A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BY WOODROW WILSON, PH.D., Lirr.D., LL.D. IN FIVE VOLUMES VOL. II. Colonies ano IRation GEORGE WASHINGTON A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BY WOODROW WILSON, PH.D., Lrrr.D., LL.D. PRESIDENT" OP THE UNITED STATES ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS, MAPS PLANS, FACSIMILES, RARE PRINTS CONTEMPORARY VIEWS, ETC. IN FIVE VOLUMES VOL. II. E^pfc||j NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS BOOKS BY WOODROW WILSON A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Profusely illustrated. 5 volumes. 8vo Three-quarter Calf Three-quarter Levant GEORGE WASHINGTON. Illustrated. 8vo Popular Edition HARPER & BROTHERS. NEW YORK COPYRIGHT. 1901 1902 BY WOODROW WILSON COPYRIGHT. I01. 1902. BY HARPER ft BROTHERS PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA iC-O CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. COMMON UNDERTAKINGS i II. THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 98 III. THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION 172 IV. THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE 223 APPENDIX 331 NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE GEORGE WASHINGTON Frontispiece. PLAN OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, ABOUT 1732. From plate 12 of Henry Popple's Map of the British Empire in America. London, 1733 3 NEW ORLEANS IN 1719. Redrawn from an old print ... 5 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN. Redrawn from an old print ... 7 AN EARLY VIEW OF QUEBEC. Redrawn from a view published at London in 1760 12 COUR DU Bois, xvn. CENTURY. From a drawing by Frederic Remington 14 AN ENGLISH FLEET ABOUT 1732. From plate n of Henry Popple's Map of the British Empire in America . . .16 MOALE'S SKETCH OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, IN 1752. Drawn from the original in the Maryland Historical Society 19 CHARLESTON, FROM THE HARBOR, 1742. Redrawn from an old print 22 LORD BELLOMONT. From an old engraving ....... 25 WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE BEFORE THE FIRE, 1723. Redrawn from an old print 27 JOHN CHURCHILL, DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH. From an en- graving by R. Cooper in the Emmet Collection, New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 29 PRINCE EUGENE. From an old engraving 31 vii NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE FRENCH HUGUENOT CHURCH, NEW YORK, 1704. Redrawn from an old print 32 OLD SWEDES CHURCH, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE. From a drawing by Howard Pyle 34 NEW YORK SLAVE MARKET ABOUT 1730. Redrawn from an old print 36 BROAD STREET, NEW YORK, IN 1740. Redrawn from an old print 37 OLD STATE HOUSE AT ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND. Redrawn from an old lithograph by Weber 39 NEW YORK, FROM THE HARBOR, ABOUT 1725. Redrawn from an old print 41 ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD. Redrawn from the frontispiece in the Official Letters of Alexander Spolswood, published by the Virginia Historical Society 42 BRENTON CHURCH, WHERE GOVERNOR SPOTSWOOD WOR- SHIPPED. From Lossing's Field-Book of the Revolution . . 43 GOVERNOR SPOTSWOOD'S EXPEDITION TO THE BLUE RIDGE. From a painting by F. Luis Mora 45 COLONEL RHETT AND THE PIRATE STEDE BONNET. From a painting by Howard Pyle 46 PORTRAIT OF THE PIRATE EDWARD THATCH (OR TEACH). From Capt. Charles Johnson's General History of the High- waymen [etc.]. London, 1736. In the New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 48 SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. From an old engraving .... 50 MAP OF THE COAST SETTLEMENTS, 1742. From an old English map 53 POHICK CHURCH, VIRGINIA, WHERE WASHINGTON WOR- SHIPPED. From a sketch by Benson J. Lossing in 1850 55 TITLE-PAGE OF THE PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE NEGROES. Title-page of the original edition of Daniel Horsmanden's Journal of the so-called " Negro Plot " of 1741. From an original in the New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 57 viii NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE OSWEGO IN 1750. Redrawn and extended from a folded view in William Smith's History of the Province of New York. London. 1757 60 JAMES OGLETHORPE. From an old engraving 63 OGLETHORPE'S ORDER FOR SUPPLIES. From Winsor s America 65 SAVANNAH IN 1734. From an original engraving in the New York Public Library (Lenox Building) ... .... 66 ALEXANDER HAMILTON. From the bust by Palmer in posses- sion of the Honorable Nicholas Fish, of New York. Facing p. 66 JOHN WESLEY. From an old engraving 68 OGLETHORPE'S EXPEDITION AGAINST ST. AUGUSTINE. From a painting by F. Luis Mora 69 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. From an old engraving 70 THE ACTION AT CARTAGENA. From Green's History of the English People 72 WILLIAM PEPPERRELL. Sir William Pepperrell. The original painting is in the Essex Institute, at Salem. Mass. ; the artist's name is not known 74 FACSIMILE OF THE NEW YORK WEEKLY JOURNAL. First page of the second number of John Peter Zenger's newspaper, from an original in the New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 78 ROBERT DINWIDDIE. After a phototype by F. Gutekunst which forms the frontispiece to vol. ii. of the Dinwiddie Papers, published by the Virginia Historical Society 80 MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE, NEW YORK, 1752-1799. From Reminiscences of an Old New-Yorker. Emmet : New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 83 THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM ON THE MORNING OF THE BATTLE. From a painting by Frederic Remington ... 86 MAP OF BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. Redrawn from plate 6 of Winthrop Sargent's History of Braddock's Expedition, pub- lished by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania .... 88 WILLIAM PITT. From an old engraving 91 ix NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE SIGNATURE OF JAMES ABERCROMBIE 92 THE CAPITULATION OF LOUISBOURG. From a painting by Howard Pyle 93 JEFFREY AMHERST. From an old engraving 94 JAMES WOLFE. From a mezzotint by Richard Houston in the Emmet Collection, No. 3217, New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 95 WILLIAM BYRD. From Wilson's Washington 101 PLAN OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, 1767. From Janvier's Old New York, p. 48 103 EDMUND BURKE. From an engraving after the painting by Romney 106 VIEW OF THE BUILDINGS BELONGING TO HARVARD COL- LEGE, CAMBRIDGE. NEW ENGLAND, 1726. Partial repro- duction of the earliest print of Harvard College. AVhat is be- lieved to be the only extant copy of this old engraving is owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society 109 NASSAU HALL, PRINCETON COLLEGE, 1760. Redrawn from an old print Ill KING'S COLLEGE NEW YORK, 1758. Redrawn from an old print 112 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. From the portrait by Duplessis in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass Facing p. 112 THE BIRTHPLACE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, MlLK STREET. BOSTON. Redrawn from an old print 113 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. From an old engraving 115 A PAGE OF "POOR RICHARD'S" ALMANAC. From an original of this almanac for 176 7, in the New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 117 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IN A COLONIAL DRAWING-ROOM. From a painting by H. C. Christy 119 MRS. BENEDICT ARNOLD AND CHILD. From the portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, in the Historical Society of Penn- sylvania 121 FRANKLIN'S OLD BOOK-SHOP, NEXT TO CHRIST'S CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. Redrawn from an old print 123 X NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS GEORGE GRENVILLE. From an old print 125 BOUNDARY MONUMENT ON THE ST. CROIX. From a litho- graph by L. Haghe after a sketch by Joseph Bouchette, made in July, 1817, and included in his British Dominions in North America. London, 1832 127 PONTIAC, CHIEF OF THE OTTAWAS. Redrawn from an old print .129 HENRY BOUQUET. From a process-plate in New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 131 BOUQUET'S REDOUBT AT PITTSBURG. Redrawn from an old print 132 PATRICK HENRY. From an old engraving 133 SIGNATURE OF ISAAC BARRE .134 FACSIMILE OF POSTER PLACED ON THE DOORS OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. From Lamb's History of New York ... 135 JOHN DICKINSON. From an old engraving 137 THOMAS HUTCHINSON. From the painting attributed to Cop- ley, in the Massachusetts Historical Society 138 THOMAS HUTCHINSON'S MANSION, BOSTON. Redrawn from an old print 139 TABLE OF STAMP CHARGES ON PAPER. From an original of this broadside, in the Emmet Collection, No. 1802, in the New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 141 LORD ROCKINGHAM. From an engraving after a painting by Wilson 142 .JAMES OTIS. Redrawn from an old print 144 STAMPS FORCED ON THE COLONIES. From a photograph of an old document 145 OLD CAPITOL AT WlLLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA. From a paint- ing by Howard Pyle 147 GEORGE WYTHE. From a painting by Weir, after Trumbull, in Independence Hall, Philadelphia 149 GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1772. From a portrait painted in 1772, by C. W. Peale, now owned by General George Washington Custis Lee, of Lexington, Virginia 155 xi NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE LANDING TROOPS AT BOSTON, 1768. From a heliotype in Winsor's Boston, after the engraving by Paul Revere . . 157 LIST OF NAMES OF THOSE WHO WOULD NOT CONFORM. This is a page from the North American Almanack for 1770, published at Boston by Edes and Gill 159 HAND-BILL OF TRUE SONS OF LIBERTY. From Winsor's America. The Massachusetts Historical Society possesses a copy of the original broadside 162 THE BOSTON MASSACRE. From a painting by F. Luis Mora 163 AFTER THE MASSACRE. SAMUEL ADAMS DEMANDING OF GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON THE INSTANT WITHDRAWAL OF BRITISH TROOPS. From a painting by Howard Pyle 165 INTERIOR OF COUNCIL CHAMBER, OLD STATE HOUSE, BOSTON. From a photograph 166 PROTEST AGAINST THE LANDING OF TEA. Facsimile of a Boston broadside, from Winsor's America. An original is in the Massachusetts Historical Society 167 ENTRY JOHN ADAMS'S DIARY. From Winsor's Boston . . 168 CALL FOR MEETING TO PROTEST AGAINST THE LANDING OF TEA. A Philadelphia poster, from Winsor's America. There is an original in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania . . 168 THE BOSTON TEA PARTY. From a painting by Howard Pyle 169 BOYCOTTING POSTER. From the original hand - bill in the Massachusetts Historical Society 173 CIRCULAR OF THE BOSTON COMMITTEE OF CORRESPOND- ENCE. From the original in the Boston Public Library . . 175 GEORGE III. From an engraving by Benoit 177 GEORGE MASON. From a painting by Herbert Walsh, in In- dependence Hall, Philadelphia 179 SEAL OF DUNMORE. Redrawn from an impression of the seal 181 EARL OF DUNMORE. Redrawn from an old print 182 THE ATTACK ON THE GASPEE. From a painting by Howard Pyle 184 LORD NORTH. From the engraving by Mote, after Dance . . 186 xii NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE TITLE-PAGE OF HUTCHINSON'S HISTORY. From an original in the New York Public Library (Lenox Building) . . . 188 GENERAL GAGE. Redrawn from an old print 190 STOVE IN THE HOUSE OF THE BURGESSES, VIRGINIA. From a photograph of the original in the State Library of Virginia 191 JOHN ADAMS. From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart, in Harvard University Fating p. 192 ROGER SHERMAN. Redrawn from an old print 195 JOSEPH GALLOWAY. Redrawn Irom an old print 197 JOHN DICKINSON. From an engraving after a drawing by Du Simitier 198 PE\TON RANDOLPH. From an engraving after a painting by C. W. Peale 200 WASHINGTON STOPPING AT AN INN ON HIS WAY TO CAM- BRIDGE. From a painting by F. Luis Mora 203 THE LIBERTY SONG. From The Writings of John Dickinson, edited by Paul Leicester Ford, published by the Historical Society of Pennsj'lvania 205 SIGNATURE OF JOSEPH HAWLEY 210 THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AS IT APPEARED IN 1741. From a drawing by Gavelot 214 PAGE FROM THE DIARY OF JOSIAH QUINCY, JR. From Winsor's America. The original diary, kept while he was in London in 1774, is preserved in the Massachusetts His- torical Society 216 PROCLAMATION OF THE KING FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THE REBELLION. From an original of this broadside in the Emmet Collection, No. 1496, in the New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 218 GAGE'S ORDER PERMITTING INHABITANTS TO LEAVE BOSTON. From Winsor's Boston. The handwriting is that of James Bowdoin 220 NOTICE TO MILITLA. From an original in the Massachusetts Historical Society . , . . 224 AN ACCOUNT OF THE CONCORD FIGHT. From Winsor's 2011 NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE America. The original is in the Arthur Lee Papers, pre- served at Harvard College Library 225 SIGNATURE OF ETHAN ALLEN 226 RUINS OF FORT TTCONDEROGA. Redrawn from an old print 227 WATCHING THE FIGHT AT BUNKER HILL. From a painting by Howard Pyle 228 FROM BEACON HILL, 1775, NO. i. (LOOKING TOWARDS DORCHESTER HEIGHTS.) From Winsor's America . . 230 FROM BEACON HILL, 1775, NO. 2. (LOOKING TOWARDS ROXBURY.) From Winsor's America 231 ORDER OF COMMITTEE OF SAFETY. From Winsor's America 232 BOSTON AND BUNKER HILL, FROM A PRINT PUBLISHED IN 1781. Redrawn from a plan in^ln Impartial History of the War in America 234 RICHARD MONTGOMERY. From an old engraving .... 238 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AS A POLITICIAN. From a painting by Stephen Elmer 240 R. H. LEE'S RESOLUTION FOR INDEPENDENCE. From Mc- Master's School History of the United States 241 STATE HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA, 1778. From a photograph of the original drawing 242 SIGNATURE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 243 JEFFERSON'S ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. This facsimile of Jefferson's original rough draft, with interlineations by Adams and Franklin, is from an artotype by Edward Bierstadt, made from the original in the Department of State, Washington, D. C 244, 245, 246, 247 REAR VIEW OF INDEPENDENCE HALL. From a photograph . 248 THE PRESIDENT'S CHAIR IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL CON- VENTION. From a photograph 249 MAP OF SULLIVAN'S ISLAND. Redrawn from a plan in John- son's Traditions and Reminiscences of the American Revolu- tion in the South. Charleston, S. C., 1851 250 xiv NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE WILLIAM MOULTRIE. From an old engraving 251 SIR WILLIAM HOWE. From an old engraving 253 HOWE'S PROCLAMATION PREPARATORY TO LEAVING BOS- TON. From the original in the Massachusetts Historical Society 255 EVACUATION OF BROOKLYN HEIGHTS. From a painting by F. Luis Mora 257 CIRCULAR OF PHILADELPHIA COUNCIL OF SAFETY. From the original in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania . . 259 OPERATIONS AROUND TRENTON AND PRINCETON. NUM- BERS 76 REPRESENT THE CAMPS OF GENERAL CORN- WALLIS AND 77 THAT OF GENERAL KNYPHAUSEN ON THE 230 OF JUNE, 1777 Redrawn from a sketch map by a Hessian officer 261 HESSIAN BOOT. From a photograph 263 LETTER CONCERNING BRITISH OUTRAGES. From the orig- inal in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania 265 RECRUITING POSTER. From Smith's American Historical and Literary Curiosities 267 JOHN BURGOYNE. From an old engraving 269 ARTHUR ST. GLAIR. From an engraving after the portrait by C. W. Peale 271 SAMUEL ADAMS. From the portrait by Copley in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass Facing p. 272 BENJAMIN LINCOLN. From the portrait in the Massachusetts Historical Society 273 SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON. From a mezzotint by Spooner in the Emmet Collection, No. 36, New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 274 SIR JOHN JOHNSON. From an engraving by Bartolozzi . . 275 JOSEPH BRANT. From an engraving after the original paint- ing by G. Romney 276 PETER GANSEVOORT. From Lossing's Field -Book of the Revolution 277 VOL. ii. 2 NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE FACSIMILE OF CLOSING PARAGRAPHS OF BURGOYNE'S SUR- RENDER. From the original in the New York Historical Society 279 SCENE OF THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDYWINE. From an old engraving in the Emmet Collection, New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 281 WASHINGTON'S PROCLAMATION. From the original in the His- torical Society of Pennsjlvania 283 BARON DE STEUBEN. From an old engraving 285 FACSIMILE OF PLAY BILL. From Smith's American Historical and Literary Curiosities 287 CHARLES LEE. From a mezzotint after the painting by Thom- linson, in Emmet Collection, No. 1902, New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 289 REDUCED FACSIMILE OF INSTRUCTIONS FROM CONGRESS TO PRIVATEERS. From Maclay's History of American Pri- vateers 291 CONTINENTAL LOTTERY BOOK. From a photograph .... 292 REDUCED FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST AND LAST PARTS OF PATRICK HENRY'S LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS TO GEORGE ROGERS CLARK. From the Conquest of the Nortfnvest, by William E. English 294 GEORGE ROGERS CLARK. From a portrait by Jarvis in the Wisconsin Historical Society 295 GEORGE CLARK'S FINAL SUMMONS TO COLONEL HAMILTON TO SURRENDER. From Winsor's America 297 CHARLES JAMES Fox. From an engraving after the portrait by Opie 299 JOHN SULLIVAN. From a mezzotint by Will 301 CASIMIR PULASKI. From an engraving by Hall, in Emmet Collection, No. 3852, New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 302 JOHN PAUL JONES. From a painting by C. W. Peale, in In- dependence Hall, Philadelphia 304 THE FIGHT BETWEEN BON HOMME RlCHARD AND SERAPIS. From a painting by Howard Pyle 35 xvi NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE WASHINGTON AND ROCHAMBEAU IN THE TRENCHES AT YORK- TOWN. From a painting by Howard Pyle 307 HORATIO GATES. From an engraving by C. Tiebout, after the painting by Gilbert Stuart, Emmet Collection, New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 309 BENEDICT ARNOLD'S OATH OF ALLEGIANCE 310 BENEDICT ARNOLD. From a mezzotint in the Emmet Col- lection, No. 1877, New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 311 JOHN ANDRE. From an engraving in the New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 312 MAJOR ANDRE'S WATCH. From a photograph 313 BENEDICT ARNOLD'S PASS TO MAJOR ANDRE. From Los- sing's Field-Book of the Revolution 314 MAJOR ANDRE'S POCKET-BOOK. From a photograph . . . 315 VIRGINIA COLONIAL CURRENCY. From a photograph ... 316 LORD CORNWALLIS. From an old print 317 WILLIAM WASHINGTON. From an engraving after a portrait by C. W. Peale 318 BANASIRE TARLETON. From a mezzotint in the Emmet Col- lection, New York Public Library (Lenox Building) . . 319 FRANCIS MARION. From an engraving in the Emmet Collec- tion, New York Public Library (Lenox Building) . . . 320 DANIEL MORGAN. From a miniature in Yale College Library, New Haven 321 COUNT ROCHAMBEAU. From an old engraving 322 NATHANAEL GREENE. From the original portrait in possession of Mrs. William Benton Greene, Princeton, N. J. . . . 323 FACSIMILE OF THE LAST ARTICLE OF CAPITULATION AT YORK- TOWN. From a facsimile in Smith's American Historical and Literary Curiosities 324 PAROLE OF CORNWALLIS. From the original in the Library of the University of Virginia 325 ORDER PERMITTING THE ILLUMINATION OF PHILADELPHIA. xvii NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE From Smith's American Historical and Literary Curiosi- ties. Second series. New York 326 NELSON HOUSE, CORNWALLIS'S HEADQUARTERS, YORK- TOWN. From a sketch by Benson J. Lossing in 1850 . . 327 EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. Compiled from Treble's History of the Flag of the United States. Boston, 1880 . 328 LIST OF MAPS ENGLISH COLONIES, 1700 Facing p. So NORTH AMERICA, 1750. SHOWING CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF EXPLORATION Facing p. 176 ENGLISH COLONIES, 1763-1775 " 320 The Appendix in this volume is taken by permission from Mr. Howard W. Preston's Documents Illustrative of Ameri- can History. A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CHAPTER I COMMON UNDERTAKINGS THERE had been some noteworthy passages in the reports which Colonel Francis Nicholson sent to the government at home when he was first governor of Virginia (1690) ; for he studied his duties in those days with wide-open eyes, and had sometimes written of what he saw with a very statesmanlike breadth and insight. It was very noteworthy, among other things, that he had urged a defensive confederation of the colonies against the French and Indians, under the leadership of Virginia, the most loyal of the colonies. He had made it his business to find out what means of defence and what effective military force there were in the other colonies, particularly in those at the north, conferring with their authorities with regard to these matters in person when he could not get the information he wished by deputy. The King and his ministers in England saw very clearly, when they read his careful despatches, that they could not wisely act upon such suggestions yet; but they knew that what Colonel A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Nicholson thus openly and definitely advised was what must occur to the mind of every thoughtful and obser- vant man who was given a post of authority and guid- ance in the colonies, whether he thought it wise to advise action in the matter or not. It was evident, indeed, even to some who were not deemed thoughtful at all. Even the heedless, negligent Lord Culpeper, little as he really cared for the government he had been set to conduct, had suggested eight years ago that all questions of war and peace in the colonies should be submitted for final decision to the governor and coun- cil of Virginia, where it might be expected that the King's interests would be loyally looked after and safe- guarded. No doubt the colonies would have objected to and resisted such an arrangement with a very hot resent- ment, and no one in authority in London dreamed for a moment of taking either Lord Culpeper's or Colonel Nicholson's advice in the matter; but it was none the less obvious that the King and his officers must con- trive some way, if they could, by which they might use the colonies as a single power against the French in America, if England was indeed to make and keep an empire there. If King James, who leaned upon France as an ally and prayed for the dominion of the Church of Rome, had seen this, it was not likely that William of Orange, who was the arch-enemy of France and the champion of Protestantism against Rome, would over- look it. He was no sooner on the throne than England was plunged into a long eight years' war with the French. And so it happened that the colonies seemed to reap little advantage from the "glorious revolution" which had put out a tyrant and brought in a constitutional 2 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS King. William of Orange, it present^ appeared, meant to unite groups of colonies under the authority of a single royal governor, particularly at the north, where the French power lay, as James before him had done; giving to the governors of the principal colonies the right to command the military forces of the colonies PLAN OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, 1732 about them even if he gave them no other large gift of power. He did more than James had done. Being a statesman and knowing the value of systematic admin- istration, he did systematically what James had done loosely and without consistent plan. The Board of Trade and Plantations, which he organized to oversee and direct the government of the colonies, did more to keep their affairs under the e} r e and hand of the King 3 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE than any group of James's ministers had been able to do. The great Dutch King was determined to wield England and her possessions as a single imperial power in the game of politics he was playing in Europe. The French power, which he chiefly feared, had really grown very menacing in America; was growing more so every year; and must very soon indeed be faced and overcome, if the English were not to be shut in to a narrow seaboard, or ousted altogether. It was not a question of numbers. It was a question of territorial ag- grandizement, rather, and strategic advantage. Prob- ably there were not more than twelve thousand French- men, all told, in America when William became King (1689); whereas his own subjects swarmed there full two hundred thousand strong, and were multiplying by the tens of thousands from decade to decade. But the French were building military posts at every strategic point as they went, while the English were building nothing but rural homes and open villages. With the French it did not seem a matter of settlement; it seemed a matter of conquest, rather, and of military occupation. They were guarding trade routes and making sure of points of advantage. The English way was the more wholesome and the more vital. A hardy, self-dependent, crowding people like the English in Massachusetts and Virginia, and the Dutch in New York, took root wherever they went, spread into real communities, and were not likely to be got rid of when once their number had run into the thousands. Their independence, too, and their capable way of managing their own affairs without asking or wanting or getting any assistance from government, made them as hard to handle as if they had been themselves an established 4 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS continental power. But the French had an advantage, nevertheless, which was not to be despised. They moved as they were ordered to move by an active and watchful government which was in the thick of critical happenings where policies were made, and which meant to cramp the English, if it could not actually get rid of them. They extended and organized the militar} 7 power of France as they went; and they were steadily girdling the English about with a chain of posts and NEW ORLEANS IN 1719 settlements which bade fair to keep all the northern and western regions of the great continent for the King of France, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence round about, two thousand miles, to the outlets of the Mis- sissippi at the Gulf. Their movement along the great rivers and the lakes had been very slow at first; but it had quickened from generation to generation, and was now rapid enough to fix the attention of any man who could hear news and had his eyes abroad upon what was happening A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE about him. Jacques Carrier had explored the noble river St. Lawrence for his royal master of France a long century and a half ago, in the far year 1535, fifty years before the English so much as attempted a settle- ment. But it was not until 1608, the year after James- town was begun, that Samuel de Champlain established the first permanent French settlement, at Quebec, and there were still but two hundred lonety settlers there when nearly thirty years more had gone by (1636). It was the quick growth and systematic explorations of the latter part of the century that made the English uneasy. The twelve thousand Frenchmen who were busy at the work of occupation when William of Orange became King had not confined themselves to the settle- ments long ago made in the Bay of Fundy and at Mon- treal, Quebec, and Tadousac, where the great river of the north broadened to the sea. They had carried their boats across from the upper waters of the Ottawa to the open reaches of Lake Huron ; had penetrated thence to Lake Michigan, and even to the farthest shores of Lake Superior, establishing forts and trading posts as they advanced. They had crossed from Green Bay in Lake Michigan to the waters of the Wisconsin River, and had passed by that easy way into the Mississippi itself. That stout-hearted pioneer Pere Marquette had descended the Father of Waters past the Ohio to the outlet of the Arkansas (1673); and Robert La Salle had followed him and gone all the long way to the spreading mouths of the vast river and the gates of the Gulf (1682), not by way of the Wisconsin, but by crossing from the southern end of Lake Michigan to the stream of the Illinois, and passing by that way to the Mississippi. 6 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS And so the lakes and the western rivers and the Mis- sissippi itself saw the French; and French posts sprang up upon their shores to mark the sovereignty of the SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN King of France. Frenchmen easily enough learned the ways of the wilderness and became the familiars of the Indians in their camps and wigwams; and they showed themselves of every kind, some rough and 7 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE lawless rovers, only too glad to throw off the restraints of the orderly life to which they had been bred and live as they pleased in the deep, secluded forests, trading without license, seeking adventure, finding a way for the civilization which was to follow them, but them- selves anxious to escape it; others regular traders, who kept their hold upon the settlements behind them and submitted when they were obliged to official exactions at Montreal ; some intrepid priests, who preached salva- tion and the dominion of France among the dusky tribes, and lived or died with a like fortitude and devotion, never willingly quitting their sacred task or letting go their hold upon the hearts of the savage men the}^ had come to enlighten and subdue; some hardy captains with little companies of drilled men-at-arms from the fields of France :---at the front indomitable explorers, far in the rear timid farmers clearing spaces in the silent woodland for their scanty crops, and little towns slowly growing within their walls where the river broadened to the sea. This stealthy power which crept so steadily south- ward and westward at the back of the English settle- ments upon the coast was held at arm's-length through- out that quiet age of beginnings, not by the English, but by a power within the forests, the power of the great confederated Iroquois tribes, who made good their mastery between the Hudson and the lakes : the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks. They were stronger, fiercer, more constant and indomitable, more capable every way, than the tribes amidst whom the French moved; and Champlain had unwittingly made them the enemies of the French forever. Long, long ago, in the year 1609, which white men had for- 8 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS gotten, he had done what the Iroquois never forgot or forgave. He had come with their sworn foes, the Algon- quins, to the shores of that lake by the sources of the Hudson which the palefaces ever afterwards called by his name, and had there used the dread fire-arms of the white men, of which they had never heard before, to work the utter ruin of the Mohawks in battle. They were always and everywhere ready after that fatal day to be am;- man's ally, whether Dutch or English, against the hated French; and the French found it necessary to keep at the back of the broad forests which stretched from the eastern Lakes to the Hudson and the Delaware, the wide empire of these dusky foes, astute, implacable. They skirted the domains of the Iroquois when they were prudent, and passed inland by the lakes and the valle3^ of the Mississippi. But, though they kept their distance, they advanced their power. The colonists in New England had been uneasy because of their unwelcome neighborhood from the first. Once and again there had been actual collisions and a petty warfare. But until William of Orange made England a party to the great war of the Protestant powers against Louis XIV. few men had seen what the struggle between French and English held in store for America. The English colonies had grown back not a little way from the sea, steadily pushed farther and far- ther into the thick-set forests which lay upon the broad valleys and rising slopes of the interior by mere increase of people and drift of enterprise. Before the seven- teenth century was out adventurous English traders had crossed the Alleghenies, had launched their canoes upon the waters of the Ohio, and were fixing their huts here and there within the vast wilderness as men do 9 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE who mean to stay. Colonel Dongan, the Duke's governor in New York (1683), like many another officer whose duties made him alert to watch the humors and keep the friendship of the Iroquois, the masters of the northern border, had been quick to see how " inconvenient to the English" it was to have French settlements "running all along from our lakes by the back of Virginia and Carolina to the Bay of Mexico. " There was keen rivalry in trade, and had been these many years, between the men of the English and Dutch colonies and the men of the French for the profitable trade in furs which had its heart at the north ; and it was already possible for those who knew the forest commerce to reason right shrewdly of the future, knowing, as they did, that the English gave better goods and dealt more fairly for the furs than the French, and that many of the very French- men who ranged the forests in search of gain them- selves preferred to send what they had to Albany for sale. But, except for a few lonely villages in far-away Maine, there was nowhere any close contact between French and English in America. Few, except traders and thoughtful governors and border villagers, who feared the tribes whom the French incited to attack and massacre, knew what France did or was planning. King William's War (1689-1697), with its eight years of conscious peril, set new thoughts astir. It made America part of the stage upon which the great European conflict between French and English was to be fought out ; and immediately a sort of continental air began to blow through colonial affairs. Colonial interests began to seem less local, more like interests held in common, and the colonies began to think of themselves as part of an empire. They had no great part in the war, it 10 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS is true. Hale Sir William Phips, that frank seaman adventurer, led an expedition against Acadia in 1690, took Port Royal, and stripped the province of all that could be brought away; but that had hardly had the dignity of formal war. He had chiefly relished the private gain got out of it as a pleasant reminder of that day of fortune when he had found the Spanish treasure- ship sunk upon a reef in far Hispaniola. His second expedition, made the same year against Quebec, ho doubt smacked more of the regular business, for he undertook it as an accredited officer of the crown; but when it failed it is likely he thought more of the pri- vate moneys subscribed and lost upon it than of the defeat of the royal arms. There was here the irrita- tion, rather than the zest, of great matters, and the colonial leaders were not becoming European states- men of a sudden. Their local affairs were still of more concern to them than the policies of European courts. Nevertheless the war made a beginning of common un- dertakings. The colonies were a little drawn together, a little put in mind of matters larger than their own. New York felt herself no less concerned than Massachu- setts and Maine in the contest with the French, with its inevitable accompaniment of trouble with the Indians; and Jacob Leisler, plebeian and self-constituted governor though he was, had made bold to take the initiative in forming plans for the war. Count Louis de Fron- tenac had been made governor of New France the very year William established himself as king in England (1689), and had come instructed, as every Englishman in America presently heard rumor say, to attack the English settlements at their very heart, at New York itself. It was this rumor that had made Leisler hasten VOL. II. 3 II A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE to seize the government in King William's name, seeing King James's governor hesitate, and hearing it cried in the streets that the French were in the very Bay. He had thought it not impossible that James's officers might prove traitors and friends of King Louis in that last moment of their power. And then, when the govern- ment was in his hands, this people's governor called a AN EARLY VIEW OF QUEBEC conference of the colonies to determine what should be done for the common defence. Massachusetts, Plym- outh, and Connecticut responded, and sent agents to the conference (1690), the first of its kind since America was settled. It was agreed to attempt the conquest of New France. Sir William Phips should lead an ex- pedition by sea against Quebec; and another force should go by land out of Connecticut and New York 12 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS to attack Montreal, the only other stronghold, taking their Iroquois allies with them. But the land expedition was every way unfortunate, and got no farther than Lake Champlain. Frontenac was able to devote all his strength to the defence of Quebec ; and Sir William Phips came back whipped and empty-handed. The first effort at a common undertaking had utterly mis- carried. But that was not the end of the war. Its fires burned hot in the forests. Frontenac prosecuted the ugly bus- iness to the end as he had begun it. He had begun, not by sending a fleet to New York, for he had none to send, but by sending his Indian allies to a sudden at- tack and savage massacre at Schenectady, where sixty persons, men and women, old and young, saw swift and fearful death (1689); and year by year the same hideous acts of barbarous war were repeated, not al- ways upon the far-away border, but sometimes at the very heart of the teeming colonj^, once (1697) at Haver- hill, not thirty-five miles out of Boston itself. Such a war was not likely to be forgot in the northern colonies, at any rate, and in New York. Its memories were bitten into the hearts of the colonists there as with the searings of a hot iron; and they knew that the French must be overcome before there could be any lasting peace, or room enough made