an annual tax of forty pounds
of tobacco on every poll. The parishes were about
forty in number, increasing in value, some of them
promising soon to yield a thousand pounds sterling a
year. Thus the lewd Lord Baltimore had more
church patronage than any landholder in England:
and, as there was no bishop in America, ruffians,

1 Bacon's Laws of Maryland, 8 Trott's Collection of Laws, &c,
1704, c. x. 211. 172.

TIIE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES.

139

fugitives from justice, men stained by intemperance chap.

and lust,1 (I write with caution, the distinct allega- ^

tions being before me,) nestled themselves, through 1754.
his corrupt and easy nature, in the parishes of
Maryland.

The kins: had reserved no rirfit of revising the
laws of Maryland, nor could he invalidate them,
except as they should be found repugnant to those
of England. Though the Acts of Trade were in force,
the royal power was specially restrained " from im-
posing or causing to be imposed any customs or
other taxations, quotas, or contributions whatsoever,
within the province, or upon any merchandise, whilst
being laden or unladen in its ports."2 The people,
of whom about one-twelfth were Roman Catholics,3
shared power through the Assembly ; and as their
soil had never been ravaged, their wealth never ex-
hausted by taxation, the scattered planters enjoyed,
in their delightful climate, as undisturbed and as
happy a life as was compatible with the prevalence
of negro slavery and the limitations on popular
power.

In Pennsylvania with the counties on Delaware,
the people, whose numbers appeared to double in
sixteen years,4 were already the masters, and to dis-
pute their authority was but to introduce an apparent
anarchy. Of the noble territory the joint proprietors
were Thomas and Richard Penn ; the former holding
three quarters of the whole. Inheritance might sul>

1 Several Letters of the Lieuten- 8 Charter for Maryland, § xvii.

ant -governor Sharpe. But see in and § xx.

particular II. Sharpe to Hammers- * The estimate is that of Lieu-

ly, '22 -lime, 17(58, and T. B. Chanel- tenant-governor Sharpe.
ler to S. Johnson. 9 June, 1767. 4 Franklin's Works, iv. 40.

140 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

c"ap. divide it indefinitely. The political power that had
- — <—> been bequeathed to them brought little personal
1754. dignity or benefit. The wilderness domain was
theirs ; though Connecticut, which claimed to extend
to the Pacific, was already appropriating to itself a
part of their territory, and, like the Penns, sought
to confirm its claim by deeds from the Six Nations.1

The lieutenant-governor had a negative on legis-
lation, but he himself depended on the Assembly for
his annual support, and had often to choose between
compliance and poverty. To the Council, whom the
proprietaries appointed, and to the proprietaries
themselves, the right to revise legislative acts was
denied, and long usage confirmed the denial.2 In
the land of the Penns, the legislature had but one
branch, and of that branch Benjamin Franklin was
the soul. It had an existence of its own ; could
v meet on its own adjournments, and no power could
prorogue or dissolve it ; but a swift responsibility
brought its members annually before their constitu-
ents. The Assembly would not allow the proprie-
taries in England to name judges ; they were to be
named by the lieutenant-governor on the spot, and
like him depended on the Assembly for the profit
of their posts. All sheiiffs and coroners were chosen
by the people. Moneys were raised by an excise,
and were kept and were disbursed by provincial
commissioners. The land-office was under proprie-
tary control, and, to balance its political influence,
the Assembly passionately insisted on continuing

1 Treaty between the Connecti- Chiefs of the Six Nations, Albany,
cut Susquehanna Company and 11 July, 1754.

8 ProucTs Pennsylvania, ii. 284.

THE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES. 141

antler their own supervision the loan-office of paper chap.
money. ■ — , —

Tlie laws established for Pennsylvania complete 1754.
enfranchisement in the domain of thought. Its able
press developed the principles of civil rights ; its
principal city cherished science ; and, by private mu-
ni licence, a ship, at the instance of Franklin, had at-
tempted to discover the Northwestern passage.1 A
library, too, was endowed, and an academy chartered,
giving the promise of intellectual activity and inde-
pendence. No oaths or tests barred the avenue to
public posts. The Church of England, unaided by
law, competed with all forms of dissent. The Pres-
byterians, who were willing to fight for their liberties,
began to balance the enthusiasts, who were ready to
sutler for them. Yet the Quakers, humblest amongst
plebeian sects, and boldest of them all, — disjoined
from the Middle Age without even a shred or a mark
of its bonds, — abolishing not the aristocracy of the
sword only, but all war, — not prelacy and priestcraft
only, but outward symbols and ordinances, external
sacraments and forms, — pure spiritualists, and apostles
of the power and the freedom of mind, — still swayed
legislation and public opinion. Ever restless of au-
thority, they were jealous of the new generation of
proprietaries who had fallen off from their society,
regulated the government with a view to their own
personal profit, shunned taxation of their colonial
estates, and would not answer as equals to the plain,
untitled names, which alone the usages of the Society
of Friends allowed.2

1 MS. Letter of B. Franklin, * Letters of T. & J. Penn to the

Philadelphia, 28 Feb. 1753. Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania.

142 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. New Jersey, now a royal government, enjoyed,
k^L, with the aged Belcher, comparative tranquillity.
1754. The generality of the people he found to be "very
rustical," and deficient in " learning." * To the Cal-
vinist governor the Quakers of this province seemed
to want " orthodoxy in the principles of religion f
but he parried for them the oppressive disposition of
the Board of Trade, and the rapacity of the great
claimants of lands, who held seats in the Council.
" I have to steer," he would say, " between Scylla
and Charybdis ; to please the king's ministers at
home, and a touchy people here ; to luff for one, and
bear away for another." 2 Sheltered by its position,
New Jersey refused to share the expense of Indian
alliances, often left its own annual expenses unpro-
vided for, and, instead of showing zeal in assuming the
burdens of war, its gentle and most obstinate enthu-
siasts trusted in the extension of the peaceable king-
dom " from sea to sea," and the completion of the
prophecies, that " nation shall not lift up the sword
against nation, nor learn war any more."

There, too, on the banks of the Delaware, men
that labored for inward stillness, and to live in the
spirit of truth, learned to love God in all his manifes-
tations in the visible world ; and they testified against
cruelty towards the least creature in whom his breath
had kindled the flame of life. Conscious of an en-
largement of gospel love, John Woolman, a tailor by
trade, content in the happiness of humility, " stood np
like a trumpet, through which the Lord speaks to his
people," 8 to make the negro masters sensible of the

1 Gov. Belcher to the Earl of 8 A testimony of the Monthly
Leven. Meeting of Friends, held in Bur-

3 Belcher to Sir Peter Warren. lington, N. J.

THE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES. 143

evil of holding the people of Africa in slavery ;* and ciiAr
by his testimony at the meetings of Friends, recom- ^J^,
mended that oppressed part of the creation to the 1754.
notice of each individual and of the society. Having
discerned by a bright and radiant light the certain
evidence of divine truth, and not fearing to offend
man by its simplicity, he travelled much on the con-
tinent of America, and would say to thoughtful men,
that " a people used to labor moderately for their
living, training up their children in frugality and
business, have a happier life than those who live on
the labor of slaves ; that freemen find satisfaction in
improving and providing for their families ; but ne-
groes, laboring to support others who claim them as
their property, and expecting nothing but slavery
during life, have not the like inducement to be indus-
trious." " Men having power," he continued, " too
often misapply it ; though we make slaves of the ne-
groes, and the Turks make slaves of the Christians,
liberty is the natural right of all men equally." 2

" The slaves," said he, " look to me like a burden-
some stone to such who burden themselves with them.
The burden will grow heavier and heavier, till times
change in a way disagreeable to us." "It may be
just," answered one of his hearers, " for the Almighty
so to order it." And while he had fresh and heaven-
ly openings in respect to the care and providence of
the Almighty over man, as the most noble amongst
his creatures which are visible, and was fully per-
suaded, that as the life of Christ comes to reign in the
earth, all abuse and unnecessary oppression will draw

1 The Testimony of Friends in 50, 51. I am indebted to some tra-

Yorksliire. named friend for a copy of this un-

8 The Life and Travels of John commonly beautiful specimen of

Woolman. 5th edition, 25, 28, 47, spiritual autobiography.

144 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, towards an end, yet, under the sense of the overflow-
^^ ing stream of unrighteousness, his life was often a life
1754. of mourning; and it was a matter fixed in his mind,
that this trade of importing slaves, and way of life in
keeping them, were dark gloominess hanging over the
land. "Though many willingly ran into it, yet the
consequences would be grievous to posterity." There-
fore he went about, environed with heavenly light
and consolation, persuading men that " the practice of
continuing slavery was not right;" and in calmest
and most guarded words he endeavored, through the
press,1 " to raise an idea of a general brotherhood, and
a disposition easy to be touched with a feeling of each
other's afflictions." The men whom he addressed on
both banks of the Delaware were not agreed, in all
the branches of the question, on the propriety of
keeping negroes ; yet generally the spirit of emanci-
pation was prevailing, and their masters began the
work of setting them free, u because they had no con-
tract for their labor, and liberty was their right."

But New- York was at this time the central point
of political interest. Its position invited it to foster
American union. Having the most convenient har-
bor on the Atlantic, with bays expanding on either
hand, and a navigable river penetrating the interior,
it held the keys of Canada and the Lakes. Crown
Point and Niagara, monuments of French ambition,
were encroachments upon its limits. Its unsurveyed
inland frontier, sweeping round on the north, disputed
with New Hampshire the land between Lake Cham-

1 The works of John Wool- Negroes. First printed in the year
man. Part the Second. Some 1754.
Considerations on the Keeping of

THE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES. 145

plain and the Connecticut, and extended into unmea- chap.

... VI.

sured distances in the west. Within its bosom, at w^^

Onondaga, burned the council-fire of the Six Nations, 1754.
whose irregular bands had seated themselves near
Montreal, on the northern shore of Ontario, and on
the Ohio ; whose hunters roamed over the North-
west and the West ; whose war-parties had for ages
strolled to Carolina. Here were concentrated by far
the most important Indian relations, round which the
great idea of a general union was shaping itself into a
reality. It was to still the hereditary warfare of the
Six Nations with the Southern Indians, that South
Carolina and Massachusetts first met at Albany ;
it was to confirm friendship with them and their
allies, that New England, and all the Central States
but New Jersey, had assembled in congress. But a
higher principle was needed to blend the several
colonies under one sovereignty ; that principle also
existed on the banks of the Hudson, and the states-
men of New York clung perseveringly and with-
out wavering to faith in a united American empire.
England never possessed the affection of the coun-
try which it had acquired by conquest. British offi-
cials sent home complaints of " the Dutch republicans "
as disloyal. The descendants of the Huguenot refu-
gees were taunted with their origin, and invited to
accept English liberties gratefully as a boon. No-
where was the collision between the royal governor
and the colonial Assembly so violent or so inveterate.
Nowhere had the legislature, by its method of grant-
ing money, so nearly exhausted and appropriated to
itself all executive authority. Nowhere had the rela-
tions of the province to Great Britain been more

VOL. IV. 10

146 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION-.

chap, sharply controverted. The Board of Trade esteemed
— , — . the provincial legislature to be subordinate, resting for
I754< its existence on acts of the royal prerogative, the
king's commissions and the king's instructions, and pos-
sessed of none of the attributes of sovereignty ; while
the people looked upon their representatives as a body
participant in sovereignty, existing by an inherent
right, and co-ordinate with the British House of Com-

I

mons.

Affaii-s of religion also involved political strife. In
a province chiefly of Calvinists, the English Church
was favored, though not established by law ; but an
act of the prerogative, which limited the selection of
the president of the provincial college to those in
communion with the Church of England, agitated the
public mind, and united the Presbyterians hi distrust
of the royal authority.

The Laws of Trade excited still more resistance.
Why should a people, of whom one half were of
foreign ancestry, be cut off from all the world but
England? Why must the children of Holland be
debarred from the ports of the Netherlands ? Why
must their ships seek the produce of Europe, and, by
a later law, the produce of Asia, in English harbors
alone? Why wrere negro slaves the only consider-
able object of foreign commerce which England did
not compel to be first landed on its shores ? The
British restrictive system was never acknowledged by
New York as valid, and was transgressed by all Ame-
rica, but most of all by this province, to an extent
that could not easily be imagined. Especially the
British ministry had been invited, in 1752, to observe,
that, while the consumption of tea was annually in-
creasing in America, the export from England was

THE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES. ' 147

decreasing.1 For the next twenty years, England chap.
Bought for a remedy; and, meantime, the little island ,^1^
of St. Eustatia, a heap of rocks, but two leagues in 1754.
length by one in breadth, without a rivulet or a spring,
gathered in its storehouses the products of Holland,
of the Orient, of the world ; and its harbor was more
and more filled with fleets of colonial trading-vessels,
which, if need were, completed their cargoes by enter-
ing the French islands with Dutch papers. The
British statutes, which made the commercial relations
of America to England not a union, but a bondage,
did but disguise the foreign trade which they affected
to prevent. America bought of England hardly more
than she would have done on the system of freedom ;
and this small advantage was dearly purchased by the
ever-increasing cost of cruisers, custom-house officers,
and vice-admiralty courts ; so that Great Britain, after
deducting its expenses, received, it was said, less bene-
fit from the trade of New York than the Hanse Towns
and Holland ; while the oppressive character of the
metropolitan legislature made the merchants principal
supporters of what royalists called " faction."

The large landholders — whose grants, originally
prodigal, irregular, and ill-defined, promised opulence
for generations — were equally jealous of British
authority, which threatened to bound their preten-
sions, or question their titles, or, through parliament,
to impose a land-tax. The lawyers of the colony,
chiefly Presbyterians, and educated in Connecticut,
joined heartily with the merchants and the great

1 Clinton to Board of Trade, 4 easy to imagine to what an enor-

October, 1752. uTlie faction in mous height this transgression of

tliis province consists chiefly of the Laws of Trade goes in North

merchants.'" "Entire disregard of America," &c, <fcc. N.Y.London

the Laws of Trade" "It is not Documents, xxx. 43.

148 THE AMERICAN RE VOLUTION.

chap, proprietors to resist every encroachment from Eng-
v_v_. land ; meeting the political theories of colonial subor-
1754. dination at the threshold; teaching the method of
increasing colonial power by the system of annual
grants; demanding permanent commissions for their
judicial officers ; opposing the extension of the admi-
ralty jurisdiction ; and vehemently resisting the admis-
sion of bishops, as involving ecclesiastical courts
and new prerogatives. In no province was the near
. approach of independence discerned so clearly, or so
openly predicted.

New York had been settled under large patents of
lands to individuals; New England under grants to
towns ; and the institution of towns was its glory and
its strength. The inhabited part of Massachusetts
was recognised as divided into little territories, each
of which, for its internal purposes, constituted a sepa-
rate integral government, free from supervision, having
power to choose annually its own officers; to hold
meetings of all freemen at its own pleasure ; to discuss
in those meetings any subject of public interest; to see
that every able-bodied man within its precincts was
duly enrolled in the militia and always provided with
arms, ready for immediate use ; to elect and to instruct
its representatives; to raise and appropriate money
for the support of the ministry, of schools, of high-
ways, of the poor, and for defraying other necessary
expenses within the town. It was incessantly deplored
by royalists of later days, that the law which con-
firmed these liberties had received the unconscious
sanction of William the Third, and the most exten-
sive interpretation in practice. Boston, even, on more
than one occasion, ventured in town meeting to ap-

I

THE OLD THIRTEEN COLCXNTES. 149

point its own agent to present a remonstrance to the chap,
Board of Trade.1 New Hampshire, Connecticut, ^—^
Rhode Island, and Maine, which was a part of Massa- 1754.
chusetts, had similar regulations; so that all New
England was an aggregate of organized democracies.
But the complete development of the institution was
to be found in Connecticut and the Massachusetts
Bay. There each township was also substantially a
territorial parish ; the town was the religious congre-
gation; the independent church was established by
law , the minister was elected by the people, who
annually made grants for his support. There, too, the
-tern of free schools was carried to great perfection ;
so that there could not be found an adult born in New
England unable to write and read. He that will un-
derstand the political character of New England in
the eighteenth century, must study the constitution of
its towns, its congregations, its schools, and its militia.2
Yet in these democracies the hope of indepen-
dence, as a near event, had not dawned. Driven from
England by the persecution of the government, its
inhabitants still clung with confidence and persevering
affection to the land of their ancestry, the people of
their kindred, and the nationality of their language.
They were of homogeneous origin, nearly all tracing
their descent to English emigrants of the reiinis of
Charles the First and Charles the Second. They
were a frugal and industrious race. Along the sea-
side, wherever there was a good harbor, fishermen,
familiar with the ocean, gathered in hamlets ; and
each returning season saw them with an ever increas-
ing number of mariners and vessels, taking the cod

Shirley to the Board of Trade, 2 John Adams: Works, v. 495.
January, 1755.

150 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, and mackerel, and sometimes pursuing the whale into
^^^ the icy labyrinths of the Northern seas; yet loving
1754. home, and dearly attached to their modest freeholds.
At Boston a society was formed for promoting domes-
tic manufactures: on one of its anniversaries, three
hundred young women appeared on the » common, clad
in homespun, seated in a triple row, each with a spin-
ning-wheel, and each busily transferring the flax from
the distaff to the spool. The town built " a manu-
facturing house," and there were bounties to en-
courage the workers in linen. How the Board of
Trade were alarmed at the news ! How they cen-
sured Shirley for not having frowned on the busi-
ness! How committees of the House of Commons
, examined witnesses, and made proposals for prohib-
itory laws, till at last the Boston manufacturing
house, designed to foster home industry, fell into
decay, a commentary on the provident care of Eng-
land for her colonies ! Of slavery there was not
enough to affect the character of the people, except
in the southeast of Bhode Island, where Newport
was conspicuous for engaging in the slave-trade, and
where, in two or three towns, negroes composed even
a third of the inhabitants.

In the settlements which grew up in the interior,
on the margin of the greenwood, the plain meeting-
house of the congregation for public worship was
every where the central point ; near it stood the pub-
lic school, by the side of the very broad road, over
which wheels enough did not pass to do more than
mark the path by ribbons in the sward. The snug
farm-houses, owned as freeholds, without quitrents,
were dotted along the way; and the village pastor
among his people, enjoying the calm raptures of devo-

THE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES. 151

tion, " appeared like such a little white flower as we chap.
see in the spring of the year, low and humble on the _^L>
ground, standing peacefully and lovingly in the midst 1754.
of the flowers round about; all, in like manner, open-
ing their bosoms to drink in the light of the sun."1
In every hand was the Bible; every home was a house
of prayer ; in every village all had been taught, many
bad comprehended, a methodical theory of the divine
purpose in creation, and of the destiny of man.

Child of the Reformation, closely connected with
the past centuries and with the greatest intellectual
struggles of mankind, New England had been planted
by enthusiasts who feared no sovereign but God. In
the universal degeneracy and ruin of the Roman
world, when freedom, laws, imperial rule, municipal
authority, social institutions, were swept away, — <
when not a province, nor city, nor village, nor family
was safe, Augustin, the African bishop, with a burn-
ing heart, confident that, though Home tottered, the
hope of man would endure, rescued from the wreck
of the old world the truths that would renew human-
ity, and sheltered them in the cloister, among succes-
sive generations of men, who were insulated by their
vows from decaying society, bound to the state nei-
ther by ambition, nor by allegiance, nor by the sweet
attractions of wife and child.

After the sighs and sorrows of centuries, in the
dawn of serener days, an Augustine monk, having
also a heart of flame, seized on the same great ideas,
and he and his followers, with wives and children,

1 Autobiographical Sketch of this sketch ; lie used to speak of it,

Jonathan Edwards in Works, i. 28. page 35, 36, as containing the most

Worcester Edition. The late Dr. vivid expression of an overpower-

Chanuing called my attention to iug sense of God's omnipresence.

152 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chai\ restored them to the world. At his bidding, truth
v^^ leaped over the cloister walls, and challenged every
1754. man to make her his guest; aroused every intelli-
gence to acts of private judgment ; changed a de-
pendent, recipient people into a reflecting, inquiring
people ; lifted each human being out of the castes of
the Middle Age, to endow him with individuality,
and summoned man to stand forth as man. The
world heaved with the fervent conflict of opinion.
The people and their guides recognised the dignity of
labor ; the oppressed peasantry took up arms for lib-
erty ; men reverenced and exercised the freedom of
the soul. The breath of the new spirit moved over
the earth ; it revived Poland, animated Germany,
swayed the North ; and the inquisition of Spain
could not silence its whispers among the mountains of
the Peninsula. It invaded France ; and though bon-
fires, by way of warning, were made of heretics at the
gates of Paris, it infused itself into the French mind,
and led to unwonted free discussions. Exile could
not quench it. On the banks of the Lake of Geneva,
Calvin stood forth the boldest reformer of his day ;
not personally engaging in political intrigues, yet, by
promulgating great ideas, forming the seeclplot of
revolution ; bowing only to the Invisible ; acknow-
ledging no sacrament of ordination but the choice of
the laity, no patent of nobility but that of the elect
of God, with its seals of eternity.

Luther's was still a Catholic religion ; it sought to
instruct all, to confirm all, to sanctify all ; and so,
under the shelter of principalities, it gave established
forms to Protestant Germany, and Sweden, and Deri-
mark, and England. But Calvin taught an exclusive
doctrine, which, though it addressed itself to all,

THE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES. 153

rested only on the chosen. Lutheranism was, there- chap.
fore, not a political party ; it included prince, and ^^^^
nol)le, and peasant. Calvinism was revolutionary; 1754.
wherever it came, it created division ; its symbol, as
set upon the " Institutes " of its teacher, was a flam-
ing sword. By the side of the eternal mountains,
and the perennial snows, and the arrowy rivets of
Switzerland, it established a religion without a pre-
late, a" government without a king. Fortified by its
faith in fixed decrees, it kept possession of its homes
among the Alps. It grew powerful in France, and
invigorated, between the feudal nobility and the
crown, the long contest, which did not end, till the
subjection of the nobility, through the central despot-
ism, prepared the ruin of that despotism, by promot-
ing the equality of the commons. It entered Holland,
inspiring an industrious nation with heroic enthusiasm ;
enfranchising and uniting provinces ; and making
burghers, and weavers, and artisans, victors over the
highest orders of Spanish chivalry, over the power of
the inquisition, and the pretended majesty of kings.
It penetrated Scotland: and while its whirlwind
bore along persuasion among glens and mountains, it
shrunk from no danger, and hesitated at no ambition ;
it nerved its rugged but hearty envoy to resist the
flatteries of the beautiful Queen Mary ; it assumed the
education of her only son ; it divided the nobility ;
it penetrated the masses, overturned the ancient
ecclesiastical establishment, planted the free parochial
school, and gave a living energy to the principle
of liberty in a people. It infused itself into Eng-
land, and placed its plebeian sympathies in daring
resistance to the courtly hierarchy : dissenting from
dissent; longing to introduce the reign of righ-

154 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, teousness, it invited every man to read the
v^^-L, Bible, and made itself dear to the common mind,
1754. by teaching, as a divine revelation, the nnity of the
race and the natural equality of man ; it claimed
for itself freedom of utterance, and through the pul-
pit, in eloquence imbued with the authoritative
words of prophets and apostles, spoke to the whole
congregation ; it sought new truth, denying the sanc-
tity of the continuity of tradition ; it stood up
against the Middle Age and its forms in church
and state, hating them with a fierce and unquenchable
hatred.

Imprisoned, maimed, oppressed at home, its inde-
pendent converts in Great Britain looked beyond the
Atlantic for a better world. Their energetic passion
was nurtured by trust in the divine protection, their
power of will was safely intrenched in their own
vigorous creed ; and under the banner of the gospel,
with the fervid and enduring love of the myriads
who in Europe adopted the stern simplicity of the
discipline of Calvin, they sailed for the wilderness,
far away from " popery and prelacy," from the tra-
ditions of the church, from hereditary power, from
the sovereignty of an earthly king, — from all domin-
ion but the Bible, and " what arose from natural
reason and the principles of equity."

The ideas which had borne the New England emi-
grants to this transatlantic world were polemic and
republican in their origin and their tendency. And
how had the centuries matured the contest for
mankind ! Against the authority of the church of
the Middle Ages Calvin arrayed the authority of the
Bible ; the time was come to connect religion and

TILE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES. 155

philosophy, and show the harmony between faith and chap.
reason. Against the feudal aristocracy the plebeian ^^
reformer summoned the spotless nobility of the elect, 1754.
foreordained from the beginning of the world; but
New England, which had no hereditary caste to beat
down, ceased to make predestination its ruling idea,
and, maturing a character of its own,

u Saw love attractive every system bind."

The transition had taken place from, the haughtiness
of its self-assertion against the pride of feudalism, to
the adoption of Love as the benign spirit which was
to animate its new teachings in politics and religion.

From God were derived its theories of ontology,
of ethics, of science, of happiness, of human perfecti-
bility, and of human liberty.

God himself is " in effect universal Being." Na-
ture in its amplitude is but u an emanation of his own
infinite fulness ;" a flowing forth and expression of
himself in objects of his benevolence. In every thing
there is a calm, sweet cast of divine glory. He com-
prehends " all entity and all excellence in his own es-
sence." Creation proceeded from a disposition in the
fulness of Divinity to flow out and diffuse its exist-
ence. The infinite Being is Being in general. His
existence being infinite, comprehends universal exist-
ence. There are and there can be no beings distinct
and independent. God is " AL1 and alone." ]

The glory of God is the ultimate end of moral
goodness, which in the creature is love to the Creator.
Virtue consists in public affection or general benevo-
lence. But as to the New England mind God in-

1 End for which God created the World, in Works of Edwards,
ri. 33. 53, 58, 59, and Works, i. 35.

156 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION".

citap. eluded universal bein^r, to love God seemed to in-

vi.
^^ , elude love to all that exists ; and was, therefore, in

1754. opposition to selfishness, the sum of all morality,
the universal benevolence comprehending all righ-
teousness.1

God is the fountain of light and knowledge, so
that truth in man is but a conformity to God ; know-
ledge in man, but " the image of God's own know-
ledge of himself." Nor is there a motive to repress
speculative inquiry. u There is no need," said Edwards,
" that the strict philosophic truth should be at all
concealed from men." " The more clearly and fully
the true system of the universe is known the better."
Nor can any outward authority rule the mind ; the
revelations of God, being emanations from the infinite
fountain of knowledge, have a certainty and reality ;
they accord with reason and common sense ; and give
direct, intuitive, and all-conquering evidence of their
divinity.2

God is the source of happiness. His angels minis-
ter to his servants ; the vast multitudes of his ene-
mies are as great heaps of light chaff before the
whirlwind. Against his enemies the bow of God's
wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the
string, and justice bends the arrow at their heart, and
strains the bow.8 God includes all being and all
holiness. Enmity with him is enmity with all true
life and power ; an infinite evil, fraught with infinite
and endless woe. To exist in union with him is the
highest well-being, that shall increase in glory and
joy throughout eternity.

1 J. Edwards' Works, vi. 53, 73, s Edwards' Works, vi. 33, &c, i
&0. 61, v. 348, iv. 2Sf 238.

s Edwards' Works, vii. 483, 496

THE OLD THIKTEEN COLONIES. 167

God is his own chief end in creation. But as lie chap.

vi.
includes all being, his glory includes the glory and the ■L^w-^-

perfecting of the universe. The whole human race, 1754.
throughout its entire career of existence, hath oneness
k and identity, and "constitutes one complex person,"
" one moral whole." l The glory of God includes the
redemption and glory of humanity. From the mo-
ment of creation to the final judgment, it is all one
work. Every event which has swayed " the state of
the world of mankind," " all its revolutions," proceed
as it was determined, towards " the glorious time that
shall be in the latter days," when the new shall be
more excellent than the old.

God is the absolute sovereign, doing according to
his will in the armies of heaven, and among the
inhabitants on earth. Scorning the thought of free
agency as breaking the universe of action into count-
less fragments, the greatest number in New England
held that every volition, even of the humblest of the
people, is obedient to the fixed decrees of Providence,
and participates in eternity.

Yet while the common mind of New England was
inspired by the great thought of the sole sovereignty
of God, it did not lose personality and human free-
dom in pantheistic fatalism. Like Augustin, who
made war both on Manicheans and Pelagians, — like
the Stoics, whose morals it most nearly adopted, it
asserted by just dialectics, or, as some would say, by
a subUme inconsistency, the power of the individual
will. In every action it beheld the union of the mo-
live and volition. The action, it saw, was according
to the strongest motive, and it knew that what proves

1 Edwards' Works, vi. 437, 439, v. 129, &c, ii. 377.

158 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, the strongest motive depends on the character
__^_ of the will. Hence, the education of that faculty
1754. was, of all concerns, the most momentous. The
Galvinist of New England, who longed to be
" morally good and excellent," had no other object
of moral effort than to make " the will truly lovely
and right."

Action, therefore, as flowing from an energetic,
right, and lovely will, was the ideal of New Eng-
land. It rejected the asceticism of entire spiritual-
ists, and fostered the whole man, seeking to
perfect his intelligence and improve his outward
condition. It saw in every one the divine and the
human nature. It did not extirpate, but only sub-
jected the inferior principles.1 It placed no merit in
vows of poverty or celibacy, and spurned the thought
of non-resistance. In a good cause its people were
ready to take up arms and fight, cheered by the
conviction that God was working in them both to
will and to do.

1 Edwards' Works, vi. 428, 480.

I

CHAPTER VII.

THE MINISTERS ARE ADVISED TO TAX AMERICA BY ACT OP
PARLIAMENT.— NEWCASTLE'S ADMINISTRATION.

1754—1755.

Such was America, where the people was rapidly c^p

becoming sovereign. It was the moment when the
aristocracy of England, availing itself of the formulas
of the Revolution of 1688, controlled the election of
the House of Commons, and possessed the govern-
ment.

To gain a seat in parliament, the Great Com-
moner himself1 was forced to solicit the nomination
and patronage of the duke of Newcastle. On the
death of Henry Pelham, in March, 1754, Newcastle,
to the astonishment of all men, declaring he had
been second minister long enough, placed himself at
the head of the treasury ; 2 and desired Henry Fox,

1 Mr. Pitt to the duke of New- 2 Orford's Memoires of the last
castle, in Chatham Correspond- Ten Years of the Reign of George
ence, i. 85, 86. the Second, i. 331.

VII.
1754

1P>0 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

c™*>> then secretary at war, to take the seals and conduct
*7^-' the House of Commons. The " political adventurer,"
who had vigor of mind and excelled in quick and
concise replication, asked to be made acquainted with
the disposition of the secret service money. u My
brother," said Newcastle, "never disclosed the dis-
posal of that money, neither will I." "Then," re-
joined Fox, " I shall not know hoiv to talk to mem-
bers of parliament, when some may have received
gratifications, others not." He further inquired, now
the next parliament, of which the election drew near,
was to be secured. " My brother," answered New-
castle, " had settled it all."

Fox declining the promotion offered him, the in-
efficient Holdernesse was transferred to the North-
ern Department ; and Sir Thomas Robinson, a dull
pedant, lately a subordinate at the Board of Trade,
was selected for the Southern, with the manage-
ment of the new House of Commons. " The duke,"
said Pitt, " might as well send his jackboot to lead
us." The House abounded in noted men. Besides
Pitt, and Fox, and Murray, the heroes of a hun-
dred magnificent debates, there was " the universally
able"1 George Grenville ; the solemn Sir George
Lyttleton, known as a poet, historian and orator ;
Hillsborough, industrious, precise, well meaning, but
without sagacity; the arrogant, unstable Sackville,
proud of his birth, ambitious of the highest stations ;
the amiable, candid, irresolute Conway ; Charles

4 Mr. Pitt to the Earl of Hardwicke, 6 April, 1754, in Chatham
Correspondence, i. 106.

SHALL TILE BRITISH PARLIAMENT TAX AMERICA? 161

Townshend, confident in his ability, and flushed with chap.
success. Then, too, the young Lord North, well *«^L.
educated, abounding in good-humor, made his entrance 1754.
into public life with such universal favor, that every
company resounded with the praises of his parts and
merit. But Newcastle had computed what he might
dare ; at the elections, corruption had returned a ma-
jority devoted to the minister who was incapable of
settled purposes or consistent conduct. The period
when the English aristocracy ruled with the least
admixture of royalty or popularity was the period
when the British empire was the worst governed.

One day, a member, who owed his seat to bribery,
defended himself in a speech full of wit, humor, and
buffoonery, which kept the House in a continued roar
of laughter. With all the fire of his eloquence, and
in the highest tone of grandeur, Pitt, incensed against
his patron, gave a rebuke to their mirth. "The dig-
nity of the House of Commons," he cried, " has, by
gradations, been diminishing for years, till now we
are brought to the very brink of the precipice, where,
if ever, a stand must be made, unless you will degen-
erate into a little assembly, serving no other purpose
than to register the arbitrary edicts of one too pow-
erful subject."1 " We are designed to be an appendix

to 1 know not what ; I have no name for it," —

meaning the House of Lords.

Thus did Pitt oppose to corrupt influence his
genius and his gift of speaking well. Sir Thomas
Robinson, on the same day, called on his majority to
show spirit. " Can gentlemen," he demanded, " can

1 Fox in Waldegrave's Memoirs, 147.

VOL. IV. 11

102 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chai\ merchants, can the House bear, if eloquence alone is

VII. , ,

^^^ to carry it ? I hope words alone will not prevail f l
1754. and the majority came to his aid. Even Fox, who
" despised care for the constitution as the object of
narrow minds,"2 complained to the heir of the Duko
of Devonshire, that, u taking all share of power from
the Commons is not the way to preserve Whig
liberty. The Lords stand between the crown and
the privilege of both peers and commons ;" " after we
are nothing," he continued, addressing the great chief-
tains of the Whig clans, "you will not long continue
what you wish to be." 8 George the Second, the aged
king, was even more impatient of this thraldom to
the aristocracy, which would not leave him a nega-
tive, still less an option in the choice of his servants.
" The English notions of liberty," thought he, " must
be somewhat singular, when the chief of the nobility
choose rather to be the dependents and followers of a
Duke of Newcastle than to be the friends and coun-
sellors of their sovereign." 4 The king was too old to
resist ; but the first political lessons which his grand-
son, Prince George, received at Leicester House, were
such a use of the forms of the British constitution as
should emancipate the royal authority from its humil-
iating dependence on a few great families. Thus Pitt
and Prince George became allies, moving from most
opposite points against the same influence — Pitt
wishing to increase the force of popular representa-
tion, and Leicester House to recover independence for
the prerogative.

These tendencies foreshadowed an impending

' Walpole's Memoirs of George * Waldegrave's Memoirs, 20
II. i. 355. and 152.

8 Chesterfield on Fox. 4 Ibid. 133.

SHALL THE BRITISn PARLIAMENT TAX AMERICA ? 163

change in the great Whig party of England. The chap.
fires had gone out ; the ashes on its altars were grown ^_^
cold. It must be renovated or given over to dissolu- 1754.
tion. It had accomplished its original purposes, and
was relapsing into a state of chaos. Now that the
principle of its former cohesion and activity had ex-
hausted its power, and that it rested only on its tradi-
tions, intestine divisions and new combinations would
necessarily follow. The Whigs had, by the Revolu-
tion of 1688, adjusted a compromise between the
liberty of the industrial classes and the old feudal
aristocracy, giving internal rest after a long conflict.
With cold and unimpassioned judgment they had
seated the House of Hanover on the English throne,
in the person of a lewd, vulgar and ill-bred prince,
who was neither born nor educated among them, nor
spoke their language, nor understood their constitu-
tion ; and who yet passively gave the nameof his House
as a watchword for toleration in the church, freedom
of thinking and of speech, the security of property
under the sanction of law, the safe enjoyment of Eng-
lish liberty. They had defended this wise and deli-
berate act against the wounded hereditary affections
and the monarchical propensities of the rural districts
of the nation ; till at last their fundamental measures
had ceased to clash with the sentiment of the people,
and the whole aristocracy had accepted their doc-
trines. Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield, called
himself a Whig, was one of the brightest ornaments of
the party, and after Hardwicke, their oracle on ques-
tions of law. Cumberland, Newcastle, Devonshire,
Bedford, Halifax, and the Marquis of Rockingham,
were all reputed Whigs. So were George and
Charles Townshend, the young Lord North, Gren-

164 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, ville, Conway and Sackville. On the vital elements
^^L; of civil liberty, the noble families which led the seve-
1754. ral factions had no systematic opinions. They knew
not that America, which demanded their attention,
would amalgamate the cause of royalty and oligarchy,
and create parties in England on questions which the
Revolution of 1688 had not even considered.

It was because the Whig party at this time had
proposed to itself nothing great to accomplish, that it
was possible for a man like Newcastle to be at its
head ; with others like Holdernesse, and the dull Sir
Thomas Robinson, for the secretaries of state. The
new system of governing America became one of the
first objects of their attention ; and, with the incon-
siderate levity, rashness, and want of principle that
mark imbecile men in the conduct of affairs, they
were ever ready to furnish precedents for future mea-
sures of oppression. The Newcastle ministry pro-
ceeded without regard to method, consistency, or law.

The province of New York had replied to the
condemnation of its policy, contained in Sir Danvers
Osborne's instructions, by a well-founded impeachment
of Clinton for embezzling public funds and concealing
it by false accounts ; for gaining undue profits from
extravagant grants of lands, and grants to him-
self under fictitious names ; and for selling civil and
military offices. These grave accusations were neg-
lected.

But the province had also complained that its
legislature had been directed to obey' the kings in-
structions. They insisted that such instructions,
though a rule of conduct to his governor, were not the
measure of obedience to the people ; that the rule of

SIIALL THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT TAX AMERICA ? 165

obedience was positive law ; that a command to grant chap.
money was neither constitutional nor legal ; being in- ^^i,
consistent with the freedom of debate and the rights 1754
of the assembly, whose power to prepare and pass the
bills granting money, was admitted by the crown.1 It
was under these influences that the Assembly of New
York, in a loyal address to the king, had justified their
conduct. The Newcastle administration trimmed be-
tween the contending parties. It did not adopt effec-
tive measures to enforce its orders ; while it yet
applauded the conduct of the Board of Trade,2 and
summarily condemned the colony by rejecting its
address.8 But the opinion of the best English law-
yers4 became more and more decided against the
legality of a government by royal instructions ; en-
couraging the Americans to insist on the right of their
legislatures to deliberate freely and come to their own
conclusions; and on the other hand leading British
statesmen to the belief, that the rule for the colonies
must be prescribed by an act of the British parlia-
ment.

The feebleness of the ministry, in which there was
not one single statesman of talent enough to avoid a
conflict with France, encouraged the ambition of that
power. At the same time it was seen that the people
of America, if they would act in concert, could ad-
vance the English flag through Canada and to the
Mississippi; and, as a measure of security against
French encroachments, Halifax, by the king's com-

1 See the case prepared by Mr. 8 Smith's New York, ii.
Charles, the New York agent, in 4 Opinion of Hay in Smith, ii.
Smith's New York, ii. 195. 197. No doubt this was also

2 Representation of the Board of George Grenville's opinion.
Trade, 4 April, 1754, in N. Y. Lon-
don Documents, xxxi. 39.

166 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

°vuP' mand,1 proposed an American union.2 "A certain
— • — ' and permanent revenue," with a proper adjustment of
' quotas, was to be determined by a meeting of one
commissioner from each colony. In electing the com-
missioners, the council, though appointed by the king,
was to have a negative on the assembly, and the royal
governor to have a negative on both. The colony that
failed of being represented was yet to be bound by
the result. Seven were to be a quorum, and of these
a majority, with the king's approbation, were to bind
the continent. The executive department was to be
intrusted to one commander-in-chief, who should, at
the same time, be the commissary-general for Indian
affairs. To meet his expenses, he was "to be empow-
ered to draw" on the treasuries of the colonies for
sums proportionate to their respective quotas. A
disobedient or neglectful province was to be reduced
by " the authority of parliament ;" and the interposi-
tion of that authority was equally to be applied for,
if the whole plan of union should be defeated.8

Such was the despotic, complicated, and impracti-
cable plan of Halifax, founded so much on prerogative,
as to be at war with the principles of the English
aristocratic revolution. Nor was any earnest effort
ever made to carry it into effect. It does but mark in
the mind of Halifax and his associates, the moment of
that pause, which preceded the definitive purpose of
settling all questions of an American revenue, gov-
ernment, and union, by what seemed the effective,
simple, and uniform system of a general taxation of

1 Sir Thomas Robinson to the ject for general concert, August,
Board of Trade, 14 June, 1754. 1754. Representation of the Board

2 Lords of Trade to Sir Thomas of Trade to the king, 9 August, 1754.
Robinson, 3 July, 1754. Same to 3 Representation of the Board of
same, 9 August, 1754, inclosing pro- Trade to the king, 9 August, 1754.

SIIALL THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT TAX AMERICA ? 167

America by the British legislature. The secretary of chap.
Etate and the Board continued, as before, to enjoin a ^ _, ,
concert among the central provinces for their defence, 1754
and, as before, the king's command was regarded only
as proposing subjects for consideration to the colonial
legislatures.

" If the several assemblies," wrote Penn from Eng-
land, " will not make provision for the general service,
an act of parliament may oblige them here." * " The
assemblies,*' said Dinwiddie, of Virginia, u are obsti-
nate, self-opinionated ; a stubborn generation ;" and he
advised " a poll-tax on the whole subjects in all the
provinces, to bring them to a sense of their duty."3
Other governors, also, " applied home " for compul-
sory legislation ; 8 and Sharpe, of Maryland, who was
well informed, held it " possible, if not probable, that
parliament, at its very next session, would raise a fund
in the several provinces by a poll-tax," or by imposts,
" or by a stamp-duty," which last method he at that
time favored.4

These measures were under consideration while the
news was fresh of Washington's expulsion from the
Ohio valley. Listening to the instance of the House
of Burgesses of Virginia, the king instructed the Earl
of Albemarle, then governor-in-chief of that Domin-
ion, to grant lands west of the great ridge of moun-
tains which separates the rivers Roanoke, James, and
Potomac from the Mississippi, to such persons as
should be desirous of settling them, in small quantities

1 Thomas Penn to Hamilton, 10 8 Dinwiddie to H. Sharpe, of

Jane, 1754. Maryland.

* Lieut. Gov. Dinwiddie to the * Lieut. Gov. II. Sharpe to the

Lords of Trade, 23 September, Secretary, C. Calvert, 15 Septem-

1754. ber, 1754.

168 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, of not more than a thousand acres for any one person,
^^^ From the settlement of this tract it was represented
1754 that great additional security would be derived against
the encroachments of the French.1 Thus Virginia
seemed to have in charge the colonization of the west ;
and became the mother of states on the Ohio and the
Tennessee.

But the ministry still doubting what active mea-
sures to propose, sought information2 of Horatio Gates,
a young and gallant officer just returned from Nova
Scotia. He was ready to answer questions, but they
knew not what to ask. On the advice of Hanbury,
the quaker agent in England for the Ohio Company,
they appointed Sharpe, of Maryland, their general.
Newcastle would have taken Pitt's opinion. " Your
Grace knows," he replied, " I have no capacity for
these things."8 Horace Walpole, the elder, advised
energetic measures to regain the lost territory.4
Charles Townshend would have sent three thousand
regulars with three hundred thousand pounds, to New
England, to train its inhabitants in war, and, through
them, to conquer Canada. After assuming the hero,
and breathing nothing but war, the administration
confessed its indecision; and in October, while Eng-
land's foolish prime minister was sending pacific mes-
sages " to the French administration, particularly to
Madame de Pompadour and the Duke de Mirepoix,"5
the direction and conduct of American affairs was left
entirely to the Duke of Cumberland, then the captain-
general of the British army.

1 Representation of the Board * Coxe's Life of Horace Wal-

of Trade to the king, 10 June, pole, ii. 3G7.

1768. 5 Newcastle to Walpole, 20 Oct.,

8 Walpole's Memoires of George 1754. Walpole's Memoires, i. 847.

the Second. Compnre Flassan : Hist, de la Di«

8 Dodington's Diary. plomatie Fran^aise.

SHALL TILE BRITISH PARLIA3LENT TAX A3CEEICA ? 169

The French ministry desired to put trust in the chap.
solemn assurances of England. Giving discretionary ^^
power in case of a rupture, they instructed Du- 1754.
quesne to act only on the defensive ; 1 to shun effu-
sion of blood, and to employ Indian war-parties only
when indispensable to tranquillity. Yet Canada, of
which the population was but little above eighty
thousand, sought security by Indian alliances. Chiefs
of the Six Nations were invited to the colony,2 and,
on their arrival, were entreated, by a very large belt
of wampum from six nations of French Indians, to
break the sale of lands to the English on the Ohio.
" Have regard," they cried, " for your offspring ; for
the English, whom you call your brothers, seek your
ruin." Already the faithless Shawnees,8 the most
powerful tribe on the Ohio, made war on the English,
and distributed English scalps and prisoners among
the nations who accepted their hatchet.

Fond of war, "the cruel and sanguinary" Cum-
berland entered on his American career with eager
ostentation. He was heroically brave and covetous
of military renown, hiding regrets at failure under
the aspect of indifference.4 Himself obedient to the
king, he never forgave a transgression of "the mi-
nutest precept of the military rubric." 5 In Scotland,
in 1746, his method against rebellion was "threaten-
ing military execution." " Our success," he at that
time complained to Bedford, " has been too rapid.
Il would have been better for the extirpation of this

1 Le Garde des Sceaux to Du- 8 Duqnesne to De Drucourt, 8
qrteane, 1754. New York Paris March, 1755.

Doc, x., 44. * Waldeirrave's Memoirs, 21-23.

2 Holland to Lieut. Gov. Delan- 5 Walpokft Memoires of Geo.
cey, 1 Jan., 1755. II., i., 86.

170 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, rabble, if they had stood." " All the good we have
—vL, done," he wrote to Newcastle, " has been a little
it 54. bloodletting."1 His attendant, George Townshend,
afterwards to be much connected with American af-
fairs, promised his friends still " more entertainment"
in the way of beheading Scotchmen on Tower Hill ;
and he echoed Cumberland, as he wrote, " I wish the
disaffection was less latent, that the land might be
more effectually purged at once." 2

For the American major-general and commander-
in-chief, Edward Braddock was selected, a man in
fortunes desperate, in manners brutal, in temper
despotic ; obstinate and intrepid ; expert in the
niceties of a review ; harsh in discipline.8 As the
duke had confidence only in regular troops, it was
ordered 4 that the general and field officers of the pro-
vincial forces should have no rank, when serving with
the general and field-officers commissioned by the
king. Disgusted at being thus arrogantly spurned,
Washington retired from the service, and his resri-
ment was broken up.

The active participation in affairs by Cumberland
again connected Henry Fox with their direction.
This unscrupulous man, having u privately foresworn
all connection with Pitt," entered the cabinet without
appointment to office, and, as the most efficient man
in the ministry, undertook the conduct of the House
of Commons. Desiring to introduce into the English
service the exactness of the German discipline, and to

1 Coxe's Pelham Ad., i., 303. 4 Orders for governing his Ma-

2 Jesse's George Selwyn, i., 114. jesty's Forces in America, in Two
8 Walpole's Memoires of Geo. Letters to a Friend, 1755, pp. 14,

II., i., 390, confirmed by many let- 15.
ters of Washington, the younger
Shirley, and others.

SHALL TILE BRITISH PARLIAMENT TAX AMERICA ? 17 1

ground his despotism in an appearance of law, Cum- chap.

berland had caused the English Mutiny Bill to be . r~

revised, and its rigor doubled. On a sudden, at a 1764,
most unusual period in the session, Fox showed Lord
Egmont a clause for extending the Mutiny Bill to
America, and subjecting the colonial militia, when in
adual service, to its terrible severity.1 Egmont inter-
ceded to protect America from this new grievance of
military law ; but Charles Townshend defended the
measure, and, turning to Lord Egmont, exclaimed,
f Take the poor American by the hand and point out
his grievances. I defy you, I beseech you, to point
out one grievance. I know not of one." He pro-
nounced a panegyric on the Board of Trade, and de-
fended all their acts, in particular the instructions to
Sir Danvers Osborne. The petition of the agent
of Massachusetts was not allowed to be brought up.
That to the House of Lords no one would offer ; *
and the bill, with the clause for America, was hur-
ried through parliament.

It is confidently stated, by the agent of Massachu-
setts, that a noble lord had then a bill in his pocket,
ready to be brought in, to ascertain and regulate the
colonial quotas.8 All England was persuaded of
"the perverseness of the assemblies,"4 and inquiries
were instituted relating to the easiest method of taxa-
tion by parliament. But, for the moment, the pre-
rogative was employed ; Braddock was ordered to
exact a common revenue ; and all the governors re-

1 Calvert to Lieut. Gov. Sharpe. 3 W. Bollan to the Speaker, 80
Walpole's Memoires, i., 365. May, 1755.

2 Letter of W. Bollan to Secre- 4 Secretary Calvert to Lt. Gov.
tary Willard, 21 Dec., 175-4; and to Sharpe, 20 Dec, 1754.

the Speaker of the Massachusetts
Assembly, 29 Jan., 1755.

172 THE AMEBIC AN REVOLUTION.

chap, ceived the king's pleasure " that a fund be established

VIT

^^^ for the benefit of all the colonies collectively in North

1754. America."1

De-

Men in England expected obedience ; but in
cember, Delancey referred to " the general opinion of
the congress at Albany, that the colonies would differ
in their measures and disagree about their quotas;
without the interposition of the British parliament to
oblige them," nothing would be done.2

In the same moment, Shirley, at Boston, was
planning how the common fund could be made effi-
cient; and to Franklin — who, in December, 1754,
revisited the region in which he drew his first breath,
and spent his earliest and most pleasant days, — he
submitted a new scheme of union. A congress of
governors and delegates from the councils was to be
invested with power at their meetings to adopt mea-
sures of defence, and to draw for all necessary moneys
on the treasury of Great Britain, which was to be
reimbursed by parliamentary taxes on America.

"The people in the colonies," replied Franklin,3
" are better judges of the necessary preparations for
defence, and their own abilities to bear them. Gov-
ernors often come to the colonies merely to make
fortunes, with which they intend to return to Britain ;
are not always men of the best abilities or integrity ;
have no natural connection with us, that should make
them heartily concerned for our welfare." "The
councillors in most of the colonies are appointed by

1 Sir T. Robinson's Circular of 8 Franklin to Shirley, 17 Deo

26 Oct., 1754. and 18 Dec. 1754, in Works, iii.

8 Lieut. Gov. Delancey to the 57, 58.
Lords of Trade, 15 Dec. 1754.

SHALL THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT TAX AMERICA ? 173

the crown, on the recommendation of governors, fre- chap.

VII

quently depend on the governors for office, and are ^^_
therefore too much under influence. There is reason it 54
to be jealous of a power in such governors. They
might abuse it merely to create employments, gratify
dependents, and divide profits." Besides, the mer-
cantile system of England already extorted a second-
ary tribute from America. In addition to the benefit
to England from the increasing demand for English
manufactures, the whole wealth of the colonies, by
the British Acts of Trade, centred finally among the
merchants and inhabitants of the metropolis.

Against taxation of the colonies by parliament,
Franklin urged, that it would lead to dangerous
animosities and feuds, and inevitable confusion ; that
parliament, being at a great distance, was subject to
be misinformed and misled, and was, therefore, un-
suited to the exercise of this power ; that it was the
undoubted right of Englishmen not to be taxed but
by their own consent, through their representatives ;
that to propose taxation by parliament, rather than
by a colonial representative body, implied a distrust
of the loyalty, or the patriotism, or the understand-
ing of the colonies; that to compel them to pay
money without their consent, would be rather like
raising contributions in an enemy's country than
taxing Englishmen for their own benefit ; and, finally,
that the principle involved in the measure would, if
carried out, lead to a tax upon them all by act of par-
liament for support of government and to the dis-
mission of colonial assemblies, as a useless part of
the constitution.

Shirley next proposed for consideration the plan
of uniting the colonies more intimately with Great

174 THE AMEBIC AN EEVOLUTION.

chap. Britain, by allowing them representatives in parlia-
^^Ls ment; and Franklin replied, that unity of govern-
1754. ment should be followed by a real unity of country;
that it would not be acceptable, unless a reasonable
number of representatives were allowed, all laws re-
straining the trade or the manufactures of the colo-
nies were repealed, and England ceasing to regard the
colonies as tributary to its industry, were to foster the
merchant, the smith, the hatter, in America not less
than those on her own soil.

Unable to move Franklin from the deeply-seated
love of popular liberty and power which was at once
his conviction and a sentiment of his heart, Shirley
turned towards the Secretary of State, and renewed
his representations of the necessity of a union of the
colonies, to be formed in England and enforced by
act of parliament. At the same time he warned
against the plea of Franklin in behalf of the Albany
plan, which he described as the application of the old
charter system, such as prevailed in Rhode Island and
Connecticut, to the formation of an American confed-
eracy.1 The system, said he, is unfit for ruling a par-
ticular colony; it seems much more improper for
establishing a general government over all the colo-
nies to be comprised in the union. The prerogative
is not sufficiently secured by the reservation to the
crown of the appointment of a President of the
Union with a negative power on all acts of legis-
lation. As the old charter governments subjected the
prerogative to the people, and had little or no ap-

1 It has been thought probable, See Shirley to Sir Thomas Robin-
that Shiriey was not particularly son, 24 December, 1754; 24 Jan-
hostile to the Albany plan of uary , 1755, and 4 Feb. 1755, but
union. His correspondence proves particularly the letter of Dec. 1754.
his bitter enmity to the scheme.

SHALL THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT TAX AMERICA? 175

pearance of dependency, so the Albany plan of union chap.
would, in like manner, annihilate royal authority in ^_,
the collective colonies, and endanger their dependency 1754.
upon the crown.

Franklin and Shirley parted, each to persevere in 1755
liis own opinions. Early in 1755, Shirley wrote to
the Secretary of State, that he wras convinced of " the
necessity not only of a parliamentary union but taxa-
tion."1 During the winter, Sharpe, who had been
appointed temporarily to the chief command in
America, vainly solicited2 aid from every province.
New Hampshire, although weak and young, " took
every opportunity to force acts contrary to the king's
instructions and prerogative." The character of the
Rhode Island government gave "no great prospect
of assistance." New York hesitated in providing
quarters for British soldiers, and would contribute to
a general fund only when others did. New Jersey
showed " the greatest contempt" for the repeated so-
licitations of its aged governor. In Pennsylvania, in
Maryland, in South Carolina, the grants of money
by the assemblies were negatived, because they were
connected with the encroachments of popular power
on the prerogative, " schemes of future independency,"
" the grasping at the disposition of all public money
and filling all offices ;" and in each instance the veto
excited a great flame. The Assembly of Pennsylva-
nia in March borrowed money and issued bills of
credit by their own resolves, without the assent of the
governor. " They are the more dangerous," said

1 Shirley. to Sir Thomas Robin- his brothers William Sharpe and
son, 4 February, 1755. John Sharpe, and to Lord Baltd-

1 H. Sharpens Letters in 1755 to more.

176 THE AMERICAN EE VOLUTION.

chap. Morris, "because a future Assembly may use those
^^^ powers against the government by which they are
1755. now protected;" and he openly and incessantly so-
licited the interference of England. The provincial
press engaged in the strife. "Redress," said the
Pennsylvania royalists, " if it comes, must come from
his Majesty and the British parliament.171 The
Quakers also looked to the same authority, not for
taxation, but for the abolition of the proprietary
rule. 2

The contest along the American frontier was rag-
ing fiercely, when, in January, 1755, France proposed
to England to leave the Ohio valley in the condition
in which it was at the epoch before the last war, and
at the same time inquired the motive of the arma-
ment which was making in Ireland. Braddock, with
two regiments, was already on the way to America,
when Newcastle gave assurances that defence only
was intended, that the general peace should not be
broken ; at the same time, England on its side, return-
ing the French proposition but with a change of epoch,
proposed to leave the Ohio valley as it had been at
the treaty of Utrecht. Mirepoix, in reply, was wil-
ling that both the French and English should retire
from the country between the Ohio and the Allegha-
nies, and leave that territory neutral, which would
have secured to his sovereign all the country north
and west of the Ohio. England, on the contrary,
demanded that France should destroy all her forts as
far as the Wabash, raze Niagara and Crown Point,
surrender the peninsula of Nova Scotia, with a strip of
land twenty leagues wide along the Bay of Fundy and

1 Brief State of Pennsylvania.

8 Answer to Brief State of Pennsylvania.

SHALL THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT TAX AMERICA? 177

the Atlantic, and leave the intermediate countiy to chap.
the St. Lawrence a neutral desert. Proposals so un- *
reasonable could meet with no acceptance; yet both 1755.
parties professed a desire — in which France appeal's
to have been sincere — to investigate and arrange all
disputed points. The credulous diplomatist put trust
iu the assurances l of friendly intentions, which New-
castle lavished upon him, and Louis the Fifteenth,
while he sent three thousand men to America, held
himself ready to sacrifice for peace all but honor and
the protection due to his subjects;2 consenting that
New England should reach on the east to the Penob-
scot, and be divided from Canada on the north by
the crest of the intervening highlands.3

While the negotiations were pending, Braddock
arrived in the Chesapeake. In March, he reached
"Williamsburg, and visited Annapolis; on the four-
teenth day of April, he, with Commodore Keppel,
held a congress at Alexandria. There were present,
of the American governors, Shirley, now next to
Braddock in military rank ; Delancey, of New York ;
Morris, of Pennsylvania ; Sharpe, of Maryland ; and
Dinwiddie, of Virginia. Braddock directed their
attention, first of all, to the subject of colonial rev-
enue,4 on which his instructions commanded him to
insist, and his an^er kindled " that no such fund was
already established." The governors present, reca-
pitulating their strifes with their assemblies, made
answer, " Such a fund can never be established in the
colonies without the aid of parliament. Having

1 Stanley to Pitt, in Thackeray's s Secret Instructions to Vaa«

Chatham, ii. 581. dreuil, 1 April, 1754, Ibid. x. 8.

5 Instructions to Varin, N. Y. 4 II. Sharpe to Lord Baltimore, 19

Paris Documents, xi. 2. April, 1754.

VOL. IV. 12

178 THE AMEKICAN KEVOLTTTIOX.

chap, found it impracticable to obtain in their respective
^^ governments the proportion expected by his Majesty
1755. towards defraying the expense of his service in North
America, they are unanimously of opinion that it
should be proposed to his Majesty's ministers to find
out some method of compelling them to do it, and of
assessing the several governments in proportion to
their respective abilities." l This imposing document
Braddock sent forthwith to the ministry, himself also9
urging the necessity of some tax being laid through-
out his Majesty's dominions in North America. Din-
widdie reiterated his old advice. Sharpe recom-
mended that the governor and council, without the
assembly, should have power to levy money "after
any manner that may be deemed most ready and
convenient." * A common fund," so Shirley assured
his American colleagues, on the authority of the
British secretary of state, " must be either voluntarily
raised, or assessed in some other way."

I have had in my hands vast masses of corres-
pondence, including letters from servants of the crown
in every royal colony in America; from civilians, as
well as from Braddock, and Dunbar, and Gage ; from
the popular Delancey and the moderate Sharpe, as
well as from Dinwiddie and Shirley ; and all were
of the same tenor. The British ministry heard one
general clamor from men in office for taxation by act
of parliament. Even men of liberal tendencies looked
to acts of English authority for aid. " I hope that

1 Minutes of Council, held at 2 Memoire contenant le Precis
the camp at Alexandria, in Virgi- des Faits avec les pieces justifica-
nia, April 14, 1755, [and following tives, 188. Une taxe sur les do-
days]. My copy is from that inclos- maines de sa majestic Braddock
ed in Major General Braddock's to Sir Thomas Rohinson, 14 April,
Letter of 19 April, 1755, to the Se- 1755, in the State Paper Oiiice.
cretary of State. Am. and W. I. lxxxii.

SnALL TIIE BTIITISII PARLIAiVIENT TAX AMERICA? 179

Lord Halifax's plan may be good and take place," said chap.
Alexander, of New York. Hopkins, governor of ^^L,
Rhode Island, elected by the people, complained of 1755.
the men " who seemed to love and understand liberty
better than public good and the affairs of state."
"Little dependence," said he, "can be had on volun-
tary union." "In an act of parliament for a general
fund," wrote Shirley, " I have great reason to think
the people will readily acquiesce."