for English growth in the forests. They would rather have turned their thoughts to other things. There were home matters of deep moment which they were uneasy to settle. But these larger matters, of England's place and power in the world, dominated them whether they would or no. King William's War was but the forerunner of many more, of the same meaning and portent. Wars vexed and dis- 13 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ciplined them for half a century, and their separate interests had often to stand neglect- ed for years together in order that their common interests and the interests of Eng- lish empire in Amer- ica might be guarded. And yet those who were thoughtful did not lose sight of the great, though subtle, gain which came with the vexing losses of war, to offset them. They had not failed to notice and to take to heart what had happened in England when William and Mary were brought to the throne. They were none the less English- men for being out of England, and what Parliament did for English liberty deeply concerned them. Par- liament, as all the world knew, had done a great deal dur- ing those critical days in which it had consummated the " glorious revolution " by which the Stuarts were once 14. COURIER DU BOIS, XVII. CENTURY COMMON UNDERTAKINGS for all put from the seat of sovereignty. It had reasserted the ancient rights named in Magna Charta ; it had done away with the King's arrogated right to tax; it had destroyed his alleged right to set laws aside, or alter them in any way; it had reduced him from being master and had made him a constitutional king, subject to his people's will, spoken through their legal representatives in Parliament. The new King, too, had shown himself willing to extend these principles to America. In the charters which he granted or renewed, and in the in- structions which he gave to the governors whom he commissioned, he did not begrudge an explicit ac- knowledgment of the right of the colonies to control their own taxation and the expenditures of their own colonial establishments. War embarrassed trade. It made hostile territo^ of the French West Indies, whence New England skippers fetched molasses for the makers of rum at home; and that was no small matter, for the shrewd New Eng- land traders were already beginning to learn how much rum would pay for, whether among the Indians of the forest country, among the savages of the African slave coast, or among their own neighbors at home, where all deemed strong drink a capital solace and defence against the asperities of a hard life. But it needed only a little circumspection, it turned out, to keep even that trade, notwithstanding the thing was a trifle difficult and hazardous. There was little cause for men who kept their wits about them to fear the law on the long, unfrequented coasts of the New World; and there was trade with the French without scruple whether war held or ceased. Buccaneers and pirates abounded in the southern seas, and legitimate traders knew as 15 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE well as they did how confiscation and capture were to be avoided. The main lines of trade ran, after all, straight to the mother country, and were protected when there was need by English fleets. Both the laws of Parlia- ment and their own interest bound the trade of the colonies to England. The Navigation Act of 1660, in force now these forty years, forbade all trade with AN ENGLISH FLEET IN 1732 the colonies except in English bottoms; forbade also the shipment of their tobacco and wool anywhither but to England itself; and an act of 1663 forbade the importation of anything at all except out of England, which, it was then once for all determined, must be the entrepot and place of staple for all foreign trade. It was determined that, if there were to be middlemen's profits, the middlemen should be English, and that the carrying trade of England and her colonies should be English, not Dutch. It was the Dutch against whom the acts were aimed. Dutch ships cost less in the building than ships built in England; the Dutch mer- 16 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS chantmen could afford to charge lower rates of freight than English skippers; and the statesmen of King Charles, deeming Holland their chief competitor upon the seas and in the markets of the world, meant to cut the rivalry short by statute, so far as the English realm was concerned. Fortunately the interests of the colonists themselves wore easily enough the harness of the acts. For a while it went very hard in Virginia, it is true, to pay English freight rates on every shipment of tobacco, the colony's chief staple, and to sell only through Eng- lish middlemen, to the exclusion of the accommodating Dutch and all competition. Trade touched nothing greater than the tobacco crop. Virginia supplied in that alone a full half of all the exports of the colonies, f ler planters sharply resented " that severe act of Par- liament which excludes us from having any commerce with any nation in Europe but our own "; for it seemed to put upon them a special burden. " We cannot add to our plantation any commodity that grows out of it, as olive trees, cotton, or vines," complained Sir William Berkeley very bluntly to the government in 1671. "Be- sides this, we cannot procure any skilful men for one now hopeful commodity, silk: for it is not lawful for us to carry a pipe stave or a barrel of corn to any place in Europe out of the King's dominions. If this were for his Majesty's service or the good of his subjects, we should not repine, whatever our sufferings are for it; but on my soul, it is the contrary for both." But the thing was eased for them at last when the} 7 began to see how their interest really lay. They had almost a monopoly of the English market, for Spanish tobacco was kept out by high duties, the planting of tobacco in A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE England, begun on no mean scale in the west midland counties in the days of the Protectorate, was prohibited by law, and a rebate of duties on all tobacco re-exported to the continent quickened the trade with the northern countries of Europe, the chief market in any case for the Virginian leaf. Grumbling and evasion disap- peared in good time, and Virginia accommodated her- self with reasonable grace to what was, after all, no ruinous or unprofitable arrangement. New England, where traders most abounded, found little in the acts that she need complain of or seek to escape from. No New England commodity had its route and market prescribed as Virginian tobacco had; New England ships were "English" bottoms no less than ships built in England itself; they could be built as cheaply as the Dutch, and the long coast of the con- tinent was clear for their skippers. If laws grew in- convenient, there were unwatched harbors enough in which to lade and unlade without clearance papers. English capital quickened trade as well as supplied shipping for the ocean carriage, and the King's navy made coast and sea safe. If it was irritating to be tied to the leading-strings of statutes, it was at least an agreeable thing that they should usually pull in the direction merchants would in any case have taken. Though all products of foreign countries had to be brought through the English markets and the hands of English middlemen, the duties charged upon them upon their entrance into England were remitted upon their reshipment to America, and they were often to be had more cheaply in the colonies than in London. In 1699, when the war was over, Parliament laid a new restriction upon the colonies, forbidding them to 18 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS manufacture their own wool for export, even for export from colony to colony. Good housewives were not to be prevented from weaving their own wool into cloth for the use of their own households; village weavers were not to be forbidden their neighborhood trade; but the w r oollen weavers of England supplied more than half of all the exports to the colonies, and had no mind to let woollen manufacture spring up in America if Parliament could be induced to prohibit it It made MOALE'S SKETCH OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, IN 1752 no great practical difference to the colonies, though it bred a bitter thought here and there. Manufactures were not likely to spring up in America. "No man who can have a piece of land of his own, sufficient by his labor to subsist his family in plenty/' said Mr. Franklin long afterwards, "is poor enough to be a manufacturer and work for a master. Hence, while there is land enough in America for our people, there can be no manufactures to any amount or value." But the woollen manufacturers in England meant to take no chances in the matter ; and the colonists did no more A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE than grumble upon occasion at the restraints of a law which they had no serious thought of breaking. It was not breaches of the Acts of Navigation and the acts concerning woollen manufacture that the ministers found it necessary to turn their heed to when the war ended, but, rather, the open piracies of the southern seas. By the treaty of Ryswick, which brought peace (1697), France, England, Holland, and Spain, the high contracting parties, solemnly bound them- selves to make common cause against buccaneering. Spain and England had been mutually bound since 1670 to abolish it. Buccaneering abounded most on the coasts of America. The lawless business had begun long ago. Spain had provoked it. She had taken possession of all Central and South America and of the islands of the West Indies, and had bidden all other nations stand off and touch nothing, while her fleets every year for generations together came home heavy with treasure. She had denied them the right of trade; she had forbidden their seamen so much as to get stores for their own use anywhere within the waters of Spanish America. She treated every ship as an intruder which she found in the southern seas, and the penalties she inflicted for intrusion upon her guarded coasts went the length of instant drowning or hangings at the yard-arm. It was a day when there was no law at sea. Every prudent man supplied his ship with arms, and was his own escort ; and since Spain was the common bully, she became the common enemy. English and French and Dutch seamen were not likely very long to suffer themselves to be refused what they needed at her ports; and after getting what they need- ed, they went on to take whatever they wanted. They 20 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS were intruders, anyway, for whatever purpose they came, and they might as well, as a witty Frenchman among them said, "repay themselves beforehand" for the losses they would suffer should Spanish cruisers find and take them. The spirit of adventure and of gain grew on them mightily. At first they contented themselves with an illicit trade at the unguarded ports of quiet, half-desert- ed islands like Hispaniola, where they could get hides and tallow, smoked beef and salted pork, in exchange for goods smuggled in from Europe. But they did not long stop at that. The exciting risks and notable profits of the business made it grow like a story of ad- venture. The ranks of the lawless traders filled more and more with every sort of reckless adventurer and every sort of unquiet spirit who found the ordinary world stale and longed for a change of luck, as well as with hosts of common thieves and natural outlaws. Such men, finding themselves inevitably consorting, felt their comradeship, helped one another when they could, arid made a common cause of robbing Spain, calling themselves "Brethren of the Coast." They took pos- session, as their numbers increased, of the little twin islands of St. Christopher and Nevis for rendezvous and headquarters, and fortified distant Tortuga for a stronghold; and their power grew apace through all the seventeenth century, until no Spanish ship was safe on the seas though she carried the flag of an ad- miral, and great towns had either to buy them off or submit to be sacked at their pleasure. They mustered formidable fleets and counted their desperate seamen by the thousands. They were most numerous, most powerful, most to 21 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE be feared at the very time the English colony was begun at Charleston (1670). All the English sea coast at the south, indeed, was theirs in a sense. They were regulars, not outlaws, when France or Holland or Eng- land was at war with Spain, for the great governments did not scruple to give them letters of marque when they needed their assistance at sea. English buc- CHARLESTON, FROM THE HARBOR, 1742 cancers had helped Sir William Penn take Jamaica for Cromwell in 1655. And when there was no war, the silent, unwatched harbors of the long American sea coast were their favorite places of refuge and repair. New Providence, England's best anchorage and most convenient port of rendezvous in the Bahamas, became their chief place of welcome and recruiting. The coming of settlers did not disconcert them. It pleased them, rather. The settlers did not molest them, had secret 22 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS reasons, as they kne\v, to be glad to see them. There were the English navigation laws, as well as the Span- ish, to be evaded, and the goods they brought to the closed markets were very cheap and very welcome, and no questions were asked. They were abundantly wel- come, too, to the goods they bought. For thirty years their broad pieces of gold and their Spanish silver were almost the only currency the Carolinas could get hold of. Governors winked at their coming and going, even allowed them to sell their Spanish prizes in Eng- lish ports. Charleston, too, and the open bays of Albe- marle Sound were not more open to them than New York and Philadelphia and Providence, and even now and again the ports of Massachusetts. They got no small part of their recruits from among the lawless and shiftless men who came out of England or Vir- ginia to the Carolinas for a new venture in a new coun- try where law was young. Richard Coote, the Earl of Bellomont, came out in 1698 to be Governor General of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, specially instruct- ed to stamp out the piracy of the coasts ; but he found it no light task. His predecessor in the government of New York, Benjamin Fletcher, had loved the Brethren of the Coast very dearly: they had made it to his in- terest to like them; and the merchants of New York, as of the other seaport towns, were noticeably slow to see the iniquity of the proscribed business. Lord Bellomont bitterh^ complained that the authorities of Rhode Island openly gave notorious pirates counte- nance and assistance. Mr. Edward Randolph, whose business it was to look after the King's revenues, de- clared in his anger that North Carolina was peopled by 23 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE nobody but smugglers, runaway servants, and pirates. South Carolina, fortunately, had seen the folly of har- boring the outlaws by the time Lord Bellomont set about his suppression in the north. Not only had her population by that time been recruited and steadied by the coming in of increasing numbers of law-abiding and thrifty colonists to whom piracy was abhorrent, but she had begun also to produce great crops of rice for whose exportation she could hardly get ships enough, and had found that her whilom friends the freebooters did not scruple to intercept her cargoes on their way to the profitable markets of Holland, Ger- many, Sweden, Denmark, and Portugal. She pres- ently began, therefore, to use a great pair of gallows, set up very conspicuously on "Execution Dock" at Charleston, for the diligent hanging of pirates. But the coast to the northward still showed them hospitality, and Lord Bellomont made little headway at New York, except that he brought the notorious Captain Kidd to justice. William Kidd, a Scotsman, had made New York his home, and had won there the reputation of an honest and capable man and an excellent ship cap- tain; but when he was given an armed vessel strongly manned, and the King's commission to destroy the pirates of the coast, the temptation of power was too great for him. He incontinently turned pirate him- self, and it fell to Lord Bellomont to send him to Eng- land to be hanged. The interval of peace during which English govern- ors in America could give their thoughts to the sup- pression of piracy proved all too short. "Queen Anne's War" followed close upon the heels of King William's, and the French and Indians became once 24 LORD BELLOMONT A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE again more threatening than the buccaneers. Nev- ertheless some important affairs of peace were settled before the storm of war broke again. For one thing, Mr. Penn was able once more to put in order the govern- ment of Pennsylvania. For two years (1692-1694) he had been deprived of his province, because, as every one knew, he had been on very cordial terms of friend- ship with James Stuart, the discredited King, and it was charged that he had taken part in intrigues against the new sovereign. But it was easy for him to prove, when the matter was dispassionately looked into, that he had done nothing dishonorable or disloyal, and his province was restored to him. In 1699 he found time to return to America and reform in person the administration of the colony. Bitter jealousies and sharp factional differences had sprung up there while affairs were in confusion after the coming in of William and Mary, and the two years Mr. Penn spent in their correction (1699-1701) were none too long for the work he had to do. He did it, however, in his characteristic healing fashion, by granting privileges, more liberal and democratic than ever, in a new charter. One chief difficulty Ia3 r in the fact that the lower counties by the Delaware chafed because of their enforced union with the newer counties of Pennsylvania; and Mr. Penn consented to an arrangement by which they should within three years, if they still wished it, have a separate assembly of their own, and the right to act for them- selves in all matters of local government. Self-gov- ernment, indeed, was almost always his provident cure for discontent. He left both Pennsylvania and the Delaware counties free to choose their own courts, and Philadelphia free to select her own officers as an 26 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS independently incorporated city. Had he been able to give his colony governors as wise and temperate as himself, new troubles might have been avoided as suc- cessfully as old troubles had been healed. While Mr. Penn lingered in America the rights of the proprietors of West Jersey, his own first province, passed finally to the crown. In 1702 all proprietary rights, alike in East and in West Jersey, were formally surrendered to the crown, and New Jersey, once more WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE BEFORE THE FIRE, 1723 a single, undivided province, became directly subject to the King's government. For a generation, indeed, as it turned out, she was to have no separate governor of her own. A separate commission issued from the crown to the governor of New York to be also governor of New Jersey, upon each appointment in the greater province. But New Jersey kept her own government, nevertheless, and her own way of life. She suffered no merger into the larger province, her neighbor, whose governor happened to preside over her affairs. VOL. II. 4 27 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Many things changed and many things gave promise of change in the colonies as Mr. Penn looked on. In 1700 Virginia had her population enriched by the com- ing of seven hundred French Huguenots, under the leadership of the Marquis de la Muce, some of them Waldenses who had moved, in exile, through Switzer- land, Alsace, the Low Countries, and England ere they found their final home of settlement in Virginia, all of them refugees because of the terror that had been in France for all Protestants since the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685). That same year, 1700, Williamsburg, the new village capital of the " Old Do- minion," grew very gay with company come in from all the river counties, from neighboring colonies, too, and even from far-off New England, to see the first class graduated from the infant college of William and Mary. The next year (1701) Connecticut, teeming more and more with a thrifty people with its own independent interests and resources, and finding Harvard College at Cambridge too far away for the convenience of those of her own youth who wished such training as ministers and professional men in general needed, set up a college of her o\vn, the college which half a generation later she called Yale, because of Mr. Elihu Yale's gift of eight hundred pounds in books and money. Then King William died (1702, Mary, his queen and consort, being dead these eight years), and Anne became queen. It was a year of climax in the public affairs of Europe. In 1701, Louis XIV. had put his grandson, Philip of Anjou, on the throne of Spain, in direct violation of his treaty obligations to England, and to the manifest upsetting of the balance of power in Europe, openly rejoicing that there were no longer 28 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS JOHN CHURCHILL, DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH any Pyrenees, but only a single, undivided Bourbon power from Flanders to the Straits of Gibraltar; and had defied England, despite his promises made at Rys- wick, by declaring James's son the rightful heir to the English throne. Instantly England, Holland, and 29 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Austria drew together in grand alliance against the French aggression, and for eleven years Italy, Ger- many, and the Netherlands rang with the War of the Spanish Succession. The storm had already broken when Anne became queen. England signalized the war by giving a great general to the world. It was the day of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, of whose genius soldiers gossiped to their neighbors and their children for half a century after the great struggle was over. The English took Gibraltar (1704). Prince Eugene of Savoy helped great Marlborough to the famous victory of Blenheim (1705), and Virginians were not likely to forget that it was Colonel Parke, of Virginia, who took the news of that field to the Queen. Marlborough won at Ramillies and Eugene at Turin (1706). The two great captains triumphed together at Oudenarde (1708) and at Malpla- quet (1709). The crowns of France and Spain were separated, and France was lightened of her overwhelm- ing weight in the balance of power. But for the colonies in America it was only "Queen Anne's War/' full of anxiety, suffering, and disap- pointment, massacres on the border, expeditions to the north blundered and mismanaged, money and lives spent with little to show for the sacrifice. The ministers at home had made no preparation in America for the renewal of hostilities. There had been warnings enough, and appeals of deep urgency, sent out of the colonies. Every observant man of affairs there saw what must come. But warnings and appeals had not been heeded. Lord Bellomont, that self-respecting gen- tleman and watchful govemor, had told the ministers at home very plainly that there ought to be a line of 30 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS frontier posts at the north, with soldiers for colonists, and that simply to pursue the Indians once and again to the depths of the forests was as useless "as to pur- sue birds that are on the wing/' An English prisoner in the hands of the French had sent word what he A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE heard they meant to do for the extension of their boun- daries and their power. The deputy governor of Penn- sylvania had proposed a colonial militia to "be kept at the frontier. Certain private gentlemen of the northern settlements had begged for a common governor "of worth and honor," and for some system of common defence. Mr. Penn, looking on near at hand, had ad- vised that the colonists be drawn together in intercourse and interest by a common coinage, a common rule of citizenship, a com- mon system of jus- tice, and by duties on foreign timber which would in some degree offset the burdens of the Navigation Acts, as well as by common organiza- tion and action against the French But nothing had FRENCH HUGUENOT CHURCH, NEW YORK, 1704 and against the pirates of the coast, been done. Even the little that had been gained in King Will- iam's War had now to be gained all over again. Sir William Phips had taken Port Royal very handily at the outset of that war (1690), and Acadia with it, and there had been no difficulty in holding the conquered prov- ince until the war ended; but the treaty of Ryswick had handed back to the French everything the English had taken, the statesmen of England hardly heeding America at all in the terms they agreed to, and so a beginning was once more to be made. 32 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS The war began, as every one knew it must, with forays on the border: the Indians were the first afoot, and were more to be feared than the French. The first movement of the English was made at the south, where, before the first year (1702) of the war was out, the Carolinians struck at the power of Spain in Florida. They sent a little force against St. Augustine, and easily swept the town itself, but stood daunted before the walls of the castle, lacking cannon to reduce it, and came hastily away at sight of two Spanish ships standing into the harbor, leaving their very stores and ammunition behind them in their panic. They had saddled the colony with a debt of six thousand pounds and gained nothing. But they at least kept their own borders safe against the Indians and their own little capital at Charleston safe against reprisals by the Spaniards. The Apalachees, who served the Spaniards on the border, they swept from their forest country in 1703, and made their border quiet by fire and sword, driving hundreds of the tribesmen they did not kill to new seats beyond the Savannah. Three 3 7 ears went by before they were in their turn attacked by a force out of Florida. Upon a day in August, 1706, while the little capital lay stricken with yellow fever, a fleet of five French vessels appeared off the bar at their harbor mouth, bringing Spanish troops from Havana and St. Augustine. There was a quick rally to meet them. Colonial militia went to face their landing parties; gallant Colonel Rhett manned a little flotilla to check them on the water ; and they were driven off, leaving two hundred and thirty prisoners and a captured ship behind them. The southern coast could take care of itself. -? 33 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Nothing had been done meanwhile in the north. The first year of the war (1702) had seen Boston robbed OLD SWEDES CHURCH, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE of three hundred of her inhabitants by the scourge of srnall-pox, and New York stricken with a fatal fever brought out of the West Indies from which no man 34 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS could rally. That dismal year lingered for many a day in the memory of the men of the middle colonies as "the time of the great sickness." The northern- most border had been harried from Wells to Casco by the French Indians (1703); Deerfield, far away in the wilderness by the Connecticut, had been fearfully dealt with at dead of night, in the mid-winter of 1704, by a combined force of French and Indians; in 1705 the French in Acadia had brought temporary ruin upon the English trading posts in Newfoundland; and a French privateer had insolently come in open day into the Bay at New York, as if to show the English there how defenceless their great harbor was, with all the coast about it (1705). And yet there had been no counter- stroke by the English, except that Colonel Church, of Massachusetts, had spent the summer of 1704 in destroying as he could the smaller and less defended French and Indian villages upon the coasts which lay about the Penobscot and the Bay of Fundy. In 1707 a serious attempt was made to take Port Royal. Colo- nel March took a thousand men against the place, in twenty - three transports, convoyed by a man - of - war, and regularly laid siege to it; but lacked knowledge of the business he had undertaken and failed utterly. Another three years went by before anything was accomplished; and the French filled them in, as before, with raids and massacres. Again Haverhill was sur- prised, sacked, and burned (1708). The English were driven from the Bahama islands. An expedition elab- orately prepared in England to be sent against the French in America was countermanded (1709), because a sudden need arose to use it at home. Everything attempted seemed to miscarry as of course. And then 35 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE at last fortune turned a trifle kind. Colonel Francis Nicholson, governor of Virginia till 1705, had gone to England when he saw things stand hopelessh 7 still in America, and, being a man steadfast and hard to put by, was at last able, in 1710, to obtain and bring assistance in person from over sea. He had recom- NEW YORK SLAVE MARKET ABOUT 1730 mended, while yet he was governor of Virginia, it was recalled, that the colonies be united under a single viceroy and defended by a standing army for which they should themselves be made to pay. The min- isters at home had been too prudent to take that ad- vice; but they listened now to his appeal for a force to be sent to America. By the 24th of September, 1710, he lay off Port Royal with a fleet of thirty-five sail, besides hospital and store ships, with four regiments of New 36 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS England militia aboard his transports and a detach- ment of marines. On the 1st of October he opened the fire of three batteries within a hundred yards of the little fort that guarded the place, and within twenty- four hours he had brought it to its capitulation, as Sir William Phips had done twenty years before. Aca- dia was once more a conquered province of England. Colonel Nicholson renamed its port Annapolis Royal, in honor of the Queen whom he served. The name of the province itself the English changed to Nova Scotia. Two years more, and the war was practically over; but no victories had been added to that lonety achieve- ment at Port Royal. Colonel Nicholson went from his triumph in Acadia back to England again, to solic- it a yet stronger force to be taken against Quebec, and once more got what he wanted. In midsummer of 1711 Sir Hovenden Walker arrived at Boston with a great fleet of trans' ports and men-of- war, bringing Colo- nel Hill and seven of Marlborough's veteran regi- ments to join the troops of New England in a decisive onset upon the stronghold of New France. Colonel Nicholson was to lead the colonial levies through the forests to Quebec ; Sir Hovenden Walker was to ascend the St. Lawrence and strike from the river. But neither force reached Quebec. The admiral blundered in the 37 BROAD STREET, NEW YORK, IN 1740 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE fogs which beset him at the mouth of the great stream, lost eight ships and almost a thousand men, and then put about in dismay and steered straightway for Eng- land, to have his flag-ship blow up under him at Spit- head. Colonel Nicholson heard very promptly of the admiral's ignoble failure, and did not make his march. The next year, 1712, the merchants of Quebec sub- scribed a fund to complete the fortifications of their rock-built city, and even women volunteered to work upon them, that they might be finished ere the English came again. But the English did not come. That very summer brought a truce; and in March, 1713, the war ended with the peace of Utrecht. The treaty gave England Hudson's Bay, Acadia, Newfoundland, and the little island of St. Christopher alongside Nevis in the Lesser Antilles. "Queen Anne's War" was over; but there was not yet settled peace in the south. While the war lasted North Carolina had had to master, in blood and terror, the fierce Iroquois tribe of the Tuscaroras, who mus- tered twelve hundred warriors in the forests which lay nearest the settlements. And when the war was over South Carolina had to conquer a whole confederacy of tribes whom the Spaniards had stirred up to attack her. The Tuscaroras had seemed friends through all the first years of the English settlement on their coast; but the steady, ominous advance of the English, en- croaching mile by mile upon their hunting grounds, had at last maddened them to commit a sudden and awful treachery. In September, 1711, they fell with all their natural fury upon the nearer settlements, and for three days swept them with an almost continuous carnage. The next year the awful butchery was repeated. Both 38 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS times the settlements found themselves too weak to make effective resistance; both times aid was sent from South Carolina, by forced marches through the long forests; and finally, in March, 1713, the month of the peace of Utrecht, an end was made. The Tuscaroras were attacked and overcome in their last stronghold. The remnant that was left migrated northward to join OLD STATE HOUSE AT ANNAPOLIS. MARYLAND their Iroquois kinsmen in New York, and Carolina was quit of them forever. The strong tribes which held sway in the forests of South Carolina, the Yamassees, Creeks, Catawbas, and Cherokees, were no kinsmen of these alien Iro- quois out of the north, and had willingly lent their aid to the English to destroy them. But, the war over, the Spaniards busied themselves to win these tribes also to a conspiracy against the English settlements, and 39 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE succeeded only too well. They joined in a great con- federacy, and put their seven or eight thousand bra\es on the war-path to destroy the English. For almost a whole year (April, 1715, to February, 1716) they kept to their savage work unsubdued, until full four hun- dred whites had lost their lives at their hands. Then the final reckoning came for them also, and the shat- tered remnants of their tribes sought new homes for themselves as they could. The savages had all but accomplished their design against the settlements. The awful work of destroying them left the Carolinas upon the verge of utter exhaustion, drained of blood and money, almost without crops of food to subsist upon, quite without means to bear the heavy charges of gov- ernment in a time of war and sore disorder. There were some among the disheartened settlers who thought of abandoning their homes there altogether and seek- ing a place where peace might be had at a less terrible cost. But there was peace at least, and the danger of absolute destruction had passed. New York had had her own fright while the war lasted. A house blazed in the night (1712), and certain negroes who had gathered about it killed some of those who came to extinguish the flames. It was rumored that there had been a plot among the negroes to put the whole of the town to the torch; an investigation was made, amidst a general panic which rendered calm inquiry into such a matter impossible; and nineteen blacks were executed. But in most of the colonies domestic affairs had gone quietly enough, the slow war disturbing them very little. Connecticut found leisure of thought enough, in 1708, to collect a synod at Say brook and formulate 40 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS a carefully considered constitution for her churches, which her legislature the same year adopted. In 1707 New York witnessed a notable trial which established the freedom of dissenting pulpits. Lord Cornbury, the profligate governor of the province, tried to silence the Rev. Francis Mackemie, a Presbyterian minister, pretending that the English law r s of worship and NEW YORK, FROM THE HARBOR, ABOUT 1725 doctrine were in force in New York; but a jury made short work of acquitting him. Massachusetts en- dured Joseph Dudley as governor throughout the war (1702-1715), checking him very pertinaciously at times when he needed the assistance of her General Court, but no longer refusing to live with reasonable patience under governors not of her own choosing. Fortunately for the Carolinas, a very notable man A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE had become governor of Virginia ere the Tuscaroras took the war-path. There were tribes at the border, Nottoways, Meherrins, and even a detached group of the Tuscaroras themselves, who would have joined ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD in the savage conspiracy against the whites had not Colonel Spotswood been governor in Virginia and shown himself capable of holding them quiet with a steady hand of authority, a word of conciliation and a hint of force. Alexander Spotswood was no ordinary man. 42 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS He added to a gentle breeding a manly bearing such as Virginians loved, and the administrative gifts which so many likable governors had lacked. His govern- ment was conducted with clear-eyed enterprise and steady capacity. It added to his consequence that he had borne the Queen's com- mission in the forces of the great Marlborough on the field of Blenheim, and came to his- duty in Virginia (1710) bearing a wound re- ceived on that famous field. His blood he took from Scotland, where the distin- guished annals of his fam- BRENTON CHUKCII , W ,, F RE GOVERNOR ily might be read in many SPOTSWOOD WORSHIPPED a public record ; and a Scot- tish energy entered with him into the government of Vir- ginia, as well as a Scottish candor and directness in speech, to the great irritation presently of James Blair, as aggressive a Scotsman as he, and more astute and masterful. It was Colonel Spotswood who, in 1716, gathered a company of gentlemen about him for a long ride of discovery into the Alleghanies. They put their horses through the very heart of the long wilderness, and won their way despite all obstacles to a far summit of the Blue Ridge, whence, first among all their coun- trymen, they looked forth to the westward upon the vast slopes which fell away to the Ohio and the great basin of the Mississippi. Colonel Spotswood, standing there the leader of the little group, knew that it was this VOL. II. 5 J7 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE way the English must come to make conquest of the continent. He urged his government at home to stretch a chain of defensive posts beyond the mountains from the lakes to the Mississippi, to keep the French from those inner valleys which awaited the coming of the white man; but he did not pause in the work he could do himself because the advice went unheeded. He kept the Indians still; he found excellent lands for a thrifty colony of Germans, and himself began the manu- facture of iron in the colony, setting up the first iron furnace in America. The debts of the colony were most of them discharged, and a good trade in corn, lumber, and salt provisions sprang up with the West Indies. He rebuilt the college, recently destroyed by fire, and established a school for Indian children. He improved as he could the currency of the colon\ T . His works were the quiet works of peace and develop- ment, except for his vigorous suppression of the pirates of the coast, and his administration might have out- run the year 1722, which saw him removed, had he been a touch less haughty, overbearing, unused to conciliat- ing or pleasing those whose service he desired. He made enemies, and was at last ousted by them. Some of the best qualities of the soldier and adminis- trator came out in him in the long struggle to put the pirates down once and for all. Queen Anne's War had turned pirates into privateers and given pause to the stern business for a little, but it began again in desperate earnest when the war was over and peace concluded at Utrecht. It was officially reported by the secretary of Pennsylvania in 1717 that there were still fifteen hundred pirates on the coasts, making their headquarters at the Cape Fear and at New Providence 44 WEDRWJKTHEKlNCiHEALfHiMCHAMmCNt^'FIRF.DAVOLLEy, Of) THEPWNCEfl Hi-ALTH IN BURCUNDI^ FIRED A VOLLEY, ALL THE RE( T OP THE KOyAL FA!^Ly IN CLARET ^ A VOLLEy." FROM THE JOURNAL OF MTONTMNE-flf T*HERffiT)( GOVKKNOR SI'OTSWOOD'S HXFIUITION TO THE BLUE R1DGK COLONEL RHETT AND THE PIRATE STEDE BONNET COMMON UNDERTAKINGS in the Bahamas, and sweeping the sea as they dared from Brazil to Newfoundland. But the day of their reckoning was near at hand. South Carolina had cleared her own coasts for a little at the beginning of the century, but the robbers swarmed at her inlets again when the Indian massacres had weakened and dis- tracted her, and the end of the war with France set many a roving privateersman free to return to piracy. The crisis and turning-point came in the year 1718. That year an English fleet crossed the sea, took New Providence, purged the Bahamas of piracy, and made henceforth a stronghold there for law and order. That same year Stede Bonnet, of Barbadoes, a man who had but the other day held a major's commission in her Majesty's service, honored and of easy fortune, but now turned pirate, as if for pastime, was caught at the mouth of the Cape Fear by armed ships under redoubtable Colonel Rhett, who had driven the French out of Charleston harbor thirteen years ago, and was taken and hanged on Charleston dock, all his crew hav- ing gone before him to the ceremony. "This humour of going a-pyrating," it was said, "proceeded from a disorder in his mind, which had been but too visible in him some time before this wicked undertaking; and which is said to have been occasioned by some discom- forts he found in a married state " ; but the law saw nothing of that in what he had done. While Bonnet awaited his condemnation, Edward Thatch, the fam- ous "Blackbeard," whom all the coast dreaded, went a like just way to death, trapped within Ocracoke Inlet by two stout craft sent against him out of Virginia by Colonel Spotswood. And so, step by step, the purging went on. South Carolina had as capable a governor 47 PORTRAIT OF THE PIRATE EDWARD THATCH COMMON UNDERTAKINGS as Virginia in Robert Johnson; and the work done by these and like men upon the coasts, and by the Eng- lish ships in the West Indies, presently wiped piracy, out. By 1730 there was no longer anything for ships to fear on those coasts save the Navigation Acts and stress of sea weather. It was a long coast, and it took a long time to carry law and order into every bay and inlet. But every year brought increase of strength to the colonies, and with increase of strength power to rule their coasts as they chose. Queen Anne's War over, quiet peace de- scended upon the colonies for almost an entire gener- ation (1712-1740). Except for a flurry of Indian war- fare now and again upon the borders, or here and there some petty plot or sudden brawl, quiet reigned, and peaceful progress. Anne, the queen, died the year after peace was signed (1714); and the next 3 7 ear Louis XIV. followed her, the great king who had so profoundly stirred the politics of Europe. An old generation had passed away, and new men and new measures seemed now to change the whole face of affairs. The first George took the throne, a German, not an English prince, his heart in Hannover; and presently the affairs of England fell into the hands of Sir Robert Walpole. Sir Robert kept his power for twenty-one 3^ears (1721-1742), and conducted the government with the shrewd, hard-headed sense and administrative capacity of a stead3 r countw squire, as if governing were a sort of business, demanding, like other busi- nesses,, peace and an assured and equable order in affairs. It was a time of growth and recuperation, with much to do, but little to record. The colonies, while it lasted, underwent in many n.-4 49 SIR ROBERT WALPOLE COMMON UNDERTAKINGS things a slow transformation. Their population grew in numbers not only, but also in variety. By the end of the war there were probably close upon half a million people within their borders, counting slave with free; and with the return of peace there came a quickened increase. New England slowly lost its old ways of separate action as a self - constituted confederacy; and Massachusetts, with her new system of royal governors and a franchise broadened beyond the lines of her churches, by degrees lost her leadership. She was losing her old temper of Puritan thought. It was im- possible to keep her population any longer of the single strain of which it had been made up at the first. New elements were steadily added; and new elements brought new ways of life and new beliefs. She was less and less governed by her pulpits ; turned more and more to trade for sustenance; welcomed new-comers with less and less scrutiny of their ways of thinking; grew less suspicious of change, and more like her neighbors in her zest for progress. Scots-Irish began to make their appearance in the colony, some of them going to New Hampshire, some remaining in Boston ; and they were given a right will- ing welcome. The war had brought sore burdens ol expense and debt upon the people, and these Scots- Irish knew the profitable craft of linen-making which the Boston people were glad to learn, and use to clothe themselves; for povertj^, they declared, "is coming upon us as an armed man." These new immigrants brought with them also the potato, not before used in New England, and very acceptable as an addition to the colony's bill of fare. Small vessels now began to venture out from Cape Cod and Nantucket, moreover, 51 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE in pursuit of the whales that came to the northern coasts, and it was not long before that daring occupation be- gan to give promise of wealth and of the building up of a great industry. Population began slowly to spread from the coasts into the forests which lay at the west between the Connecticut and the Hudson. In 1730 a Presbj^terian church was opened in Boston, almost as unmistakable a sign of change as King's Chapel itself had been with its service after the order of the Church of England. The middle colonies and the far south saw greater changes than these. South Carolina seemed likely to become as various in her make-up as were New York and Pennsylvania with their mixture of races and creeds. Scots-Irish early settled within her borders also; she had already her full share of Huguenot blood ; and there followed, as the new century advanced through the lengthened \ T ears of peace, companies of Swiss immigrants, and Germans from the Palatinate. Charleston, however, seemed English enough, and showed a color of aristocracy in her life which no one could fail to note who visited her. Back from the point where the rivers met, where the fortifications stood, and the docks to which the ships came, there ran a fine road northward which Governor Archdale, that good Quaker, had twenty years ago declared' more beautiful and pleasant than any prince in Europe could find to take the air upon when he drove abroad. From it on either side stretched noble avenues of live oaks, their strong lines softened by the long drapery of the gray moss, avenues which led to the broad verandas of country residences standing in cool and shadowy groves of other stately trees. In summer the odor of 52 tSg^P^Sws^r^ *e\ ^8fi*m&*$SF~ ^ .&* MAP OF THE COAST SETTLEMENTS, 1742 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE jasmine filled the air; and even in winter the winds were soft. It was here that the ruling men of the 'colony lived, the masters of the nearer plantations, men bred and cultured after the manner of the Old .World. The simpler people, who made the colony ivarious with their differing bloods, lived inland, in |the remoter parishes, or near other harbors above or jbelow Charleston's port. It was on the nearer planta- ,tions round about Charleston that negro slaves most abounded; and there were more negroes by several thousand in the colony than white folk. Out of the 16,750 inhabitants of the colony in 1715, 10,500 were slaves. But the whites were numerous enough to give their governors a taste of their quality. There were well-developed political parties in South Carolina, for all she was so small; and astute and able men to lead them, like Colonel Rhett, now soldier, now sailor, now statesman, and Mr. Nicholas Trott, now on one side and again on the other in the matter of self- government as against the authority of the proprietors or the crown, but always in a position to make his in- fluence felt. The province practically passed from the proprietors to the crown in 1719, because the people's party determined to be rid of their authority, and ousted their governor, exasperated that in their time of need, their homes burned about their ears by the savages, their coasts ravaged by freebooters, they should have been helped not a whit, but left to shift desperately tor themselves. In 1729 the proprietors formally sur- rendered their rights. Colonel Francis Nicholson acted as provisional governor while the change was being effected (1719-1725), having been meantime governor of Acadia, which he had taken for the crown. In 1720 54 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS he was knighted; and he seems to have acted as soberly in this post in Carolina as he had acted in Virginia. He was trticulent and whimsical in the north; but in the south his temper seemed eased and his judgment steadied. The change of government in South Carolina was really an earnest of the fact that the people's representatives had won a just and reasonable POHICK CHURCH, VIRGINIA, WHERE WASHINGTON WORSHIPPED ascendency in the affairs of the colony; and Sir Francis did not seriously cross them, but served them rather, in the execution of their purposes. Every colony had its own movements of party. Everywhere the crown desired the colonial assemblies to provide a permanent establishment for the gov- ernor, the judges, and the other officers who held the King's commission, fixed salaries, and a recognized authority to carry out instructions ; but everywhere the people's representatives persistently refused to grant either salaries or any additional authority which they 55 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE could not control in the interest of their own rights from session to session. They would vote salaries for only a short period, generally- a year at a time; and they steadily denied the right of the crown to extend or vary the jurisdiction of the courts without their as- sent. Sometimes a governor like Mr. Clarke, of New York, long a resident in his colony and acquainted with its temper and its ways of thought, got what he wanted by making generous concessions in matters under his own control; and the judges, whatever their acknowledged jurisdiction, were likely to yield to the royal wishes with some servility: for they were ap- pointed at the King's pleasure, and not for the term of their good behavior, as in England. But power turned, after all, upon what the people's legislature did or consented to do, and the colonists commonly spoke their minds with fearless freedom. In New York the right to speak their minds had been tested and established in a case which every colony promptly learned of. In 1734 and 1735 one John Peter Ziegler, a printer, was brought to trial for the printing of various libellous attacks on the governor and the administration of the colony, attacks which were declared to be highly "derogatory to the character of his Majesty's government," and to have a tendency "to raise seditions and tumults in the province"; but he was acquitted. The libel was admitted, but the jury deemed it the right of every one to say whatever he thought to be true of the colony's government; and men everywhere noted the verdict. A second negro plot startled New York in 1741, show- ing itself, as before, in sudden incendiary fires. It was thought that the slaves had been incited to destrov 56 JOURNAL OF TH E PROCEEDINGS I N The Detection of the Confpiracy FORMED BY Some Wfa te People, in Conjunction with Negro and other Slaves, FOR Burning the City of NEW-YORK in AMERICA, And Murdering the Inhabitants. Which Confpiracy was partly put in Execution, by Burning His Majefty'S Houfe in "Fort GEORGE, within the faid City, on Wednefday the Eighteenth of March, 1741. and fating Fire to fcvcral Dwelling and other Houfes there, within a few Days fucceeding. And by another Attempt made in Profecution of the fame infernal Scheme, by putting Fire between two other Dwell ing-Houfes- within the faid City, on the Fifteenth Day of fttrvarj,.i742 ; which was accidentally and timely difcovered and extinguifhed. C O N T A I N I .N G, I. A NARRATIVE of the Trials, Condemnations, Executions, and 'Behaviour of the feveral Criminals, at the Gallows and Stake, with their Speeches and CanfeJJttni \ with .Notes, Obfervations and Reflections occafionally interfperfed throughout the Whole. II. AN APPENDIX, wherein is fctforth fomc additional Evidence concerning the faid Confpiracy and Confpirators, which has come to Light fmcc their Trials and Executions. III. LISTS of ihe feveral Perfons (Whites and Blacks) committed on Account of the Confpiracy ; and of the feveral Criminals executed* and of thofc tranfportcd, with the Places whereto. By the Recorder of the City of NEW- YORK. >uid faciint Domini, audent cum talia Fares ? Virg. Eel. NEW-YORK: Printed by Janus Parkrr, at the New Printing-Office, 1744. TITLE-PAGE OF THE PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE NEGROES A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the town; and there was an uneasy suspicion that these disturbing occurrences were in some way connected with the slave insurrections in the south. Uprisings of the slaves had recently occurred in the West Indies. South Carolina had suffered such an outbreak a little more than two 3^ears before. In 1738 armed insurgent negroes had begun there, in a quiet parish, the execution of a terrible plot of murder and burning which it had taken very prompt and summary action to check and defeat. Such risings were specially ominous where the slaves so outnumbered the whites; and it was known in South Carolina whence the uneasiness of the negroes came. At the south of the province lay the Spanish colonies in Florida. Negroes who could manage to run away from their masters and cross the southern border were made very welcome there; the} 7 were set free, and en- couraged in every hostile purpose that promised to rob the English settlements of their ease and peace. Bands of Yamassees wandered there, too, eager to avenge themselves as they could for the wof ul defeat and ex- pulsion they had suffered at the hands of the Carolinians, and ready to make common cause with the negroes. When bands of negroes, hundreds strong, began their sudden work of burning, plunder, and murder where the quiet Stono runs to the sea no one doubted whence the impulse came. And though a single rising was easil> T enough put down, who could be certain that that was the end of the ominous business? No wonder governors at Charleston interested themselves to in- crease the number of white settlers and make their power of self-defence sure. Such things, however, serious as they were, did not check the steady growth of the colonies. It was not 58 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS yet questions of self-government or of the preserva- tion of their peace that dominated their affairs; and only those who observed how far-away frontiers were being advanced and two great nations being brought together for a reckoning face to face saw what was the next, the very near, crisis in store for the English in America. Through all that time of peace a notable drama was in fact preparing. Slowly, but very surely, English and French were drawing nearer and nearer within the continent, not only in the north, but through- out all the length of the great Mississippi. Step by step the French had descended the river from their posts on the lakes; and while peace reigned they had established posts at its mouth and begun to make their way northward from the Gulf. So long ago as 1699 they had built a stockade at Biloxi; in 1700 they had taken possession of Mobile Bay; by 1716 they had es- tablished posts at Toulouse (Alabama) and at Natchez. In 1718 they began to build at New Orleans. In 1719 they captured and destroyed the Spanish post at Pensa- cola. B} 7 1722 there were five thousand Frenchmen by the lower stretches of the great river; and their trad- ing boats were learning all the shallows and currents of the mighty waterway from end to end. Meantime, in the north, they advanced their power to Lake Cham- plain, and began the construction of a fort at Crown Point (1721). That same year, 1721, French and Eng- lish built ominously near each other on Lake Ontario, the English at Oswego, the French at Niagara among the Senecas. In 1716, the very year Governor Spots- wood rode through the western forests of Virginia to a summit of the Blue Ridge, the French had found a short way to the Ohio by following the Miami and the VOL. n.-6 59 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Wabash down their widening streams. It was while they thus edged their way towards the eastern moun- tains and drew their routes closer and closer to their rivals on the coast that that adventurous, indomitable people, the Scots-Irish, came pouring of a sudden into OSWEGO IN 1750 the English colonies, and very promptly made it their business to pass the mountains and take possession of the lands which lay beyond them, as if they would deliberately go to meet the French by the Ohio. For several years after the first quarter of the new century had run out immigrants from the north of Ire- land came crowding in, twelve thousand strong by the year. In 1729 quite five thousand of them entered 60 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS Pennsylvania alone: and they pressed without hesita- tion and as if by preference to the interior. From Penn- sylvania they passed along the broad, inviting valleys southward into the western parts of Virginia. By 1730 a straggling movement of settlers had begun to show itself even upon the distant lands of Kentucky. Still farther south traders from the Carolinas went constantly back and forth between the Indian tribes of the country by the Mississippi and the English settlements at the coast. Nine thousand redskin warriors lay there in the forests. Some traded with the French at the river, some with the English at the coast. They might be- come foes or allies, might turn to the one side or the other, as passion or interest led them. In 1739 the French at the north put an armed sloop on Champlain. The same year the English built a fortified post at Niagara. Everywhere the two peoples were converging, and were becoming more and more conscious of what their approach to one another meant. So long ago as 1720 orders had come from France bid- ding the French commanders on the St. Lawrence oc- cupy the valley of the Ohio before the English should get a foothold there. The places where the rivals were to meet it was now easy to see, and every frontiersman saw them very plainly. The two races could not pos- sess the continent together. They must first fight for the nearer waterways of the West, and after that for whatever lay next at hand. It was no small matter, with threat of such things in the air, that the English chose that day of prepara- tion for the planting of a new colony, and planted it in the south between Carolina and the Florida settlements, a barrier and a menace both to French and Spaniard. 61 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE It was James Oglethorpe, a soldier, who planned the new undertaking; and he planned it like a soldier, and yet like a man of heart and elevated purpose, too, for he was a philanthropist and a lover of every service- able duty, as well as a soldier. He came of that good stock of country gentlemen which has in every genera- tion helped so sturdily to carry forward the work of England, in the field, in Parliament, in administrative office. He had gone with a commission into the English army in the late war a mere lad of fourteen (1710); and, finding himself still unskilled in arms when England made peace at Utrecht, he had chosen to stay for six years longer, a volunteer, with the forces of Prince Eugene in the East. At twenty-two he had come back to England (1718), to take upon himself the responsi- bilities which had fallen to him by reason of the death of his elder brothers; and in 1722 he had entered the House of Commons, eager as ever to learn his duty and do it. He kept always a sort of knightly quality, and the power to plan and hope and push forward that belongs to youth. He was a Tory, and believed that the Stuarts should have the throne from which they had been thrust before he was born; but that did not make him disloyal. He was an ardent reformer; but that did not make him visionary, for he was also train- ed in affairs. His clear-cut features, frank eye, erect and slender figure bespoke him every inch the high- bred gentleman and the decisive man of action. In Parliament he had been made one of a committee to inspect prisons; and he had been keenly touched by the miserable plight of the many honest men who, through mere misfortune, were there languishing in hopeless imprisonment for debt. He bethought him- 62 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS self of the possibility of giving such men a new chance of life and the recovery of fortune in America; and the thought grew into a plan for a new colony. He knew how the southern coast lay vacant between JAMES OGLETHORPE Charleston and the Spaniards at St. Augustine. There were good lands there, no doubt; and his soldier's eye showed him, by a mere glance at a map, how fine a point of vantage it might be made if fortified against the alien power in Florida. And so he made his plans. It should be a military colony, a colony of fortified 63 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE posts; and honest men who had fallen upon poverty or misfortune at home should have a chance, if they would work, to profit by the undertaking, though he should take them from debtors' prisons. Both King and Parliament listened very willingly to what he pro- posed. The King signed a charter, giving the under- taking into the hands of trustees, who were in effect to be proprietors (June, 1732); and Parliament voted ten thousand pounds as its subscription to the enter- prise; while men of as liberal a spirit as Oglethorpe's associated themselves with him to carry the humane plan out, giving money, counsel, and service without so much as an expectation of gain to themselves, or any material return for their outlay. Men had ceased by that time to dream that colonization would make those rich who fathered it and paid its first bills. By the end of October, 1732, the first shipload of settlers was off for America, Oglethorpe himself at their head; and by February, 1733, they were already busy build- ing their first settlement on Yamacraw Bluff, within the broad stream of the Savannah. The colony had in its charter been christened Georgia, in honor of the King, who had so cordially approved of its foundation; the settlement at Yamacraw, Ogle- thorpe called by the name of the river itself, Savannah. His colonists were no mere company of released debt- ors and shiftless ne'er-do-wells. Men had long ago learned the folly of that mistake, and Oglethorpe was too much a man of the world to repeat the failures of others. Every emigrant had been subjected to a thorough examination regarding his antecedents, his honesty, his character for energy and good behavior, and had been brought because he had been deemed fit. 64 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS Italians skilled in silk culture were introduced into the colony. Sober German Protestants came from Moravia and from Salzburg, by Tyrol, and were given their sepa- rate places of settlement, as quiet, frugal, industrious, pious folk as the first pilgrims at Plymouth. Clans- men from the Scottish Highlands came, and were set at the extreme south, as an outpost to meet the Span- iard. Some of the Carolina settlers who would have liked themselves to have the Highlanders for neighbors tried to dissuade them from going to the spot selected for their settlement. They told them that the Span- OGLETHORPE'S ORDER FOR SUPPLIES iards were so near at hand that they could shoot them from the windows of the houses that stood within the fort. "Why, then, we shall beat them out of their fort, and shall have houses ready built to live in!" cried the men in kilts, very cheerily, and went on to their settlement. Fortunately it was seven years before the war with Spain came which every one had known from the first to be inevitable; and by that time the little colony was ready enough. Georgia's territory stretched upon the coast from the Savannah to the Altamaha, and from the coast ran back, west and northwest, to the sources of those rivers; from their sources due westward "to ".-5 65 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the South Seas." Savannah was thus planted at the very borders of South Carolina. New settlers were placed, as they came, some in Savannah, many by the upper reaches of the river. The Highlanders had their post of danger and honor upon the Altamaha; and before war came new settlers, additional arms IN 1754 and stores, and serviceable fortifications had been placed at St. Simon's Island at the mouth of the Alta- maha. Every settlement was in some sort a fortified military post. The first settlers had been drilled in arms by sergeants of the Royal Guards in London every day between the time of their assembling and the time of their departure. Arms and ammunition were as abundant almost as agricultural tools and food stores in the cargoes carried out. Negro slavery 06 ^^^t^x^*-_L ALEXANDER HAMILTON COMMON UNDERTAKINGS was forbidden in the colony, because it was no small part of Oglethorpe's purpose in founding it to thrust a solid wedge of free settlers between Carolina and the country to the south, and close the border to fugitive slaves. Neither could any liquor be brought in. It was designed that the life of the settlements should be touched with something of the rigor of military dis- cipline; and so long as Oglethorpe himself was at hand laws were respected and obe} 7 ed, rigid and unaccept- able though they were ; for he w T as a born ruler of men. He had not chosen very wisely, however, when he brought Charles and John Wesley out as his spiritual advisers and the pastors of his colony. They were men as inapt at yielding and as strenuous at prosecut- ing their own way of action as he, and promoted diver- sity of opinion quite as successfully as piety. They stayed but three or four uneasy years in America, and then returned to do their great work of setting up a new dissenting church in England. George White- field followed them (1738) in their missionary labors, and for a little while preached acceptably enough in the quiet colony; but he, too, was very soon back in England again. The very year Oglethorpe brought Charles Wesley to Georgia (1734) a great wave of relig- ious feeling swept over New England again, not sober, self-contained, deep-currented, like the steady fervor of the old days, but passionate, full of deep ex- citement, agitated, too like a frenzy. Enthusiasts who saw it rise and run its course were wont to speak of it afterwards as "the Great Awakening," but the graver sort were deeply disturbed by it. It did not spend its force till quite fifteen years had come and gone. Mr. Whitefield returned to America in 1739, 67 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE to add to it the impulse of his impassioned preaching, and went once more to Georgia also. Again and again JOHN WESLEY he came upon the same errand, stirring many a colony with his singular eloquence; but Georgia was busy with other things, and heeded him less than the rest. When the inevitable war came with Spain, in 1739, 68 OGLliTHORPE's EXPEDITION AGAINST ST. AUGUSTINE A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE inevitable because of trade rivalries in the West Indies and in South America, and because of political rivalry at the borders of Florida, Oglethorpe was almost the first to strike. Admiral Vernon had been despatch- GEORGE WHITEFIELD ed in midsummer, 1739, before the declaration of war, to destroy the Spanish settlements and distress Spanish commerce in the West Indies; and had promptly taken Porto Bello in November, scarcely a month after war had been formally declared. Oglethorpe struck next, at St. Augustine. It was this he had looked forward 70 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS to in founding his colony. In May, 1740, he moved to the attack with a mixed army of redskins and provin- cial militia numbering a little more than two thousand men, supported at sea by a little fleet of six vessels of war under Sir Yelverton Peyton. But there had been too much delay in getting the motley force to- gether. The Spaniards had procursd reinforcements from Havana; the English ships found it impracti- cable to get near enough to the Spanish works to use their guns with effect; Oglethorpe had no proper siege pieces; and the attack utterly failed. It had its effect, nevertheless. For two years the Spaniards held ner- vously off, carefully on the defensive; and when they did in their turn attack, Oglethorpe beat them hand- somely off, and more than wiped out the disrepute of his miscarriage at St. Augustine. In June. 1742, there came to St. Simon's Island a Spanish fleet of fifty-one sail, nearly five thousand troops aboard, and Oglethorpe beat them off with six hundred and fifty men, working his little forts like a master, and his single guard-schooner and few paltry armed sloops as if they were a navy. Such a deliverance, cried Mr. Whitefield, could not be paralleled save out of Old Testa- ment history. Meanwhile Vernon and Wentworth had met with overwhelming disaster at Cartagena. With a great fleet of ships of the line and a land force of nine thou- sand men, they had made their assault upon it in March, 1741; but because Wentworth bungled everything he did with his troops the attack miserably failed. He was caught by the deadly wet season of the tropics; disease reduced his army to a wretched handful; and thousands of lives were thrown away in his dismal A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE disgrace. Both New England and Virginia had sent troops to take their part with that doomed army; and the colonies knew, in great bitterness, how few came home again. The war had its issues for them, they knew, as well as for the governments across the water. It meant one more reckoning with the Spaniard and THE ACTION AT CARTAGENA the Frenchman, their rivals for the mastery of America. And in 1745 New England had a triumph of her own, more gratifying even than Oglethorpe's astonishing achievement at St. Simon's Island. Only for a few months had England dealt with Spain alone upon a private quarrel. In 1740 the male line of the great Austrian house of Hapsburg had run out: Maria Theresa took the throne ; rival claimants disputed 72 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS her right to the succession; and all Europe was pres- ently plunged into the "War of the Austrian Succes- sion" (1740-1748). "King George's War" they called it in the colonies, when France and England became embroiled ; but the name did not make it doubtful what interests, or what ambitions, were involved; and New England struck her own blow at the power of France. A force of about four thousand men, levied in Mas- sachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, moved in the spring of 1745 against the French port of Louis- bourg on Cape Breton Island. Commodore Warren, the English naval commander in the West Indies, fur- nished ships for their convoy, and himself supported them in the siege; and by the i6th of June the place had been taken. For twenty-five years the French had been slowly building its fortifications, covering with them an area two and a half miles in circumference. The} 7 had made them, they supposed, impregnable. But the English had struck quickly, without warning, and with a skill and ardor which made them well- nigh irresistible; and their triumph was complete. Provincial troops had taken the most formidable fortress in America. William Pepperrell, the gallant gentle- man who had led the New En glanders, got a baronetcy for his victory. Warren was made an admiral. The next year an attack was planned against the French at Crown Point on Champlain, but nothing came of it. The war almost stood still thenceforth, so far as the colonies were concerned, till peace was signed at Aix-la-Chapelle in October, 1748. That peace brought great chagrin to New England. By its terms Louisbourg and all conquests everywhere were restored. The whole work was to do over again, as after King l "--' 73 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE William's War and the restoration of Port Royal, which Sir William Phips had been at such pains to take. The WILLIAM PEPPERRELL peace stood, however, little longer than that which had separated King William's War from the War of the Spanish Succession. Seven years, and France 74 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS and England had once more grappled, this time for a final settlement. All the seven years through the coming on of war was plainly to be seen by those who knew where to look for the signs of the times. The French and English in that brief interval were not merely to approach; they were to meet in the western valleys, and the first spark of a war that was to em- broil all Europe was presently to flash out in the still forests beyond the far Alleghanies. It was on the borders of Virginia this time that the first act of the drama was to be cast. The French de- termined both to shorten and to close their lines of occupation and defence from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi and the Gulf. They knew that they could do this only by taking possession of the valley of the Ohio; and the plan was no sooner formed than it was attempted. And yet to do this was to come closer than ever to the English and to act under their very eyes. A few German families had made their way far to the westward in Pennsylvania, and hundreds of the in- domitable Scots-Irish had been crowding in there for now quite twenty years, passing on, many of them, to the beautiful valley of the Shenandoah below, and pressing everywhere closer and closer to the passes which led down but a little way beyond into the valleys of the Alleghany, the Monongahela, and the Ohio. These men, at the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, were sure to observe what was going forward in front of them, and to understand what they saw. Traders crossed those mountains now by the score from the English settlements, three hundred in a year, it was said. They knew the waters that ran to the Ohio quite as well as any Frenchman did. Their canoes had fol- 75 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE lowed the turnings of the broad Ohio itself, and had found it a highway to the spreading Mississippi, where French boats floated slowly down from the country of the Illinois, carrying their cargoes of meat, grain, to- bacco, tallow, hides, lead, and oil to the settlements on the Gulf. In 1748, the year of the last peace, cer- tain leading gentlemen in Virginia had organized an Ohio Land Company, among the rest Mr. Augustus Washington, who had served with Vernon and Went- worth at Cartagena and had lost his health in the fatal service. He had named his estate by the Potomac, his home of retirement, Mount Vernon, as his tribute of admiration to the gallant sailor he had learned to love during those fiery days in the South. In 1750 the English government had granted to the Company six hundred thousand acres of land on the coveted river. Virginian officials themselves had not scrupled meanwhile also to issue grants and titles to land beyond the mountains. The English claim to the Ohio coun- try was unhesitating and comprehensive. The English had seized French traders there as unlicensed intruders, and the French in their turn had seized and expelled Englishmen who trafficked there. French and English matched their wits very shrewdly to get and keep the too fickle friendship of the Indians, and so make sure of their trade and their peace with them; and the Indians got what they could from them both. It was a sharp game for a great advantage, and the governments of the two peoples could not long re- frain from taking a hand in it. The French authorities, it turned out, were, as usual, the first to act. In 1752 the Marquis Duquesne be- came governor of Canada, an energetic soldier in his 76 COMMON UNDERTAKINGS prime ; and it was he who took the first decisive step. In the spring of 1753 he despatched a force to Presque Isle, on the southern shore of Lake Erie, built a log fort there, and thence cut a portage for his boats south- ward a little way through the forest to a creek (French Creek the English called it afterwards) whose waters, when at flood, would carry his boats to the Alleghanj% and by that open stream to the Ohio. It was the short and straight way from the St. Lawrence to the Mis- sissippi and the Gulf. At the creek's head he placed another log fort (Le Boeuf), and upon the Alleghany a rude outpost. The same year that saw the Marquis Duquesne made governor of Canada saw Robert Dinwiddie come out as governor of Virginia, and no one was likelier than he to mark and comprehend the situation on the border. Mr. Dinwiddie had been bred in a counting house, for he was the son of a well-to-do merchant of Glasgow; but business had long since become for him a matter of government. He had gone in his prime to be col- lector of customs in Bermuda; and after serving in that post for eleven years he had been made surveyor general of customs in the southern ports of America, a post in which he served most acceptably for an- other ten years. For twenty j^ears he had shown sin- gular zeal and capacity in difficult, and, for many men, demoralizing, matters of administration. He had lived in Virginia when surveyor general of customs. During the tw r o years which immediately preceded his appointment to the governorship of the Old Dominion he had engaged in business on his own account in Lon- don, and had become by purchase one of the twenty stockholders of the Ohio Land Company. He came to 77 THE Numb, New-York Weekly JOURNAL Containing the frejbfjl M< *" 8 9 4 like for rain ; 5 4 1 6 19 (T 6 ./ ^,>r, r. 10 Day dec. 2 16 5 43 6 17 21 Ba Fear ! 