In England, the government was more and more
inclined to enforce the permanent authority of Great
Britain. No Assembly had with more energy as-
sumed to itself all the powers that spring from the
management of the provincial treasury than that of
South Carolina ; and Richard Lyttleton, brother of
Sir George Lyttelton, who, in November, 1755, en-
tered the cabinet as chancellor of the exchequer,
was sent to recover the authority which had been
impaired by " the unmanly facilities of former rulers."
Pennsylvania had, in January, 1755, professed the
loyalty of that province, and explained the danger to
their chartered liberties from proprietary instruc-
tions ; but, after a hearing before the Board of Trade,
the address of the colonial legislature to their sover-
eign, like that of New York in the former year, was
disdainfully rejected. Petitions for reimbursements
and aids were received with displeasure ; the people
of New England were treated as Swiss ready to sell
their services, desiring to be paid for protecting them-
selves. The reimbursement of Massachusetts for tak-
ing Louisburg was now condemned, as a* subsidy to
subjects who had only done their duty. " You must
fight for your own altars and firesides," was Sir

180 THE AMERICAN KEVOLUTION.

chap. Thomas Robinson's answer to the American agents,

VII . . >i

v_y_^ as they were bandied to himself from Newcastle and
1755. from both to Halifax. Halifax alone had -decision
and a plan. In July, 17 55, he insisted with the min-
istry on a "general system to ease the mother
country of the great and heavy expenses with which
it of late years was burdened." * The letters from
America found the English Administration resolved
" to raise funds for American affairs by a stamp-duty,
and a duty" on products of the Foreign West Indies,
imported into the continental colonies.2 The English
press advocated an impost in the northern colonies on
West India products, " and likewise that, by act of
parliament, there be a further fund established" from
" stamped paper." 8 This tax, it was conceived, would
yield " a very large sum." Huske, an American,
writing under the patronage of Charles Townshend,
urged a reform in the colonial administration, and
moderate taxation by parliament, as free from "the
risks and disadvantages of the Albany plan of
union."4 Delancey, in August, had hinted to the
New York Assembly, that a " stamp-duty would be
so diffused as to be in a manner insensible."5 That
province objected to a stamp-tax as oppressive,
though not to a moderate impost on West India pro-
ducts ; and the voice of Massachusetts was unheeded,
when, in November, it began to be thoroughly
alarmed, and instructed its agent " to oppose every
thing that should have the remotest tendency to

1 Board to Secretary of State, Colonies, &c, &c. LondoD, 1755.
July, 1755. at pages 89 and 92.

2 Charles to Committee of New 4 Huske's Present State of the
York, 15 Aug., 1755. , Colonies.

3 A miscellaneous Essay, con- 5 Delancey to the New York
cerning the courses pursued by Assembly, 6 Aug., 1755.
Great Britain in the Affairs of her

SIIALL THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT TAX AMERICA? 181

raise a revenue in the plantations." Every body in chai\

parliament seemed in favor of an American revenue , ,_

that should come under the direction of the govern- 1755.
ment in England. Those who once promised oppo-
sition to the measure resolved rather to sustain it,
and the very next winter was to introduce the new
policy.1

The civilized world was just beginning to give to
the colonies the attention due to their futurity.
Hutcheson, the greatest British writer on ethics of
his generation, — who, without the power of thor-
o uglily reforming the theory of morals, knew that it
needed a reform, and was certain that truth and right
have a foundation within us, though, swayed by the
material philosophy of his times, ne sought that foun-
dation not in pure reason, but in a moral sense, — saw
no wrong in the coming independence of America.
" When," he inquired, " have colonies a right to be
released from the dominion of the parent state ?"
And this year his opinion saw the light : — u When-
ever they are so increased in numbers and strength
as to be sufficient by themselves for all the good ends
of a political union."

1 Bollan to the Speaker of Mass. Assembly.

CHAPTER VIII.

ENGLAND AND FRANCE CONTEND FOR THE OHIO VALLEY AND
FOR ACADIA.— NEWCASTLE'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED.

1755.
c£TArP. Anarchy lay at the heart of the institutions of

VIII. i ...

— , — > Europe ; the germ of political life was struggling for

1755. fts development in the people of America. While
doubt was preparing the work of destruction in the
Old World, faith in truth and the formative power
of order were controlling and organizing the free and
expanding energies of the New. As yet, America
refused union, not from unwillingness to devote life
and fortune for the commonwealth, but from the firm
resolve never to place its concentrated strength under
an authority independent of itself. It desired not
union only, but self-direction.

The events of the summer strengthened the pur-
pose, but delayed the period, of taxation by parlia-
ment. Between England and France peace existed
under ratified treaties; it wras proposed not to invade
Canada, but only to repel encroachments on the fron-
tier from the Ohio to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. For
this end, four expeditions were concerted by Brad-
dock at Alexandria. Lawrence, the lieutenant-gov-

THE OHIO VALLEY AND ACADIA. 183

ernor of Nova Scotia, was to reduce that province chap.
according to the English interpretation of its bounda- ^^L,
ries ; Johnson, from his long acquaintance with the 1755.
Six Nations, was selected to enroll Mohawk warriors
in British pay, and to conduct an army of provincial
militia and Indians against Crown Point ; Shirley
proposed to win laurels by driving the French from
Niagara ; wrhile the commander-in-chief himself was
to recover the Ohio Valley and the Northwest.

Soon after Brad dock sailed from Europe, the
French also sent a fleet with reinforcements for Can-
ada, under the veteran Dieskau. Boscawen, with
English ships, pursued them, though England had
avowed only the intention to resist encroachments on
her territory ; and when the French ambassador at
London expressed some uneasiness on the occasion,
he was assured that certainly the English would not
begin.1 At six o'clock, on the evening of the 7th of
June, the Alcide, the Lys, and the Dauphin, that had
for several days been separated from their squadron,
fell in with the British fleet off Cape Race, the
southernmost point of Newfoundland. • Between ten
and eleven in the morning of the eighth, the Alcide,
under Hocquart, was within hearing of the Dunkirk,
a vessel of sixty guns, commanded by Howe. "Are
we at peace or war?" asked Hocquart. The French
affirm, that the answer to them was, " Peace, Peace ;"
till Boscawen gave the signal to engage.2 Howe,
who was as brave as he was taciturn, obeyed the
order promptly ; and the Alcide and Lys yielded to
superior force. The Dauphin, being a good sailer,

1 .Flassan : Histoire de la Diplo- pole's Meinoires of Geo. II., i., 389.
matie Franchise, vi., 34. Barrow's Life of Howe.

* Precis des Faits, 273. Wal-

184 THE AMEKICAN KEVOLUTION.

chap, scud safely for Louisburg. Nine more of the French
^^ squadron came in sight of the British, but were not
1755 intercepted; and, before June was gone, Dieskau and
his troops, with De Vaudreuil, who superseded Du-
quesne as governor of Canada, landed at Quebec,
Vaudreuil was a Canadian by birth, had served in
Canada, and been governor of Louisiana. The Cana-
dians nocked about him to bid him welcome.

From Williamsburg, Braddock had promised
Newcastle to be " beyond the mountains of Alle-
ghany by the end of April ;" at Alexandria, in April,
he prepared the ministry for tidings of his successes
by an express in June. At Fredericktown, where he
halted for carriages, he said to Franklin, " After
taking Fort Duquesne, I am to proceed to Niagara,
and, having taken that, to Frontenac. Duquesne
can hardly detain me above three or four days, and
then I see nothing that can obstruct my march to
Niagara." " The Indians are dexterous in laying and
executing ambuscades," replied Franklin, who remem-
bered the French invasion of the Chickasaws, and
the death of Artaguette and Vincennes. " The sav-
ages," answered Braddock, " may be formidable to
your raw American militia ; upon the king's regulars
and disciplined troops it is impossible they should
make any impression." Still the little army was " un-
able to move, for want of horses and carriages ;" but
Franklin, by his "great influence in Pennsylvania,"
supplied both, with a "promptitude and probity"
which extorted praise from Braddock and unanimous
thanks from the Assembly of his province.1 Among

1 Franklin to Shirley, 22 May, State, 5 June, 1755. Votes of
1755. Braddock to Secretary of Pennsylvania Assembly, v., 397.

THE OHIO VAXLEY AND ACADIA. 185

the wagoners was Daniel Morgan, famed in village chap.
groups as a wrestler ; skilful in the use of the mus- ^^L,
ket; who emigrated, as a day-laborer, from New 1755.
Jersey to Virginia, and husbanded his wages so that
he had been able to become the owner of a team ; all
unconscious of his future greatness. At Will's Creek,
which took the name of Cumberland, Washington, in
May, joined the expedition as one of the general's
aids.

Seven-and-twenty days passed in the march of the
army from Alexandria to Cumberland, where, at last,
two thousand effective men were assembled ; among
them, two independent companies from New York,
under the command of Horatio Gates. " The Amer-
ican troops," wrote Braddock, "have little courage,
or good- will. I expect from them almost no military
service, though I have employed the best officers to
drill them ;" 1 and losing all patience, he insulted the
country as void of ability, honor, and honesty. " The
general is brave," said his secretary, young Shirley,2
" and in pecuniary matters honest, but disqualified for
the service he is employed in f and Washington
found him " incapable of arguing without warmth, or
giving up any point he had asserted, be it ever so
incompatible with reason or common sense."

From Cumberland to the fork of the Ohio the
distance is less than one hundred and thirty miles.
In the last day of May, five hundred men were sent
forward to open the roads, and store provisions at
Little Meadows. Sir Peter Halket followed with the
first brigade, and June was advancing before the gen-
eral was in motion with the second. " Braddock is

1 Brad dock's Letter of 2 June, * Shirley the younger to R. H.
1756, in the Precis, &c, 198. Morris.

I

186 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, not at all impatient to be scalped," thought men in

v_* England. Meantime Fort Duquesne was receiving

1755. reinforcements. "We shall have more to do," said

Washington, "than to go up the hills and come

down."

The army moved forward slowly and with mil
taiy exactness, but in a slender line, nearly four miles
long ; always in fear of Indian ambuscades ; exposed,
by attacks on its flanks, to be cut in pieces like a
thread. The narrow road was made with infinite toil
across mountains and masses of lofty rocks, over
ravines and rivers. As the horses, for want of
forage, must feed on the wild grasses, and the cattle
browse among the shrubs, they grew weak, and began
to give out. The regular troops pined under the wil-
derness fare.

On the nineteenth of June, Braddock, by Wash-
ington's advice, leaving Dunbar behind with the resi-
due of the army, resolved to push forward with
twelve hundred chosen men. "The prospect," says
Washington, "conveyed to my mind infinite de-
light ;" and he would not suffer " excessive" illness to
detain him from active service. Yet still they
stopped to level every molehill, and erect bridges
over every creek. On the eighth of July they arrived
at the fork of the Monongahela and Youghiogeny
Rivers. The distance to Fort Duquesne was but
twelve miles, and the Governor of New France gave
it up as lost. 1

Early in the morning of the ninth of July, Brad-
dock set his troops in motion. A little below the

1 Vaudreuil to the Minister, 24 July, 1755.

THE OHIO VALLEY AND ACADIA. 187

Youghiogeny they forded the Monongahela, and chap.
marched on the southern bank of that tranquil w^^L
stream, displaying outwardly to the forests the per- 1755.
Section of military discipline, brilliant in their daz-
zling uniform, their burnished arms gleaming in the
bright summer's sun, but sick at heart, and enfeebled
by toil and unwholesome diet. At noon they forded
the Monongahela again, and stood between the rivers
that form the Ohio, only ten miles distant from
their junction. A detachment of three hundred and
fifty men, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Gage,1
and closely attended by a working party of two hun-
dred and fifty, under St. Clair, advanced cautiously,
with guides and flanking parties, along a path but
twelve feet wide, towards the uneven woody country
that was between them and Fort Duquesne.2 The
general was following with the columns of artillery,
baggage, and the main body of the army, when a
very heavy and quick fire was heard in the front.

Aware of Braddock's progress by the fidelity of
their scouts, the French had resolved on an ambus-
cade. Twice in council the Indians declined the
enterprise. " I shall go," said De Beaujeu, " and will
you suffer your father to go alone ? I am sure we
shall conquer ;" and, sharing his confidence, they
pledged themselves to be his companions.8 At an
early hour, Contrecceur detached De Beaujeu the com-
mandant at Fort Duquesne, Dumas, and De Lignery,
with less than two hundred and thirty French and Ca-
nadians, and six hundred and thirty-seven savages,

1 Gage to Albemarle, 24 July, s Relation depuis le Depart dea
1755, in Keppel's Keppel, i. 213. Troupes du Quebec, jusqu'au 80

8 Journal of General Braddock's Sept. 1755.
Expedition, in British Museum,
King's Lib. vol. 212.

188 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, under orders to repair to a favorable spot selected tlie
^^i, preceding evening.1 Before reaching it, they found
1755. themselves in the presence of the English, who were
advancing in the best possible order ; and De Beau-
jeu instantly began an attack with the utmost vivacity.
Gage should, on the moment, and without waiting for
orders, have sent support to his flanking parties. His
indecision lost the day.2 The onset was met cour-
ageously, but the flanking guards were driven in, and
the advanced party, leaving their two six-pounders in
the hands of the enemy, were thrown back upon the
vanguard which the general had sent as a rein-
forcement, and which was attempting to form in face
of a rising ground on the right. Thus the men of
both regiments were heaped together in promis-
cuous confusion,8 among the dense forest trees and
thickset underwood. The general himself hurried
forward to share the danger and animate the troops ;
and his artillery, though it could do little harm, as it
played against an enemy whom the forest concealed,
yet terrified the savages and made them waver. At
this time De Beaujeu fell, when the brave and hu-
mane Dumas, taking the command, gave new life to
his party ; sending the savages to attack the English
in flank, while he, with the French and Canadians,
continued the combat in front. Already the British
regulars were raising shouts of victory,4 when the bat-
tle was renewed, and the Indians, posting themselves
most advantageously behind large trees " in the front

1 Relation du Combat de 9 Juil- tion. Report of the Court of In-
let, 1755. qniry into the Behavior of the

2 Mante's History of the late Troops at Monongahela. Sir John
War in North America. 26. Gage St. Clair to Sir Thomas Robinson,
tried to defend himself. See Gage 3 Sept. 1755.

to Albemarle, 22 January, 1 755. 4 Relation du Combat. New

3 Journal of Braddook's Expedi- York Paris papers, xi. 14.

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REFERENCES.
X Frtmh ,ui,l lii,/inn.< whit i/wrvivm/ />> MM o'ui,/,:

British Troops .

A Guides unit i> l.n/lu Honk
15 1 'mi i/'i/ii- ut/iiiiiiti/ />uin

C A,lvnil,',;l /'niYr ciitnmitili'il

Iff /.ifli.li'/. I,',l,lf .'>jl>.
L) I'lit H'i'ikiiu) party ,;'inm,i n

/<•,/ A,- sr.i'ohn s'Uluir :'.~>i>.

E TtvoJ'i'i'liI />/•<<'..• /»' I'oillnhr.--

V it'll, 1 11/ /i> Ditto
<: /;„./ /(«-/,/««..•

11 Flunk l.ii'.inl.--

Main liodv <>l' ihe Armv
1 /./>//// /A ./..*•
K Sailor*

1. St r.nutit.f.ijl' lirfiuiili'crs
II Siii„ili,ni.-X !i'Mtn
X I! /'I'unilers
O ^ \>itti>}? t'l' Iri-i'itinliii-y
1* i'niiiiiiiiril
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S ('oLDunhurs

T Jii'nr (1 nil nl Itt/lltnliolcsiiiin
V .III ill

X li'ii'iiiiil iilwif ilii/'iiini/'ul
/'ni-1 of tl:f I'.'/ii/tn/t'lntwif

was li'in/lii

■'.

I^L-jl

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i.

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Tin l>i.'t<in,-e lif in l'Vazicrs Jlmisc /<• I'ort Hu Qucsiu-
lU- 7 Ci'iiif'iitetl Mi/f.i .

by &ooxge (> Smith .

THE OHIO VALLEY AND ACADIA. 189

of the troops, and on the hills which overhung the chap.
right flank," invisible, yet making the woods re-echo ^^
their war-whoop, fired irregularly, but with deadly 1755.
aim, at " the fair mark " offered by the " compact
body of men beneath them." None of the English
that were engaged would say they saw a hundred of
the enemy,1 and "many of the officers, who were in
the heat of the action the whole time, would not as-
sert that they saw one." 2

The combat was obstinate, and continued for two
hours with scarcely any change in the disposition of
either side.3 Had the regulars shown courage, the
issue would not have been doubtful ; but terrified by
the yells of the Indians, and dispirited by a manner
of fighting such as they had never imagined, they
would not long obey the voice of their officers, but
fired in platoons almost as fast as they could load, aim-
ing among the trees, or firing into the air. In the midst
of the strange scene, nothing was so sublime as the
persevering gallantry of the officers. They used the
utmost art to encourage the men to move upon the
enemy ; they told them off into small parties of which
they took the lead ; they bravely formed the front ;
they advanced sometimes at the head of small bodies,
sometimes separately, to recover the cannon, or to get
possession of the hill ; but were sacrificed by the sol-
diers who declined to follow them, and even fired
upon them from the rear.4 Of eighty-six officers,

1 H. Sharpe to Baltimore. Aug. * Letter of Wm. Smith, of New-
1755. York, of 27 July, 1755. Account

2 II. Sharpe to Secretary Cal- sent to Lord Albemarle, — in parti-
vert, 11 August, 1755. cular, the Report of the Court of

8 Memorandum. On the Sketch Inquiry. So too, Sharpe to Lord

of the Field of Battle, No. 2. Baltimore, August, 1755.

190 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, twenty-six were killed, — among them, Sir Peter Hal-
^_ _^. ket, — and thirty-seven were wounded, including Gage
1755. and other field-officers. Of the men, one half were
killed or wounded. Braddock braved every danger.
His secretary was shot dead ; both his English aids
were disabled early in the engagement,1 leaving the
American alone to distribute his orders. u I expected
every moment," said one whose eye was on Washing-
ton, "to see him fall."2 "Nothing but the superin-
tending care of Providence could have saved him."
An Indian chief — I suppose a Shawnee — singled him
out with his rifle, and bade others of his warriors do
the same. Two horses were killed under him ; four
balls penetrated his coat. "Some potent Manitou
guards his life," exclaimed the savage.3 "Death,"
wrote Washington, "was levelling my companions
on every side of me ; but, by the all-powerful dispen-
sations of Providence, I have been protected." 4 " To
the public," said Da vies, a learned divine, in the fol-
lowing month, " I point out that heroic youth, Colonel
Washington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has
preserved in so signal a manner for some important
service to his country." " Who is Mr. Washington ?"
asked Lord Halifax a few months later. " I know
nothing of him," he added, " but that they say he
behaved in Braddock's action as bravely as if he
really loved the whistling of bullets." 5 The Virginia
troops showed great valor, and were nearly all mas-
sacred. Of three companies, scarcely thirty men were

1 Washington to his mother, 18 4 Washington to his brother, 18

July, 1755. July, 1755.

8 Craik, in Marshall's Life of 6 Ilalifax to Sir Charles Hardy

Washington, ii. 19. 31 March, 1756.

8 Same to Mr. Custis, of Ar-
lington.

THE OHIO VALLEY AND ACADIA. 191

loft alive. Captain Peyronney and all his officers, chap.
down to a corporal, were killed ; of Poison's, whose ^^i,
bravery was honored by the Legislature of the Old 1755.
Dominion, only one was left. But " those they call
regulars, having wasted their ammunition, broke and
ran, as sheep before hounds, leaving the artillery, pro-
visions, baggage, and even the private papers of the
general, a prey to the enemy. The attempt to rally
them was as vain as to attempt to stop the wild bears
of the mountain." * " Thus were the English most
scandalously beaten." Of privates, seven hundred
and fourteen were killed or wounded ; while of the
French and Indians, only three officers and thirty
men fell, and but as many more were wounded.

Braddock had five horses disabled under him ; at
last a bullet entered his right side, and he fell mortally
wounded.2 He was with difficulty brought off the
field, and borne in the train of the fugitives. All the
first day he was silent ; but at night he roused him-
self to say, " Who would have thought it ?" The
meeting at Dunbar's camp made a day of confusion.
On the twelfth of July, Dunbar destroyed the remain-
ing artillery, and burned the public stores and the
heavy baggage, to the value of a hundred thousand
pounds, — pleading in excuse that he had the orders8
of the dying general, and being himself resolved,
in midsummer, to evacuate Fort Cumberland, and
hurry to Philadelphia for winter-quarters. Accord-
ingly, the next day they all retreated. At night
Braddock roused from his lethargy to say, " We shall
better know how to deal with them another time,"

1 Report of the Court of Inquiry 8 Sir John Sinclair to Sir T.
and Washiu^tor's Letters. Robinson, 3 Sept. 1755.

2 Robert Orme to Gov. Morris,
18 July, 1755.

192 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, and died.1 His grave may still be seen, near the na-
tional road, about a mile west of Fort Necessity.

VIII.
1755.

The forest field of battle was left thickly strewn
with the wounded and the dead. Never had there
been such a harvest of scalps and spoils. As evening
approached, the woods round Fort Duquesne rung
with the halloos of the red men ; the constant firing of
small arms, mingled with a peal from the cannon at
the fort. The next day the British artillery was
brought in, and the Indian warriors, painting their
skin a shining vermilion, with patches of black, and
brown, and blue, gloried in the laced hats and bright
apparel of the English officers.2

At Philadelphia nothing but victory had been an-
ticipated. " All looks well," wrote Morris ; " the
force of Canada has vanished away in an instant ;"
and of a sudden the news of Braddock's defeat, and
the shameful evacuation of Fort Cumberland by
Dunbar, threw the people of the central provinces
into the greatest consternation.3 The Assembly of
Pennsylvania immediately resolved to grant fifty thou-
sand pounds to the king's use, in part by a tax on all
estates, real and personal, within the province. Mor-
ris, obeying his instructions from the proprietaries,
claimed exemption for their estates. The Assembly
rejected the demand with disdain ; for the annual in-
come of the proprietaries from quitrents, groundrents,
rents of manors, and other appropriated and settled
lands, was nearly thirty thousand pounds.4 Sharpe

1 Orrae in Franklin's Autobio 8 Lt. Gov. Dinwiddie to Lords of

grapliy. Trade, 6 Sept. 1755. H. Sharpe to

8 Personal Narrative of Colonel C. Calvert, July, 1755.

James Smith, in J. Pritt's Mirror 4 True and Impartial State of

of Olden Time Border Life. 385. Pennsylvania, 125.

THE OHIO VALLEY AND ACADIA. 193

would not convene the Assembly of Maryland, be- chap.

cause it was " fond of imitating the precedents of , ^

Pennsylvania." And the governors, proprietary as 1755.
well as royal, reciprocally assured each other that no-
thing could be done in their colonies without an act
of parliament.1

The months that followed were months of sor-
row. Happily, the Catawbas at the South remained
faithful ; and in July, at a council of five hundred
Cherokees assembled under a tree in the highlands of
Western Carolina, Glen renewed the covenant of
peace, obtained a cession of lands, and was invited to
erect Fort Prince George near the villages of Cona-
satchee and Keowee.

At the North, New England was extending Brit-
ish dominion. Massachusetts cheerfully levied about
seven thousand nine hundred men, or nearly one-fifth
of the able-bodied men in the colony. Of these, a
detachment took part in establishing the sovereignty
of England in Acadia. That peninsular region — ■
abounding in harbors and in forests ; rich in its ocean
fisheries and in the product of its rivers ; near to a
continent that invited to the chase and the fur-trade ;
having, in its interior, large tracts of alluvial soil —
had become dear to its inhabitants, who beheld
around them the graves of their ancestors for several
generations. It was the oldest French colony in
North America. There the Bretons had built their
dwellings sixteen years before the Pilgrims reached
the shores of New England. With the progress of
the respective settlements, sectional jealousies and re-

1 Correspondence of Morris and Sharpe. Lt. Gov. Sharpe to Shir-
ley, 24 August, 1755.

vol. iv. 13

194 TTEE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, ligious bigotry had renewed their warfare ; the off-
^^L, spring of the Massachusetts husbandmen were taught
1755. to abhor "Popish cruelties" and "Popish supersti-
tions ;" while Roman Catholic missionaries perse-
vered in propagating the faith of their church among
the villages of the Abenakis.

At last, after repeated conquests and restorations,
the treaty of Utrecht conceded Acadia, or Nova Sco-
tia, to Great Britain. Yet the name of Annapolis,
the presence of a feeble English garrison, and the
emigration of hardly five or six English families, were
nearly all that marked the supremacy of England.
The old inhabitants remained on the soil which they
had subdued, hardly conscious that they had changed
their sovereign. They still loved the language and
the usages of their forefathers, and their religion was
graven upon their souls. They promised submission
to England ; but such was the love with which
France had inspired them, they would not fight
against its standard or renounce its name. Though
conquered, they were French neutrals.

For nearly forty years from the peace of Utrecht
they had been forgotten or neglected, and had pros-
pered in their seclusion. No tax-gatherer counted
their folds, no magistrate dwelt in their hamlets.
The parish priest made their records and regulated
their successions. Their little disputes were settled
among themselves, with scarcely an instance of an
appeal to English authority at Annapolis. The pas-
tures were covered with their herds and flocks ; and
dikes, raised by extraordinary efforts of social indus-
try, shut out the rivers and the tide from alluvial
marshes of exuberant fertility. The meadows, thua
reclaimed, were covered by richest grasses, or fields

THE OHIO VALLEY AND ACADIA. 195

of wheat, that yielded fifty and thirty fold at the har- crap.
vest. Their houses were built in clusters, neatly con- ^^L
structed and comfortably furnished, and around them 1755.
all kinds of domestic fowls abounded. With the
spinning-wheel and the loom, their women made, of
flax from their own fields, of fleeces from their own
locks, coarse, but sufficient clothing. The few foreign
luxuries that were coveted could be obtained from
Annapolis or Louisburg, in return for furs, or wheat,
or cattle.

Thus were the Acadians happy in their neutrality
and in the abundance which they drew from their
native land. They formed, as it wTere, one great
family. Their morals were of unaffected purity.
Love was sanctified and calmed by the universal
custom of early marriages. The neighbors of the
community would assist the new couple to raise their
cottage, while the wilderness offered land. Their
numbers increased, and the colony, which had begun
only as the trading station of a company, with a
monopoly of the fur-trade, counted, perhaps, sixteen
or seventeen thousand inhabitants.1

When England began vigorously to colonize Nova
Scotia, the native inhabitants might fear the loss of
their independence. The enthusiasm of their priests

1 Shirley said 16,000, Raynal and Lieutenant-Governor Lawrence, in
flaliburton, 17,000. The Board of his circular to the different ^over-
Trade, in 1721, put the number nors, 11 August, 1755, refers to
vaguely at " nearly 3,000 ;" these, those only who remained after
in 1755, but for emigration to large emigrations. Compare too
French America, would hardly have Lawrence's State of the English
become more than 10,000; but and French Forts, quoted in Sir
there were more. Mascarene to Thomas Robinson to Lieutenant-
Lords of Trade, 17 Oct., 1748. says, Governor Lawrence, 13 August,
there were 4,000 or 5,000 French 1755. The number there given was
inhabitants, able to bear arms. 8,000.

196 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap was kindled into fervor at the thought that heretics,
^^i, of a land which had disfranchised Catholics, were to
1755, surround, and perhaps to overwhelm, the ancient Aca-
dians. "Better," said the priests, "surrender your
meadows to the sea, and your houses to the flames,
than, at the peril of your souls, take the oath of alle-
giance to the British government." And they, from
their very simplicity and anxious sincerity, were uncer-
tain in their resolves ; now gathering courage to flee
beyond the isthmus, for other homes in New France,
and now yearning for their own houses and fields,
their herds and pastures.

The haughtiness of the British officers aided the
priests in their attempts to foment disaffection. The
English regarded colonies, even when settled by men
from their own land, only as sources of emolument
to the mother country ; colonists as an inferior caste.
The Acadians were despised because they were help-
less. Ignorant of the laws of their conquerors, they
were not educated to the knowledge, the defence, and
the love of English liberties ; they knew not the way
to the throne, and, given up to military masters, had
no redress in civil tribunals. Their papers and records,
the titles to their estates and inheritances, were taken
away from them. Was their property demanded for
the public service ? " they were not to be bargained
with for the payment." 1 The order may still be read
on the Council records at Halifax. They must com-
ply, it was written, without making any terms, " im-
mediately," or " the next courier would bring an
order for military execution upon the delinquents."
And when they delayed in fetching firewood for their

1 Haliburton's History of Nova Scotia, i. 169.

\

THE OniO VALLEY AND ACADIA. 197

oppressors, it was told them from the governor, " If chap.
they do not do it in proper time, the soldiers shall ^^
absolutely take their houses for fuel." The unoffend- 1755.
ing sufferers submitted meekly to the tyranny. Un-
der pretence of fearing that they might rise in behalf
of France, or seek shelter in Canada, or convey pro-
visions to the French garrisons, they were directed to
surrender their boats and their firearms;1 and, con-
scious of innocence, they gave up their barges and
their muskets, leaving themselves without the means
of flight, and defenceless. Further orders were after-
wards given to the English officers, if the Acadians
behaved amiss to punish them at discretion ; if the
troops were annoyed, to inflict vengeance on the near-
est, whether the guilty one or not, — " taking an eye
for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth."

The French had yielded the sovereignty over no
more than the peninsula. They established them-
selves on the isthmus in two forts, — one, a small
stockade at the mouth of the little river Gaspereaux,
near Bay Verde ; the other, the more considerable
fortress of Beau-Sejour, built and supplied at great
expense, upon an eminence on the north side of the
Messagouche, on the Bay of Fundy. The isthmus is
here hardly fifteen miles wide, and formed the natural
boundary between New France and Acadia.

The French at Beau-Sejour had passed the pre-
vious winter in unsuspecting tranquillity, ignorant of
the preparations of the two crowns for war. As
spring approached, suspicions were aroused; but De
Vergor, the inefficient commander, took no vigorous
measures for strengthening his works, nor was he

1 Memorials of the Deputies of Minas and Pisiquid, delivered to
Captain Murray, 10 June, 1755.

198 THE AMEKICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, fully roused to his danger, till, from the walls of his
w^ fort, he himself beheld the fleet of the English sailing
1755. fearlessly into the hay, and anchoring before his eyes.
The provincial troops, about fifteen hundred in
number, strengthened by a detachment of three hun-
dred regulars and a train of artillery, were disem-
barked without difficulty. A day was given to repose
and parade ; on the fourth of June, they forced the
passage of the Messagouche, the intervening river.
No sally was attempted by De Vergor ; no earnest
defence was undertaken. On the twelfth, the fort at
Beau-Sejour, weakened by fear, discord, and confusion,
was invested, and in four days it surrendered.1 By
the terms of the capitulation, the garrison was to be
sent to Louisburg ; for the Acadian fugitives, inasmuch
as they had been forced into the service, amnesty was
stipulated. The place received an English garrison,
and, from the brother of the king, then the soul of
the regency, was named Cumberland.

The petty fortress near the river Gaspereaux, on
Bay Verde, a mere palisade, flanked by four block-
houses, without mound or trenches, and tenanted by
no more than twenty soldiers, though commanded by
the brave De Villerai, could do nothing but capitulate
on the same terms. Meantime, Captain Rous sailed,
with three frigates and a sloop, to reduce the French
fort on the St. John's. But before he arrived there,
the fort and dwellings of the French had been aban-
doned and burned, and he took possession of a deserted
country. Thus was the region east of the St. Croix
annexed to England, with a loss of but twenty men
killed, and as many more wounded.

No further resistance was to be feared. The Aca-

1 Lieutenant-Governor Lawrence to the Lords of Trade, 28 June, 1755,

THE OIIIO VALLEY AND ACADIA. 199

dians cowered before their masters, hoping forbear- ctiap.

VIII.

Mice; willing to take an oath of fealty to England; ^^^
in their single-mindedness and sincerity, refusing to 1755.
pledge themselves to bear arms against France. The
English were masters of the sea, were undisputed
lords of the country, and could exercise clemency
without apprehension. Not a whisper gave a warning
of their purpose, till it was ripe for execution.

But it had been "determined upon" after the
ancient device of Oriental despotism, that the French
inhabitants of Acadia should be carried away into
captivity to other parts of the British dominions.
" They have laid aside all thought of taking the oaths
of allegiance voluntarily;" thus in August, 1754,
Lawrence, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia,
had written of them to Lord Halifax. " They possess
the best and largest tract of land in this province;
if they refuse the oaths, it would be much better
that they were away." l The Lords of Trade in
reply veiled their wishes under the decorous form of
suggestions. " By the treaty of Utrecht," said they
of the French Acadians, " their becoming subjects of
Great Britain is made an express condition of their
continuance after the expiration of a year ; they
cannot become subjects but by taking the oaths
required of subjects; and 'therefore it may be a ques-
tion, whether their refusal to take such oaths will not
operate to invalidate their titles to their lands. Con-
sult the Chief Justice of Nova Scotia upon that point ;
his opinion may serve as a foundation for future mea-
sures."9

France remembered the descendants of her sons

1 Lawrence to the Lords of a Halifax and his colleagues to
Trade, 1 August, 1754. Lieutenant-Governor Lawrence, 29

October, 1754.

200 THE AMEEICAN INVOLUTION.

chap, in the hour of their affliction, and asked that they

VIII ■

^^ might have time to remove from the Peninsula

1755. with their effects, leaving their lands to the English;

but the answer of the British minister claimed them

as useful subjects, and refused them the liberty oi

transmigration.1

The inhabitants of Minas and the adjacent coun-
try pleaded with the British officers for the restitution
of their boats and their guns, promising fidelity, iJ
Ihey could but retain their liberties, and declaring
that not the want of arms, but their conscience,
should engage them not to revolt. " The memorial,"
said Lawrence in council, " is highly arrogant, insidi-
ous, and insulting." The memorialists, at his summons,
came submissively to Halifax. "You want your
canoes for carrying provisions to the enemy :" said he
to them, though he knew no enemy was left in their
vicinity. " Guns are no part of your goods," he con-
tinued, " as by the laws of England all Roman Cath-
olics are restrained from having arms, and are subject
to penalties if arms are found in their houses. It is
not the language of British subjects to talk of terms
with the crown, or capitulate about their fidelity and
allegiance. What excuse can you make for your pre-
sumption in treating this government with such indig-
nity, as to expound to them the nature of fidelity?
Manifest your obedience, by immediately taking the
oaths of allegiance in the common form before the
council." 2

The deputies replied that they would do as the

1 Proposition of the French Am- on Thursday the 3d July, 1755. It
bassador to the British Secretary of has been supposed, that these re-
State, May, 1755, and answer. cords of the council are no longer

s Record of a council hoi den at in existence. But I have authentic

the Governor's House in Halifax, copies of them.

THE OHIO VALLEY AND ACADIA. 201

generality of the inhabitants should determine ; and chap.

J VIII.

they merely entreated leave to return home and con- v_^,
suit the body of their people. 1755.

The next day, the unhappy men, foreseeing the
sorrows that menaced them, offered to swear allegiance
unconditionally ; but they were told that by a clause
in a British statute1 persons who have once refused the
oaths cannot be afterwards permitted to take them,
but are to be considered as Popish Recusants ; and as
such they were imprisoned.

The Chief Justice, on whose opinion hung the fate
of so many hundreds of innocent families, insisted that
the French inhabitants were to be looked upon as con-
firmed " rebels ;" who had now collectively and with-
out exception become " recusants." Besides : they still
counted in their villages " eight thousand" souls, and
the English not more than "three thousand;" they
stood in the way of " the progress of the settlement ;"
" by their non-compliance with the conditions of the
treaty of Utrecht, they had forfeited their possessions
to the crown ;" after the departure " of the fleet and
troops the province would not be in a condition to drive
them out." "Such a juncture as the present might
never occur ;" so he advised " against receiving any of
the French inhabitants to take the oath," and for the
removal of " all" of them from the province.2

That the cruelty might have no palliation, letters
arrived, leaving no doubt, that the shores of the Bay
of Fundy were entirely in the possession of the
British ; 3 and yet at a council, at which Vice-Admi-

1 Geo. TT. c. xiii. 8 Council holden at the Govor-

• Mr. Chief Justice Belcher's nor's House in Halifax, on Thurs-

Opinion in Council as to the remo- day the 15th July, 1755.

val of the French Inhabitants in

Nova Scotia, 28 July, 1755.

202 THE AMEBIC AN KE VOLUTION.

chap, ral Boscawen and the Rear- Admiral Mostyn were
VIII. .... .

^^L, present by invitation,1 it was unanimously determined

1755. to send the French inhabitants out of the province;
and after mature consideration it was further unani-
mously agreed that, to prevent their attempting to
return and molest the settlers that may be set down
on their lands, it would be most proper to dis-
tribute them amongst the several colonies on the
continent.9

To hunt them into the net was impracticable ; arti-
fice was therefore resorted to. By a general proclama-
tion, on one and the same day, the scarcely conscious
victims, " both old men and young men, as well as all
the lads of ten years of age," were peremptorily
ordered to assemble at their respective posts. On the
appointed fifth of September, they obeyed. At
Grand Pre, for example, four hundred and eighteen
unarmed men came together. They were marched
into the church and its avenues were closed, when
Winslow, the American commander, placed himself in
their centre, and spoke : —

a You are convened together to manifest to you
his Majesty's final resolution to the French inhabit-
ants of this his province. Your lands and tenements,
cattle of all kinds, and live stock of all sorts, are
forfeited to the crown, and you yourselves are to be
removed from this his province. I am, through his
Majesty's goodness, directed to allow you liberty to
carry off your money and household goods, as many

1 Lieut. Governor Lawrence to 2 Council hoi den at the Gover-

Vice- Admiral Boscawen, and Rear- nor's House in Halifax, on Monday

Admiral Mostyn, Halifax, 14 July, the 28th July, 1755.
1755.

THE OHIO VALLEY AND ACADIA. 203

as you can, without discommoding the vessels you go chap.
in." And he then declared them the king's prison- v_^
ers. Their wives and families shared their lot; their 1755.
sons, five hundred and twenty-seven in number, their
daughters, five hundred and seventy-six ; in the whole,
women and babes and old men and children all in-
dialed, nineteen hundred and twenty-three souls.
The blow was sudden ; they had left home but for
the morning, and they never were to return. Their
cattle were to stay unfed in the stalls, their fires to
die out on their hearths. They had for that first day
even no food for themselves or their children, and
were compelled to beg for bread.

The tenth of September was the day for the em-
barkation of a part of the exiles. They were drawn
up six deep, and the young men, one hundred and
sLxty-one in number, were ordered to inarch fiist on
board the vessel. They could leave their farms and
cottages, the shady rocks on which they had reclined,
their herds and their garners; but nature yearned
within them, and they would not be separated from
their parents. Yet of what avail was the frenzied
despair of the unarmed youth ? They had not one
weapon ; the bayonet drove them to obey ; and they
marched slowly and heavily from the chapel to the
shore, between women and children, who, kneeling,
prayed for blessings on their heads, they themselves
weeping, and praying, and singing hymns. The
seniors went next ; the wives and children must wait
till other transport vessels arrive. The delay had its
horrors. The wretched people left behind, were kept
together near the sea, without proper food, or raiment,
or shelter, till other ships came to take them away ;
and December with its appalling cold, had struck the

204 THE AMEKICAN KEVOLTTTION.

chap, shivering, half-clad, broken-hearted sufferers, before
^^_ the last of them were removed. u The embarkation
1755. of the inliabitants goes on but slowly," wrote Monck-
ton, from Fort Cumberland, near which he had burn-
ed three hamlets ; " the most part of the wives of
the men we have prisoners are gone off with their
children, in hopes I would not send off their husbands
without them.'- Their hope was vain. Near Anna-
polis, a hundred heads of families fled to the woods,
and a party was detached on the hunt to bring them
in. " Our soldiers hate them," wrote an officer on this
occasion, " and if they can but find a pretext to kill
them, they will." Did a prisoner seek to escape ? He
was shot down by the sentinel. Yet some fled to
Quebec ; more than three thousand had withdrawn to
Miramichi, and the region south of the Ristigouche ; 1
some found rest on the banks of the St. John's and
its branches ; some found a lair in their native forests ;
some were charitably sheltered from the English in
the wigwams of the savages. But seven2 thousand of
these banished people were driven on board ships,
and scattered among the English colonies, from New

Hampshire to Georgia ; one thousand and twenty

to South Carolina alone.3 They were cast ashore with-
out resources ; hating the poor-house as a shelter for
their offspring, and abhorring the thought of selling
themselves as laborers. Households, too, were sepa-

1 Petition of the French Acadi- transporting the said French inhab-

ans at Miramichi, presented to De itants to the amount of near sev-

Vaudreuil, the Governor of Oana- en thousand persons," &c. Com-

da, in July 1756. Compare Lieut, pare Lieut. Governor Lawrence's

Gov. Belcher to Lords of Trade, circular to the Governors in Amer-

14 April, 1761. ica, 11 August, 1755. "Their

8 Representation of the Lords of numbers amount to near seven

Trade to the King, 20 December, thousand persons."

1756. " The resolution being car- 3 Governor Lyttleton to Sec. H.

ried into effectual execution by Fox, 16 June, 1796.

THE OHIO VALLEY AND ACADIA. 205

rated; the colonial newspapers contained advertise- chap.
ments of members of families seeking their compan- ^^
ions, of sons anxious to reach and relieve their parents, 1755.
of mothers mourning for their children.

The wanderers sighed for their native country;
but, to prevent their return, their villages, from Anna-
polis to the isthmus, were laid waste. Their old
homes were but ruins. In the district of Minas, for
instance, two hundred and fifty of their houses, and
Biore than as many barns, were consumed. The live
stock which belonged to them, consisting of great
numbers of horned cattle, hogs, sheep and horses,1
were seized as spoils and disposed of by the English
officials. A beautiful and fertile tract of country was
reduced to a solitude. There was none left round the
ashes of the cottages of the Acadians but the faithful
watch-dog, vainly seeking the hands that fed him.
Thickets of forest-trees choked their orchards; the
ocean broke over their neglected dikes, and desolated
their meadows.

Eelentless misfortune pursued the exiles wherever
they fled. Those sent to Georgia, drawn by a love
for the spot where they were born as strong as that of
the captive Jews, who wept by the side of the rivers
of Babylon for their own temple and land, escaped to
sea in boats, and went coasting from harbor to har-
bor ; but when they had reached New England, just
as they would have set sail for their native fields,
the}' were stopped by orders from Nova Scotia.2 Those
who dwelt on the St. John's were torn once more from
their new homes.3 When Canada surrendered, hatred

1 J. Pownall to S. Martin, 25 Representations of the Board of
Ifarch, 1760, in "Nova Scotia. B.T. 36. Trade against Reynolds, Governor

2 Oov. Lynleton of S. C. to Fox, of Georgia.

16 .June, 1756. Gov. Lawrence, 3 Gov. Lawrence to Lords of
Circular, 1 July, 1756. See also Trade, 11 May, 1760.

206 THE AMERICAN KEVOLUTION.

chap, with its worst venom pursued the fifteen hundred,
v—,^, who remained south of the Ristigouche.1 Once
1755. those who dwelt in Pennsylvania presented a humble
petition to the Earl of Loudoun, then the British
commander-in-chief in America ; and the cold-hearted
peer, offended that the prayer was made in French,
seized their five principal men, who in their own*
land had been persons of dignity and substance, and
shipped them to England, with the request, that they
might be kept from ever again becoming troublesome
by being consigned to service as common sailors on
board ships of war.2 No doubt existed of the king's
approbation.8 The Lords of Trade, more merciless
than the savages and than the wilderness in winter,
wished very much that every one of the Acadians
should be driven out ; and when it seemed that the
work was done, congratulated the king that "the
zealous endeavors of Lawrence had been crowned
with an entire success."4 I know not if the annals of
the human race keep the record of sorrows so wan-
tonly inflicted, so bitter and so perennial, as fell upon
the French inhabitants of Acadia. " We have been
true," they said of themselves, " to our religion, and true
to ourselves ; yet nature appears to consider us only
as the objects of public vengeance."5 The hand of the
English official seemed under a spell with regard to
them ; and was never uplifted but to curse them.

1 Lieut. Gov. Belcher to Lords great expense which the public has

of Trade, 14 April, 1701. been at in removing the French in-

8 Loudoun to Secretary of State, habitants, there should yet be

25 April, 1757. many of them remaining. It is

8 Lords of Trade to Gov. Law- certainly very much to be wished,

rence, 25 March, 1756. that they could be entirely driven

4 Lords of Trade to the King, 20 out of the Peninsula.1'

Dec. 1759. Same to Gov. Law- 8 From a petition of those at

rence. kk We are extremely sorry Miramichi, in M. moires sur les Af-

to find, that notwithstanding the faires du Canada.

CHAPTER IX.

GREAT BRITAIN UNITES AMERICA UNDER MILITARY RULE.
NEWCASTLE'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED.

1755—1756.

While the British interpretation of the bounda- chap.
ries of Acadia was made good by occupation, the ^^
troops for the central expeditions had assembled at 1755.
Albany. The army with which Johnson was to re-
duce Crown Point consisted of New England militia,
chiefly from Connecticut and Massachusetts. A regi-
ment of five hundred foresters of New Hampshire
were raising a fort in Coos, on the Connecticut ; but,
under a new summons, they made the long march
through the pathless region to Albany. Among them
was John Stark, then a lieutenant, of a rugged nature,
but of the coolest judgment ; skilled at discovering the
paths of the wilderness, and knowing the way to the
hearts of the backwoodsmen. The French, on the other
hand, called every able-bodied man in the district of
Montreal into active service for the defence of Crown
Point, so that reapers had to be sent up from Three
Rivers and Quebec to gather in the harvest.1

Early in August, the New England men, having
Phinchas Lyman for their major-general, were finish-

1 Breard to the Minister, 13 August, 1755,

208 THE AMERICAN EE VOLUTION.

chap, ing Fort Edward, at the portage between the Hudson
^^L and the headsprings of the Sorel. The forests were
1755. never free from secret danger; American scalps were
sought for by the wakeful savage, to be strung toge-
ther for the adornment of the wigwam. Towards the
end of August, the untrained forces, which, with In-
dians, amounted to thirty-four hundred men, were
conducted by William Johnson across the portage of
twelve miles, to the southern shore of the Lake, which
the French called the Lake of the Holy Sacrament.
" I found," said Johnson, " a mere wilderness ; never
was house or fort erected here before ;" l and naming
the waters Lake George, he cleared space for a camp
of five thousand men. The lake protects him on the
north ; his flanks are covered by a thick wood and a
swamp. The tents of the husbandmen and mechanics,
who form his summer army, are spread on a rising
ground ; but no fortifications are raised, nor is even a
trench thrown up.2 On week-days, the men, accus-
tomed to freedom, saunter to and fro in idleness ; or
some, weary of inaction, are ready to mutiny and go
home. On Sunday, all come forth and collect in the
groves for the worship of God ; three hundred red
men, also, regularly enlisted under the English flag,
and paid from the English treasury, seat themselves
on the hillock, and, while the light of a summer's
afternoon is shedding its sweetest influence on the
tops of the forest-clad mountains and on the still wa-
ters of the deep transparent lake, they listen gravely
to the interpretation of a long sermon. Meanwhile,
wagon after wagon brought artillery, and stores and

1 Johnson to Lords of Trade, 2 Elisha Hawley to his brother
8 Sept. 1 755. Joseph Hawley. Seth Pomroy's

Journal.

ENGLAND UNITES AMERICA UNDER MILITARY RULE. 209

boats for the troops that were listlessly whiling away chap
the season. The enemy was more adventurous.

IX.
1756.

" Boldness wins," was Dieskau's maxim.1 Aban-
doning the well-concerted plan of an attack on Os-
wego,2 Vaudreuil sent him to oppose the army of
Jolinson. For the defence of the crumbling fortress
at Crown Point, seven hundred regulars, sixteen hun-
dred Canadians, and seven hundred savages had as-
sembled. Of these, three hundred or more were emi-
grants from the Six Nations, domiciliated in Canada.
Eager for distinction, Dieskau, taking with him six
hundred savages, as many Canadians, and two hun-
dred regular troops, ascended Lake Champlain to its
head, and, after a three days' march, designed, at
nightfall on the fourth, to attack Fort Edward. The
guides took a false route ; and, as evening came on,
the party found itself four miles from the fort, on the
road to Lake George. The red men, who never obey
implicitly, but insist upon deliberating with the com-
mander and sharing his secrets, refused to attack the
fort, but were willing to go against the army at the
lake, which was thought to have neither artillery nor
intrenchments.

Late in the night following the seventh of Sep-
tember, it was told in the camp at Lake George, that
a large party of men had landed at the head of South
Bay, and were travelling from Wood Creek to the
Hudson. On the next morning, after a council of war,
Ephraim Williams, a Massachusetts colonel, the same
who, in passing through Albany, had made a bequest
of his estate by will to found a free school, was sent

1 Doreil to the Minister, 28 Oct. s Vandreuil to the Minister, 24
1755. July, 1755.

VOL. IV. 14

210 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

I

chap. vv^h a thousand men to relieve Fort Edward. Anions?

17 5 5.

them was Israel Putnam, to whom, at the age of
thirty-seven, the Assembly at Connecticut had just
given the rank of a second lieutenant.1 Two hundred
warriors of the Six Nations went also, led by Hen-
drick, the gray-haired chieftain, famed for his cleai
voice and flashing eye. Tbey marched with rasJ
confidence, a little less than three miles, to a deilh
where the French and Indians had posted themselv
on both sides of the way, concealed on the left b]
the thickets in the swamps, on the right by rocks am
the forest that covered the continued rising grouin
Before the American party were entirely within tin
ambush, the French Indians showed themselves t<
the Mohawks, but without firing on their kindre<
leaving the Abenakis and Canadians to make tin
attack. Hendrick, who alone was on horseback, w
killed on the spot. Williams also fell ; but Nathai
Whiting, of New Haven, conducted the retreat
good order, often rallying and turning to fire.

The camp had still no intrenchments. When tin
noise of musketry was heard, two or three cannoi
were hastily brought up from the margin of the lak<
and trees were felled for a breastwork. These, all to<
few to lie contiguously, formed with the wagons an<
baggage some protection to the New England niilith
wdiose arms were but their fowling-pieces, without
bayonet among them all. It had been Dieskau's pui
pose to rush forward suddenly, and to enter the cam})
with the fugitives ; but the Iroquois took possession ol
a rising ground, and stood inactive. At this the Ab<
nakis halted also ; and the Canadians became intimi-

1 Records at Hartford for 29 the 3rd Regiment of Connecticut
Geo. ii. Putnam's commission as forwarded not before September
2nd Lieut, in the 6th company of reached him after the battle.

n

i

IS

«

ENGLAND UNITES AMERICA UNDER MILITARY RULE. 211

elated. Dieskau, who was near the camp, advanced chap
with the regular troops to attack the centre, still ^^
hoping to be sustained. But the Indians and Cana- 1755.
(linns scattered themselves through the wilderness of
pitch-pines, and ascended a knoll within gun-shot,
where they crouched below the undergrowth of shrubs
and brakes. " Are these the so much vaunted troops P
cried Dieskau, bitterly. The battle began between
eleven and twelve ; Johnson, slightly wounded, left
the field at the beginning of the action, and for five
hours the New England people, under their own offi-
cers, good marksmen and taking sight, kept up the
most violent fire that had as yet been known in Ame-
rica. Almost all the French regulars perished ; Dies-
kau was wounded thrice, but would not retire. Two
Canadians came to carry him off; one was shot dead
by his side ; he dismissed the other, and, bidding his
servants place his military dress near him, he seated
himself on the stump of a tree, exposed to the rattle
of the bullets. At last, as the Americans, leaping
over their slight defences, drove the enemy to flight,
a renegade Frenchman wantonly fired at the unhappy
man, and wounded him incurably.

Brief was the American career of the fearless
Dieskau. In June his eye had first rested on the cliff
of Quebec; he had sailed proudly up the stream
which was the glory of Canada ; had made his way to
the highland sources of the Sorel ; and now, mangled
and helpless, lay a prisoner within the limits of the
pretended French dominion.1

Of the Americans there fell on that day about two
hundred and sixteen, and ninety-six were wounded ;

1 Diesknn to the ministers, 14 September, 1755, and also to Vau
dreuil Letters of MontreuiL

212 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, of the French, the loss was not much greater. Towards
^^s sunset, a party of three hundred French, who had
1755. rallied, and were retreating in a body, at two miles
from the lake, were attacked by McGinnes, of New
Hampshire, who, with two hundred men of that col-
ony, was marching across the portage from Fort
Edward. Panic-stricken by the well concerted move-
ment, the enemy fled, leaving their baggage ; but the
brave McGinnes was mortally wounded.

The disasters of the year led the English ministry
to exult in the defeat and repulse of Dieskau. The
House of Lords, in an elegant address, praised the
colonists as " brave and faithful ;" Johnson became a
baronet, and received a gratuity of five thousand
pounds. But he did little to gain the victory, which
was due to the enthusiasm of the New England men.
" Our all," they cried, " depends on the success of this
expedition." " Come," said Pomeroy, of Massachusetts,
to his friends at home, " come to the help of the Lord
against the mighty ; you that value our holy religion
and our liberties will spare nothing, even to the one
half of your estate." And in all the villages " the
prayers of God's people " went up, that " they might
be crowned with victory to the glory of God ;" for
the war with France seemed a war for Protestantism
and freedom.

But Johnson knew not how to profit by success ;
with a busy air, he kept the men all day on their
arms, and at night, " half of tbe whole were on
guard." Shirley and the New England provinces, ami
his own council of war, urged him to advance ; but
while the ever active French took post at Ticonde-
roga, as Duquesne had advised, he loitered away the
autunm, " expecting very shortly a more formidable

ENGLAND TTNTTES AMERICA THSTDER MILITARY RULE. 213

Ifctack with artillery," and building Fort William chap.
Henry, a useless fort of wood near Lake George. ^^
When winter approached, he left six hundred men as 1755-
a garrison, and dismissed the New England militia to
their firesides.

Of the enterprise against "Western New York
Shirley assumed the conduct. The fort at Niagara
was but a house, almost in ruins, surrounded by a
pi nail ditch and a rotten palisade of seven or eight
feet high. The garrison was but of thirty men, most
of them scarcely provided with muskets. There
Shirley, with an effective force of little less than two
thousand men, was to welcome the victor of the Ohio.

But the news of Braddock's defeat overtook and
disheartened the party. The boatmen on the Mo-
hawk were intractable; at the carrying place there
were not sledges enough to bear the military stores
over the morasses. On the twenty-first of August,
Shirley reached Oswego. Weeks passed in building
boats ; on the eighteenth of September, six hundred
men were to embark on Lake Ontario, when a storm
prevented ; afterwards head winds raged ; then a
tempest made navigation difficult ; then sickness pre-
vailed ; then the Indians deserted ; and then the sea-
son gave him an excuse for retreating. So, on the
twenty-fourth of October, having constructed a new
fort at Oswego, and placed Mercer in command, with
a garrison of seven hundred men, he left the borders
of Lake Ontario.

At this time a paper by Franklin, published in
Boston, and reprinted in London, had drawn the
attention of all observers to the rapid increase of the

214 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, population in the colonies.1 " Upon the best inquiry
^^, I can make," wrote Shirley, u I have found the calcu-
1755. lations right. The number of the inhabitants is dou-
bled every twenty years ;" and as the demand for
British manufactures, with a corresponding employ-
ment of shipping, increased with even greater rapid-
ity, he found in them inexhaustible resources of wealth
for a maritime power. But this great increase, com-
bined with the political vigor and sagacity which was
displayed in the plan of union framed by the Con-
gress at Albany, excited alarm in England, lest the
regions of which she was making the conquest should
assert their independence. But Shirley calmed the
rising fear. "Apprehensions,"2 said he, "have been
entertained, that they will in time unite to throw off
their dependency upon their mother country, and set
up one general government among themselves. But
if it is considered how different the present constitu-
tions of their respective governments are from each
other, how much the interests of some of them clash,
and how opposed their tempers are, such a coalition
among them will seem highly improbable. At all
events, they could not maintain such an independency
without a strong naval force, which it must for ever
be in the power of Great Britain to hinder them
from having. And whilst his majesty hath seven
thousand troops kept up within them, with the In-
dians at command, it seems easy, provided his Gov-
ernors and principal officers are independent of the
Assemblies for their subsistence, and commonly vigi-

: Paper annexed to William 2 Gov. Shirley to Sir Thomas

Clarke's Observations on the late Robinson, 15 Aiurust, 1755, reeeiv-

and present conduct of the French, ed in London 20 November, 1755.
1755.

ENGLAND UNITES AMERICA UNDER MILITARY RULE. 215

lant, to prevent any step of that kind from being cnAP.
taken." Thus was the jealousy of the British govern- s_,_
ment excited, and thus was it soothed. Little was it 1755.
foreseen, that the measures proposed to secure the
colonies, were to be the means of effecting their union
and separate existence.

The topic which Shirley discussed with the minis-
try, engaged the thoughts of the Americans, who saw
visions of coming glory. At Worcester, a thriving
village, of about a thousand people, or perhaps less,
the whole town was immersed in politics. The inter-
ests of nations and the horrors of war made the sub-
ject of every conversation. The master of the town
school, where the highest wages were sixty dollars for
the season, a young man of hardly twenty, just from
Harvard College, and at that time meditating to
become a preacher, would sit and hear, and, escaping
from a maze of observations, would sometimes retire,
and, by "laying things together, form some reflections
pleasing" to himself; for he loved the shady thickets
and gloomy grottoes, where he would sit by the hour
and listen to the falls of water.1 " All creation," he
would say in his musings, "is liable to change.
Mighty states are not exempted. Soon after the re-
formation, a few people came over into this new world
for conscience1 sake. This apparently trivial incident
may transfer the great seat of empire into America.
If we can remove the turbulent Gallics, our people,
according to the exactest calculations, will, in another
century, become more numerous than England itself.
All Europe will not be able to subdue us. The only
way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to dis-

1 John Adams' Diary, 264.

216 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, unite us." l Such were the dreams of John Adams,

ix . .

v_^ while teacher of a New England free school. Within

1755. twenty-one years he shall assist in declaring his coun-
try's independence ; in less than thirty, this master of
the town school of Worcester, after a career of dan-
ger and effort, shall stand before the king of Great
Britain, the acknowledged Envoy of the free and
United States of America.

The military operations in America might be re-
spectively explained as acts of defence, to be settled
by an adjustment of boundaries. The capture of the
Alcide and the Lys by Boscawen, known in Londoi
on the fifteenth of July,2 was an act of open hostility,
and it was considered what instructions should be
given to the British marine. The princess, mother of
George the Third, inveighed most bitterly "against
not pushing the French every where ; the parliament
would never bear the suffering the French to bring
home their trade and sailors."8 She wished Hanover
in the sea, as the cause of all misfortunes. Newcastle
suggested trifles, to delay a decision, " If we are con-
vinced it must be war, I," said Cumberland, " have no
notion of not making the most of the strength and
opportunity in our hands." The Earl of Granville
was against meddling with trade. "It is vexing your
neighbors for a little muck." " I," said Newcastle,
the prime minister, " think some middle way may be
found out." He was asked what way. " To be sure,'
he replied, "Hawke must go out; but he may be

1 Letter of John Adams, 12 Oc- with other most interesting mana-

tober, 1755. I quote from the ori- scripts.

ginal letter, which the late John s M/ moire contenant le Precis

Quincy Adams had the goodness to des Faits, 54, 55.

leave with, me for a time, together 3 Dodington's Diary.

ENGLAND UNITES AMERICA UNDER MILITARY RULE. 217

ordered not to attack the enemy, unless lie thinks chap.
it worth while." He was answered, that Hawke was s— ^.
too wise to do any thing at all, which others, when 1755
done, were to pronounce he ought to be hanged for.
"What," replied the Duke, "if he had orders not to
fall upon the French, unless they were more in num-
ber together than ten ?" The Brest 'squadron, it was
replied, is but nine. UI mean that," resumed New-
castle, "of the merchantmen only." Thus he proceed-
ed with inconceivable absurdity.1 France and Eng-
land were still at peace ; and their commerce was mu-
tually protected by the sanctity of treaties. Of a sud-
den, hostile orders were issued to all British vessels of
war to take all French vessels, private as well as pub-
lic ; and, without warning, ships from the French col-
onies, the ships bound from Martinico to Marseilles,
freighted with the rich products of plantations tilled
by the slaves of the Jesuits,2 the fishing-smacks in
which the humble Breton mariners ventured to New-
foundland, whale-ships returning from their adven-
tures, the scanty fortunes with which poor men
freighted the little barks engaged in the coasting
trade, were within one month, by violence and by
cowardly artifices, seized by the British marine, and
carried into English ports. " What has taken place,"
wrote Rouille, under the eye of Louis the Fifteenth,
u is nothing but a system of piracy on a grand scale,
unworthy of a civilized people. In time of full peace,
merchant-ships have been seized, to the value of thirty
millions of livres." As no declaration of war had

1 Dodington'a Diary. Walpole's 9 De Tocqueville : Histoire Phi-
Memoires of fteorge III. and let- losophique du regne de Louis XV.
ters. Wnldeprave's Memoirs. Fins- ii. 287.
san : Histoire de la Diplomatic
Franchise, vi.