1 6 /m ^ r "'"S'' 5 44 6 16 6 u 8 6 aiixe makii I/ fets 6 43 13 D i 3 paft Trin. 5 4" 5 47 6 n n 4 7*rife 8 40 14 a Holy Rood. S 49 6 n 17 * b ? 15 Swan's Tail. S 5 6 10 25 ]) with ^ 16 4 Ember Week. 5 5' 6 9 '3 AT? ? '7 s iu-tlb tuarra ftnn, S 53 6 7 2 5 J fets 7 21 18 6 temferatt, 5 54 6 6 a 7 Sirius rife I 47 19 _ cloudi, iuitk s 56 6 4 '9 \2 rifts 118 20 D 14 paft Trin. 5 57 6 3 ft r j. 21 2 St. MATTHEW. 5 58 6 2 '3 jwiih J 22 3 K.Geo.IIIcrown. 6 o 6 o 25 jwithrf Viet 2 j 4 Eq. Day Sc Night. 6 i 5 59 ^ 7 Oina DT; *4 2 5 iuiJ, and perbaft ' 6 3 6 4 S 57 s 56 9 "t ' 7*8 rife 8 o Sirius rife t 23 26 f rain, then 6 5 5 55 '3 T) W 9 X Qll D 1 5 part Trin. 6 7 S 5- D T? dcteivij 28 z fair andpltafant. 6 8 S S 1 Jt 7 tut *ndcr the J 381. MICHAEL. 4lMo uth of Pegafus. I 9 . 5 5' 5 49 20 ^ 3 J Colour of A PAGE OF "POOR RICHARD'S" ALMANAC doing, but set himself to redress the balance of power in Europe by decisive victories which should make England indisputable mistress of America. "No man A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ever entered Mr. Pitt's closet who did not find himself braver when he came out than when he \vent in," said a soldier who had held conference with him and served him; and it was his statesmanship and his use of Eng- lish arms that had made England's dominion complete and England's colonies safe in America. English fleets and armies had not been sent to Amer- ica, however, and equipped for warfare there, sustained in war season and out of it, without enormous expense ; and that expense, w r hich had set the colonies free to live without dread of danger or of confinement at any border, England had borne. It had been part of Mr. Franklin's plan of union, proposed at Albany, that the congress of the colonies should sustain the armies used in their defence and pay for them by taxes levied in America; but that plan had been rejected, and this war for the ousting of the French had been fought at England's cost, much as the colonies had given of their own blood, and of their own substance for the equipment of their provincial levies, and much as they had suffered in all the obscure and painful fighting to protect their frontiers against the redskins, far away from set fields of battle. They had done more, indeed, than pay the costs which inevitably fell to them. They had "raised, paid, and clothed twenty-five thousand men, a number," if Mr. Franklin was right, "equal to those sent from Great Britain and far beyond their proportion. They went deeply in debt in doing this; and all their estates and taxes are mortgaged for many years to come in discharging that debt." Parliament had itself acknowledged their loyal liberality and self- sacrifice, and had even voted them 200,000 a year for five years, when the war was over, by way of just re- 118 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE imbursement. But, though they had made sacrifices, they had, of course, not shared with the royal treasury the chief outlays of the war. Colonial governors, view- ing affairs as representatives of the government at home, had again and again urged the ministers in Lon- don to tax the colonies, by act of Parliament, for means to pay for frontier forts, armies of defence, and all the business of imperial administration in America. But the ministers had hitherto known something of the temper of the colonists in such matters and had been too wise to attempt anything of the kind. Sir George Keith, who had been governor of Pennsylvania, had sug- gested to Sir Robert Walpole that he should raise rev- enue in the colonies; but that shrewd politician and man of affairs had flatly declined. "What," he ex- claimed, "I have old England against me, and do you think I will have New England likewise?" Chatham had held the same tone. What English armies did in America was part of England's struggle for empire, for a leading station in power and riches in the world, and England should pay for it. The desire of the colonies to control their own direct taxes should be respected. English statesmen, so far, had seen the matter very much as observant Colonel Spotswood had seen it thirty odd years ago. If the ministers should direct moneys to be paid by act of Parliament, he said, " they would find it no easy matter to put such an act into execution"; and he deemed it "against the right of Englishmen/' besides, "to be taxed, but by their representatives/' new colonist though he was, and only the other day a governor of the crown in Virginia, the oldest and most loyal of the colonies. It was now more than forty years since Colonel Spots- 120 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS wood, in the days of his governorship, had ridden to the far summit of the Alleghanies and looked down MRS. BENEDICT ARNOLD AND CHILD their western slopes towards the regions where Eng- land and France were to meet. Since that day he had served the crown very quietly as postmaster general for the colonies. At last he had died (1740) when on 121 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the eve of sailing with Virginian troops for Cartagena, about to return at the very end of his days to his old calling of arms. He had lived thirty years in Vir- ginia, all told, and spoke out of abundant knowledge when he expressed a judgment as to what the ministers would find it hard to do in the colonies. He knew, as every man did who had had anything to do with the service of the crown in America, how stubbornly the colonists had resisted every attempt to unite their gov- ernments under a single governor or any single system, and how determined they had been to keep their gov- ernments in their own hands, notwithstanding they must have seen, as everybody else saw, the manifest advantage of union and a common organization in the face of England's rivals in America, north and south. The King's object in seeking to consolidate the more northern colonies under Sir Edmund Andros, whom New England had so hated, was not to attack their liberties, but "to weld them into one strongly governed state," such as should be able to present a firm front to the encroachments of the French, a states- manlike object, which no man who wished to serve the interests of English empire could reasonably criticise. But the colonists had not cared to regard their little commonwealths as pieces of an empire. They re- garded them simply as their own homes and seats of self-government; and they feared to have them swal- lowed up in any scheme of consolidation, whatever its object. The French war, consequently, had beei fought by the government in England, and not by any government in America. Though a few statesmen like Walpole had had the sagacity to divine it. and all leaders in party counsels 122 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS had instinctively feared it, very few public men in Eng- land understood the temper or the unchangeable res- olution of the col- onies in such mat- ters. Pitt under- stood it, but now that the war was over he was no longer suffered to be master in af- fairs. Burke un- derstood it, but few heeded what he said. Such men knew by in- stant sympathy that this seeming- ly unreasonable temper of the col- onists in great af- fairs was nothing else than the com- mon English spirit of liberty. The colonists were sim- ply refusing, as all Englishmen would have refused, to be directly ruled in their own affairs, or directly taxed for any purpose whatever, 123 FRANKLIN'S OLD BOOK-SHOP, NEXT TO CHRIST'S CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE by a government which they themselves had no part in conducting; and, whether reasonable or unreason- able, so long as they remained Englishmen it was use- less to try to argue them out of that refusal. "An Englishman/' cried Burke, "is the unfittest person on earth to argue another Englishman into slavery"; and he knew that to an Englishman it would seem nothing less than slavery to be stripped of self-govern- ment in matters of the purse. Now that the French were driven out, it was more useless than ever to argue the point. The chief and most obvious reason for feeling dependent upon the mother country was gone. Awe of the British was gone, too. The provincial levies raised in the colonies had fought alongside the King's troops in all the move- ments of the war, and had found themselves not a whit less undaunted under fire, not a whit less able to stand and fight, not a whit less needed in victory. Brad- dock had died loathing the redcoats and wishing to see none but the blue cloth of the Virginian volunteers. When the war began, a regular from over sea had seem- ed to the colonists an unapproachable master of arms; but the provincials knew when the war was over that the redcoats were no better than they were. They had nothing to remember with mortification except the insulting contempt some of the British officers had shown for them, and the inferior rank and con- sideration their own officers had been compelled to accept. It was the worst possible time the home government could have chosen in which to change its policy of con- cession towards the colonies and begin to tax and govern them by act of Parliament; and yet that was exactly 124 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS what the ministers determined to do. No master of affairs or of men, like Walpole or Pitt, was any longer in a place of guiding authority in London. George Grenville was prime minister: a thorough official and very capable man of affairs, of unquestionable integ- rity, and with a cer- tain not unhandsome courage as of convic- tion in what he did, but incapable of un- derstanding those who opposed or resisted him, or of winning from them except by an exercise of power. The late war had been no mere " French and Indian" affair for English statesmen. It had been part of that stupendous " Sev- en Years' War " which had fixed Prussia in a place of power under the great Frederick, and had changed the whole balance of power in Europe; had brought India under England's widening dominion on one side of the world and America on the other, had been a vast game which the stout little island kingdom had played almost alone against united Europe. It had not been a mere American war. America had reaped the bene- fits of England's effort to found an empire and secure 12$ GEORGE GRENVILLE A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE it, east and west. And 3^et the colonists seemed, when this momentous war by which they had so profited was over, to drop into indifference towards everything that remained to be done to finish what had been so well be- gun, even though it remained to be done at their own very doors. France had ceded to England as a result of the war all the vast territory which lay upon the St. Lawrence and between the Mississippi and the eastern moun- tains, north and south. It was possible to provide a government for the province of Quebec and for the lands in the far south, in Florida and beside the mouths of the Mississippi ; but between these lay the long regions which stretched, unsettled, along the great streams which ran everywhere into the Mississippi, the Il- linois country, the country round about the Ohio, the regions by the Cumberland, all the boundless "back country" which lay directly behind the colonies at the west. The Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations in London wished to keep settlers out of these lands, in order that they might be left as a great hunting ground for the Indians, and so remain a per- manent source of supply for the fur skins which en- riched trade between the mother country and her colonies. But. meanwhile, whether settlers made their way thither or not, it was necessary to carry England's power among the Indians, and make them know that she, and not the King of France, was now sovereign there. This the Indians were slow to believe. They could not know what treaty-makers in Europe had decided: they did not believe that the French would leave and the Eng- lish come in in their stead at the western forts ; and it moved them hotly to think of such a change. The THE PARTING OF THE WAYS BOUNDARY MONUMENT ON THE ST. CROIX French had made them welcome at their frontier posts, and did not drive off the game, as Duquesne had told them, ere this fatal war began. The French had been willing to be comrades with them, and had dealt with them with a certain gracious courtesy and considera- tion ; while the English treated them, when they dared, like dogs rather than like men, drove them far into the forests at their front as they advanced their settlements bullied them, and often cheated them in trade. It was intolerable to the northern Indians to think of these men whom they feared and hated being substituted for the French, with whom they found it at least possi- ble to live. They were dangerous neighbors, and the danger was near and palpable. The war with the French was 127 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE hardly over when English settlers began to pour across the Alleghanies from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir- ginia, men of the stern and sober Scots-Irish breed- ing for the most part, masterful and imperious, and sure to make the lands they settled upon entirely their own. There were already tribes among the Indians in the northwest who had been driven out of Penn- sylvania by the earlier movements of these same people, and who had taken with them to their new homes the distress and the dread of exile. It were fatal, they knew, to wait. If the English were ever to be driven within the barriers of the Alleghanies again, it must be done now, and all the tribes must rally to the des- perate business. They found a leader in Pontiac, a chief of the Otta- was. A dozen powerful tribes heeded him when he counselled secret confederacy, and, when all should be ready, sudden war; and the English presently had reason to know how able an enemy they had to fear, a man of deep counsel, astute and masterful. In June, 1763, the first blow was struck, from end to end of the open border, even the Senecas, one of the Six Nations, joining in the bitter work. Every frontier tort except Detroit, Niagara, and Pitt was in their hands at the first surprise: smoking ruins and the bodies of white men slain marked all the borders where the French had been. The English rallied, stubborn and undaunted. Three forts at least were saved. There were men at hand like Colonel Bouquet, the gallant officer who went to the relief of Fort Pitt, who knew the strategy of the forest as \vell as the redskins did, and used steadfast English, not fickle savages, in the fighting; and, though the work was infinitely hard 12$ THE PARTING OF THE WAYS and perilous and slow in the doing, within two years it was done. Before the year 1765 was out, Pontiac had been brought to book, had acknowledged himself beaten, and had sued for peace. PONTIAC. CHIEF OF THE OTTAWAS But by that time the English ministers knew the nature of the task which awaited them in America. It was plain that they must strengthen the frontier posts and maintain a force of soldiers in the colonies, it English power was to be safe there, and English u -9 129 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE lives. Not fewer than twenty thousand men would be needed; and it would be necessary to organize government, civil as well as military, in a more effec- tive way. It might be necessary to pay the colonial judges and even the colonial governors out of the gen- eral treasury of the empire, rather than leave them always dependent upon the uncertain grants of the colonial legislatures. The new plans would, taken all together, involve, it was reckoned, the expenditure of at least 300,000 a year. Mr. Grenville, now at the head of the government in England, was a lawyer and a man of business. "He took public business not as a duty which he was to fulfil, but as a pleasure he was to enjoy/' and, unfortunately, he regarded American affairs as ordinary matters of duty and of business. England had spent 60,000,000 sterling to put the French out of America; 140,000,000 had been added to the national debt. Her own sources of revenue were quite run dry. Mr. Grenville and his colleagues did not know where else to turn for another penny, if not to America. They therefore determined that, since heavy additional expenditures must be undertaken for the proper administration and defence of the colonies, America must be made to supply at least a part of the money to meet them. Not all of it. It was the minis- ters' first idea to raise only 100,000 out of the 300,000 by taxes directly derived from the colonies: and every farthing of that, with twice as much more, was to be spent, of course, in America. The money was none of it to cross the sea. It was to remain in the colonial treasuries until expended for colonial administration and defence. Some men there were in England who were far-sighted 130 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS enough to see what this new policy would lead to; but Grenville did not, and Parliament did not. In March, 1764, therefore, upon the introduction of his annual HKNKY UulIQUET budget, the prime minister introduced a bill, which was passed, laying fresh and more effective taxes on wines, sugar, and molasses imported into the colonies, tightening and extending the old Navigation Acts A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE and still further- restraining manufactures ; and at the same time announced that he would, the next year, p-opose a moderate direct tax upon the colonies in the form of an act requiring revenue stamps to be used BOUQUKT'S REDOUBT AT PITTSBURG on the principal so^ts of documents employed in Amer- ica in legal and mercantile business. Mr. Grenville had no desi-e to irritate the Americans. He thought they might protest ; he never dreamed they would disobey. He was, no doubt, surprised when he learned how hot their protests were ; and when his Stamp Act the next year became law, their anger and flat defiance must have seemed to him mere wanton re- bellion. He introduced the Stamp Act with his budget of 1765. The Commons gave only a single sitting to the discussion of its principles; passed it almost with- out opposition; and by the 22d of March it was law. 132 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS A few members protested. Colonel Barre, standing there in his place, square, swarthy, a soldier from the field, that staring wound upon his face which he had PATRICK HENRY taken where Wolfe died, on the Plains of Abraham, told the ministers very flatly that the colonists, whom he had seen and fought for, owed to them neither the planting nor the nourishing of their colonies, had a 133 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE liberty they had made for themselves, were very jeal- ous of that liberty, and would vindicate it. Benjamin Franklin was in London to make protest for Penn- sylvania; and the agents of the other colonies were as active as he, and as ready to promise that the colonial legislatures would themselves grant out of their own treasuries more than the Act could yield, if only they were left to do it in their own way. Mr. Franklin SIGNATURE OF ISAAC BARR& had pointed out in very plain terms how sharp a de- parture there was in such measures from the traditional dealings of the crown with the colonies, how loyal they had been in granting supplies when required, and how ill a new way of taxation would sit upon the spirits of the colonists. But the vote for the bill was five to one. Neither the ministers nor the Commons showed the least hesitation or misgiving. The Act operated in America like a spark dropped on tinder. First dismay, then anger, then riot and open defiance, showed what the colonists thought and meant to do. Their own agents in London were as little prepared as the ministers themselves for the sub- den passion. They had asked for appointments for their friends as stamp distributers under the Act. Rich- ard Henry Lee, of Virginia, even asked for a place for himself under it, so different a look did things wear in London from that which they wore at home in the Old Dominion. But these gentlemen learned the temper 134 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS of America, and changed their own, soon enough. The Act was in no way extraordinary or oppressive in its provisions. It required of the colonists only what was already required in respect of business transac- tions in England: namely, that revenue stamps, of values varying with the character of the transaction FACSIMILE OF POSTER PLACED ON THE DOORS OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS or the amount involved, should be attached to all deeds, wills, policies of insurance, and clearance papers for ships, to legal papers of almost every kind, to all writ- ten contracts and most of the business papers used by merchants in their formal dealings, and to all periodical publications and advertisements. The colonies them- selves had imposed such taxes; in England they had VOL. II. II J TC A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE been used since William and Mary, and had proved eminently convenient and easy of collection. Govern- or Shirley, of Massachusetts, had himself urged that Parliament use them in America, American though he was. Mr. Franklin had taken it for granted, when he saw the Act become law, that they must be submitted to. But America flatly refused obedience, and, except in the newly conquered provinces of Nova Scotia and .Canada, the stamps were not used. The Act was not to go into operation until the 1st of November (1765); but long before the first of Novem- ber it was evident that it would not go into effect at all. It was universally condemned and made impossi- ble of application. There was instant protest from the colonial assemblies so soon as it was known that the Act was passed; and the assembly of Massachusetts proposed that a congress of delegates from the several colonies be held in October, ere the Act went into effect, to decide what should be done to serve their common interest in the critical matter. The agitations and tumults of that eventful summer were not soon for- got. In August, Boston witnessed an outbreak such as she had never witnessed before. Mr. Andrew Oliver, who had been appointed distributer of the stamps there, was burned in effigy ; the house in which it was thought the stamps were to be stored was torn down ; Mr. Oliver's residence was broken into and many of its furnishings were destroyed. He hastily resigned his obnoxious office. Mobs then plundered the house of the deputy registrar of the court of admiralty, destroying his private papers and the records and files of the court, because the new acts of trade and taxation gave new powers to that court. The house of the comp- 136 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS troller of customs was sacked. Mr. Thomas Hutchin- son, the lieutenant-governor of the colony, found him- J HN DICKINSON self obliged, on the night of the 26th, to flee for his life; and returned when order was restored to find his home stripped of everything it contained, including nine hundred pounds sterling in money, and manu- 137 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE scripts and books which he had been thirty years col- lecting. Only the walls and floors of the house re- mained. THOMAS HUTCHINSON There was no violence elsewhere to equal this in Boston. There was tumult everywhere, but in most places the mobs contented themselves with burning the stamp agents in effigy and frightening them into the instant relinquishment of their offices. Not until T38 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS the autumn came, and the day for the application of the Act, did they show a serious temper again. Then New York also saw a house sacked and its furniture used to feed a bonfire. The people insisted upon having the stamps handed over to their own city officers; and when more came they seized and burned them. At Philadelphia many Quakers and Church of England THOMAS HUTCI1INSON S MANSION, BOSTON men, and some Baptists, made as if they would have obeyed the Act ; but the mobs saw to it that they should not have the chance. The stamp distributer was com- pelled to resign, and there was no one from whom stamps could be obtained. Stamp distributers who would not resign found it best to seek safety in flight. There was no one in all the colonies, north or south, who had authority to distribute the hated pieces of stamped paper which the ministers had expected would so conveniently yield them a modest revenue for their colonial expenses. There was a little confusion and 139 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE inconvenience for a time. The courts hesitated to transact business without affixing the stamps required to their written pleadings; it seemed imprudent to send ships out without stamps on their clearance papers; business men doubted what would come of using no stamps in their transactions. But the hesitation did not last long. Business was presently going for- ward, in court and out, as before, and never a stamp used! It was singular and significant how immediately and how easily the colonies drew together to meet the common danger and express a common purpose. Early in October the congress which Massachusetts had asked for came together at New York, the delegates of nine colonies attending. It drew up and sent over sea a statement of the right of the colonies to tax and govern themselves, as loyal to the King, but not as subject to Parliament, which arrested the attention of the world. Mr. Grenville and his colleagues were just then, by a fortunate turn of politics at home, most opportunely obliged to resign, and gave place to the moderate Whigs who followed Lord Rockingham (July, 1765), and who thought the protests of the colonies not unreasonable. On the i8th of March, 1766, according^, the Stamp Act was repealed, within a year of its enact- ment. It was at the same time declared, however, by special declaratory act, that Parliament had sovereign right to tax the colonies, and legislate for them, if it pleased. It was out of grace and good policy, the minis- ters declared, that the tax was withdrawn ; a concession, not of right, but of good feeling; and everybody kne\v that it was done as much because the London merchants were frightened by the resolution of the American 140 S T A M P - O F F I C E, Lincoln \s-Inn, 1765. T A B L E Of the Prices of Parchment and Paper for the Service of America. Skins 18 Inch, by 13, at Four pence , 22 . by 16, at Six-pence Paper. ' 'Horn at Seven-pence . . Fools Cap at Nine- pence by 20, at Eight-pence Veach. D c with printed Notices") -. '.by 2 3, at Ten-pence ( for Indentures J I by 26, at Thinccn-pencc J Folio Poft at One Shill.hg >. each .Qui.r<, Demy at Two Shillings. I ..' Medium at Three Shillings Royal- at.Fcmr Shillings I . . Super Royal .at Six Shillings "j Paper for Printing Double Crown at 145. 1 each ' R , a Double Demy at 195. j Almanacks. . ' Book Crown Paper at ios.-6d.y . Book ^Fools Cap at 6s. i6d.t each Jie Pocket Folio Poll. at 20 s. I Sheet Demy at 135. "3 ..-,- TABLE OF STAMP CHARGES ON PAPER A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE merchants to take no cargoes under the tax as because the colonies had declined to submit. But the results were none the less salutary. The rejoicings in Amer- LORD ROCKINGHAM ica were as boisterous and as universal as had beeii the tempest of resentment. But that was not the end of the matter. The Stamp Act had suddenly brought to light and consciousness 142 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS principles and passions not likely to be again submerged, and which it was worth the while of statesmen over sea to look into very carefully. Some there were in England who understood them well enough. Mr. John Adams used to say, long afterwards, that the trouble seemed to him to have begun, not in 1765, but in 1761. It was in that year that all the colonies, north and south, had heard of what James Otis had said in the chief court of the province at Boston against the general warrants, the sweeping writs of assistance, for which the customs officers of the crown had asked, to enable them to search as they pleased for goods brought in from foreign parts in defiance of the acts of trade. The writs were not new, and Mr. Otis's pro- test had not put a stop to their issue. It had proved of no avail to say, as he did, that they were an intol- erable invasion of individual right, flat violations of principles of law which had become a part of the very constitution of the realm, and that even an act of Par- liament could not legalize them. But all the colonies had noted that hot contest in the court at Boston, be- cause Mr. Otis had spoken with a singular eloquence which quickened men's pulses and irresistibly swung their minds into the current of his own thought, and because it had made them more sharply aware than before of what the ministers at home were doing to fix upon the colonies the direct power of the government over sea. These writs of assistance gave the officers who held them authority to search any place they pleased for smuggled goods, whether private residence or public store-house, with or without reasonable ground of sus- picion, and meant that the government had at last seriously determined, at whatever cost, to break up M3 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the trade with the West Indies and the Spanish Main. Presently armed cutters were put on the coasts the more effectually to stop it. A vice-admiralty court was set up to condemn the cargoes seized, without a jury. The duties were to be rigorously collected and the trade broken up, for the sake of the sugar growers of the British West Indies and mer- chants in London. If New England could no longer send her horses, cattle, lumber, casks, and fish to the French islands and the Spanish Main, and bring thence, in exchange for them, sugar and molasses, she must let her ships rot at the wharves and five thousand of her seamen go idle and starve ; must seek elsewhere for a mar- ket for her chief products ; could make no more rum with which to carry on her home trade in spirits or her traffic in slaves on the slave coast; must forego her profits at the southern ports, and go without the convenient bills drawn on exported Virginian tobacco wherewith she had been used to pay her debts to the London mer- chants. For thirty years and more it had been under- 144 JAMES OTIS THE PARTING OF THE WAYS stood that the duties on that trade were not to be col- lected ; but now, of a sudden, the law was to be carried out by armed vessels, writs of general search, and the summary proceedings of a court of admiralty. In 1764 Mr. Grenville had drawn the lines tighter than ever by a readjustment of duties. That meant ruin ; and the Stamp Act was but the last touch of exasperation. The disposition of the min- isters seemed all the more obvious because of the ob- noxious " Quartering Act " which went along with the Stamp Act. They were authorized by Parliament to quarter troops in the colonies, .and by special enactment the colonists were required to provide the troops with lodgings, firewood, bedding, drink, soap, and candles. There were other causes of irritation which touched the colonists almost as nearly. In 1740 the Massachusetts assembly had set up a Land Bank authorized to issue notes based upon nothing but mortgages on land and personal bonds, with surety, given by those who subscribed to its sup- port, and Parliament, at the solicitation of Boston men who knew what certain disaster such a bank would bring upon the business of the colony, had u.-io 145 STAMPS FORCED ON THE COLONIES . A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE thrust in its hand and suppressed it. The scheme had been in great favor among the men of the country districts, and its suppression by direct act of Parliament had stirred them to a deep resentment. "The Act to destroy the Land Bank scheme," John Adams declared, had " raised a greater ferment in the province than the Stamp Act did"; and it made the men who had resented it all the readier to take fire at the imposition of the stamp duties. The churches of the province had been deeply alarmed, too, by the effort of English churchmen to establish bishops in America, as if in preparation for a full Establishment ; and the clergy were, almost to a man, suspicious of the government. The lumbermen of the forests felt the constant irritation of the crown's claim to all their best sticks of timber for the royal navy, and were themselves fit fuel for agitation. Each class seemed to have its special reason for looking askance at every- thing that savored of control from over sea. The meas- ures taken against the trade with the Indies were but the latest item in a growing account. Massachusetts and the greater trading ports of the south felt the burden of the new policy more than the rest of the country felt it; but thoughtful men every- where saw what it portended that Parliament should thus lay its hand directly upon the colonies to tax, and in some sort to govern, them. Quite as many men could tell you of the "parson's case," tried in quiet Hanover Court House in rural Virginia, as could tell you of Mr. Otis's speech against the writs of assistance. It meant that the authorities in London were thrusting their hands into the affairs of Virginia just as they were thrusting them into the affairs of Massachusetts. 146 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Parson Maury had in that case set up an Order in Council by the ministers at home against an act of the Virginian House of Burgesses determining the value of the currency in which his salary was to be paid, and young Patrick Henry had sprung into sudden fame by declaring to the court very boldly against him that the crown had no right to override the self-government of Virginia. The eloquence of that famous speech carried the young advocate to the House of Burgesses itself; and it was he who showed the colonies how to speak of the Stamp Act. The burgesses were in session when the news of that hateful law's enactment reached Virginia. The young member waited patiently for the older members of the House to show the way in the new crisis, Randolph and Pendleton and Nicholas, Richard Bland and George Wythe, the men who had framed so weighty a protest and warning and sent so strong a remonstrance over sea only last year against this very measure. But when he saw that they would not lead, he sprang to the task himself, plain, country-bred though he was, and unschooled in that leadership; scribbled his resolutions on the fly-leaf of an old law-book, and carried them with a rush of eloquence that startled and swept the House, and set the tone for all the country. His resolutions not only declared the right of the colonies to tax themselves to be exclusive, and establish- ed beyond recall; they also declared that Virginians were not bound to obey the Parliament when it acted thus against established privilege, and that any one who should advocate obedience was an enemy to the colony. The sober second thought of the burgesses cut that defiant conclusion out at last, after Mr. Henry 148 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS had gone home; but the resolutions had already been sent post-haste through the colonies in their first form. GEORGE WYTHE unrevised and unsoftened, and had touched the feeling of every one who read them like a flame of fire. They were the first word of revolution; and no man ever thought just the same again after he had read them. 149 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE It seemed a strange defiance, no doubt, to come from loyal Virginia. The Stamp Act was not, in fact, op- pressive or unreasonable. Why should it so kindle the anger of the colonies that the sovereign Parliament, which had for many a day levied indirect charges upon them by means of the many acts concerning trade and manufactures, now laid a moderate direct tax upon them, the proceeds of which were to be spent upon their own protection and administration? Because, though it might be the sovereign legislature of the empire, Parliament was not in their view the direct sovereign legislature of America. No one could truly say that Parliament had been the sovereign power even of England before 1688, that notable year in which it had, by a revolution, changed the succession to the throne and begun the making and unmaking of govern- ments. The colonies had most of them been set up before that momentous year of change, while the Par- liament was still only a body of representatives asso- ciated with the crown, with the right to criticise and restrain it, but with no right to usurp its prerogatives; entitled to be consulted, but not licensed to rule. The King, not the Parliament, had chartered the colonies; and they conceived their assemblies to be associated with him as Parliament itself had been in the older days before the Revolution of 1688 : to vote him grants, assent to taxation, and with his consent make the laws they were to live under. He stood, they thought, in the same relation to all the legislatures of his realm: to the Parliament in England and to the assemblies in America. It was the fundamental principle of the English constitution, as all agreed, that the King's subjects should be associated with him in government 150 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS by representation; and, since the Americans could not be represented in Parliament, and were, by his own authority, represented in local assemblies, he must deal with them, not through Parliament, but through those assemblies. The law of their view was not very sound or clear; but the common-sense of it was unassailable; and it rested upon unquestionable and long-standing practice, that best foundation of institutions. Their govern- ments were no doubt, in law, subject to the govern- ment of Great Britain. Whoever ruled there had the legal right to rule in the colonies also, whether it were the King independent of Parliament, or the ministers dependent upon Parliament. The revolution of 1688 had radically altered the character of the whole structure, and perhaps the colonies could not, in strict constitu- tional theory, decline their logical part in the change. But no man in America had ever seen that revolution cross the seas. English statesmen might have changed their views, but the colonies had not changed theirs, nor the practice of their governments either. Their governments were from of old, and they meant to keep them intact and uncorrupted. They did not object to the amount or to the form of the tax ; they objected only that they had not themselves imposed it. They dis- sented utterly from the opinion that Parliament had the right to tax them at all. It was that principle, and not the tax itself, which moved them so deeply. English statesmen claimed that the colonists were as much represented in Parliament as the thousands of Englishmen in England who did not have the right to vote for members of the Commons; and no doubt they were. The franchise was narrow in England, A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE and not the whole population but only a few out of some classes of the people were actually represented in the Houses. Were not the interests represented there which America stood for? Perhaps so. But why govern the colonies through these remote and theoretical repre- sentatives when they had, and had always had, imme- diate and actual representatives of their own in their assemblies, as ready and accessible an instrument of government as the House of Commons itself? The colonists were accustomed to actual representation, had for a century and more been dealt with by means of it, and were not willing now to reverse their history and become, instead of veritable states, merely detached and dependent pieces of England. This was the fire of principle which the Stamp Act kindled. And, once kindled, it burned with an increasing flame. Within ten years it had been blown to the full blaze of revolution. Mr. Grenville had not lost his power because he had set the colonies aflame by his hated Stamp Act. but merely because the King intense- ly disliked his tedious manners, and resented the dicta- torial tone used by the ministers in all their dealings with himself. The Marquis of Rockingham and the group of moderate Whigs who stood with him in the new ministry of July, 1765, had repealed the stamp tax, not because they deemed it wrong in legal principle, but because it had bred resistance, had made the colo- nists resolve not to buy goods of English merchants, or even pay the debts of 4,000,000 sterling already incurred in their business with them, because they deemed it wise to yield, and so quiet disorders over sea. Their power lasted only a single year. The King liked their liberal principles as little as he liked 152 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS Grenville's offensive manners, and in August, 1766, dismissed them, to substitute a ministry under William Pitt, now made Earl of Chatham. Had Pitt retained his mastery, all might have gone well; but his health failed, his leadership became a mere form, real power fell to other men with no wide, perceiving vision like his own, and America was presently put once again in revolutionary mood. Pitt had said that the colonists were right when they resisted the Stamp Act : that Parliament could law- fully impose duties on commerce, and keep, if it would, an absolute monopoly of trade for the English mer- chants, because such matters were of the empire and not merely of America; but that the Americans were justified in resisting measures of internal taxation and government, their charters and accustomed liberties no doubt giving them in such matters constitutions of their own. Mr. Burke, whose genius made him the spokesman of the Rockingham Whigs, whether they would or no, had said very vehemently, and with that singular eloquence of his of which only his own words know the tone, that he cared not at all what legal rights might be involved; it was a question of government and of good-will between a king and his subjects; and he would not support any measure, upon whatever right it might be founded, which led to irritation and not to obedience. The new ministry of the Earl of Chatham acted upon its chief's principles, and not upon Mr. Burke's, though they acted rashly because that consummate chief did not lead them. They pro- ceeded (June, 1767), after the great earl's illness had laid him by, to put upon the statute book two acts for the regulation of colonial trade and the government 153 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE of the colonies which Charles Townshend, their Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, had drawn. The first pro- vided for the more effectual enforcement of the acts of trade already in existence; the second imposed duties on wine, oil, lead, glass, paper, painters' colors, and tea carried to the colonies, and explicitly legalized the use of the hated general search - warrants known as "writs of assistance." The revenues raised by these duties were to be applied, as the stamp tax would have been had it been collected, to the support of the courts of justice and of the civil establishments of the several colonies, and to the expenses connected with their military defence. Evasions of the revenue acts were to be tried by the admiralty courts without juries. To the colonists this seemed simply a return to the policy of the Stamp Act. The tax was different, but the object was the same : to make their judges and their governors independent of them, and to compel them to pay for the maintenance of troops not of their own raising. These same ministers had suspended the legislative power of the New York assembly because it refused to make proper provision for the quartering of the King's troops, as commanded by the act of 1765; and that assembly had felt itself obliged to yield and obey. Several companies of royal artillery had been sent to Boston in the autumn of 1766, and were quartered there at the colony's expense by order of the governor and council. The new taxes were laid upon trade, and they could not be attacked on the same grounds upon which the stamps had been objected to. But the trouble was that the new taxes, unlike the old restrictions, were to be enforced, evasion prevented. Mr. Townshend's 154 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS first act was to send commissioners to America specially charged and empowered to see to that. The ruinoi s GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1772 acts of 1764 were to be carried out, and the West India trade, by which Boston merchants and ship owners lived, put a stop to. These were bitter things to en- dure. Some grounds must be found from which tc 155 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE fight them, if not the arguments used against the Stamp Act, then others, if need be more radical. The ministers at home had set their far-away subjects to thinking with the eagerness and uneasiness of those who seek by some means to defend their liberties, and were fast making rebels of them. Even in the midst of the universal rejoicings over the repeal of the Stamp Act the temper of several of the colonial assemblies had risen at reading the "De- claratory Act" which accompanied the repeal, and which asserted the absolute legal right of Parliament "to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever." They had declared very flatly then that Parliament had no legal authority whatever in America except such as it might exercise by the consent of the colonial assemblies, so far had their thought and their defiant purpose advanced within the year. There were conservative men in the colonies as well as radical, men who hated revolution and loved the just and sober ways of law; and there was as strong a sentiment of Io3^alty on one side the sea as on the other. But even conservative men dreaded to see Parliament undertake to break down the independence of America. Mr. Thomas Hutchinson, of Massachusetts, whose house the rioters in Boston had wantonly looted when they were mad against the Stamp Act, had been born and bred in the colony, and loved her welfare as honestly as any man; but he w r as lieutenant-governor, an officer of the crown, and would have deemed it dishonor not to uphold the authority he represented. Mr. Otis, on the other hand, had resigned his office as Advocate General under the crown to resist the writs of assistance. The public- spirited gentlemen who had opposed Mr. Henry's fiery 156 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE resolutions in the Virginian House of Burgesses did not fear usurpation or hate tyranny less than he; but they loved the slow processes of argument and pro- test and strictly legal opposition more than he did, and were patient enough to keep within bounds. They feared to shake an empire by pursuing a right too im- petuously. Men of every temper and of every counsel made up the various people of the colonies, and there were men of equal patriotism on both sides of the rising quarrel. And yet the most moderate and slow-tempered grew uneasy at Mr. Townshend's measures. Mr. John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, wrote and published a series of letters, Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer, he called them, which stated as pointedly, as boldly, as earnestly as any man could wish, the constitutional rights of self-government which the colonists cherished and thought imperilled by the new acts of Parliament, and yet Mr. Dickinson was as steady a loyalist as any man in America, as little likely to countenance rebellion, as well worth heeding by those who wished to compose matters by wise and moderate counsels. His firm-spoken protests were, in fact, read and pon- dered on both sides the water (1767), and no one could easily mistake their significance. The action of the people gave only too grave an em- phasis to what their more self-restrained and thought- ful leaders said. Mr. Townshend's acts were as openly resisted as Mr. Grenville's had been; and every art of evasion, every trick of infringement, upon occasion even open and forcible violation, set at naught other restrictions of trade as well. It was startling to see how rapidly affairs approached a crisis. Resistance 158 A LIST of. the Names of thoje ' who AVDAC.iousLYcontimieto counteract the XJN'IT- En 'SKN'TIMEN rs of. the Bppr of Merchants thro'oui NORTH- AMERICA ; by impoi'ting Britiih Goods cor.tr.'.ry to the Agitemen.t. ' ' John Bernard^; (In King- Street, almoft oppofke Vernon'sHead. Jaime* McMaJiefs, ' . (On Treat's Wharf. Tatnc^McMaflw, . . ' (Oppbiite the Sign of the Lamb, John. 'Md'm, .''.' (Opposite the VVhrre-Horfe, and in King-Street. Xathxnisl -Rogers, (O(i;>ofi;e Nil-. HenoerTu'o Inches Store lower End At the BriztnHiad.CornhiH, near tbeTown-Houfe. TbcopLihis . Lillie, (Nrn Mi.PeA-.bsrton'sMtteting-HouffjNorrh-Enil. (N; atly ojipcSie the Heart anclCrown inCornhiH. slme & Elizabeth Cummings, (Opjv.fite the Old Brick Meeting Houfe, ail of Bofton. 7/?^/ Williams, Efq; 6* Son, (Tradtrs in the Town of Hatfield. And, Henrj Barnes^ (Tratler in the Town of Marlboro'. Ibt jO'l County of Midd!eit. Sanuiel Hendley J-hnBo,bnf Duty : And as the aiding or affixing in' procuring, or granting any uch Permit for landing the faid Te.i or any other Tea fo circumftanccd, or in offering any Permit when obtained to the Matter or Commander of he faid Ship, or any other Ship in- the fame Situation, mud betray a inhuman Third for Blood, and will a!fo in a great Mcafbrc accelerate Con- "ufon and Civil War : This is to jfTurc fuch public Enemies of this Coun- try, that they will be confidcred and treated as Wretches unworthy to live, ind will be nude the firft Viclims of cur jufl Rcfcntmcnt. The P E O P L E. j N. B. Captain Bruce is arrived laden with the fame dctcftable Commo^ Idity ; and 'tis peremptorily demanded of him, and all concerned, tha' the/ comply with th fame Rcquifuionj. " PROTEST AGAINST THE LANDING OF TEA government there offered to relieve it of that tax on every pound it carried on to America, and exact only the threepence to be paid at the colonial ports under Mr. Townshend's act: so willing were the King's min- isters to help the Company, and so anxious also to test A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the act and the submissiveness of the colonists. The test was soon made. The colonists had managed to smuggle in from Holland most of the tea they needed; and they wanted none, under the circumstances, from ENTRY JOHN ADAMS'S DIARV the East India ships, even though it cost less, with the twelvepence tax off, than the smuggled tea obtain- ed of the Dutch. The East India Company promptly sent tea-laden ships to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston ; and in the autumn of 1773 they began to come in. In Boston a quiet mob, disguised as Ind- ians, threw the chests overboard into the harbor. At New York and Philadelphia the ships were " permitted " to leave port again without landing their cargoes. At Monday Mormn HE TEA-SHIP being arrived, eyi -- ' to prdcrve tin- Liberty ofA:ner:- S; A t L-Houst, -Tliii-i Morning, pivriiel Vile what is bell to be eloiic ou uus til CALL FOR MEETING TO PROTEST AGAINST THE LANDING OF TEA Charleston the tea was landed, but it was stored, not sold, and a public meeting. saw to its secure bestowal The experiment had failed. America was evidently of one mind, and had determined not to buy tea or any- 168 THE BOSTON TEA PARTY A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE thing else with a parliamentary tax on it. The colonists would no more submit to Mr. Townshend's tax than to Mr. Grenville's, whatever the legal difference be- tween them might be, either in principle or in operation. The issue was squarely made up: the colonies would not obey the Parliament, would be governed only through their own assemblies. If the ministers per- sisted, there must be revolution. Here the leading general authorities are the histories of Ban- croft, Hildreth, and Bryant ; but to these we now add David Ram- say's History of tJie American Revolution ; the fourth volume of James Grahame's excellent History of the Rise and Progress of the United States of North America from their Colonization till the Declaration of Independence ; Thomas Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, one of the most valuable of the contemporary authorities ; John S. Barry's History of Massachusetts ; John Fiske's American Revolution ; Mellen Chamberlain's The Rev- olution Impending, in the sixth volume of Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America ; the twelfth chapter of W. E. H. Lecky's History of England in the Eighteenth Century ; Sir J. R. Seeley's Expansion of England ; Richard Frothingham's Rise of the Republic of the United States ; Mr. Edward Channing's United States of America, 1765-1865; Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge's Short History of the English Colonies in America ; Mr. Horace E. Scudder's Men and Manners in America One Hundred Years Ago ; Moses Coit Tyler's Life of Patrick Henry ; Mr. Horace Gray's important discussion of Otis's speech against the writs of assistance, in the Appendix to Quincy's Reports of Massachusetts Bay, 1761- 2772 ; Moses Coit Tyler's Literary History of the American Rev- olution ; F. B. Dexter's Estimates of Population, in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society ; and the Lives of the leading American and English statesmen of the time, notably the invalu- able series of brief biographies known as The American States- men Series. Abundant contemporary material may be found in the published letters, papers, and speeches of American and English public men of the time, especially in the pamphlets of such men as James Otis, Richard Bland, Stephen Hopkins, John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Dickinson, and their confreres ; in Franklin's Auto- 170 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS biography ; Andrew Burnaby's Travels through the Middle Settle- ments in North America, in the Years 1759 and 1760 ; Ann Maury's Memoirs of a Huguenot Family ; and Hezekiah Niles's Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America. Lists of the authorities on the several colonies during these years may be found in Edward Channing and Albert Bushnell Hart's very convenient and careful little Guide to American History. CHAPTER III THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION THE ministers did persist, and there was revolution. Within less than a year from those memorable autumn days of 1773 when the East India Company's ships came into port with their cargoes of tea, the colonies had set up a Congress at Philadelphia which looked from the first as if it meant to do things for which there was no law ; and which did, in fact, within less than two years after its first assembling, cut the bonds of allegiance which bound America to England. The colonists did not themselves speak or think of it as a body set up to govern them, or to determine their re- lations with the government at home, but only as a body organized for consultation and guidance, a general meeting of their committees of correspondence. But it was significant how rapidly, and upon how consistent and executive a plan, the arrangements for "corre- spondence" had developed, and how naturally, almost spontaneously, they had come to a head in this "Con- gress of Committees." There were men in the colonies who were as quick to act upon their instinct of leader- ship, and as apt and masterful at organization, as the English on the other side of the water who had check- mated Charles I. ; and no doubt the thought of inde- pendent action, and even of aggressive resistance, 172 ITILHAMJ4CKSO N, an I MPORT E R\& the BR4ZEN HE4D, North Side of tie TOWN-HOUSE, and Oppofite the Town-Pump, in Corn-hill, BOSTON. It is defired that the SONS and DAUGHTERS of LIBERfT, would not buy any one thing of him, for in fo doing they will bring Dilgrace upon themfekes, and their Pofterity, for ever and ever, AMEN. BOYCOTTING POSTER A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE came more readily to the minds of men of initiative in America, where all things were making and to be made, than in old England, where every rule of action seemed antique and venerable. Mr. Samuel Adams had been deliberately planning revolution in Massachusetts ever since 1768, the year the troops came to Boston to hold the town quiet while Mr. Townshend's acts strangled its trade; and he had gone the straight way to work to bring it about. He knew very well how to cloak his purpose and sedulously keep it hid from all whom it might shock or dismay or alienate. But the means he used were none the less efficacious because those who acted with him could not see how far they led, It was he who had stood at the front of the opposition of the Massachusetts assembly to the Stamp Act; he who had drafted the circular letter of Massachusetts to the other colonies in 1768 suggesting concert of action against the Townshend acts; he who had gone from the town meeting in Faneuil Hall to demand of Hutch- inson the immediate removal ol the troops, after the unhappy "massacre"' of March, 1770; he who had led the town meeting which took effectual measures to prevent the landing of the tea from the East India Company's ships. No man doubted that his hand had been in the plan to throw the tea into the harbor. It was he who, last of all, as the troubles thickened, had bound the other towns of Massachusetts to Boston in a common organization for making and propagat- ing opinion by means of committees of correspondence. It was late in 1772 when he proposed to the town meeting in Boston that the other towns of the colony be invited to co-operate with it in establishing committees of corre- spondence, by means of which they could exchange 174 T 1 -i-nor puiubly never Vet tc .roudrntiaU-arcof that gncicw I duchu ih- 3:iv SurLrsoi this Country to .;!a-!'n!> .1 . from '\ ranny tor thtmklves and tluir i\;!L:i:v ':, again wor.d* r'ul'y imcrp Cd to biing (<*> I ijn the 1'Lt t..i: had bc^n laid tor us by our malicious and inli.iiuus Enemies. Our prefect Governor has been exerting rtimf. If (as t!ic hono r aMe~ Houfe of Afle-ublv have txpr..li..l thcmfclvis in thctr lato Ut(.-lvls). " by his fccrct confidential ^ orrcipondencc, to introduce Mcafurcs " dcftruft've of our conftiiutionalLibcrty. while he has practiced every " method among the People of this Frovinc , to fix in their .Minds " an exalted Opinion of his vvataeft Aff cYion for them, and his " unrcmitted Endeavours to promote their belt [nterclt.at the C'ourt " of Great Britain." This will abundantly appear by the Letters and Refolvcs which *e herewith tranfmit to you ; the feriousPcrufa! of which will fiiew you your prefent moft dangerous Situation. This Period calls for the ftricleft Concurrence in Sentiment and AfHon of every individual of this Province, and we may add, of THIS CONTINENT; ail private Views fhould be annihilated, and the Gopd of the Whole fliould be the fingle Object of ourl'tufuir " By uniting we ftand," and fhall be able to defeat the Invader? and Violaters of our Rights. We are, Tour Fr tends and bumole Servants, Signed by Direction of thcCgrnmittee fcrCorrcfpondence in To the Town-Clerk of , to be immediately delivered to the Committee of Correffondetue for your Town, iffucb a Committee is cbofen. other-Mile to the Gentlemen the Scleflmen, to tc communicated to the Town. CIRCULAR. OF THE BOSTON COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE views, and, if need were, concert action. The end of November had come before he could make Boston's initiative complete in the matter ; and yet the few scant weeks that remained of the year were not gone before more than eighty towns had responded. It turned out that he had invented a tremendously powerful engine of propaganda for such opinions and suggestions of action as he chose to put upon the wind or set afloat in his private correspondence, as he had, no doubt, foreseen, with his keen appreciation of the most effectual means of agitation. Here was, in effect, a league of towns to watch and to control the course of affairs. There was nothing absolutely novel in the plan, except its formal completeness and its ap- pearance of permanence, as if of a standing political arrangement made out of hand. In the year 1765, which was now seven years gone by, Richard Henry Lee had taken an active part among his neighbors in Virginia in forming the "Westmoreland Association," which drew many of the leading spirits of the great county of Westmoreland together in concerted resist- ance to the Stamp Act. Four years later (1769) the Burgesses of Virginia, cut short in their regular session as a legislature by a sudden dissolution proclaimed by their royal governor, met in Mr. Anthony Hay's house in Williamsburg and adopted the resolutions for a general non- importation association which George Mason had drawn up, and which George Washington, Mr. Mason's neighbor and confidant, read and moved. There followed the immediate organization of local associations throughout the little commonwealth to see to the keeping of the pledge there taken. Virginia had no town meetings; each colony took its measures 176 NORTH AMERICA 175O, SHOWING CLAIMS ARISING- OUT OF EXPLORATION. GEORGE III. A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE of non - importation and resistance to parliamentary taxation after its own fashion ; but wherever there were Englishmen accustomed to political action there was always this thought of free association and quick and organized cooperation in the air, which no one was surprised at any time to see acted upon and made an instrument of agitation. What made the Massachusetts committees of corre- spondence especially significant and especially telling in their effect upon affairs was that they were not used, like the "Westmoreland Association" or the non-im- portation associations of 1769, merely as a means of keeping neighbors steadfast in the observance of a simple resolution of passive resistance, but were em- ployed to develop opinion and originate action from month to month, dilatory, defensive, or aggressive, as occasion or a change of circumstances might demand. The non-importation associations had been powerful enough, as some men had reason to know. The de- termination not to import or use any of the things upon which Parliament had laid a tax to be taken of the colonies, wine, oil, glass, paper, tea, or any of the rest of the list, was not a thing all men had thought of or spontaneously agreed to. Certain leading gentle- men, like Mr. Mason and Colonel Washington, deemed it a serviceable means of constitutional resistance to the mistaken course of the ministry, induced influential members of the House of Burgesses to indorse it, and formed associations to put it into effect, to see to it that no one drank wine or tea which had been brought in under Mr. Townshend's taxes. There was here no command of law, only a moral compulsion, the " pressure of opinion " ; but it was no light matter to be 178 THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION censured and talked about by the leading people in your county as a person who defied the better sort of opinion and preferred wine and tea to the liberties of GEORGE MASON the colony. Associated opinion, spoken by influential men, proved a tremendous engine of quiet duress, and the unwilling found it prudent to conform. It was harder yet for the timid where active committees of 179 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE correspondence looked into and suggested opinion. Men could give up their wine, or women their tea, and still keep what opinions they pleased; but committees of correspondence sought out opinion, provoked dis- cussion, forced men to take sides or seem indifferent; more than all, saw to it that Mr. Samuel Adams's opin- ions were duly promulgated and established by ar- gument. Men thought for themselves in Massachusetts, and Mr. Adams was too astute a leader to seem to force opinions upon them. He knew a better and more cer- tain way. He drew Mr. Hutchinson, the governor, into controversy, and provoked him to unguarded heat in the expression of his views as to the paramount author- ity of Parliament and the bounden duty of the colonists to submit if they would not be accounted rebels. He let heat in the governor generate heat in those who loved the liberty of the colony; supplied patriots .with arguments, phrases, resolutions of right and privilege; watchfully kept the fire alive; forced those who were strong openly to take sides and declare themselves, and those who were weak to think with their neighbors ; infused agitation, disquiet, discontent, dissonance of opinion into the very air; and let everything that was being said or done run at once from town to town through the ever talkative committees of correspondence. He sincerely loved the liberty to which America had been bred; loved affairs, and wanted nothing for himself, except the ears of his neighbors; loved the air of strife and the day of debate, and the busy concert of endless agitation; was statesman and demagogue in one, and had now a cause which even slow and thoughtful men were constrained to deem just. 180 THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION The ministers supplied fuel enough and to spare to keep alive the fires he kindled; and presently the sys- tem of committees which he had devised for the towns of a single colony had been put into use to bring the several colonies themselves together. Opinion began to be made and moved and augmented upon a great scale. Spontaneous, no doubt, at first, at heart spon- taneous always, it was elaborately, skilfully, persist- ently assisted, added to, made definite, vocal, univer- sal, now under the lead of men in one colony, again under the lead of those in an- other. Massachusetts, with her busy port and her noisy town meetings, drew the centre of the storm to herself; but the other colonies were not different in temper. Virginia, in particular, was as forward as Massachu- setts. Virginia had got a new governor out of England early in 1772, John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, who let more than a year go by from his first brief meeting with the Bur- gesses before he summoned them again, because he liked their lack of submission as little as they liked his dark brow and masterful temper; but he suffered them to convene at last, in March, 1773, and they forthwith gave him a taste of their quality, as little to his palate as he could have expected. It was in June, 1772, while the Virginian burgesses waited for their tardy summons to Williamsburg that his Majesty's revenue cutter Gaspee was deliberately boarded and burned by the Rhode Islanders. The Bur- 181 SEAL OF DUNMORE ARL OF DUNMORE THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION gesses had but just assembled in the autumn when the ominous news came that a ro3^al commission had been sent over to look sharply into the matter, and see to the arrest and deportation of all chiefly concerned. Dabney Carr, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Thomas Jefferson, young men all, and radicals, mem- bers of the House, privately associated themselves for the concert of measures to be taken in the common cause of the colonies. Upon their initiative the Bur- gesses resolved, when the news from Rhode Island came, to appoint at once a permanent committee of corre- spondence; instruct it to inquire very particularly into the facts about this royal commission; and ask the other colonies to set up similar committees, for the ex- change of information concerning public affairs and the maintenance of a common understanding and concert in action. By the end of the year Massachu- setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and South Carolina had adopted the suggestion and set their committees to work. Massachusetts, of course. This was Mr. Samuel Adams's new machinery of agitation upon a larger scale. Adams himself had long cherished the wish that there might be such a connection established be- tween the colonies. In the autumn of 1770 he had in- duced the Massachusetts assembly to appoint a com- mittee of correspondence, to communicate with Mr. Arthur Lee, of Virginia, the colony's agent in London, and with the Speakers of the several colonial assem- blies; and though the committee had accomplished little or nothing, he had not been discouraged, but had written the next year to Mr. Lee expressing the wish that " societies " of " the most respectable inhabitants " THE ATTACK ON THE " GASPEE ' THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION might be formed in the colonies to maintain a corre- spondence with friends in England in the interest of colonial privilege. "This is a sudden thought/' he said, "and drops undigested from my pen"; but it must have seemed a natural enough thought to Mr. Lee, whose own vast correspondence, with America, with Englishmen at home, with acquaintances on the continent, had itself, unaided, made many a friend for the colonies over sea at the same time that it kept the leading men of the colonies informed of the opinions and the dangers breeding in England. But Mr. Adams's town committees came first. It was left for the little group of self-constituted leaders in the Virginian as- sembly, of whom Richard Henry Lee, Mr. Arthur Lee's elder brother, \vas one, to take the step which actual- ly drew the colonies into active cooperation when the time was ripe. It was, in part, through the systematic correspondence set afoot by the Virginian burgesses that something like a common understanding had been arrived at as to what should be done when the tea came in; and the lawless defiance of the colonists in that matter brought the ministers in England to such a temper that there were presently new and very exciting subjects of correspondence between the committees, and affairs ran fast towards a crisis. Teas to the value of no less than eighteen thousand pounds sterling had been thrown into the harbor at Boston on that memorable night of the i6th of De- cember, 1773, when "Captain Mackintosh," the redoubt- able leader of the South End toughs of the lively little town, was permitted for the nonce to lead his betters; but what aroused the ministers and put Parliament in a heat was not so much the loss incurred by the East 185 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE India Company or the outcry of the merchants involved as the startling significance of the act, and the un- LORD NORTH pleasant evidence which every day came to hand that all the colonies alike were ready to resist. After the tea had been sent away, or stored safe against sale or 186 THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION present use, or thrown into the harbor, at Philadelphia, Charleston, New York, and Boston, as the leaders of the mobs or the meetings at each place preferred, there was an instant spread of Virginia's method of union. Six more colonies hastened to appoint committees of correspondence, and put themselves in direct commu- nication with the men at Boston and at Williamsburg who were forming opinion and planning modes of re- dress. Only Pennsylvania held off. The tea had been shut out at Philadelphia, as elsewhere, but the leaders of the colony were not ready yet to follow so fast in the paths of agitation and resistance. Members of Parlia- ment hardly noticed the exception. It was Boston they thought of and chiefly condemned as a hot - bed of lawlessness. Not every one, it is true, was ready to speak quite so plainly or so intemperately as Mr. Venn. "The town of Boston ought to be knocked about their ears and destroyed," he said. "You will never meet with proper obedience to the laws of this country until you have destroyed that nest of locusts." But, though few were so outspoken, no doubt many found such a view very much to their taste, excellent- ly suited to their temper. At any rate, the ministers went a certain way towards acting upon it. In March, 1774, after communicating to the House the despatches from America, the leaders of the government, now under Lord North, proposed and carried very drastic measures. By one bill they closed the port of Boston, transferring its trade after the first of June to the older port of Salem. Since the headstrong town would not have the tea, it should have no trade at all. By another bill they suspended the charter of the colony. By a third they made provision 187 THE HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETS-BAY, FROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT THEREOF IN 1628. UNTIL ITS INCORPORATION WITH THE Colony of PL I MOUTH, Province of MAIN, &Ct BY THE Charter of King WILLIAM and Queen MARY. IN 1691. Hiitoria, non oftentaticni, fed fide!, veritatique compomtur. * Plin.Epift.L. 7 .E. 33 . # Yokjl. (*"l) By MR, HUTCHINSON, Licutenant'Governor of the M A s s A c H u s E T s Prcrince. BOSTON, NEW-ENGLAND: Printed by THOMAS & JOHM FLEET, at the in Ccrnhil], MDCLLXIV. TITLE-PAGE OF HUTCHINSON'S HISTORY THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION for the quartering of troops within the province; and by a fourth they legalized the transfer to England of trials growing out of attempts to quell riots in the colony. News lingered on the seas in those days, waiting for the wind, and the critical news of what had been done in Parliament moved no faster than the rest. It was the 2d of June before the text of the new statutes was known in Boston. That same month, almost upon that very day, Thomas Hutchinson, the constant-minded governor whom Samuel Adams had tricked, hated, and beaten in the game of politics, left his perplexing post and took ship for England, never to return. Born and bred in Massachusetts, of the stock of the colony itself, he had nevertheless stood steadfastly to his duty as an officer of the crown, deem- ing Massachusetts best served by the law. He had suffered more than most men would have endured, but his sufferings had not blinded him with passion. He knew as well as any man the real state of affairs in the colony, though he looked at them as governor, not as the people's advocate, and now went to England to make them clear to the ministers. " The prevalence of a spirit of opposition to government in the planta- tion," he had already written them, "is the natural consequence of the great growth of colonies so remote from the parent state, and not the effect of oppression in the King or his servants, as the promoters of this spirit would have the world to believe." It would be of good omen for the settlement of difficulties if he could make the ministers see that the spirit which so angered them was natural, and not born of mere rebellion. Mr. Hutchinson left General Gage governor in his stead, at once governor and military commander. 