218 TIIE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, taken place, the courts of Admiralty could not then
s^y^- interpose, to give a warrant to the outrage. The sum
1755. afterwards paid into the British exchequer, as the
king's share of the spoils, was about seven hundred
thousand pounds. Eight thousand French seamen
were held in captivity. All France resented the per-
fidy. " Never," 'said Louis the Fifteenth, " will I for-
give the piracies of this insolent nation ;" and, in a
letter to George the Second, he demanded ample repa-
ration for the insult to the nag of France by Boscawen,
and for the piracies of the English men-of-war, com-
mitted in defiance of international law, the faith of
treaties, the usages of civilized nations, and the reci-
procal duties of kings.1 The wound inflicted on
France by this robbery of private property on the
high seas before a declaration of war, rankled inward-
ly, and for a whole generation was ready to bleed
afresh. At the time, the seizure of so many thousand
French seamen was a subject of boast in the British
parliament ; and the people, proud of their strength
on the ocean, were almost unanimous for engaging in
war. But its successful conduct seemed to require
united activity in America and allies in Europe.

Corruption and force are the instruments of fee-
bleness ; the incompetent ministry knew not how to
use the one or the other. They turned to Russia ;
and with as much blindness to the interests of their
country, as indifference to every thing but the posses-
sion of place, they instructed Sir Hanbury Williams,
the new envoy at St. Petersburg, a diplomatist boast-
ful of his powers of observation, and yet credulous

1 Louis XV. to Geo. II., 21 October, 1755.

ENGLAND UNITES AMERICA UNDER MILITARY RULE. 219

and easily deceived, to introduce Russia as supervisoi chap.
of the affairs of Germany. " Seize the opportunity/ _,_
such was the substance of the instructions given1 by l?S5
the British ministry to the British ambassador of that
day, "seize the opportunity to convince the Russians,
that they will remain only an Asiatic power, if they
allow the king of Prussia to carry through his plans
of aggrandizement ;" and full authority was given to
effect an alliance with Russia to overawe Prussia, and
control the politics of Germany. Yet at that time
Frederic manifested no purpose of making conquests.
In this manner a treaty was concluded by wdiich.
England, on the point of incurring the hostility of the
Catholic princes, bound itself to pay to Russia at least
half a million of dollars annually, and contingently
two and a half million of dollars, in order to balance
and paralyze the influence of the only considerable
protestant monarchy on the continent. The English
king was so eagerly bent on this shameful negotiation,
that Bestuchef, the Russian minister, obtained a gra-
tuity of fifty thousand dollars, and one or two others
received payments in cash and annuities. " A little
increase of the money to be paid," said Bestuchef,
" would be extremely agreeable. Fifty thousand
pounds for the private purse of the empress would put
her and her court at his majesty's management."2
So venal were the princes of that day, that the aid of
the Russian empire was for sale ; and the empress her-
self in the market at fifty thousand pounds.3 At the
same time an extravagant treaty for subsidies was

1 Instructions from Lord Holder- 2 Sir Ilanunry Williams to Hol-

nesse to Sir llanbury Williams, 11 dernesse, 9 and 11 August; 1755.
April, 1755. Von liaumer's Bey- 3 Friedricli von Raumcr's Konig

trago, ii. 286 Friedricli II. und seine Zeit, 294.

220 TIEE AMEKICAN REVOLUTION.

cha.p. framed with Hesse,1 whose Elector bargained at high
v_r_L/ rates for the use of his troops for the defence of Han-
1755. over, or if needed, of the British dominions. New-
castle was sure of his majority in the House of Com-
mons ; but William Pitt, though poor, and recently
married, and holding the lucrative office of paymaster,
declared his purpose of opposing the treaty with Rus-
sia. Newcastle sent for Pitt, offered him kind words
from his sovereign, influence, preferment, confidence.
Expressing devotion to the king, Pitt was inexorable ;
he would support the Hessian treaty, which was only
a waste of money ; but not a system of treaties, dan-
gerous to the liberties of Germany and of Europe.
Nervous from fright, Newcastle was disposed at once
to resign power to Fox. " You are not fit to be first
minister," was the sneer of Granville ; and Newcastle
did not recover courage till in November Fox con-
sented to accept the seals and defend the treaties. At
the great debate,2 Pitt taunted the majority, which
was as three to one, with corruption and readiness
" to follow their leader ;" and, indirectly attacking the
subjection of the throne to aristocratic influence, de-
clared that " the king owes a supreme service to his
people." Pitt was dismissed from office, and George
Grenville, with Legge, the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, and Charles Townshend, went into retirement in
his company.

Having nothing to rely on but the corrupt influ-
ence of the aristocracv, Newcastle now sought to
unite it, by a distribution of pensions and places.
This is the moment when Hillsborough first obtained
an employment, when the family of Yorke named

1 Jenkinson's Collection of Trea- * Walpole's Memoires of George
ties, iii, 30—53. I., i. 418.

ENGLAND UNITES AMERICA UNDER MILITARY RULE. 221

Sosine Jenyns for a Lord of Trade ; and when Bed- chap.
ford was propitiated by the appointment of his par- ^_
tisan, Richard Rigby, to a seat at the same Board. 175 5.
The administration proceeded, possessing the vote but
not the respect of parliament ; at variance with the
people of England and with the colonies; beaten
from the Ohio valley, and in Europe squandering
English money to engage armies which were to be
used only against England and her allies. The
treaty was hardly concluded, before the ministry
yielded to the impulse given by Pitt; and, after subsi-
dizing Russia to obtain the use of the Russian troops
against Frederic, it negotiated an alliance with Fred-
eric himself, not to permit the entrance of Russian
or any other foreign troops into Germany.

At the head of the American forces this ministry
had placed Shirley, a worn-out barrister, who knew
nothing of war. In the security of a congress of gov-
ernors at New York, he in December planned a
splendid campaign for the following year. Quebec
was to be menaced by way of the Kennebec and the
Chaudiere ; Frontenac and Toronto and Niagara were
to be taken ; and then Fort Duquesne and Detroit
and JVIichilimackinac, deprived of their communica-
tions, were of course to surrender. Sharpe, of Mary-
land, thought all efforts vain, unless parliament should
interfere ; and this opinion he enforced in many let-
ters to his correspondents.1 His colleagues and the
officers of the army were equally importunate. "If 175 6.
they expect success at home," wrote Gage, in January,
17f>G, echoing the common opinion of those around

See the Correspondence of Sharpe with his brother in Eng-
land, and his colleagues in America.

222 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, him, " acts of parliament must be made to tax the
^^L, provinces, in proportion to what each is able to bear;
1V5 6. to make one common fund and pursue one uniform
plan for America." 1 " You," said Sir Charles Hardy,
the new governor of New York to the Lord? of
Trade, " you will be much more able to settle it for
us, than we can ourselves." 2

From the Old Dominion, Dinwiddie continued to
urge a general land-tax and poll-tax for all the colo-
nies. " Our people," said he, " will be inflamed, if
they hear of my making this proposal ;" but he reiter-
ated the hopelessness of obtaining joint efforts of the
colonies by appeals to American assemblies. He
urged also the subversion of Charter governments;
" for," said he to the Secretary of State, " I am full
of opinion we shall continue in a most disunited and
distracted condition, till his majesty takes the propri-
etary governments into his own hands. Till these
governments are under his majesty's immediate direc-
tion, all expeditions will prove unsuccessful. These
dominions, if properly protected, will be the Western
and best empire in the world." 8

With more elaborateness and authority, Shirley,4
by his military rank as commander-in-chief, taking
precedence of all the governors, renewed his plans,
and still pleading for "a general fund," he assured
the ministers that the several assemblies would not
agree among themselves upon such a fund ; that,
consequently, it must be done in England ; and that
the only effectual way of doing it there would bo

' Gage to the Earl of Albemarle, 3 Lieutenant-Governor Dinwid-

22 Jan., 1756. die to Secretary Fox, 1750.

2 Sir Charles Hardy to the Lords * Shirley to Lords of Trade, 5

of Trade, January, 1756. January, 1756.

ENGLAND UNITES AMERICA JNDER MILITARY RULE. 223

by an act of parliament, in which he professed to chap.
have great reason to think the people would readily w^-L
acquiesce. The success of any other measure would 175 6,

doubtful; and, suggesting a "stamp-duty," as
well as an excise and a poll-tax, he advised " for the
general satisfaction of the people in each colony, to
leave it to their choice to raise the sum assessed
upon them according to their own discretion;" hut,
in case of failure, "proper officers" were to collect
the revenue "by warrants of distress and imprison-
ment of persons." 1 Shirley was a civilian, versed in
English law, and now for many years a crown officer
in the colonies. His opinion carried great weight,
and it became, henceforward, a firm persuasion
among the Lords of Trade, especially Halifax,
Soame Jenyns, and Rigby, as well as with all who
busied themselves with schemes of government for
America, that the British parliament must take upon
itself the establishment and collection of an American
revenue.

"While the officers of the Crown were thus con-
spiring against American liberty, the tomahawk was
uplifted along the ranges of the Alleghanies. The
governor of Virginia2 pressed upon Washington the
rank of colonel and the command of the volunteer
companies which were to guard its frontier, from
Cumberland, through the whole valley of the She-
nandoah. Difficulties of all kinds gathered in his
path. The humblest captain that held a royal com-

1 See the Pamphlet •written lonies Reviewed, pp. 196, 197.

jointly by Wm, Knox and George a Dinwiddie to Lords of Trade,

Grenville. The Controversy be- 6 September, 1755.
tween Great Britain and her Co-

224 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, mission claimed to be his superior ; and, for the pur-
_,_ pose of a personal appeal to Shirley,1 he made a
1756. winter's journey to Boston. How different was to be
his next entry into that town ! Shirley, who wished
to make him second2 in command in an expedition
against Fort Duquesne, sustained his claim.8 When
his authority was established, his own officers still
needed training and instruction, tents, arms, and am-
munition. He visited in person the outposts, from
the Potomac to Fort Dinwiddie, on Jackson's River ;
but he had not force enough to protect the region.
The low countries could not spare their white men,
for these must watch their negro slaves. From the
Western Valley every settler had already been
driven. From the valley of the Shenandoah they
were beginning to retreat, in droves of fifties, till
the Blue Ridge became the frontier of Virginia.
"The supplicating tears of the women and moving
petitions of the men," wrote Washington, " melt me
into such deadly sorrow, that, for the people's ease,
I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butcher-
ing enemy."

The interior settlements of Pennsylvania were ex-
posed to the same calamities, and domestic faction
impeded measures of defence. In that province,
where popular power was intrenched impregnably,
the proprietaries, acting in concert with the Board of
Trade, sought to enlarge their prerogatives ; to take
into their own hands the management of the revenue

1 Dinwiddie to Shirley, 1756. 3 Shirley to Sharpe, 5 March,

9 Shirley to Sharpe, 16 May, 1756.
1756. Halifax to Sir Charles Har-
dy, 31 March, 1756.

ENGLAND UNITES AMERICA UNDER MILITARY RULE. 225

from excise ; to restrain and regulate the emissions chap
of paper money ; to make their own will, rather than ^~>
good behavior, the tenure of office. But the As- i75o.
sembly was inflexible in connecting their grants for
the public service with the preservation of their ex-
ecu tive influence and the taxation of "all estates
real and personal, those of the proprietaries not ex-
cepted."

While these passionate disputes were raging, it
was represented in England that the frontier of the
province was desolate and defenceless ; that the
Shawnees had scaled the mountains, and prowled
with horrible ferocity along the branches of the Sus-
quehanna and the Delaware ; that, in the time of a
yearly meeting of Quakers, the bodies of a German
family, murdered and mangled by the savages, had
been brought down to Philadelphia ; that men had
even surrounded the Assembly, demanding protec-
tion, which was withheld.

But the Assembly had already, by provincial
laws, provided quarters for the British soldiers ; had
established a voluntary militia ; and, when the pro-
prietaries consented to pay five thousand pounds to-
wards the public defence, had granted fifty-five thou-
sand more. Franklin, who was one of the commis-
sioneis to apply the money, yielded to the wish of
the governor, and took charge of the northwestern
bordei . Men came readily under his command, and
he led them through dangerous defiles, to build a fort
at Gnadenhutten on the Lehigh. The Indians had
made the village a scene of silence and desolation ;
the mangled inhabitants lay near the ashes of their
houses unburied, exposed to birds and beasts of prey.
With Franklin came every thing that could restore

VOL. IV. 15

226 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, security ; and Iris prudence, humanity, and pj
v^-L tience succeeded in establishing the intended line
1756. forts. Recalled to Philadelphia, he found that tin
voluntary association for defence under the militii
law went on with great success. Almost all the ii
habitants, who were not Quakers, joined together t(
form companies which themselves elected their oi
cers. The officers of the companies chose Franklii
colonel of their regiment of twelve hundred men, and
he accepted the post.

Here again was a new increase of popular power.
Franklin, with his military command, might, it was
feared, wrest the government from the proprietaries ;
nor would the metropolis tolerate a mihtia which had
the appointment of its own officers. In the House of
Commons, Lord George Sackville charged the situa-
tion of affairs in America " on the defects of the con-
stitution cf the colonies." He would have " one
power established there."1 "The militia law of
Pennsylvania," he said, " was designed to be ineffec-
tual. It offered no compulsion, and, moreover, gave
the nomination of officers to the people." The ad-
ministration hearkened to a scheme for dissolving
the Assembly of that province by act of parlia-
ment, and disfranchising " the Quakers for a limited
time," till laws for armed defence and for diminish-
ing the power of the people could be framed by
others.

After the long councils of indecision, the ministry
of Newcastle, shunning altercations with colonial as-
semblies, gave a military character to the interference

1 Walpole's Memoires of Geo. II., ii., 8.

ENGLAND UNITES AMERICA UNDER MILITARY RULE. 227

of Great Britain in American affairs. To New York1 cHAr.

IX

instructions were sent "not to press the establish- ^^^
ment of a perpetual revenue for the present." The 175 6.
northern colonies, whose successes at Lake George
had mitigated the disgraces of the previous year,
were encouraged by a remuneration ; and, as a mea-
sure of temporary expediency, not of permanent
policy or right, as a gratuity to stimulate exertions,
and not to subsidize subjects, one hundred and fifteen
thousand pounds were granted to them in proportion
to their efforts. Of this sum fifty-four thousand
pounds fell to Massachusetts, twenty-six thousand to
Connecticut, fifteen thousand to New York.2 At the
same time the military affairs of the continent were
consolidated, with some reference to opinions and
precedents as old as the reign of William the Third.
The Board of Trade, first called into existence in
1G96, had hardly been constituted, before it was
summoned to plan unity in the military efforts of the
provinces; and Locke, with his associates, despaired
on beholding them " crumbled into little govern-
ments, disunited in interests, in an ill posture and
much worse disposition to afford assistance to each
other for the future." The Board, in 1697, "after
considering with their utmost care," could only re-
commend the appointment of "a captain-general of
all the forces and all the militia of all the provinces
on the continent of North America, with power to
levy and command them for their defence, under
such limitations and instructions as to his Majesty
should seem best ;" " to appoint officers to train the in-

1 Lords of Trade to Sir Charles Treasury, 12 Feb., 1756; and to
Hardy. Secretary of State, 16 January,

8 Lords of Trade to Lords of the 1756.

228

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, "habitants f " from the Quakers to receive in money

^^Ly their share of assistance;" and "to keep the Five

175 6. Nations firm in friendship." "Rewards" were to be

given " for all executions done by the Indians on the

enemy, and the scalps they should bring in to be well

paid for." 1

In 1721, this plan of a military dictatorship was,
in a most elaborate state paper, revived and modified.
All the provinces were to be placed "under the
government of one lord-lieutenant or captain-general,"
to be " constantly attended by two or more council-
lors deputed from each plantation," and to " have a
fixed salary independent of the pleasure of the inhab-
itants." " By this means, it was thought, a general
contribution of men or money might be raised upon
the several colonies, in proportion to their respective
abilities." 2 How an American revenue was to flow
from such an appointment was not fully disclosed.
At that time the Earl of Stair 8 was selected as vice-
roy ; but he declined the post before the arrange-
ments were completed. The plan was now to be par-
tially carried into effect. On the instance of Cum-
berland and Fox, Shirley was superseded and ordered
to return to England, and the Earl of Loudoun, a
friend of Halifax, passionately zealous for the subor-
dination and inferiority of the colonies, was appointed
commander-in-chief of the army throughout the Brit-
ish continental provinces in America. His dignity
was enhanced by his appointment as governor of the
central, ancient, and populous dominion of Virginia.

1 Plantations General, A. 59.

2 See the elaborate Representa-
tion of the Lords of Trade to the
King, 1721. N. Y. Lon. Documents.

8 The Earl of Stair's Plan oi
Government, is in the British Mu-
seum.

ENGLAND UNITES AMERICA UNDER MILITARY RULE.

229

This commission, which was prepared by the chancel- chap.
lor, Hard wi eke, established a military power through- v— , — »
out the continent, independent of the colonial govern- 1766.
ors, and superior to them. They in right of their
office might claim to be the civil and military repre-
sentatives of the king ; yet they could not give the
word within their own respective provinces except
in the absence of the continental commander and
his representatives ; 1 and this commission, so con-
trary to the spirit of the British constitution, was re-
newed successively and without change till the period
of independence. Such were the powers with which
Loudoun was sent forth to unite America by mili-
tary rule, to sway its magistrates by his authority,
and to make its assemblies u distinctly and precisely
understand" that the king " required" of them " a
general fund, to be issued and applied as the com-
mander-in-chief should direct," and " provision for
all such charges as might arise from furnishing quar-
ters."

The administration was confirmed in its purpose
of throwing the burden of furnishing quarters upon
the colonies by the authority of Murray. His opinion
against the statute of Pennsylvania, which, in extend-
ing the act of parliament to punish mutiny, regulated
the providing of quarters, drew a distinction between
Englishmen and Americans. " The law," said he,
f assumes propositions true in the mother country,
and rightly asserted in the reign of Charles the First
and Charles the Second, in times of peace, and when
soldiers were kept up without the consent of parlia-
ment ; but the application of such positions, in time

1 See the Commission and Instructions.

230

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, of war, in the case of troops raised for their pro-
^^i^ tection by the authority of parliament, — made the
1756. first time by an assembly, many of whom plead
what they call conscience for not joining in the mili-
tary operations to resist the enemy, — should not be
allowed to stand as law." This act, therefore, was
repealed by the king in council ; and the rule was
established1 without limitation, that troops might
be kept up in the colonies and quartered on them at
pleasure, without the consent of their American par-
liaments.

Thus, after sixty years of advice from the Board of
Trade, a permanent army was established in Amer-
ica. Nothing seemed wanting but an act of parlia-
ment for an American revenue. The obstinacy of
Pennsylvania was pleaded as requiring it.2 On the
questions affecting that province, the Board of Trade
listened to Charles Yorke on the side of prerogative,
while Charles Pratt spoke for colonial liberty; and
after a long hearing, Halifax and Soame Jenyns, and
Bedford's dependent, Richard Bigby, and Talbot
joined in advising an immediate act of the British
legislature to overrule the charter of the colony. But
the ministry was rent by factions, and their fluctua-
ting tenure of office made it difficult to mature novel
or daring measures of legislation. There existed no
central will, that could conquer Canada, or subvert
the liberties of America.

A majority of the Treasury Board, as well as the
Board of Trade, favored American taxation by act of
parliament ; none scrupled as to the power ; but " the

1 Order in Council, 7 July, 1756. in the House of Commons, Feb. 3,
8 Garth's Report of the Debate 1766.

ENGLAND UNITES AMERICA UNDER MILITARY RULE. 231

unfit" Lyttelton, then chancellor of the exchequer, chap,
though fixed in his opinions, could not mature »_f—,
schemes of finance; and the British statutes,1 which 1756,
manifest the settled purpose 2 of raising a revenue out
of the traffic between the American continent and
the West India Islands, show that the execution of
(hat purpose was at that session, and twice after-
wards, deferred to a quieter period.

Still parliament, in the session of 1756, extended
its authority signally over America. There foreign
Protestants might be employed as engineers and offi-
cer to enlist a regiment of aliens.8 Indented ser-
vants might be accepted, and their masters were re-
ferred for compensation to the respective assemblies ; 4
and the naval code of England was extended to all
persons employed in the king's service on the lakes,
great waters, or rivers of North America.5 The
militia law of Pennsylvania was repealed by the king
in council; the commissions of all officers elected
under it were cancelled; the companies themselves
were broken up and dispersed. And while volun-
teers were not allowed to organize themselves for de-
fence, the humble intercession of the Quakers with
the Delawares, the little covenants resting on' confi-
dence and ratified by presents, peaceful stipulations
for the burial of the tomahawk and the security of
the frontier fireside and the cradle, were censured by
Lord Halifax as the most daring violation of the
royal prerogative. Each northern province also was
forbidden to negotiate with the Indians ; and their re-

1 29 Geo. II., c. xxvi. ; 31 Geo. 8 29 Geo. IT., c. v.
II., c. xxxvi., § 3 ; 1 Geo. III., 4 29 Geo. IT., c. xxxv.
c. iv. 8 29 Geo. II., c. xxvii.

a Letter of Boll an to Massachu-
setts, in May, 1756.

232

THE AFRICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, lations were intrusted solely to Sir William Johnsoi

ix .

w^ with no subordination but to Loudoun.

1756. Yet all could not prevail. " In a few years," sai(

one, who, after a long settlement in New Englan<

had just returned home, the colonies of u Ainerics

will be independent of Britain ;" and at least one

voice was raised to advise the sending out of Duke

William of Cumberland to be their sovereign an<

emancipating them at once.

CHAPTEK X.

THE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT GOVERN ENGLAND.—
NEWCASTLE'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED.

1756—1757.

TnE open declaration of war was not made by
England till May; though her navy had all the x. '
while been employed in despoiling the .commerce ^T^
of France. At the commencement of avowed hos-
tilities, she forbade neutral vessels to carry mer-
chandise belonging to her antagonist. Frederick of
Prussia had insisted, that, " by the law of nations, the
goods of an enemy cannot be taken from on board
the ships of *a friend;" that free ships make free
goods. Against this interpretation of public law, the
learning of Murray had been called into service;
and, pleading ancient usage against the lessons of
wTiser times, he gave the elaborate opinion which
formed the basis of English policy and Admiralty
law,1 that the effects of an enemy can be seized
on board the vessel of a friend. This may be
proved, said Murray, by authority; and the illus-
trious jurist did not know that humanity appeals

1 representation to the King chell, Secretary to the Prussian
(drawn hy Murray), 18 January, Embassy at London, 8 February,
1753. Duke of Newcastle to Mi- 1753.

234 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, from the despotic and cruel precedents of the pas
n_y_, to the more intelligent and more humane spiri
175 6 of advancing civilization. Neutral nations believed
in their right " to carry in their vessels, unmo-
lested, the property" of belligerents ; but Britain, to
give efficacy to her naval power, "seized on the
enemy's property which she found on board neutral
ships." With the same view, she arbitrarily invaded
the sovereignty of Holland, capturing its vessels
whose cargoes might be useful for her navy. The
treaties between England and Holland * stipulated
expressly that free ships should make free goods, that
the neutral should enter safely and unmolested all the
harbors of the belligerents, unless they were block-
aded or besieged ; that the contraband of war should
be strictly limited to arms, artillery, and horses, and
should not include materials for ship-building. But
Great Britain, in the exercise of its superior strength,
arbitrarily prohibited the commerce of the Nether-
lands In naval stores ; denied them the right to be-
come the carriers of French colonial products, and
declared all the harbors of all France to be in a state
of blockade, and all vessels bound to them lawful
prizes.2 Such was the rule of 1756. " To charge
England with ambition," said Charles Jenkinson,3 an
Oxford scholar, who had given up the thought of
entering the church, and hoped for success in public
life ; " to charge England with ambition must appear
so absurd to all who understand the nature of her
government, that at the bar of reason it ought to be

' Treaty of Commerce between caise, vi., 64, 65. Ileeren's Ilisto-

Ensrland and Holland, 1 December, ruche Werke, ix., 47.

1674. 3 A Discourse on the Conduct

2 Van Kampen's Geschichte der of tbe Government of Great Britain

Niederlande, ii., 443. Flassan : in respect to Neutral Nations, dur-

Histoire de la Diplomatic Fran- ing the present War.

TIIE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT GOVERN ENGLAND. 235

treated rather as calumny than accusation." The chap.
grave confidence of his discourse was by his own v^^!^
countrymen deemed conclusive; but the maritime 1756

imptions of England were turning against her the
sympathies of the civilized world.

The genius of the nation was a guarantee against
discomfiture on the ocean ; the feebleness of the admin-
istration appeared conspicuously in America. April
was almost gone before Abercrombie, who was to be
next in command to the Earl of Loudoun, with
Webb and two battalions, sailed from Plymouth for
New York. Loudoun waited for his transports, that
were to cany tents, ammunition, artillery, and in-
trenching tools, and at last, near the end of May,
sailed without them. The man-of-war which bore
one hundred thousand pounds to reimburse the colo-
nies for the expenses of 1755, and stimulate their
activity for 1756, did not sail till the middle of June.
The cannon for ships on Lake Ontario did not reach
America till August. u We shall have good reason
to sing Te Deum, at the conclusion of this campaign,"
wrote the Lieutenant-governor of Maryland, " if mat-
ters are not then in a worse situation than they are at
present."

On the fifteenth of June, arrived the forty Ger-
man officers who were to raise recruits for Loudoun's
royal American regiment of four thousand. At the
same time came Abercrombie. Letters awaited him
in praise of Washington. uHe is a very deserving
gentleman," wrote Dinwiddle, "and has from thq
beginning commanded the forces of this Dominion.
He is much beloved, has gone through many hard-
ships in the service, has great merit, and can raise

236 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, more men here than any one." He therefore urged
^^ his promotion in the British establishment. But
1756. England trusted foreigners rather than Americans.
" 1 find," said Abercrombie, " you will never be able
to carry on any thing to any purpose in America, til]
you have a viceroy or superintendent over all the
provinces."1 And Loudoun's arrival was to produce
" a great change of affairs."

On the twenty-fifth of June, Abercrombie arrived
at Albany, firmly resolved that the regular officers
should command the provincials, and that the troops
should be quartered on private houses. On the next
day, Shirley acquainted him with the state of Os-
wego, advising that two battalions should be sent for-
es i o

ward for its protection. The boats were ready;
every magazine along the passage plentifully sup-
plied. But the general could not think of the wants
of the garrison, and was meditating triumphs of
authority. " The great, the important day for Al-
bany dawned." On the twenty-seventh, " in spite of
every subterfuge, the soldiers were at last billeted
upon the town." 2 The mayor wished them all to go
back again ; " for," said he, " we can defend our fron-
tier ourselves." Thus Abercrombie dilatorily whiled
away the summer, ordering a survey of Albany, that
it might be ditched and stockaded round ; and men
talked " of certain victory and conquest."

On the twelfth of July, the brave Bradstreet re-
turned from Oswego, having thrown into the fort six
months' provision for five thousand men, and a great
quantity of stores. He brought intelligence that a

1 Letter of Alexander Colden. s Journal of A. Golden. Albany.
New York, 19 June, 1756. 27 June.

TIIE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT GOVERN ENGLAND.

237

French army was in motion to attack the place ; and chap.
Webb, with the forty-fourth regiment, was ordered ^^
to hold himself in readiness to march to its defence. ^56.
But nothing was done. The regiments of New Eng-
land, with the provincials from New York and New
Jersey, amounted to more than seven thousand men ;
with the British regular regiments, to more than ten
thousand men, besides the garrison at Oswego. In
the previous year the road had been opened, the forts
erected. Why delay ? But Abercrombie was still
lingering at Albany, when, on the twenty-ninth of
July, the Earl of Loudoun arrived. There too " the
viceroy" loitered with the rest, doing nothing, having
ten or twelve thousand men at his disposition, keep-
ing the provincials idle in their camps, without the
skill and experience necessary to take care of them-
selves, and victims to disease, which want of employ-
ment and close quarters generated.

The French were more active ; and, while the
savages made inroads to the borders of Ulster and
Orange counties, they turned all their thoughts to
the capture of Oswego. De Lery, leaving Montreal
in March with a party of more than three hundred
men, hastened over ice and snow along the foot of
mountains ; by roads known to savages alone, they
penetrated to Fort Bull, at the Oneida portage,
gained it after a short struggle and a loss of three
men, destroyed its stores, and returned with thirty
prisoners to Montreal.1 Near the end of May, eight
bundled men, led by the intrepid and prudent De
Villiers, made their palisaded camp under the shelter
of a thicket near the mouth of Sandy Creek. From

1 Tonrnal, &c, from October, 1755, to June, 1756. Paris Doc,
xii., 18.

238 THE AMEKICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, this place he could send little parties to hover round
^^s the passes of Onondaga River, and intercept supplies
175 6 for Oswego.

Of the Six Nations, the four lower ones, the
Onondagas, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Mohawks, assem-
bled in council, and sent thirty of their chiefs to
Montreal to solicit neutrality. " Our young braves/'
they were answered, " seek their foes wherever they
are to be found ; but if you do not join the English,
they shall do you no harm ;" and the envoys of the
neutral tribes returned laden with presents.

Just then, the Field-Marshal Marquis de Montcalm
arrived at Quebec ; a man of a strong and well-stored
memory ; of a quick and highly cultivated mind ; of
small stature ; rapid in conversation ; and of restless
mobility. He was accompanied by the Chevalier de
Levis Leran, and by Bourlamarque, colonel of in-
fantry. Travelling day and night, he hurried to Fort
Carillon, at Ticonderoga; by two long marches on
foot, he made himself familiar with the ground, and
took measures for improving its defences.1 He next
resolved by secrecy and celerity to take Oswego.
Collecting at Montreal three regiments from Quebec,
and a large body of Canadians and Indians, on the
fifth of August he was able to review his troops at
Frontenac, and on the evening of the same day an-
chored in Sackett's Harbor.

Fort Oswego, on the right of the river, was a
large stone building surrounded by a wall flanked
with four small bastions, and was commanded from
adjacent heights. For its defence, Shirley had crowned
a summit on the opposite bank with Fort Ontario.

1 Montcalm to the minister, 20 July, 1756.

THE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT GOVERN ENGLAND. 230

Against this outpost, Montcalm, on the twelfth of chap.
August, at midnight, opened his trenches. From the ^^^
following daybreak till evening, the fire of the garri- 175 6,
son was well kept up ; when, having expended their
am munition, they spiked their cannon, and retreated
to Foil Oswego. Immediately Montcalm occupied
tlie height, and turned such of the guns as were ser-
viceable against the remaining fortress. His fire
killed Mercer, the commander, and soon made a breach
in the wall. On the fourteenth, just as Montcalm was
preparing to storm the intrenchments, the garrison,
composed of the regiments of Shirley and Pepperell,
and about sixteen hundred in number, capitulated.
Forty-five perished ; twelve of them in action, the
rest by the Indians in attempting to escape through
the woods.1 The prisoners of war descended the St.
Lawrence; their colors were sent as trophies to deco-
rate the churches of Montreal, Three Rivers, and
Quebec ; one hundred and twenty cannon, six vessels
of war, three hundred boats, stores of ammunition and
provisions, and three chests of money fell to the con-
querors.

Amidst the delight of the Canadians and the
savages, the missionaries planted a cross bearing the
words, " This is the banner of victory f by its side
rose a pillar with the arms of France, and the inscrip-
tion, " Bring lilies with full hands." Expressions of
triumphant ecstasy broke from Montcalm; but, to
allay all jealousy of the red men, he razed the forts
and left Oswego a solitude.

1 Loudoun to J. Osborne, 13 Vandreuil to the minister, 80 Au-

Sept,, 1756, finds no evidence of a gust, 1756. N. Y. Paris Doc.,

massacre at Oswego ; considers tlie xii. 39.
rumor without foundation. De

240 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. Webb, who should have relieved the place, went
^^ tardily to the Oneida portage, and, after felling trees
1756. to obstruct the passage to the Onondaga, fled in terror
to Albany.

Loudoun approved placing obstacles between his
army and the enemy ; for he also " was extremely
anxious about an attack" from the French, while
" flushed with success." " If it had been made on
the provincials alone, it would," he complacently as-
serted, " have been followed with very fatal conse-
quences." Provincials had, it was true, saved the
remnant of Braddock's army ; provincials had con-
quered Acadia; provincials had defeated Dieskau;
but Abercrombie and his chief sheltered their own
imbecility under complaints of America. After wast-
ing a few more weeks in busy inactivity, Loudoun,
whose forces could have penetrated to the heart of
Canada, left the French to construct a fort at Ticonde-
roga, and dismissed the provincials to their homes, the
regulars to winter quarters. Of the latter, a thousand
were sent to New York, where free quarters for the
officers were demanded of the city. The demand was
resisted by the mayor, as contrary to the laws of Eng-
land and the liberties of America. " Free quarters
are everywhere usual," answered the commander-in-
chief; "I assert it on my honor, which is the highest
evidence you can require ;" and he resolved to make
New York an example for the other colonies and
towns. The citizens pleaded in reply their privileges
as Englishmen, by the common law, by the petition of
right, and by acts of parliament. "God damn my
blood," was the official answer of the " viceroy " to
the mayor ; " if you do not billet my officers upon

THE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT GOVERN ENGLAND. 241

free quarters this day, Til order here all the troops CIIXAP-
in North America under my command, and billet ^y^

1 7Sfi

them myself upon the city." So the magistrates got
up a subscription for the winter support of officers,
who had done nothing for the country but burden
its resources. In Philadelphia Loudoun uttered the
same menace, and the storm was averted only by an
adjustment. The frontier had been left open to the
French ; this quartering troops in the principal towns
at the expense of the inhabitants by the illegal
authority of a military chief, was the great result of
the campaign.

Yet native courage flashed up in every part of the
colonies. The false Delawares, thirsting for victims
and secret as the night, from their village at Kittan-
ning, within forty-five miles of Fort Duquesne, stained
all the border of Pennsylvania with murder and scalp-
ing. To destroy them, three hundred Pennsylvanians
crossed the Alleghanies, conducted by John Armstrong,
of Cumberland County, famed as inheriting the courage
of the Scottish covenanters.

In the night folio wing the seventh of September, the
avenging party, having marched on that day thirty
miles through the unbroken forests, were guided to
the Indian village of Kittanning, by the beating of a
drum and the whooping of warriors at their festival ;
and they lay quiet and hush till the moon was fairly
set. They heard a young fellow whistling near them,
as a signal to a squaw after his dance was over ; and
in a field of maize, on the margin of the river, they
saw the fires near which the Indians took their rest
with no dreams of danger. At daybreak three com-
panies which lagged in the rear were brought over the

VOL IV. 16

17 5 6.

242 THE AMEEICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, last precipice ; and at the same inonient the attack be-
gan on the Delawares who had slept abroad, and on
the houses which lay discovered under the light of
morning. Jacobs raised the war-whoop, crying, " The
white men are come ; we shall have scalps enough."
The squaws and children fled to the woods ; the war-
riors fought with desperate bravery and skill as
marksmen. u We are man," they shouted ; " we will
not be made prisoners." The town being set on fire,
some of them sang their death-song in the flames.
Their store of powder, which was enough for a long
war, scattered destruction as it exploded. Jacobs and
others attempting flight, were shot and scalped ; the
town was burned to ashes, never to be rebuilt by
savages. But the Americans lost sixteen men ; and
Armstrong himself was among the wounded. Hugh
Mercer, captain of the company which suffered most,
was hit by a musket-ball in the arm, and with five
others separated from the main body ; but, guided
by the stars and rivulets, they soon found their way
back. The conduct of Armstrong in leading his party
through the mountainous wilderness, and reaching
the town without being discovered, was universally
applauded. Philadelphia voted honors to him and
his gallant band ; Pennsylvania has given his name
to the county that includes the battle-field.

At the remotest south, adventurers formed a set-
tlement beyond the Alatamaha, on the banks of the
Santilla and the island of Cumberland ; established
their own rules of government ; preserved good order
amongst themselves ; and held the country as far as
the St. Mary's, in defiance of South Carolina and of
the Spaniards at St. Augustine.

THE WHIG ARISTOCKACY CANNOT GOVERN ENGLAND. 248

At the same time men of European origin were chap
penetrating the interior of Tennessee from Carolina ; ^_^L,
and near the junction of the Telliquo and the Ten- 1756.
nessee, a little band of two hundred men, three-fifths
of whom were provincials, under the command of
Captain Demere, were engaged in completing the
New Fort Loudoun, which was to insure the com-
mand of the country. They exulted in possessing a
train of artillery, consisting of twelve great guns
which had been brought to the English camp,1 " from
such a distance as the seaport, and over such prodi-
gious mountains."2 The Cherokees wrere much di-
vided in sentiment. " Use all means you think pro-
per," wrote Lyttleton, "to induce our Indians to take
up the hatchet. Promise a reward to every man who
shall bring in the scalp of a Frenchman or of one of
the French Indians." 3

In December, the Six Nations sent a hundred and
eighty delegates to meet the Nepissings, the Algon-
quins, the Potawatamies, and the Ottawas, at a con-
gress at Montreal. All promised at least neutrality ;
the young braves wished even to join the French ;
and they trod the English medals under foot.

The imbecility which marked the conduct of Bri-
tish affairs in America, showed itself still more deci-
dedly in the cabinet, which, though united and com-
manding a subservient majority, was crumbling in

1 Gov. Lyttleton of South Caro- 2 Demere to Gov. Lyttleton, Dec.
lin i to the Lords of Trade, 31 Dec. 1756. Lyttleton to Lords of Trade,
1756. 25 December, 1756.

8 Gov. Lyttleton to Lords of
Trade, 31 Dec. 1756.

244 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, pieces from the sense of its real weakness, and the
_vl^ weariness of the people of England at the un-
1756. mixed government of the aristocracy. "If," said
William Pitt, the Great Commoner, a poor and now a
private man, " if I see a child driving a go-cart on a
precipice, with that precious freight of the king and
his family, I am bound to take the reins out of such
hands ;" and the influence of popular opinion came in
aid of his just ambition. A new authority was also
growing up ; and to win the direction of the cabinet,
he connected himself with the family of the successor.
In June, 1756, Prince George, being eighteen, became
of age, and Newcastle, with the concurrence of the
king, would have separated his establishment from
that of his mother. They both were opposed to the
separation. Pitt exerted his influence against it, with
a zeal and activity to which they were most sensible.2
The Earl of Bute had been one of the lords of the
bed-chamber to Frederic, the late Prince of Wales,
who used to call him " a fine, showy man, such as
would make an excellent ambassador in a court where
there was no business." He was ambitious, yet his
personal timidity loved to lean on a nature firmer
than his own. Though his learning was small,
he was willing to be thought a man of erudition, who
could quote Horace, and find pleasure in Virgil and
Columella. He had an air of the greatest importance,
and in look and manner assumed an extraordinary
appearance of wisdom.8 Unacquainted with business
and unemployed in public ofiice, yet as a consistent
and most obsequious royalist, he retained the confi-

1 Walpole's Memoires of George s Chatham Correspond., i. 157.
II., ii. 39. Waldegrave's Memoirs, 38.

TIIE WHIG AEISTOCEACY CANNOT GOVERN ENGLAND. 245

dence of the princess dowager, and was the instructor chap.
of the future sovereign of England in the theory of ^^,
the British constitution.1 On the organization of his 1756.
household, Prince George desired to have him about
his person.

The request of the prince, which Pitt advocated,
was resisted by Newcastle and by Hardwicke. To
embroil the royal family, the latter did not hesitate
to blast the reputation of the mother of the heir ap-
parent by tales of scandal,2 which party spirit delight-
ed to perpetuate. But in the first public act of
Prince George, he displayed the firmness of his cha-
racter. Heedless of the prime minister and the chan-
cellor, the young man of eighteen, with many profes-
sions of duty to the king, expressed " his desires, nay,
his fixed resolutions," to have u the free choice of his
servants." 8 u This family," said Granville of the Han-
overian dynasty, " always has quarrelled, and will
quarrel from generation to generation."4 Having
wantoned with the resentment of the successor
and his mother, Newcastle became terrified and
yielded. The king gave his consent reluctantly.
" You," said he angrily to Fox, " you have made me
make that puppy Bute, groom of the stole." While
Pitt formed intimate relations with the favorite of
Leicester house, Charles Townshend, who had recent-

1 Adolpbus: Hist, of England, with the insinuation. But the
i. 12. princess seems to have been re-

2 The scandal against the Prin- served and decorous, as became the
cess Dowager, the mother of Geo. aged mother of a large family; and
III., has been often repeated; yet to have had no friendships but with
it seems to have sprung from the those friends of her husband who
malicious gossip of a profligate were most naturally her counsel-
court. Waldegrave, a licentious lors.

man, is the chief accuser; Hard- s Chatham Corr. i. 171.

wicke, a disappointed politician, in 4 Walpole's Memoires, ii. 68,

a private letter, points a period 85, 86.

246 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, ly married the Countess Dowager of Dalkeith, firsl

^J^, cousin to the Earl of Bute, thought even more meanl;

1756. of Bute than of Newcastle. "Silly fellow for sill;

fellow," said he, " it is as well to be governed by nr

uncle with a blue riband, as by my cousin with

green one."

Restless at sharing the disgrace of an imbecih
administration, which met every where with defeat
except in the House of Commons, where corruptioi
could do its work, and ashamed of the small degree
of real power conceded to him, Fox was unwilling to
encounter a stormy opposition which would have had
the country on its side. " My situation," said he to
Newcastle in October, " is impracticable ;" 1 and he left
the cabinet. At the same time Murray declared that
he, too, would serve as Attorney-General no longer;
he would be Lord Chief Justice, with a peerage, or
retire to private life. Newcastle dared not refuse or
make more delay. The place had been vacant a term
and a circuit ;2 the influence of Bute and Leicester House
prevailed to bring Murray as Lord Mansfield upon
the Bench, and into the House of Peers.3 There was
no one in the House, who, even with a sure majority,
dared attempt to cope with Pitt. Newcastle sought
to negotiate with him. " A plain man," he answered,
" unpractised in the policy of a court, must never pre-
sume to be the associate of so experienced a minister."
" Write to him yourself," said Newcastle to Hard-
wicke. " Don't boggle at it ; you see the king wishes
it ; Lady Yarmouth advises it ;" 4 and Hardwicke saw

1 Fox to the Duke of Newcastle, 3 Bute in Adolphus's History of
13 Oct. 1756. George III., i. 117.

2 Henley's Life of Lord North- 4 Newcastle to flardwicke, 15
ington, 22-24. Oct. 1756.

THE WniG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT GOVERN ENGLAND. 247

hi in. But Pitt, after a three hours' interview, gave chap.
him a totally negative answer. " The great obstacles," ^^L>
Bays Hardwicke, "were the Duke of Newcastle and 175 6
his measures ; and without a change of both, 'tis im-
possible for him to come."1 Newcastle next sought
comfort from the king; insisting that there was no-
thing alleged against him but conducting the war
according to the king's own desire ; so that he himself
was about to become a victim to his loyalty.2 But
Pitt, who had never before waited upon Lady Yar
mouth, now counterworked the duke by making a
long visit to the king's mistress. The duke attempted
to enlist Egremont, offered power to Granville, and at
last, having still an undoubted majority in the House
of Commons, the great leader of the Whig aristocracy
was compelled to recognise the power of opinion in
England as greater than his own, and most reluctantly
resigned. The Whig party, which had ruled since the
accession of the House of Hanover, had yet never
possessed the affections of the people of England and
no longer enjoyed its confidence ; and at the very height
of its power, sunk down in the midst of its worship-
pers.8

In December William Pitt, the man of the people,
the sincere lover of liberty, having on his side the
English nation, of which he was the noblest represen-
tative and type, was commissioned to form a ministiy.
In this he was aided by the whole influence of Leices-
ter House ; he found the Earl of Bute " transcend-
ingly obliging;" and from the young heir to the
throne, " expressions " were repeated, " so decisive of

1 Hardwicke to his Eldest Son, 8 Newcastle to Hardwicke, 20
21 Oct. 1756. The interview with Oct 1756.
Pitt was on the 19th. 3 W. 0. Bryant's Poems.

248 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, determined purposes" of favor, "in the present or
s_vW any future day," that "Ids own lively imagination
1 7C6. could not have suggested a wish beyond them." * For
the chief of the Treasury Board, he selected the Duke
of Devonshire, with Legge as chancellor. Temple
presided over the Admiralty. George Grenville was
made treasurer of the navy. To Charles Townshend,
who could ill brook a superior, and who hated Pitt,
was offered a useless place, neither ministerial nor
active ; and his resentment at the disdainful slight was
not suppressed, till his elder brother and Bute inter-
ceded, and " at last the name of the Prince of Wales
was used." Thus began the political connections of
Charles Townshend with George the Third, and they
were never broken. Restless in his pursuit of early
advancement, he relied on the favor of that prince,
and on his own eloquence, for the attainment of power.
While he identified himself with none of the aristo-
cratic factions, he never hesitated, for his own ends, to
act under any of them. Pitt, applauding his genius for
debate, despised his versatility.

But the transition in England from the rule of the
aristocracy to a greater degree of popular power, was
not as yet destined to take place. There was an
end of the old aristocratic rule ; but it was not clear
what should come in its stead. The condition of the
new minister was seen to be precarious. On entering
office Pitt's health was so infirm, that he took the oath
at his own house, though the record bears date at St.
James's. The House of Commons, which he was to
lead, had been chosen under the direction of Newcas-
tle, whom he superseded. His subordinates even ven-

1 Chatham Corr. i. 191, 192.

THE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT GOVERN ENGLAND. 249

tured to be refractory ; so that when Charles Towns- cnAP.
hend, on one occasion, showed himself ready to second ^J^
Fox in opposition, Pitt was obliged to chide him, 1766.
before the whole House, as deficient in common sense
or common integrity ; and, as Fox exulted in his ally,
exclaimed, loud enough to be heard by half the as-
sembly, " I wish you joy of him." The court, too,
was his enemy. George the Second, spiritless and
undiscerning, and without affection for Leicester House,
liked subjection to genius still less than to aristocracy.
" I do not look upon myself as king," said he, " while
I am in the hands of these scoundrels," meaning Pitt
as well as Temple.1 On the other hand, Prince
George, in March, sent assurances to Pitt of "the
firm support and countenance" of the heir to the
throne. " Go on, my dear Pitt," said Bute ; " make
every bad subject your declared enemy, every honest
man your real friend. How much we think alike. I,
for my part, am unalterably your most affectionate
friend." 2 But even that influence was unavailing. In
the conduct of the war the Duke of Cumberland
exercised the chief control ; in the House of Commons
the friends of Newcastle were powerful ; in the coun-
cil the favor of the king encouraged opposition.

America was become the great object of Euro-
pean attention ; Pitt, disregarding the churlish cavils
of the Lords of Trade,8 at once pursued towards the
colonies the generous policy, which afterwards called
forth all their strength, and ensured their affections.
He respected their liberties, and relied on their wil-
ling co-operation. Halifax was planning taxation by

1 Glover's Memoirs, 55. Walde- 8 Lords of Trade to Sec. W. Pitt,
grave's Memoirs, 95, 96. 21 January, 1757.

2 Chatham Correspondence, i. 224.

250 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, parliament, in which he was aided, among others, by
_^ Calvert, the Secretary of Maryland, residing in Eng-
1757. land. In January, 1757, the British press defended
the scheme, which had been "often mentioned ii
private, to introduce a stamp-duty on vellum am
paper, and to lower the duty upon foreign rum,
sugar, and molasses, imported into the colonies." 1
revenue of more than sixty thousand pounds sterling
annually was confidently promised from this source
The project of an American stamp-act was presse<
upon Pitt himself. " With the enemy at their bacl
with English bayonets at their breast, in the da;
of their distress, perhaps the Americans," thoughl
he, "would submit to the imposition."2 But the
heroic statesman scorned " to take an unjust and un-
generous advantage" of them. He turned his eye t<
the mountains of Scotland for defenders of America,
and two battalions, each of a thousand Highlanders,3
were raised for the service, under the command of
Lord Eglinton and the Master of Lovat.

Still he possessed no real power, and was thwarted
in his policy at every step during the short period of
his stay in office. Soon the Duke of Cumberland was
appointed to conduct the campaign in Germany, and
was unwilling: to leave England without a change in
the cabinet. Temple was, therefore, dismissed ; and
as Pitt did not resign, the king, in the first week in
April, discarded him, and his chancellor also. Eng-
land was in a state of anarchy, to which the conduct
of affairs in America aptly corresponded.

1 Proposals for uniting the Colo- 3 Anecdotes of Lord Chatham,
nies, January, 1757. i. 298.

8 Pitt in the House of Commons,
14 January, 1766.

CHAPTEK XI.

THE "WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT CONQUER CANADA.—
ANARCHY IN THE ADMINISTRATION.

1757.

The rangers at Fort William Henry defy the cHAr
winter. The forests, pathless with snows, the frozen
lake, the wilderness, which has no shelter against 1757
cold and storms, the perilous ambush, where defeat
may be followed by the scalping-knife, or tortures,
or captivity among the farthest tribes, — all cannot
chill their daring. On skates they glide over the
lakes ; on snow-shoes they penetrate the woods. In
January, 1757, the gallant Stark,1 writh seventy-four
rangers, goes down Lake George, and turns the strong
post of Carillon. A French party of ten or eleven
sledges is driving merrily from Ticonderoga to
Crown Point.2 Stark sallies forth to attack them ;
three are taken, with twice as many horses, and seven
prisoners. But before he can reach the water's
edge, he is intercepted by a party of two hundred
and fifty French and Indians. Sheltered by trees
and a rising ground, he renews and sustains the
unequal fight till evening. In the night, the survi-
vors retreat ; a sleigh, sent over the lake, brings

1 Life of John Stark. s Montcalm's Account

252 THE AMEEIOAN REVOLUTION".

•

chap, home the wounded. Fourteen rangers had fallen, sl

, , were missing. Those who remained alive were a]

1757. plauded, and Stark received promotion.

The French are still more adventurous. A d<
tachment of fifteen hundred men, part regulai
and part Canadians, are to follow the younger Vai
dreuil in a winter's expedition 1 against Fort Williai
Henry. They must travel sixty leagues ; the snoi
shoes on their feet, their provisions on sledges, drawi
where the path is smooth, by dogs ; for their coucl
at night, they spread on the snow-bank a bearski]
and break the evening breeze with a simple veil ;
thus they go over Champlain, over Lake George.2
On St. Patrick's night, a man in front tries the
strength of the ice with an axe ; the ice-spurs ring,
as the party advances over the crystal highway,
with scaling ladders, to surprise the English fort.3
But the garrison was on the watch, and the enemy
could only burn the English batteaux and sloops,
the storehouses, and the huts of the rangers within
their pickets.

For the campaign of 1757, the northern colonies,
still eager to extend the English limits, at a congress of
governors in Boston, in January, agreed to raise four
thousand men.4 The Southern governors of North
Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania,
meeting at Philadelphia, settled the quotas for their
governments,5 but only as the groundwork for com-
plaints to the Board of Trade ; they said plainly,

1 VaudreuiTs Account, 22 April, * Loudoun to the Congress of

1757. Governors, at Boston, 29 January,

* Montcalm to the Minister, 24 1757. Hutchinson iii. 50, 51.

April, 1757. 5 Minutes of a meeting of the

3 Letter of Eyre, dated Fort Southern Governors with the Earl

William Henry, 22 March, 1757. of Loudoun, March, 1759.

THE WHIG ARISTOCKACY CANNOT CONQUER CANADA. 253

that nothing effectual would be done by the colo- chap.

. J XI.

nies. -— y—

Of the central provinces, Pennsylvania approached 1757.
most nearly towards establishing independent power.
Its people had never been numbered, yet, with the
counties on Delaware, were believed to be not less
than two hundred thousand, of whom thirty thou-
sand were able to bear arms.2 It had no militia
established by law ; but forts and garrisons protected
the frontier, at the annual cost to the province of
seventy thousand pounds currency. To the act of the
former year, granting sixty thousand pounds, the As-
sembly had added a supplement, appropriating one
hundred thousand more, and taxing the property of
the proprietaries. But they would contribute nothing
to a general fund, and disposed of all money them-
selves. The support of the governor was either not
paid at all, or not till the close of the year. When
any office was created, the names of those who were
to execute it were inserted in the bill, with a clause
reserving to the Assembly the right of nomination in
case of death. The sheriffs and coroners, and all per-
sons connected with the treasury, were thus nomi-
nated or were chosen by the people, annually, and
were responsible only to their constituents. The As-
sembly could not be prorogued or dissolved, and
adjourned itself at its own pleasure. It assumed al-
most all executive power, and scarce a bill came up
without an attempt to encroach on the little residue.
In the Jerseys and in Pennsylvania," wrote Loudoun,
thinking to influence the mind of Pitt, " the majority

1 H. Sharpe to his brother, the s Peters on the Constitution of
Secretary to the Privy Council, Pennsylvania, drawn up for Lord
24 March, 1757. Loudoun. Hazard, v. 339.

254 THE AMEBIC AN REVOLUTION.

chap, of the Assembly is composed of Quakers; whilst
_,_ that is the case, they will always oppose every niea-
175 7. sure of government, and support that independence
which is deep-rooted every where in this country.
The taxes which the peojDle pay are really so trifling,
that they do not deserve the name ; so that if some
method is not found out of laying on a tax for the
support of a war in America by a British Act of Par-
liament, it appears to me, that you will continue to
have no assistance from them in money, and will
have very little in men, if they are wanted." * While
the royal officers, with Loudoun at their head, were
soliciting the arbitrary interposition of parliament, it
is most worthy of remark, that the deep-seated, reluc-
tantly abandoned confidence in the justice and love of
liberty of the parliament of England, still led the
people of Pennsylvania to look to that body for pro-
tection ; and in February, 1757, Benjamin Franklin
was chosen agent " to represent in England the un-
happy situation of the province, that all occasion of
dispute hereafter might be removed by an act of the
British legislature."

Massachusetts had already given the example of
an appeal to the House of Commons in favor of
popular power against prerogative ; and its complaint
had, in 1733, been rebuked "as a high insult, tend-
ing to shake off the dependency of the colony upon
the kingdom." Jamaica had just been renewing the
attempt ; and, while Franklin was at New York to
take passage, and there was no ministry in England
to restrain the tendencies of the Lords of Trade, the

1 Earl of Loudoun to Secretary W. Pitt, 25 April, 1757.

TIIE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT CONQUER CANADA. 255

House of Commons adopted the memorable resolve, chap

that " the claim of right in a colonial assembly to . r-L

raise and apply public money, by its own act alone, is 175^
derogatory to the crown and to the rights of the
people of Great Britain;" and this resolve, so preg-
nant with consequences, asserting for " the people of
Great Britain" a control over American legislation,
was authoritatively communicated to every Ameri-
can assembly. "The people of Pennsylvania," said
Thomas Penn, " will soon be convinced by the House
of Commons, as well as by the ministers, that they
have not a right to the powers of government they
claim."1 The debates between the proprietaries of
Pennsylvania and its people involved every question
in dispute between the crown and the provinces,
making Pennsylvania the central figure in the strug-
gle ; and Benjamin Franklin, whom Kant, in IT 5 5,
had heralded to the world of science as the Prome-
theus of modern times,2 stood forth the foremost
champion of the rights and the legislative free will
of America. Every day brightened his fame and
increased his influence.

a The House of Commons," said Penn, " will end
the business entirely to our satisfaction." Still the
exertion of the extreme authority of parliament was
postponed. The Privy Council was as yet persuaded,
that they, with the king, had of themselves plenary
power to govern America. " Your American Assem-
blies," said Granville, its President, to Franklin,
" slight the king's instructions. They are drawn up
by grave men, learned in the laws and constitution of
the realm ; they are brought into Council, thor-

• T Penn to Hamilton, 7 July, 2 Kant's Werke, vi. 280.
1757.

256 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, ouglily weighed, well considered, and amended, if
^^ necessary, by the wisdom of that body ; and when
1757. received by the Governors, they are the laws of the
land ; for the king is the legislator of the colonies."
This doctrine which Franklin received soon after his
arrival in London, fell on him as new ; * and was
never effaced from his memory. In its preceding
session parliament had done little, except in the hope
of distressing Canada and the French islands by
famine, to lay grievous restrictions on the export of
provisions from the British colonies.2 The act pro-
duced a remonstrance. "America," said Granville
the Lord President, to the complaint of its agents,
" America must not do any thing to interfere with
Great Britain in the European markets." "If we
plant and reap, and must not ship," retorted Franklin,
" your Lordship should apply to parliament for trans-
ports to biing us all back again."

But in America the summer passed as might have
been expected from " detachments under commanders
whom a child might outwit or terrify with a pop-
gun."

To Bouquet was assigned the watch on the fron-
tiers of Carolina. Stanwix, with about two thousand
men, had charge of the West, while Webb was left
highest in command, with nearly six thousand men,
to defend the avenue of Lake George ; and on the
twentieth day of June, the Earl of Loudoun, having
first incensed all America by a useless embargo, and
having, at New York, at one sweep, impressed four
hundred men, weighed anchor for Halifax. Four

1 Franklin to Bowdoin, 13 Jan., 2 30 Geo. II., c. ix.
1772. Writings, vii. 549.

THE WHIG AKISTOCRACY CANNOT CONQUER CANADA. 257

British regiments, two battalions of royal Ameri- chap
cans, and five companies of rangers, accompanied w^-L
him." "His sailing," said the Canadians, "is a hint 1757.
for us to project something on this frontier." 1 Lou-
doun reached Halifax on the last day of June, and
found detachments from England already there ; and
on the ninth of July the entire armament was as-
sembled.

At that time, Newcastle was " reading Loudoun's
letters with great attention and satisfaction," and
praising his "great diligence and ability." "My
Lord," said he, " mentions an act of parliament to
be passed here; I don't well understand what he
means by it." Prince George, not surmising defeat,
was thoughtful for the orthodoxy of America. A
class of bold inquirers, Shaftesbury, Collins, Toland,
Bolingbroke, Hume, had attacked the scholastic phi-
losophy and the dogmas of the Middle Ages, had
insinuated a denial of the plenary inspiration of the
Bible and of the credibility of miracles, and had
applied the principle of skeptical analysis to super-
natural religion, and the institutions and interests
connected with the Established Church. They were
freethinkers, daring to question any thing ; they were
deists, accepting only the religion of nature and rea-
son. In Europe, where radical abuses in canon law
introduced anarchy and skepticism into the heart of
faith, these writers assisted to hasten a revolution
in the public mind ; they pointed the epigrams of
Voltaire, and founded a school of theology in Ger-
many, while in England one half the cultivated class
received their opinions. Fearing their influence in

1 Mnlartie to the Minister, 16 June, 1757. N. Y. Paris Doc,
xiii. 21.

VOL. iv. 17

258 THE AMEEICAN EEVOLUTIOtf.

chap, the New World, the amiable young heir to the
throne sent over a hundred pounds' worth of answers

17 57. to deistical writers. But in America, free inquiry,
which dwelt with the people, far from being of a de-
structive tendency, was conducting them towards firm
institutions, and religious faith was not a historical
tradition, encumbered with the abuses of centuries,
but a living principle.

Loudoun found himself in Halifax at the head of
an admirable army of ten thousand men, with a fleet
of sixteen ships of the line, besides frigates. There
he landed, levelled the uneven ground for a parade,
planted a vegetable garden as a precaution against
the scurvy, exercised the men in mock battles, and
sieges, and stormings of fortresses, and, when August
came, and the spirit of the army was broken, and
Hay, a major-general, expressed contempt so loudly
as to be arrested, the troops were embarked, as if for
Louisburg. But ere the ships sailed, the reconnoitring
vessels came with news that the French at Cape
Breton had one ship more than the English, and the
plan of the campaign was changed. Part of the sol-
diers landed again at Halifax, and the Earl of Lou-
doun, leaving his garden to weeds, and his place of
arms to briers, sailed for New York. He had been
but two days out, when he was met by an express,
with such tidings as were to have been expected.

How peacefully rest the waters of Lake George
between their ramparts of highlands ! In their pel-
lucid depths, the cliffs, and the hills, and the trees
trace their image, and the beautiful region speaks to

THE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CAKtfOT CONQUER CANADA. 259

the heart, teaching affection for nature. As yet, not chap.

a hamlet rose on its nianrin ; not a straggler had .

thatched a log-hut in its neighborhood; only at its 1757
head, near the centre of a wider opening between its
mountains, Fort William Henry stood on its bank,
almost on a level with the lake. Lofty hills over-
hung and commanded the wild scene, but heavy artil-
lery had not as yet accompanied war-parties into the
wilderness.