189 GENERAL GAGE THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION Gage was to face a season of infinite trouble, and, as men soon learned, did not know how to face it either with patience or with tact and judgment. The news of Boston's punish- ment and of the suspension of the Massachusetts char- ter, of the arrange- ments for troops, and of the legal es- tablishment of meth- ods of trial against which all had pro- tested, and, in the case of the Gaspee affair, successfully protested, had an instant and most dis- turbing effect upon the other colonies, as well as upon those who were most directly affected. The ministers could not isolate Massa- chusetts. They were dealing with men more statesmanlike than themselves, who did not need to see their own liberties directly struck at to recognize dan- ger, though it was not yet their danger. They had pro- tested in the time of the Stamp Act, which affected 191 5TOVE IN THE HOUSE OF THE BURGESSES, VIRGINIA A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE them all; this time they protested even more emphati- cally against measures aimed at Massachusetts alone. What was more significant, they had now means at hand for taking action in common. Virginia, no doubt, seemed to the ministers in Eng- land far enough away from Massachusetts, but her Bur- gesses acted upon the first news of what Parliament was doing, a month before the text of the obnoxious acts had reached Boston. In May, 1774, they ordered that June 1st, the day the Boston Port bill was to go into effect, be set apart as a day of fasting and prayer, prayer that civil war might be averted and that the people of America might be united in a common cause. Dunmore promptly dissolved them for their pains; but they quietly assembled again in the long room of the Raleigh Tavern; issued a call thence to the other colonies for a general Congress; and directed that a convention, freely chosen by the voters of the colony as they themselves had been, should assemble there, in that same room of the Raleigh, on the first day of August following, to take final measures with regard to Virginia's part in the common action hoped for in the autumn. The next evening they gave a ball in honor of Lady Dunmore and her daughters, in all good temper, as they had previously arranged to do, as if nothing had happened, and as if to show how little what they had done was with them a matter of personal feeling or private intrigue, how much a matter of dispassionate duty. They had not acted singularly or alone. Rhode Island, New York, and Massachusetts herself had also asked for a general "Congress of Committees." The Massachusetts as- sembly had locked its doors against the governor's 192 JOHN APAMS THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION messenger, sent to dissolve it, until it had completed its choice of a committee "to meet the committees ap- pointed by the several colonies to consult together upon the present state of the colonies." It was chiefly be- cause Massachusetts called that the other colonies responded, but the movement seemed general, almost spontaneous. Virginia and Massachusetts sent their real leaders, as the other colonies did; and September saw a notable gathering at Philadelphia, a gathering from which conservatives as well as radicals hoped to see come forth some counsel of wisdom and accom- modation. Every colony but Georgia sent delegates to the Con- gress. Not all who attended had been regularly elected by the colonial assemblies. The Virginian delegates had been elected by Virginia's August convention, a body unknown to the law ; in some of the colonies there had been no timely sessions of the assemblies at which a choice could be made, and representatives had ac- cordingly been appointed by their committees of cor- respondence, or elected directly by the voters at the town and county voting places. But no one doubted any group of delegates real representatives, at any rate, of the predominant political party in their colony. In New York and Pennsylvania the conservatives had had the upper hand, and had chosen men who were expected to speak for measures of accommodation and for obedience to law. In the other colonies, if only for the nonce, the more radical party had prevailed, and had sent representatives who were counted on to speak unequivocally for the liberties of the colonies, even at the hazard of uttering words and urging action which might seem revolutionary and defiant. n.-i 3 193 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE It was noteworthy and significant how careful a selection had been made of delegates. No doubt the most notable group was the group of Virginians: Colonel Washington; that "masterly man/' Richard Henry Lee, as Mr. John Adams called him, as effective in Philadelphia as he had been in the House of Bur- gesses ; Patrick Henry, whose speech was so singularly compounded of thought and fire; Edmund Pendleton, who had read nothing but law books and knew nothing but business, and yet showed such winning grace and convincing frankness withal in debate; Colonel Har- rison, brusque country gentleman, without art or sub- terfuge, downright and emphatic; Mr. Bland, alert and formidable at sixty-four, with the steady insight of the lifelong student; and Mr. Peyton Randolph, their official leader and spokesman, whom the Congress chose its president, a man full of address, and seeming to carry privilege with him as a right inherited. Samuel Adams and John Adams had come from Mas- sachusetts, with Mr. Gushing and Mr. Paine. South Carolina had sent two members of the Stamp Act Con- gress of 1765, Mr. Christopher Gadsden and Mr. John Rutledge, with Mr. Edward Rutledge also, a youth of twenty-five, and plain Mr. Lynch, clad in homespun, as direct and sensible and above ceremony as Colonel Harrison. Connecticut's chief spokesman was Roger Sherman, rough as a peasant without, but in counsel very like a statesman, and in all things a hard-headed man of affairs. New York was represented by Mr. John Jay, not yet thirty, but of the quick parts of the scholar and the principles of a man of honor. Joseph Galloway, the well-poised Speaker and leader of her House of Assembly, John Dickinson, the thought- 194 THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION ful author of the famous "Farmer's Letters" of 1768, a quiet master of statement, and Mr. Thomas Mifflin, the well-to-do merchant, represented Pennsylvania. ^M^t^t ROGER SHERMAN It was, take it all in all, an assembly of picked men, fit for critical business. Not that there was any talk of actual revolution in the air. The seven weeks' conference of the Congress disclosed a nice balance of parties, its members act- 195 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ing, for the most part, with admirable candor and in- dividual independence. A good deal was said and conjectured about the "brace of Adamses" who led the Massachusetts delegation, Samuel Adams, now past fifty-two, and settled long ago, with subtle art, to his life-long business, and pleasure, of popular leader- ship, which no man understood better ; and John Adams, his cousin, a younger man by thirteen years, at once less simple and easier to read, vain and transparent, transparently honest, irregularly gifted. It was said they were for independence, and meant to take the leadership of the Congress into their own hands. But it turned out differently. If they were for inde- pendence, they shrewdly cloaked their purpose; if they were ambitious to lead, they were prudent enough to forego their wish and to yield leadership, at any rate on the floor of the Congress, to the interesting men who represented Virginia, and who seemed of their own spirit in the affair. There was a marked difference between what the Congress said aloud, for the hearing of the world, and what it did in order quietly to make its purpose of de- feating the designs of the ministers effective. At the outset of its sessions it came near to yielding itself to the initiative and leadership of its more conservative members, headed by Joseph Galloway, the trusted leader of the Pennsylvanians, a stout loyalist, but for all that a sincere patriot and thorough-going advocate of the legal rights of the colonies. He proposed a memorial to the crown asking for a confederate govern- ment for the colonies, under a legislature of their own choosing, very like the government Mr. Franklin had made a plan for twenty years ago in the congress at 196 JOSEPH GALLOWAY VOL II. IS A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Albany; and his suggestion failed of acceptance by only a very narrow margin when put to the vote. Even Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, who spoke more hotly than most men for the liberties of the colonies, declared it an "almost perfect plan"; and the Congress, rejecting it, substituted no other. It turned, rather, JOHN DICKINSON to the writing of state papers, and a closer organiza- tion of the colonies for concert of action. Its committees drew up an address to the King, memorials to the peo- ple of Great Britain and to the people of British North America, their fellow-subjects, and a solemn declara- tion of rights, so earnest, so moderate in tone, reasoned and urged with so evident and so admirable a quiet passion of conviction, as to win the deep and outspoken 198 THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION admiration of their friends in Parliament and stir the pulses of liberal-minded men everywhere on both sides of the sea. So much was for the world. For themselves, they ordered a closer and more effective association through- out the colonies to carry out the policy of a rigorous non-importation and non-consumption of certain classes of British goods as a measure of trade against the English government's policy of colonial taxation. It recommended, in terms which rang very imperative, that in each colony a committee should be formed in every town or county, according to the colony's local administrative organization, which should be charged with seeing to it that every one within its area of over- sight actually kept, and did not evade, the non-impor- tation agreement; that these committees should act under the direction of the central committee of cor- respondence in each colony; and that the several colonial committees of correspondence should in their turn report to and put into effect the suggestions of the general Congress of Committees at Philadelphia. For the Congress, upon breaking up at the conclusion of its business in October, resolved to meet again in May of the next year, should the government in Eng- land not before that time accede to its prayers for a radical change of policy. Its machinery of surveil- lance was meanwhile complete. No man could escape the eyes of the local committees. Disregard of the non-importation policy meant that his name would be published, and that he would be diligently talked about as one who was no patriot. The Congress or- dered that any colony which declined to enter into the new association should be regarded as hostile to "the 199 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE liberties of this country." Samuel Adams himself had not had a more complete system of surveillance or of inquisitorial pressure upon individual conduct cx 0*2 /zm PEYTON RANDOLPH and opinion at hand in his township committees of correspondence. In the colonies where sentiment ran warm no man could escape the subtle coercion. Such action was the more worthy of remark because taken very quietly, and as if the Congress had of course 200 THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION the right to lead, to speak for the majority and com- mand the minority in the colonies, united and acting like a single body politic. There was no haste, no unusual excitement, no fearful looking for trouble in the proceedings of this new and quite unexampled as- sembly. On the contrary, its members had minds sufficiently at ease to enjoy throughout all their busi- ness the entertainments and the attractive social ways of the busy, well-appointed, cheerful, gracious town, the chief city of the colonies, in which there was so much to interest and engage. Dinings were as fre- quent almost as debates, calls as committee meetings. Evening after evening was beguiled with wine and tobacco and easy wit and chat. The delegates learned to know and understand each other as men do who are upon terms of intimacy ; made happy and lasting friend- ships among the people of the hospitable place; drank in impressions which broadened and bettered their thinking, almost as if they had actually seen the sev- eral colonies with whose representatives they were deal- ing from day to day; and went home with a cleared and sobered and withal hopeful vision of affairs. It was well to have their views so steadied. Events moved fast, and with sinister portent. Massachusetts could not be still, and quickly forced affairs to an issue of actual revolution. Before the Congress met again her leaders had irrevocably committed themselves to an open breach w r ith the government ; the people of the province had shown themselves ready to support them with extraordinary boldness; and all who meant to stand with the distressed and stubborn little common- wealth found themselves likewise inevitably committed to extreme measures. The Massachusetts men not 201 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE only deeply resented the suspension of their charter, they denied the legal right of Parliament to suspend it. On the Qth of September, 1774, four days after the assembling of the Congress at Philadelphia, dele- gates from Boston and the other towns in Suffolk County in Massachusetts had met in convention and flatly declared that the acts complained of, being un- constitutional, ought not to be obeyed; that the new judges appointed under the act of suspension ought not to be regarded or suffered to act ; that the collectors of taxes ought to be advised to retain the moneys col- lected, rather than turn them into General Gage's treas- ury ; and that, in view of the extraordinary crisis which seemed at hand, the people ought to be counselled to prepare for war, not, indeed, with any purpose of provoking hostilities, but in order, if necessary, to re- sist aggression. They declared also for a provincial congress, to take the place of the legislative council of their suspended charter, and resolved to regard the action of the Congress at Philadelphia as law for the common action of the colonies. It gave these resolutions very grave significance that the Congress at Philadelphia unhesitatingly de- clared, upon their receipt, that the whole continent ought to support Massachusetts in her resistance to the unconstitutional changes in her government, and that any person who should accept office within the province under the new order of things ought to be considered a public enemy. Moreover, the Suffolk towns did not stand alone. Their temper, it seemed, was the temper of the whole colony. Other towns took action of the same kind ; and before the Congress at Philadelphia had adjourned, Massachusetts had 202 WASHINGTON STOPPING AT AN INN ON HIS WAY TO CAiMBRIDGE A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE actually set up a virtually independent provincial congress. General Gage had summoned the regular assembly of the province to meet at Salem, the new capital under the parliamentary changes, on the 5th of October, but had withdrawn the summons as he saw signs of disaffection multiply and his authority dwindle to a mere shadow outside his military lines at Boston. The members of the assembly convened, nevertheless, and, finding no governor to meet them, resolved themselves into a provincial congress and appointed a committee of safety to act as the provi- sional executive of the colony. The old government was virtually dissolved, a revolutionary government substituted. The substitution involved every hazard of license and disorder. A people schooled and habituated to civil order and to the daily practice of self-government, as the people of Massachusetts had been, could not, indeed, suffer utter demoralization or lose wholly and of a sudden its sobriety and conscience in matters of public business. But it was a perilous thing that there was for a time no recognized law outside of the fortifi- cations which General Gage had thrown across Boston Neck, to defend the town against possible attack from its own neighbors. Town meetings and irregular com- mittees took the place of officers of government in every locality. The committees were often self -constituted, the meetings too often disorderly and irregularly sum- moned. Everything fell into the hands of those who acted first; and inasmuch as the more hot-headed and violent are always at such times the first to act, many sober men who would fain have counselled restraint and prudence and the maintenance so far as might be 204 THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION of the old order, were silenced or overridden. The gatherings at which concerted action was determined upon were too often like mere organized mobs. Men too often obtained ascendency for the time being who had no claim upon the confidence of their followers but such as came from audacity and violence of passion; and many things happened under their leadership which it was afterwards pleasant to forget. No man The LIBERTY SONG. fit Freedom .we're born, 6-c. Coq)iiftB4feUa0texr*-at.rt-UMag. jUdraoftrwrbM bMiun&ir LJ-Wr.ty' cdt jrtB JrhS cUo, Or -Oil. >kb C&nou A . mt . rl . BUM. l.rr ** , V. tort U i,frti THE LIBERTY SONG of consequence who would not openly and actively put himself upon the popular side was treated with so much as toleration. General Gage presently found Boston and all the narrow area within his lines filling up, accordingly, with a great body of refugees from the neighboring towns and country-sides. It gave those who led the agitation the greater con- fidence and the greater influence that the ministers of the churches were for the most part on their side. The control of Parliament had come, in the eyes of the New 205 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE England clergy, to mean the control also of bishops and the supremacy of the Establishment. Now, as al- ways before, since the very foundation of the colony, the independence of their little commonwealths seemed but another side of the independence of their churches ; and none watched the course of government over sea more jealously than the Puritan pastors. Not only those who sided with the English power because of fear or interest, place-holders, sycophants, merchants who hoped to get their trade back through favor, weak men who knew not which side to take and thought the side of government in the long run the safer, but many a man of dignity and substance also, and many a man of scrupulous principle who revered the ancient English power to which he had always been obedient with sincere and loyal affection, left his home and sought the protection of Gage's troops. The vigilance of the local committees effectually purged the population outside Boston, as the weeks went by, of those who were not ready to countenance a revolu- tion. There was, besides, something very like military rule outside Boston as well as within it. The provincial congress met, while necessary, from month to month, upon its own adjournment, and, prominent among other matters of business, diligently devoted itself to the enrolment and organization of a numerous and efficient militia. Local as well as general command- ers were chosen ; there was constant drilling on village greens; fire-arms and ammunition were not difficult to get ; and an active militia constituted a very effective auxiliary in the consolidation of local opinion concern- ing colonial rights and the proper means of vindicating them. 206 THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION It is the familiar story of revolution: the active and efficient concert of a comparatively small number con- trolling the action of whole communities at a moment of doubt and crisis. There was not much difference of opinion among thoughtful men in the colonies with regard to the policy which the ministers in England had recently pursued respecting America. It was agreed on all hands that it was unprecedented, unwise, and in plain derogation of what the colonists had time out of mind been permitted to regard as their unques- tioned privileges in matters of local self-government. Some men engaged in trade at the colonial ports had, it is true, found the new policy of taxation and enforced restrictions very much to their own interest. The Sugar Act of 1733, which cut at the heart of the New England trade with the French West Indies, and which Grenville and Townshend had, in these last disturbing years, tried to enforce, had, it was said, been passed in the first instance at the suggestion of a Boston mer- chant who was interested in sugar growing in the British islands whence the act virtually bade the colonial im- porters take all their sugar, molasses, and rum; and no doubt there were many in all the American ports who would have profited handsomely by the enforce- ment of the law. But, however numerous these may have been, they were at most but a small minority. For a vast majority of the merchants the enforcement of the acts meant financial ruin. Merchants as well as farmers, too, were hotly against taxes put upon them in their own ports by an act of Parliament. They were infinitely jealous of any invasion of their accustomed rights of self-government under their re- vered and ancient charter. Governor Hutchinson him- 207 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE self, though he deemed the commands of Parliament law, and thought it his own bounden duty as an officer of the crown to execute them, declared in the frankest fashion to the ministers themselves that their policy was unjust and mistaken. But, while men's sentiments concurred in a sense of wrong, their judgments parted company at the choice of what should be done. Men of a conservative and sober way of thinking ; men of large fortune or business, who knew what they had at stake should disorders arise or law be 'set aside; men who believed that there were pacific ways of bringing the government to an- other temper and method in dealing with the colonies, and who passionately preferred the ways of peace to ways of violence and threatened revolution, arrayed themselves instinctively and at once against every plan that meant lawlessness and rebellion. They mustered very strong indeed, both in numbers and in influence. They bore, many of them, the oldest and most honored names of the colony in Massachusetts, where the storm first broke, and were men of substance and training and schooled integrity of life, besides. Their counsels of prudence were ignored, nevertheless, as was inevitable. Opinion formed itself with quick and heated impulse in the brief space of those first critical months of irritation and excitement; and these men, though the natural leaders of the colony, were despised, rejected, proscribed, as men craven and lack- ing the essential spirit either of liberty or of patriotism. It was, no doubt, a time when it was necessary that something should be done, as well as something said. It was intolerable to the spirit of most of the people, when once they were roused, to sit still under a siis- 208 THE Ai'PKOACH OF REVOLUTION pension of their charter, a closing of their chief port, the appointment of judges and governors restrained by none of the accustomed rules of public authority among them, and tamely utter written protests only, carrying obedience to what seemed to them the length of sheer servility. It happened that there had gone along with the hateful and extraordinary parliamen- tary measures of 1774 an act extending the boundaries of the province of Quebec to the Ohio River and es- tablishing an arbitrary form of government within the extended province. It was a measure long ago planned. Its passage at that time had nothing to do with the ministers' quarrel with the self-governing col- onies to the southward. But it was instantly inter- preted in America as an attempt to limit the westward expansion of the more unmanageable colonies which, like Massachusetts, arrogated the right to govern them- selves ; and it of course added its quota of exasperation to the irritations of the moment. It seemed worse than idle to treat ministers who sent such a body of revolu- tionary statutes over sea as reasonable constitutional rulers who could be brought to a more lawful and mod- erate course by pamphlets and despatches and public meetings, and all the rest of the slow machinery of ordinary agitation. Of course, too, Samuel Adams and those who acted \vith him very carefully saw to it that agitation should not lose its zest or decline to the humdrum levels of ordinary excitement. They kept their alarm bells pealing night and day, and were vigilant that feeling should not subside or fall tame. And they worked upon genuine matter. They knew the temper of average men in the colony much better than their conservative opponents did, and touched H.-M 209 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE it with a much truer instinct in their appeals. Their utterances went to the quick with most plain men, and they spoke to a community of plain men. The}^ spoke to conviction as well as to sentiment, and the minds they touched were thoroughly awakened. Their doctrine of liberty was the ancient tradition of the colony. The principles they urged had been urged again and again by every champion of the chartered liberties of the colonies, and seemed native to the very air. SIGNATURE OK JOSEPH HAWLEY If not constitutional statesmen, they were at least the veritable spokesmen of all men of action, and of the real rank and file of the colonists about them, as Patrick Henry was in Virginia. John Adams had read to Henry, while the first Congress was sitting in Philadelphia, Joseph Hawley's opinion that what the ministers had done made it necessary to fight. "I am of that man's opinion," cried the high-spirited Vir- ginian. That was what men said everywhere, unless imperatively held back from action by temperament, or interest, or an unusual, indomitable conviction of law-abiding duty, upon whatever exigency or provoca- tion. It is not certain that there could be counted in Massachusetts so much as a majority for resistance in those first days of the struggle for right; but it is certain that those who favored extreme measures had the more effective spirit of initiative among them, the best concert of action, the more definite purpose, 210 THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION the surest instinct of leadership, and stood with true interpretative insight for the latent conviction of right which underlay and supported every colonial charter in America. And not only every colonial charter, but the con- stitution of England itself. The question now raised, to be once for all settled, was, in reality, the question of constitutional as against personal government; and that question had of late forced itself upon men's thoughts in England no less than in America. It was the burden of every quiet as well as of every im- passioned page in Burke's Thoughts on the Present Discontents, published in 1770. The Parliament of 1774 did not represent England any more than it rep- resented the colonies in America, either in purpose or principle. So ill distributed was the suffrage and the right of representation that great centres of popula- tion had scarcely a spokesman in the Commons, while little hamlets, once populous but now deserted, still returned members who assumed to speak for the coun- try. So many voters were directly under the influence of members of the House of Lords, as tenants and de- pendants; so many members of the House of Lords were willing to put themselves and the seats which they controlled in the Commons at the service of the King, in return for honors and favors received or hoped for; so many elections to the Lower House were cor- ruptly controlled by the court, so full was Parliament, in short, of placemen and of men who counted upon the crown's benefactions, that the nation seemed ex- cluded from its own councils, and the King acted as its master without serious let or hinderance. The Whig party, which stood for constitutional 211 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE privilege, was utterly disorganized. Some Whigs had followed Chatham to the end, despite his uncertain temper, his failing health, his perverse treatment of his friends; some had followed, rather, the Marquis of Rockingham, whose brief tenure of power, in 1766, had been but long enough to effect the repeal of the odious Stamp Act; but nothing could hold the diver- gent personal elements of the party together, and there was no place for a party of principle and independence in an unrepresentative Parliament packed with the "King's friends." Ministries rose or fell according to the King's pleasure, and were Whig or Tory as he directed, without change of majority in the Commons. " Not only did he direct the minister " whom the House nominally obeyed " in all matters of foreign and domes- tic policy, but he instructed him as to the management of debates in Parliament, suggested what motions should be made or opposed, and how measures should be carried." The Houses were his to command; and when Chatham was gone, no man could withstand him. Persons not of the ministry at all, but the private and irresponsible advisers of the King, became the real rulers of the country. The Duke of Grafton, who be- came the nominal head of the government in 1768, was not his own master in what he did or proposed; and Lord North, who succeeded him in 1770, was little more than the King's mouthpiece. Thoughtful men in England saw what all this meant, and deemed the liberties of England as much jeoparded as the liberties of America. And the very men who saw to the heart of the ominous situation in England were, significantly enough, the men who spoke most fearlessly and passionately in Parliament in defence 212 THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION of America, statesmen like Chatham and Burke, frank soldiers like Colonel Barre, political free lances like the reckless John Wilkes, and all the growing compaii} 7 of agitators in London and elsewhere whom the government busied itself to crush. It was the group gathered about Wilkes in London who formed, under Home Tooke's leadership, the famous "Society for supporting the Bill of Rights/' with which Samuel Adams proposed, in his letter to Arthur Lee in 1771, that similar societies, to be formed in the several col- onies in America, should put themselves in active cooperation by correspondence. Those who attacked the prerogative in England were as roundly denounced as traitors as those who resisted Parliament in America. Wilkes was expelled from the House of Commons; the choice of the Westminster electors who had chosen him was arbitrarily set aside and annulled; those who protested with too much hardihood were thrown into prison or fined. But each arbitrary step taken seemed only to increase the rising sense of uneasiness in the country. The London mob was raised; rioting spread through the country, till there seemed to be chronic disorder ; writers like " Junius " sprang up to tease the government with stinging letters which no one could successfully answer, because no one could match their wit or point; an independent press came almost sud- denly into existence; and because there was no opinion expressed in the House of Commons worthy of being called the opinion of the nation, public opinion formed and asserted itself outside the Houses, and began to clamor uncomfortably for radical constitutional re- forms. Mr. Wilkes was expelled the House in 1769, just as the trouble in America was thickening towards VOL. H.-X6 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THE HOUSE OF COMMONS storm; and long before that trouble was over it had become plain to every man of enlightened principle that agitation in England and resistance in America had one and the same object, the rectification of the whole spirit and method of the English government. George III. had too small a mind to rule an empire, 214 THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION and the fifteen years of his personal supremacy in af- fairs (1768-1783) were years which bred a revolution in England no less inevitably than in America. His stubborn instinct of mastery made him dub the col- onists "rebels" upon their first show of resistance; he deemed the repeal of the Stamp Act a fatal step of weak compliance, which had only "increased the pre- tensions of the Americans to absolute independence." Chatham he called a "trumpet of sedition" because he praised the colonists for their spirited assertion of their rights. The nature of the man was not sinister. Neither he nor his ministers had any purpose of mak- ing "slaves" of the colonists. Their measures for the regulation of the colonial trade were incontestably conceived upon a model long ago made familiar in practice, and followed precedents long ago accepted in the colonies. Their financial measures were moder- ate and sensible enough in themselves, and were con- ceived in the ordinary temper of law-making. What they did not understand or allow for was American opinion. What the Americans, on their part, did not understand or allow for was the spirit in which Par- liament had in fact acted. They did not dream with how little comment or reckoning upon consequences, or how absolutely without any conscious theory as to power or authority, such statutes as those which had angered them had been passed; how members of the Commons stared at Mr. Burke's passionate protests and high-pitched arguments of constitutional privilege; how unaffectedly astonished they were at the rebellious outbreak which followed in the colonies. And, because they were surprised and had intended no tyranny, but simply the proper government of trade and the 215 f**.*^ <***,<. 'At^./Litw^^ . ., .^ ^.^ . "A!-,.. 3 x//7 kf //'ing are bound by Law to be aiding and alfillihg in the Suppreflion ofjuch Rebellion, and to difcloie and make kno-vn all traitorous Conlbiracics and Attempts ar-ainft Us, Our Crown and Dignity; And We do accordingly ftrictly charge and command all Our Officers as well Civil as Military, nd all other Our obedient and loyal Subjects, to u!e their utinoft Kndeavours to withftand and upprefs fuch Rebellion, and to difclofc and moke known all Treaibns and traitorous Confpi- acics which they (hall know to be againft Us, Our Crown and Dignity ; and for that Purpofe, *iat they tranfmit to One of Our Principal Secretaries of State, or other proper Officer, due 'and ull Information of all Perfons who (hall be found carrying on Correlpondcnce with, or in any fanner or Degree aiding or abetting the Perfons now in open Arms and Rebellion againft Our (Jovcrnmcnt within any of Our Colonies and Plantations in North America, in order to bring to Condign Punifhment the Authors, Perpetrators, and Abettors of fuch traitorous Defigns. Given at Our Court at St. Jamti's, the Twenty-third Day of jfugu]!. One thoufand fcven hundred and feventy-five, in the Fifteenth Year of Our Reign. God fave 'the King. LONDON: fruited by Our la Ejr, *nd William Siraban, Printers to the King's mod Excellent Majefty. i-'75. PROCLAMATION OF THE KING FOR THK SUPPRESSION OF THE REBELLION THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION could be no understanding between the two sides of the water; and the loyalists who counselled submis- sion, if only for a time, to the authority of the ministers, were certain to be rejected among their own people. The spirit of American affairs was with the patriots, and would be with them more and more as the quarrel thickened. It thickened fast enough, and the storm broke before men were aware how near it was. While winter held (1774-1775), affairs everywhere grew dark and uneasy, not only in Massachusetts, where Gage's troops waited at Boston, but in every colony from Maine to the Gulf. Before the end of 1774 the Earl of Dunmore reported to the government, from Virginia, that every county was "arming a company of men for the avowed pur- pose of protecting their committees/' and that his own power of control was gone. "There is not a justice of peace in Virginia/' he declared, "that acts except as a committee-man " ; and it gave him the graver con- cern to see the turn affairs were taking because "men of fortune and pre-eminence joined equally with the lowest and meanest" in the measures resorted to to rob him of authority. To the south and north of Virginia, counsels were divided. Those who led against the government in North Carolina had good reason to doubt whether they had even a bare majority of the people of their colony at their back. Every country-side in South Carolina, for all Charleston was as hot as Boston against the min- isters, was full of warm, aggressive, out-spoken sup- porters of the King's prerogative. The rural districts of Pennsylvania, every one knew, were peopled with quiet Quakers whose very religion bade them offer ao 219 THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION resistance even to oppressive power, and of phlegmatic Germans who cared a vast deal for peace but very little for noisy principles that brought mischief. Many a wealthy and fashionable family of Philadelphia, more- over, was much too comfortable and much too pleasant- ly connected with influential people on the other side of the water to relish thoughts of breach or rebellion. Vir- ginians, it might have seemed, were themselves remote enough from the trouble w r hich had arisen in Massa- chusetts to keep them in the cool air of those who wait and will not lead. But they were more in accord than the men of Massachusetts itself, and as quick to act. By the close of June, 1775, Charles Lee could write from Williamsburg, "Never was such vigor and con- cord heard of, not a single traitor, scarcely a silent dissentient." As the men of the several counties arm- ed themselves, as if by a common impulse, all turned as of course to Colonel Washington, of Fairfax, as their natural commander; and no one in Virginia was sur- prised to learn his response. "It is my full intention/' he said, " to devote my life and fortune to the cause we are engaged in." On the 20th of March, 1775, the sec- ond revolutionary convention of Virginia met at Rich- mond, not at Williamsburg; and in it Mr. Henry made his individual declaration of war against Great Britain. Older and more prudent men protested against his words ; but they served on the committee on the military organ- ization of the colony for which his resolutions called, and Virginia was made ready. Here our general authorities are still Bancroft, Hildreth, and Bryant ; David Ramsay's History of the American Revolution ; the last volume of James Grahame's Rise and Progress of the United States of North America ; John Fiske's American Revolution ; 221 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Thomas Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts ; John S. Barry's History of Massachusetts; Richard Frothingham's Rise of the Republic of the United States ; Justin Winsor's The Conflict Pre- cipitated, in the sixth volume of Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America. ; and the twelfth chapter of W. E. H. Lecky's History of England in the Eighteenth Century. To these we now add Frank Moore's Diary of the American Revolution; George Chalmers's Introduction to the History of the Revolt ; Timothy Pitkin's Political and Civil History of the United States ; and the fourth volume of John Richard Green's History of the English People. Here, also, the biographies of the chief public men of the period must be the reader's constant resource for a closer view of affairs, particularly the Lives of such men as John and Samuel Adams, John Dickinson, Franklin, Hamilton, Patrick Henry, John Jay, Jefferson, the Lees, George Mason, James Otis, Timothy Pickering, and Washington. The chief sources that should be mentioned are the Debates of Parliament ; the Annual Register ; the Proceedings and Collections of the Historical Societies of the original States; Peter Force's American Archives; Jared Sparks's Correspondence of the Rev- olution ; Hezekiah Niles's Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America; Copy of Letters sent to Great Britain by Thomas Hutchinson, reprinted in Franklin Before the Privy Council; P. 0. Hutchinson's Life and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson ; and the published speeches, letters, and papers of the leading American and English statesmen of the time. CHAPTER IV THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE THEN, almost immediately, came the clash of arms. General Gage would not sit still and see the country round about him made ready for armed resistance with- out at least an effort to keep control of it. On the iQth of April he despatched eight hundred men to seize the military stores which the provincials had gathered at Concord, and there followed an instant rising of the country. Riders had sped through the country-side during the long night which preceded the movement of the troops, to give warning ; and before the troops could finish their errand armed men beset them at almost every turn of the road, swarming by companies out of every hamlet and firing upon them from hedge and fence corner and village street as if they were outlaws running the gauntlet. The untrained villagers could not stand against them in the open road or upon the village greens, where at first they mustered, but they could make every way-side covert a sort of ambush, every narrow bridge a trap in which to catch them at a disadvantage. Their return to Boston quickened to a veritable rout, and they left close upon three hundred of their comrades, dead, wounded, or prisoners, behind them ere they reached the cover of their lines again. The news of their march and of the attack upon them 223 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE had spread everywhere, and in every quarter the roads filled with the provincial minute men marching upon Boston. Those who had fired upon the troops and driven them within their lines did not go home again ; In 'Provincial Cwgrefi, rfaffrtotvn, June 171*1, 17^^. 