Some of the Six Nations preserved their neutrality,
but the Oneidas danced the war-dance with Vau-
dreuil. " We will try the hatchet of our father on
the English, to see if it cuts well," said the Senecas
of Niagara; and when Johnson complained of de-
predations on his cattle, "You begin crying quite
early," they answered ; " you will soon see other
things." 1

" The English have built a fort on the lands of
Onontio," spoke Vaudreuil, governor of New France,
to a congress at Montreal of the warriors of three-
and-thirty nations, who had come together, some from
the rivers of Maine and Acadia, some from the wil-
derness of Lake Huron and Lake Superior. "I am
ordered," he continued, " to destroy it. Go, witness
what I shall do, that, when you return to your mats,
you may recount what you have seen." They took
his belt of wampum, and answered, — " Father, we are
come to do your will." Day after day, at Montreal,
Montcalm nursed their enthusiasm by singing the
war-song with the several tribes. They clung to
him with affection, and would march to battle only
with him. They rallied at Fort St. John, on the

1 Vaudreuil to the Minister, 13 July, 1757

260 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. Sorel, their missionaries with them, and hymns were
v_v_ suDg in almost as many dialects as there were nations.
1757 On the sixth day, as they discerned the battlements
of Ticonderoga, the fleet arranged itself in order, and
two hundred canoes, filled with braves, each nation
with its own pennons, in imposing regularity, swept
over the smooth waters of Champlain, to the landing-
place of the fortress. Ticonderoga rung with the
voices of thousands ; and the martial airs of France,
and shouts in the many tongues of the red men, re-
sounded among the rocks and forests and mountains.
The Christian mass, too, was chanted solemnly ; and
to the Abenaki converts, seated reverently, in decor-
ous silence, on the ground, the priest urged the duty
of honoring Christianity by their example, in the pre-
sence of so many infidel braves.

It was a season of scarcity in Canada. None had
been left unmolested to plough and plant ; the miser-
able inhabitants had no bread. But small stores were
collected for the army. They must conquer speedily
or disband. " On such an expedition," said Montcalm
to his officers, " a blanket and a bearskin are the
warrior's couch. Do like me, with cheerful good-
will. The soldier's allowance is enough for us." *

During the short period of preparation, the parti-
sans were active. Marin brought back his two hun-
dred men from the skirts of Fort Edward, with the
pomp of a triumphant warrior. M He did not amuse
himself with making piisoners," said Montcalm, on
seeing but one captive ; 2 and the red men yelled for
joy as they counted in the canoes two-and-forty scalps
of Englishmen.

1 Montcalm's Circular to his Of- 9 Montcalm to Vaudreuil, 27
ficers, 25 July, 1757. July, 1757.

TITE WHIG AEISTOCUACY CANNOT CONQUER CANADA. 261

The Ottawas resolved to humble the arrogance of ciiap
the American boatmen ; and they lay hid in ambuscades v^^-L
all the twenty-third of July, and all the following night. 1757.
At. daybreak of the twenty-fourth, Palmer was seen on
the lake in command of two-and-twenty barges. The
Indians rushed on his party suddenly, terrified them
by their yells, and, after killing many, took one hun-
dred and sixty prisoners. "To-morrow or next day,"
said the captives, " General Webb will be at the fort
with fresh troops." " No matter," said Montcalm ;
" in less than twelve days I will have a good story to
tell about them." From the timid Webb there was
nothing to fear. He went, it is true, to Fort William
Henry, but took care to leave again with a large
escort, just in season to avoid its siege.

It is the custom of the Red Man, after success, to
avoid the further chances of war and hurry home.
"To remain now," said the Ottawas, "would be
to tempt the Master of life." * But Montcalm, after
the boats and canoes had, without oxen or horses,
by main strength, been borne up to Lake George,
held on the plain above the portage one general coun-
cil of union. All the tribes from the banks of
Michigan and Superior to the borders of Acadia,
were present, seated on the ground according to their
rank, and, in the name of Louis the Fifteenth, Mont-
calm produced the mighty belt of six thousand shells,
which, being solemnly accepted, bound all by the ho-
liest ties to remain together till the end of the expe-
dition. The belt was given to the Iroquois, as the
most numerous ; but they courteously transferred it to
the upper nations, who came, though strangers, to

1 Bougainville to the minister, 19 August, 1757.

262

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, their aid. In the scarcity of boats, the Iroquois
_,_, agreed to guide De Levi, with twenty-five hundred
1757. men, by land, through the rugged country which they
called their own.

The Christian savages employed their short leisure
at the confessional ; the tribes from above, restlessly
weary, dreamed dreams, consulted the great medicine-
men, and, hanging up the complete equipment of a
war-chief as an offering to their Manitou, embarked
on the last day of July.

The next day, two hours after noon, Montcalm
followed with the main body of the army, in two
hundred and fifty boats. The Indians, whom he
overtook, preceded him in their decorated canoes.
Rain fell in torrents ; yet they rowed nearly all the
night, till they came in sight of the three trian-
gular fires, that, from a mountain ridge, pointed to
the encampment of De Levi. There, in Ganousky,
or, as some call it, Northwest Bay, they held a
council of war, and then, writh the artillery, they
moved slowly to a bay, of which the point could not
be turned without exposure to the enemy. An hour
before midnight, two English boats were descried on
the lake, when some of the upper Indians paddled
two canoes to attack them, and with such celerity,
that one of the boats was seized and overpowered.
Two prisoners being reserved, the rest were massa-
cred. The Indians lost but one warrior, a great
chieftain of the nation of the Nepisings.

On the morning of the second day of August, the
savages dashed openly upon the water, and, forming
across the lake a chain of their bark canoes, they
made the bay resound with their war-cry. The Eng-
lish were taken almost by surprise. Their tents still

TOE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT CONQUER CANADA. 263

covered the plains. Montcalm disembarked without chap.

XI

interruption, about a mile and a half below the fort, v_^_
and advanced in three columns. The Indians hurried 1757.
to burn the barracks of the English,, to chase their
cattle and horses, to scalp their stragglers. During
the day they occupied, with Canadians under La Corne,
the road leading to the Hudson, and cut off the com-
munication. At the north was the encampment of
De Levi, with regulars and Canadians ; while Mont-
calm, with the main body of the army, occupied
the skirt of the wood, on the west side of the lake.
His whole force consisted of six thousand French and
Canadians, and about seventeen hundred Indians.
Fort William Henry was defended by Lieutenant-
Colonel Monro,1 of the thirty-fifth regiment, a brave
officer and a man of strict honor, with less than five
hundred men, while seventeen hundred men lay in-
trenched near his side, on the eminence to the south-
east, now marked by the ruins of Fort George.

Meantime, the braves of the Nepisings, faithful to
the rites of their fathers, celebrated the funereal
honors of their departed brother. The lifeless frame,
dressed as became a war-chief, glittered with belts,
and ear-rings, and the brilliant vermilion; a riband,
fiery red, supported a gorget on his breast ; the tom-
ahawk was in his girdle, the pipe at his lips, the lance
in his hand, at his side the well-filled bowl ; and thus
the departed warrior sat upright on the green turf,
which was his death-couch. The speech for the dead
was pronounced ; the death-dances and chants began ;
the murmurs of human voices mingled with the sound
of drums and the tinkling of little bells. And thus

1 Captain Christie to Governor Pownall> 10 August, 1757.

264

THE AMEKICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, arrayed, in a sitting posture, he was consigned to the
^__^ earth, well provided with food, and surrounded by
1757. the splendors which delighted him when alive.1

On the fourth of August, the French summoned
Monro to surrender ; but the gallant old soldier sent
an answer of defiance. Montcalm hastened his works ;
the troops dragged the artillery over rocks and
through the forests, and with alacrity brought fascines
and gabions. The red men, unused to a siege, were
eager to hear the big guns. Soon, the first battery,
of nine cannon and two mortars, was finished ; and,
amidst the loud screams of the savages, it began to
play, while a thousand echoes were returned by the
mountains. In two days more, a second was estab-
lished, and, by means of the zigzags, the Indians could
stand within gun-shot of the fortress. Just then ar-
rived letters from France conferring on Montcalm the
red riband, with rank as knight commander of the
order of St. Louis. " We are glad," said the red men,
" of the favor done you by the great Onontio ; but we
neither love you nor esteem you the more for it ; we
love the man, and not what hangs on his outside."
"Webb, at Fort Edward, had an army of four thousand,
and might have summoned the militia from all the
near villages to the rescue. He sent nothing but a
letter, with an exaggerated account of the French
force, and his advice to capitulate. Montcalm inter-
cepted the letter, which he immediately forwarded to
Monro. Yet, not till the eve of the festival of St.
Lawrence, when half his guns were burst, and his
ammunition was almost exhausted, did the dauntless
veteran hang out a flag of truce.

Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses.

THE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT CONQUER CANADA. 265

With, a view to make the capitulation inviolably chap.
binding on the Indians, Montcalm summoned their war- ^^
chiefs to council. The English were to depart with 1757.
the honors of war, on a pledge not to serve against
the French for eighteen months ; they were to aban-
don all but their private effects; an escort was to
attend them on their departure ; every Canadian or
French Indian made captive during the war was to be
liberated. The Indians applauded ; the capitulation
was signed. Late on the ninth of August, the French
entered the fort, and the English retired to their
intrenched camp.

Montcalm had kept from the savages all intoxicat-
ing drinks, but they solicited and obtained them of
the English, and all night long they were wild with
dances and songs and revelry. The Abenakis of
Acadia excited the angry passions of other tribes, by
recalling the sorrows they had suffered from English
perfidy and English power. At daybreak, they
gathered round the intrenchments, and, as the terrified
English soldiers filed off, began to plunder them, and
incited one another to swing the tomahawk recklessly.
Twenty, perhaps even thirty, persons were massacred,
while very many were made prisoners. Officers and
soldiers, stripped of every thing, fled to the woods, to
the fort, to the tents of the French. To arrest the
disorder, De Levi plunged into the tumult, daring
death a thousand times. French officers received
wounds in rescuing the captives, and stood at their
tents as sentries over those they had recovered. " Kill
me," cried Montcalm, using prayers, and menaces, and
promises ; u but spare the English, who are under my
protection ;" * and he urged the troops to defend

1 Montcalm to the Minister, 8 Sept., 1757.

266 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, themselves. The march to Fort Edward was a flight i

^^ not more than six hundred reached there in a body.

1757. From the French camp Montcalm collected together

more than four hundred, who were dismissed with

great escort, and he sent De Vaudreuil to ransoi

those whom the Indians had carried away.1

After the surrender of Fort William Henry, tl
savages retired. Twelve hundred men were employed
to demolish the fort, and nearly a thousand to lade
the vast stores that had been given up. As Mont-
calm withdrew, he praised his happy fortune, that his
victory was, on his own side, almost bloodless, his loss
in killed and wounded being but fifty-three. The
Canadian peasants returned to gather their harvests,
and the Lake resumed its solitude. Nothing told that
civilized man had reposed upon its margin, but the
charred rafters of ruins, and here and there, on the
side hill, a crucifix among the pines to mark a grave.9

Pusillanimity pervaded the English camp. Webb
at Fort Edward, with six thousand men, was expect-,
ing to be attacked every minute. He sent his own
baggage to a place which he deemed secure ; and
wished to retreat to the highlands on the Hudson.
" For God's sake," wrote the officer in command at
Albany, to the governor of Massachusetts, " exert
yourselves to save a province ; New York itself may
fall ; * save a country ; prevent the downfall of the

1 Montcalm to Loudoun, 14 Au- of the War, 82-85. — French Ac-
gust, 1757. Journal de l'Expedi- counts in New York Paris Docn-
tion, &c, &c. ments, xiii. — Compare Smith's New

2 M; moires sur Canada. — Lettres York. Uoyt's -Antiquarian Ke-

Edifiantes et Curieuses.— Corres- searches. — Dwight's Travels,

pondeuce of A. Colden. II. Sharpe 3 Capt. Christie to Gov. Pownall,

and others. — Knox's Journal. — Ro- 10 August, 1757.

gers's Journal. Mante's History

THE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT CONQLER CANADA. 267

British government upon this continent."1 Pownall chap
>rdered the inhabitants west of Connecticut Kiver _yW
o destroy their wheel-carriages and drive in their 1757.
•attle. Loudoun proposed to encamp on Long Island,
or the defence of the continent. Every day it was
said, " My Lord Loudoun goes soon to Albany," and
'till each day found him at New York. u We have a
ijreat number of troops," said even royalists, " but
he inhabitants on the frontier will not be one jot the
;afer for them."

The English had been driven from every cabin in
;he basin of the Ohio; Montcalm had destroyed
very vestige of their power within that of the St.
Lawrence. France had her posts on each side of the
Lakes, and at Detroit, at Mackinaw, at Kaskaskia, and
it New Orleans. The two great valleys of the Mis-
sissippi and the St. Lawrence were connected chiefly
oy three well known routes, — by way of Waterford
oo Fort Duquesne, by way of the Maumee to the
Wabash, and by way of Chicago to the Illinois. Of
:he North American continent, the French claimed,
ind seemed to possess, twenty parts in twenty-five,
leaving four only to Spain, and but one to Britain.
Their territory exceeded that of the English twenty-
bid. As the men composing the garrison at Fort
Loudoun, in Tennessee, were but so many hostages in
:he hands of the Cherokees, the claim of France to
;he valleys of the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence
leemed established by possession.

America and England were humiliated. They
i onged to avenge themselves ; yet, Sharpe, of Mary-
land, made the apology of the "viceroy," approved

1 Capt. Christie to Gov. Pownall, 11 August, 1757.

in

:

268 THE AMEBIC AN REVOLUTION.

chap, his system, and again and again nrged taxation I
^^L, parliament. From every royal province complain
1757. Laving the same tendency were renewed. FromN(
Hampshire, Wentworth wrote that M the prerogati
of the crown was treated with contempt; the roj
commission and instructions were rendered useless
"the members of both houses were all become Con
monwealth's men." * There were not royalists enoug
in New Hampshire to form a council. " I cannot pr<
vail with this republican assembly," said Dobbs, c
North Carolina, " to submit to instructions. If the;
raise the money, they name the persons for publi
service."2 William Smith, the semi-republican histc
rian of New York, insisted that " the Board of Trad'
did not know the state of America," and he urged s {
law for an American union with an American parlia _
ment. " The defects of the first plan," said he, " wil
be supplied by experience. The British constitutioi
ought to be the model ; and, from our knowledge o
its faults, the American one may rise with more healtl
and soundness in its first contexture than Great Britaii
will ever enjoy."

But Loudoun still adhered to the plan of over
awing colonial assemblies by a concentrated military
power. Recruiting officers from Nova Scotia, asking
the justices of peace at Boston to quarter and billet
them, as provided by the British mutiny act, were
refused ; for the act, it was held, did not extend to
America; and the general, in November, demanded
immediate submission. " He would prevent the whole
continent from being thrown into confusion." " I have
ordered," these were the words of his message, u I

1 Wentworth to Lords of Trade, 2 Dobbs to Lords of Trade, 26
Oct., 1757. Dec, 1757.

THE WHIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT CONQUER CANADA. 260

lave ordered the messenger to wait but forty-eight chap
lours in Boston ; and if, on his return, I find things _^_
lot settled, I will instantly order into Boston the 1757.
hive regiments from New York, Long Island, and
Connecticut ; and if more are wanted, I have two in
lie Jerseys at hand, besides three in Pennsylvania."

Yet Loudoun yielded to the view of Massachu-
setts; and the Assembly and Council, won by the
•omlescension, allowed Thomas Hutchinson, then of
he Council, to draft for them a memorable message,
n which he recommended himself by introducing the
loctrines of the Board of Trade. " Our dependence
>n the parliament of Great Britain," thus ran the
tate paper, " we never had a desire or thought of
essening." " The authority of all acts of parliament,
vhich extend to the colonies, is ever acknowledged in
ill the courts of law, and made the rule of all judicial
oroceedings in the province. There is not a member
)f the General Court, and we know no inhabitant
^vithin the bounds of the government, that ever ques-
tioned this authority." And the principles of inde-
pendence imputed to them by Loudoun they utterly
lisavowed. Yet the opinion in the provinces was
^ery general, that the war was conducted by a mix-
ture of ignorance and cowardice. They believed that
^hey were able to defend themselves against the
Trench and Indians without any assistance or embar-
rassments from England. " Oh that we had nothing
.-o do with Great Britain forever," was then the wish
)f John Adams in his heart.1

Everywhere the royal officers actively asserted the
authority of the king and the British nation over

1 John Adams to George Alex. Otis, 19 Feb., 1822. Jay's Jay,
i. 416.

1

3

-70 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap America. Did tlie increase of population lead t
^,-^ legislatures to enlarge the representative body? T
17 57. right to do so was denied, and representation was
to be a privilege conceded by the king as a boon,
limited by his will. Did the British commander
lieve that the French colonies through the neutr
islands derived provisions from the continent ? E
his own authority he proclaimed an embargo in evei
American port. Did South Carolina, by its Assei
bly, institute an artillery company ? Lyttleton inte
posed his veto, for there should be no compan
formed but by the regal commission. By another ac
the same Assembly made provision for quarterin
soldiers, introducing into the law the declarator
clause, that " no soldier should ever be billeted anion j
them." This, also, Lyttleton negatived ; and but fc -
the conciliatory good temper of Bouquet, who con
manded at Charleston, the province would have bee
inflamed by the peremptory order which came fror
Loudoun to grant billets under the act of parliamem

Thus did the government of the English aristc
cracy paralyze the immense energies of the Britisl
empire. In the North, Russia had been evoked fron
the steppes of Asia to be the arbiter of Germany. Ii
the Mediterranean Sea, Minorca was lost ; for Hanover
Cumberland had acceded to a shameful treaty of neu
trality ; in America, England had been driven fron
the valley of the Mississippi and the whole basin oJ
the St. Lawrence with its tributary lakes and rivers.

And yet sentence had been passed upon the mo-
narchy of feudalism. The enthusiast Swedenborg
had announced that its day of judgment was come,
The English aristocracy, being defeated, summoned to

THE WIIIG ARISTOCRACY CANNOT CONQUER CANADA. 271

their aid, not, indeed, the power of the people, but, at chap
t, influence with the people, in the person of Wil- ^^L,
iiam Pitt. A private man in England, in middle life, 1757.
with no fortune, with no party, with no strong family
connections, having few votes under his sway in the
House of Commons, and perhaps not one in the House
of Lords, — a feeble valetudinarian, shunning pleasure
and society, haughty and retired, and half his time
disabled by the agonies of hereditary gout, was now
the hope of the English world. Assuming power, as
with the voice of an archangel, he roused the states of
Protestantism to wage a war for mastery against the
despotic monarchy and the institutions of the Middle
Ages, and to secure to humanity its futurity of free-
dom. Protestantism is not humanity ; its name implies
a party struggling to throw off some burdens of the
past, and ceasing to be a renovating principle when
its protest shall have succeeded. It was now for the
last time, as a political element, summoned to appear
upon the theatre of the nations, to control their
alliances, and to perfect its triumph by leaving no oc-
casion for its reappearance in arms. Its final victo-
rious struggle preceded the reddening in the sky of
the morning of a new civilization. Its last war was
first in the series of the great wars of revolution that
founded for the world of mankind the power of the
people.

CHAPTER XII.

THE NEW TROTESTANT POWERS AGAINST THE CATHOLIC POWEi
OF THE MIDDLE AGE— WILLIAM PITTS MINISTRY.

1757.

CHAP.
XII.

" The orator is vastly well provided for," thoug
Bedford, in 1746, on tlie appointment of Willia
1757. Pitt to a subordinate office of no political influence.
" I assure your grace of my warmest gratitude," wrot
Pitt himself, in 1750, to Newcastle, who falsely pr
tended to have spoken favorably of him to the king ;
and now, in defiance of Bedford and Newcastle, and
the antipathy of the king, he is become the foremos
man in England, received into the ministry as i
" guide," because he alone was the choice of the pe
pie, and, by his greatness of soul and commanding el
quence, could restore the state.

On his dismissal in April, no man had the bar
hood to accept his place. A storm of indignatio
burst from the nation. To Pitt and to Legge, who ha
also opposed the Russian treaty, London, with man
other cities, voted its freedom ; unexampled disc on
tent pervaded the country. Newcastle, whose pusi
lanimity exceeded his vanity, dared not attempt form
ing a ministry ; and by declining to do so, renewe

:

THE PROTESTANT POWERS AGAINST THE CATHOLIC. 273

his confession that the government of Great Britain chap.
could no longer be administered by a party, which _^
had for its principle to fight up alike against the king 1757.
and against the people. The inebriate Granville, the
President of the Council, would have infused his
jovial intrepidity into the junto of Fox ; but Fox him-
self was desponding.1 Bedford had his scheme, which
he employed Rigby to establish ; and when it proved
impracticable, indulged himself in reproaches, and the
display of2 anger, and withdrew to Woburn Abbey.
In the midst of war, the country was left to anarchy.
" We are undone," said Chesterfield ; " at home, by
our increasing expenses ; abroad, by ill-luck and inca-
pacity ; " the Elector of Hesse Cassel, the Duke of
Brunswick, destitute of the common honesty of hire-
lings, were in the market to be bid for by the ene-
mies of their lavish employer ; the King of Prussia,
Britain's only ally, seemed overwhelmed, Hanover
reduced, and the French were masters in America.
So dark an hour, so gloomy a prospect, England had
not known during the century.

But the mind of Pitt always inclined to hope.
" I am sure," said he to the Duke of Devonshire,
* I can save this country, and nobody else can."
For eleven weeks England was without a ministry ;
so long was the agony ; so desperate the resistance ;
so reluctant the surrender. At last the king and the
aristocracy were alike compelled to recognise the
ascendency and yield to the guidance of the man
whom the nation trusted and loved. Made wise by
experience, and relying on his own vigor of will for a

1 Walpole's Memoires. 9 Bedford Corr. ii. 245.

VOL. IV. 18

274 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, controlling influence, he formed a ministry from man
^^^ factions. Lord Anson, Hardwicke's son-in-law, took
*757 again the highest seat at the Board of the Admi-
ralty. Fox, who had children, and had wasted his
fortune, accepted the place of paymaster, which the
war made enormously lucrative. Newcastle had pro-
mised Halifax a new office as third secretary of state
for the colonies. " I did not speak about it," was the
duke's apology to him ; " Pitt looked so much out of
humor, I dared not."1 And the disappointed man
railed without measure at the knavery and cow-
ardice of Newcastle.2 But Pitt reconciled him by
leaving him his old post in the Board of Trade, with
all its patronage, adding the dignity of a cabinet
councillor. Henley, afterwards Lord Northington,
became Lord Chancellor, opening the way for Sir
Charles Pratt to be made Attorney-General, and
George Grenville was Treasurer of the Navy. The
illustrious statesman himself, the ablest his country
had seen since Cromwell, whom he surpassed in the
grandeur and in the integrity of his ambition, being
resolved on making England the greatest nation in
the world, and himself its greatest minister, took the
seals of the Southern Department, with the conduct of
the war in all parts of the globe. With few personal
friends, with no considerable party, and an aversion to
the exercise of patronage, he left to Newcastle the
first seat at the Treasury Board, with the disposi-
tion of bishoprics, petty offices, and contracts, and the
management of "all the classes of venality."3 At
that day, the good will of the people was, in England,

1 Podington's Diary, 208. 9 Almon's Biographical Aneo-

* Rigby to Bedford, 18 June, dotes, iii. 362
1757, in Bedford's Corr. ii. 249.

,

THE PROTESTANT POWERS AGAINST THE CATTIOLIC. 275

the most uncertain tenure of office ; for they had no chap.
strength in parliament ; their favorite held his high J^-L,
position at the sufferance of the aristocracy. "I bor- 1757.
row," said Pitt, "the Duke of Newcastle's majority to
carry on the public business."1

The new ministry kissed hands early in July,
1757. "Sire," said the Secretary, "give me your
confidence, and I will deserve it." " Deserve my con-
fidence," replied the king, "and you shall have it;"2
and kept his word. All England applauded the
Great Commoner's elevation. John Wilkes,8 then
just elected member of parliament, promised " steady
support to the measures " of " the ablest minister, as
well as the first character, of the age." Bearing a
message from Leicester House, " Thank God," wrote
Bute, " I see you in office. If even the wreck of this
crown can be preserved to our amiable young prince,
it is to your abilities he must owe it. You have a
soul, that, instead of sinking under adversity, will
rise and grow stronger against it."

But Pitt knew himself called to the ministry
neither by the king, nor by the parliament of the
aristocracy, nor by Leicester House, but "by the
voice of the people ;" and the affairs of the em-
pire were now directed by a man who had de-
manded for his countrymen an uncorrupted repre-
sentation, a prevailing influence in designating min-
isters, and " a supreme service" from the king.
Assuming power, he bent all factions to his authori-
tative will, and made " a venal age unanimous."
The energy of his mind was the spring of his elo-

1 Harris's Life of Hardwicke, iii. 8 Chatham Correspondence, i.

150. 240.

* Almon's Anecdotes, i. 229.

276 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, quence. His presence was inspiration ; he himself
^^L, was greater than his speeches. Others have uttered
1757. thoughts of beauty and passion, of patriotism and
courage ; none by words accomplished deeds like him.
His voice resounded throughout the world, impelling
the servants of the British state to achievements of
glory on the St. Lawrence and along the Ganges.
Animated by his genius, a corporation for trade did
what Rome had not dreamed of, and a British mer-
chant's clerk made conquests as rapidly as other men
make journeys, resting his foot in permanent triumph
where Alexander of Macedon had faltered. Ruling
with unbounded authority the millions of free minds
whose native tongue was his own, with but one con-
siderable ally on the European continent, with no re-
sources in America but from the good-will of the colo-
nies, he led forth the England which had planted pop-
ular freedom along the western shore of the Atlantic,
the England which was still the model of liberty, to en-
counter the whole force of the despotisms of Catholic
Europe, and defend " the common cause" against what
he called "the most powerful and malignant confe-
deracy that ever threatened the independence of man-
kind."1

The contest', which had now spread into both hem-
ispheres, began in America. The English colonies,
dragging England into their strife, claimed to advance
their frontiers, and to include the great central valley
of the continent in their system. The American
question, therefore, was, Shall the continued coloniza-

1 Chatham Corr., i. 226.

THE PKOTESTANT POWERS AGAINST THE CATHOLIC. 277

fcion of North America be made under the auspices of chap

XII

English Protestantism and popular liberty, or shall ^^i,
the tottering legitimacy of France, in its connection 1757.
with Koman Catholic Christianity, win for itself new
empire in that hemisphere ? The question of the Eu-
ropean continent was, Shall a Protestant revolution-
ary kingdom, like Prussia, be permitted to rise up
and grow strong within its heart ? Considered in its
unity, as interesting mankind, the question was,
Shall the Eeformation, developed to the fulness of
Free Inquiry, succeed in its protest against the Mid-
dle Age ?

The war that closed in 1748 had been a mere
scramble for advantages, and was sterile of results ;
the present conflict, which was to prove a Seven
Years' War, was an encounter of parties, of reform
against the unreformed ; and this was so profoundly
true, that all the predilections or personal antipathies
of sovereigns and ministers could not prevent the al-
liances, collisions, and results necessary to make it so.
George the Second, who was also sovereign of Han-
over, in September, 1755, contracted with Russia for
the defence of that electorate ; but Russia, which was
neither Catholic nor Protestant, tolerant in religion,
though favoring absolutism in government, could
not be relied upon by either party, and passed alter-
nately from one camp to the other. England, the
most liberal Protestant kingdom, had cherished inti-
mate relations with Austria, the most legitimate Ca-
tholic power, and, to strengthen the connection, had
scattered bribes, with open hands, to Mayence, Co-
logne, Bavaria, the Count Palatine, to elect Joseph
the Second King of the Romans. And all the while,
Austria was separating itself from its old ally, and

278 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, forming a confederacy of the Catholic powers ; whi]
^^ George the Second, though he personally disliked his
1757. nephew, Frederic, was driven irresistibly to lean on
his friendship.

A deep, but perhaps unconscious, conviction of
approaching decrepitude bound together the legiti-
mate Catholic sovereigns. In all Europe, there was a
striving after reform. Men were grown weary of the
superstitions of the Middle Age ; of idlers and beg-
gars, sheltering themselves in sanctuaries ; of hopes of
present improvement suppressed by the anxious ter-
rors of hell and purgatory ; the countless monks and
priests, whose vows of celibacy tempted to licentious-
ness. The lovers and upholders of the past desired a
union among the governments that rested upon medi-
aeval traditions. For years had it been whispered
that the House of Austria should unite itself firmly
with the House of Bourbon ;* and now the Empress
Maria Theresa, herself a hereditary queen, a wife and
a mother, religious even to bigotry, by an autograph
letter caressed endearingly the Marchioness de Pom-
padour, once the French king's mistress, now the pro-
curess of his pleasures, to win her influence for the
alliance. Kaunitz, the minister who alone had her
confidence, a man who concealed political sagacity and
an inflexible will under the semblance of luxurious
ease, won favor as ambassador at the court of Ver-
sailles by his affectations and his prodigal expense.
And in May, 1756, that is, in the two hundred
and eightieth year of the jealous strife between the
Houses of Hapsburg and of Capet, France and Aus-

1 Sir Charles Hanbury Williams August, 1747, in Appendix to Wal-
to a private friend. Dresden, 27 pole's Memoires, ii. 474.

THE PROTESTANT POWERS AGAINST THE CATHOLIC. 279

fcria put aside their ancient rivalry, and joined to de- chap.
fend the Europe of the Middle Age, with its legiti- ^^
mate despotisms, its aristocracies, and its ecclesiastical 1757.
powers, against Protestantism and the encroachments
of free inquiry.

Among the rulers of the European continent, Fre-
deric, with but four millions of subjects, stood forth
alone, " the unshaken bulwark of Protestantism and
freedom of thought." * His kingdom itself was the
offspring of the Reformation, in its origin revolutionary
and Protestant. His father — whose palace life was
conducted with the economy and simplicity of the
German middle class, — at whose evening entertain-
ments a wooden chair, a pipe, and a mug of beer were
placed for each of the guests that assembled to discuss
politics with their prince,2 — harsh as a parent, severe
as a master, despotic as a sovereign — received with
painfully scrupulous piety every article of the Lutheran
creed and every form of its worship. His son, who
inherited an accumulated treasure and the best army
in Europe, publicly declared his opinion, that, " politi-
cally considered, Protestantism was the most desirable
religion ;" 8 that " his royal electoral house, without
one example of apostasy, had professed it for centu-
ries ;" and Protestantism saw in him its champion.
As the contest advanced, the fervent Clement the
Thirteenth commemorated an Austrian victory over
Prussia by the present of a consecrated cap and

1 Daum's Denkwiirdigkeiten, iv. 8 Schlosser, i. 249, 252.
387. Politz: Umriss des Preus- 3 Preuss: Leben Friedrichll., L
sischen Staates, 195, 210, 237, 242. 105, 106.
Schlosser's Gescliichte des acht-
zehnten Jabrhunderts, ii. 276

280 THE AMEEICAN REVOLUTION.

>

chap, sword ; * while, in the weekly concerts for prayer

^^ New England, petitions went np for the Prussian hero,

1757 "who had drawn his sword in the cause of religious

liberty, of the Protestant interest, and the liberties of

Europe." " His victories," said Mayhew, of Boston,

" are our own." 8

The Reformation was an expression of the right of
the human intellect to freedom. The same principle
was active in France, where philosophy panted for
liberty ; where Massillon had hinted that kings are
chosen for the welfare of the people ; and Voltaire, in
the empire of letters, marshalled hosts against priest-
craft. Monarchy, itself, was losing its sanctity. The
Bourbons had risen to the throne through the frank
and generous Henry the Fourth, who, in the sports of
childhood, played barefoot and bareheaded with the
peasant boys on the mountains of Beam. The cradle
of Louis the Fifteenth was rocked in the pestilent
atmosphere of the Regency ; his tutor, when from the
palace-windows he pointed out the multitudes, had
said to the royal child, u Sire, this people is yours ;"
and as he grew old in profligate sensuality, he joined
the mechanism of superstition with the maxims of
absolutism, mitigating his dread of hell by the belief,
that Heaven is indulgent to the licentiousness of kings.
In France, therefore, there was no alliance between the
government and liberal opinion, and that opinion
migrated from Versailles to the court of Prussia. The
renovating intelligence of France declared against

1 (Euvres Posthumes de Fred. Mayhew, 20, 22, 23. Too much at-

II., iii. 343, 344. Ranke: Ges- tention has been given to the pos-

chichte der Papste, iv. 192, 193. thumous calumnies in which Vol-

8 Boston Evening Post, 27 June, taire exhaled his suppressed malice

1757. and spleen. In point of character

8 Sermon of Cooper, of Boston, Voltaire was vastly inferior to Fre-

24. Two Discourses by Jonathan deric.

TIIE PKOTESTANT POWERS AGAINST THE CATIIOLIC. 281

Louis the Fifteenth and his system ; and, awaiting a chap.
better summons for its perfect sympathy, saw in Fre- w^_
deric the present hero of light and reason. Thus the 1757.
subtle and pervading influence of the inquisitive mind
of France was arrayed with England, Prussia, and
America, that is, with Protestantism, philosophic free-
dom, and the nascent democracy, in their struggle with
the conspiracy of European prejudice and legitimacy,
of priestcraft and despotism.

The centre of that conspiracy was the empress of
Austria with the apostate Elector of Saxony, who was
king of Poland. Aware of the forming combination,
Frederic resolved to attack his enemies before they
were prepared ; and in August, 1756, he invaded
Saxony, took Dresden, blockaded the Elector's army
at Pirna, gained a victory over the imperial forces that
were advancing for its relief, and closed the campaign
in the middle of October, by compelling it to
capitulate. In the following winter, the alliances
against him were completed ; and not Saxony only,
and Austria, with Hungary, but the German empire,
half the German States, — Russia, not from motives of
public policy, but from a woman's caprice, — Sweden,
subservient to the Catholic powers through the de-
grading ascendency of its nobility, — France, as the
ally of Austria, — more than half the continent, took
up arms against Frederic, who had no allies in the
South, or East, or North, and in the West none but
Hanover, with Hesse and Brunswick. And as for
Spain, not even the offer from Pitt of the conditional
restitution of Gibraltar,1 and the evacuation of all
English establishments on the Mosquito Shore and in

1 Pitt to Keene, 28 Aug., 1757. Chat. Corr., i. 249.

282 THE AMEBIC AN EE VOLUTION.

shap. the Bay of Honduras, nor any consideration what*
^^^ ever, could move the Catholic monarch " to draw the
1757. sword in favor of heretics." *

May. As spring opened, Frederic hastened to meet the

Austrian army in Bohemia. They retired, under the
command of Charles of Lorraine, abandoning well
stored magazines, and, in May, 1757, for the preserva-
tion of Prague, risked a battle under its walls. After
terrible carnage, the victory remained with Frederic,
who at once framed the most colossal design that ever
entered the mind of a soldier, — to execute against
Austria a series of measures like those against Saxony
at Pirna, to besiege Prague and compel the army of
Charles of Lorraine to surrender. But the cautious

June. Daun, a man of high birth, esteemed by the empress
queen and beloved by the Catholic Church, pressed
slowly forward to raise the siege. Dazzled by hope,
Frederic, leaving a part of his army before Prague,
went forth with the rest to attack the Austrian com-
mander, and, on the eighteenth of June, attempted to
storm his intrenchments on the heights of Colin.
His brave battalions w^ere repelled with disastrous
loss. Left almost unattended, as he gazed at the
spectacle, " "Will you carry the battery alone V de-
manded one of his lieutenants; on which, the hero
rode calmly towards the left wing and ordered a
retreat.

The refined, but feeble, August William, Prince of
Prussia, had remained at Prague. " All men are
children of one father ;" thus Frederic had once re-
proved his pride of birth ; " all are members of one

1 Keene to Pitt, 26 Sept., 1757. Chat. Corr., i. 271.

THE PROTESTANT POWERS AGAINST THE CATHOLIC. 283

family, and, for all your pride, are of equal birth, and chap
of the same blood. Would you stand above them ? .L^L,
Then excel them in humanity, gentleness, and virtue." 1757
At heart opposed to the cause of mankind, the Prince
had, from the first, urged his brother to avoid the
war ; and at this time, when drops of bitterness were
falling thickly into the hero's cup, he broke out into pu-
sillanimous complaints, advising a shameful peace, by
concession to Austria. But Frederic's power was now
first to appear ; as victory fell aAvay from him, he stood
alone before his fellow-men, in unconquerable great-
ness.

Eaising the siege of Prague, he conducted the
retreat of one division of his army into Saxony with-
out loss ; the other the Prince of Prussia led in a
manner contrary to the rules of war and to common
sense, and more disastrous than the loss of a pitched
battle. Frederic censured the dereliction harshly ; in
that day of disaster, he would not tolerate a failure of
duty, even in the heir to the throne.1

The increasing dangers became terrible. " I am July,
resolved," wrote Frederic, in July, " to save my
country or perish." Colin became the war-cry ot
French and Russians, of Swedes and Imperialists; a
Russian army invaded his dominions on the east ; the
Swedes from the north threatened Pomerania and
Berlin ; a vast army of the French was concentrating
itself at Erfurt for the recovery of Saxony ; while
Austria, recruited by Bavaria and Wurtemberg, was
conquering Silesia. " The Prussians will win no more
victories," wrote the queen of Poland. Death at this

1 The royalist writers make an the vain and mean-spirited Prince
outcry against Frederic for his jus- of Prussia the honors of martyr-
tice on this occasion ; and award to dom.

284 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, moment took from Frederic his mother, whom he

XII.

^-r-L, loved most tenderly. A few friends remained faithful

1757. to him, cheering him by their correspondence. " 0,

that Heaven had heaped all ills on me alone !" said

his affectionate sister ; " I would have borne thei

with firmness."

Aug. Having vainly attempted to engage the enemy in

Silesia in a pitched battle, Frederic repaired to the
West, to encounter the united army of the Imperial-
ists and French. " I can leave you no large garrison,"
was his message to Fink at Dresden ; u but be of good
cheer ; to keep the city will do you vast honor." On
his way, he learns that the Austrians have won a vic-

Sept. tory over Winterfeld and Bevern, his generals in
Silesia, that Winterfeld had fallen, that Bevern had
retreated to the lake near Breslau, and was opposed
by the Austrians at Lissa. On the eighth of Sep-
tember, the day after the great disaster in Silesia, the
Duke of Cumberland, having been defeated and com-
pelled to retire, signed for his army and for Hanover
a convention of neutrality.1 " Here," said George the
Second, on meeting the Duke, " is my son, who has
ruined me and disgraced himself." Voltaire advised
Frederic to imitate Cumberland. " If every string
breaks," wrote Frederic to the Duke Ferdinand
of Brunswick, "throw yourself into Magdeburg.
Situated as we are, we must persuade ourselves that
one of us is worth four others." Morning dawned on
new miseries ; 2 night came without a respite to his
cares. He spoke serenely of the path to eternal rest,
and his own resolve to live and die free. " O my

1 CEuvres de Fred. II., iii. 132, s Epitre au Marquis d'Argona
183. CEuvres vii. 176, 178, 180.

THE PROTESTANT POWERS AGAINST THE CATHOLIC. 285

»

beloved people," lie exclaimed, " my wishes live but chap.
for you ; to you belongs every drop of my blood, and s^^
from my heart I would gladly give my life for my 1757.
country." And, reproving the meanness of spirit of
Voltaire, " I am a man," he wrote, in October, in the Oct.
moment of intensest danger ; " born, therefore, to
suffer ; to the rigor of destiny I oppose my own con-
stancy ; menaced with shipwreck, I will breast the
tempest, and think, and live, and die, as a sovereign."
In a week, Berlin itself was in the hands of his enemies.

When, on the fourth of November, after various Nov.
changes of position, the king of Prussia, with but
twenty-one thousand six hundred men, resumed his
encampment on the heights of Rossbach, the Prince
de Rohan Soubise, who commanded the French and
Imperial army of more than sixty-four thousand, was
sure of compelling him to surrender. On the morn-
ing of the fifth, the combined forces marched in flank
to cut off his retreat. From the battlements of the
old castle of Rossbach, Frederic gazed on their move-
ment ; his sagacity, at a glance, penetrated their de-
sign ; and, obeying the flush of his exulting mind, he
on the instant made his dispositions for an attack.
" Forward !" he cried, at half-past two ; at three, not
a Prussian remained in the village. He seemed to
retreat towards Merseburg; but, concealed by the
high land of Reichertswerben, the chivalrous Seidlitz,
with the Prussian cavalry, having turned the right
of the enemy, planted his cannon on an eminence.
Through the low ground beneath him, they were
marching in columns, in eager haste, their cavalry in
front and at a distance from their infantry. A mo-
ment's delay, an inch of ground gained, and they
'would have come into line. But Seidlitz and his

286 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, cavalry on their right, eight battalions of infantry on
w^^. their left, with orders precise and exactly executed,
175 7. bore down impetuously on the cumbrous columns, and
routed them before they could form, and even before
the larger part of the Prussian infantry could fire a
shot. That victory at Rossbach gave to Prussia the
consciousness of its existence as a nation.

To his minister Frederic sent word of this be^in-
ning of success ; but far u more was necessary." He
had but obtained freedom to seek new dangers ; and,
hastening to relieve Schweidnitz, he wrote to a
friend, " This, for me, has been a year of horror ; to
save the state, I dare the impossible." But already
Schweidnitz had surrendered. On the twenty-second
of November, Prince Bevern was surprised and taken
prisoner, with a loss of eight thousand men. His
successor in the command retreated to Glogau. On
the twenty-fourth, Breslau was basely given up, and
nearly all its garrison entered the Austrian service.
Silesia seemed restored to Maria Theresa. "Does
hope expire," said Frederic, "the strong man must
stand distinguished." Treachery, the despair of his
army, midwinter in a severe clime, the repeated disas-
ters of his generals, could not move him.

Not till the second day of December did the
Dec. drooping army from Glogau join the king. Every
power was exerted to revive their confidence. By
degrees, they catch something of his cheerful resolute-
ness ; they share the spirit and the daring of the vic-
tors of Kossbach ; they burn to efface their own igno-
miny. Yet the Austrian army of sixty thousand
men, under Charles of Lorraine and Marshal Daun,
veteran troops and double in number to the Prus-

T1IE PROTESTANT POWERS AGAINST THE CATHOLIC. 287

sians, were advancing, as if to crash them and end chap
the war. " The Marquis of Brandenburg," said Vol- ^^
taire, "will lose his hereditary states, as well as those 1757.
which he has won by conquest."

Assembling his principal officers beneath a beech-
tree, which is still to be seen between Neumarkt and
Leuthen, Frederic addressed them with a gush of
eloquence. "While I was restraining the French
and Imperialists, Charles of Lorraine has succeeded
in conquering Schweidnitz, repulsing Prince Bevern,
mastering Ereslau. A part of Silesia, my capital, my
stores of war, are lost ; my disasters would be ex
treme, had I not a boundless trust in your courage,
firmness, and love of country. There is not one of
you, but has distinguished himself by some great and
honorable deed. The moment for courage has come.
Listen, then ; I am resolved, against all rules of the
art of war, to attack the nearly threefold stronger
army of Charles of Lorraine, wherever I may find it.
There is no question of the number of the enemy, nor
of the strength of their position. We must beat
them, or all of us find our graves before their batte-
ries. Thus I think, thus I mean to act ; announce
my decision to all the officers of my army ; prepare
the privates for the scenes which are at hand; let
them know I demand unqualified obedience. They
are Prussians ; they will not show themselves un-
worthy of the name. Does any one of you fear to
share all dangers with me, he can this day retire ; I
never will reproach him." Then, as the enthusiasm
kindled around him, he added, with a serene smile,
" I know that not one of you will leave me. I rely
on your true aid, and am assured of victory. If I
fall, the country must reward you. Go, tell your

2S8 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, regiments what you have heard from me." And he
added, "The regiment of cavalry which shall not
instantly, at the order, charge, shall be dismounted
and sent into garrisons ; the battalion of infantry that
shall but falter shall lose its colors and its swords.
Now farewell, friends ; soon we shall have vanquished,
or we shall see each other no more."

On the morning of December fifth, at half past
four, the army was in motion, the king in front, the
troops to warlike strains singing,

" Grant, Lord, that we may do with might
That which our hands shall find to do 1"

" With men like these," said Frederic, " God will
give me the victory."

The Austrians were animated by no common
kindling impulse. The Prussians, on that day, moved
as one being, endowed with intelligence, and swayed
by one will. Never did the utmost daring so com-
bine with severe prudence, as in the arrangements of
Frederic. His eye seized every advantage of place,
and his manoeuvres were inspired by the state of his
force and the character of the ground. The hills and
the valleys, the copses and the fallow land, the mists
of morning and the clear light of noon, came to meet
his dispositions, so that nature seemed instinct with
the resolve to conspire with his genius. Never had
orders been so executed as his on that day ; and
never did military genius, in its necessity, so summon
invention to its rescue from despair. His line was
formed to make an acute angle with that of the Aus-
trians ; as he moved forwards, his left wing was kept
disengaged ; his right came in contact with the ene-
my's left, outwinged it, and attacked it in front and

TILE PROTESTANT POWERS AGAINST THE CATHOLIC. 289

flank ; the bodies which Lorraine sent to its support chap.
were defeated successively, before they could form, ^ * ,
and were rolled back in confused masses. Lorraine 1757.
was compelled to change his front for the defence of
Leuthen ; the victorious Prussian army advanced to
continue the attack, now employing its left wing also.
Leuthen was carried by storm, and the Austrians
were driven to retreat, losing more than six thou-
sand in killed and wounded, more than twenty-one
thousand in prisoners. The battle, which began at
half past one, was finished at five. It was the master-
piece of motion and decision, of moral firmness and
warlike genius ; the greatest military deed, thus far,
of the century. That victory confirmed existence to
the country where Kant and Lessing were carrying
free inquiry to the sources of human knowledge.
The soldiers knew how the rescue of their nation
hung on that battle ; and, as a grenadier on the field
of carnage began to sing, " Thanks be to God," the
whole army, in the darkness of evening, standing
amidst thousands of the dead, uplifted the hymn of
praise.

Daun fled into Bohemia, leaving in Breslau a gar-
rison of twenty thousand men. Frederic pressed
forward, and astonished Europe by gaining possession
of that city, reducing Schweidnitz, and recovering all
Silesia. The Russian army, which, under Apraxin,
had won a victory on the northeast, was arrested in
its movements by intrigues at home. Prussia was
saved. In this terrible campaign, two hundred and
sixty thousand men had stood against seven hundred
thousand, and had not been conquered.

VOL. IV. 19

CHAPTER XIII.

CONQUEST OF THE YALLEY OF THE WEST.— WILLIAM PITT'S
MINISTRY CONTINUED.

1757 — 1758.
chap. The Protestant nations compared Frederic to

XIII

^^^ Gustavus Adolphus, as the defender of the Reforma-
1757. tion and of freedom. With a vigor of hope like his
own, Pitt, who, eight days before the battle of Ross-
bach, had authorized Frederic to place Ferdinand of
Brunswick at the head of the English army on the
continent, planned the conquest of the colonies of
France. Consulted through the under secretaries,
Franklin gave full advice on the conduct of the Amer-
ican war, criticised the measures proposed by others,
and recommended and enforced the conquest of
Canada.

In the House of Commons, Lord George Sackville,
a man perplexed in action and without sagacity in
council, of unsound judgment yet questioning every
judgment but his own, restless and opinionated, made
the apology of Loudoun. " Nothing is done, nothing
attempted," said Pitt with vehement asperity. " We
have lost all the waters ; we have not a boat on the
lakes. Every door is open to France." Loudoun

CONQUEST OF THE VALLEY OF THE WEST. 291

was recalled, and added one more to the military of- chap.
ficers, who advised the magisterial exercise of British — , —
authority, and voted in parliament to sustain it by l757
fire and sword.

In 1746 the Duke of Bedford, then at the head of
the admiralty, after considering "the conduct and
principles" of the Northern colonies, had declared
officially that it would be imprudent " to send twenty
thousand colonists to plunder the Canadians and con-
quer their country, on account of the independence it
might create in those provinces, when they should see
within themselves so great an army possessed of so
great a country by right of conquest." He had, there-
fore, advised " to place the chief dependence on the
fleet from England, and to look on the Americans
as useful only when joined with others." But Pitt,
rejecting the coercive policy of his predecessors,
their instructions for a common fund, and their
menaces of taxation by parliament, invited the
New England colonies, and New York, and New
Jersey, each without limit, to raise as many men as
possible, believing them " well able to furnish at least
twenty thousand," for the expedition against Montreal
and Quebec, while Pennsylvania and the southern
colonies were to aid in conquering the West. He
assumed that England should provide arms, am-
munition and tents; he "expected and required"
nothing of the colonists, but u the levying, clothing,
' and pay of the men ; " and for these expenses he prom-
ised that the king should " strongly recommend to
parliament to grant a proper compensation." More-
over, in December, 1757, he obtained the king's order
that every provincial officer of no higher rank than

292 TIIE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, colonel should have equal command with the British.

XIII. . '

^^L according to the date of their respective commissions.

175 8 Pitt was a friend to liberty everywhere, and sought

new guarantees for freedom in England. It was dur-
ing the height of his power, that a bill was carried
through the House of Commons, extending the pro-
visions for awarding the writ of habeas corpus to all
cases of commitment ; and when .the law lords ob-
tained its rejection by the peers, he was but the more
confirmed in his maxim, that " the lawyers are not to
be regarded in questions of liberty." In a like spirit,
Pitt now frowned upon every attempt against the
rights of America. Charles Town.sh.end and others,
ever disposed to cavil at the promise of recompense,
as contrary to their plan of taxation by parliament
and a surrender of authority, were compelled to post-
pone their complaint, that the Americans, in peace
the rivals of England, assumed in war to be allies,
rather than subjects.

Of the designs, secretly maturing at the Board of
Trade by Halifax and Rigby, the colonies were unsus-
picious. The genius of Pitt and his respect for their
rights, the prospect of conquering Canada and the
West, and unbounded anticipations of future great-
ness, roused their most active zeal. In some of them,
especially in New England, their contributions ex-
ceeded a just estimate of their ability. The thrifty
people of Massachusetts disliked a funded debt, and
avoided it by taxation. In addition to the sums ex-
pected from England, their tax, in one year of the
war was, on personal estate, thirteen shillings and
fourpence on the pound of income, and on two hun-
dred pounds income from real estate was seventy-two
pounds, besides various excises and a poll tax of nine-

CONQUEST OF THE VALLEY OF THE WEST. 293

teen shilling on every male over sixteen. Once, in chap

XIII.

1 7.r>9, a colonial stamp-tax was imposed by their legis- ^L

lature. The burden cheerfully borne by Connecticut 175 8.
was similarly heavy.

The Americans, powerful in themselves, were fur-
ther strengthened by an unbroken communication
with England. The unhappy Canadians, who had
not enjoyed repose enough to fill their garners by cul-
tivating their lands, were cut off from regular inter-
course with France. "I shudder," said Montcalm,
in February, 1758, "when I think of provisions.
The famine is very great." "For all our suc-
cess," thus he appealed to the minister, " New
France needs peace, or sooner or later it must
fall ; such are the numbers of the English, such the
difficulty of our receiving supplies." The Canadian
war-parties were on the alert; in March a body
of Iroquois and other Indians waylaid a detachment
of about two hundred rangers in the forests near Fort
Carillon, as the French called Ticonderoga, and
brought back one hundred and forty-six scalps, with
three prisoners, as "living messages." But what
availed such small successes ? In the general dearth,
the soldiers could receive but a half-pound of bread
daily ; the inhabitants of Quebec but two ounces daily.
Words could not describe the misery of the people.
The whole country was almost bare of vegetables,
poultry, sheep, and cattle. In the want of bread and
beef and other necessaries, twelve or fifteen hundred
horses were distributed for food. Artisans and day-
laborers became too weak for toil.

On the recall of Loudoun, Henry Seymour Con-
way desired to be employed in America, but was
refused by the king. Lord George Sackville was

294 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap invited to take the command, but declined. Three
^^ several expeditions were set m motion, lne cir-
175 8. cumspect, impenetrable Jeffrey Amherst, a man oi
solid judgment and respectable ability in action, with
James Wolfe, was to join the fleet under Boscawen,
for the siege of Louisburg; the conquest of the Ohio
valley was intrusted to Forbes ; and against Ticon-
deroga and Crown Point, Abercrombie, a friend 01
Bute, was commander-in-chief, though Pitt selected
the young Lord Howe to be the soul of the enterprise.
None of the officers won favor like Howe and
Wolfe. To high rank and great connections Howe
added manliness, humanity, a capacity to discern
merit, and judgment to employ it. As he reached
America, he adopted the austere simplicity befitting
forest warfare. Wolfe, then thirty-one years old,
had been eighteen years in the army ; was at
Dettingen and Fontenoy, and won laurels at Laf-
feldt. Merit made him at two-and-twenty a lieu-
tenant-colonel, and his active genius improved the
discipline of his battalion. He was at once authorita-
tive and humane, severe yet indefatigably kind ;
modest, but aspiring and conscious of ability. The
brave soldier dutifully loved and obeyed his widowed
mother, and his gentle nature saw visions of happiness
in scenes of domestic love, even while he kindled at
the prospect of glory, as " gunpowder at fire."

On the twenty-eighth day of May, Amherst, after
a most unusually long passage, reached Halifax. The
fleet had twenty-two ships of the line and fifteen
frigates; the army at least ten thousand effective
men. Isaac Barre, who had lingered a subaltern
eleven years till Wolfe, rescued him from hopeless

CONQUEST OF THE VALLEY OF THE WEST. 295

obscurity, was in the expedition as a major of chap
brigade. ^ —

For six days after the British forces, on their way ltJ5is-
from Halifax to Louisburg, had entered Chapeau
Kouge Bay, the surf, under a high wind, made the
rugged shore inaccessible, and gave the French time
to strengthen and extend their lines. The sea still
dashed heavily, when, before daybreak, on the eighth
of June, the troops, under cover of a random fire from
the frigates, attempted disembarking. Wolfe, the
third brigadier, who led the first division, would not
allow a gun to be fired, cheered the rowers, and, on
coining to shoal water, jumped into the sea ; and, in
spite of the surf which broke several boats and upset
more, in spite of the well-directed fire of the French,
in spite of their breast- work and rampart of felled
trees whose interwoven branches made one continued
wall of green, the English reached the land, took the
batteries, drove in the French, and on the same day
invested Louisburg. At that landing, none was more
gallant than Richard Montgomery ; just one-and-
twenty ; Irish by birth ; an humble officer in Wolfe's
brigade ; but also a servant of humanity, enlisted in
its corps of immortals. The sagacity of his com-
mander honored him with well deserved praise and
promotion to a lieutenancy.

On the morning of the twelfth, an hour before
dawn, Wolfe, with light infantry and Highlanders
took by surprise the lighthouse battery on the north
east side of the entrance to the harbor; the smaller
works were successively carried. On the twenty
third, the English battery began to play on that of
the French on the island near the centre of the
mouth of the harbor. Science, sufficient force, union

296 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, among the officers, heroism pervading mariners and

s- . soldiers, carried forward the siege, during whic

175 8. Barre by his conduct secured the approbation o
Amherst and the friendship of Wolfe. Of the
French ships in the port, three were burned on the
twenty-first of July ; in the night following th
twenty-fifth, the boats of the squadron, with small
loss, set fire to the Prudent, a seventy-four, an
carried off the Bienfaisant. Boscawen was prepare
to send six English ships into the harbor. But th
town of Louisburg was already a heap of ruins
for eight days, the French officers and men had
had no safe place for rest; of their fifty-two can
non, forty were disabled. They had now but
five ships of the line and four frigates. It was
time for the Chevalier de Drucour to capitulate.
The garrison became prisoners of war, and, with
the sailors and marines, in all five thousand six
hundred and thirty-seven, were sent to England.
On the twenty-seventh of July, the English too
possession of Louisburg, and, as a consequence, of
Cape Breton and Prince Edward's Island. Thus fell
the power of France on our eastern coast. Halifax
being the English naval station, Louisburg was de-
serted. The harbor still offers shelter from storms ;
the coast repels the surge ; but only a few
hovels mark the spot which so much treasure was
lavished to fortify, so much heroism to conquer.
Wolfe, whose heart was in England, bore home
the love and esteem of the army. The trophies
were deposited with pomp in the cathedral of St.
Paul's ; the churches gave thanks ; Boscawen, him-
self a member of parliament, was honored by a
unanimous tribute from the House of Commons.

5

CONQUEST OF THE VALLEY OF THE WEST. 297

New England, too, triumphed ; for th*- praises chap.
awarded to Amherst and Wolfe recalled the deed* «*f _ —
her own sons. ! 75S-

On the surrender of Louisburg, the season was tuu
for advanced to attempt Quebec. Besides, a sudden
message drew Amherst to Lake George.

The summons of Pitt had called into being a
numerous and well equipped provincial army. Mas-
sachusetts, .which had entered upon its alarm list
more than forty-five thousand men, of whom more
than thirty-seven thousand were by law obliged to
train and in case of an invasion to take the field, had ten
thousand of its citizens employed in the public ser-
vice ; but it kept its disbursements for the war under
the control of its own commissioners. Pownall, its
governor, complained of the reservation, as an in-
fringement of the prerogative, predicted confidently
the nearness of American independence ; and after
vain appeals to the local legislature, repeated his
griefs to the Lords of Trade. The Board, in reply,
advised dissimulation. "The dependence which the
colony of Massachusetts Bay ought to have upon the
sovereignty of the crown," thus they wrote Pownall,
" stands on a very precarious foot ; and unless some
effectual remedy be applied at a proper time, it will
be in great danger of being totally lost." The letter
was sent without the knowledge of Pitt, who never
invited a province to the utmost employment of its
resources with the secret purpose of subverting its
liberties, as soon as victory over a foreign foe should
have been achieved with its concurrence. Such
a policy belonged only to the Board of Trade, where
Halifax still presided, and Oswald, Soame Tenyns?
Higby, and William Gerard Hamilton sat as mem-

298 THE AMERICAN EE VOLUTION.

chap. bers. But the proposal of a change in the colonial

— — administration, cherished by Halifax from his first

J 7 58- entrance into office and never abandoned, was reserv

till the peace should offer the seemingly safe " occ

sion " for interposition.

Meantime nine thousand and twenty-four pr
vincials, from New England, New York, and N
Jersey, assembled on the shore of Lake Geor
There were the six hundred New England rangers,
dressed like woodmen ; armed with a firelock and a
hatchet ; under their right arm a powder-horn ; a
leather bag for bullets at their waist ; and to each
officer a pocket compass as a guide in the forests.
There was Stark, of New Hampshire, now promoted
to be a captain. There was the generous, open-
hearted Israel Putnam, a Connecticut major, leaving
his good farm round which his own hands had helped
to build the walls ; of a gentle disposition, brave, a
artless. There were the chaplains, who preached
the regiments of citizen soldiers a renewal of the days
when Mose3 with the rod of Grod in his hand sent
Joshua against Amalek. By the side of the pro-
vincials rose the tents of the regular army, six thousand
three hundred and sixty-seven in number; of the
whole force Abercrombie was commander-in-chief;
but the general confidence rested solely on Howe.

Early in the spring, Bradstreet, of New York,
had proposed an attempt upon Fort Frontenac;
Lord Howe overruled objections; and the gallant
provincial was to undertake it, as soon as the army
should have established itself on the north side of th
lake.

On the fifth day of July, the armament of more
than fifteen thousand men, the largest body, of Euro

t

.

CONQUEST OF THE VALLEY OF THE WEST. 299

ean origin, that had ever been assembled in Amer- chap.

o XIII.

struck their tents at daybreak, and in nine ^1

tmdred small boats and one hundred and thirty-five *758
-halt4- boats, with artillery mounted on rafts, embark-
.1 ou Lake George; the fleet, bright with banners,
ml cheered by martial music, moved in procession
own the beautiful lake, beaming with hope and pride,
bough with no witness but the wilderness. They

d over the broader expanse of waters to the first
arrows ; they came where the mountains, then mantled
ith forests, step down to the water's edge ; and in
lie richest hues of evening light, they halted at Sab-
atli-day Point. Long afterwards, Stark remembered,
hat on that night Howe, reclining in his tent on a
ear-skin, and bent on winning a hero's name, ques-
loned him closely as to the position of Ticonderoga
ad the fittest mode of conducting the attack.

On the promontory, where the lake, through an
utlet or river less than four miles long, falling in that
istance about one hundred and fifty-seven feet, enters
bamplain, the French had placed Fort Carillon,
avins: that lake on its east, and on the south and
)uthwest the bay formed by the junction. On the
orth, wet meadows obstructed access ; so that the
uly approach by land was from the northwest. On
lat side, about a half-mile in front of the fort, Mont-
ilm marked out his lines, which began near the
leadows and followed the sinuosities of the ground
11 they approached the outlet. This the road from
iake George to Ticonderoga crossed twice by bridges,
etween which the path was as a cord to the large
PC made by the course of the water. Near the bridge
t the lower falls, less than two miles from the fort,
le French had built saw- mills, on ground which

300 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, offered a strong military position. On the first of Ju
y^-i, Montcalm sent three regiments to occupy the he;
1758. of the portage ; but they had been recalled. On tl
morning of the fifth, when a white flag on the mou
tains gave warning that the English were embarke
a guard of three pickets was stationed at the landin
place, and De Trepezee, with three hundred men, w
sent still further forward, to watch the movements (
the enemy.

After a repose of five hours, the English army, b
hour before midnight, was again in motion, and by nir
the next morning disembarked on the west side of tr
lake, about a mile above the rapids, in a cove shelte
ed by a point which still keeps the name of Lord How<
The three French pickets precipitately retired.

Immediately on landing, as the enemy had burr
the bridges, the army, leaving behind its provision:
artillery and all heavy baggage, formed in four co
umns, the regulars in the centre and provincials on th
flanks, and began its march round the bend along th
west side of the outlet, over ground uneven an<
densely wooded. " If these people," said Montcaln
" do but give me time to gain the position I hav
chosen on the heights of Carillon, I shall beat them.
The columns, led by bewildered guides, broke an(
jostled each other ; they had proceeded about tw(
miles, and an advanced party was near Trout Brook
when the ri^ht centre, where Lord Howe had com
mand, suddenly came upon the party of De Trepezee
who had lost his way and for twelve hours had beei
wandering in the forest. The worn-out stragglers
less than three hundred in number, fought bravelv
but were soon overwhelmed ; some were killed ; somt
drowned in the stream ; one hundred and fifty-nine

CONQUEST OF THE VALLEY OF THE WEST. 301

;urrendered. But Lord Howe, foremost in the skir- chap.
nish, was the first to fall, expiring immediately. The — , — -
pief of his fellow-soldiers and the confusion that fol- 1,r58-
wed his death, spoke his eulogy ; Massachusetts soon
iffcer raised his monument in Westminster Abbey;
Ymerica long cherished his memory.

The English passed the following night under
inns in the forest. On the morning of the seventh,
Yborcrombie had no better plan than to draw back
o the landing-place. An hour before noon, Brad-
-treet, with a strong detachment, rebuilt the bridges,
.nd took possession of the ground near the saw-mills ;
>n which the general joined him with the whole army,
nd encamped that night not more than a mile and a
lalf from the enemy.

Early the next day, Abercrombie sent Clerk, the
hief engineer, across the outlet to reconnoitre the
•>ench lines, which he reported to be of flimsy con-
duction, strong in appearance only. Stark, of Ne w
Hampshire, as well as some English officers, with a
eerier eye and sounder judgment, saw well finished
reparations of defence. But the general, apprehend -
ig that Montcalm already commanded six thousand
len, and that De Levi was hastening to join him with
iiree thousand more, gave orders, without waiting for
union to be brought up, to storm the breastworks
lat very day. For that end, a triple line was formed
ut of reach of cannon-shot ; the first consisted, on the
ift, of the rangers ; in the centre, of the boatmen ; on
le right, of the light infantry ; the second, of pro-
incials, with wide openings between their regiments ;
le third, of the regulars. Troops of Connecticut and
■ ew Jersey formed a rear guard. Daring these ar-
ingements, Sir William Johnson arrived with four

na

302 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, hundred and forty warriors of the Six Nations, wh
~^; gazed with inactive apathy on the white men that ha
1758. come so far to shed each other's blood.

On the sixth of July, Montcalm called in all
parties, which amounted to no more than two thoi
sand eight hundred French and four hundred and fift
Canadians. That day he employed the second ba -
talion of Berry in strengthening his post. The ne?
day, his whole army toiled incredibly; the office1
giving the example, and planting the flags on th
breastwork. In the evening, De Levi returned froi
an intended expedition against the Mohawks, bringin
with him four hundred chosen men ; and at night, a
bivouacked along the intrenchment. On the mornin
of the eighth, the drums of the French beat to arm
that the troops, now thirty -six hundred and fifty i
number, might know their stations, and then, withoi
pausing to return the fire of musketry from Englis
light troops on the declivities of the mountain, the
resumed their work. The riorht of their defences reste
on a hillock, from which the plain between the line
and the lake was to have been flanked by four piece
of cannon ; but the battery could not be finished ; th
left extended to a scarp surmounted by an abattis. Fc
a hundred yards in front of the intermediate breas
work, which consisted of piles of logs, the approac
was obstructed by felled trees with their branch*
pointing outwards, stumps, and rubbish of all sorts.

The English army, obeying the orders of a con
mander who remained out of sight and far beliin
during the action, rushed forward with fixed bayonet
to carry the lines, the regulars advancing through th
openings between the provincial regiments, and tal
ing the lead. Montcalm, who stood just within th

CONQUEST OF THE VALLEY OF THE WEST. 303

trendies, threw off his coat for the sunny work of the chap

A 111.

July afternoon, and forbade a musket to be fired till

he commanded; then, as the English drew very near 1758
in three principal columns to attack simultaneously
the left, the centre and the right, and became entan-
gled among the rubbish and broken into disorder by
clambering over logs and projecting limbs, at his
word a sudden and incessant fire from swivels and
small arms mowed down brave officers and men by
hundreds. Their intrepidity made the carnage terri-
ble. The attacks were continued all the afternoon,
generally with the greatest vivacity. When the Eng-
lish endeavored to turn the left, Bourlamarque op-
posed them till he was dangerously wounded ; and
Montcalm, whose rapid eye watched every movement,
sent reinforcements at the moment of crisis. On the
right, the grenadiers and Scottish Highlanders charged
for three hours without faltering and without confu-
sion ; many fell within fifteen steps of the trench ;
some, it was said, upon it. About iive o'clock, the col-
umns which had attacked the French centre and right,
concentrated themselves on a salient point between
the two ; but De Levi flew from the right, and Mont-
calm himself brought up a reserve. At six, the two
parties nearest the water turned desperately against
the centre, and, being repulsed, made a last effort on
the left. Thus were life and courage prodigally
wasted, till the bewildered English fired on an ad-
vanced party of their own, producing hopeless dejec-
tion ; and after losing, in killed and wounded, nineteen
hundred and sixty-seven, chiefly regulars, they fled
promiscuously.

The British general, during the confusion of the
battle, cowered safely at the saw-mills, and when his

30 i THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, presence was needed to rally the fugitives, was no-
— ^ where to be found. The second in command gave nc
175 8. orders; while Montcalm, careful of every duty, dij
tributed refreshments among his exhausted soldiers
cheered them by thanks to each regiment for the
incredible valor, and employed the coming night i
strengthening his lines.

The English still exceeded the French fourfol
Their artillery was near and could easily force a p
sage. The mountain over against Ticonderoga was i
their possession. " Had J to besiege Fort Carillon
said Montcalm, " I would ask no more than six mo
tars and two pieces of artillery." But Abercrombi
a victim to the " extremest fright and consternation
hurried the army that same evening to the landing
place with such precipitancy, that but for Bradstreet's
alertness, it would have rushed into the boats in a
confused mass. On the morning of the ninth t
British general embarked, and did not rest till
had placed the lake between himself and Montcalm.
Even then he sent artillery and ammunition to Albany
for safety.

The news overwhelmed Pitt with melancholy;
but Bute, who insisted that " Abercrombie and the
troops had done their duty," comforted himself in
"the numbers lost" as proof of "the greatest intre-
pidity," thinking it better to have cause for " tears I
than " blushes ; " and reserved all his sympathy for the
" broken-hearted commander." Prince George ex-
pressed his hope one day by "superior help" to "re-
store the love of virtue and religion."

While Abercrombie wearied his army with lining
out a useless fort, the partisans of Montcalm were
present everywhere. Just after the retreat of t

%

^ f

CONQUEST OF THE VALLEY OF THE WEST. 305

English, they fell upon a regiment at the Half-way chap.

Brook between Fort Edward and Lake George. A ^i

fortnight later, they seized a convoy of wagoners at 175 8.
the same place. To intercept the French on their re-
turn, some hundred rangers scoured the forests near
Woodcreek, marching in Indian file, Putnam in the
rear, in front the commander Rogers, who, with a
British officer, beguiled the way by firing at marks.
The noise attracted hostile Indians to an ambuscade.
A skirmish ensued, and Putnam, with twelve or four-
teen more, was separated from the party. His com-
rades were scalped ; in after-life he used to relate how
one of the savages gashed his cheek with a tomahawk,
bound him to a forest-tree, and kindled about him a
crackling* fire ; how his thoughts glanced aside to the
wife of his youth and the group of children that gam-
bolled in his fields ; when the brave French officer,
Marin, happening to descry his danger, rescued him
from death, to be exchanged in the autumn.

Better success awaited Bradstreet. From the ma-
jority in a council of war, he extorted a reluctant
leave to proceed against Fort Frontenac. At the
Oneida carrying-place, Brigadier Stanwix placed un-
der his command twenty-seven hundred men, all
Americans, more than eleven hundred of them New
Yorkers, nearly seven hundred from Massachusetts.
There, too, were assembled one hundred and fifty
warriors of the Six Nations ; among them Red Head,
the renowned war-chief of Onondaga. Inspired by his
eloquence in council, two-and-forty of them took
Bradstreet for their friend and grasped the hatchet
as his companions. At Oswego, towards which they
moved with celerity, there remained scarce a vestige
of the English fort ; of the French there was no me-

VOL. IV. 20

306 TIIE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

ohap. morial but " a large wooden cross." As the Ameri-
^^ cans gazed with extreme pleasure on the scene around
175 8. them, they were told that farther west, in a Genesee
and Canasadaga, there were lands as fertile, rich and
luxuriant as any in the universe." Crossing Lake
Ontario in open boats, they landed, on the twenty-
fifth of August, within a mile of Fort Frontenac. It
was a quadrangle, mounted with thirty pieces of
cannon and sixteen small mortars. On the second
day, such of the garrison as had not fled surrendered.
Here, also, were military stores for Fort Duquesne
and the interior dependencies, with nine armed ves-
sels, each carrying from eight to eighteen guns. Of
these, two were sent to Oswego. After razing the
fortress, and destroying such vessels and stores as
could not be brought off, the Americans returned to
Lake George.

There the main army was wasting the season in
supine inactivity. The news of the disastrous day at
Ticonderoga induced Amherst, without orders, to
conduct four regiments and a battalion from Louis-
burg. They landed in September at Boston, and at
once entered on the march through the greenwood.
In one of the regiments was Lieutenant Richard
Montgomery, who remained near the northern lakes
till 1760. When near Albany, Amherst hastened in
advance, and on the fifth of October came upon the
English camp. Early in November, dispatches ar-
rived, appointing him commander-in-chief. Return-
ing to England, Abercrombie was screened from
censure, maligned the Americans, and afterwards
assisted in parliament to tax the witnesses of his
pusillanimity.

Canada was exhausted. " Peace, peace," was the

CONQUEST OF THE VALLEY OF THE WEST. 30 1

crv : " no matter with what boundaries." " I have not chap.

" XIII.

lost courage," wrote Montcalm, " nor have my troops ; ^^^..
we are resolved to find our graves under the ruins of i ?58-
the colony."

Pitt, who had carefully studied the geography of
North America, knew that the success of Bradstreet
had gained the dominion of Lake Ontario and opened
the avenue to Niagara ; and he turned his mind from
the defeat at Ticonderoga, to see if the banner of
England was already waving over Fort Duquesne.
For the conquest of the Ohio valley he relied mainly
on the central provinces. Loudoun had reported the
contumacy of Maryland, where the Assembly had
insisted on an equitable assessment, " as a most violent
attack on his Majesty's prerogative." "I am per-
suaded," urged Sharpe on his official correspondent
in England, " if the parliament of Great Britain was
to compel us by an act to raise thirty thousand
pounds a year, the upper class of people among us,
and, indeed, all but a very few, would be well satis-
fied." And he sent " a sketch of an act " for " a
poll-tax on the taxable inhabitants." But that form
of raising a revenue throughout America, being
specially unpalatable to English owners of slaves in
the West Indies, was disapproved " by all " in
England. While the officers of Lord Baltimore were
thus concerting with the Board of Trade a tax by
Parliament, William Pitt, though entreated to inter-
pose, regarded the bickerings between the proprie-
tary and the people with calm impartiality, blaming
both parties for the disputes which withheld Mary-
land from contributing her full share to the conquest
of Fort Duquesne.

308 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. After long delays, Joseph Forbes, who had the
L^~L> command as brigadier, saw twelve hundred and fifty
175 8 Highlanders arrive from South Carolina. They were
joined by three hundred and fifty Royal Americans.
Pennsylvania, animated by an unusual military spirit
which seized even Benjamin West, known afterwards
as a painter, and Anthony Wayne then a boy of
thirteen, raised for the expedition twenty-seven
hundred men. Their senior officer was John Arm-
strong, already famed for his display of courage and
skill at Kittanning. With Washington as theii
leader, Virginia sent two regiments of about nineteen
hundred, whom their beloved commander praised as
" really fine corps." Yet, vast as were the prepara-
tions, Forbes would never, but for Washington, have
seen the Ohio.

The Virginia chief who at first was stationed at Fort
Cumberland, clothed a part of his force in the hunt-
ing shirt and Indian blanket, which least impeded the
progress of the soldier through the forest ; and he en-
treated that the army might advance promptly along
Braddock's road. But the expedition was not merely
a military enterprise ; it was also the march of civili-
zation towards the West, and was made memorable
by the construction of a better avenue to the Ohio.
This required long continued labor. September had
come, before Forbes, whose life was slowly ebbing,
was borne in a litter as far as Raystown. " See how
our time has been misspent," cried Washington, angry
at delay, and obstinately opposed to the opening the
new route which Armstrong, of Pennsylvania, as ob-
stinately advocated. But Forbes preserved a clear
head and a firm will, or as he himself expressed it, was
" actuated by the spirits " of William Pitt ; and he

CONQUEST OF THE VALLEY OF THE WEST. 309

decided to keep up the direct connection with Phila- chap

A 1 I 1.

delphia as essential to present success and future - — , — -
security. 1'r58-

While Washington, with most of the Virginians,
joined the main army, Bouquet was sent forward
with two thousand men to Loyal Hanna. There he
received intelligence that the French post was de-
fended by but eight hundred men, of whom three
hundred were Indians. Dazzled by vague hopes of
glory, Bouquet, without the knowledge of his supe-
rior officer, entrusted to Major Grant, of Montgomery's
battalion, a party of eight hundred, chiefly High-
landers and Virginians, of Washington's command,
with orders to reconnoitre the enemy's position. The
men, who were all accustomed to the mountains,
and of whom the Virginians were clad in the light
Indian garb, easily scaled the successive ridges, and
took post on a hill near Fort Duquesne. Not
knowing that Aubry had arrived with a rein-
forcement of four hundred men from Illinois, Grant
divided his troops in order to tempt the enemy into
an ambuscade, and at daybreak of the fourteenth
of September, discovered himself by beating his
drums. A large body of French and Indians, com-
manded by the gallant Aubry, immediately poured
out of the fort, and with surprising celerity attacked
his troops in detail, never allowing him time to get
them together. They gave way and ran, leaving two
hundred and ninety-five killed or prisoners. Even
Grant, who in the folly of his vanity had but a few
moments before been confident of an easy victory,
gave himself up as a captive ; but a small party of
Virginians, under the command of Thomas Bullitt,
arrested the precipitate flight, and saved the detach-

310 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, ment from utter ruin. Of these, on their return to

.A. 1 1 1.

— , — - the camp, the coolness and courage were publicly ex-
1758. tolled by Forbes ; and in the opinion of the whole
army, regulars as well as provincials, their superiority
of discipline reflected honor on Washington.

Not till the fifth of November did Forbes himself
reach Loyal Hanna ; and there a council of war de-
termined for that season to advance no further. But,
on the twelfth, Washington gained from three
prisoners exact information of the weakness of the
French garrison on the Ohio, and it was resolved to
proceed. Two thousand five hundred men were
picked for the service. For the sake of speed, they
left behind every convenience except a blanket and a
knapsack, and of the artillery took only a light train.
Washington, who, pleading a " long intimacy with
these woods " and familiarity " with all the passes and
difficulties," had solicited the responsibility of leading
the party, was appointed to command the advance
brigade, the pioneers of America in its course to the
West. His party was of provincials, and they toiled
cheerfully at his side. Forbes, now sinking into the
grave, had consumed fifty days in marching as many
miles from Bedford to Loyal Hanna. Fifty miles of
the wilderness still remained to be opened in the late
season, through a soil of deep clay, or over rocky
hills white with snow, by troops poorly fed and poorly
clad. But Washington infused his own spirit into the
men whom he commanded, and who thought light of
hardships and dangers while "under the particular
directions " of " the man they knew and loved." Every
encampment was so planned as to hasten the issue. On
the thirteenth the veteran Armstrong, who had proved
his superior skill in leading troops rapidly and secretly

CONQUEST OF THE VALLEY OF THE WEST. 311

through the wilderness, pushed forward with one chap
thousand men, and in five days threw up defences w-^
witliin seventeen miles of Fort Duquesne. On the fif- 1758.

•nth, Washington, who followed, was on Chestnut
Ridge; on the seventeenth, at Bushy Run. "All," he
reported, " are in fine spirits and anxious to go on." On
the nineteenth, Washington left Armstrong to wait
for the Highlanders, and, taking the lead, dispelled
by his vigilance every " apprehension of the enemy's
approach." When on the twenty -fourth, the general
encamped his whole party among the hills of Turkey
Creek within ten miles of Fort Duquesne, the dis-
heartened garrison, then about five hundred in num-
ber, set fire to the fort in the night time, and by the
light of its flames went down the Ohio. On Satur-
day, the twenty-fifth of November, the little army
moved on in one body, and at evening the youthful
hero could point out to Armstrong and the hardy
provincials, who marched in front, to the Highlanders
and Royal Americans, to Forbes himself, the meeting
of the rivers. Armstrong's own hand raised the Brit-
ish flag over the ruined bastions of the fortress. As the
banners of England floated over the waters, the place,
at the suggestion of Forbes, was with one voice called
Pittsburg. It is the most enduring monument to Wil-
liam Pitt. America raised to his name statues that have
been wrongfully broken, and granite piles, of which
uot one stone remains upon another ; but, long as the
Monongahela and the Alleghany shall flow to form
the Ohio, long as the English tongue shall be the lan-
guage of freedom in the boundless valley which their
waters traverse, his name shall stand inscribed on the
gateway of the West.

The twenty-sixth was observed as a day of public

312 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

°xniP' thanksgiving for success, and when was success of
_ ^ — greater importance ? The connection between the sea
1758- side and the world beyond the mountains was estab-
lished for ever ; a vast territory was secured ; th<
civilization of liberty and commerce and religion wa
henceforth "to maintain the undisputed possessioi
of the Ohio.1' " These dreary deserts," wrote Forbes
" will soon be the richest and most fertile of any pos
sessed by the British in North America."

On the twenty-eighth, a numerous detachmenl
went to Braddock's field, where their slaughterec
comrades, after more than three years, lay yet ui
buried in the forest. Here and there a skeleton wag
found resting on the trunk of a fallen tree, as if
wounded man had sunk down in the attempt to fl;
In some places, wolves and crows had left signs oi
their ravages ; in others, the blackness of ashes marke<
the scene of the revelry of cannibals. The trees sti]
showed branches rent by cannon ; trunks dotte<
with musket balls. Where the havoc had been th(
fiercest, bones lay whitening in confusion. Non(
could be recognised, except that the son of Sii
Peter Halket was called by the shrill whistle of
a savage to the great tree near which his fathei
and his brother had been seen to fall together
and while Benjamin West and a company of Penn-
sylvanians formed a circle around, the Indians r(
moved the thick covering of leaves, till the^
bared the relics of the youth lying across thos<
of the older officer. The frames of the two, thi
united in death, were wrapped in a Highland plaid,
and consigned to one separate grave, amidst the cere-
monies that belong to the burial of the brave. Th<
bones of the undistinguishable multitude, more than

CONQUEST OF TIIE VALLEY OF THE WEST 313

four hundred and fifty in number, were indiscrimin- chap.

m AMI.

ately cast into the ground, no one knowing for whom — „ — .
specially to weep. The chilling gloom of the forest 175 8.
at the coming of winter, the religious awe that mas-
tered the savages, the grief of the son fainting at the
fearful recognition of his father, the groups of soldiers
sorrowing over the ghastly ruins of an army, formed
a sombre scene of desolation. How is all changed !
The banks of the broad and placid Monongahela smile
with orchards and teeming harvests and gardens ;
with workshops and villas ; the victories of peace have
effaced the memorials of war ; a railroad that sends
its cars over the Alleghanies in fewer hours than the
army had taken weeks for its unresisted march, passes
through the scene where the carnage was the worst ;
and in all that region no sounds now prevail but of
life and activity and joy.

Two regiments composed of Pennsylvanians, Ma-
rylanders, and Virginians, remained as a garrison, un-
der the command of Mercer ; and for Washington,
who at twenty-six retired from the army after hav-
ing done so much to advance the limits of his coun-
try, the next few weeks were filled with happiness
and honor. The people of Frederictown had chosen
him their representative. On the last day of the
year, " the affectionate officers " who had been under
him expressed, with " sincerity and openness of soul,"
their grief at " the loss of such an excellent command-
er, such a sincere friend, and so affable a companion,"
" a man so experienced in military affairs, one so re
nowned for patriotism, conduct and courage." They
publicly acknowledged to have found in him a
leader, who had " a quick discernment and invariable
regard for merit, an earnestness to inculcate genu-

314 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

CxinP' *ne sent]ments of true honor and passion for glory ;r
^^~ whose "example inspired alacrity and cheerfulness
in encountering severest toils;" whose zeal for "strict
discipline and order gave to his troops a superiority
which even the regulars and provincials publicly ac-
knowledged." On the sixth of the following Jan-
uary, the woman of his choice was bound with him
in wedlock. The first month of union was hardly
over, when, in the House of Burgesses, the speaker,
obeying the resolve of the House, publicly gave
him the thanks of Virginia for his services to his
country; and as the young man, taken by surprise,
hesitated for words, in his attempt to reply, — " Sit
down," interposed the speaker ; a your modesty is equal
to your valor, and that surpasses the power of any
language I possess." After these crowded weeks,
Washington, no more a soldier, retired to Mount Ver-
non with the experience of five years of assiduous ser-
vice. Yet not the quiet of rural life by the side of
the Potomac, not the sweets of conjugal love, could
turn his fixed mind from the love of glory ; and he
revealed his passion by adorning his rooms with
busts of Eugene and Marlborough, of Alexander, of
Caesar, of Charles the Twelfth; and of one only
among living men, the king of Prussia, whose
struggles he watched with painful sympathy. Thus
Washington had ever before his eyes the image of
Frederic. Both were eminently founders of nations,
childless heroes, fathers only to their countries. The
one beat down the dominion of the aristocracy of the
Middle Ages by a military monarchy; the Provi-
dence which rules the world had elected the other to
guide the fiery coursers of revolution along nobler
paths, and to check them firmly at the goaL

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CONQUEST OF CANADA PITTS MINISTRY CONTINUED.

1759.

America more and more drew the attention of chap.

xiv.
tatesnien; and Pitt, who was well informed, and, ^^L

hough at that time inaccessible to Franklin, had, oc- 1759.
asionally, through his under-secretaries, continued to
>rofit by Franklin's wisdom, resolved that the bound-
ess North of that continent should be a conquest
or his country. With astonishing unanimity, par-
iament voted for the year twelve millions sterling,
.nd such forces, by sea and land, as till those days had
>een unimagined in England. " This is Pitt's doing,"
aid Chesterfield, " and it is marvellous in our eyes.
le declares only what he would have them do, and
hey do it."

In the arrangements for the campaign, the secre-
ary disregarded seniority of rank. Stanwix was to
complete the occupation of the posts at the West from
Pittsburg to Lake Erie; Prideaux to reduce Fort
Niagara; and Amherst, now commander-in-chief and
:he sinecure governor of Virginia, to advance with the
nain army to Lake Champlain. To command the

816 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap fleet which was to support the attack on Que'
^^i Pitt selected the generous and kind-hearted S*
1759 ders, an officer who to unaffected modesty and ste;
courage joined the love of civil freedom. The o
mand of the army in the river St. Lawrence ^
conferred on Wolfe, who, like Washington, co
have found happiness in retirement. His nature,
once affectionate and aspiring, mingled the kindli
gentleness with «an impetuous courage, which ^
never exhausted or appalled. He loved letters i
wrote well ; he had studied the science of war p
foundry, joining to experience a creative mind; a
the vehement passion for immortal glory overcame
motives to repose. " I feel called upon," he had 01
written, on occasion of his early promotion, "
justify the notice taken of me by such exertions a
exposure of myself as will probably lead to my fa
And the day before departing for his command, in t
inspiring presence of Pitt, he forgot danger, gloi
every thing but the overmastering purpose to devc
himself for his country.

All the while, ships from every part of the woi
were bringing messages of the success of Briti
arms. In the preceding April, a small English sqm
ron made a conquest of Senegal; in December, i
groes crowded on the heights of the island of Gor
to gaze on the strange spectacle of war, and to witn<
the surrender of its forts to Commodore August
Keppel. In the Indian seas, Pococke maintained t
superiority of England. In the West Indies,
January, 1759, a fleet of ten line-of-battle ships, wi
six thousand effective troops, made a fruitless atta<
on Martinico ; but, sailing for Guadaloupe, the best
the West India possessions of France, after the loss

THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. 317

id daring deeds of more than three months, in May, chap.

gained, by capitulation, that delightful and well , ^

atered island, whose harbor can screen whole navies 1759.
can hurricanes, whose position gives the command
: the neighboring seas.

Froni the continent of Europe came the joyous
surance, that a victory at Minden had protected
[.-mover. The French, having repulsed Prince Ferdi-
ind of Brunswick at Frankfort, pursued their advan-
ige, occupied Cassel, compelled Munster to capitulate,
id took Minden by assault ; so that Hanover could
e saved only by a victory. Contades and Broglie,
le French generals, with their superior force, were
■lured from their strong position, and accepted battle
q narrow and inconvenient ground, on which their
orse occupied the centre, their foot the wings. The
rench cavalry charged, but, swept by artillery and
le rolling fire of the English and Hanoverian infan-
y, they were repulsed. At the moment, Ferdinand,
hose daring forethought had detached the hereditary
rince of Brunswick with ten thousand men to cut off
le retreat, sent a message to the commander of the
British cavalry, Lord George Sackville, by a German
i'l-(le-camp. Lord George affected not to understand,
.igonier came next, with express directions that he
lould bring up the cavalry and attack the French,
ho were faltering. " See the confusion he is in,"
™ied Sloper to Ligonier ; " for God's sake repeat
our orders." Fitzroy arrived with a third order from
'erdinand. " This cannot be so," said Lord George ;
would he have me break the line ?" Fitzroy urged the
)mmand. " Do not be in a hurry," said Lord George.
I am out of breath with galloping," replied young

318 THE AMERICAN EE VOLUTION.

chap. Fitzroy, "which makes me speak quick; but i
_^ orders are positive ; the French are in confusion ; h(
i759. is a glorious opportunity for the English to distingui
themselves." " It is impossible," repeated Lord Geor^
" that the Prince could mean to break the line." '
give you his orders," rejoined Fitzroy, "word ]
word." " Who will be the guide to the cavalry
asked Lord George. " I," said the brave boy, and 1
the way. Lord George, pretending to be puzzled, tv
reminded by Smith, one of his aids, of the necessi
of immediate obedience; on which, he sent Smith
lead on the British cavalry, while he himself rode
the Prince for explanation. Ferdinand, in scorn, ]
newed his orders to the Marquis of Granby, the secoi
in command, and was obeyed with alacrity ; but t
decisive moment was lost. " Lord George's fall w
prodigious," said Horace Walpole; "nobody sto<
higher ; nobody had more ambition or more sens<
Pitt softened his misfortune with all the offices
humanity, but condemned his conduct. George £
Second dismissed him from all his posts. A cou
martial, the next year, found him guilty of disobeyii
orders, and unfit for employment in any milita:
capacity; on which, the king struck his name out
the council-book and forbade his appearance at cou]
The ability of Sackville had been greatly overrate
He was restless, and loved intrigue ; ambitious, opi
ionated, and foil of envy ; when he spoke, it was arr
gantly, as if to set others right ; his nature combim
haughtiness and meanness of spirit ; without fidelit
fixed principles, or logical clearness of mind, unfit
conduct armies or affairs, he joined cowardice wil
love of superiority and "malevolence."1

1 Lord Mahon's History of Eng- Sackville's courage. See Geor
land, iv. 271. George III. doubted III. to Lord North.

THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. 319

In America success depended on union. The chap.

XIV.

ard of Trade was compelled to adjourn questions ^^L>
of internal authority; while Pitt won the free servi- 1759.

9 of the Americans by respecting their liberties and
alleviating their excessive burdens from the British

chequer. Every colony north of Maryland sec-
onded his zeal. The military spirit especially per-
vaded New York and all New England, so that
there was not one of their villages but grew famil-
iar with war from the experience of its own people.
Massachusetts, though it was gasping under the
fruitless efforts of former years, sent into the field,
to the frontier, and to garrisons, more than seven
thousand men, or nearly one sixth part of all who
were able to bear arms. Connecticut, which distin-
guished itself by disproportionate exertions, raised,
as in the previous year, five thousand men. To
meet the past expense, the little colony incurred
heavy debts, and, learning political economy from
native thrift, appointed taxes on property to discharge
them.

The whole continent was exerting its utmost
strength, and eager to prove its loyalty. New Jersey,
in which the fencible men in time of peace would
have been about fifteen thousand, had already lost
one thousand men, and yet voted to raise one thou-
sand more.1 Its yearly expenditure for the service of
the war was equal to about five dollars for each living
being in the province. Such was the aid willingly
furnished to an administration which respected
colonial liberty.

To encounter the preparations of England and

1 Gov. Bernard (successor to Belcher) to Secretary W. Pitt, Perth
Ainboy, 20 March, 1759.

320 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

°S£?> America, Canada received scanty supplies of provi
- — , — sions from France. " The king," wrote the ministe:
1759. t0 Montcalm, " the king relies on your zeal and obsti
nacy of courage." But Montcalm informed Belle
Isle plainly, that, without unexpected good fortune
or great fault in the enemy, Canada must be takei
this campaign, or certainly the next. Its censu
showed but a population of about eighty-two thou
sand, of whom not more than seven thousand mei
could serve as soldiers ; the eight French battalion:
counted but thirty-two hundred ; while the Englisl
were thought to have almost fifty thousand men ii
arms. There was a continuing scarcity in the land
the fields were hardly cultivated ; the domestic ani
mals were failing ; the soldiers were unpaid; pape:
money had increased to thirty millions of livres, anc
would that year be increased twelve millions more
while the civil officers were making haste to enricl
themselves before the surrender, which was to screer
their frauds.

The western brigade, commanded by Prideaux
composed of two battalions from New York, a bat
talion of Royal Americans, and two British regiments
with a detachment of royal artillery, and reinforce
ments of Indian auxiliaries under Sir William John
son, was the first to engage actively. Fort Niagara
stood, as its ruins yet stand, on the flat and narrow
promontory round which the deep and rapid Niagara
sweeps into the lower lake. There La Salle, first oi
Europeans, had driven a light palisade. There
Denonville had constructed a fortress and left a gar-
rison for a winter. It commanded the portage
between Ontario and Erie, and gave the dominion oi
the western fur-trade. Leaving a detachment with

THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. 321

Colonel Haldiraand to construct a tenable post at the chap

. XIV

mouth of the " wild Oswego," the united American, ^^L
British, and Indian forces embarked, on the first day 1759.
of July, on Lake Ontario, and landed without oppo-
sition at one of its inlets, six miles east of the junc-
tion of the Niagara. The fortress on the peninsula
was easily invested.

Aware of the importance of the station, D'Aubry
collected from Detroit and Erie, Le Bceuf and Ve-
nango, a little army of twelve hundred men, larger
than that which defeated Braddock, and marched
to the rescue. Prideaux made the best dispositions
to frustrate the design ; but, on the fifteenth of July,
he was killed by the bursting of a cohorn, leaving
his honors immature. Sir William Johnson, who
succeeded to the command, commemorated his rare
abilities and zeal, and carefully executed his plans.
He posted the British army on the left, above the
fort, so as to intercept the approach of the enemy
and to support the guard in the trenches. On the
morning of the twenty-fourth of July, the French
made their appearance. The Mohawks gave a sign
for a parley with the French Indians ; but, as it was
not returned, they raised the war-whoop. "While the
regulars advanced to meet the French in front, the
English Indians gained their flanks and threw them
into disorder ; on which, the English rushed to the
charge with irresistible fury. The French broke,
retreated, and were pursued. The carnage contin-
ued till fatigue stayed its hand. The bodies of the
dead lay uncounted among the forests. On the next
day, the garrison, consisting of about six hundred
men, capitulated. Thus did New York extend its
limits to the Niagara River and Lake Erie. The

VOL. IV. 21

322 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, victory was so decisive, that the officer and troops
^^L, sent by Stanwix from Pittsburg took possession of
1759. the French posts as far as Erie without resistance.

The success of the English on Lake Ontario drew
De Levi, the second in military command in New
France, from before Quebec. He ascended beyond
the rapids, and endeavored to guard against a
descent to Montreal by occupying the passes of the
river near Ogdensburg. The number of men at his
disposal was too few to accomplish the object; and
Amherst directed Gage, whom he detached as succes-
sor to Prideaux, to take possession of the post. But
Gage made excuses for neglecting the orders, and
whiled away his harvest-time of honor.

Meantime, the commander-in-chief assembled the
main army at Lake George. The tranquil temper
of Amherst was never ruffled by collisions with the
Americans ; his displeasure, when excited, was con-
cealed under apparent apathy or impenetrable self-
command. His judgment was slow, but safe ; his
mind solid, but never inventive. Taciturn, and stoic-
al, he displayed respectable abilities as a command-
er, without fertility of resources, or daring enter-
prise. In five British regiments, with the Royal
Americans, he had fifty-seven hundred and forty-
three regulars; of provincials and Gage's light in-
fantry he had nearly as many more. On the long-
est day in June, he reached the lake, and, with
useless precaution, traced out the ground for a fort .
On the twenty-first of July, the invincible flotilla
moved in four columns down the water, with artil-
lery, and more than eleven thousand men. On the
twenty-second, the army disembarked on the eastern

THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. 323

shore, nearly opposite the landing-place of Abercrom- chap.
bie ; and that night, after a skirmish of the advanced ^-^L
guard, they lay under arms at the saw-mills. The 175 9.
next day, the French army under Bourlamarque, leav-
ing a garrison of but four hundred in Fort Carillon,
deserted their lines, of which possession was imme-
diately taken.

Conscious of their inability to resist the British
artillery and army, the French, on the twenty-sixth,
abandoned Ticonderoga, and, five days afterwards,
retreated from Crown Point to intrench themselves
on Isle-aux-Noix. The whole mass of the people of
Canada had been called to arms ; the noblesse piqued
themselves much on the antiquity of their families,
their own military glory and that of their ancestors •/
nor had the world known greater courage and loy-
alty than they displayed. So general had been the
levy, that there were not men enough left to reap the
fields round Montreal; and, to prevent starvation,
women, old men, and children were ordered to gather
in the harvest alike for rich and poor. Yet, as the
chief force was with Montcalm near Quebec, as the
Indians no longer thronged to the camp of the French,
the army that opposed Amherst had but one-fourth of
his numbers, and could not be recruited. An imme-
diate descent on Montreal was universally expected.
In a fortnight, Crown Point was occupied, without
opposition. Amherst must advance, or Wolfe may
perish. But, after repairing Ticonderoga, he wasted
labor in building fortifications at Crown Point, which
tlie conquest of Canada would render useless. Thus
he let all August, all September, and ten days of Oc-

1 Murray to Shelbume, 30 August, 1766.

324 THE AMERICAN EE VOLUTION.

chap, tober go by, before boats were ready ; and when al
_,_ last he embarked, and victory, not without honor,
175 9. might still have been within his grasp, he received
messengers from Quebec, and turned back, having
done nothing but occupy and repair deserted forts.
Sending a detachment against the St. Francis Indians,
he himself went into winter-quarters, leaving his un-
finished work for another costly campaign. Amhersl
was a brave and faithful officer, but his intellect w*
dull. He gained a great name, because New France
was occupied during his chief command; but, ha<
Wolfe resembled him, Quebec would not have fallen.

June. As soon as the floating masses of ice permitted,

the forces for the expedition against Quebec ha(
repaired to Louisburg; and already Wolfe, by his
activity and zeal, his good judgment and the clearness
of his orders, inspired unbounded confidence. His
army consisted of eight regiments, two battalions oi
Royal Americans, three companies of rangers, artil-
lery, and a brigade of engineers, — in all, about eighl
thousand men ; the fleet under Saunders had two-and-
twenty ships of the Hue, and as many frigates an<
armed vessels. On board of one of the ships wi
Jervis, afterwards Earl St. Vincent ; another, whicl
followed, bore as master James Cook, the navigator,
who was destined to explore and reveal the unknown
paths and thousand isles of the Pacific. The brigades
had for their commanders the brave, open-hearted,
and liberal Robert Monckton, afterwards governor of
New York and conqueror of Martinico ; George Town-
shend, elder brother of Charles Townshend, soon to
succeed his father in the peerage, and become known
as a legislator for America, a man of quick perception,

THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. '625

but unsafe judgment ; and the rash and inconsider- chap.
ate James Murray. For his adjutant-general, Wolfe w^-1
selected Isaac Barre, an old associate at Louisburg; 1759.
an Irishman of humble birth, eloquent, ambitious, and
fearless. The grenadiers of the army were formed
into a corps, commanded by Colonel Guy Carleton; a
detachment of light infantry were to receive orders
from Lieutenant-Colonel, afterwards Sir William,
Howe.

On the twenty-sixth of June, the whole arma-
ment arrived, without the least accident, off the Isle
of Orleans, on which, the next day, they disembarked.
A little south of west the cliff of Quebec was seen
distinctly, seemingly impregnable, rising precipi-
tously in the midst of one of the grandest scenes in
nature. To protect this guardian citadel of New
France, Montcalm had of regular troops no more than
six wasted battalions; of Indian warriors few ap-
peared, the wary savages preferring the security of
neutrals ; the Canadian militia gave him the supe-
riority in numbers; but he put his chief confidence
in the natural strength of the country. Above Que-
bec, the high promontory on which the upper town is
built expands into an elevated plain, having towards
the river the steepest acclivities. For nine miles or
more above the city, as far as Cape Rouge, every
landing-place was intrenched and protected. The
river St. Charles, after meandering through a fertile
valley, sweeps the rocky base of the town, which it
covers by expanding into sedgy marshes. Nine miles
below Quebec, the impetuous Montmorenci, after fret-
ting itself a whirlpool route, and leaping for miles
down the steps of a rocky bed, rushes with velocity

326

THE AMEKICAN REVOLUTION.

1759
June.

chap, towards the ledge, over which, falling two hundred
xiv •

^^L, and fifty feet, it pours its fleecy cataract into the chasm.

As Wolfe disembarked on the Isle of Orleans,
what scene could be more imposing ? On his left lay
at anchor the fleet with the numerous transports ; the
tents of his army stretched across the island ; the in
trenched troops of France, having their centre at the
village of Beauport, extended from the Montmorenci
to the St. Charles ; the city of Quebec, garrisoned by
five battalions, bounded the horizon. At midnight,
on the twenty-eighth, the short darkness was lighted
up by a fleet of fire-ships, that, after a furious storm
of wind, came down with the tide in the proper di-
rection. But the British sailors grappled with them
and towed them free of the shipping.

The river was Wolfe's; the men-of-war made it
so ; and, being master of the deep water, he also had
the superiority on the south shore of the St. Law-
rence. In the night of the twenty-ninth, Monckton,
with four battalions, having crossed the south chan-
nel, occupied Point Levi ; and. where the mighty cur-
rent, which below the town expands as a bay, nar-
rows to a deep stream of but a mile in width,
batteries of mortar and cannon were constructed.
The citizens of Quebec, foreseeing the ruin of their
houses, volunteered to pass over the river and destroy
the works ; but, at the trial, their courage failed
them, and they retreated. The English, by the dis-
charge of red-hot balls and shells, set on fire fifty
houses in a night, demolished the lower town, and
injured the upper. But the citadel was beyond their
reach, and every avenue from the river to the cliff
was too strongly intrenched for an assault.

As yet no real progress had been made. Wolfe

July.

TIIE CONQUEST OF CANADA. 827

was eager for battle ; being willing to risk all his chap.

xiv.

hopes on the issue. He saw that the eastern bank of
the Montmorenci was higher than the ground occu- 175 9.
pied by Montcalm, and, on the ninth of July, he y*
ci'ossed the north channel and encamped there ; but
the armies and their chiefs were still divided by the
river precipitating itself down its rocky way in im-
passable eddies and rapids. Three miles in the
interior, a ford was found ; but the opposite bank
was steep, woody, and well intrenched. Not a spot
on the line of the Montmorenci for miles into the
interior, nor on the St. Lawrence to Quebec, was left
unprotected by the vigilance of the inaccessible
Montcalm.

The general proceeded to reconnoitre the shore
above the town. In concert with Saunders, on the
eighteenth of July, he sailed along the well defended
bank from Montmorenci to the St. Charles ; he
passed the deep and spacious harbor, which, at four
hundred miles from the sea, can shelter a hundred
ships of the line ; he neared the high cliff of Cape
Diamond, towering like a bastion over the waters,
and surmounted by the banner of the Bourbons ; he
coasted along the craggy wall of rock that extends
beyond the citadel ; he marked the outline of the
precipitous hill that forms the north bank of the
river, — and every where he beheld a natural fastness,
vigilantly defended, intrenchments, cannon, boats,
and floating batteries guarding every access. Had
a detachment landed between the city and Cape
Rouge, it would have encountered the danger of
being cut off before it could receive support. He
would have risked a landing at St. Michael's Cove,
three miles above the city, but the enemy prevented

328

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

1759.
July.

chap, him by planting artillery and a mortar to play upon

w^L, the shipping.

Meantime, at midnight, on the twenty-eighth of
July, the French sent down a raft of fire-stages, con-
sisting of nearly a hundred pieces ; but these, like the
fire-ships a month before, did but light up the river,
without injuring the British fleet. Scarcely a da
passed but there were skirmishes of the Englis
with the Indians and Canadians, who were sure t
tread stealthily in the footsteps of every exploring
party.

Wolfe returned to Montmorenci. July was almost
gone, and he had made no effective advances. He
resolved on an engagement. The Montmorenci, after
falling over a perpendicular rock, flows for three hun-
dred yards, amidst clouds of spray and rainbow
glories, in a gentle stream to the St. Lawrence.
Near the junction, the river may, for a few hours of
the tide, be passed on foot. It was planned that
two brigades should ford the Montmorenci at the
proper time of the tide, while Monckton's regiments
should cross the St. Lawrence in boats from Point
Levi. The signal was made, but some of the boats
grounded on a ledge of rocks that runs out into
the river. "While the seamen were getting them off,
and the enemy were firing a vast number of shot and
shells, Wolfe, with some of the navy officers as com-
panions, selected a landing-place; and his desperate
courage thought it not yet too late to begin the
attack. Thirteen companies of grenadiers, and two
hundred of the second battalion of the Royal Ameri-
cans, who got first on shore, not waiting for support,
ran hastily towards the intrenchments, and were
repulsed in such disorder that they could not again

THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. 329

come into line ; though Monckton's regiments had chap.
arrived, and had formed with the coolness of invinci- v^^L
ble valor. But hours hurried by; night was near; 1759,
the clouds of midsummer gathered heavily, as if for a y'
storm ; the tide rose ; and Wolfe, wiser than Frederic
at Colin, ordered a timely retreat. A strand of deep
mud, a hill-side, steep, and in many places impracti- '
cable, the heavy fire of a brave, numerous, and well
protected enemy, were obstacles which intrepidity
and discipline could not overcome. In general or-
ders, Wolfe censured the impetuosity of the grena-
diers ; he praised the coolness of Monckton's regi-
ments, as able alone to beat back the whole Canadian
army.

This severe check, in which four hundred lives
were lost, happened on the last day of July. Murray
was next sent, with twelve hundred men, above the Aug.
town, to destroy the French ships and open a com-
munication with Amherst. Twice he attempted a
landing on the north shore, without success ; at
Deschambault, a place of refuge for women and
children, he won advantages over a guard of invalid
soldiers ; and learned that Niagara had surrendered ;
that the French had abandoned Ticondero^a and
Crown Point. The eyes of Wolfe were strained to
see Amherst approach. Vain hope ! The com-
mander-in-chief, though opposed by no more than
three thousand men, was loitering at Crown Point,
nor did even a messenger from him arrive. Wolfe
was alone to struggle with difficulties which every
hour made more appalling. The numerous body of
armed men under Montcalm " could not," he said,
c be called an army;" but the French had the

330 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, strongest country, perhaps, in the world, on which
^.^ to rest the defence of the town. Their boats were
175 9 numerous, and weak points were guarded by floating
g* batteries. The keen eye of the Indian prevented
surprise. The vigilance and hardihood of the Cana-
dians made intrenchments every where necessary.
The peasantry were zealous to defend their homes,
language, and religion. Old men of seventy and
boys of fifteen fired at the English detachments from
the edges of the wood. Every one able to bear arms
was in the field. Little quarter was given on either
side. Thus for two months the British fleet had
ridden idly at anchor; the army had lain in their
tents. The feeble frame of Wolfe sunk under the
energy of his restless spirit, and the pain of anxious
inactivity.

Yet, while disabled by fever, he laid before the
brigadiers three several and equally desperate meth-
ods of attacking Montcalm in his intrenchments at
Beauport. Meeting at Monckton's quarters, they
wisely and unanimously gave their opinions against
them all, and advised to convey four or five thou-
sand men above the town, and thus draw Montcalm
from his impregnable situation to an open action.
Wolfe acquiesced in their proposal, and, with despair
in his heart, yet as one conscious that he lived under
the eye of Pitt and of his country, he prepared to carry
it into effect. Attended by the Admiral, he examined
once more the citadel, with a view to a general assault.
Although every one of the five passages from the
lower to the upper town was carefully intrenched,
Saunders was willing to join in any hazard for the
public service ; " but I could not propose to him,"
said Wolfe, " an undertaking of so dangerous a nature

THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. 331

and promising so little success." He had the whole chap.
force of Canada to oppose, and, by the nature of the _,_
river, the fleet could render no assistance. " In this 1759.
situation," wrote Wolfe to Pitt, on the second of Sep-
tember, " there is such a choice of difficulties, that I
am myself at a loss how to determine. The affairs of
Great Britain require most vigorous measures; but
then the courage of a handful of brave men should
be exerted only where there is some hope." England
read the dispatch with dismay, and feared to hear
further tidings.

Securing the posts on the Isle of Orleans and
opposite Quebec, he marched, with the army, on the
fifth and sixth of September, from Point Levi, to
which place he had transferred all the troops from
Montmorenci, and embarked them in transports that
had passed the town for the purpose. On the three
following days, Admiral Holmes, with the ships,
ascended the river to amuse Bougainville, who had
been sent up the north shore to watch the move-
ments of the British army, and prevent a landing.
New France began to feel a sentiment of joy, believ-
ing the worst dangers of the campaign over. De
Levi, the second officer in command, was sent to pro-
tect Montreal with a detachment, it was said, of three
thousand men. Summer, which in that climate hur-
ries through the sky, was over ; and the British fleet
must soon withdraw from the river. " My constitu-
tion," wrote the General to Holdernesse on the ninth,
just four days before his death, " is entirely ruiued,
without the consolation of having done any consider-
able service to the state, and without any prospect
of it."

332 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. But, in the mean time, Wolfe applied himself in-
tently to reconnoitring the north shore above Quebec.
Nature had given him good eyes, as well as a warmth
of temper to follow first impressions.1 He himself
discovered the cove which now bears his name,
where the bending promontories almost form a
basin with a very narrow margin, over which the hill
rises precipitously. He saw the path that wound up
the steep, though so narrow that two men could hard-
ly march in it abreast ; 2 and he knew, by the num-
ber of tents which he counted on the summit, that the
Canadian post which guarded it could not exceed a
hundred. Here he resolved to land his army by
surprise. To mislead the enemy, his troops were kept
far above the town, while Saunders, as if an attack
was intended at Beauport, set Cook, the great mari-
ner, with others, to sound the water and plant buoys
along that shore.

The day and night of the twelfth were employed
in preparations. The autumn evening was bright ; and
the General, under the clear starlight, visited his sta-
tions, to make his final inspection, and utter his last
words of encouragement. As he passed from ship to
ship, he spoke to those in the boat with him of the
poet Gray, and the Elegy in a Country Churchyard.
" I," said he, " would prefer being the author of that
poem to the glory of beating the French to-morrow ;"3
and while the oars struck the river as it rippled in

1 Wolfe to Win. Rickson, 1 Dec, bee ; to whose personal kindness I

1758. am indebted for explanations given

8 Vice Admiral Saunders to me on the battle ground itself.
Secretary Pitt, 20 Sept., 1759. The Picture of Quebec, published

9 I owe my knowledge of this by Hawkins, in 1834, is indebted to
incident to J. 0. Fisher, of Que- him for its historical value.

THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. 333

the silence of the night air under the flowing tide, he chap

XIV.

repeated : - — , —

1759.
" The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, Sept.

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike the inexorable hour ;

The paths of glory lead but to the grave."

Every officer knew his appointed duty, when, at
one o'clock in the morning of the thirteenth of Sep-
tember, Wolfe, with Monckton and Murray, and
about half the forces, set off in boats, and, without
sail or oars, glided down with the tide. In three
quarters of an hour the ships followed, and, though
the night had become dark, aided by the rapid cur-
rent, they reached the cove just in time to cover the
landing. Wolfe and the troops with him leaped on
shore ; the light infantry, who found themselves
borne by the current a little below the intrenched
path, clambered up the steep hill, staying themselves
by the roots and boughs of the maple and spruce and
ash trees that covered the precipitous declivity, and,
after a little firing, dispersed the picket which
guarded the height. The rest ascended safely by the
pathway. A battery of four guns on the left was
abandoned to Colonel Howe. When Townshend's
division disembarked, the English had already gained
one of the roads to Quebec, and, advancing in front of
the forest, Wolfe stood at daybreak with his invinci-
ble battalions on the plains of Abraham, the battle-
field of empire.

1 It can be but a small party, come to burn a few
houses and retire," said Montcalm, in amazement
as the news reached him in his intrench ments the
other side of the St. Charles ; but, obtaining better

334 THE AMEKICAN KEVOLUnON.

chap, information, — " Then," lie cried, " they have at last
^^i. got to the weak side of this miserable garrison ; we
175 9. must give battle and crush them before mid-day."
ep And before ten the two armies, equal in numbers,
each being composed of less than five thousand men,
were ranged in presence of one another for battle.
The English, not easily accessible from intervening
shallow ravines and rail fences, were all regulars, per-
fect in discipline, terrible in their fearless enthusiasm,
thrilling with pride at their morning's success, com-
manded by a man whom they obeyed with confidence
and love. The doomed and devoted Montcalm had
what Wolfe had called but " five weak French bat-
talions," of less than two thousand men, "mingled
with disorderly peasantry," * formed on ground which
commanded the position of the English. The French
had three little pieces of artillery ; the English one or
two. The two armies cannonaded each other for
nearly an hour; when Montcalm, having summoned
Bougainville to his aid, and dispatched messenger
after messenger for De Vaudreuil, who had fifteen
hundred men at the camp, to come up, before he
should be driven from the ground, endeavored to
flank the British and crowd them down the high
bank of the river. Wolfe counteracted the move-

1 Three several French accounts followed in the New Picture of

represent Montcalm's forces in the Quebec, 345, makes the number of

battle as only equal, or even in- Canadian militia in the battle 5,000.

ferior, to the British. Jugement But Bougainville had 2,000 up the

Impartial sur les Operations Mili- river; 1,500 remained at the camp

taires de la Campagne en Canada with Vaudreuil ; De Levi had also

en 1759, 5, printed at Quebec in been sent with a detachment to as-

1840. Compare also, in the New sist in opposing Amherst. There

York Paris Papers, Extrait d'un were not Indians enough with the

Journal, tenu al'Arm'e, &c, and French to be of moment. In the

the letter of Bigot to the Minister, summer of 1837, I examined the

of October 25, 1759. Knox, in country round Quebec.
Journal, i., 74, which seems to be

TI1E CONQUEST OF CANADA. 335

raent by detaching TWnshend with Amherst's regi- chap.

ment, and afterwards a part of the royal Americans, , ^

who formed on the left with a double front. 1759.

Waiting no longer for more troops, Montcalm led ep '
the French army impetuously to the attack. The
ill-disciplined companies broke by their precipitation
and the unevenness of the ground ; and fired by
platoons, without unity. The English, especially
the forty-third and forty-seventh, where Monckton
stood, received the shock with calmness ; and after
having, at Wolfe's command, reserved their fire till
their enemy was within forty yards, their line began
a regular, rapid, and exact discharge of musketry.
Montcalm was present every where, braving danger,
wounded, but cheering by his example. The second
in command, De Sennezergues, an associate in glory
at Ticonderoga, was killed. The brave but untried
Canadians, flinching from a hot fire in the open field,
began to waver ; and, so soon as Wolfe, placing hini-
Belf at the head of the twenty-eighth and the Louis-
burg grenadiers, charged with bayonets, they every
where gave way. Of the English officers, Carleton
was wounded ; Barre, who fought near Wolfe, receiv-
ed in the head a ball which destroyed the power of
vision of one eye, and ultimately made him blind.
Wolfe, also, as he led the charge, was wounded in
the wrist, but still pressing forward, he received a
second ball ; and, having decided the day, was struck
a third time, and mortally, in the breast. " Support
me," he cried to an officer near him : u let not my
brave fellows see me drop." He was carried to the
rear, and they brought him water to quench his
thirst. "They run, they run," spoke the officer on
whom he leaned. " Who run ?" asked Wolfe, as his

33 G THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION".

chap, life was fast ebbing. " The French ," replied the offi-
xiv . • .

^^Ls cer, " give way every where." " What," cried the

17 59. expiring hero, "do they run already? Go, one of
q' ' you, to Colonel Burton ; bid him march Webb's regi-
ment with all speed to Charles River to cut off the
fugitives." Four days before, he had looked forward
to early death with dismay. u Now, God be praised,
I die happy." These were his words as his spirit
escaped in the blaze of his glory. Night, silence, the
rushing tide, veteran discipline, the sure inspiration of
genius, had been his allies; his battle-field, high
over the ocean-river, was the grandest theatre on
earth for illustrious deeds; his victory, one of the
most momentous in the annals of mankind, gave to
the English tongue and the institutions of the Ger-
manic race the unexplored and seemingly infinite
West and North. He crowded into a few hours
actions that would have given lustre to length of
life ; and filling his day with greatness, completed it
before its noon.

Monckton, the first brigadier, after greatly distin-
guishing himself, was shot through the lungs. The
next in command, Townshend, brave, but deficient in
sagacity and attractive power and the delicate per-
ception of right, recalled the troops from the pursuit ;
and when De Bougainville appeared in view, declined
a contest with a fresh enemy. But already the hope
of New France was gone. Born and educated
in camps, Montcalm had been carefully instructed,
and was skilled in the language of Homer as
well as in the art of war. Greatly laborious, just,
disinterested, hopeful even to rashness, sagacious in
council, swift in action, his mind was a well-spring
of bold designs; his career in Canada a wonderful

THE CONQUEST OI«* CANADA. 337

struggle against inexorable destiny. Sustaining hun- chap.
ger and cold, vigils and incessant toil, anxious for his _^L
soldiers, unmindful of himself, he set, even to the J 759.
forest-trained red men, an example of self-denial and epfc'
endurance ; and in the midst of corruption made the
public good his aim. Struck by a musket-ball, as he
fought opposite Monckton, he continued in the engage-
ment, till, in attempting to rally a body of fugitive
Canadians in a copse near St. John's gate,1 he was
mortally wounded.

On hearing from the surgeon that death was
certain, — " I am glad of it," he cried ; how long
shall I survive?" "Ten or twelve hours, perhaps
less." " So much the better ; I shall not live to see
the surrender of Quebec." To the council of war
he showed that in twelve hours all the troops near
at hand might be concentrated and renew the attack
before the English were intrenched. When De Ram-
say, who commanded the garrison, asked his advice
about defending the city, — "To your keeping," he
replied, "I commend the honor of France. As
for me, I shall pass the night with God, and prepare
myself for death." Having written a letter recom-
mending the French prisoners to the generosity of the
English, his last hours were given to the hope of end-
less life, and at five the next morning he expired.

The day of the battle had not passed, when De
Vaudreuil, who had no capacity for war, wrote to
De Ramsay at Quebec not to wait for an assault,
but, as soon as his provisions were exhausted to raise
the white flag of surrender.3 " We have cheerfully

1 Big;ot to the minister, 25 Octo- s Vaudreuil to De Ramsay, 13
ber, 1759, N. Y. Paris Documents, Sept., 1759, N. Y Paris Docu-
xvi. 39. meats, xvi. 27.

vol. IV. 22

338

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, sacrificed our fortunes and our houses," said the citi-

XIV.

zens ; " but we cannot expose our wives and children
to a massacre."1 At a council of war, Fiedmont,
captain of artillery, was the only, one who wished t<
hold out2 to the last extremity; and, on the seven-
teenth of September, before the English had con-
structed batteries, De Ramsay capitulated.

America rung with exultation; the towns wen
bright with illuminations, the hills with bonfires ;
legislatures, the pulpit, the press, echoed the genera]
joy ; provinces and families gave thanks to God.
England, too, which had shared the despondency oi
Wolfe, triumphed at his victory and wept for his
death. Joy, grief, curiosity, amazement, were on ev<
ry countenance.8 When the parliament assembled,
Pitt modestly and gracefully put aside the praises
that were showered on him. M The more a man is
versed in business," said he, " the more he finds the
hand of Providence every where." "I will own I
have a zeal to serve my country beyond what the
weakness of my frail body admits of;"4 and he fore-
told new successes at sea. November fulfilled his
predictions. In that month, Sir Edward Hawke
attacked the fleet of Constans off the northern coast
of France ; and, though it retired to the shelter of
shoals and rocks, he gained the battle during a storm
at night-fall.

1 Relation du Siege de Quebec. 3 Walpole's Memoires of the Reign

2 Proees Verbal du Conseil de of Geo. II.

Guerre, 15 September, 1759, N. Y. 4 Report of the speech by Jared

Paris Documents, xvi. 28, and oth- Ingersoll of Connecticut, in a letter

er papers on the subject in the same dated 22 December, 1759.
volume.

CHAPTER XV.

INVASION OF THE VALLEY OF THE TENNESSEE.—
PITTS ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED.

1759—1760.

The capitulation of Quebec was received by
Townshend, as though the achievement had been his
own ; and his narrative of the battle left out the
name of Wolfe, whom he indirectly censured. He
had himself come over for a single summer's carn-

gn, to be afterwards gloried about and rewarded.1
As he hurried from the citadel, which he believed
untenable, back to the secure gayeties of London,
Charles Paxton, an American by birth, one of the
revenue officers of Boston, ever on the alert to pro-
pitiate members of government and men of influence
with ministers, purchased2 his future favor, which
might bring with it that of his younger brother, by
lending him money that was never to be repaid.

Such was the usage of those days. Officers of the
customs gave as their excuse for habitually permit-
ting evasions of the laws of trade, that it was their

1 Barrington's Barrington. • J. Adams : Diary, 220.

CHAP.
XV.

175 9.

340

TIIE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, only mode of getting rich ; for they were " quartered
^^ upon" by their English patrons for more than the
1759. amount of all their honest perquisites.1 TWnshend
returned home, to advocate governing America by
concentrating power in England ; and like Braddock,
Sharpe, Shirley, Abercrombie, Loudoun, Amherst,
Gage, and so many more of his profession, to look
upon taxation of the colonies by the metropolis va
the exercise of a necessary duty.