7 HERE AS the hoflile Incur fions this Country is cxpfi/cd to, and the frequent Alarms we may expeft jrom the Military (Derations cf our Enemies, make it necejfary, that the good People of this Colony be on their Guard, and prepared, at all Times to refijl their At tacks, and to aid and a/ift their Brethren :' Therefore,. ESOiyED, That it be and hereby is recommended to theMiluiaJ in all Parts of this Colony, to hold themfelves in Readihefs to march at a Minute's Warning, to die Relief of any Place that may be at- tacked, or to the Support of outArmy, with at leaft twenty Cartridge* or Rounds of Powder and Baft. And to prevent all Onfufion or Delays, It is further recommended to thelnhabitants of thisCo!ony,liv-j ng on the Seacoafts, or withioWenty Miles of them, that they tarry thrir Arms and Ammunition \rkh them to Meeting* on the Sabbath nd other Days, when they meet for public Worfhip : Refohed, That all Vacancies in the feVcral Regiments of Militia, occasioned >y the Officers going into the Army, or otherwife; "be immediately' iilcd up : And it is recommended to the Regiments where fuch Va- cancies are, to fupply them ia manner and form as prefcribed by t Idblutions of Congrefs. A trtic Copy from the Minutes, Atteft* SAMUEL FREEMAN, Secr'y, NOTICE TO MILITIA those who came too late for the fighting stayed to see that there were no more sallies from the town ; and the morning of the 20th disclosed a small army set down by the town in a sort of siege. That same night of the 20th Lord Dunmore, in Vir- ginia, landed a force of marines from an armed sloop in 224 AN ACCOUNT OF THE CONCORD FIGHT A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the river and seized the gunpowder stored at Williams- burg. There, too, the country rose, under Mr. Henry himself as captain. They did not reach the scene soon enough to meet the marines, there were no thick-set villages in that country-side to pour their armed men into the roads at a moment's summons, but they forced the earl, their governor, to pay for the powder he had ordered seized and taken off. The rude muster at Boston expanded into a motley yeoman army of sixteen thousand men within the first week of its sudden rally, and settled in its place to watch the town until the general Congress of the colonies at Philadelphia should give ii: countenance ' an d a commander. On the day the Congress SIGNATURE OF ETHAN ALLEN met (May 10, 1775), Ethan Allen walked into the unguarded gates of the fort at Ticonderoga, at the head of a little force out of Vermont, and took possession of the stout place " in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress/' though he held a commission from neither; and two daj^s later Crown Point, near by, was taken possession of in the same manner. When the Congress met it found itself no longer a mere "Congress of Committees,'' assem- bled for conference and protest. Its appeals for better government, uttered the last autumn, its arguments for colonial privilege, its protestations of loyalty and its prayers for redress, had been, one and all, not so much rejected as put by with contempt by the King and his ministers; and the mere movement of affairs was hurrying the colonies which it represented into 226 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE measures which would presently put the whole mat- ter of its controversy with the government at home beyond the stage of debate. Its uneasy members did not neglect to state their rights again, in papers whose moderation and temper of peace no candid man could overlook or deny; but they prepared for action also RUINS OF FORT TICONDKROGA quite as carefully, like practical men who did not deceive themselves even in the midst of hope. Colonel Washington had come to the Congress in his provincial uniform; and, if no one cared to ask a man with whom it was so obviously difficult to be familiar w r hy he wore such a habit there, all were free to draw their own conclusions. It was, no doubt, his instinctive expression of personal feeling in the midst of all that was happening ; and his service in the Congress was from first to last that of a soldier. Its committees con- sulted him almost every day upon some question of 227 WATCHING THE FIGHT AT BUNKER HILL THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE military preparation: the protection of the frontier against the Indians, the organization of a continental force, the management of a commissariat, the gather- ing of munitions, proper means of equipment, feasible plans of fortification. While they deliberated, his own colony passed openly into rebellion. The 1st of June saw Virginia's last House of Burgesses assemble. By the 8th of the month Dunmore had fled his capital, rather than see a second time the anger of a Williams- burg mob, and was a fugitive upon one of his Maj- esty's armed vessels lying in the river. The colony had thenceforth no government save such as it gave itself ; and its delegates at Philadelphia knew that there was for them no turning back. On the 1 5th of June, on the motion of Mr. John Adams, the Congress chose Colonel Washington com- mander-in-chief of the American forces, and directed him to repair to Boston and assume command in the field. Two days later the British and the provincials met in a bloody and stubborn fight at Bunker Hill. On the 25th of May heavy reinforcements for General Gage had arrived from over sea which swelled the force of regulars in Boston to more than eight thousand men, and added three experienced general officers to Gage's council : William Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne. The British commanders saw very well, what was indeed apparent enough to any soldier, that their position in Boston could be very effectively commanded to the north and south on either hand by cannon placed upon the heights of Charlestown or Dor- chester, and determined to occupy Charlestown heights at once, the nearer and more threatening position. But so leisurely did they go about it that the provincials 229 VOL. II. 1? 1 f< mk ii4i && i&I THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE were beforehand in the project. The early morning light of the I yth of June disclosed them still at work there on trenches and redoubts which they had begun at midnight. The British did not stop to use either the guns of the fleet or any caution of indirect approach to dislodge them, but at once put three thousand men straight across the water to take the hill, whose crest the Americans were fortifying, by direct assault. It cost them a thousand men; and the colonials retired, outnumbered though they were, only because their powder gave out, not their pluck or steadfastness. When the thing was done, the British did not care to take another intrenched position from men who held their fire till they were within a few score yards of them and then volleyed with the definite and deadly aim of marksmen. Colonel Washington received his formal commission on the I9th, and was on horseback for the journey north- ward by the 2 1st. On the 3d of July he assumed com- mand at Cambridge. In choosing Washington for the command of the raw levies of Massachusetts, Connecti- cut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire set down in im- promptu siege before Boston, Mr. John Adams and the other New Englanders who acted with him had meant, not only to secure the services of the most experienced soldier in America, but also, by taking a man out of the South, to give obvious proof of the union and co-opera- tion of the colonies. They had chosen better than they knew. It was no small matter to have so noticeable a man of honor and breeding at the head of an army whose enemies deemed it a mere peasant mob and rowdy as- semblage of rebels. Washington himself, with his notions of authority, his pride of breeding, his schooling 233 BOSTON AND BUNKER HILL, FROM A PRINT PUBLISHED IN 1781 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE in conduct and privilege, was far from pleased, till he began to see below the surface, with the disorderly array he found of uncouth, intractable plough boys and farmers, one esteeming himself as good as another, with free-and-easy manners and a singular, half-indif- ferent insolence against authority or discipline. "There are some fine fellows come from Virginia/' Joseph Reed, of Pennsylvania, had written of the Vir- ginian delegates to the Congress at Philadelphia; "but they are very high. We understand they are the cap- ital men of the colony ." It was good that one of the masterful group should ride all the public way from Philadelphia to Boston to take command of the army, the most conspicuous figure in the colonies, showing every one of the thousands who crowded to greet or see him as he passed how splendid a type of self-respecting gentlemen was now to be seen at the front of affairs, putting himself forward soberly and upon principle. The leaders of the revolt in Massachusetts were by no means all new men like John Adams or habitual agita- tors like Samuel Adams; many a man of substance and of old lineage had also identified himself with the popular cause. But new, unseasoned men were very numerous and very prominent there among those who had turned affairs upside down ; a very great number of the best and oldest families of the colony had prompt- ly ranged themselves on the side of the government; the revolution now at last on foot in that quarter could too easily be made to look like an affair of popular clamor, a mere rising of the country. It was of signal advantage to have high personal reputation and a strong flavor, as it were, of aristocratic distinction given it by this fortunate choice the Congress had 235 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE made of a commander. It was no light matter to de- spise a cause which such men openly espoused and stood ready to fight for. The British lay still till Washington came, and gave him the rest of the year, and all the winter till spring returned, in which to get his rude army into fighting shape, why, no one could tell, not even their friends and spokesmen in Parliament. The Americans swarmed busy on every hand. It proved infinitely difficult for them to get supplies, particularly arms and ammunition ; but slowly, very slowly, they came in. General Washing- ton was but forty-three, and had an energy which was both imperative and infectious. His urgent, explicit, businesslike letters found their way to every man of influence and to every colonial committee or assembly from whom aid could come. Cannon were dragged all the way from Ticonderoga for his use. The hardy, danger-loving seamen of the coasts about him took very cheerfully to privateering ; intercepted supply ships and even transports bound for Boston ; brought English merchantmen into port as prizes; cut ships out from under the very guns of a British man-of-war here and there in quiet harbors. Food and munitions intended for the British regiments at Boston frequently found their way to General Washington's camps instead, notwithstanding Boston harbor was often full of armed vessels which might have swept the coasts. The com- manders in Boston felt beset, isolated, and uneasy, and hesitated painfully what to do. The country at large was open to the insurgent forces, to move in as they pleased. In the autumn Colonel Montgomery, the gallant young Irish soldier who had served under Wolfe at Quebec, led a continental force 236 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE northward through the wilderness ; took the forts which guaided the northern approaches to Lake Champlain; and occupied Montreal, intercepting and taking the little garrison which left the place in boats to make its way down the river. Meanwhile Colonel Benedict Arnold was at the gates of Quebec, and Montgomery pushed forward to join him. Colonel Arnold had forced his way in from the coast through the thick forests of Maine, along the icy streams of the Kennebec and the Chaudiere. The bitter journey had cost him quite a third of the little force with which Washington had sent him forth. He had but seven hundred men with whom to take the all but impregnable place, and Montgomery brought but a scant five hundred to assist him. But the two young commanders were not to be daunted. They loved daring, and touched all who followed them with their own indomitable spirit. In the black dark- ness of the night which preceded the last day of the year (December 31, 1775), amidst a blinding storm of snow, they threw themselves upon the defences of the place, and would have taken it had not Montgomery lost his life ere his men gained their final foothold within the walls. The Congress at Philadelphia had at least the satisfaction of receiving the colors of the Seventh Regiment of his Majesty's regulars, taken at Fort Chambly, as a visible token of Montgomery's ex- ploits at the northern outlet of Champlain; and every added operation of the Americans, successful or unsuc- cessful, added to the feeling of isolation and uneasiness among the British at Boston. October 10, 1775, Sir William Howe superseded Gen- eral Gage as commander-in-chief in the closely watched and invested town; but the change of commanders 237 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE made little difference. Every one except the sailors, the foragers, the commissaries, the drill sergeants. RICHARD MONTGOMERY the writing clerks, the colonial assemblies, the con- gressional and local committees, lay inactive till March came, 1776, and Washington was himself ready to 238 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE take the offensive. At last he had such cannon and such tools and stores and wagons and teams as he had been asking and planning and waiting for the weary, anxious winter through. On the morning of the 5th of March the British saw workmen and ordnance and every sign of a strong force of provincials on Dorchester heights, and were as surprised as they had been, close upon a year before, to see men and trenches on Bunker Hill. Washington had done work in the night which it was already too late for them to undo ; a storm beat the waters of the bay as the day wore on and made it impossible to put troops across to the attack in boats ; Washington had all the day and another night in which to complete his defences; and by the morning of the 6th the British knew that the heights could not be taken without a risk and loss they could not afford. The town was rendered untenable at a stroke. With deep chagrin, Howe determined upon an immediate evacuation; and by the iyth he was aboard his ships, eight thousand troops and more than a thousand loyalists who dared not stay. The stores and can- non, the ammunition, muskets, small-arms, gun car- riages, and supplies of every kind which he found himself obliged to leave behind enriched Washington with an equipment more abundant than he could ever have hoped to see in his economical, ill-appointed camp at Cambridge. The only British army in America had withdrawn to Halifax : his Majesty's troops had nowhere a foothold in the colonies. But that, every one knew, was only the first act in a struggle which must grow vastly greater and more tragical before it was ended. Washington knew very well that there was now no drawing back. 239 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Not since the affair at Bunker Hill had he deemed it possible to draw back; and now this initial success in arms had made the friends of revolution very bold BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AS A POLITICIAN everywhere. As spring warmed into summer it was easy to mark the growth in the spirit of independence. One of the first measures of the Continental Congress, after coming together for its third annual session in May, 1776, was to urge the several colonies to provide 240 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE themselves with regular and permanent governments as independent states, instead of continuing to make shift with committees of safety for executives and pro- visional "provincial congresses" for legislatures, as R. H. LEE S RESOLUTION FOR INDEPENDENCE they had done since their government under the crown had fallen to pieces; and they most of them promptly showed a disposition to take its advice. The resolution in which the Congress embodied this significant counsel plainly declared "that the exercise of every kind of x6 241 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE authority under the crown ought to be totally sup- pressed," and all the powers of government exercised under authority from the people of the colonies, words themselves equivalent to a declaration for entire sep- aration from Great Britain. Even in the colonies where loyalists mustered strongest the government of the crown had in fact almost everywhere been openly thrown off. But by midsummer it was deemed best to make a formal Declaration of Independence. North Carolina was the first to instruct her delegates to take STAtE HOUSE, PHILADKLPHIA, 1778 that final and irretrievable step; but most of the other colonies were ready to follow her lead; and on July 4th Congress adopted the impressive Declaration which Mr. Jefferson had drawn up in the name of its com- mittee. Washington himself had urgently prayed that such a step be taken, and taken at once. It would not change, it would only acknowledge, existing facts ; and it might a little simplify the anxious business he was about. He had an army which was always making and to be made, because the struggle had been calculated upon a short scale and the colonies which were contributing their half-drilled contingents to it were enlisting their men for only three months at a time. Sometimes the 242 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE men would consent to re-enlist, sometimes they would not. They did as they pleased, of course, and would time and again take themselves off by whole companies at once when their three months' term was up. Sir William Howe would come back, of course, with a force increased, perhaps irresistible : would come, Washing- ton foresaw, not to Boston, where he could be cooped SIGNATURE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON up and kept at bay, but to New York, to get control of the broad gateway of the Hudson, whose long valley had its head close to the waters of Lake George and Lake Champlain, and constituted an infinitely impor- tant strategic line drawn straight through the heart of the country, between New England, which was no doubt hopelessly rebellious, and the middle colonies, in which the crown could count its friends by the thou- sand. The Americans must meet him, apparently, with levies as raw and as hastily equipped as those out of which an army of siege had been improvised at Boston, each constituent part of which would fall to pieces and have to be put together again every three months. The worst of it was, that the country back of New York had not been, could not be, purged of active loyal- ists as the country round about Boston had been by the local " committees " of one sort or another and by the very active and masterful young men who had banded themselves together as "Sons of Liberty/' see- 243 JEFFERSON'S ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE tfkjt. v..-^,,^.v:/ r ' /" ^t^L.A^^Uu^ fn^, . tj iffUf^ntr '(a %* c^J. fnn*^ . tm tm+wt & rnAvrfrt-est^T^tuitt VOL. II. 1 */Cj*^^<^/fcA^..>.W i ff*-4**&6'lr$Ki>r~- } t***' ~^*^ r *J* **T|( >**9 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE REAR VIEW OF INDEPENDENCE HALL ing much rich adventure, and for the present little responsibility, ahead of them in those days of gov- ernment by resolution. Washington transferred his headquarters to New York early in April and set about his almost hopeless task with characteristic energy and fertility of resource; but there were spies without number all about him, and every country-side was full of enemies who waited for General Hcwe's coming to give him trouble. The formal Declaration of Independence which the Congress adopted in July hardened the face and stiffened the resolution of every man who had definitely thrown in his lot with the popular cause, as Washington had foreseen that it would, just because it made resistance avowed re- bellion, and left no way of retreat or compromise. But it also deeply grieved and alienated many a man 248 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE of judgment and good feeling, and made party differ- ences within the colonies just so much the more bitter and irreconcilable. The first attempt of the British was made against Charleston in the south. A fleet under Sir Peter Parker came out of England with fresh troops commanded by the Earl of Cornwallis, was joined by transports and men-of-war from Halifax, bearing a force under Sir Henry Clinton, and, as June drew towards its close, delivered a combined attack, by land and sea, upon the fort on Sullivan's Island, seeking to win its way past to the capture of Charleston itself. But they could not force a passage. Two of the ships, one of them Sir Peter's own flag-ship, never came away again. Colonel Moultrie and Colonel Thompson beat THE PRESIDENT'S CHAIR IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 249 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MAP y FORT MOULT RIE ^ SULLIVAN* I5LAND MAP OF SULLIVAN'S ISLAND off both the fleet and the troops landed from it; and the British went northward again to concentrate upon New York. On the 28th of June, the very day of the attack at Charleston, Howe's transports began to gather in the lower bay. A few days more, and there were thirty thousand troops waiting to be landed. It was impos- sible, with the force Washington had, to prevent their being put ashore at their commander's convenience. It was impossible to close the Narrows, to keep their ships from the inner bay, or even to prevent their passing up the river as they pleased. Washington could only wait within the exposed town or within his trenches on Brooklyn heights, which commanded the town al- 250 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE" most as Dorchester and Charlestown heights com- manded Boston. WILLIAM MOULTRIE $ For a month and more Sir William waited, his troops most of them still upon the ships, until he should first attempt to fulfil his mission of peace and accommo- 251 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE dation. His brother, Admiral Lord Howe, joined him there in July. They were authorized to offer uncon- ditional pardon, even now, to all who would submit. The ministers in England could not have chosen com- missioners of peace more acceptable to the Americans or more likely to be heard than the Howes. Not only were they men of honor, showing in all that they did the straightforward candor and the instinctive sense of duty that came with their breeding and their train- ing in arms, but they were also brothers of that gallant young soldier who had come over almost twenty years ago to fight the French with Abercrombie, to be loved by every man who became his comrade, and to lose his life untimely fighting forward through the forests which lay about Ticonderoga, a knightly and heroic figure. But they could offer no concessions, only pardon for utter submission, and, for all their honor- able persistency, could find no one in authority among the Americans who would make the too exacting ex- change. Their offers of pardon alternated with the movements of their troops and their steady successes in arms. Lord Howe issued his first overture of peace, in the form of a public proclamation offering pardon, immediately upon his arrival with his fleet at Sandy Hook, and followed it up at once with messages to the Congress at Philadelphia. Sir William Howe put his troops ashore on the 22d of August, and made ready to dislodge Washington from the heights of Brooklyn ; but on the 23d he too, in his turn, made yet another offer of general pardon, by proclamation. On the 2yth he drove the American forces on Long Island in on their defences, and rendered the heights (it once practically untenable. Washington liad but THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE eighteen thousand half - disciplined militiamen with which to hold the town and all the long shores of the SIR WILLIAM HOWE open bay and river, and had put ten thousand of them across the river to hold Long Island and the defences on the heights. Sir William had put twenty A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE thousand men ashore for the attack on the heights; and when Washington knew that his advanced guard was driven in, and saw Sir William, mindful of Bun- ker Hill, bestow his troops, not for an assault, but for an investment of the heights, he perceived at once how easily he might be cut off and trapped there, armed ships lying at hand which might at any moment com- pletely command the river. Immediately, and as se- cretly as quickly, while a single night held, he with- drew every man and every gun, as suddenly and as successfully as he had seized the heights at Dorchester. Again Sir William sent a message of conciliation to the Congress, by the hands of General Sullivan, his prisoner. On the nth of September, before the next movement of arms, Dr. Franklin, Mr. John Adams, and Mr. Edward Rutledge met Lord Howe and Sir William, as commissioners from the Congress, to dis- cuss possible terms of accommodation. Dr. Franklin had been in London until March. During the past win- ter he had more than once met Lord Howe in earnest conference about American affairs, the ministers wish- ing to find through him some way, if it were possible, of quieting the colonies. But the ministers had not been willing then to make the concessions which might have ended the trouble, and their commissioners were not authorized to make them now; and the conference with the representatives of the Congress came to noth- ing, as the conferences in London had come to nothing. Washington could no more hold Manhattan Island with the forces at his command than he could hold Brooklyn heights. He had no choice in the end but to retire. General Howe was cautious, moved slowly, and handled his forces with little energy or decision; BY HIS EXCELLENCY WILLIAM HOWE, MAJOR GENERAL, #r. &>c. &c. AS Linnen and Woolen Goods arc Articles much wanted by the Rebels, and would aid and aflift them in their Rebellion, the Com- mander in Chief expects that all good ^objects will ufe their utm oft Endeavors to have all fuch Articles convey'd from this Place: Any who have notOpportunity to convey theirGoods under t , ir own Care, may" deliver them on Board the Mi- nerva at Hubbard's Wharf, to Crean B'rttfb,- life]; mark'd with their Names, who \vill give a Certifi- cate of the Delivery, and will oblige himfc'f to return them to the Owners, all unavoidable Ac- cidents accepted. If after this Notice any Perfon fecretcs or keep; in his PofTeiTion fiich Articles, he will be a Favourer of Rebels^ Bofton, Marchiptb, HOWE'S PROCLAMATION PREPARATORY TO LEAVING BOSTON A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Washington made stand and fought at every point at which there was the least promise of success. His men and his commanders were shamefully demoralized by their defeat on Long Island, but he held them to- gether with singular tact and authority : repulsed the enemy at Haarlem heights (September i6th), held his own before them at White Plains (October 28th), and did not feel obliged to abandon the island until late in November, after General Greene had fatally blundered by suffering three thousand of the best trained men of the scant continental force, with invaluable artil- lery, small-arms, and stores, to be trapped and taken at Fort Washington (November i6th). When he did at last withdraw, and leave Howe in complete control of the great port and its approaches, the situation was indeed alarming. He had been un- speakably stung and disquieted, as he withdrew mile by mile up the island, to see how uncertain his men were in the field, how sometimes they would fight and sometimes they would not at the hot crisis of a critical encounter; and now things seemed to have gone utterly to pieces. He might at any moment be quite cut off from New England. While he still faced Howe on Manhattan Island, General Carleton, moving with a British force out of Canada, had driven Benedict Arnold up Champlain, despite stubborn and gallant resistance (October nth and I3th), and on the I4th of October had occupied Crown Point. There he had stopped; and later news came that he had withdrawn. But apparently he could strike again almost when he pleased, and threaten all the long line of the Hudson even to where Howe lay at New York itself. It was not mere defeat, however, that put the cast 256 EVACUATION OF BROOKLYN HEIOHTS A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE almost of despair upon affairs as Washington saw them that dismal autumn. His forces seemed to melt away under his very eyes. Charles Lee, his chief subordinate in command, too much a soldier of fort- une to be a man of honor, obeyed or disregarded his orders at his own discretion. When once it was known that General Washington had been obliged to aban- don the Hudson, consternation and defection spread everywhere. On the 30th of November, when his de- feat seemed complete, it might be final, the Howes joined in a fresh proclamation of pardon, inviting all, once again, to submit and be forgiven; and it looked for a little as if all who dared would take advantage of the offer and make their peace with the enemy, for Washington now moved in a region where opinion had from the first been sharply divided. While de- fection spread he was in full retreat, with scarcely three thousand men all told in his demoralized force, that handful ill-clad and stricken with disease, and dwindling fast by desertion, an overwhelming body of the enemy, under Cornwallis, at his very heels as he went, so that he dared hardly so much as pause for rest until he had put the broad shelter of the Dela- ware behind him. " These are the times that try men's souls," cried Thomas Paine (December, 1776); "the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot" were falling away. One after another, that very summer, the dele- gates of the several states had put their names to the Declaration of Independence; but already there seemed small prospect of making it good. To not a few it already began to seem a piece of mere bravado, to be repented of. The real strength and hope of the cause lay in the 258 IN COUNCIL OF SAFETY? PHILADELPHIA, December 8, 1775. . S I R. i-p* HERE is certain intelligence of General Howe s army feeing yefterday on its march from Brunfwick to Princetown, which puts it beyond a doubt that he intends for this city This glorious oppor- tunity of fignalizing himfelf in defence of our country^ and fecurjng the Rights of America forever, will be feized by every man 'who has a fpark of patriotic fire in his bofom. We entreat you to march the Militia under your command with all poffible expedition CQ this city, and bring with you as many waggons as you can poflibly pro- cure, which you are hereby authorized to imprefs, if they cannot be had orhfvwife Delay not a moment, it may be fatal and fubjeft you and all you hold moft dear to the ruffian hands of the enemy, whofe cruelties are without diftin&ion and unequalled. fy Order of the Council, DAVID RITTENHOUSE, VicePrefident. Tetk COLONELS w COMMANDING OFFlCERSc/"/^ tycffeahie Battalions of ibis STATB. TWO- O'CLOC K, P.M. THE Enemy are at Trenton, and all the City Militia ar Inarched to meet them, CIRCULAR OF PHILADELPHIA COUNCIL OF SAFETY A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE steadfastness and the undaunted initiative of the in- domitable Virginian whom the Congress had chosen for the chief command. He proved himself a maker as well as a commander of armies, struck oftenest when he was deemed most defeated, could not by any reverse be put out of the fighting. He was now for the first time to give the British commanders a real taste of his quality. What there was to be done he did him- self. The British stopped at the Delaware; but their lines reached Burlington, \vithin eighteen miles of Phil- adelphia, and from Trenton, which they held in some force, extended through Princeton to New Brunswick and their headquarters at New York. Philadelphia was stricken with utter panic. Sick and ragged soldiers poured in from Washington's camp, living evidences of what straits he was in, and had to be succored and taken care of; the country roads were crowded with vehicles leaving the town laden with women and chil- dren and household goods; the Congress itself incon- tinently fled the place and betook itself to Baltimore. Washington's military stores were in the town, but he could get no proper protection for them. It was at that very moment, nevertheless, that he showed all the world with what skill and audacity he could strike. By dint of every resolute and persistent effort he had before Christmas brought his little force to a fighting strength of some six thousand. More than half of these were men enlisted only until the new year should open, but he moved before that. During the night of Christmas Day, 1776, ferried by doughty fishermen from far Gloucester and Mar- blehead, the same hardy fellows who had handled his boats the night he abandoned the heights of Brook- 260 OPERATIONS AROUND TRENTON AND PRINCETON. NUMBERS 76 REPRE- SENT THE CAMPS OF GENERAL CORNWALLIS AND 77 THAT OF GENERAL KNYPHAUSEN ON THE 230 OF JUNE, 1777 VOL. II. I g A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE lyn, he got twenty-five hundred men across the river through pitchy darkness and pounding ice; and in the early light and frost of the next morning he took Trenton, with its garrison of nine hundred Hessians, at the point of the bayonet. There he waited, keep- ing his unwilling militiamen to their service past the opening of the year by dint of imperative persuasion and a pledge of his own private fortune for their pay, ; until Cornwallis came down post-haste out of New York with eight thousand men. Moving only to change his position a little, he dared to wait until his adver- sary was encamped, at nightfall of the 2d of January, 1 777, within ear-shot of his trenches; then slipped north- ward in the night, easily beat the British detachment posted at Princeton, as the next day dawned and had its morning; and could have taken or destroyed Corn- wallis's stores at New Brunswick had his men been adequately shod to outstrip the British following hard behind them. As it was, he satisfied himself with having completely flanked and thwarted his foe, and withdrew safe to the heights of Morristown. The British had hastily retired from Burlington upon the taking of Trenton, so hastily that they took neither their cannon nor even their heavier baggage away with them. Now they deemed it unsafe to take post anywhere south of New Brunswick, until spring should come and they could see what Washington meant to do. Once again, therefore, the Americans controlled New Jersey; and Washington ordered all who had accepted General Howe's offer of pardon either to with- draw to the British lines or take the oath of allegiance to the United States. Daring and a touch of genius had turned despair into hope. Americans did not 262 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE soon forget that sudden triumph of arms, or that the great Frederick of Prussia had said that that had been the most brilliant campaign of the century. A soldier's eye could see quickly and plainly enough how the whole aspect of the war had been changed by those brief, sudden, unexpected strokes at Trenton and Princeton. Men near at hand, and looking for what a soldier would deem it no business of his to reckon with, saw that it had not only radi- cally altered the military situation, but also the very atmosphere of the times for all concerned. The fighting at Trenton and Princeton had been of no great consequence in itself, but it had in every way put the war beyond its experimental stage. It had taught the British commanders with what sort of spirit and genius they had to deal, and how certain it was that their task must be carried to a finish not only by conquering marches and a mere occupation of the country, but by careful strategy and the long plans of a set campaign. More- over, they now obviously had a country, and not an insurgent army merely, to conquer, and a vast country at that. That surprising winter had set men's sinews to what they had undertaken, on the one side as on the other. In December (1776) it had looked as if all firmness had been unnerved and all hope turned to foreboding by the success of the British at New York and in the Jerseys. Joseph Galloway, of Pennsylvania, when 263 HESSIAN BOOT A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE that crisis came, took advantage of the opportunity to remove within the British lines and cast in his lot there with those who were ready to stake everything upon their loyalty and the success of the British arms. Others followed his example, some out of panic, but many, it seemed, not out of fear, but out of principle. Only the other day Mr. Galloway had been the chief figure in the Congress of Committees which spoke for the colonies ; for many a long day he had been the chief figure in the politics of his own colony; and many of those who made submission when he did were of families of the first dignity and consequence. They, like him, had been champions of colonial rights until it came to the point of rebellion. They would not follow further. Their example was imitated now, moreover, in their act of formal submission, by some who had played the part of patriot more boldly and with less compunction. Mr. Samuel Tucker, even, who until this untoward month had been president of New Jersey's revolutionary committee of safety, made his submission. It seemed hard to find steadfastness anywhere. But Washington's genius and the license of the British soldiery had turned the tide at last, when it seemed upon the very point of becoming overwhelm- ing. The occupation of the British, brief as it had been, had brought upon New York and the Jerseys experiences like those of a country overrun by a foreign soldiery permitted almost every license of conquest. When the ministers in England found themselves, in 1774, face to face with the revolt in the colonies, they could count but 17,547 men all told in the King's forces; and when it came to sudden recruiting, they could obtain very few enlistments. They dared not risk 264 LflL'r J /(,.