In Georgia, Ellis, the able governor, who had great
influence in the public offices, was studying how the
colonies could be administered by the central authority.
In South Carolina Lyttleton persuaded himself that
he had restored the royal sway. Yet the fruits of his
administration were distrust and discontent. The
arbitrary manner in which he had suspended a coun-
cillor, had even made it a matter of pride with the
planters of Carolina not to accept appointments to the
royal council;8 and their confiding loyalty was re-
quited by contemptuous insolence, more difficult to
be endured than oppression.

While victory protected the northern frontiers of
America, the South would have enjoyed unbroken
repose but for the pride of Lyttleton, who at once
contended with South Carolina, " to regain the pow-
ers of government which his predecessors," as he said,
"had unfaithfully given away,"8 and awakened an
Indian war by his zeal for reducing the native moun-
taineers to his own criminal code. He could not dis-

1 See their own statement to 2 Lieut. Gov. Bull to Secretary
Hutchinson, in the Hutchinson of State.

Correspondence. s Chalmers's History of the Re-

volt of the Colonies, ii. 794.

INVASION OF THE VALLEY OF THE TENNESSEE. 341

corn in the red man's morals the eternal principles chap.
which inspire all justice ; and as he brought the max- ^^
ims of civilized society into conflict with the unwritten 1759.
law of the Cherokees, the European rule proved the
most treacherous and cruel.

The Cherokees had ever been in friendship with
the English, as Virginia had acknowledged in 1755
by a deputation with a present. In 1757, their war-
Hoi's had volunteered to protect the American fron-
tier south of the Potomac ; yet, after they had won
trophies of honor in the general service, they were
disregarded by the State, and would have been left
to return without reward, or even supplies of food,
but for the generosity of Washington and his
officers.1

The parties, which, in the following year, joined
the expedition to the Ohio, were neglected, so that
their hearts told them to return to their cherished
highlands.2 In July, 1758, the backwoodsmen of
Virginia, finding that their half-starved allies took
what they needed on their way home, seized their
arms, and, in three skirmishes, several of the "be-
loved men" of the Cherokees were slain and scalped.3

The wailing of the women for their deceased rela-
tives, at the dawn of each day and at the gray of the
evening, provoked the nation to retaliate. " The
blood of your beloved kinsmen calls for revenge,"
cried the Muskohgees ; and the chiefs of the Chero-
kees sent out their young men to take what they
deemed such just and equal vengeance as became
good warriors.4 The upland settlements of North

1 Washington's Writings, ii. 10, 3 Fle-wat's Ilistory of South Ca-

114, 147, 260, 2G1, 269, 270. rolinn. ii. 214.

8 Adair's History of the Ameri- 4 Adair, 247.
can Indians.

342

TILE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. Carolina ceased to be safe ; of the garrison at Telli

s_^ quo, two soldiers fell victims.

1759. In November, 1758, Tiftoe and five other chieffcai]
came down from their mountains to Charleston t<
reconcile differences and treat of an amnesty.1 The
old covenant between them and the English, of wind
one of the clauses stipulated that murderers shouli
be given up, was revived ; they accepted presents t<
cover up their losses, and gave pledges of inviolable
peace. Before the return of the delegates of the
remote upper towns,2 warriors of Settico on the Ten-
nessee and of Telliquo had been out8 on the Yadkii
and the Catawba, beyond the jurisdiction of Soutl
Carolina; but the Cherokee chiefs themselves inter-
posed to recall them, and soothed their anger. 11
now seemed to them, that aggression and equal re
venge had reciprocally done their work, and that
harmony was restoreeL

Not so reasoned Lyttleton, who could not hear the
voice of humanity as it spoke from the mountai]
glades. The legislators of Carolina, who understooe
the jurisprudence of forest life, meeting at Charleston
in March, 1759, refused to consider hostilities with the
Cherokees as existing, or to be apprehended ; bu1
Lyttleton set aside their decision as an invasion of the
prerogative, which alone could treat of peace or war,
and give directions for training and employing the
militia.

Having inflamed the colonists by asserting autho-

1 Speech of Gov. Lyttleton to s Letter from Old Hop and the

Oconostata, on council records, of Little Carpenter.
22 Oct., 1759. Chalmers's History 3 Lyttleton's Talk to the Chero-

of the Revolt, ii. 793. kee Chief, 22 May, 1759.

INVASION OF THE VALLEY OF THE TENNESSEE. 343

ritv so exclusive, he next made a demand on the Head- chap.
J xv.

men and Warriors of the towns on the branches of the s_^L,

Tennessee, to " give him satisfaction for the past," ' "by 1759.
which," as he explained, was " meant that a certain
number of Cherokees guilty of the murders, should
be delivered up or be put to death in their na-
tion." 2 " This would only make bad worse," answered
the Red Men; "the Great Warrior will never con-
it to it;" at the same time they entreated peace.8
" We live at present in great harmony," wrote Demere
from Fort Loudoun ; " and there are no bad talks." 4

Tranquillity and confidence were returning, but in
obedience to orders,5 Demere insisted on the surren-
der or execution of the offending chiefs of Settico and
Telliquo, while Coytmore, at Fort Prince George, in-
tercepted all ammunition and merchandise on their
way to the Upper Nation. Consternation spread
along the mountain sides ; the hand of the young men
grasped at the tomahawk; the warriors spoke much
together concerning Settico and Telliquo,8 and hos-
tile speeches went round. Still they dispatched to
Charleston a letter with friendly strings of wampum ;
while the Middle and the Lower Settlements, which
had taken no part in the expedition complained of,
sent also their belts of white shells.1

But Lyttleton, dreading some concert of the
Cherokees with the Creeks, rigorously enforced the.

1 Lyttleton's Letter to the em- 6 Instructions to Capt. Demere

peror Old Hop and the Little Car- and to Lient. Coytmore, 22 May,

penter, 22 May. 1759. 1759. Lyttleton to Lords of Trade,

* Governor Lyttleton to Lords of 16 Oct., 1759.

Trade. 22 October, 1759. 8 Capt. Paul Demere to Gov.

8 Old Hop and Little Carpenter Lyttleton, 22 July, 1759.

to Gov. Lyttleton, 27 June, 1759. 7 Gov. Lyttleton to Lords of

4 Capt Paul Demero to Lyttle- Trade, 1 Sept., 1759.
ton, 10 July, 1759.

344 TIIE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, interruption of trade as a chastisement ; and haughtily

w^ added, "if you desire peace with us, and will send

1759. deputies to me as the mouth of your nation, I promise

you, you shall come and return in safety."

The Indians had become dependent on civil iz<*
tion; and to withhold supplies, was not only like
general embargo, but also like disarming a natioi
The English, said they, would leave us defenceless,
that they may utterly destroy us. Jealousy spread
from wigwam to wigwam ; belts circulated more and
more among the villages. They feared the worst,1
and narrowly watched the roads, that no white man
might pass. " We have nothing to do," said some
among them, wild with rage, " but to kill the white
. people here, and carry their scalps to the French,
who will supply us with plenty of ammunition and
every thing else." 2 The nation was, however, far
from being united against the English ; a large
number of towns were even ready, if they had
been encouraged, to fight on their side;3 but the
general distrust announced the approach of war.4
Lyttleton, hurried on by zeal to display authority,
and eager to gain the glory of conducting an unusual
expedition against the Cherokees, instantly gave
orders to the colonels of three regiments of militia
nearest the frontier to fire an alarm and assemble their
corps ; called out all the regulars and provincials in

1 Captain Paul Demere to Gov. s Ibid.

Lyttleton, 13 September, 1759. " I 3 Adair, 248, 249.

can assure you, that the Indians 4 Captain Stuart to Governor

over here were peaceable until Lyttleton, 2G September, 1759.

they heard the ammunition was Lieutenant Coytmore to Lyttleton,

Btopt, and then they grew very 26 September, 1759.
uneasy."

INVASION OF THE VALLEY OF THE TENNESSEE. 345

Charleston ; asked aid of the governors of Georgia chap.
and North Carolina ; invited Virginia to send rein- ^^L.
forcements and supplies to Fort Loudoun by the road 1759.
from that province ; sought the active alliance of the
Chickasaws as ancient enemies to the French ; l of the
Catawbas, the Tuscaroras, and even the Creeks, whose
hostility he pretended to have feared;2 and then con-
vening the legislature, on the fifth of October sent a
message to the Assembly for supplies. Aware of his
intentions to make a declaration of war, they address-
ed him against so precipitate a measure, " unanimously
desiring him to defer it." He readily consented,3
promising that " he would do nothing to prevent an
accommodation," on which the Assembly made grants
of money and provided for calling fifteen hundred
men into service, if necessary. The perfidious gov-
ernor reproved them for the scantiness of the supply ;
and breaking his promise, not yet a day old, he added
that " he should persevere in his intended measures." 4
On the twelfth of October, he ordered the alarm
to be fired in all parts of the province, where it had
not been before ; and " one half of the militia was
draughted to be in readiness to repel any invasion, or
suppress any insurrection that might happen during
his absence."

But hardly had the word been spoken when, on
the seventeenth of October, a great deputation from
the Upper and Lower Towns, Oconostata the great
wanior himself, with thirty other of the most hon-

1 J. Buckells to J. Courtonne, 8 " I consented to do so." Lyttle-

Journal of a Chickasaw Trader, ton's own account.

May, 1759. 4 See the Legislative Documents,

* Governor Lyttleton to the and Lvttleton's own account to

Lords of Trade, 16 October, 1759. Lords of Trade, 18 October, 1759.

340 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, ored men, relying on their safe conduct from the gov-
_^1 ernor, arrived in Charleston to deplore all deeds of
1759. violence, and to say that their nation truly loved
peace. Bull, the discreet lieutenant governor, urged
the wisdom of making an agreement, before more
blood should be spilt.1 The Cherokees were unequiv-
ocally sincere ; and many of their towns were thor-
oughly devoted to the English.2

" I am come," said Oconostata in council on the
eighteenth, " to hearken to what you have to say, and
to deliver words of friendship." But Lyttleton would
not speak to them, saying : " I did not invite you to
come down ; I only permitted you to do so ; there-
fore, you are to expect no talk from me, till I hear
what you have to say." 8

The next day, the proud Oconostata condescended
to recount what had been ill done ; explained its caus-
es ; declared that the great civil chief of the Chero-
kees loved and respected the English ; and making an
offering of deer-skins, and pleading for a renewal of
trade, he added for himself: " I love the white people ;
they and the Indians shall not hurt one another; I
reckon myself as one with you." 4

Tiftoe of Keowee complained of Coytmore, the
officer in command at Fort Prince George, as intem-
perate and licentious. The former commander had
been more acceptable to them. But still he would
hold the English fast by the hand. — The head warrior
of Estatoe would have " the trade go on, and no
more blood spilt." — Killianaca, the Black Dog of

1 Hewat's S. Carolina, ii. 217. 4 Minutes of Council, Fridaj

3 Adair's History, 248, 249. 19 October, 1759.

3 Minutes of Council, Thursday,
18 October, 1759.

INVASION OF THE VALLE7 OF THE TENNESSEE. 347

Hiwassie, was able to say that no English blood had chat.
ever been spilled by the young men of his village ; ^^
and he gave assurances of peace from all the towns in 1^59.
his region.

But the governor, by a precipitate exercise of the
prerogative, had, against the wish of the province, call-
ed out the militia, and invited the governors of Geor-
gia, North Carolina, and Virginia, the warriors of the
Catawbas, Chickasaws, Creeks, Tuscaroras, and other
friendly Indians, to join his expedition ; and therefore,
in spite of the opposition of four of his council,1 he
went on. " I am now going with a great many of my
warriors to your nation," said he finally to the depu-
ties, " in order to demand satisfaction of them. K
you will not give it, when I come to your nation, I
shall take it."

Oconostata, and those with him, claimed for them-
selves the benefit of the safe conduct under which
they had come down. And Lyttleton spoke, conceal-
ing his purpose under words more false than the
wiles of the savage : " You, Oconostata, and all with
you, shall return in safety to your own country ; and
it is not my intention to hurt a hair of your head.
There is but one way by which I can insure your
safety ; you shall go with my warriors, and they shall
protect you." a

On Friday, the twenty-seventh, Lyttleton, with
the Cherokee envoys, left Charleston to repair to
Congaree, the gathering place for the militia of Ca-

1 Speaker of S. C. Ilonse of As- 9 Minutes of Council held 22
senibly, to Mr. Wright, their Agent, October, 1759.
Charleston, 10. November 1759.

348 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, rolina. Thither came Christopher Gadsden,1 born ii
^^s 1724, long the colonial representative of Charleston
W*0- dear to his constituents; at whose instance and undei
whose command an artillery company had just Leer
formed, in a province which till then had not had a
mounted field-piece. There, too, was the heroic Fran-
cis Marion,2 as yet an untried soldier, just six-and
twenty, the youngest of five sons of an impoverished
planter, reserved and silent, small in stature, and of a
slender frame, so temperate that he drank only water,
elastic, persevering, and of sincerest purity of soul.8
Yet the state of the troops, both as to equipments
and temper, was such as might have been expected
from the suddenness of their summons to take the
field against the judgment of their legislature. It
was still hoped that there would be no occasion to
make use of them.4 Before leaving Congaree, Oco-
nostata and his associates, though their persons were
sacred by the laws of savage and of civilized man,
were arrested ; and on arriving at Fort Prince George,
they were crowded into a hut hardly large enough
for six of them.

To Attakulla-kulla, the Little Carpenter, a feeble
old man, who in 1730 had been in England, but now
had little influence with the tribe, Lyttleton, on the
eighteenth day of December, 1759, pronounced a very
long speech, rehearsing the conditions of their treaty.
" There are twenty-four men of your nation," said he,
" whom I demand to be delivered up to me, to be put
to death, or otherwise disposed of, as I shall think fit

1 Ramsay's History of South 8 H. Lee's Southern Campaign,

Carolina, ii. 458. 432.

8 Simms's Life of Marion, 33, 46. 4 Speaker of the House of As-

I have not seen James's Life of sembly to Mr. Wright the Agent,

Marion. Weems's Marion, 22. 27 Oct. 1759.

INVASION OF THE VALLEY OF TILE TENNESSEE. 349

Your people have killed that number of ours, and chap.
more, and therefore that is the least I will accept of. ^^'^
I shall give you till to-morrow morning to consider of 1759.
it, and then I shall expect your answer." 1 " I have
er been the firm friend of the English," answered
the chief ; " I will ever continue so ; but for giving up
the men, we have no authority one over another."

Yet after the governor had exchanged Oconostata
and one or two more for other Indians, he sent again
to Attakulla-kulla, and on the twenty-sixth of Decem-
ber got the signature of six Cherokees to a treaty of
peace, which seemed to sanction the governor's retain-
ing the imprisoned envoys as hostages, till four-and-
twenty men should be delivered up to undergo pun-
ishment for the murders. It was further covenanted
that the French should not be received in their towns,
and that the English traders should be safe.

This treaty was not made by chiefs duly author-
ized, nor ratified in council ; nor could Indian usage
give effect to its conditions. Hostages are unknown
in the forest, where prisoners are slaves. No one was
deceived.2 Lyttleton, in fact, had only with profligate
falsehood violated the word he had plighted, and re-
tained in prison the ambassadors of peace, true friends
to the English, " the beloved men " of the Cherokees,
who had come to him under his own safe conduct.
And yet he gloried in having obtained concessions
such as savage man had never before granted ; and,
returning to Charleston, he took to himself the honor
>f a triumphant entry.

The Cherokees longed to secure peace ; but the

1 The speeches are in Hewat, a Ellis, Governor of Georgia, to
i. 219. the Lords of Trade, 15 Feb. 17C0.

350 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, young braves, whose names were already honor
^.^ ed in the glades of Tennessee, could not be sur-
1760. rendered to death or servitude; and Oconostata re-
solved to rescue the hostages. The commandant at
Fort Prince George was allured to a dark thicket by
the river side, and was shot by Indians in an ambush.
The garrison had reason to be incensed ; but in then
anger, they butchered every one of their unfortunate
prisoners, and to conceal the atrocity of their crime, in-
vented foolish falsehoods of a plan that their hostages
had formed to poison the wells of the garrison.1

At the news of the massacre, the villages of which
there was scarce one that did not wail for a chief,
quivered with anger, like a chafed rattlesnake in the
heats of midsummer. The "spirits," said they, "of
our murdered brothers are flying around us, scream-
ing for vengeance." The mountains echoed the war-
song; and the braves dashed upon the frontiers for
scalps, even to the skirts of Ninety-Six. In their
attack on that fort, several of them fell. " We fatten
our dogs with their carcasses," wrote Francis to Lyt-
tleton ; M and display their scalps, neatly ornamented,
on the tops of our bastions." 2 Yet Fort Loudoun, on
the Tennessee, was exposed to the savages, beyond
the reach of succor.8 From Louisiana4 the Cherokees
obtained military stores; and, extending their alli-
ance, they exchanged with the restless Muskohgees
the swans' wings painted with red and black, and
crimsoned tomahawks, that were the emblems of
war.4

1 Ensign Miln to Gov. Lyttle- * J. Francis to Gov. Lyttleton,
ton, 24 February, 1760. Adair, 6 March, 1760. Drayton's South
250. Lyttleton to Lords of Trade, Carolina, 246.
8 March, 1760. 8 Adair's History, 254.

4 Annual Register, iii. 61.

INVASION OF THE VALLEY OF THE TENNESSEE. 351

Carolina was now in conflict with the moun- chap.

XV

taineers. Yet, at the meeting of the legislature in _^
February, 1760, the delegates, still more alarmed at i7oo.
the unwarrantable interference of Lyttleton with the
Mages of colonial liberty, first of all vindicated "their
birthrights as British subjects," and resisted "the
violation of undoubted privileges." But no governor
was more esteemed by the Lords of Trade ; they
never could find words strong enough to express their
approbation of his whole conduct. His zeal for the
prerogative, and his powerful connections in England
gained him advancement ; and he was not only trans-
ferred from South Carolina to the more lucrative
government of Jamaica, but directed to return home
to receive his instructions, a direction which implied
a wish on the part of the Board of Trade to consult
him on questions of colonial administration.1

In April, General Amherst, whose thoughts were
all intent upon Canada, detached from the central
army that had conquered Ohio six hundred High-
landers and six hundred Boyal Americans under
Colonel Montgomery, afterwards Lord Eglinton, and
Major Grant, to strike a sudden blow at the Chero-
kees and return. At Ninety-Six, near the end of
May, they joined seven hundred Carolina rangers,
among whom Moultrie, and, as some think, Marion,
served as officers.

On the first day of June, the little army, after a
march of eighteen miles from Beaver Dams, crossed
Twelve-mile River ; and leaving their tents standing

1 See Lord Lyttelton to his bro- same to same, 4 Dec. 1759. Ibid.
tlier, Gov. Lyttleton, 30 January, 622.
1758, in Phillimore, ii. 601; and

352 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, on advantageous ground, at eight in the evening they

^ moved onward through the woods to surprise Esta-

17 go. toe, which was twenty-five miles distant. The bay-
ing of a watch-dog alarmed the village of Little
Keowee, when the English rushed upon its people
and killed nearly all except women and children.

Early in the morning, they arrived at Estatoe,
which its inhabitants had but just abandoned, leaving
their mats still warm. The vale of Keowee1 is famed
for its beauty and fertility, extending for seven or
eight miles, till a high, narrow ridge of hills comes
down on each side to the river. Below the ridge it
opens again for ten or twelve miles more. This
lovely region was the delight of the Cherokees ; the
sides of the adjacent hills bore their habitations, and
on the rich level ground beneath stood their fields of
maize, all clambered over by the prolific bean. The
mountain-sides blushed with flowers in their season,
and resounded with the melody of birds. The river
now flowed in gentle meanders, now with arrowy
swiftness, between banks where the strawberry mixed
its crimson with the rich verdure, or beat against the
hills that rose boldly in cones upon the border of the
interval, and were the abutments of loftier mountains.
Every village of the Cherokees within this beautiful
country, Estatoe, Qualatchee, and Conasatchee, with
its stockaded town-house, was first plundered and
then destroyed by ^re.2 The Indians were plainly
observed on the tops of the mountains, gazing at the
flames. For years, the half-charred rafters of their
houses might be seen on the desolate hill-sides. u I
could not help pitying them a little," writes Grant ;

4 Bartram's Travels, 354, 331.

* VirgiDia Gazette, 496, 2, 1, 11 July, 1760.

INVASION OF THE VALLEY OF THE TENNESSEE. 353

■ their villages were agreeably situated ; their houses chap.

neatly built ; there were every where astonishing , ri,

magazines of corn, which were all consumed." The i7«o.
surprise was in every town almost equal, for the
whole was the work of a few hours ; the Indians had
no time to save even what they valued most ; but left
lor the pillagers money and watches, wampum and
skins. From sixty to eighty Cherokees were killed ;
forty, chiefly women and children, were made prison-
el's. Those who escaped could live only on horse-
flesh and wild roots,1 or must fly over the mountains.

Kesting at Fort Prince George, Montgomery sent
Tiftoe and the Old Warrior of Estatoe through the
Upper and Middle Town, to summon their head men
to treat of peace, or all the towns in the Upper
Nation should be reduced to ashes.2 But the chiefs
of the Cherokees gave no heed to the peremptory
message ; and the British army prepared to pass the
barriers of the Alleghany.

From the valley of Keowee, Montgomery, on the
twenty-fourth day of June, 1760, began his march,
and at night encamped at the old town of Oconnee.
The next day he passed from the vale of the Seneca
Eiver over the Oconnee Mountain, and encamped at
the War- Woman's Creek. On the twenty-sixth, he
crossed the Blue Mountains from the head spring of
the Savannah to the vale of the Little Tennessee, and
made his encampment at the deserted town of Stecoe.
The Royal Scots and Highlanders trod the rugged
defiles, which were as dangerous as men had ever
penetrated, with fearless alacrity, and seemed re-
freshed by coming into the presence of mountains.

1 Timberlake on the CL erokees. * Virginia Gazette. 496, 2, 1.

VOL. IV. 23

354 THE AMEEICAN EE VOLUTION".

chap. On the morning of the twenty-seventh, the whole
^^L, party began their march early, having a distance of
17 60. eighteen miles to travel to the town of Etchowee, the
nearest of the middle settlements of the Cherokees.
" Let Montgomery be wary," wrote Washington ;
" he has a subtle enemy, that may give him most
trouble when he least expects it." The army passed
down the valley of the Little Tennessee, along the
mountain stream which, taking its rise in Rabun
County in Georgia, flows through Macon County in
North Carolina. Not far from Franklin, their path
lay along the muddy river with its steep clay banks,
through a plain covered with the dense thicket, over-
looked on one side by a high mountain, and on the
other by hilly, uneven ground.1 At this narrow pass,
which was then called Crow's Creek, the Cherokees
emerged from an ambush.2 Morrison, a gallant
officer, was killed at the head of the advanced party.
But the Highlanders and provincials drove the
enemy from their lurking-places ; and returning to
their yells three huzzas and three waves of their
bonnets and hats, they chased them from height and
hollow. At the ford, the army passed the river;
and, protected by it on their right, and by a flanking-
party on the left, treading a path sometimes so nar-
row that they were obliged to march in Indian file,
fired upon from the rear, and twice from the front,
they were not collected at Etchowee till midnight,
and after a loss of twenty men, besides seventy-six
wounded.8

For one day, and one day only, Montgomery

1 Gentleman's Magazine, xxx. 8 Virginia Gazette, 501, 2, 1. 15
442. Aug., 1760.

8 Adair's History, 252.

INVASION OF TIIE VALLEY OF TIIE TENNESSEE. 3f>5

rested in the heart of the Alleghanies.1 If he had chap.

xv.

advanced to relieve the siege of Fort Loudoun, he
must have abandoned his wounded men and his 17 60.

-gage. On the following night, deceiving the
Cherokees by kindling lights at Etchowee, the army
retreated, and, marching twenty-five miles, they never
halted till they came to War- Woman's Creek in the
valley of the Savannah. On the thirtieth, they crossed
the 0 con nee Mountain ; and on the first day of July,
reached Fort Prince George.

3

The retreat of Montgomery was the knell of the
famished Fort Loudoun. By the unanimous resolve
of the officers, James Stuart, afterwards Indian agent
for the Southern division, repaired to Chotee, and
agreed on terms of capitulation,2 which neither party
observed ; and, on the morning of the eighth of
August, Oconostata himself received the surrender of
the fort, and sent its garrison of two hundred on
their way to Carolina. The next day, at Telliquo,
the fugitives were surrounded; Demere and three
other officers, with twenty-three privates, were killed.
The Cherokee warriors were very exact in that num-
ber, as being the amount of hostages who had been
retained by Lyttleton8 in the previous December.
The rest were brought back and distributed among
the tribes.4 Their English prisoners, including cap
tives carried from the back settlements of North
and South Carolina, were thought to have amounted
to near three hundred souls.5

1 Lieut. Gov. Bull to Montgom- 8 Lieut. Gov. Bull to the Lords
ery, 12 July, 1760. Same to Lords of Trade, 9 September, 1760.
of Trade, 2*0 July, 1760. 4 Lieut. Gov. Fauquier to Lords

8 In Lords of Trade, of Nov. 11, of Trade, 17 Sept., 1760.
1760 « Lieut. Gov. Bull to Lords of

Trade, 21 Oct., 1760.

5

356 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. But friendship lives in the heart of the savage,
^^Ls Listen to the tale of a red man's fidelity. Attakulla-
17C0. kulla, hearing that Stuart, his friend, was a prisoner,
hastened to ransom him, by giving every thing he
could command ; and when Oconostata, in a gre
council at Chotee, would have compelled the assi
ance of the English agent in the proposed siege
Fort Prince George, the Little Carpenter took him
away as if to hunt for venison, and struck through
the wilderness for Virginia. Nine days and nights
they travelled, with such game as they killed for
their food, with the light in the sky for their guid
through gaps rarely trodden, even by wild beasts, —
for the beasts of the forest pick their paths; — on
the tenth day, they met a detachment of Virginians
on Holston River.1

The country beyond the mountains was deserted ;
nor was Carolina safe. But Montgomery, by his
expedition had only inflamed the war,2 and, having
obeyed the letter of his instructions by reaching the
countiy of the Cherokees,3 he prepared to embark pre-
cipitately for the North. The province was in the
greatest consternation. On the eleventh of July, the
General Assembly represented their inability to
" prevent the Cherokees from ravaging the back set'
tlements ;" and " unanimously entreated" the lieuten-
ant governor " to use the most pressing instances with
Colonel Montgomery not to depart with the king's
troops, as it might be attended with the most per-
nicious consequences." But Montgomery, though

' Major Lewis to the Honorable 5 Bull to Lords of Trade, July,

Col. Byrd, of Virginia, without 1760.

date, but probably near the 8th of 3 Col. Montgomery to Lieut.

September, in Lords of Trade, of Governor Bull, July, 1760.
11 Nov., 1760.

INVASION OF THE VALLEY OF THE TENNESSEE. 35?

warned, that he was but giving the Cherokees occa- ciiap.
sion to boast throughout the wilderness in their own ^^
towns, and among the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, and 1760.
the Creeks, of their having obliged the English army
to retreat, not from their mountains only but from
the province, shunned the path of duty, and leaving
four companies of Royal Scots, sailed for Halifax by
way of New York ; for, wrote he, " I cannot help the
people's fears." And afterwards, in his place in the
House of Commons, he acted as one who thought the
Americans factious in peace and feeble in war.

Ellis, the governor of Georgia, wiser than Lyttle-
ton, had been less peremptory with the Creeks, and
had been able to secure their good will1

1 Ellis to Lords of Trade, 20 Ocf^, 1760.

CHAPTEK XVI.

POSSESSION TAKEN OF MICHIGAN AND THE COUNTRY
THE LAKES.— PITTS ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED.

1T60.

chap. Had Amherst been more active, the preceding
campaign would have reduced Canada. His delay

1760. and retreat to Crown Point gave De Levi, Montcalm's
successor, a last opportunity of concentrating the re-
maining forces of France at Jacques Cartier for the
recovery of Quebec. In that city Saunders had left
abundant stores and heavy artillery, with a garrison
of seven thousand men, under the command of the
brave but shallow Murray. When De Levi found it
impossible to surprise the place in mid-winter, he still
resolved on undertaking its reduction. George Towns-
hend, now in England, publicly rejected the opinion,
u that it was able to hold out a considerable siege f
and Murray, the commander, himself prepared for
" the last extremity," by selecting the Isle of Orleans
for his refuge.

As soon as the river opened, De Levi proceeded
with an army of less than ten thousand * men to be-

1 Murray in his official account ter comes down to " 10,000 men
writes 15,000, and in the same let- and 500 barbarians."

POSSESSION TAKEN OF THE COUNTRY ON THE LAKES. 359

siege Quebec. On the twenty-eighth of April, the chap.
vainglorious governor, marching out from the city. v_^_>
left the advantageous ground which he first occupied, 17G0.
and incautiously hazarded an attack near Sillery
Wood. The advance-guard, under De Bourlamarque,
met the shock with firmness, and returned the attack
with ardor. In danger of being surrounded, Murray
was obliged to fly, leaving " his very fine train of
artillery," and losing a thousand men. The French
appear to have lost about three hundred,1 though
Murray's report iu creased it more than eight-fold.
During the two next days, De Levi opened trenches
against the town ; but the frost delayed the works.
The English garrison, reduced by death during the
winter, sickness, and the unfortunate battle, to twenty-
two hundred effective men, exerted themselves with
alacrity. The women, and even the cripples, were set
to light work. In the French army not a word would
be listened to of the possibility of failure. But Pitt's
sagacity had foreseen and prepared for all. A fleet at
his bidding was on its way to relieve the city ; and to
his wife, the sister of Lord Temple and George Gren-
ville, he was able to write in June, — " Join, my love,
with me, in most humble and grateful thanks to the
Almighty. The siege of Quebec was raised on the
seventeenth of May, with every happy circumstance.
The enemy left their camp standing, abandoned forty
pieces of cannon. Swanton arrived there in the Van-
guard on the fifteenth, and destroyed all the French
shipping, six or seven in number. Happy, happy
day ! My joy and hurry are inexpressible."2

1 Mante, 281. The loss of the 183. L'on perdit dans le choc en-
French was " not so considerable " viron 300 homines,
as that of the English. Memoires, * Pitt to Lady Hester, 27 June.

360 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. Amherst had been notified of the intended siege ;
_y^ but he persevered in the systematic and tardy plan
J 7 60 which he had formed. When the spring opene<
he had no difficulties to encounter in taking possessioi
of Canada, but such as he himself should create,
country suffering from a four years' scarcity, a dis
heartened, starving peasantry, the feeble remains oi
five or six battalions, wasted by incredible services
and not recruited from France, offered no oppositioi
The party which was conducted from Crown Poinl
towards Montreal, by Colonel Haviland, found the foi
on Isle-aux-Noix deserted. Amherst himself led th(
main army of ten thousand men by way of Oswego
it is not easy to say why ; for the labor of getting
there was greater than that of proceeding directh
upon Montreal. After toiling to Oswego, he descend-
ed the St. Lawrence cautiously, taking possession oi
the feeble works at Ogdensburg; treating the hel]
less Canadians with humanity, and with no loss oi
lives except in passing the rapids, on the seventh of
September he met before Montreal the army under
Murray, who, as he came up from Quebec, had in-
timidated the people and amused himself by now and
then burning a village and hanging a Canadian. The
next day, Haviland arrived with forces from Crown
Point. Thus the three armies came together in over-
whelming strength to take an open town of a few
hundred inhabitants, which Vaudreuil had resolved to
give up on the first appearance of the English ; and
on the eighth day of September, the flag of St. George
floated in triumph on the gate of Montreal, the ad-
mired island of Jacques Cartier, the ancient hearth of
the council-fires of the Wyandots, the village conse-
crated by the Roman Church to the Virgin Mary, a

POSSESSION TAKEN OF THE COUNTRY ON TIIE LAKES. 361

site connected by rivers and lakes with an inland chap.

XVI.

world, and needing only a somewhat milder climate to ^-^
be one of the most attractive spots on the continent. 1760.
The capitulation included all Canada, which was said
to extend to the crest of land dividing branches of
Erie and Michigan from those of the Miami, the
Wabash, and the Illinois rivers. Property and reli-
gion were cared for in the terms ; but for civil liberty
no stipulation was even thought of. Thus Canada,
under the forms of a despotic administration, came
into the possession of England by conquest ; and in a
conquered country the law was held to be the pleasure
of the king.

On the fifth day after the capitulation, Rogers
departed with two hundred rangers to carry English
banners to the upper posts.1 At Frontenac, now
Kingston, an Indian hunting-party brought them wild
fowl and venison. At Niagara, they provided them-
selves with the fit costume of the wilderness. From
Erie in the chilly days of November they went
forward in boats, being the first considerable party of
men whose tongue was the English that ever spread
sails on Lake Erie or swept it with their oars. The
Indians on the Lakes were at peace, united under Pon-
tiac, the great chief of the Ottawas, happy in a coun-
try fruitful of corn and abounding in game. As the
Americans advanced triumphantly towards the realms
where the native huntsman had chased the deer
through the unbroken woodlands, they were met at
the mouth of a river2 by a deputation of Ottawas

1 Rogers: Journals, 197. Journal, 214. The River was not

* Rogers: Concise Account of the Cuyahoga, but one forty-six

North America, 240. Rogers : miles to the eastward of the river

362

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, from the west. " Pontiac," said they, " is the chief
.^^ and lord of the country you are in ; wait till he can
1760. see you with his own eyes."

When Pontiac and Rogers met, the savage chief-
tain asked, — " How have you dared to enter my
country without my leave ?" " I come," replied the
English agent, " with no design against the Indians,
but to remove the French out of your country ;" and
he gave the wampum of peace. But Pontiac re-
turned a belt, which arrested the march of the party,
till his leave should be granted.

The next day, the chief sent presents of bags oi
parched corn, and, at a second meeting, smoked the
calumet with the American leader, inviting him to
pass onward unmolested, with an escort of warriors,
to assist in driving his herd of oxen along the shore.
The tribes southeast of Erie were told that the
strangers came with his consent ; yet while he studied
to inform himself how wool could be changed into
cloth, how iron could be extracted from the earth,
how warriors could be disciplined like the English, he
spoke as an independent prince, who would not brook
the presence of white men within his dominions but
at his pleasure.

After this interview, Rogers hastened to the
straits which connect Erie and St. Clair, and took
possession of Detroit. Thus was Michigan won by
Great Britain, yet not for itself. There were those

then called the Elk, and one hun-
dred nine and a half miles to the east-
ward from Sandusky Bay. Howe's
Ohio, 125. See the maps of Evans,
1755, and of T. Pownall, 1776.
On parting from Pontiac, Rogers
says lie kept a southwesterly course
for about forty- eight miles ; which

could not be done by a vessel sail-
ing from Cleveland to Sandusky.
Rogers seems not accurate, though
professing to be so to the half or
the quarter of a mile. The dis-
tances appear to refer to the Ashta-
bula River; the name Chogage to
the Geauga.

^SESSION TAKEN OF THE COUNTRY ON THE LAKES. 363

who foresaw that the acquisition of Canada was the chap.
prelude of American independence. ^— y-^

1760.

England began hostilities for Nova Scotia and the
Ohio. These she had gained, and had added Canada
and Guadaloupe. "I will snatch at the first moment
of peace," said Pitt. " The desire of my heart," said
George the Second to parliament, "is to see a stop
pat to the eflusion of blood ;" and the public mind
iras discussing how far the conquests should be re-
tained. So great a subject of consideration had never
before presented itself to British statesmen.

" We have had bloodshed enough," urged Pulte-
nev, Earl of Bath, who, when in the House of Com-
mons, had been cherished in America as the friend
of its liberties, and who now in his old age pleaded
for the termination of a truly national war by a solid
and reasonable peace. u Our North American con-
quests," said he to Pitt and Newcastle, and to the
world, " cannot be retaken. Give up none of
them ; or you lay the foundation of another war."
" Unless we would choose to be obliged to keep
great bodies of troops in America, in full peace, we
can never leave the French any footing in Canada."
"Not Senegal and Goree, nor even Guadaloupe,
ought to be insisted upon as a condition of peace, pro-
vided Canada be left to us." Such seemed " the infi-
nite consequence of North America," which, by its
increasing inhabitants, would consume British manu-
factures ; by its trade, employ innumerable British
ships ; by its provisions, support the sugar islands ;
by its products, fit out the whole navy of England.

Peace, too, was to be desired in behalf of Eng-
land's ally, the only Protestant sovereign in Germany

364

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, who could preserve the privileges of his religion
^^i, front being trampled under foot. " How calmly,"
1760. said Bath, "the King of Prussia possesses himse]
under distress ! how ably he can extricate himself !"
having " amazing resources in his own unbounde<
genius." " The warm support of the Protestant na
tion" of Great Britain must be called forth, or a th<
war begun to wrest Silesia from him" would, " in th<
end, be found to be a war" to " overturn the liberties
and religion of Germany."

Peace was, moreover, to be solicited from love t<
political freedom. The increase of the navy, army,
and public debt, and the consequent influence of th(
crown, was " much too great for the independency o1
the constitution." *

The generous and wise sentiments of the Earl oi
Bath were acceptable to the people of England. Bu1
there were not wanting a reflecting few who doubted.
Foremost among them, William Burke,2 the kinsmai
and friend, and often the associate, of Edmunc
Burke, found arguments for retaining Guadaloupe h
the opportunity it would afford of profitable invesi
ment, the richness of the soil, the number of i1
slaves, the absence of all rivalry between Englan<
and a tropical island. Besides, he added, to alarm
countrymen, " if the people of our colonies find n<
check from Canada, they will extend themselves al-

1 Earl of Bath's Letter to Two
Great Men, &c, 1760.

8 Remarks on the Letter to Two
Great Men. Compare Almon's
Biographical Anecdotes of Emi-
nent Persons, ii. 347. " Mr. Wil-
liam Burke has always been said

and believed to have been the au-
thor." I know no authority foi
attributing the pamphlet to Ed-
mund Burke ; but compare on th<
intimacy between the two, Ed-
mund Burke's Correspondence, i.
36.

POSSESSION TAKEN OF THE COUNTRY ON TTLE LAKES. 365

most without bound into the inland parts. They will chap.
increase infinitely from all causes. What the conse- t_^_
quence will be, to have a numerous, hardy, indepen- 1760.
dent people, possessed of a strong country, communi-
cating little or not at all with England, I leave to
your own reflections."

"By eagerly grasping at extensive territory, we
may run the risk, and in no very distant period, of
losing what we now possess. A neighbor that keeps
us in some awe is not always the worst of neigh-
bors. So that, far from sacrificing Guadaloupe to
Canada, perhaps, if we might have Canada without
any sacrifice at all, we ought not to desire it. There
should be a balance of power in America." And the
writer revealed his connections by advising, that, as
the war had been " an American war," * Lord Hali-
fax," one of the " few" whom " inclinations, studies,
opportunities, and talents had made perfectly masters
of the state and interests of the colonies," should be
appointed to negotiate peace.

Private letters1 from Guadaloupe gave warning
that a country of such vast resources, and so distant
as North America, could never remain long subject
to Britain. The acquisition of Canada would
stremrthen America to revolt. " One can foresee
these events clearly," said the unnamed writer ; " it is
no gift of prophecy. It is a natural and unavoidable
consequence, and must appear so to every man
whose head is not too much affected with popular
madness or political enthusiasm. The islands, from
their weakness, can never revolt ; but, if we acquire
all Canada, we shall soon find North America itself

1 Almon's Anecdotes of the Earl of Chatham, iii. Appendix M.

366

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, too powerful and too populous to be governed by us

^^i, at a distance."

1760. If Canada were annexed, " the Americans," it was
objected in conversation, "would be at leisure to
manufacture for .themselves, and throw off their de-
pendence on the mother country." 1

On the other side, Benjamin Franklin, having many
in England and all reflecting men in his native land for
his hearers, replying to Burke, defended the annexation
of Canada as the only mode of securing America. The
Indians, from the necessity of commerce, would cease
to massacre the planters, and cherish perpetual peace.
There would be no vast inland frontier to be de-
fended against France, at an incalculable expense.
The number of British subjects would, indeed, in-
crease more rapidly than if the mountains should
remain their barrier ; but they would be more dif-
fused, and their employment in agriculture would
free England from the fear of American manufactures.

"With Canada in our possession," he remarked,
" our people in America will increase amazingly. I
know that their common rate of increase is doubling
their numbers every twenty-five years, by natural
generation only, exclusive of the accession of foreign-
ers. This increase continuing would, in a century
more, make the British subjects on that side the
water more numerous than they now are on this."
Should the ministry surrender their own judgment to
the fears of others, it would " prevent the assuring to
the British name and nation a stability and perma-
nency that no man acquainted with history durst have

1 Rutherford's Importance of the Colonies, 9, 10.

POSSESSION TAKEN OF THE COUNTRY ON THE LAKES. 30?

hoped for, till our American possessions opened the chap.
pleasing prospect." w^L

To the objection, that England could supply only 1760.
the seacoast, that the inhabitants of the interior must
manufacture for themselves, Franklin evoked from
futurity the splendid vision of wide navigation on the
(Treat rivers and inland seas of America. Even the
poor Indian on Lake Superior was already able to
pay for wares furnished from French and English
factories ; and would not industrious farmers, here-
after settled in those countries, be better able to pay
for what should be brought them ?

" The trade to the West India Islands," he con-
tinued, " is undoubtedly a valuable one ; but it has
lone: been at a stand. The trade to our northern
colonies is not only greater, but yearly increasing
with the increase of people ; and even in a greater
proportion, as the people increase in wealth."

" That their growth may render them dangerous
I have not the least conception. We have already
fourteen separate governments on the maritime coast
of the continent; and shall probably have as many
more behind them on the inland side. Their jeal-
ousy of each other is so great, they have never been
able to effect a union among themselves, nor even to
agree in requesting the mother country to establish
it for them. If they could not agree to unite for
their defence against the French and Indians, who
were perpetually harassing their settlements, burning
their villages, and murdering their people, is there
any danger of their uniting against their own nation,
which they all love much more than they love one
another ?

u Such a union is impossible, without the most

368 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, grievous tyranny and oppression. People who Lave
^^ property in a country, which they may lose, and
1760. privileges which they may endanger, are generally
disposed to be quiet, and even to bear much, rather
than hazard all. While the government is mild and
just, while important civil and religious rights are
secure, such subjects will be dutiful and obedient.
The waves do not rise, but when the winds blow."
Thus Franklin offered the great advice which
sprung from his love of English freedom and his truly
American heart. Appealing also to the men of let-
ters, he communed with David Hume on the jealousy
of trade ; and shared the more agreeable system o
economy that promised to the world freedom of com-
merce, a brotherhood of the nations, and mutual
benefits from mutual prosperity. He rejoiced tha
the great master of English historic style, — who by
his natural character and deliberate opinion was at
heart a republican,1 — loved to promote by his writ-
ings that common good of mankind, which the Amer-
ican, inventing a new form of expression, called " the
interest of humanity;"2 and he summoned before
the mind of the Scottish philosopher that audience
of innumerable millions which a century or two would
prepare in America for all who should use English
well. England cheerfully and proudly accepted the
counsels which his magnanimity inspired. Promising
herself wealth from colonial trade, she was also occu-
pied by the thought of filling the wilderness, instruct-
ing it with the products of her intelligence, and
blessing it with free institutions. Homer sang from

1 Hume's Correspondence in Bur- 2 Franklin to name, 27 Sept ,
ton's Life of Hume. 1760. Writings, viii. 210.

POSSESSION TAKEN OF THE COUNTRY ON THE LAKES. 369

isle to isle ; the bards of England would find " hear- chap.
ers in every zone," and in the admiration of genius ^^L
continent respond to continent. 17 go.

Pitt would not weigh the West India islands
against half a hemisphere ; he desired to retain them
both ; but being overruled in the cabinet he held fast
to Canada. The liberties of the English in America
were his delight ; he made it his glory to extend the
boundaries throughout which they were to be enjoy-
ed ; and yet, at that very time the Board of Trade
retained the patronage and internal administration of
the colonies, and were persuaded more than ever of
the necessity of radical changes in the government in
favor of the central authority. While they waited
for peace as the proper season for their interference,
Thomas Pownall, the Governor of Massachusetts, a
statesman who had generous feelings, but no logic,
flashes of sagacity, but no clear comprehension, who
from inclination associated with liberal men, even
while he framed plans for strengthening the preroga-
tive, affirmed, and many times reiterated, that the
independence of America was certain, and near at
hand. " Not for centuries," replied Hutchinson, who
knew the strong affection of New England for the
home of its fathers.1

But the Lords of Trade shared the foreboding. In
every province, the people, from design, or from their
nature and position, seemed gradually confirming
their sway. Virginia, once " so orderly," had assum-
ed the right of equitably adjusting the emoluments
secured by law to the Church. In 1759, Sherlock,

1 See Hutchinson to T. Pownall, 8 March, 1766, where Pownall is
reminded of the prophecy.

vol IV. 24

370 THE AMEBIC AN EE VOLUTION.

ottaf. then Bishop of London, had confided his griefs to the
^_^_, Board of Trade, at " the great change in the temper
1760. of the people of Virginia." "It is surely high time,"
said he, " to look about us and consider of the several
steps lately taken to the diminution of the preroga-
tive of the crown. The rights of the clergy and the
authority of the king must stand or fall together."

" Connecticut," wrote a royalist Churchman, in
July, 17 GO, to Seeker, the Archbishop of Canterbury,
" Connecticut is little more than a mere democracy ;
most of them upon a level, and each man thinkim
himself an able divine and politician ;" and to make
them " a good sort of people," he urged upon Halifax
and Pitt, that "the Church should be supported,"
" and the charters of that colony, and of its eastward
neighbors, be demolished." "The present republi-
can form of those governments was indeed pernicious.
The people were rampant in their high notions of
liberty, and thence perpetually running into intrigue
and faction ;" and he advocated an act of parliament
establishing one model for all America. As " a prin-
ciple of union," a viceroy, or lord-lieutenant, was to
be appointed, with a council of two from each prov-
ince, like the Amphictyons of Greece, to consult for
union, stability, and the good of the wmole ; and
" there being the strongest connection between fear-
ing God and honoring the king," " prayer" was made
for " bishops, at least two or three." *

In the winter after the taking of Quebec, the ru-
mor got abroad of the fixed design in England to
remodel the provinces.2 Many officers of the British

1 From the draught of a corres- 2 John Adams; Works, iv. 6, 7.
pondence with Archbishop Seeker.

POSSESSION TAKEN OF THE COUNTRY ON THE LAKES. 371

army expressed the opinion openly, that America chap.
should be compelled to yield a revenue at the disposi- ^ — ■
tion of the crown. Some of them, at New York, 176°
suggested such a requisition of quitrents, as would be
virtually a general land-tax, by act of parliament.
"While I can wield this weapon," cried Livingston,
the large landholder, grasping his sword, "England
shall never get it but with my heart's blood."1 In
the Assembly at New York, which had been chosen
in the previous year, the popular party was strength-
ened by those who battled with Episcopacy, and
the Livingstons, descendants of Scottish Presbyteri-
ans, were recognised as its leaders. Of these were
Philip, the popular alderman, a merchant of New
York, and William, who represented his brother's
manor, a scholar, and an able lawyer, the incorrupti-
ble advocate of civil and religious liberty, in manners
plain, by his nature republican. Nor may Robert R.
Livingston, of Duchess County, be forgotten, — an
only son, hen to very large estates, a man of spirit
and honor, keenly sensitive to right, faultless as a son,
a son-in-law, a husband, possessing a gentleness of
nature and a candor that ever endeared him to the
friends of freedom.

In the opinion of Cadwallader Colden, the presi-
dent of the Council,2 u the democratical or popular
part" of the American constitution " was too strong
for the other parts, and in time might swallow them
both up, and endanger the dependence of the plan-

1 Reunion of Great Britain, &c., tenant-governor, and after the death
88. of Delaneey. He includes in his

2 This plan is in Colden 1s hand- plan permanent commissions to the
writing. No date is annexed ; but judges, which was the subject that
Its genera] tone points to the year at that time occupied his mind.
1700, just before he was made lieu-

372

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, tations on the crown of Great Britain." His renie*
J^_ dies were, " a perpetual revenue," fixed salaries, and
1760 "an hereditary council of privileged landholders, in
imitation of the Lords of parliament." At the same
time, he warned against the danger of applying a
standing revenue to favorites, or bestowing beneficial
employments on strangers alone, to the great dis-
couragement of the people of the plantations. In*
fluenced by a most "favorable opinion" of Colden's
" zeal for the rights of the crown," Lord Halifax
conferred on him the vacant post of lieutenant-gov-
ernor of New York.1

In the neighboring province of New Jersey,
Francis Bernard, as its governor, a royalist, selected
for office by Halifax, had, from 1758, the time of his
arrival in America, been brooding over the plans for
enlarging royal power which he afterwards reduced
to form. But Pennsylvania, of all the colonies, led
the van of what the royalists called " Democracy."
Its Assembly succeeded in obtaining its governor's
assent to their favorite assessment bill, by which the
estates of the proprietaries were subjected to taxa-
tion. They revived and continued for sixteen years
their excise, which was collected by officers of their
own appointment ; and they kept its ." very consider-
able" proceeds solely and entirely at their own dis-
posal. "This act alone," it was thought, "must, in
effect, vest them with almost all the power in that
government." Still, these measures, they said, " did
not yet sufficiently secure their constitution ;" and by
other bills they enlarged popular power, taking from

1 Compare Colden to Halifax, 11 August, 1760, and Colden to John
Pownall, 12 August, 1761.

POSSESSION TAKEN OF THE COUNTRY ON TFTE LAKES. 373

the governor all influence over the judiciary, by chap.
making good behavior its tenure of office. Mary- ^^L,
land repeated the same contests, and adopted the 1760.
same policy.

Already the negative had been wrested from the
Council of Pennsylvania, and from the proprietaries
themselves. The latter, therefore, in March, 1760,
appealed to the king against seventeen acts that had
been passed in 1758 and 1759, "as equally affecting
the royal prerogative, their chartered immunities, and
their rights as men." When, in May, 1760, Franklin
appeared with able counsel to defend the liberties of
his adopted home before the Board of Trade, he
was encountered by Pratt, the attorney-general, and
Charles Yorke, the son of Lord Hardwicke, then the
solicitor-general, who appeared for the prerogative
and the proprietaries. Of the acts complained of, it
was held that some " were unjust to the private for-
tunes of the Penns," and all, by their dangerous
encroachments, " fatal to the constitution in a public
consideration." In behalf of the people it was
pleaded, that the consent of the governor, who was
the deputy of the proprietaries, included the consent
of his principals. To this it was replied, that his
consent was fraudulent, for the amount of his emolu-
ments had depended on his compliance ; that it was
subversive of the constitution for the Assembly first
to take to themselves the supervision of the treasure,
and then to employ it to corrupt the governor. Even
the liberal Pratt, as well as Yorke, " said much of
the intention to establish a democracy, in place of his
Majesty's government," and urged upon " the propri-
etaries their duty of resistance." The Lords of Trade
found that in Pennsylvania, as in every other colony,

374

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. " the delegates far exceeded the largest claims of the
xvi . .

^^L, House of Commons, not only by raising the money,

17 go. but by investing themselves with the sole application
of it, and usurping by this means the most valuable
prerogative of the executive power." The Board,
therefore, in June, assured the cabinet ministers, that
" experience had shown how vain it was to negotiate
away his Majesty's authority, since every new con-
cession became a foundation for some new demand,
and that of some new dispute ;" and they recom-
mended that " the constitution should be brought
back to its proper principles, to restore to the crown,
in the person of the proprietaries, its just preroga-
tive, to check the growing influence of assemblies,
by distinguishing, what they are perpetually con-
founding, the executive from the legislative power."

When, in July, the subject was discussed before
the Privy Council, Lord Mansfield made the extraor-
dinary motion, " that the attorney and solicitor gene-
ral be instructed to report their opinion whether his
Majesty could not disapprove of parts of an act and
confirm other parts of it." 1 But so violent an
attempt to extend the king's prerogative, at the ex-
pense of the people of the colonies and the propri-
etaries, met with no favor.

At last, of the seventeen acts objected to, the six
which encroached most on the executive power were
negatived by the king ; but by the influence of Lord
Mansfield, and against the advice of the Board of
Trade, the assessment bill, which taxed the estates of
the proprietaries, was made the subject of an informal
capitulation between them and the agent of the peo-

Proprietary to Thomas Penn, 22 August, 1760.

POSSESSION TAKEN OF HIE COUNTRY ON THE LAKES. 375

pie of Pennsylvania, and was included among those chap.
tli at were confirmed.

XVI.
1760.

There were two men in England whose interest
in these transactions was especially memorable : Pitt,
(lie secretary of state for America, and Edmund
Burke, a man of letters, at that time in the service
of William Gerard Hamilton, the colleague of Lord
Halifax. Burke shared the opinions of the Board of
Trade, that all the offensive acts of Pennsylvania
should be rejected, and censured with severity the tem-
porizing facility of Lord Mansfield as a feeble and un-
manly surrender of just authority.1 The time was
near at hand when the young Irishman's opinions
upon the extent of British authority over America
would become of moment. Great efforts were made
to win the immediate interposition of William Pitt,
to appall the colonies by his censure, or to mould
them by British legislation. After diligent and
long-continued inquiry, I cannot find that he ever con-
sented to menace any restriction on the freedom of

1 The early life of Edmund name. Edmund came to be agent

Burke is not much known. I have of New York, but at a later day

seen a letter from John Pownall to and under other auspices. At this

Lieut. Gov. Colden of New York, time he acted in the employment

dated 10 January, 1760, recom- of one of the Board of Trade ; and

mending Thomas Burke for the at that Board and in Ireland ren-

post of agent for that colony, and dered service enough to obtain

describing him as a gentleman of through Halifax a pension of £300.

honor, ability, and industry, " who It is observable that Burke never

has particularly made the state reveals any thing relating to his

and interest of our colonies his employers ; and in his historic

study." If this was meant for sketches of the origin of the trou-

Edniund (and thereappears to have bles with America, spares the me-

been no one of the Burkes named mory of Halifax. Indeed the

Thomas), it would seem that the name of Halifax scarcely appears

great orator was not then a person in all his published writings. We

of importance enough tor a patron- may see in what school Burke

izing secretary of the Board of learnt the doctrine of the right of

Trade to remember his christian Parliament to tax America.

I

376 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, the people in the colonies, or even so much as ex-
^^L pressed an opinion that they were more in fault than
1760 the champions of prerogative. So little did he inter-
est himself in the strifes of Pennsylvania, that, during
his whole ministry, Franklin was never once admitted
to his presence. Every one of his letters which I
have seen — and I think I have seen every considerable
one to every colony — is marked by liberality and
respect for American rights; and the governor of
Maryland, who desired taxation by parliament, and
had appealed to the secretary, "in hopes that mea-
sures would have been taken to end the dispute"
between the officers of the crown and the Assembly,
was left to complain " that his Majesty's ministers had
not as yet interfered," that Pitt would " only blame
both houses for their failure to make appropriations."
The threat of interference, on the close of the war,
was incessant from Halifax and the Board of Trade ;
I can trace no such purpose to Pitt.1

Yet a circular from the secretary, who was in-
formed by Amherst that the French islands were
supplied during the war with provisions from Ame-
rica, was connected with the first strong expressions of
discontent in New England. American merchants

1 In the history of the American from it. I have seen Fauquier's

Revolution by the inquisitive but correspondence ; both the letters to

credulous Gordon, Pitt is said to have him, and his replies; and there is

told Franklin, that, " when the war nothing in either of them giving a

closed," he should take measures shadow of corroboration to the

of authority against the colonies, statement. Gordon may have built

This is erroneous. Pitt at that on rumor, or carelessly substituted

time had not even seen Franklin, as the name of Pitt for Halifax and

we know from a memoir by Frank- the Board of Trade. The narrative

lin himself. Gordon adds, that Pitt, in the text I could confirm by many

in 1759 or 1760, wrote to Fauquier, special quotations, and still more

of Virginia, that " they should tax by the uniform tendency of the cor-

the colonies when the war was respnndence at that time between

over," and that Fauquier dissuaded England and America.

POSSESSION TAKEN OF THE COUNTRY ON THE LAKES. 377

were incited, by the French commercial regulations, to chap.
engage in the carrying-trade of the French sugar ^^i
Islands; and they gained by its immense profits. 17 60.
This trade was protected by flags of truce, which
were granted by the colonial governors. u For each
flag," wrote Horatio Sharpe, who longed to share in
the spoils, " for each flag, my neighbor, Governor
Denny, receives a handsome douceur, and I have been
told that Governor Bernard in particular has also done
business in the same way."1 "I," said Fauquier, of
Virginia, " have never been prevailed on to grant
one ; though I have been tempted by large offers, and
pitiful stories of relations lying in French dungeons
for want of such flags." 2 In vehement and imperative
words, Pitt rebuked the practice ; not with a view
permanently to restrain the trade of the continent
with the foreign islands, but only in time of war to
distress the enemy by famine.

In August, the same month in which this impas-
sioned interdict was issued, Francis Bernard, whom
the Board of Trade favored as the most willing friend
to the English Church and to British authority, was
removed from the government of New Jersey to that
of Massachusetts. But the distrust that was never to
be removed, had already planted itself very deeply in
the province. "These English," men said to one
another, " will overturn every thing. We must re-
sist them; and that by force." And they reasoned
together on the necessity of a general attention to the
militia, to their exercises and discipline ; for they

1 Lieutenant Gov. Sharpe to Ids s Fauquier to Pitt, 1760. I have
brother Philip, 8 Feb., 1760. very many letters on this subject.

878 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, repeated, " we must resist in arms." * In September of
__^^ that year, Bernard manifested the purpose of his ar>
17 go. pointment, by informing the legislature of Massachu-
setts " that they derived blessings from their subjec-
tion to Great Britain." Subjection to Great Britai]
was a new doctrine in New England; whose people
professed loyalty to the king, but shunned a ne^
master in the collective people of England. Tin
Council, in its reply, owned only a beneficial M relatioi
to Great Britain ;" the House of Representatives
spoke vaguely of u the connection between the mothei
country and the provinces, on the principles of fili*
obedience, protection, and justice."

The colonists had been promised, after the con-
quest of Canada, that they should " sit quietly under
their own vines and fig-trees, with none to make thei
afraid;" and already they began to fear aggressions
on their freedom. To check illicit trade, the officers
of the customs had even demanded of the Supreme
Court general writs of assistance ; but the writs had
been withheld, because Stephen Sewall, the chief jus-
tice of the province, a man of great integrity, respect-
ed and beloved by the people, doubted their legality.
In September, Sewall died, to the universal sorrow
of the province; and the character of his successor
would control the decision of the court on the legality
of writs of assistance, involving the whole subject of
enforcing the British Acts of Trade by the utmost
exertion of arbitrary and irresponsible discretion ; as
well as the degree of political support which the ju-
diciary would grant to the intended new system of
administration. Had the first surviving judge been
promoted to the vacancy, a place would have been

1 John Adams's Works, iv. 6.

POSSESSION TAKEN OF THE COUNTRY ON THE LAKES. 370

left open for James Otis, of Barnstable, at that time chap.
Bpeaker of the house of representatives, a good s-v^L
lawyer, to whom a former governor had promised 17^o.
a seat on the bench.1 But Bernard appointed
Thomas Hutchinson, originally a merchant by pro-
fession, subservient in his politics, already lieutenant-
governor, councillor, and judge of probate. A burst
of indignation broke from the colony at this union of
such high executive, legislative, and judicial functions
in one person, who was not bred to the law, and was
expected to interpret it for the benefit of the preroga-
tive. Oxenbridge Thacher, a lawyer of great merit,
a man of sagacity and patriotism, respected for learn-
ing, ability, purity of life, and moderation, discerned
the dangerous character of Hutchinson's ambition, and
from this time denounced him openly and always;
while James Otis, the younger, offended as a son and
a patriot, resigned the office of advocate-general, and
by his eloquence in opposition to the royalists, set the
province in a flame. But the new chief justice re-
ceived the iterated application for writs of assistance,
and delayed the decision of the court only till he
could write to England.

There the Board of Trade had matured its system.
They agreed with what Dobbs had written from
North Carolina, that "it was not prudent, when unu-
sual supplies were asked, to litigate any point with
the factious assemblies; but upon an approaching
peace, it would be proper to insist on the king's pre-
rogative." " Lord Halifax," said Seeker of that no-
bleman, about the time of his forfeiting an advanta-

1 Oakes Angiers Journal, i.

380 THE AMEBIC AN REVOLUTION.

chap, geous marriage by a licentious connection with an
^^Ls opera girl, " Lord Halifax is earnest for bishops in
17 60. America," and he hoped for success in that "great
point, when it should please God to bless them with a
peace." The opinions of Ellis, the governor of Geor-
gia, who had represented the want of " a small mili-
tary force" to keep the Assembly from encroach-
ments; of Lyttleton, who, from South Carolina, had
sent word that the root of all the difficulties of the
king's servants lay "in having no standing revenue,"
were kept in mind. " It has been hinted to me,"
said the secretary of Maryland, "that, at the peace,
acts of parliament will be moved for amendment of
government and a standing force in America, and
that the colonies, for whose protection the force will
be established, must bear at least the greatest share
of charge. This," wrote Calvert, in January, 1760,1
" will occasion a tax ;" and he made preparations to
give the Board of Trade his answer to their proposi-
tions on the safest modes of raising a revenue in
America by act of parliament.

" For all what you Americans say of your loy-
alty," observed Pratt, the attorney-general, better
known in America as Lord Camden, to Franklin,
" and notwithstanding your boasted affection, you
will one day set up for independence." "No such
idea," replied Franklin, sincerely, " is entertained by
the Americans, or ever will be, unless you grossly
abuse them." " Very true," rejoined Pratt ; " that I
see will happen, and will produce the event." 2

Peace with foreign states was to bring for Amer-
ica an alteration of charters, a new system of adminis-

1 0. Calvert to H. Sharpe, Jan- 8 Quincy's Life of Quincy. 209.
nary, 1760.

POSSESSION TAKEN OF TIIE COUNTRY ON THE LAKES. 381

tration, a standing army, and for the support of that chap
army a grant of an American revenue by a British ^^i
parliament. The decision was settled, after eleven 17G0.
years' reflection and experience, by Halifax and
his associates at the Board of Trade, and for its exe-
cution needed only a prime minister and a resolute
monarch to lend it countenance. In the midst of
these schemes, surrounded by victory, the aged George
the Second died suddenly of apoplexy ; and on the
morning of the twenty-fifth day of October, 1760, his
grandson, the pupil of Leicester House, then but
twenty-two years of age, while riding with the Earl of
Bute, was overtaken by a secret message that he was
king.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE KING AND THE ARISTOCRACY AGAINST THE GREAT
COMMONER.— GEORGE THE THIRD DRIVES OUT PITT.

1760—1761.

chap. " My horse is lame " said the new king, as a rea-
xvn. . . . .

^^ son for turning back ; nor did he manifest any sign of

1760. emotion or surprise at the intelligence which he had

received. Continuing his concealment, " I have said

this horse was lame," he remarked to the groom at

Kew ; " I forbid you to say the contrary ;" and he

went directly to Carleton House, the residence of his

mother.1

The first person whom he sent for was Newcastle ;

who came in a great hurry as soon as he could " put

on his clothes." None knew better than those who

were to receive the duke, that Pitt had forced a way

into the highest place in the ministry over the heads

of an envious and unwilling aristocracy ; and that,

under a reluctant coalition, there rankled an incurable

alienation between the members of the administration

itself.2

Newcastle had no sooner entered Carleton House,

than Bute came to him, and told him that the king

would see him before any body and before holding a

council. " Compliments from me," he added, " are

1 Walpole's George III. i. 6. of the Present Discontents. Worki

2 BurkeV Thoughts on the Cause i. 862-

KING AXD AKISTOCRACY AGAINST THE PEOPLE. 383

now unnecessary. I have been and shall be your chap.

friend, and you shall see it." The veteran courtier ^^J,

caught at the naked hook as soon as thrown out, and 17 60.
, . xl , . Oct.

answered in the same strain.

The king, so young and so determined to rule,
praised the loyalty of Newcastle, who in return was
profuse of promises.1 " My Lord Bute," said the king,
M is your good friend. He will tell you my thoughts
at large." And before the ashes of the late king
were cold,2 the faithless duke was conspiring with the
new influences on and around the throne to subvert
the system, by which Pitt had not only restored but
exalted his country.

On meeting the council, the king, and with good
reason, appeared agitated and embarrassed ; for his
speech, which had been drawn by Bute, set up adhe-
sion to his plan of government as the test of honesty ;
calumniated the war as " bloody " and expensive ;
and silently abandoned the king of Prussia. New-
castle, who was directed to read it aloud, seemed to
find it unexceptionable ; and opportunely lowered his
voice at the offensive parts, so that his words could
not be distinguished. " Is there any thing wrong in
point of form V asked the king ; and then dismissed
his ministers ; and the declaration was projected, exe-
cuted and entered in the council books without any
previous notice to Pitt.

The Great Commoner was " extremely hurt ;" 8 he
discerned what was plotting ; and after vainly seeking
to inspire Newcastle with truth and firmness,4 he

1 Newcastle himself gives the the publication of Newcastle's letter

account of all this. u I made suita- to llardwicke, 26 Oct., 1760, con--

ble returns." containing his own account of his

8 William Pitt to Nuthall, 10 interview with the king.
Dec, 1765. Chat. Corr. ii. 349. 3 Harris's Hardwicke, iii. 215.
It was not known how literally * Wal pole's Memoirs of George

true was the accusation of Pitt, till III., i. 10.

B84

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, insisted that the address should be amended; that

X V il

, , it was false to say the war had been to Englanf

17 6 0. a bloody war;1 and after an altercation of two oi
three hours with Lord Bute, he extorted the king's
reluctant consent to substitute as his own thes(
words : "As I mount the throne in the midst of ai
expensive but just and necessary war, I shall endeavoi
to prosecute it in a manner most likely to bring oi
an honorable and lasting peace in concert with nr
allies."

The amendments of Pitt gave to the address dig-
nity and nationality. The wound to the royal author-
ity rankled in the breast of the king. He took car(
to distinguish Newcastle above all others ; and on th(
third day after his accession, he called Bute, who w*
but his groom of the stole, and who had forfeite<
Pitt's friendship,2 not to the Privy Council only, bu1
also to the cabinet.3

Nov.

On the last day of October, the king published a
proclamation u for the encouragement of piety, an(
for preventing immorality." This public appeal cor-
responded with his personal habits ; and in a king-
dom, where, for nearly fifty years, the king's mis-
tresses, in rank the peeresses of the highest aris-
tocracy, had introduced vulgarity with licentioi
ness, and had rivalled the ministry in political in-
fluence, the serious people of England were fired
with loyalty towards a monarch who had been trained
in seclusion as temperately and chastely as a nun.

To the draft which Hardwicke and Pitt had made

1 Newcastle to Hardwicke. 8 Walpole's Memoirs of tno

8 Adolphus: Hist, of England, Reign of King George III., i. 8,

1. 11, and Sir Denis Le Marchant's Note.

KING AKD ARISTOCRACY AGAINST THE PEOPLE. 385

for his first speech to parliament, he on his own au- chap.
thority added the words, " Born and educated in this ^^
country, I glory in the name of Briton :" thus putting 1760.
himself with just complacency rather than invidiously
in contrast with his predecessors, who were Hanove-
rians by birth and by affection. A greater concourse
of " tin, beauty and gentility" of the kingdom attend-
ed him at parliament than had ever graced that
assembly.* "His manner," said Ingersoll, of Con-
necticut, who was present, u has the beauty of an
accomplished speaker. He is not only, as a king, dis-
posed to do all in his power to make his subjects
happy, but is undoubtedly of a disposition truly reli-
gious." Horace Walpole echoed the praises of his
grace, dignity, and good-nature; expressed his admi-
ration in courtly verses, and began a friendly corre-
spondence with Bute. "All his dispositions are
good," said Seeker, the archbishop ; " he is a regular,
worthy, and pious young man, and hath the interest
of religion sincerely at heart."1 The poet Churchill
did but echo the voice of the nation, when he wrote :

" Stripped of her gaudy plumes and vain disguise,
See where Ambition, mean and loathsome, lies !
Reflection with relentless hand pulls down
The tyrant's bloody wreath and ravished crown.
In vain he tells of battles bravely won,
Of nations conquered, and of worlds undone.
But if, in searching round the world, we find
Some generous youth, the friend of all mankind,
Whose anger, like the bolt of Jove, is sped
In terrors only at the guilty head,
Whose mercies, like heaven's dew, refreshing fall
In general love and charity to all,
Pleased we behold such worth on any throne,
And doubly pleased, we find it on our own."

1 Seeker to Johnson, 4 Nov., in Chandler's Life of Johnson, 182.
VOL. iv. 25

386

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

CHAI
XVII

Such acclamations welcomed the accession of Geonre

the Third, whom youth and victory, conquest and
176 0. the love of glory, popular acclamation and the voice
of Pitt, the prospect of winning all America and all
the Indies, could not, as it seemed, swerve from the
fixed purpose of moderation in triumph and the ear-
liest practicable peace. But the ruling idea of his
mind, early developed and indelibly branded in, was
the restoration of the prerogative, which in America
the provincial assemblies had resisted and defied ;
which in England had one obstacle in the rising iin-
portance of the people, as represented by Pitt, and
another in the established power of the oligarchy un-
der the banner of Newcastle.1 The man at maturity
is but the continuation of the youth ; from the day of
his accession, George the Third displayed an innate
love of authority, and, with a reluctant yielding to
present obstacles, the reserved purpose of asserting his
self-will, which doomed him in a universe of change
to oppose reform, and struggle continuously, though
hopelessly, against the slow but resistless approaches
of popular power.

u Our young man," 2 wrote Holdernesse, one of the
secretaries of state, " shows great attention to his
affairs, and an earnest desire of being truly informed
of the state of them. He is patient and diligent in
business, and gives evident marks of perspicuity and
good sense." " Nothing can be more amiable, more
virtuous, or better disposed, than our present mon-
arch," reported Barrington,3 the secretary at war, but
a few weeks later ; " he applies himself thoroughly to

1 Burke : Thoughts on the Cause 8 Lord Barrington to Sir An-
of tlie present Discontent. drew Mitchell, 5 Jan., 1761. in the

2 Holdernesse to Mitchell.

British Museum.

KING AND ARISTOCRACY AGAINST THE PEOPLE. 387

his affairs, and understands them astonishingly well, cttap.

. . XVII

His faculties seem to me equal to his good 'intentions. ^^_*
A most uncommon attention, a quick and just concep- 17G0.
lion, great mildness, great civility, which takes no-
thing from his dignity, caution and firmness are
conspicuous in the highest degree." " The king,"
said the chief proprietary of Pennsylvania,1 " attends
daily to business ; shows great steadiness in his reso-
lutions, and is very exact to all his applications, whe-
ther of business or recreation." But Charles Town-
shend, being questioned as to his character, deliber-
ated a moment, and replied, " The young man is very
obstinate ;" and four months had not passed, when
Pratt, the attorney-general, predicted that " this
would be a weak and inglorious reign." *

To place himself above aristocratic dictation and
dictation of all sorts, was the ruling passion of George
the Third ; and for its gratification he was bent on se-
curing " to the court the unlimited and uncontrolled
use of its own vast influence under the sole direction of
its private favor."8 For his instrument in accomplish-
ing this purpose, he cherished the Earl of Bute, whom
he valued only because he found in him an obsequious
friend, ready to give effect to the new system ; and
within five weeks from the commencement of his
reign, Bute was planning how to make a place for
himself among the ministers. To the party of the
court he brought no strength whatever. He had
neither experience, nor political connections, nor
powerful family friendships, nor great capacity ; and

1 Penn to Hamilton. of the Present Discontent. Works,

2 Nicholas Recollections. i. 358.

3 Burke: Thoughts on the Cause

388

TIIE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, owed his public distinction solely to the royal favor.

XVII. . . .

He was to* the king such a confidential companion as
the attendant on a heroine in the plays of the earlier
French dramatists. By theory he acquiesced in royal
authority. He was inferior to George the Third, even
in those qualities in which that prince was most de-
ficient ; greatly his inferior in vigor of understanding
and energy of character. The one had a daring har-
dihood and self-relying inflexibility, which danger
could not startle and the dread of responsibility
could not appall ; while Bute, who was timid by na-
ture, united persistence with pusillanimity ; and as a
consequence, had the habit of duplicity. He was
ignorant of men and ignorant of business, without sa-
gacity or courage ; so that it is difficult to express ade-
quately his unfitness for the conduct of a party, or the
management of the foreign relations and public affairs
of his country.

Had Bute been left to his own resources, he must
have failed from the beginning. Even his earnest
desire to restore peace could not have brought about
his advancement ; the way was opened for him by
the jealous impatience of the aristocracy at power
derived, independently of themselves, from the good
opinion of the people of England. " The ministers
will drop off, ere long," wrote the vain, rich Doding-
ton ; " think with yourself and your royal master of
proper persons to fill up the first rank with you, in

case of death or desertion Remember, my

noble and generous friend, that to recover monarchy
from the inveterate usurpation of oligarchy is a point
too arduous and important to be achieved without
much difficulty and some degree of danger." " They
•will beat every thing," said Glover, of Bute and the

KING AND ARISTOCRACY AGAINST THE PEOPLE. 389

kin<r : " only a little time must be allowed for the chap

° . XVII.

madness of popularity to cool." But from that day ^
forward, "popularity," as the influence and power of 1760.
the people were sometimes called by the public men
of England, was the movement of the age, which
could as little be repressed as Providence dethroned ;
and George, who hated it almost to madness, was the
instrument chosen by Heaven to accelerate that
movement, till it proceeded with a force which
involved the whole human race, and could not be
checked by all the weight of ancient authority.

The king was eager to renounce the connection 1761,
with Prussia, and to leave that kingdom to meet its
own ruin, while he negotiated separately with France ;
but Pitt prevailed with the cabinet to renew the
annual treaty with Frederic, and with parliament to
vote the subsidy without a question. u He has no
thought of abandoning the continent," said Bute, in
January ; " he is madder than ever." But Newcastle,
clinging fondly to office, and aware of the purposes
of the king, shrunk from sustaining the secretary, and
professed himself most sincerely desirous of peace,
most willing to go any length to obtain it. Pitt, on
his part, never ceased to despise the feebleness, and
never forgave the treachery of Newcastle. "They
neither are nor can be united," said Bute ; and early
in January, 1761, his friends urged him " to put him-
self at the head, in a great office of business, and to
take the lead."

But Newcastle began also to be conscious of his
own want of favor. He had complained to Bedford,
whc despised him, M of the very little weight he had
in the closet, and of the daily means used to let him
have as little in the coming parliament, and talked of

390

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, resignation ;" then, conspiring against Pitt and suT>
^~L mitting to every thing, he remained at his post. In
1761. the approaching election, he was thwarted in his
desire to use for his own purposes his old system of
corruption ; but of whatever he complained, it was
answered, " The king had ordered it so." To the
king's boroughs the king himself would name. Where
a public order gave permission to the voters in the
king's interest, to vote as they pleased, a private one
was annexed, " naming the person for whom they
were all to vote ;" and Newcastle was limited to those
where the crown had only an influence. " The new
Feb. parliament," said Bute, confidently, " will be the
king's." George the Third began his reign by com-
peting with the aristocracy at the elections for the
majority in that body ; and in the choice of the
twelfth parliament, his first effort was successful.

Changes in the cabinet were preparing. From the
opening of the new reign Holdernesse had been ready
to quarrel with his fellow-ministers, and throw up in
seeming anger, so that Bute might then come in with-
out appearing to displace any one. But this was too
foolish a scheme to be approved of. " It is very easy,"
thought the Favorite, in February, " to make the
Duke of Newcastle resign, but who is to take it ?" He
had not courage to aim at once at the highest station.

March On the nineteenth of March, 1761, as the session
closed, the eleventh parliament of Great Britain was
dissolved. On the same day, to gratify a grudge of
George the Third, conceived when Prince of Wales,
Legge, the chancellor of the exchequer, was dismissed.
When it was known that that officer was to be turned
out, George Grenville, who piqued himself on his

KTXG AXD ARISTOCRACY AGAINST THE PEOPLE. 301

knowledge of finance, "expressed to his brother-in- chap.

. XVII.

law his desire of the vacant place ; but Pitt took no ^^-J.
notice of Ins wishes, upon which a coolness commenced lToi.

Aturcb

between them." "Fortune," exclaimed Barrington,
on receiving the appointment, " may at last make me
pope. I am equally fit to be at the head of the
Church as of the exchequer. But no man knows
what is good for him. My invariable rule, therefore,
is. to ask nothing, to refuse nothing." He was willing
to serve with any ministry, making the king's wish
his only oracle.

Two days later, the resignation of Holdernesse
was purchased by a pension, with the reversion of the
wardenship of the Cinque Ports for life ; and Bute,
on the king's own recommendation,1 accepting Charles
Jenkinson, afterwards Earl of Liverpool, as his confi-
dential secretary, took the seals for the Northern
Department.

At the same time an office was given to Sir
Francis Dashwood, the open and resolute opponent
of Pitt's engagements with Germany; and Charles
Townshend, described by Hume as "the cleverest
fellow in England," celebrated for his knowledge of
America, and his zeal for new-modelling its govern-
ments, " swore allegiance to Bute," at least for a time,
and was made secretary at war. He who holds that
post is not a member of the cabinet, but rather the
king's military secretary ; and, as such, is frequently
admitted to the closet. Townshend was ever careful
to cultivate the favor of his sovereign. He was, in
parliament and in life, " for ever on the rack of exer-

1 Tlmt Jenkinson was recom- by Bute to the kincr, I liave ro-
niended by the kin^ to Bute, and ceived from private information of
not, as is sometimes said, :ntroduced the highest authority.

392 TIIE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, tion ;" of ill-regulated ambition ; unsteady in his polit*
v_i_ ical connections ; inclining always to the king, yet so
1761. conscious of the power conferred on him in the House
of Commons by his eloquence, as never to become the
servant of the king's friends. Too able to be depend-
ent, too indifferent to liberty to advocate it freely, he
floated between the two parties, not from change of
views, but because, from his nature and his convic-
tions, he was attached sincerely to neither.

In the House of Commons, Charles Townshend
never feared to appear as the rival of the minister;
that there might also be in the cabinet one man who
dared to stand up against Pitt, contradict him, and
oppose his measures, the Duke of Bedford, though
without employment, was, by the king's command,
summoned to attend its meetings. The Duke was
indifferent to office, and incapable of guile ; as bold
and as open as Pitt, and more regardless of conse-
quences. Halifax, who had so long been trained
at the Board of Trade to the assertion of the preroga-
tive, was sent as Lord Lieutenant to carry out the
system in Ireland ; while the patronage and chief cor-
respondence with the American colonies were taken
from the Board of Trade, and restored to the South-
ern Department.

These changes in the cabinet hastened the period
of conflict with the colonies ; the course of negotia-
tions for peace between England and France was
still more momentous for America.

" Since we do not know how to make war," said
Choiseul, "we must make peace." Choiseul had
succeeded Bernis, as the minister of foreign affairs ;
in January, 1761, had, on the death of Belle-Isle,

KING AND ARISTOCRACY AGAINST TIIE PEOPLE. 393

become minister of war, and soon annexed to these chap.

. . XVII

departments the care of the marine. " It is cer- L^^L
tain," said Grimaldi, the Spanish ambassador at Paris, 17G1.
" the}' ardently wish for a negotiation for peace here."
Kaunitz, of Austria, who might well believe that
Silesia was about to be recovered for his sovereign,
interposed objections. " We have these three years,"
answered Choiseul, " been sacrificing our interests in
America to serve the queen of Hungary ; we can do
it no longer." " France will not be bound by the
will of her allies." * Spain saw with alarm the dispo-
sition for peace ; she had demanded the evacuation of
the British posts in the Bay of Honduras, and on the
shore of Campeachy; and in the pride of maritime
ascendency, England, violating treaties and its own
recognition of its obligations, required that Spain
should first come into stipulations for the continuance
of the trade which had occasioned the intrusive settle-
ments. Unwilling to be left to negotiate alone, Gri-
maldi, urging the utmost secrecy, " began working to
see if he could make some protecting alliance with
France." " You have waited," he was answered, " till
we are destroyed, and you are consequently of no use."
And on the twenty-fifth day of March, within five
days of Bute's accession to the cabinet, on occasion of
proposing a general congress at Augsburg, for the
pacification of the Continent, Choiseul offered to nego-
tiate separately with England. Pitt assented. Little April
did the two great statesmen foresee that their at-
tempts at a treaty of peace would only generate per-
manent passions and alliances, which would leave

1 Flassan: vi. 377, 381. Grimaldi to Fuentes in Chatham Corres-
pondence, ii. 92.

394 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. England without a friend in its coining contest with
America.

Clioiseul was, like Pitt, a statesman of consum-
mate ability ; but while Pitt overawed by the author-
itative grandeur of his designs, the lively and indis-
creet Choiseul had the genius of intrigue. He was
by nature an agitator, and carried into the cabinet
restless activity and the arts of cabal. Pitt treated
all subjects with stateliness; Choiseul discussed the
most weighty in jest. Of high rank and great wealth,
he was the first person at court, and virtually the sole
minister. Did the king's mistress, who had ruled his
predecessor, interfere with affairs ? He would reply,
that she was handsome as an angel, but throw her
memorial into the fire ; and with railleries and sar-
casms, he maintained his exclusive power by a clear
superiority of spirit and resolution.1 For personal
intrepidity he was distinguished even among the
French gentry, so remarkable for courage ; and as he
carried the cabinet by his decided character, so he
brought into the foreign politics of his country as
daring a mind as animated any man in France or
England. It was the judgment of Pitt, that he was
the greatest minister France had seen since the days
of Richelieu. In depth, refinement, and quick percep-
tions, he had no superior ; and his freedom from
prejudice opened his mind aud affections to the philo-
sophic movement of his age. No motive of bigotry
or antipathy could lead him to crush the power of
Frederic, or to subject France to the influence of a
state still overshadowed, like Austria, by the cum-
brous forms and superstitions of the Middle Age. To

4 Stanley to Pitt.

KING AND AKISTOCRACY AGAINST TIIE PEOPLE. 395

the Dauphin, who cherished the traditions of the past, ciiap
he said, "I may one day be your subject, your ser- ^J,
vaiit never." A free-thinker, an enemy to the cler- 1761.
gy, and above all to the Jesuits, he united himself
eely with the parliaments, and seemed to know that
public opinion was beginning to outweigh that of the
monarch. Perceiving that America was lost to
Prance, he proposed, as the basis of the treaty, that
'tlic two crowns should remain each in the possession
of what it had conquered from the other ;" and while
lie named epochs from which possession was to date
in every continent, he was willing that England itself
should suggest other periods. On this footing, which
left all Canada, Senegal, perhaps Goree also, and
the ascendency in the East Indies to England, and to
France nothing but Minorca to exchange for her
losses in the West Indies, all Paris believed peace to
be certain. George the Third wished it from his
heart ; and though Fuentes, the Spanish ambassador
at London, irritated by the haughtiness of Pitt,
breathed nothing but war, though the king of Spain
proposed to France an alliance offensive and defen-
sive, Choiseul, consulting the well-being of his ex-
hausted country, sincerely desired repose.

But the hardy and unaccommodating nature of Pitt,
inflamed by success, was unfit for the work of recon-
ciliation. He expected, and had led his countrymen
to expect, that the marked superiority of England
would be imprinted on the treaty of peace. He
accepted as the basis, that each nation should retain
its acquisitions ; but delayed the settlement of the
epochs, till the fleet of one hundred and fifteen
vessels, which had sailed on the very day of his
answer to the proposition of Choiseul, could make the

396 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, conquest of the island of Belle-Isle. This is the
^^_ great stain on the fame of William Pitt. Every
17Gf- object of the war had been accomplished; but he
insisted on its continuance for the purpose of making
more extended acquisitions. England may forgive a
lofty and impassioned attachment to her greatness:
impartial history awards the palm to the tempered
ambition of the young sovereign, who desired the
purer glory of arresting victory by a reasonable
peace.

"There may be quarrelling yet," predicted Gri-
May. maldi. To further the negotiations, Bussy repaired
to London, furnished with authority to offer bribes to
members of the English cabinet ; * and the circumspect,
distrustful Hans Stanley, who dared only reflect the
will of his employer, made his way to Paris. But
the frank haughtiness and inflexibility of Pitt were
apparent from the beginning ; and Choiseul, deluding
himself no more with belief in peace, employed the
remaining years of his ministry to unite around France
the defenders of the freedom of the seas,
lune. Still the negotiation continued, and subjects of

detail were brought into discussion. Here the great-
ness of Pitt appeared, in his quickness of perception,
his comprehensiveness, and sagacity ; in the energy of
his nervous, imperative dialectics, resting on exact
information, and throwing light on the most abstruse
questions. Concede that a continuance of the war
was no crime against humanity, and the courage,
sagacity, and prudent preparations of Pitt must extort
admiration.

1 Hassan -• Hist, de la Diplomatic Francaise, vi. 399.

KING AND ARISTOCRACY AGAINST THE PEOPLE. 39?

With regard to the German war, France proposed chap.
that England, on recovering Hanover, should refrain s^^J.
from interference. In favor of this policy a large 17 61,
party existed in England itself, and had its head in une*
the king, its open supporter in the Duke of Bedford.
The king of Prussia, whose chances of ruin, even with
I he aid of England, were computed as three to one,
knew that George the Third was indifferent to his
interests and disliked his character; and his ministers
had reported that Bute and the British king would
advise him to make peace by the sacrifice of territory.
u How is it possible," such were the words addressed
1 > y Frederic 1 to Pitt, " how can the English nation
propose to me to make cessions to my enemies ; that
nation which has guarantied my possessions by au-
thentic acts, known to the whole world ? I have not
always been successful ; and what man in the universe
can dispose of fortune ? Yet, in spite of the number
of my enemies, I am still in possession of a part of
Saxony, and I am firmly resolved never to yield it
but on condition that the Austrians, the Russians, and
the French shall restore to me every thing that they
have taken from me.

" I govern myself by two principles : the one is
honor, and the other the interest of the State which
Heaven has given me to rule. The laws which these
principles prescribe to me are, first, never to do an
act for which I should have cause to blush, if I were
to render an account of it to my people ; and the
second, to sacrifice for the welfare and glory of my
country the last drop of my blood. With these
maxims I can never yield to my enemies. Rome,

• Chatham Corr., ii. 109, 111, without date.

398 THE AMEBIC AN KEVOLUTION.

chap after the battle of Cannae, — your great Queen Eliza
^^Js beth, against Philip the Second and the invincible
1701. armada, — Gustavus Vasa, who restored Sweden, — the
Prince of Orange, whose magnanimity, valor, and
perseverance founded the republic of the United
Provinces, — these are the models I follow. You, who
have grandeur and elevation of soul, disapprove my
choice, if you can,

u All Europe turns its eye on the beginning of the
reign of kings, and by the first fruits infers the future.
The king of England has but to elect, whether, in
negotiating peace, he will think only of his own king-
dom, or, preserving his word and his glory, he will
also have care for the welfare of his allies. If he
chooses the latter course, I shall owe him a lively
gratitude ; and posterity, which judges kings, will
crown him with benedictions."

"Would to God," replied Pitt, "that the moments
of anxiety for the states and the safety of the most
invincible of monarchs were entirely passed away f
and Stanley, in his first interview with Choiseul,
avowed the purpose of England to support its great
ally " with efficacy and good faith." But France had
no motive to ruin Prussia ; a just regard for whose
interests would have been no insurmountable obstacle
to the peace.

When France expressed a hope of recovering
Canada, as a compensation for her German conquests,
" They must not be put in the scale," said Pitt to
Bussy. " The members of the Empire and your own
allies will never allow you to hold one inch of ground
in Germany. The whole fruit of your expeditions,
after the immense waste of treasure and men, will be
to make the house of Austria more powerful."

KIXG AND ARISTOCRACY AGAINST TTTE TEOPLE. 899

wonder," said Choiseul to Stanley, "that your great chap
Pitt should be so attached to the acquisition of ^^

.id a. The inferiority of its population will never 1.7.61..
goffer it to be dangerous ; and being in the hands of mic'
France, it will always be of service to you to keep
y< >ur colonies in that dependence which they will not
fail to shake off, the moment Canada shall be ceded."1
And he readily consented to abandon that province
to England.

The restitution of the merchant-ships, which the
English cruisers had seized before the war, was justly
demanded. They were afloat on the ocean, under
every guaranty of safety ; they were the property of
private citizens, who knew nothing and could know
nothing of the diplomatic disputes of the two coun-
tries. The capture was unjustifiable by every reason
•of equity and public law. " The cannon," said Pitt,
u has settled the question in our favor ; and in the
absence of a tribunal, this decision is a sentence."
" The last cannon has not yet been fired," retorted
Bussy ; and destiny showed in the shadowy distance
still other desperate wars between the nations for
dominion and for equality on the seas.

France desired to escape from the humiliating
condition of demolishing the harbor of Dunkirk.
" Since England has acquired the dominion of the
seas," said Pitt to Bussy, " I myself fear Dunkirk but
little; but the people regard its demolition as an
eternal monument of the yoke imposed on France." 2

Ohoiseul was ready to admit concessions with
regard to Dunkirk, if France could retain a harbor in
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with the freedom of the

1 Second Thoughts, or Observations upon Lord Abingdon's Thoughts.
f Flassao, vi. 403, 405.

400 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, fisheries. Without these, he would himself decline

XVII

further negotiation. In those days, maritime power
1 7 o 1 . was thought to depend on the encouragement of the
fisheries ; and to renounce them seemed like renounc-
ing the power of manning a navy. Pitt refused
the fisheries altogether. The union of France with
Spain was the necessary consequence, and was pro-
moted by the reduction of Belle-Isle. " You have
effectually roused France in every part of it," wrote
Keppel, in June, just after that success ; " they feel
themselves so hurt and dishonored, that they will
risk their ships and every thing to wipe it off."1
Towards such efforts Pitt looked in the proud se-
renity of conscious strength ; and yet it was observed
that he was becoming sombre and anxious ;2 for his
own king had prepared for him opposition in the
cabinet.
jDiy. " The peace which is offered," said Granville, the

Lord President, " is more advantageous to England
than any ever concluded with France, since King
Henry the Fifth's time." " I pray to God," said Bed-
ford to Bute, in July, "his majesty may avail himself
of this opportunity of excelling in glory and magna-
nimity the most famous of his predecessors, by giving
his people a reasonable and lasting peace." Did any
argue that efforts could be made during the summer
from Belle-Isle? Bedford expected nothing, but
" possibly the taking another island, or burning a few
more miserable villages on the continent." 8 Did Pitt
say, " Before December, I will take Martinico T
"Will that," rejoined Bedford, "be the means of
obtaining a better peace than we can command at

1 Keppel to Pitt, 18 June, 1761. 8 Wiffen's House of Russell, ii.
9 Flassan, vi. 406. 468, 469, 470, 471.

KING AND ARISTOCKACY AGAINST THE PEOPLE. 401

present, or induce the French to relinquish a right of chap.
fishery ?" " Indeed," he pursued, with good judgment s_v_
and good feeling, "the endeavoring to drive France 1T«1.
entirely out of any naval power is fighting against
nature, and can tend to no one good to this country ;
but, on the contrary, must excite all the naval powers
in Europe to enter into a confederacy against us,
as adopting a system of a monopoly of all naval
power, dangerous to the liberties of Europe. . . .

. . In case it shall be decided to carry on the
war for another campaign, I," he added, " wash my
hands from all the guilt of the blood that may be
shed."

At the king's special request, Bedford attended
the cabinet council of the twentieth of July, to dis-
cuss the conditions of peace. All the rest who were
present cowered before Pitt, in dread lest he should
frown. Bedford " was the single man who dared to
deliver an opinion contrary to his, though agreeable
to eveiy other person's sentiments." * " I," said New-
castle, " envy him that spirit more than his great
fortune and abilities." But the union between France
and Spain was already so far consummated, that, in
connection with the French memorial, Bussy had 3n
the fifteenth of July presented a note, requiring Eng-
land to afford no succour to the king of Prussia, and
a private paper, demanding, on behalf of Spain,
indemnity for seizures, the right to fish at Newfound-
land, and the demolition of the English settlements in
the Bay of Honduras. " These differences, if not
adjusted, gave room," it was said, "to fear a fresh
war in Europe and America."

Rigby in Witfen, ii. 472. See also Bedford Corr.
VOL. IV. 26

402

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

CHAP.
XVII.

1761
July.

Aug.

This note and this memorial, containing the men-
ace of a Spanish war, gave Pitt the ascendency. To
the private intercession of the king he yielded but a
little, and in appearance only, on the subject of the
fishery. " I was overruled," said he afterwards, a I
was overruled, not by the foreign enemy, but by
another enemy ;" and at the next council he presented
his reply, to France, not for deliberation, but accept-
ance. Bute dared not express dissent, and as Bedford
disavowed all responsibility and retired with indig-
nant surprise, Pitt, with the unanimous consent of the
cabinet, returned the memorials relative to Prussia
and to Spanish affairs as wholly inadmissible ; de-
claring that the king a would not suffer the disputes
with Spain to be blended in any manner whatever in
the negotiations of peace between the two nations."

On the twenty-ninth of July, Stanley, bearing
the ultimatum of England, demanded Canada ; the
fisheries, with a limited and valueless concession to
the French, and that only on the huiniliating con-
dition of reducing Dunkirk ; half the neutral islands,
especially St. Lucia and Tobago ; Senegal and Goree,
that is, a monopoly of the slave-trade ; Minorca ;
freedom to assist the king of Prussia; and British
ascendency in the East Indies. The ministers of
Spain and Austria could not conceal their exultation.
" My honor," replied Choiseul to the English envoy,
" will be the same fifty years hence as now ; I am as
indifferent to my place as Pitt can be ; I admit with-
out the least reserve the king's propensity to peace ;
his Majesty may sign such a treaty as England de
mands, but my hand shall never be to that deed."1

1 Thackeray's Life of Chatham, ii. 580.

KING AND ARISTOCRACY AGAINST THE PEOPLE. 403

And claiming the right to interfere in Spanish affairs, chap
with the approbation of Spain, he submitted modifica- ,_^_
tions of the British offer. He still desired peace;1 1761.
but he already was convinced that Pitt would never Dg'

to a reasonable treaty, and his only hope was in
delay.

Thus far Pitt had encountered in the cabinet no
a rowed opposition except from Bedford. On this
point the king and his friends made a rally,2 and the
answer to the French ultimatum, peremptorily reject-
ing it and making the appeal to " arms,"8 was adopted
in the cabinet by a majority of but one voice.
" Why," asked George, as he read it, " why were not
words chosen in which all might have concurred ?"
and his agitation was such as he had never before
shown.4 The friends of Bedford mourned over the
continuance of the war, and the danger of its in-
volving Spain. " Pitt," said they, " does govern, not
in the cabinet council only, but in the opinions of the
people." Bigby forgot his country so far as to wish
ill success to its arms ; 5 but with the multitude, the
thirst for conquest was the madness of the times.
Men applauded a war which was continued for no
definite purpose whatever.

But on the fifteenth of August, the very day on
which Pitt despatched his abrupt declaration, Choiseul
concluded that Family Compact6 which was designed
to unite all the branches of the House of Bourbon as
a counterpoise to the maritime ascendency of Eng-

1 Bussy to Pitt, 5 Aug., 1761. 8 Rigby 27 Aug. in Wiffen, fa.

8 Wiffen's Russell, ii. 473. 473.

* Pitt to Bnssy, 15 Aug., 1761. • Martens: Receuil, vi. 69.

• Bute to Pitt, 14 Aug., 1761.

404

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. land. From the period of the termination of existing
-^-^r hostilities, France and Spain, in the whole extent of
1761. their dominions, were to stand towards foreign powers
as one state. A war begun against one of the two
crowns was to become the personal and proper war of
the other. No peace should be made but in common.
In war and in peace, each should regard the interests
of his ally as his own ; should reciprocally share
benefits and losses, and make each other correspond-
ing compensations. This is the famous treaty which
secured to America in advance aid from the super-
stitious, kind-hearted, and equitable Charles the Third
of Spain. For that monarchy, which was the weaker
power and more nearly insulated, having fewer points
for collision in Europe and every thing at hazard in
America, the compact was altogether unwise. We
shall see presently, that, as its only great result in the
history of the world, it placed the fleets of the
European sovereign whose power was the most abso-
lute, whose colonies were the most extended, on the
side of a confederacy of republican insurgents in their
struggle for independence.

On the same fifteenth of August, and not without
the knowledge of Pitt, France and Spain concluded a
special convention,1 by which Spain herself engaged

1 Of this special convention Pitt
was correctly informed. He knew,
also, that the court of Spain want-
ed to gain time, till the fleet should
arrive at Cadiz. Compare the let-
ters of Grimaldi to Fuentes, of Au-
gust 31, and September 13, in
Chatham Correspondence, ii. 139-
144, and the private note of Stan-
ley to Pitt, of September 2.

The existence of this special con-
vention, so well known to Pitt, and
so decisive of his policy, appears

to have escaped the notice of British
historians, with the exception of
Lord Mahon. In the edition of
Adolphus's History of England,
published in 1840, that writer as-
sumes that Pitt was misinformed,
and hazards the conjecture, that
" the communication made to Mr.
Stanley was a refined piece of
finesse in the French ministry." —
Adolphus, i. 46, note. Yet, in the
second edition of Flassan's His-
toire de la Diplomatic Fran^aise,

KING AND ARISTOCRACY AGAINST THE PEOPLE. 405

to declare war against England, unless contrary to chap
all expectation, peace should be concluded between v_^J.
France and England before the first day of May, 1762. 1761.
Extending his eye to all the states interested in the °8'
rights of neutral flags, to Portugal, Savoy, Holland,
and Denmark, Choiseul covenanted with Spain that
Portugal should be compelled, and the others invited,
to join the federative union " for the common advan-
tage of all maritime powers."1

Yet, still anxious for peace, and certain either to Sept.
secure it or to place the sympathy of all Europe on
the side of France, Choiseul resolved on a last " most
ultimate" attempt at reconciliation by abundant con-
cessions; and on the thirteenth day of September,
just five days after the youthful sovereign of Eng-
land had taken as his consort the blue-eyed, con-
siderate, but not very lovely German princess of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz, — a girl of seventeen, who be-
came well known as the parsimonious and correct
Queen Charlotte, — Bussy presented the final proposi-
tions of France. By Pitt, who was accurately ac-
quainted with the special convention between France

vi. 322-326, an abstract of the con- on war with that power, till he
vention itself may be found. I en- had evidence in his possession, that
deavored to obtain from the French Spain had already made itself a
archives an authentic copy of the party to the war by a ratified treaty
whole paper ; but was informed with France. The advice of Pitt
that the document had been mis- on this occasion was alike wise and
placed or lost. The allusion of Gri- just. The error comes from con-
maldi, in his letter of September founding the Special Convention,
13, " to the stipulations of the regulating the conditions on which
treaty between the two courts," is an immediate war was to be con-
also to the special convention ; ducted, with the General Treaty of
though the editors of the Corre- alliance between the princes of tho
Bpondence of the Earl of Chatham, House of Bourbon. The last was
in their comment on the passage, no ground for war; the first was
refer it to the Family Compact. war itself.

The accurate knowledge of this ' Article vi. and vii. of the Spe-

transaction is essential to a vindica- cial Convention. Flassan, vi. 322,

tion of the course pursued by Pitt 823.
towards Spain. He did not insist

Sept,

£06 THE AMEKICAN REVOLUTION".

chap, and Spain, they were received with disdainful indif-
L^l ference. A smile of irony, and a few broken words,
ijei were his only answer; and when the negotiation was
broken off, Pitt said plainly, that his own demands
throughout had been made in earnest. " If I had been
the master," he added, " I should not have gone so far ;
the propositions which France finds too severe, would
have appeared too favorable to a great part of the
English nation." 1

A war with Spain could no longer be avoided by
England. To the proposal for " the regulation of the
privilege of cutting logwood by the subjects of Great
Britain," the Catholic King replied through Wall, hi3
minister, by a despatch which reached England on
the thirteenth of September. M The evacuation of the
logwood establishments is offered, if his Catholic
Majesty will assure to the English the logwood ! He
who avows that he has entered another man's house
to seize his jewels says, 4I will go out of your house, if
you will first give me what I am come to seize.' " Pitt's
anger was inflamed at the comparison of England
with house-breakers and robbers; and his vehement
will became " more overbearing and impracticable"
than ever. He exulted in the prospect of benefits to
be derived to his country, and glory to be acquired
for his own name, in every zone and throughout the
globe. With one hand he prepared to "smite the
whole family of Bourbons, and wield in the other the
democracy of England." 2 His eye penetrated futuri-
ty ; the vastest schemes flashed before his mind, — to
change the destinies of continents, and mould the for-
tunes of the world. He resolved to seize the remain-

1 Flassan, vi. 445. 8 Grattan's Character of Pitt.

KING AND ARISTOCRACY AGAINST THE PEOPLE. 407

French, islands, especially Martinico ; and to con- ctiap.
quer Havana. "You must take Panama,"1 he ex- ^^L
claimed, to a general officer. The Philippine islands 1761.
were next to fall; and the Spanish monopoly in the 5ep
New World to be broken at one blow and for ever
by a " general resignation of all Spanish America, in
all matters wrhich might be deemed beneficial to
Great Britain."

But humanity had reserved to itself a different
mode of extricating Spanish America from colonial,
monopoly. On the eighteenth day of September,
Pitt, joined only by his brother-in-law, the Earl of
Temple, submitted to the cabinet his written advice
to recall Lord Bristol, the British ambassador, from
Madrid. At three several meetings, the question was
discussed. "From prudence, as well as spirit," af-
firmed the secretary, " we ought to secure to ourselves
the first blow. If any war can provide its own re-
sources, it must be a war with Spain. Their flota has
not arrived ; the taking it disables their hands and
strengthens ours." Bute, speaking the opinion of the
king, was the first to oppose the project as rash and
ill-advised ; Granville wished not to be precipitate ;
Temple supported Pitt ; Newcastle was neuter. Dur-
ing these discussions, all classes of the people of Eng-
land were gazing at the pageant of the coronation, or
relating to each other how the king, kneeling before
the altar in Westminster Abbey, with piety formal
but sincere, reverently put oif his crown, as he re-
ceived the sacrament from the archbishop. A second
meeting of the cabinet was attended by all the minis-
ters; they heard Pitt explain correctly the private

1 Chatham Anecdotes, i. 3GG. Choiseul in his later Correspondence
says lie was aware of Pitt's Plans.

408 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, convention by which Spain had bound itself to declare

XVII . ...

fmm0 war against Great Britain in the following May, but

1761. they came to no decision. At a third meeting all the
great Whig lords objected, having combined with the
favorite to drive the great representative of the peo-
ple from power. Newcastle and Hardwicke, Devon-
shire and Bedford, even Ligonier and Anson, as well
as Bute and Mansfield, assisted in his defeat. Pitt,
with his brother-in-law Temple, stood alone. Stung
by the opposition of the united oligarchy, Pitt remem-
bered how he made his way into the cabinet, and
what objects he had steadily pursued. " This" — he ex-
claimed to his colleagues, summoning up all his haugh-
tiness as he bade defiance to the aristocracy and ap-
pealed from them to the country which his inspiring
influence had rescued from disgrace, — "This is the
moment for humbling the whole House of Bourbon ;
if I cannot in this instance prevail, this shall be the
last time I will sit in this council. Called to the
ministry by the voice of the people, to whom I con-
ceive myself accountable for my conduct, I will not
remain in a situation which makes me responsible for
measures I am no longer allowed to guide." " If the
right honorable gentleman," replied Granville, " be
resolved to assume the right of directing the opera-
tions of the war, to what purpose are we called to this
council ? When he talks of being responsible to the
people, he talks the language of the House of Com-
mons, and forgets that at this board he is responsible
only to the king." l

The Duke of Newcastle was never seen in higher'

1 Annual Register, iv. 42. Hist. Minority. Walpole's George III,
iv. 144. Adolphus, i. 44.

KING AND ARISTOCRACY AGAINST THE PEOPLE. 409

spirits,1 than on this occasion. His experienced hand 2 chap
had been able to mould and direct events so as to ^^^
thwart the policy of Pitt by the concerted junction of 1761
Bute and all the great Whig Lords. The minister
attributed his defeat not so much to the king and Bute
as to Newcastle and Bedford ; yet the king was hiin-
Belf a partner in the conspiracy ; and as he rejected
the written advice that Pitt and Temple had given
him, the man "whose8 august presence overawed
majesty," resolved to resign.

On Monday, the fifth day of October, William
Pitt, now venerable from years and glory, the greatest
minister of his century, one of the few very great
men of his age, among orators the only peer of
Demosthenes, the man without title or fortune, who
finding England in an abyss of weakness and dis-
grace, conquered Canada and the Ohio valley and
Guadaloupe, and sustained Prussia from annihilation,
humbled France, gained the dominion of the seas,
won supremacy in Hindostan, and at home vanquished
faction, stood in the presence of George to resign his
power. It was a moment to test the self-possession
and manly vigor of the young and inexperienced king.
He received the seals with ease and firmness, without
requesting that Pitt should resume his office ; yet he
manifested concern for the loss of so valuable a min-
ister, approved his past services, and made him an
unlimited offer of rewards. At the same time, he ex-
pressed himself satisfied with the opinion of the
majority of his council, and declared he should have
found himself under the greatest difficulty how to

1 Sir George Colebrooke's Me- 8 Pitt to Nutliall, in Chatham
moire in a note to Walpole's Geo. Corr. ii. 345.
HI., i. 82. 8 Grattan's Character of Pitt.

410 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

v^yu' have acted, had that council concurred as fully in
— ^ supporting the measure proposed, as they had done
Ott. ' in rejecting it. The Great Commoner began to reply ;
but the anxious and never ceasing application, which
his post as the leading minister had required, com-
bined with repeated and nearly fatal attacks of hered-
itary disease, had completely shattered his constitu-
tion, and his nervous system was becoming tremulous
and enfeebled. " I confess, Sir," said he, " I had but
too much reason to expect your Majesty's displeasure.
I did not come prepared for this exceeding goodness ;
pardon me, Sir, it overpowers me, it oppresses me ; "
and the man who by his words and his spirit had re-
stored his country's affairs, and lifted it to unprece-
dented power and honor, to extended dominion and
proud self-reliance, burst into tears.1 On the next
day, the king seemed impatient to bestow some mark
of favor ; and as Canada had been acquired by the
ability and firmness of his minister, he offered him
that government, with a salary of five thousand
pounds. But Pitt, whose proud hardihood never
blenched in the presence of an adversary, had a heart
that overflowed with fond affection for his wife and
children. The state of his private affairs was distressed
in consequence of the exemplary disinterestedness of
his public conduct. " I should be doubly happy," he
avowed, " could I see those dearer to me than myself
comprehended in that monument of royal approba-
tion and goodness." A peerage, therefore, was con-
ferred on lady Hester, his wife, with a grant of three
thousand pounds on the plantation duties, to be paid
annually during the lives of herself, her husband and

1 Annual Register for 1761. — The Grenville Papers, I. 413.

KING AND ARISTOCRACY AGAINST THE PEOPLE. 411

her eldest son. And these marks of the royal appro- c^\\ '■
bation, very moderate in comparison with his merits, ^.^
if indeed those merits had not placed him above all Oct.

irds, were accepted "with veneration and grati-
tude." Thus he retired, having destroyed the balance
of the European colonial system by the ascendency
of England, confirmed the implacable hostility of
France and Spain to his country, and impaired his
own popularity by accepting a pension and surren-
dering his family as hostages to the aristocracy.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE ACTS OF TRADE PROVOKE REVOLUTION.— THE REMODJ
LING OF THE COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS.

1761— 1762.

chap. Lord Barrington, who was but an echo of the
v^_ opinions of the king, approved the resignation of Pitt,
1761. jjg "important" and "fortunate;" Dodington, now
raised to the peerage as the ostentatious and childless
Lord Melcombe, " wished Bute joy of being delivered
of a most impracticable colleague, his Majesty of a
most imperious servant, and the country of a most
dangerous minister." But Bute at the moment had
misgivings ; for he saw that his own " situation was
become more perilous."

The Earl of Egremont, Pitt's successor, was a son
of the illustrious Windham, of a Tory family, himself
both weak and passionate, and of infirm health;
George Grenville, the husband of his sister, renounced
well-founded aspirations to the speaker's chair for a
sinecure, and, remaining in the ministry, still agreed
" to do his best" in the House ; while Bedford became
Lord Privy Seal.

Peace was an immediate object of the king ; and
as the letters of Bristol, the English minister at Ma-

TIIE ACTS OF TRADE PROVOKE REVOLUTION. 413

drid, promised friendly relations with Spain, the king chap.
directed, that, through Fuentes, the Spanish ambassa- v_v_(
dor at London, the French court should be invited to 17C1.
renew its last propositions. " It is only with a second
Pitt," said Choiseul, " that I should dare to treat on
such offers. War is the only part to be chosen. Firm-
ness and patience will not build ships for us ; but they
will give us a triumph over our enemies." As the
weeks rolled on, and the Spanish treasure ships ar-
rived, Spain used bolder language, and before the
year was over, a rupture with that power was un-
avoidable.

Yet peace was still sought with perseverance ; for
it was the abiding purpose of the young sovereign to
assert and maintain the royal authority in Great
Britain, in Ireland, and in America. " I was bred and
will die a monarchy man," said Melcombe, who was
to Bute what Bute was to George the Third ; tt men
of the city are not to demand reasons of measures ;
they must and they easily may be taught better man-
ners." " He is the best and most amiable master that
ever lived since the days of Titus," said Barrington of
the king, to whom he devoted himself entirely ; hav-
ing no political connection with any man, joining those
who declared that it was for the king alone to con-
sider whom he should raise to his council, or whom
he should exclude for ever from his closet : God had
adorned him with the prerogative, and left to his ser-
vants the glory of obedience. " Cost what it may," ■
wrote Halifax, the Lord Lieutenant, from Ireland,
" my good royal master's authority shall never suffer
in my hands;" and the measures for reducing the
colonies also to obedience were in like manner vigor-
ously prosecuted.

414

CHAP.
XVIII.

1701.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

America knew that the Board of Trade had pro
posed to annul colonial charters, to reduce all the co
onies to royal governments, and to gain a revenue b
lowering and collecting the duties prescribed by th
Sugar Act of 1733. She knew, that, if the Britis
legislature should tax her people, it would increase th
fees and salaries of the crown officers in the planta
tions, and the pensions and sinecure places held b
favorites in England. The legislature of Massach
setts still acknowledged that " their own resolve coul
not alter an act of parliament," and that every pr
ceeding of theirs which was in conflict with a Britis
statute was for that reason void. And yet the ju
tice of the restrictions on trade was denied, and thei
authority questioned; and when the officers of th
customs asked for " writs of assistance" to enforc
them, the colony regarded its liberties in peril. Thi
is the opening scene of American resistance.1 It bega
in New England, and . made its first battle-ground i
a court-room. A lawyer of Boston, with a tongue o
flame and the inspiration of a seer, stepped forwar
to demonstrate that all arbitrary authority was uncon
stitutional and against the law.

In February, 1761, Hutchinson, the new chief j
tice, and his four associates, sat in the crowded council
chamber of the old Town-House in Boston, to hea
arguments on the question, whether the persons em
ployed in enforcing the Acts of Trade should hav
power to invoke generally the assistance of all th
executive officers of the colony.

A statute of Charles the Second, argued Jeremial
Gridley for the crown, allows writs of assistance to

1 John Adams to the Abbe Hably. Works v. 492.

THE ACTS OF TRADE PROVOKE REVOLUTION. . 41 0

be issued by the English Court of Exchequer; a colo- chap.
nial law devolves the power of that court on the s_^
Colonial Superior Court ; and a statute of William the 17 61.
Third extends to the revenue officers in America like
powers, and a right to "like assistance," as in Eng-
land, lb refuse the writ is, then, to deny that "the
parliament of Great Britain is the sovereign legislator
of the British empire."

Oxenbridge Thacher, who first rose in reply, rea-
soned mildly, wisely, and with learning, showing that
the rule of the English courts was in this case not
applicable to America.

But James Otis, .a native of Barnstable, whose
irritable nature was rocked by the stormy impulses of
his fitful passions, disdaining fees or rewards, stood up
amidst the crowd, the champion of the colonies and
the prophet of their greatness. " I am determined,"
such were his words, " to sacrifice estate, ease, health,
applause, and even life, to the sacred calls of my I
country," " in opposition to a kind of power, the exer-
cise of which cost one king of England his head and
another his throne." He pointed out the nature of
writs of assistance ; that they were " universal, being
directed to all officers and subjects" throughout the
colony, and compelling the whole government and
people to render aid in enforcing the revenue laws for
the plantations ; that they were perpetual, no method
existing by which they could be returned or account-
ed for ; that they gave even to the menial servants
employed in the customs, on bare suspicion, without
oath, without inquiry, perhaps from malice or revenge,
authority to violate the sanctity of a man's own house,
in which the laws should be as the impregnable bat*
tlements of his castle. " These writs," he exclaimed,

116

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap. u are the worst .instrument of arbitrary power, the
_^ most destructive of English liberty and the mndainen-
1761. tal principles of law." And he invoked attention t(
the whole range of an argument which " might," h(
acknowledged, " appear uncommon in many things,7
and which rested on universal " principles, founded ii
truth." Tracing the lineage of freedom to its origii
he opposed the claims of the British officers by th<
authority of " reason ;" and that they were at wai
with " the constitution" he proved by appeals to th<
charter of Massachusetts and its English liberties
The precedent cited against him belonged to the reigi
of Charles the Second, and was but evidence of th<
subserviency of some " ignorant clerk of the exch<
quer." But even if there were precedents, " all pn
cedents," he insisted, " are under the control of th<
principles of law." Nor could the authority of ai
express statute sanction the enforcement of Acts oi
Trade by general writs of assistance. "No act oi
parliament," such were his memorable words, "cai
establish such a writ ; even though made in the ver
language of the petition, it would be a nullity. . .
An act of parliament against the constitution is void."

1 Authorities to be relied on for
this speech of Otis are the con-
temporary ones: 1. The minutes
taken down at the time, and insert-
ed in Minot, and now published
more correctly in the appendix to
the Diary of John Adams, 523,
524: 2. Various incidental allu-
sions in letters of Bernard ; 3. Let-
ters of Hutchinson ; and 4. The
History of Hutchinson, of which
the plan was formed as early, at
least, as in 1762. All agree, parti-
cularly the letters of Hutchinson,
that this argument by Otis was the
origin of the party of revolution
in Massachusetts. The account of

the speech, which I give in the
text, goes to that extent, and in-
cludes the revolutionary doctrine
ultimately relied on, which esteem-
ed reason and the constitution su-
perior to an act of parliament. In
his extreme old age, the elder
Adams was asked for an analysis
of this speech, which was four oi
five hours long. He answered,
that no man could have written
the argument from memory " the
day after it was spoken," much
less " after a lapse of fifty -seven
years!" And he then proceeded
to compose a series of letters on
the subject, filling thirty-three

TOE ACTS OF TRADE PROVOKE REVOLUTION.

41?

Thus did Otis lay a foundation for independence. His
words were as a penetrating fire, kindling the souls of
his hearers. The majority of the judges were awe-
struck, and believed him in the right. Hutchinson
cowered before him, as " the great incendiary" of New
England. The crowded audience seemed ready to
take up arms against the arbitrary enforcement of the
restrictive system; especially the youngest barrister
in the colony, the choleric John Adams, a stubborn
and honest lover of his country, extensively learned
and a bold thinker, listened in rapt admiration, and
caught the inspiration which was to call forth his own

CHAP.
XV1IL

1761

closely-printed octavo pages. Com-
paring these letters with letters
written at or near the time, I am
obliged to think that the venerable
man blended together his recollec-
tions of the totality of the influ-
ence and doctrines of Otis, as de-
veloped on various occasions during
the years 1761, 1762, 1763, 1764,
and 1765, and even 1766. It is
plain that his statement was pre-
pared by aid of references to the
British statute book and to printed
documents. Thus, Appendix to
Novanglus, p. 294, he quotes seve-
ral laws, and adds, "I canuot
search for any more of these minc-
ing laws." Again, he asserts that
the " warm1' speech of 1762 was
a second edition of the speech on
M the writs of assistance." But of
that warm speech Otis himself pub-
lished a report which may be read
and compared. Further : the doc-
trine of the virtual representation
of America in the British parlia-
ment does not seem to have come
into public discussion till the win-
ter of 1763-4; and Bernard ex-
pressly writes, that the power of
parliament to levy port-duties had
not been questioned or denied in
Boston till the year 1764. On
page 294, Mr. Otis is said to have

quoted, in 1761, a remark first made
by a member of parliament in 1766.
" The principle," says Mr. Adams,
" I perfectly remember. The au-
thorities in detail I could not be
supposed to retain." I own I
have had embarrassment in adjust-
ing these authorities; but, after
research and deliberation, adhering
strictly to the rules of historical
skepticism, weighing the accounts
of contemporaries written at the
time, I will trust that my narrative
conveys with precision the scope of
the remarks of Otis. The truth,
for which there is clear evidence, is
sufficient for illustrating his glory
and for establishing his momentous
influence. A protest against negro
slavery seems not to have been ut-
tered on that occasion ; but he pro-
nounced such a protest in a later
year, as will be related in its place.
My readers must pardon this long
note, which is prompted by my
great anxiety and care to make
statements exactly right, and to
have them so recognised. In nar-
rating the incidents which are of
universal interest, I desire to escape
exaggeration, and yet not from tim-
idity to divest any fact of its proper
coloring.

VOL. IV.

27

418 THE AMEBIC AN REVOLUTION.

chap, heroic opposition to British authority. From that
^^J, time he declares that he could never read the Acts of
1761. Trade without anger, "nor any section of them with-
out a curse." * The people of the town of Boston, a
small provincial seaport of merchants and ship-build-
ers, with scarcely fifteen thousand inhabitants, became
alive with political excitement. It seemed as if the
words spoken on that day were a spell powerful
enough to break the paper chains that left to America
no free highway on the seas but that to England, and
to open for the New World all the infinite paths of
the ocean. Nay, more ! As reason and the constitu-
tion are avowed to be paramount to the power of
the British parliament, America becomes conscious of
a life of her own. She sees in dim outlines along the
future the vision of her own independence, with free-
dom of commerce and self-imposed laws. Her under-
standing is not yet enlightened and convinced, but
her sentiments are just. Not from the intellect,

| " Out of the heart,

Rises the bright ideal of that dream." 2

The old members of the Superior Court, after
hearing the arguments of Thacher and Otis, the
" friends to liberty," inclined to their side. " But I,"
said the ambitious Hutchinson, who never grew
weary of recalling to the British ministry this claim
to favor, " I prevailed with my brethren to continue
the cause till the next term, and in the mean time
wrote to England." The answer came ; and the sub-
servient court, obeying authority, and disregarding

1 John Adams to Wm. Tudor, in * Longfellow's Spanish Student
Appendix to Novanglus, 269.

HIE ACTS OF TRADE PROVOKE REVOLUTION. 419

law, granted writs of assistance, whenever the officers chap.

XVIII.

of the revenue applied for them.1 ^— r— -

1761.

But Otis' was borne onward by a spirit which
mastered him, and increased in vigor as the storm
rose. Gifted with a delicately sensitive and most
sympathetic nature, his soul was agitated in the
popular tempest as certainly as the gold leaf in the
electrometer nutters at the passing by of the thunder-
cloud. He led the van of American patriots. Yet
impassioned rather than cautious, disinterested and in-
capable of cold calculation, now foaming with rage,
now plaintive without hope, he was often like one
who, as he rushes into battle, forgets his shield. Ex-
citable and indulging in vehement personal crimina-
tions, he yet had not a drop of rancor in his breast,
and, when the fit of passion had passed away, was
mild and easy to be entreated. His impulses were
always for liberty, and full of confidence ; yet his un-
derstanding, in moments of depression, would often
shrink back from his own inspirations. He never met
an excited audience, but his mind caught and in-
creased the contagion, and rushed onward with fervid
and impetuous eloquence ; but when quieted by re-
tirement, and away from the crowd, he could be
soothed into a yielding inconsistency. Thus he toiled
and suffered, an uncertain leader of a party, yet thrill-
ing and informing the multitude; not steadfast in
conduct, yet by flashes of sagacity lighting the people
along their perilous way ; the man of the American
protest, not destined to enjoy his country's triumph.
He that will study closely the remarkable union

1 Bernard to Shelburne, 22 Dec, 1766.

420

THE AMEKICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, in Otis of legal learning with speculative opinion,

_^_J of principles of natural justice the most abstract

1761. and the most radical, with a deeply-fixed respect for

the rights of property and obedience to 'the law, will

become familiar with a cast of mind still common in

New England.

The subserviency of Hutchinson increased the
public discontent. Men lost confidence in the in-
tegrity of their highest judicial tribunal. Innovations
under pretence of law were confirmed by judg-
ments incompatible with English liberties. The Ad-
miralty Court, hateful because instituted by a British
parliament to punish infringements of the Acts of
Trade in America without the intervention of a jury,
had in distributing the proceeds of forfeitures, vio-
lated the very statutes which it was appointed to
enforce. Otis endeavored to compel a restitution of
the third of forfeitures, which by the revenue laws be-
longed to the king for the use of the province, but had
been misappropriated for the benefit of oificers and in-
former's.1 " The injury done the province" was ad-
mitted by the chief justice, who yet had no jurisdiction
to redress it. The Court of Admiralty, in which the
wrong originated, had always been deemed grievous,
because unconstitutional; its authority seemed now
established by judges devoted to the prerogative.

Unable to arrest the progress of illiberal doctrines
in the courts, the people of Boston, in May, 1761,
with unbounded and very general enthusiasm, elected
Otis one of their representatives to the Assembly.
" Out of this," said Euggles to the royalist Chandler,
of Worcester, "a faction will arise that will shake

1 Gov. Bernard to Lords of Trade, 6 August, 1761. Boston Gazette,
14 Sept., 1769. Bernard to Shelburne, 22 Dec., 1766.

THE ACTS OF TRADE PROVOKE REVOLUTION. 421

tli is province to its foundation." Bernard became chap.

• XVIII.

alarmed, and concealing his determined purpose of v^^^J
effecting a change in the charter of the colony, he 1763.
en fixated the new legislature to lay aside "divisions
and distinctions." " Let me recommend to you," said
he, "to give no attention to declamations tending to
promote a suspicion of the civil rights of the people
being in danger. Such harangues might well suit in
the reigns of Charles and James, but in the times of
the Georges they are groundless and unjust." Thus
he spoke, regardless of truth ; for he knew well the
settled policy of the Board of Trade, and was
secretly the most eager instrument in executing their
designs ; ever restless to stimulate them to encroach-
ments that should destroy the charter and efface
the boundaries of the province.

Massachusetts invalidated the British commercial
system, which Virginia resisted from abhorrence of
the slave-trade. Never before had England pursued
the traffic in negroes with such eager avarice. The
remonstrances of philanthropy and of the colonies were
unheeded, and categorical instructions from the Board
of Trade kept every American port open as markets
for men. The legislature of Virginia had repeatedly
showed a disposition to obstruct the commerce ; a
deeply-seated public opinion began more and more to
avow the evils and the injustice of slavery itself; and
in 1761, it was proposed to suppress the importation
of Africans by a prohibitory duty. Among those
who took part in the long and violent debate was
Richard Henry Lee, the representative of Westmore-
land. Descended from one of the oldest families in
Virginia, he had been educated in England, and had

422

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

CIIAl?
XVIII

returned to his native land familiar with the spirit of
Grotius and Cud worth, of Locke and Montesquieu ;
1 7 61. his first recorded speech was against negro slavery, in
behalf of human freedom. In the continued importa-
tion of slaves, he foreboded danger to the political
and moral interests of the Old Dominion ; an increase
of the free Anglo-Saxons, he argued, would foster arts
and varied agriculture, while a race doomed to abject
bondage was of necessity an enemy to social happi-
ness. He painted from ancient history the horrors of
servile insurrections. He deprecated the barbarous
atrocity of the trade with Africa, and its violation of
the equal rights of men created like ourselves in the
image of God. a Christianity," thus he spoke in con-
clusion, " by introducing into Europe the truest prin-
ciples of universal benevolence and brotherly love,
happily abolished civil slavery. Let us who profess
the same religion practise its precepts, and, by agree-
ing to this duty, pay a proper regard to our true
interests and to the dictates of justice and human-
ity." * The tax for which Lee raised his voice was
carried through the Assembly of Virginia by a ma-
jority of one ; but from England a negative followed
with certainty every colonial act tending to diminish
the slave-trade.

South Carolina, also, appalled by the great in-
crease of its black population, endeavored by its own
laws to restrain importations of slaves, and in like
manner came into collision with the same British
policy. But the war with the Cherokees weaned its
citizens still more from Great Britain.

1 Lee^ Lee, chap. ii.

THE ACTS OF TRADE PROVOKE REVOLUTION. 423

"lam for war," said Saloue, the young warrior of chap.
Estatoe, at a great council of his nation. "The v.^^,
spirits of our murdered brothers still call on us to 1761.
avenge tliem ; he that will not take up this hatchet
and follow me is no better than a woman." To
reduce the native mountaineers of Carolina, General
Amherst, early in 1761, sent a regiment and two
companies of light infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel
James Grant, the same who, in 1758, had been
shamefully beaten near Pittsburg. The province
added to the regular forces a regiment of its own,
under the command of Henry Middleton, who counted
among his officers Henry Laurens, William Moultrie,1
and Francis Marion.

At Fort Prince George, Attakulla-kulla met the
expedition, entreating delay for a conference. But on
the seventh day of June, the army, which was formed
of about thirteen hundred regulars, and as many more
of the men of Carolina, pursued their march, followed
by about seven hundred pack-horses, and more than
four hundred cattle. A party of Chickasaws and
Catawbas attended as allies. On the eighth, they
marched through the dreaded defiles of War- Woman's
Creek,2 by a rocky and very narrow path between
the overhanging mountain of granite and a deep pre-
cipice which had the rushing rivulet at its base. Yet
they came upon no trace of the enemy, till, on the
next day, they saw by the way-side, crayoned in April
vermilion on a blazed forest-tree, a war-party of
Cherokee braves, with a white man as a captive.

On the morning of the tenth, at about half past
eight, as the English army, having suffered from

1 Moultrie's Memoirs of the Amer- s Virginia Gazette, 554, 2, 2.
lean Revolution, ii. 223

424 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, forced marches and rainy weather, were walking

XVIII .

w^^J through thick woods on the bank of the Cowkowee,
1761. or, as we call it, the Little Tennessee, about two miles
from the battle-ground of Montgomery, at a place
where the path runs along the foot of a mountain on
the right, and near the river on the left, the Chero-
kees were discovered hovering over the right flank,
while others fired from beyond the river. Quintine
Kennedy, with a corps of ninety Indians and thirty
Carolina woodsmen, began the attack. The unseen
enemy were driven from their ambush near the river,
but again rallied, mingling the noise of musketry with
shouts and yells. After three hours' exposure to an
irregular fire, the troops, following the river, emerged
from the defile into an open savanna. Meantime the
Indian whoop was heard as it passed from the front
to the encumbered rear of the long-extended line,
where the Cherokee fire seemed heaviest ; but Mid-
dleton sent opportune relief, which secured the bag-
gage. Happily for Grant, the Cherokees were in
great need of ammunition. Of the white men, ten
were killed and forty badly wounded; to save the
dead from the scalping-knife, the river was their place
of burial. Not till midnight did the army reach its
place of encampment at Etchowe.

For thirty days the whites sojourned west of the
Alleghanies. They walked through every town in
the middle settlement ; and the Outside Towns,
which lay on another branch of the Tennessee. The
lovely hamlets, fifteen in number, were pillaged,
burned, and utterly destroyed. That year the Chero-
kees had opened new fields for maize, not in the vales
only, but on the sides and summits of the hills, where
the fugitives from the lower settlements were to make

THE ACTS OF TEADE PROVOKE REVOLUTION. 425

their bread. But all the plantations, teeming with chap
prodigious quantities of corn, were laid waste ; and ^^,
four thousand of the red people were driven to wan- 1761.
der anions: the mountains.

The English army, till its return in July to Fort
Prince George, suffered from heat, thirst, watchings,
and fatigue of all sorts ; in bad weather they had no
shelter but boughs and bowers ; for twenty days they
were on short allowance ; their feet were torn by
briers and mangled by the rocks ; but they extended
the English frontier seventy miles towards the west ;
and they compelled the Cherokees to covenant peace,
at Charleston, with the royal governor and council.
" I am come to you," said Attakulla-kulla, "as a mes-
senger from the whole nation, to see what can be done
for my people in their distress." Here he produced
the belts of wampum from the several towns, in
token of his investment with full authority from all.
" As to what has happened," he added, " I believe
it has been ordered by our Great Father above. We
are of different color from the white people ; but the
same Great Spirit made all. As we live in one land,
let us love one another as one people." And the
Cherokees pledged anew to Carolina the friendship,
which was to last as long as the light of morning
should break above their villages, or the bright foun-
tains gush from their hill-sides.1 Then they re-
turned to dwell once more in their ancient homes.
Around them nature, with the tranquillity of exhaust-
less power, renewed her beauty; the forests blos-
somed as before; the thickets were alive with mel-
ody ; the rivers bounded exultingly in their course ;

1 Lieut, Gov. Bull to the Lords of Trade, 23 Sept., 1761. Terms of
Peace for the Cherokees, in the Lords of Trade, of 11 Dec., 1761.

426 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, the glades sparkled with the strawberry and the wild
^^, flowers ; but for the men of that region the inspiring
1761. confidence of independence in their mountain fast-
nesses was gone. They knew that they had come
into the presence of a race more powerful than their
own ; and the course of their destiny was irrevocably
changed.

In these expeditions to the valley of the Ten-
nessee, Gadsden and Middleton, Moultrie and Marion,
were trained to arms. At Pittsburg, the Virginians,
as all agreed, had saved Grant from utter ruin ; the
Carolinians believed his return from their western
country was due to provincial courage. The Scottish
colonel concealed the wound of his self-love by affect-
ing towards the Southern colonists that contemptuous
superciliousness which had been promoted by Mont-
gomery, and which had so infused itself into the Brit-
ish nation, that it even colored the writings of Adam
Smith. Resenting the arrogance with scorn, Middle-
ton challenged his superior officer, and they met.
The challenge was generally censured ; for Grant had
come to defend their frontiers ; but all the province
took part in the indignant excitement, and its long-
cherished affection for England was mingled with dis
gust and anger.

The discontent of New York sprang from a cause
which influenced the calmest minds, and was but
strengthened and extended by deliberate reflection.
It was not because the Episcopal clergy of that
lony urged Seeker, Archbishop of Canterbury, to
romote the abrogation of provincial charters ; for
the correspondence was concealed. It was not be-
cause they importunately demanded " bishops in

THE ACTS OF TRADE PROVOKE REVOLUTION. 427

America," as was their duty, if they sincerely be- chap.
licved that renovating truth is transmitted from gene- ^^
ration to generation, not through the common mind of 17G1.
the ages, but through a separate order having perpe-
tual succession; for, on this point, the British min-
ifli iy was disinclined to act, while the American people
were alarmed at Episcopacy only from its connection
frith politics. New York was aroused to opposition,

a use, as the first fruits of the removal of Pitt from
power, within six weeks of his resignation,1 the inde-
pendency of the judiciary was struck at 2 throughout
all Ajnerica, making revolution inevitable.

On the death of the chief justice of New York,
his successor, one Pratt, a Boston lawyer, was ap-
pointed at the king's pleasure, and not during good
behavior, as had been done " before the late king's
death." The Assembly held the new tenure of judi-
cial power to be inconsistent with American liberty ;
the generous but dissolute Monckton, coming in glory
from Quebec to enter on the government of New
York, before seeking fresh dangers in the West Indies,
censured it in the presence of the Council;8 even
Colden advised against it.4 "As the parliament,"
argued Pratt,6 himself, after his selection for the va-
cant place on the bench, and when quite ready to use
the power of a judge to promote the political inter-
ests of the crown, " as the parliament at the Revolu-
tion thought it the necessary right of Englishmen to
have the judges safe from being turned out by the
crown, the people of New York claim the right of

1 Representation of the Board 8 Letter to the Lords of Trade,

of Trade to the king, 11 Novein- 7 April, 1762.

ber, 1761. * Colden to the Board of Trade,'

8 Egremont to Monckton, 9 De- 25 Sept., 1761.

cember, 1761. 5 Pratt to Colden, 22 Aug., 1761.

428 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

XVIII
1761

chap Englishmen in this respect ;" and he himself was treated
with such indignity for accepting the office on other
terms, that it was thought to have shortened his life.1
But the idea of equality in political rights between
England and the colonies could not be comprehended
by the English officials of that day; and in Novem-
ber, about a month after Pitt's retirement, the Board
of Trade reported to the king against the tenure of
good behavior, as "a pernicious proposition," " sul>
versive of all true policy," " and tending to lessen the
just dependence of the colonies upon the government
of the mother country."2 The representation found
favor with George ; and, as the first fruits of the new
system, on the ninth of December the instruction
went forth through Egremont to all colonial gover-
nors, to grant no judicial commissions but during
pleasure.

To make the tenure of the judicial office the
king's will was to make the bench of judges the
instruments of the prerogative, and to subject the
administration of justice throughout all America to
the influence of an arbitrary and irresponsible power.
The Assembly of New York rose up against the en-
croachment, deeming it a deliberate step towards
despotic authority ; the standing instruction they re-
solved should be changed, or they, on their part,
would grant no salary whatever to the judges.

1762. "Things are come to a crisis," wrote Pratt, in
January, 1762, guided by his interest, and chiefly
intent on securing a good salary. " If I cannot be
supported with a competent salary, the office must be
abandoned, and his Majesty's prerogative must suffer."

1 Elbridge Gerry to S. Adams, 2 Representation of the Lords oi
2 Nov., 1772. Trade to the king, 18 Nov., 1761.

THE ACTS OF TRADE PROVOKE REVOLUTION. 429

" Why," asked Colden, u should the chief justices of chap.
Nova Scotia and Georgia have certain and fixed sala- ^J,
from the crown, and a chief justice of so con- 176 2.
Miderable a province as this be left to beg his bread of
the people ?" and reporting to the Board of Trade
the source of opposition in New York, "For some
years past," said he, " three popular lawyers educated
in Connecticut, who have strongly imbibed the inde-
pendent principles of that country, calumniate the
administration in every exercise of the prerogative,
and get the applause of the mob by propagating the
doctrine, that all authority is derived from the people."
These " three popular lawyers " were William Living-
ston, John Morin Scott,1 and — alas, that he should
afterwards have turned aside from the career of
patriotism ! — the historian, William Smith.

The news of the resignation of Pitt, who was
" almost idolized " in America, heightened the rising
jealousy and extended it through the whole continent.
" We have such an idea of the general corruption,"
said Ezra Stiles, a dissenting minister in Rhode Island,
" we know not how to confide in any person below
the crown." 2 " You adore the Oliverian times," said
Bernard to Mayhew, at Boston. " I adore Him alone
who is before all times," answered Mayhew, and at
the same time avowed his zeal for the principles of
"the glorious Be volution" of 1688, especially for
" the freedom of speech and of writing." 8 Already he
was known among royalists as " an enemy to kings."

The alarm rose every where to an extreme height,

1 Rev. T>. Johnson to the Arch- 3 Bradford's Life of Jonathan
bishop of Canterbury. Mayhew, 222.

8 Ezra Stiles to Franklin, Dec,
1761.

430 TIIE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, and every question of authority in church and state
^^J was debated. The old Puritan strife with prelacy
'762. was renewed; and Presbyterians and Congregation-
alists were jealous of the favor shown by the royal
governors to the established church. In New York
the college was under Episcopal direction ; as New
England's Cambridge was in the hands of Dissenters,
Bernard sealed a charter for another seminary in the
interior. A fund of two thousand pounds was sub-
scribed to a society, which the legislature of Massa-
chusetts had authorized, for propagating knowledge
among the Indians ; but the king interposed his nega-
tive, and reserved the red men for the Anglican form
of worship. Mayhew, on the other hand, marshalled
public opinion against bishops; while Massachusetts,
under the guidance of Otis, dismissed the Episcopalian
Bollan, its pedantic but honest agent, and — intending
to select a Dissenter who should be able to employ for
the protection of their liberties the great political
influence of the Nonconformists in England — they
intrusted their affairs to Jasper Mauduit, who, though
a Dissenter, was connected through his brother with
Jenkinson and Bute and the king.

But the great subject of discontent was the en-
forcement of the Acts of Trade by the Court of
Admiralty; the court which was immediately subject
to the king, and independent of the province, where a
judge determined questions of property without a
jury, on information furnished by crown officers, and
derived his own emoluments exclusively from his por-
tion of the forfeitures which he himself had the sole
power to declare. The governor, too, was sure to
lean to the side of large seizures ; for he by law

THE ACTS OF TRADE PROVOKE REVOLUTION. 431

enjoyed a full third of all the fines imposed on goods chap.
that were condemned. The legislature, angry that ^^.J
Hutchinson, as chief justice, in defiance of the plain 1702.
principles of law, should lend himself to the schemes
of the crown officers, began to perceive how many
olfices he had selfishly accumulated in his own hands.
Otis, whose mind was deeply imbued with the writings
of Montesquieu, pointed out the mischief of uniting in
the same person executive, legislative, and judicial pow-
- ; but four or five years passed away before the dis-
tinction was much heeded ; and in the mean time the
judges were punished by a reduction of their salaries.
The general writs of assistance, which were clearly
illegal,1 would have been prohibited by a provincial
enactment, but for the negative of the governor.

The commotion, which at first was confined to
Boston, was expected to extend to the other ports.
The people were resolved that their trade should no
longer be kept under restrictions ; and began to talk
of procuring themselves justice.2

'•The decision of the Courts Bottetourt, and the Council of Vir»
of Connecticut, and the decision ginia.
of the Royalist Governor, Lord s Bernard to Lords of Trade.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE KING DRIVES OUT THE NEWCASTLE WHIGS.—
THE DAWN OF THE NEW REPUBLIC.

1762.

CxixP* ^HE wor^ ^ no* a* once Perceive the purposes
• — , — < of the new ministers, who were careful at first tc
1762- adopt as literally as possible the orders of William
Pitt, and his plan for conducting the war. He had
infused his own haughtiness and determined spirit
into the army and navy of England ; the strings which
he had struck with power still vibrated; his light,
like that of "an annihilated star," still shone bril-
liantly to the world ; and it was without fear, that, in
the first days of January, 1762, England, justified by
the avowed alliance between the branches of the
House of Bourbon, extended the strife to the Penin-
sula and the colonies of Spain.

Behold, then, at last, the great league of the Roman
Catholic powers, France, Spain, Austria, and the
German Empire, the mighty authorities of the Mid-
dle Age, blessed by the consecrating prayers of the
see of Rome, and united in arms ; but America and
the future of humanity were already safe. The
character of the war was changed. The alliance of

THE DAWN" OF THE NEW REPOBLIC. 433

France and Spain had been made nnder the influence chap.
of Choiseul, a pupil of the new ideas, the enemy of . r
the Jesuits, and the patron of philosophy; and the 17G2.
federation of the weaker maritime states presented it-
self to the world as the protector of equality on the
seas. England, on the other hand, had no motive to
continue hostilities, but the love of rapine and of con-
quest ; and on the twelfth of January, about a week
after the declaration against Spain, the king directed
measures to be taken to detach Austria from the
House of Bourbon, and recover its alliance for Eng-
land.

The proposition was made through Sir Joseph
Yorke, at the Hague, who was to tempt the empress
by " the hope of some ulterior acquisitions in Italy."
The experienced diplomatist promptly hinted to his
employers that offers from Prussia, that is, the offer of
the restoration of Silesia, would be more effective. A
clandestine proposition from England to Austria was
itself a treachery to Frederic and a violation of trea
ties ; it became doubly so, when the consequence of
success in the negotiation would certainly have been
the employment of England's influence to compel ,
Frederic to the cession of Silesia. To promise acqui-
sitions in Italy, with all whose powers England was at
peace, was an outrage on the laws of nations; the
proposition, if accepted, equally implied perfidy in
Austria towards France. " Her Imperial Majesty
and her minister," said Kaunitz, " cannot understand
the proper meaning of this confidential overture of
the English f and it did not remain a secret.

No one desired the cessation of hostilities more
than Frederic, if he could but secure his own posses-
sions. " To terminate this deadly war advanta

VOL. TV- 28

434 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, geously," thus he wrote, in January, IT 62, to George,
w^ " there is need of nothing but constancy ; but we
1762, must persevere to the end. I see difficulties still
without number; instead of appalling me, they en-
courage me by the hope of overcoming them.1' No-
thing could be more praiseworthy than the desire of the
British Government to establish peace; but nothing
could be more pusillanimous than the method adopted
to promote it. Ignorant of continental affairs, George
the Third and his Favorite held it necessary to break
or bend the firmness of will of the king of Prussia ;
and with that view invoked the interposition of Rus-
sia. The female autocrat of the North, the Empress
Elizabeth, who, during her reign, abolished the pun-
ishment of death, but, by her hatred of the Prussian
king, brought provinces into misery and tens of thou-
sands to massacre on battle-grounds, a childish person,
delighting in dress and new clothes, in intoxication
and the grossest excesses of lewdness, was no more.
So soon as it was known, that she had been succeeded
by her nephew, the frank, impetuous Peter the
Third, who cherished an unbounded admiration and
sincere friendship for Frederic, the British minister at
St. Petersburg was provided with a credit of one hun-
dred thousand pounds to be used as bribes,1 and was
instructed by Bute to moderate the excessive devoted-
ness of the emperor to Frederic; the strength of that
attachment was a source of anxiety.2

At the same time an attempt was made to induce
parliament to abandon the Prussian alliance ; and

1 Bute to Keith, 6 Feb. 1762, in 8 Bute to Keith, 26 February,
Raumer, ii. 492. There is a copy 1762, in Raumer, ii. 501.
of the letter among the Mitchell
Papers in the British Museum.

THE DAWN OF THE NEW REPUBLIC. 435

early in February, Bedford, though a member of the ciiap.
cabinet, offered a resolution in the House of Lords XIX*
linst continuing the war in Germany. In the de- 1762.
bate Bute did but assume an appearance of opposi-
tion, and the question was only evaded and post-
poned. It was evidently the royal wish to compel
Frederic to the hard necessity of ceding territory to
A ostria. A statement was demanded of him of his
idea on the subject of peace, and of his resources for
holding out, as a preliminary to the renewal of the
subsidy from England. But he rendered no such ac-
count, which could have been but an inventory of his
weakness. The armies of Russia were encamped in
Prussia Proper ; to Gallitzin the minister of Russia at
London, Bute intimated that England would aid
the emperor to retain a part of the conquests made
from the king of Prussia, if he would continue to hold
him in check. But the chivalric Czar, indignant at
the perfidy, inclosed Gallitzin's despatch to Frederic
himself,1 and hastening to reconcile his empire with
his illustrious friend, restored all the conquests that
had been made from the kingdom to that prince, set-
tled with him a peace including a guaranty of Silesia,
and finally transferred a Russian army to his camp.
The fact, that Prussia had transformed Russia from an
enemy into an ally, while England had a new enemy
in Spain, and a dependent in Portugal, gave a plausi-
ble reason for discontinuing the grant to Prussia.
Still the subsidy was promised ; but " the condition
of the bounty2 of this nation," wrote Bute, at the
king's command, uis the employment of it towards

1 Histoire de la Guerre de Sept and Bute to Mitchell, in Appendix
Ans, chap. 15. But compare the de- to Adolphus, i. 587.
nial, in Adolphus: Hist., i. 80, 8 Bute to Mitchell, 9 April 1762.

436 THE AFRICAN EE VOLUTION.

chap, the procurement of peace, not the continuance of
^_^_ war." "This Englishman," said Frederic, "thinks
1762. that money does every thing, and that there is no
money but in England." 1 And, deserted by his ally,
he was left to tread in solitude the paths of greatness.
Little did George the Third dream that he was filling
his own cup with bitterness to the brim ; that the
day was soon to come, when he in his turn would en-
treat benefits from Frederic, and find them inexorably
withheld.

During these negotiations, and before the end of
March, news reached Europe of victories in the West
Indies, achieved by Monckton with an army of twelve
thousand men, assisted by Rodney and a fleet of six-
teen sail of the line and thirteen frigates. On the
seventh of January, the British armament appeared
off Martinico, the richest and best of the French
colonies, strongly guarded by natural defences, which
art had improved. Yet, on the fourteenth of Feb-
ruary, the governor and inhabitants were forced to
capitulate. Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent's, were
soon after occupied ; so that the outer Caribbee Islands,
in the whole extent of the arc which bends from St.
Domingo towards the continent of South America,
were British. For the siege of Havana the conti-
nental colonies were ordered to contribute quotas of
men, and reinforcements were on their way from
England.

These successes gave new courage to the king's
friends to pursue their system. Newcastle, who had
received " all kinds of disgusts " from his associates in
the cabinet, seized the occasion of withholding the sub«

Histoire de la Guerre, &c. in (Euvres Posthumes, iv. 284.

THE DAWN OF THE NEW KEPUBLIO. 437

sidy from Prussia to indulge with Bute his habit of citap
complaint. But " the Earl never requested me to con- ^^L
tinue in office," said Newcastle, "nor said a civil thing 1762
to me;" and at last most lingeringly the veteran
statesman resigned. English writers praise his disin-
terestedness, because the childless man, who himself
[assessed enormous wealth, who while in office had
provided bountifully for his kindred, and who left his
post only to struggle in old age to recover it and act
Lis part anew, did not accept a pension. America
gives him the better praise, that, beneath all his
frivolity and follies, he had a vein of good sense,
which restrained him from decisive attacks on colonial
liberty.

So fell the old whig aristocracy which had so long
governed England. It was false to the cause of liberty
and betrayed the man of the people, only to be
requited with contumely by those who reaped bene-
fits from its treachery. Its system of government un-
der its old form, could never be restored. It needed
to be purified by a long conflict with the inheritors of
its methods of corruption, before it could be awakened
to a perception of its duty and animated to undertake
the work of reform. But the power of the people
was coming with an energy which it would be neither
safe nor possible to neglect. Royalty itself no less than
aristocracy was perilled. In the very days in which
the English whig aristocracy was in its agony, Rous-
seau, the most eloquent writer of French prose, told
the world, that " nature makes neither princes, nor rich
men, nor grandees;" that "the sovereignty of the peo-
ple is older than the institutions which restrain it ; and
that these institutions are not obligatory but by con-

438 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, sent.1 " You put trust " said he, " in the actual order

XIX

^^s of society, without reflecting that this order is sub-
1762- ject to inevitable changes. We are approaching the
state of crisis and the age of revolutions." " Were all
the kings put away, they would hardly be missed,
and things would go on none the worse." 2 "I hold it
impossible that the great monarchies of Europe should
endure much longer." 8

On the retirement of Newcastle, Bute, near the
end of May, transferring the seals of the Northern
Department to George Grenville, became first lord of
the treasury, the feeblest of British prime ministers.
Bedford remained privy seal; Egremont, Grenville's
brother-in-law, secretary of state for the Southern
Department and America ; while the able Lord North
retained his seat at the Treasury Board. Early in
June, on the death of Anson, Halifax returned from
Ireland to join the cabinet as first lord of the admi-
ralty. Charles Townshend was still secretary at war,
yet having that confidence in his own genius which
made him restless in occupying a station inferior to
Grenville's.

The confidence of the ministry was confirmed by
success in war. The British army and navy had
acquired a habit of victory ; the British men-of-war
reposed in the consciousness of maritime supremacy ;
and, as the hawk, from his resting-place among the
clouds, gazes calmly around for his prey, their eye
glanced over every ocean in search of the treasure-
ships of Spain. " Great monarchies," Choiseul had

' Contrat Social, printed in 8 Note to a passage in the Third
April, 1762. Book of Emile. That work was

3 From Emile. published in May, 1762.

TIIE DAWN OF THE NEW EEPUBLlC*. 439

paid1 in April, "spite of redoubled misfortunes, chap.
should have confidence in the solidity of their ex- ^J,
istence. If I were the master, we would stand against 1762.
England as Spain did against the Moors ; and if this
coui'se were truly adopted, England would be reduced
and destroyed within thirty years."

But the exhausted condition of France compelled
hei to seek peace ; in February and March, the
subject had been opened for discussion through the
ministers of Sardinia in London and Versailles ; and
after passing April in the consideration of plans,
early in May Bute was able to submit to Bedford his
project. u I am glad of the peace as it has been
chalked out," said Bedford ; u a much longer con-
tinuance of the war, however relieved by the lustre
of farther conquests, is likely to prove fatal to the
nation;" and in July he accepted the embassy to
France, though the appointment was not declared till
the first of September.

A good peace with foreign enemies," said Hutch-
inson, from Massachusetts, as early as March, " would
enable us to make a better defence against our do-
mestic foes." The relations of Ireland and of Ame-
rica to the British king and the British parliament
were held to be the same. By Poyning's Act, as it
was called, no bill could be accepted in Ireland, until
it had been transmitted to England, and returned
with the assent of the Privy Council. The principle
had already been applied by royal instructions to
particular branches of American legislation. The

1 Choiseul's Despatch of 5 April, 1762. Flassan: Histoire de la
Diplomatie Franchise, vi. 466

440 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, design began to be more and more openly avowed, of
^^L demanding a suspending clause in every act.
17 62. It had been already decided that every American
judge should hold his appointment at the royal
pleasure. Hardy, governor of New Jersey, having
violated his instructions, by issuing a commission
during good behavior, was promptly dismissed ; and
at a time when the new-modelling of the charter gov-
ernments was contemplated, William Franklin, the
only son of the great adversary of the proprietaries
of Pennsylvania, to " the .extreme astonishment and
rage " of the younger Penn, at the suggestion of Bute,
became his successor.

When New York refused to vote salaries to its
chief justice, unless he should receive an independent
commission, the Board of Trade, in June, 1762,1 re-
commended that he should have his salary from the
royal quitrents. " Such a salary," it was pleaded to
the Board by the chief justice himself, " could not
fail to render the office of great service to his Majesty,
in securing the dependence of the colony on the
crown, and its commerce to Great Britain." 2 It was
further hinted, that it would insure judgments in favor
of the crown against all intrusions upon the royal
domain by the great landed proprietors of New York,
and balance their power and influence in the Assem-
bly. The appeal was irresistible, and, by the direc-
tion of Bute and his colleagues, all of whom favored
American taxation by act of parliament, the measure
was adopted. Thus was consummated the system of
subjecting the halls of justice to the prerogative.
The king, in the royal provinces, instituted courts,

1 Representation of the Board to 8 Pratt to the Lords of Trade,
the king, 11 June, 1762. 24 May, 1762.

THE DAWN OF THE NEW REPUBLIC. 44]

named the judges, removed them at pleasure, fixed chap
the amount of their salaries, and paid them out of *_/_
funds that were independent of legislative grants. 11 M*
The system, established as yet in one only of the
older provinces, was designed for all. In no part of
the continent was opposition to the British govern-
ment more deeply rooted, more rational and steadfast,
than in New York, where the popular lawyers con-
tinued their appeals, through the weekly press, to the
public mind, and, supported by the great landholders,
excited the people to menace resistance and to fore-
bode independence.

It began to be widely known, that at the end of
the war some general regulation of the governments
of the colonies would be attempted ; and the officers of
the crown who wished to escape the responsibility at-
tached to a dependence on the people, were quite cer-
tain that a provision would be made for their indepen-
dent support.1 The purpose of raising a revenue by
parliament at the peace was no longer concealed ; and
chastisement was prepared for Maryland and Penn-
sylvania,, the refractory provinces which had so much
tasked the attention of the great English lawyers,
Mansfield, Charles Yorke, and Pratt. The persever-
ance of Maryland in disobeying the royal requisition
was laid before the king, who expressed what was
called " just displeasure" at the " obstinate" disobe-
dience of the Assembly of that province. He cen-
sured them as not " animated by a sense of their duty
to their king and country." u Though there is little
room," added Egremont, " to expect a change in per-
sons who seem determined to adhere to their own

1 Bernard to Shell- nrne, 4 January, 1767. Compare, too, Novan-
glus.

442 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, opinion, bis Majesty has judged it proper to direct me

, ^ to express his sentiments on the conduct of the As-

17G2. sembly of your province, that they may not deceive
themselves by supposing that their behavior is not
seen here in its true light." 1 The despatch bore the
impress of George the Third, and shadowed forth his
intentions.

The reprimand of the legislature of Pennsylvania
was delayed till Sir Jeffrey Amherst could report its
disregard of his final appeal. On receiving from him
full accounts, a similar letter conveyed to the Assem-
bly of Pennsylvania " the king's high disapprobation
of their artfully evading to pay any obedience to his
Majesty's requisitions." 2

No one was more bent on -reducing the colonies to
implicit obedience than the blunt, humane, and hon-
est, but self-willed Duke of Bedford, who, on the
sixth day of September, sailed for France with full
powers to negotiate a peace. Scarcely was he gone,
before Egremont, Pitt's successor, desiring, like Pitt, to
conduct the negotiation from ministry to ministry,
limited the powers of Bedford. The angry duke re-
monstrated to Bute, who just then, in company with
the Duke of York, had been decorated with the order
of the Garter, at a very full chapter, where Temple
sat directly by his side in silent sullenness. The
prime minister incurred the enmity of Egremont, by
promising to ask of the cabinet a restitution to Bed-
ford of his full powers. uAre you sure of the cabi-
net's concurrence T asked Rigby. " The king will be

1 H. Sharpe to Egremont, 25 8 Egremont to Gov. of Pennsyl*
April, Egremont to H. Sharpe, 10 vania, 27 Nnv., 1762.
July, 1762.

THE DAWN OF THE KEW REPUBLIC. 443

obeyed," replied Bute, " and will talk to the two secre- chap.
tones on their scruples." And it was so. The young s^J,
man of three-and-twenty subdued his two secretaries '762.
of state, secretly laughing all the while at their dis-
pleasure and dismay. " Judge of Grenville's counte-
nance," said he to Bute, "by that of his brother,"
Earl of Temple, " at the installation." " Lord Egre-
mont was wise enough to fly into a passion in the
closet." " I have but one sentiment to offer," said he
to the king, — " which is, to send the Duke of Bedford
fixed articles for the preliminaries, upon no event to
be changed, and if the French refuse to comply, im-
mediately to recall him." "The sentiment," said
George, who repeated the conversation, "is totally
different from mine ; a boy of ten years old might as
well have been sent to Paris on this errand." The
secretary yielded, and some subjects were left at the
discretion of Bedford; but Bute, with singular per-
fidy, indirectly, through the Sardinian minister, and
in his own handwriting, communicated * to the French
ambassador the decision adopted, and even minutes of
the advice given by the various members of the cabi-
net council, on condition that the details should be
kept religiously from Spain, and from the Duke of
Bedford. Thus the ministry of the hostile power, with
which Bedford was to negotiate a peace, was, without
his knowledge, made acquainted with his most secret
instructions. Nothing better explains the character of
Bute, and its discovery drew on him the implacable
displeasure and contempt of Bedford.

The consummation of the peace languished and
was delayed ; its failure even was anticipated, because

1 Wiffen's House of Russell, ii. 506.

444 THE AMEBIC AN REVOLUTION.

•

chap. Grirnaldi, for Spain, was persuaded that the expedi
v_^_/ tion of the English against Havana must be defeat
17 62. ed. But before the end of the twenty-ninth day ol
September news arrived of a very different result.

Havana was then, as now, the chief place in the
West Indies, built on a harbor large enough to shel-
ter all the navies of Europe, capable of being made
impregnable from the sea, having docks in which
ships of war of the first magnitude were constructed,
rich from the products of the surrounding country,
and the centre of the trade with Mexico. Of this
magnificent city England undertook the conquest.
The command of her army, in which Carleton and
Howe each led two battalions, was given to Albe-
marle, the friend and pupil of the Duke of Cumber-
land. The fleet was intrusted to Pococke, already
illustrious as the conqueror in two naval battles in
the East.

Assembling the fleet and transports at Martinico,
and off Cape St. Nicholas, the adventurous admiral
sailed directly through the Bahama Straits, and on
the sixth day of June came in sight of the low coast
round Havana. The Spanish forces for the defence of
the city were about forty-six hundred ; the English
had eleven thousand effective men, and were recruited
by nearly a thousand negroes from the Leeward
Islands, and by fifteen hundred from Jamaica. Before
the end of July, the needed reinforcements arrived
from New York and New England ; among these was
Putnam, the brave ranger of Connecticut, and num-
bers of men less happy, because never destined to
revisit their homes.

On the thirtieth of July, after a siege of twenty-

TTIE DAWN OF THE NEW REPUBLIC. 445

nine (lays, during which the Spaniards lost a thousand chap.
men, and the brave Don Luis de Velasco was mortally ^^L,
wounded, the Moro Castle was taken by storm. On 1762.
the eleventh of August, the governor of Havana ca-
pitulated, and the most important station in the West
Indies fell into the hands of the English. At the
me time, nine ships of the line and four frigates
were captured in the harbor. The booty of proper-
ty belonging to the king of Spain was estimated at
ten millions of dollars.

This most memorable siege was conducted in mid-
summer, against a city which lies just within the
tropic. The country round the Moro Castle is rocky.
To bind and carry the fascines was, of itself, a work
of incredible labor, made possible only by aid of Af-
rican slaves. Sufficient earth to hold the fascines
firni was gathered with difficulty from crevices in the
rocks. Once, after a drought of fourteen days, the
grand battery took fire by the flames, and crackling
and spreading where water could not follow it, nor
earth stifle it, was wholly consumed. The climate
spoiled a great part of the provisions. Wanting
good water, very many died in agonies from thirst.
More fell victims to a putrid fever, of which the
malignity left but three or four hours between robust
health and death. Some wasted away with loath-
some disease. Over the graves the carrion-crows
hovered, and often scratched away the scanty earth
which rather hid than buried the dead. Hundreds of
carcasses floated on the ocean. And yet such was the
enthusiasm of the English, such the resolute zeal of
the sailors and soldiers, such the unity of action
between the fleet and army, that the vertical sun of
June and July, the heavy rains of August, raging

446 THE AMERICAN EE VOLUTION.

chap, fever, and strong and well defended fortresses, all

XIX.

^_y_, the obstacles of nature and art, were surmounted,
1762. and the most decisive victory of the war was
completed.

The scene in the British cabinet was changed by
the capture of Havana. Bute was indifferent to fur-
ther acquisitions in America, for he held it " of much
greater importance to bring the old colonies into
order than to plant new ones ;" 1 but all his colleagues
thought otherwise ; and Bedford was unwilling to re-
store Havana to Spain except for the cession of Porto
Rico and the Floridas. The king, who persisted in
the purpose of peace, intervened. He himself solicit-
ed the assent of Cumberland to his policy ; he caused
George Grenville, who hesitated to adopt his views, to
exchange with Halifax the post of secretary of state
for that of the head of the admiralty ; and he pur-
chased the support of Fox as a member of the cabi-
net and leader of the House of Commons by the offer
of a peerage. These movements enraged both the
people and the aristocracy ; Wilkes, through The
North Briton, inflamed the public mind ; while the
Duke of Devonshire and the Marquis of Rockingham
resigned their offices in the royal household. An
opposition seemed certain; nor was it expected by
the friends of the prerogative, that " ancient systems
of power would fall to the ground without a strug-
gle." 2 " The king's rest is not disturbed," said Bute ;
" he is pleased to have people fairly take off the
mask, and looks with the utmost contemj3t on what

1 Knox Extra official papers, ii. tion to vol. iii. of the Bedford Cor-
29. respoiidence, xxvii.

e Lord John Passell's Introduc-

THE DAWN OF THE NEW REPUBLIC.

4-17

he sees is going forward ;" 1 and on the last day of chap,
October, he called for the council-book, and struck ^^i
from it the name of the Duke of Devonshire; a high 17 62.
indignity, almost without example.

The principal representatives of the old whig aris-
tocracy were driven into retirement, and the king was
passionately resolved never again to receive them into
a ministry. In the impending changes, Charles Town-
shend coveted the administration of America, and
Bute gladly offered him the secretaryship of the plan-
tations and Board of Trade. Thrice Townshend had
interviews with the king, whose favor he always
courted; but for the time he declined the station
from an unwillingness to attach himself to Fox and
Bute, and not from any apprehension of the sweeping
whirlwind which was just beginning to rise at the
menace of danger.

At that very time, men were earnestly discussing
in Boston the exclusive right of America to raise and
to apply its own revenues. The governor and council
had, in advance of authority by law, expended three
or four hundred pounds sterling on a ship and sloop,
that were to cruise against privateers, for the protec-
tion of fishermen. Otis, in September, 1762, seized
the opportunity in a report to claim the right of ori-
ginating all taxes as the most darling privilege of the
representatives. " It would be of little consequence to
the people," said he, on the floor of the House, " whe-
ther they were subject to George or Louis, the king
of Great Britain, or the French king, if both were ar-
bitrary, as both would be, if both could levy taxes
without parliament." "Treason! treason!" shouted

1 Wiffen, ii. 503.

448 THE AMERICAN EE VOLUTION.

chap. Paine, the member from Worcester. " There is not
xix.
_,_ the least ground," said Bernard in a message, " for the

1762. insinuation under color of which that sacred and well

beloved name is brought into question." Otis, who

was fiery, but not obstinate, erased the offensive

words, as his sentiments were fully expressed without

them ; but immediately, claiming to be one

" Who dared to love his country and be poor,"

he vindicated himself through the press.

Invoking the authority of " the most wise, most
honest, and most impartial Locke," " as great an orna-
ment as the Church of England ever had," because " of
moderate and tolerant principles," and one who " wrote
expressly to establish the throne which George the
Third now held," he undertook to reply to those who
could not bear that " liberty and property should be
enjoyed by the vulgar."

Deeply convinced of the reality of " the ideas of
right and wrong," he derived his argument from ori-
ginal right. " God made all men naturally equal.
The ideas of earthly grandeur are acquired, not in-
nate. Kings were made for the good of the people,
not the people for them. No government has a right
to make slaves of the subject. Most governments are,
in fact, arbitrary, and consequently the curse and
scandal of human nature ; yet none are, of right, arbi-
trary. By the laws of God and nature, government
must not raise taxes on the property of the people,
without the consent of the people or their deputies."
And it was reasoned, that " the advantage of being a
Briton rather than a Frenchman, consisted in liberty."

As a question of national law, Otis maintained
the rights of a colonial assembly to be equal to

THE DAWN OF THE NEW EEPUBLIO. 440

those of the House of Commons, and that to raise or chap.

• XIX

apply money without its consent, was as great an in- ^^i,
novation as for the king and House of Lords to usurp 1762.
legislative authority.

The privileges of Massachusetts, it was held, were
safe under the shelter of its charter and the common
law ; yet Otis did not fail to cite, also, the preamble
to the British statute of 1740, for naturalizing foreign-
el's, where " the subjects in the colonies are plainly
declared entitled to all the privileges of the people of
Great Britain."

In conclusion, he warned " all plantation govern-
ors" not to spend their whole time, as he declared
" most of them" did, " in extending the prerogative
beyond all bounds ;" and he pledged himself " ever,
to the utmost of his capacity and power, to vindicate
the liberty of his country and the rights of mankind."

The Vindication of Otis filled the town of Boston
with admiration of the patriotism of its author, and
the boldness of his doctrines. " A more sensible
thing," said Brattle, one of the Council, " never was
written." By the royalists its author was denounced
as "the chief incendiary," a "seditious" "firebrand,"
and a " leveller." " I am almost tempted," confessed
the unpopular Hutchinson, " to take for my motto,
Odi profcmum vulgus" hatred to the people. " I
will write the history of my own times, like Bishop
Burnet, and paint characters as freely ; it shall not be
published while I live, but I will be revenged on
some of the rascals after I am dead ;" and he pleaded
fervently that Bernard should reserve his favor ex-
clusively for " the friends to government." " I do not
say," cried Mayhew from the pulpit, on the annual
Thanksgiving day, " I do not say our invaluable rights

VOL. iv 29

450 THE AMEBIC AN REVOLUTION.

chap, have been struck at; but if they have, they are not
^^L wrested from us ; and may righteous Heaven blast the
i 7 0 2. designs, though not the soul, of that man, whoever he
be amongst us, that shall have the hardiness to attack
them." Thomas Hollis, a wealthy Englishman, a
lover of humanity, a devoted friend to America, sent
word to Boston to build no hopes upon the king, and
already foresaw the approaching and certain inde-
pendence of America.

CHAPTER XX.

ENGLAND, GRASPING AT THE COLONIES OF FRANCE AND SPAIN,
RISKS THE LOSS OF HER OWN-BUTE'S MINISTRY.

1762—1763.

While it was yet uncertain who among British cf §?
statesmen would be selected to establish British ^^»

17 6 2.

authority in the colonies, the king, on the twenty-
sixth of October, offering to return Havana to Spain
for either the Floridas or Porto Kico, urged the
instant consummation of the treaty. " The best dis-
patch I can receive from you will be these prelimina-
ries signed. May Providence, in compassion to human
misery, give you the means of executing this great
and noble work." Thus beautifully wrote the young
monarch to Bedford, not dazzled by victory, and re-
pressing the thirst for conquest; a rare instance of
moderation, of which history must gratefully preserve
the record. The terms proposed to the French were
severe, and even humiliating. "But what can we
do r said Choiseul, who in his despair had for a time
resigned the foreign department to the Duke de
Praslin. " The English are furiously imperious ; they
are drunk with success; and, unfortunately, we are
not in a condition to abase their pride." France

,

452 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, yielded to necessity, and on the third day of Novem-

_^_ ber the preliminaries of peace, a peace so momentous

1TG2. for America, were signed between France and Spain

on the one side, and England and Portugal on the

other.

To England were ceded, besides islands in th
West Indies, the Floridas ; Louisiana to the Mississippi,
but without the island of New Orleans ; all Canada ;
Acadia ; Cape Breton and its dependent islands ; and
the fisheries, except that France retained a share
in them, with the two islets St. Pierre and Mique-
lon, as a shelter for their fishermen. For the loss
of Florida France on the same day indemnified Spain
by ceding to that power New Orleans, and all Lou-
isiana west of the Mississippi, with boundaries un-
defined.

In Africa, England acquired Senegal, with the
command of the slave-trade.

In the East Indies, France, according to a modifi-
cation proposed and insisted upon by Bedford, only
recovered in a dismantled and ruined state the little
that she possessed on the first of January, 1^49 ;
England obtained in that region the undoubted sway.
In Europe, where Frederic was left to take care of
himself, each power received back its own ; Minorca,
therefore, reverted to Great Britain.

" England," said the king, " never signed such a
peace before, nor, I believe, any other power in
Europe." " The country never," said the dying Gran-
ville, " saw so glorious a war, or so honorable a peace."
It maintains, thought Thomas Hollis, no flatterer of
kings, the maritime power, the interests, the security,
the tranquillity, and the honor of England. The

THE CESSION OF CANADA HASTENS INDEPENDENCE. 453

judgment of mankind, out of England, then and ever chap.
since, lias pronounced on it similar decisions. For ^^1^
once, to the surprise of every body, Bute spoke well, UG2.
rising in its defence in the House of Lords. " I wish,"
said he, " no better inscription on my tomb than that
I was its author."

On the morning of the ninth of December, the
very day on which the preliminaries were to be dis-
cussed in parliament, Charles Townshend resigned his
place as secretary at war. The opposition, on his
resigning, had great hopes of his joining with them.
But, always preserving intimate relations with George
the Third, he still aspired to the management of the
plantations as third secretary of state ; and when Pitt
spoke against the peace for three hours and twenty
minutes, — for the first hour admirably, then with flag-
ging strength, " though even in his scrawls showing
the masterly hand of a Raphael," and an a indisputa-
ble superiority to all others," — Charles Townshend, in
a speech of but twenty-five minutes, made an answer
" with great judgment, wit, and strength of argument,"
on the side of humanity.1

On the division the opponents of the treaty were
but sixty-five against three hundred and nineteen.
"Now," said the princess dowager, on hearing the
great majority, " my son is indeed king of England."
Yet Townshend, who had so much contributed to
swell the vote, in the progress of his own ambition,
had for a rival Halifax, his old superior at the Board
of Trade, who was equally desirous of the department
of the colonies, with the rank of a secretary of state.

In the first days of January, 1763, it was publicly

1 See Powlett to Horatio Gates, 4 January, 1763.

454 TIIE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, avowed what had long been resolved on, that a stand-

rLs ing army of twenty battalions was to be kept up in

1763. America after the peace ; 1 and, as the ministry were
all the while promising great things in point of
economy, it was designed that the expense should be
defrayed by the colonists themselves.

On the tenth day of February, 1763, the treaty was
ratified ; and five days afterwards, at the hunting-castle
of Hubertsburg, a definitive treaty closed the war of
the empress queen and the Elector of Saxony against
the great Frederic. The year of 1761 had ended for
Frederic in gloom. Hardly sixty thousand men remain-
ed to him to resist the whole circle of his enemies. He
has himself described the extremity of his distress, and
has proudly bid the world learn from his example,
that, in great affairs, perseverance lifts statesmen above
perils.2 To the firm man the moment of deliverance
assuredly comes. Deserted most unexpectedly by
George the Third, the changes in Russia had been
equally marvellous. That empire from an enemy had
become an ally, desirable from its strength, yet dan-
gerous from the indiscretions of its sovereign. But
when the arbitrary seizure of the domains of the Rus-
sian clergy by Peter the Third, and the introduction
into the army of an unwonted system, had provoked
the clergy and the army to effect a revolution by his
dethronement and murder, his wife, Catharine, — a Ger-
man princess who had adopted the religion and care-
fully studied the language, the customs and institu-
tions of Russia ; a woman of such endowments, that

1 A. Oldham to H. Gates, 6 Ja- 8 Frederic : (Euvres Postlm-

nnarv, 17C>3. Bernard, in 1765, mes, i. 273. Hist, de la Guerre de

says the new measure had been Sept Ans.
44 loncf ' determined on.

THE CESSION OF CANADA HASTENS INDEPENDENCE. 455

she was held to be the ablest person in its court; — was chap.

advanced, over the ruin of her husband, of which she , ^

< not guilty, to the imperial throne of the Czai-s. ncs
More wise than her predecessor, she abandoned his
projects of war and revenge, and in the midsummer of
1762, recalling the Russian army, she gave to the
world the instructive lesson of moderation and neu-
trality. The territories of Prussia, which France
had evacuated, Bute left, as he said, " to be scrambled
for ;" but there was no one to win them from Frede-
ric ; and after seven years of unequalled effort
against the aristocracies and despotisms of continental
Europe, the hero of Prussia won a triumph for
freedom by the glorious treaty of Hubertsburg,
which gave security of existence to his state
without the cession of a hand's breadth of his
dominions.

Thus was arrested the course of carnage and
misery ; of sorrows in private life infinite and un-
fathomable ; of wretchedness heaped on wretchedness ;
of public poverty and calamity ; of forced enlistments
and extorted contributions; and all the unbridled
tyranny of military power in the day of danger.
France was exhausted of one half of her specie ; in
many parts of Germany there remained not enough
of men or of cattle to renew cultivation. The num-
ber of the dead in arms is computed at eight hundred
and eighty-six thousand on the battle-fields of Europe,
or on the way to them. And all this devastation and
waste of life and of resources produced for those who
planned it no gain whatever, nothing but weakness
and losses. Not an inch of land was torn from the
dominions of Frederic ; not a limit to the boundaries

456 TILE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, of any state was contracted or advanced. Europe, in
_^L, its territorial divisions, remained exactly as before.
1763. But in Asia and America how was the world changed !

In Asia, the victories of Clive at Plassy, of Coote
at the Wanderwash, and of Watson and Pococke on
the Indian seas, had given England the undoubted
ascendency in the East Indies, opening to her sud-
denly the promise of untold treasures and territorial
acquisitions without end.

In America, the Teutonic race, with its strong
tendency to individuality and freedom, was become
the master from the Gulf of Mexico to the poles ;
and the English tongue, which, but a century and a
half before, had for its entire world a part only of
two narrow islands on the outer verge of Europe, was
now to spread more widely than any that had ever
given expression to human thought.

Go forth, then, language of Milton and Hampden,
language of my country, take possession of the North
American continent ! Gladden the waste places with
every tone that has been rightly struck on the Eng-
lish lyre, with every English word that has been
spoken well for liberty and for man ! Give an echo
to the now silent and solitary mountains ; gush out
with the fountains that as yet sing their anthems all
day long without response ; fill the valleys with the
voices of love in its purity, the pledges of friendship
in its faithfulness ; and as the morning sun drinks the
dewdrops from the flowers all the way from the
dreary Atlantic to the Peaceful Ocean, meet him with
the joyous hum of the early industry of freemen !
Utter boldly and spread widely through the world

TIIE CESSION OF CANADA HASTENS INDEPENDENCE. 45?

the thoughts of the coming apostles of the people's chap.
liberty, till the sound that cheers the desert shall v_^L,
thrill through the heart of humanity, and the lips of 1768.
the messenger of the people's power, as he stands in
beauty upon the mountains, shall proclaim the reno-
vating tidings of equal freedom for the race !

England exulted in its conquests ; enjoying the
glory of extended dominion in the confident expecta-
tion of a boundless increase of wealth. But its success
was due to its having taken the lead in the good old
struggle for liberty ; and was destined to bring fruits,
not so much to itself, as to the cause of freedom and
mankind.

France, of all the states on the continent of
Europe, the most powerful by territorial unity, wealth,
numbers, industry and culture, seemed also by its
place, marked out for maritime ascendency. Set be-
tween many seas, it rested upon the Mediterranean,
possessed harbors on the German ocean, and embraced
within its wide shores and jutting headlands, the bays
and open waters of the Atlantic ; its people, infolding
at one extreme the offspring of colonists from Greece,
and at the other, the hardy children of the Northmen,
were called, as it were, to the inheritance of life upon
the sea. The nation, too, readily conceived or appro-
priated great ideas, and delighted in bold resolves.
Its travellers had -penetrated farthest into the fearful
interior of unknown lands; its* missionaries won most
familiarly the confidence of the aboriginal hordes ; its
writers described with keener and wiser observation
the forms of nature in her wildness, and the habits
and languages of savage man ; its soldiers, and every
lay Frenchman in America owed military service,

458 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

chap, uniting beyond all others celerity with courage, knew
^^^ best how to endure the hardships of forest life and to
1763 triumph in forest warfare. Its ocean chivalry had
given a name and a colony to Carolina, and its mer-
chants a people to Acadia. The French discovered
the basin of the St. Lawrence ; were the first to ex-
plore and possess the banks of the Mississippi, and
planned an American empire that should unite the
widest valleys and most copious inland waters of the
world.

But New France was governed exclusively by the
monarchy of its metropolis ; and was shut against the
intellectual daring of its philosophy, the liberality of
its political economists, the movements of its industrial
genius, its legal skill, and its infusion of protestant
freedom. Nothing representing the new activity of
thought in Modern France, went to America. No-
thing had leave to go there, but what was old and
worn out. The government thought only to transmit
to its American empire, the exhausted polity of the
Middle Ages ; the castes of feudal Europe ; its mon-
archy, its hierarchy, its nobility, and its dependent
peasantry ; while commerce was enfeebled by protec-
tion, stifled under the weight of inconvenient regu-
lations, and fettered by exclusive grants. The land
was parcelled out in seignories ; and though quitrents
were moderate, transfers and sales of leases were bur-
dened with restrictions and heavy fines. The men
who held the plough were tenants and vassals, of
whom few could either write or read. No village
school was open for their instruction ; nor was there,
one printing press in either Canada1 or Louisiana

1 General Murray to the Earl of " The former government would
Egremont, Quebec, 5 June, 1762 : never suffer a printing press in the

THE CESSION OF CANADA HASTENS INDEPENDENCE. 459

The central will of the administration, though checked chap.
by concessions of monopolies, was neither guided by s__,
local legislatures, nor restrained by parliaments or 1768.
courts of law. But France was reserved for a nobler
influence in the New World, than that of propagating
institutions, which in the Old World were giving
tip the ghost ; nor had Providence set apart America
for the reconstruction of the decaying framework of
feudal tyranny.1

The colonists from England brought over the
forms of the government of the mother country, and
the purpose of giving them a better development and
a fairer career in the Western World. The French
emigrants took with them only what belonged to the
past, and nothing that represented modern freedom.
The English emigrants retained what they called
English privileges, but left behind in the parent coun-
try, English inequalities, the monarch, and nobility,
and prelacy. French America was closed against
even a gleam of intellectual independence ; nor did it
contain so much as one dissenter from the Roman
Church ; English America had English liberties in
greater purity and with far more of the power of the
people than England. Its inhabitants were self-or-
ganized bodies of freeholders, pressing upon the re-,
ceding forests, winning their way farther and farther
forward every year, and never going back. They had
schools, so that in several of the colonies there was no
one to be found beyond childhood, who could not read
and write ; they had the printing-press, scattering among

country." And again Gen. Murray or none can read; printing was
to Secretary Shelburne, 30 August, never permitted in Canada, till we
17G6: "They are very ignorant, got possession of it."
and it was the policy of the French l Gayarre Histoire de la Louis-
government to keep them so ; few iane, ii. 121.

460 THE AMERICAN EE VOLUTION.

chap, tli em books, and pamphlets, and many newspapers :
s^yw they had a ministry chiefly composed of men of their
1763. own election. In private life they were accustomed
to take care of themselves ; in public affairs they had
local legislatures, and municipal self-direction. And
now this continent from the Gulf of Mexico to where
civilized life is stayed by barriers of frost, was become
their dwelling-place and their heritage.

Reasoning men in New York, as early as 1748,
foresaw and announced that the conquest of Canada,
by relieving the Northern Colonies from danger,
would hasten their emancipation. An attentive Swe-
dish traveller in that year heard the opinion, and pub-
lished it to Sweden and to Europe ; the early dreams
of John Adams made the removal of " the turbulent
Gallics" a prelude to the approaching greatness of his
country. During the negotiations for peace, the kins-
man and bosom friend of Edmund Burke, employed
the British press to unfold the danger to England
from retaining Canada ; and the French minister for
foreign affairs frankly warned the British envoy, that
the cession of Canada would lead to the independence
\ of North America.1

Unintimidated by the prophecy, and obeying a
•higher and wiser instinct, England happily persisted.
" We have caught them at last," 2 said Choiseul to
those around him on the definitive surrender of New
France ; and at once giving up Louisiana to Spain, his
eager hopes anticipated the speedy struggle of Amer-
ica for separate existence. So soon as the sagacious

1 Hans Stanley to William Pitt, me by the late Albert Gallatin,
1760, printed in Thackeray's Chat- confirmed by papers in my posses-
ham, sion, relating to periods a little

8 From oral communications to earlier and a litfe later.

THE CESSION OF CANADA HASTENS INDEPENDENCE. 461

and experienced Vergennes, the French ambassador at chap.
Constantinople, a grave, laborious man, remarkable ^^
for a calm temper and moderation of character, heard 1768.
the conditions of the peace, he also said to his friends,
and even openly to a British traveller,1 "the conse-
quences of the entire cession of Canada are obvious.
[ am persuaded," and afterwards he himself recalled
his prediction to the notice of the British ministry,2 —
u England will ere long repent of having removed the
only check that could keep her colonies in awe.
They stand no longer in need of her protection ; she
will call on them to contribute towards supporting
the burdens they have helped to bring on her ; and
they will answer by striking off all dependence."
Lord Mansfield, also, used often to declare that he
too, " ever since the peace of Paris, always thought
the Northern Colonies were meditating a state of in-
dependency on Great Britain.8 "

The colonial system, being founded on injustice,
was at war with itself. The principle which confined
the commerce of each colony to its own metropolis,
was not only introduced by England into its domestic
legislation, but was accepted as the law of nations in
its treaties with other powers ; so that while it wan-
tonly restrained its colonists, it was jealously, and on /
its own theory rightfully excluded from the rich pos-
sessions of France and Spain. Those regions could
be thrown open to British traders, only by the general
abrogation of the mercantile monopoly, which would
extend the benefit to universal commerce, or by

1 Lind's three letters to Price, ford, Secretary of State. No. 19.
187. Separate. 31 October, 1775.

* Lord Stormont, British Am- * Lord Mansfield in the llonse of
bassador at Paris, to Lord Booh- Lords, 20 Dec. 1775, in Almon. v

107. Force, vi. 233.

462 THE AMERICAN EE VOLUTION.

chap. British conquest, which would close them once more
_^ against all the world but the victors; even against the
1763. nations which had discovered and planted them.
Leaving the nobler policy of liberty to find its defend-
ers where it could, and wilfully, and as it were fatally
blind to what would follow, England chose the policy
of conquest and exclusion ; and had already acquired
much of the empire of Spain in America, and nearly
the whole of that of France in both hemispheres.

The balance of the colonial system was destroyed
for ever ; there existed no longer the community of
interest for its support on the part of the great mari-
time powers of Europe. The Seven Years' War which
doubled the debt of England, increasing it to seven
hundred millions of dollars, had been begun by her
for the possession of the Ohio Valley. She achieved
that conquest, but not for herself. Driven out from
its share in the great colonial system, France was
swayed by its own commercial and political interests,
by its wounded pride, and by that enthusiasm which
the support of a good cause enkindles, to take up the
defence of the freedom of the seas, and heartily to
desire the enfranchisement of the English plantations.
This policy was well devised ; and we shall see that
England became not so much the possessor of the
Valley of the West, as the transient trustee, commis-
sioned to transfer it from the France of the Middle
Ages to the free people, who were making for hu-
manity a new existence in America.

END OF VOL. TV.

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