-,; an O^ftJV r f . S'-\" " r you this morning, 1 have h.ui ..n opportunity of hearing 1 a n:n:: l v-i oi ihc p.irtii -i 1 ": . of the horrid dcpred .tioT, committed by th.it r.:ri i..! the 1,'rituii anr.v, w!ii,;h was ltiti'i::rd *t and nc;:r Pcnnytown, "under jiic v ii.rn.ind of Lord OrmvaHis. C.-iides the (ixuxn younir women who had Hi A : UK- W :.N tu avoid their brutality, and were there feixcd and carried oft, nc man !,:,! the crud mortification to have hi, wife and only daughter (a child r! ten years ul age) raviflicd j thib he himfeU", almoft choaked with, grief, ut- tered in lamentations to his iricr.d, who told me of it, and alfo informed me that another girl of thirteen years oi age w.\< tikcn from her father's houfe, car- ried to a barn about a mile, there raviihnl, and afterwards nude i,-fe of by five, jin-ie of t!i.-k- b.'iitos. Numbers o/ iiiibnco of the fa me kind of behaviour 1 am aff.ircd <:i h.ive luppcncd : here their brutlih lui*; v.ere their Uimulas; but wanton mifchi^t wax Icen in every part of the countr,' c-erv thing portable- they plunder an J carry off, neither a;e nor fc.v, Whi^ or Tory, is ipared; an ifuUfcriminate ruin intends every peribn th.-y mcer with, infants, children, old men and women, arc left in their (him without a blanket to cove; them in thi* incK-mciit L-.u">:i ; furnifir.- of every kind dd'troyed or burnt, windows and doors broke to pice.-.-. ; ia ilioi :, the houk-s left unh.ioitable, ai.d the |>eople left with- f;u'. proviiL;:;, for every horfc, cow, o\-, 1;..^ ^n J poultiy, caniedoff: a blind old gentleman near K-nnytown plund.-rc.i o.-'e/cry thinj, and on I::-- door wrote, 1 Capt. Will:- of ihc Royal Irilh did thi^,.' As a notablr proof of their regard and favour to thei i in'ei:.!:, and well-wiihers, they yellerday busnt the elegant houfe of Daniel Cox, Efq; at Trenton -Ferr)', who has bci/n th ;; conllant ad- voCP.t-.:, and llipporter of Toryilhi in that ni:tci the- countrv ; tiri^ behaviour uf theirs h.;s lo e.vafper.Ucd tlu- peoph of ilv^ c ...::ury, tha: they are flying to rms, and ton:ii:i" themfelvcs into j: '.rties tu \\.iv-l.iytheav and cut them oil' wherever they can Wet with th-.rn : this, and other efforts which arc making, 1 horv v.iil f-> ItrJ^htcn t!;e:n t!i,;t tliey will io,;:i find their (ituitkm very difii- e in Ncw-J*rfcv. Anoth-r inltjuce oi their brutalitv happent'd near Wocdbridge : One of the mo. t rifpcctaWe gendcmsnaa that p.vrt of the coun- try w.i 3 alarmed by the cries and ihriek? of a mull lovely daughter; he found an officer, a Britilli officer, in the act of raviihing her, he iuftantly put him to I'.-ath ; two other officers ruilicd in with fufecs, and fired two balls into the fa- hcr, who is now languishing under his wounds. I am tired of this horrid Lenc ; Ah:ir;hty Juftice cannot fuffer it to go unpunished: he will infpirit his people (wbp only claim that liberty which he has entitled them to) to do them- klves juliice, to rile uuiverUlly in arms, and drive vh.-fs inVudir.g tyrants out f our country. Publiiiied by order of the Council of Safety, GEO. 13 I CK HAM, Secretary, pro. tern. : fq&3tf&)l&3&&&^^ Pnau-d by J O II N D l- T N L A P. CONCERNING HRJTISH OUTRAGES A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE conscription, English opinion had never tolerated that, except to meet invasion. They sent to America, therefore, to reinforce General Howe, not only English soldiers as many as they could muster, but a great force of German troops as well, hired by the regiment, their trained officers included, from the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and other German princes, neighbors to the German dominions of the House of Hannover. It was close upon a thousand of these "Hessians" (for the colonists knew them all by that single name) that Washington had taken at Trenton, but not until they and their comrades had had time to make every country-side from New York to the Delaware dread and hate them. The British commanders had suf- fered their men, whether English or foreign, to plunder houses, insult and outrage women, destroy fields of grain, and help themselves to w T hat the towns contained almost as ihey pleased; and had hardened the faces of ten of the angry colonists against them for every one who made submission and sought to put himself on their side, accordingly. Their marauding parties made little distinction between friend and foe, so they but got what they wanted. Washington could thank them for doing more to check defections from the patri- otic party than he could possibly do for himself by carrying out the orders of the Congress to disarm all loyalists and bring recusants to a sharp reckoning. And so the year 1777 dawned like a first year of settled war and revolution. For a little while, at the outset of the J 7 ear, the Congress made Washington practical dictator in every affair that concerned the prosecution of the war. It authorized long enlistments, moreover, instead of the makeshift enrolments for three months 266 TAKE NOTICE, .::. i P^B V. Hi RECRUITING POSTER Editor's Note. The blurred inscription at the bottom of the poster reads as follows : That tuesday, Wednesday, thursday, friday, and Saturday, at Spotswood, in Middlesex county, attendance will be given by Lieutenant Reading, with his music and recruiting party of company in Major Shute's Battalion of the nth regiment of infantry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Aaron Ogden, for the purpose of receiving the enrollment of such youth of spirit as may be willing to enter into this honourable service. The Encouragement, at this time, to enlist is truly liberal and generous, namely, a bounty of twelve dollars, an annual and fully sufficient supply of good and handsome cloathing, a daily allowance of a large and ample ration of provisions, together with sixty dollars a year in gold and silver money on account of pay, the whole of which the soldier may lay up for himself and friends, as all articles proper for his subsistence and comfort are provided by law, without any expence to him. Those who may favour this recruiting party with their attendance as above will have an opportunity of hearing and seeing in a more particular manner the great advantages which these brave men will have who shall embrace this opportunity of spending a few happy years in viewing the different parts of this beautiful continent, in the honourable and truly respectable character of a soldier, after which he may, if he pleases, return home to his friends, with his pockets full of money and his head covered with laurels. GOD SAVE THE UNITED STATES. A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE which had hitherto kept Washington's army always a-making and to be made, dissolving and reforming month by month. The Congress had, it is true, neither the energy nor the authority it needed. It could get little money to pay the troops; its agents seriously mismanaged the indispensable business of supplying the army with stores and clothing; and the men de- serted by the score in disgust. Washington declared, in the summer of 1777, that he was losing more men by desertion than he was gaining by enlistment, do what he would. But these were difficulties of adminis- tration. In spite of all dangers and discouragements, it was evident that the continent was settling to its task. And the end of the year showed the struggle hopefully set forward another stage. The military operations of that memorable year were a striking illustration of the magnitude of the task the British generals were set to accomplish, and of their singular lack of the energy, decision, and de- spatch necessary to accomplish it. They seemed like men who dallied and dreamed and did not mean to succeed. They planned like men of action, but then tarried and bungled at the execution of their plans. It was their purpose that year (1777) to strike from three several directions along the valley of the Hudson, and break once for all the connection between the New England colonies and their confederates. General Burgoyne was to move, with eight thousand men, down Lake Champlain; Colonel St. Leger, with a small but sufficient force, along a converging line down the val- ley of the Mohawk, from Oswego on Ontario ; and Gen- eral Howe was to meet them from the south, moving in strength up the Hudson. More than thirty -three 268 JOHN BURGOYNE A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE thousand men would have effectually swept the whole of that great central valley, north and south, when their plan was executed. But it was not executed. The British commanders were to learn that, for their armies, the interior of the country was impracticable. Both St. Leger and Burgoyne were baffled in that vast wilderness. It was simple enough for Burgoyne to descend the lakes and take once again the forts which guarded them. Even Ticonderoga he took without a blow struck. A precipitous height, which the Amer- icans had supposed inaccessible by any sort of carriage, rose above the strong fortifications of the place beyond a narrow strip of water; the English dragged cannon to its summit ; and General St. Clair promptly withdrew in the night, knowing his position to be no longer tenable. But it was another matter to penetrate the forests which lay about Lake George and the upper waters of the Hudson with militiamen out of every country-side within reach swarming thicker and thicker at every step the redcoats took into the depths of the perplexing region. A thousand men Burgoyne felt obliged to leave at Ticonderoga for the sake of his com- munications; close upon a thousand more he lost (Au- gust 1 6th) at Bennington, whither he had sent them to seize stores ; and by the time he had reached the neigh- borhood of Saratoga with the six thousand left him, fully fourteen thousand provincials beset him. He had been told that the people of the country through which he was to pass would gladly give him aid and succor; that those quiet forests of Vermont and New York would even yield him, it might be, a regiment or two of loyalists wherewith to recruit his ranks when once his presence there should give the secluded settlers 270 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE heart of grace to declare themselves openly for the King. Instead of that, he presently had a formidable force of provincial yeomanry out of Vermont dogging ARTHUR ST. CLAIR his steps under General Lincoln; a like levy, hurriedly drawn together out of New Hampshire and Massa- chusetts, beat and captured his best German troops at Bennington; the country was emptied of its people 271 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE and of its cattle, was stripped of its forage even, as he advanced; and every step he took threatened to cut him off alike from his sources of supply and from his lines of retreat. It maddened the watchful men of those scattered homes to see him come with half a thou- sand savages at his front. It had been bad enough to see any invaders on that defenceless border : but the presence of the redskins put their homes and their lives in immediate and deadly peril, and they mustered as they would have mustered to meet a threat of massacre. Burgoyne himself would have checked his savage allies when the mischief had been done and it was too late ; but he only provoked them to desert him and leave him without guides in an almost pathless wilderness, without appeasing the men their presence had brought swarming upon his flanks. He pushed forward nevertheless, dogged, indomit- able, determined to risk everything rather than fail of his rendezvous with Howe and St. Leger at the Hudson. And yet close upon the heels of his defeat and heavy loss at Bennington came news that St. Leger had already failed. Late in July, St. Leger had thrust his way cautiously through the forests from Oswego to the upper waters of the Mohawk; and there, on the 3d of August, he had set himself down to take Fort Stanwix, with its little garrison of six hundred men under Colonel Peter Gansevoort. There, if any where- in those northern forests by the Mohawk, might men who fought in the name of the King look to be bidden Godspeed and given efficient aid and counsel by the settlers of the country-side through which they moved. There William Johnson (Sir William since the French war) had reigned supreme for a long generation, his 272 SAMUEL ADAMS THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE energy, subtlety, quick resource, and never failing power over men holding the restless Iroquois always BENJAMIN LINCOLN to their loyalty to the English, the English always to their duty to the crown. Sir William had been dead these three years; but his son, Sir John, still held his u.-,8 273 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ancient allies to their fealty and stood at the front of those who would not accept the revolution wrought at Boston and Williamsburg and Philadelphia. This SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON war among the English sadly puzzled the red warriors of the forest. War between the king of the French and the king of the English they understood; it was a war of hostile peoples; but this war of the English 274 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE against their chiefs? "You are two brothers," they said, "of one blood." The Mohawks deemed it some subtile treachery, as their great chief did, the redoubt- able Joseph Brant, himself trained with the English boys in Mr. Wheelock's school at Lebanon and taught to see the white man close at hand ; and the Cayugas and Senecas fol- lowed them in their allegiance to the mighty sachem who " lived over the great lake," their friend and ally time out of mind. The Onondagas held off, neutral. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras, among whom Mr. Kirk- land was mission- ary, aided the pa- triots when they could, because he wished it, but would not take the war-path. There were white loyalists, too, as well as red, on that far frontier. Sir John Johnson was their leader. Their regiment of Royal Greens, together with John Butler's Tory rangers, constituted the bulk of St. Leger's motley force of seventeen hundred, red men and white. Scottish highlanders, stubborn English- SIR JOHN JOHNSON VOL. II. 20 2 75 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE men hot against the revolution, and restless Irishmen, for the nonce on the side of authority, filled their ranks. JOSEPH BRANT But even there, in Sir William Johnson's one-time kingdom, enemies of King and Parliament mustered stronger yet, and showed quicker concert, freer, more instant union than the Tories. There were Dutch 276 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE there, and Germans and Scots-Irish, who recked nothing of the older ties that had bound them when it came to the question whether they should yield in their own affairs to masters over sea. Peter Gansevoort com- manded the little garrison at Stanwix; Nicholas Her- kimer brought eight hundred men to his succor. Brant and Johnson trapped the stout hearted German in a deadly ambush close by Oriskany as he came; but he beat them off. While that heroic struggle went forward there in the close ravine the hot morning through (Au- gust 6, 1777), Ganse- voort made sally and sacked Sir John's camp. Herkimer could come no further; but there came, instead, rumors that Burgoyne PETER GANSEVOORT was foiled and taken and the whole American army on the road to Stan- wix. It was only Benedict Arnold, with twelve hun- dred Massachusetts volunteers; but the rumors they industriously sent ahead of them carried the panic they had planned, and when they came there was no army to meet. St. Leger's men were in full flight to Oswego, the very Indians who had been their allies -277 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE harrying them as they went, in mere wanton savagery and disaffection. Though he knew now that St. Leger could not come, though he knew nothing, and painfully conjectured a thousand things, of Sir William Howe's promised movement below upon the river, Burgoyne pushed forward to the Hudson and crossed it (September 13, 1777), to face the Americans under General Gates upon the western bank. It was as safe to go forward as to turn back. Gates, secure within his intrenchments, would not strike ; and he, his supplies instantly threat- ened behind him, could not wait. On the iQth of Sep- tember he threw four thousand men forward through the forest to turn, if it were possible, the flank of Gen- eral Gates 's army where it lay so still upon Bemis's Heights by Stillwater. But Arnold was too quick for him. With three thousand men Arnold met and check- ed him, moving with all the quick audacity and impet- uous dash of which he had given Guy Carleton a taste upon Champlain and at the gates of Quebec, Daniel Morgan and his Virginian riflemen again at his back as they had been at far Quebec. His stroke having failed, Burgoyne lay still for eighteen tedious days, waiting once more for Sir Henry Clinton, now at last, he knew, actually upon the river. On the 7th of Octo- ber he struck again. Clinton came too slowly. Bur- goyne's lines of communication by the northern lakes, long threatened by General Lincoln and his Vermont- ers, were now actually cut off, and it was possible to calculate just how few days' rations remained to make his campaign upon. He tried an attack with picked men, moving quickly; but overwhelming forces met him, and the inevitable Arnold, coming upon the field 278 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE when he was already beaten, turned his defeat almost into a rout. He withdrew hopelessly towards Saratoga. Every crossing of the river he found heavily guarded against him. No succor came to him, or could come, it seemed, either from the west or from the south; he could find no safe way out of the wilderness; without aid, the odds were too great against him; and on the lyth of October he capitulated. General Howe had moved south instead of north. He fancied that it would bring him no small moral advantage to take Philadelphia, the "capital" of the insurgent confederacy ; and he calculated that it ought to be easily possible to do so before Burgoyne would need him in the north. Early in June, accordingly, he attempted to cross the Jerseys; but Washington, striking from Morristown, threatened his flank in a way which made him hesitate and draw back. He returned to New York, and put eighteen thousand men aboard his transports, to get at Philadelphia by water from the south. It was the 25th of August, and Bur- goyne was needing him sorely in the northern forests, before he had got ready for his land movement. He had gone all the long way round about into Chesapeake Bay, and had made his landing at the Head of Elk, in Maryland. Washington met him behind the fords of the Brandy wine (September nth), but could not with- stand him. He could only delay him. Defeat no longer meant dismay for the Americans ; Washington acted in force as steadily and effectively after defeat as after vic- tory. It was the 2yth of September before Sir William entered Philadelphia. Hs was hardly settled there be- fore Washington attacked him again, at his outpost at Germantown, in the thick mist of the morning of 280 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE SCENE OF THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDYWINE the 4th of October, and would have taken the place had not the mist confused and misled his own troops. Meantime Burgoyne was trapped at Saratoga. On October 3d Sir Henry Clinton had begun at last the movement from New York for Burgoyne's relief which ought to have been begun in midsummer, carrying northward a strong fleet upon the river and an army of three thousand men. But it was too late. Bur- goyne's surrender was already inevitable. The net result of the campaign was the loss of the northern army and the occupation of Philadelphia. "Philadel- phia has taken Howe/' laughed Dr. Franklin, in Paris, when they told him that Howe had taken Philadelphia. The long, slow year had been full of signs both good and bad. International forces were beginning to work in favor of the insurgent colonies. From the outset 281 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE France and Spain had been willing to give them aid against England, their traditional rival and enemy. Since the summer of 1776 they had been promised French and Spanish assistance through Beaumarchais, acting ostensibly as the firm of "Roderigue Hortalez et Cie./' but really as the secret agent of the two govern- ments; and early in 1777 the fictitious firm had begun actually to despatch vessels laden with arms and am- munition to America. Private money also went into the venture, but governments were known to be be- hind it; and on January 5th, 1777, Mr. Franklin had arrived in Paris to assist in bringing France into still closer touch with the war for independence over sea. As the year drew towards its close the great Frederick of Prussia had forbidden troops hired in the other Ger- man states to cross Prussian territory to serve the Eng- lish in America, and so had added his good-will to the French and Spanish money. French, and even German and Polish officers, too, volunteered for service in the American armies. It was the gallant Polish patriot Tadeusz Kosciuszko who had shown General Gates how to intrench himself upon Bemis's Heights. The winter was deeply disheartening, nevertheless, for Washington. Having failed in the mist at Ger- mantown, he withdrew his army to Valley Forge, whence he could watch Howe at Philadelphia, and move as he moved, and yet himself feel safe against attack; but utter demoralization had fallen upon the Congress, sitting in a sort of exile at York, and his army was brought to such straits of privation and suf- fering in its exposed camp as he had never been obliged to see it endure before. There was plenty of food in the country; plenty even at the disposal of Congress 282 13 v H:> r X (; 1. I. L !; X C V GEORGE WASHINGTON, ESQUIRE, GENERAL and C l) M M A N I) K R in Gil ': !: r of .' : l-'o^c ; of the UNIT::; BY Virtue ofr the Po\vcr r.ru'i Direction to ciully given, I hereby enjoin and reqi reikliny; within levenrv titles ci my 1. rs LG threfh < >i dicir Cjr ;in by the i tl Day of Fi and the other Half by the ill Day of March nc\: ei on Puin, in Cafe of Failure, of !ia\ ing all t! niai'ri in Shcayes after the Period above meniioncd, ft-ixed by the Gominiilaries and Quarter-Ma_f!ei and paid for as Stra\v. Ci I \" K X under my Hand, a? Head Barters , ;;../; the I'lillcy Forge^ in Philadelphia Cfj ! !;;fy^ this ic.'b Day of December^ 1777. G. // ' ^1 S i-i i A / 7 By His Excellency's (Jomn.and, ROBERT H. HARRISON', Sec'y. !. A N C A S T E R; P^STLD ir j O 11 N D I' N I. \ WASHINGTON'S PROCLAMATION A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE and in the stores of its commissariat. The British had overrun very little of the fertile country; the crops had been abundant and laborers had not been lacking to gather them in, especialty there in thriving Penn- sylvania. But the Congress had lost all vigor alike in counsel and in action. Men of initiative had with- drawn from it to serve their states in the reorganiza- tion of their several governments and in the command of forces in the field. Sometimes scarcely a dozen members could be got together to take part in its de- liberations. It yielded to intrigue, even to intrigue against Washington; allowed its executive committees, and most of all the commissary department, upon which the army depended, to fall into disorganization; list- ened to censures and bickerings rather than to plans of action; lost the respect of the states, upon which its authority depended; and left the army almost to shift for itself for sustenance. Fortunately it was a mild winter. Fortunately Washington was masterful and indomitable, and proved equal to checkmating at a single move those who intrigued in the Congress to displace him. Despite every bitter experience of that dark and anxious season, he had when spring came an army stronger and fitter for service than it had been when he took it into winter quarters. The lengthened term of service had given him at last an army which might be drilled, and foreign officers, notably the capable Steuben, had taught him how to drill it. General Howe's winter passed easily and merrily enough in Philadelphia. Tne place was full of people of means and influence who hoped as heartily as Mr. Galloway did for the success of the British arms. Some 284 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE of the leading Quakers of the town, whose influence was all for an accommodation of the quarrel with the mother country, had been arrested the previous sum- BAKON DE mer (1777) and sent south by the patriot leaders; but many more were left who were of their mind, and Gen- eral Howe met something like a welcome when he came in the autumn. The fashionable young women of 285 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the town were delighted to look their best and to use their charms to the utmost at all the balls and social gatherings that marked the gay winter of his stay, and their parents were not displeased to see them shine there. But for the soldiers' coats one would have thought that peace had come again. But the minds of the ministers in England were not so much at ease. In February, 1778, Lord North in- troduced and pressed through Parliament conciliatory measures of the most radical sort, practically retrac- ing every misjudged step taken with regard to the col- onies since 1763; and commissioners of peace were sent to America with almost plenipotentiary powers of accommodation. But that very month a formal treaty of alliance was signed between France and the United States; by the time the peace commissioners reached Philadelphia, England had a war with France on her hands as well as a war with the colonies; there was no rejoicing in the camp at Valley Forge over the news of Lord North's unexpected turn of purpose, but there was very keen rejoicing when news of the French alliance came. The Congress would not treat with the commissioners. Conciliation had come too late; for the colonies the aspect of the war was too hopeful. When the commissioners reached Philadelphia they found General Clinton about to abandon it. Sir Henry Clinton had succeeded General Howe in chief com- mand in May. His orders were to evacuate Phila- delphia and concentrate his forces once more at New York. The town was as full of excitement and dis- may at the prospect as it had been but a little more than a year ago at news of the British approach. When the army began to move, three thousand loyalists 286 On Monday, The SIXTEENTH Inftant, ^Tvlruay ///?. At the Theatre in Southwark, For the Benefit of a PUBLIC CHARITY, Willbe reprefentedaComedy CALLED THE Conftant Couple, TO WHICH WILL BE ADDED, DUKE AND NO DUKE. The CHARACTERS by the OFFICERS of the ARMY and NAVY. TICKETS to be had at the Printer's: at die CoRee-houfe in Market- ftreet: and at the Pennfi Ivania Farmer, near the New-Market, and no where elfe. BOXES and PIT, ONE DOLLAR. GALLERY, HALT A DOLLAR. Doors to open at Five o'Clock,. and begin precifely at Seven. No Money will, on any Account, be taken at the Door. Gentlemen are earneftly requefted not to attempt to bribe the Door-keepers. . N. B. Places for the Boxes to be taken at the Office of the Theatre in Front-flreet, between the Hours of Nine and Two o'clock: After which Time, the Box-keeper will not attend. Ladies or Gen- tlemen, who would have Places kept for them, are defiied to fend their Servants -to the Theatre at Four o'clock, otherwife their Places will be given up. FHILADtLPHIA. P*tNTu> ar J_AMS HUMPHREYS. J < FACSIMILE OF PLAY BILL A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE abandoned the town with it, going with the stores by sea, while Sir Henry took his fifteen thousand men overland through the Jerseys again. When he moved, Washington moved also; outstrip- ped him; caught him at a disadvantage at Monmouth Court House (June 28, 1778); and would inevitably have beaten him most seriously had not Charles Lee again disobeyed him and spoiled the decisive move- ment of the day, Charles Lee, the soldier of fortune whom the Americans had honored and trusted. He had disobeyed before, when Washington was retreat- ing hard pressed from New York. This time he seemed to play the coward. It was not known until afterwards that he had played the traitor, too. Clinton got off, but in a sort of rout, leaving his wounded behind him. "Clinton gained no advantage except to reach New York with the wreck of his army," was the watchful Frederick's comment over sea. "America is probably lost for England." Even the seas were no longer free for the movements of the British fleets, now that France was America's ally and French fleets were gathering under orders for the American coast. Every month the war had lasted the English had found their commerce and their movement of stores and transports more and more embarrassed by the American privateersmen. There were bold and experienced seamen at every port of the long coast. The little vessels which were so easily set up and finished by skilful carpenters and riggers in almost any quiet inlet were sure to be fast and deftly handled when they got to sea; kept clear of his Maj- esty's fleets and of too closely guarded harbors ; cruised whithersoever the wits of their sagacious masters took 288 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE them; and had generally to be heavily overmatched to be beaten. They had taken more than five hundred British soldiers from the transports before the Con- CUARLES LEE gress at Philadelphia had uttered its Declaration of Independence. Their prizes numbered more than four hundred and fifty the year of Saratoga and Brandy- 1119 289 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE wine and the fight in the morning's mist at German- town, though there were seventy ships of war upon the coast. The very coasts of England herself were not safe against them. Mr. Franklin went to France in the autumn of 1776 with his pocket full of blank letters of marque, and American privateersmen from out the French ports caught prizes enough in English waters to keep the commissioners in Paris well found in money for their plans. In January, 1778, Captain Rathburne, in the Providence, actually seized the fort in the harbor of Nassau in New Providence of the Ba- hamas, and took possession of town and shipping; and in the spring of that same year John Paul Jones performed the same daring feat at Whitehaven by Solway Firth in England itself. These privateersmen, it turned out, were more to be feared for the present than the fleets of France. The Count d'Estaing was, indeed, despatched to America with twelve ships of the line and six frigates, with four thousand troops aboard; and his fleet appeared off Sandy Hook in midsummer, 1778, while Sir Henry Clinton was still fresh from his fright at Monmouth. But the too cautious admiral came and went, and that was all. He would not attempt an attack upon the English fleet within the bay at New York, though it was of scarcely half his strength. His pilots told him his larger ships could not cross the bar. Newport was the only other harbor the English held; and there he allowed Lord Howe to draw him off. A storm sep- arated the fleets before they could come to terms, and his cruise ended peaceably in Boston harbor. But it was a heavy thing for England to have French fleets to reckon with, and embarrassments thickened very 290 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE ominously about her. She had absolutely no hold on America, it seemed, outside the lines actually occupied IN CONGRESS, WEDNESDAY. AHILJ, 1776. INSTRUCTIONS t,tl* COMMANDOS ef Prkat.- Sty, * rftb.ftr*. vKcbjktU fc-.v CHK> Lflttn ,,/ Mirqv anj Rtfrifal. Mfr.fa t&- *sl- Cfftum cf Bruift ff/f/j and Corgors. YO U H.IT. by Fort. oT Arms attack, f-.!>due.' InJ like ill Sk.o, jml other Vrifch belong; to ike lnh.b.u.1, of Gre.B,iui., or, Ik. H, a h S,,,; or between h,;k W, , ,, Skip and Veffc;, brinync Pcrfcns .bo I>ta4 to folk jnd rc&k .. ihc U.,d or Pc?l,^ibe I cLpay of <^cr 7 Sh. ? or VVJil b r T d ij^ '" f 1 r p ckT.r x fe "k. f do.T : oci Wlt ^' " **" JkJ : tW *" * VL Iftwsor airyof yoor Oeen Crew Hun, ,n cold Blood, kill or maim, or, Vr Torwre or otierwiia erotiiy. \+m^S~m^m-~Vi* l mt1*r**~*fml1l**Zi,Wm.m*Zi,l3 aWoFPerfanfpriaditkeSbiporVe.Vlpiflulltake, tie (Minder dull be fnrnly puulVd. to. Yo.ta. ky in eormiet Oppoctuuocs fcJ to-Coojrdi .written AceMnti of ike Captom TO. tnd| nuke, wuk ike Nwa*er aod Kuon of the C.po=s COOK, of yoo Jo.no! horn Time to Tine, and lowllK. Ooe TVW, X Ike ka, of roar wkch Coeacany fhaU be Lanl-Mn. IX. e aoy Prifjoen or Captim, katfU] Jsl^^coL'XT"^ If r~ Hull do an, Tkuj eemrar. fo tkefc Una, e to olben baolter to be ji^ or ^Tkn,l, f JTrf fack Tkia.; to be dooe, jo. dull oot only brfek Ton Com-iSoo, a4 ke liiNe to an. Acton for frock of i CrtucofrorBood, bubcrripooibU to lie Pan; (rieitd fo. Dinup. (JluoeJ bjfwi Ma|.mCatiob REDUCED FACSIMILE OF INSTRUCTIONS FROM CONGRESS TO PRIVATEERS by her armies at Newport and New York; the very sea was beset, for her merchantmen; and France was now kindled into war against her. VOL. II. 21 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE And yet the Americans, too, were beset. They had not only their long coasts to watch and British armies to thwart and checkmate, but their western borders also to keep, against Tory and savage. The Iroquois coun- try, in particular, and all the long valleys of the Mo- hawk, the Unadilla, and the Susquehanna, were filled with the terrors of raid and massacre throughout that disappointing and anxious summer of 1778. The stub- born loyalists of the forest country, with their temper still of the untamed high- lands of old Scotland or of the intractable country-sides of old England, had been driven into exile by the un- compromising patriots, their neighbors, who outnumbered them. But they had not gone far. They had made their headquarters, the more dogged and determined of them, at Niagara, until this score should be settled. Sir John Johnson was still their leader, for all he had been so discomfited before Fort Stanwix; and John Butler and Walter Butler, father and son, men touched with the savagery of the redmen, their allies. Joseph Brant, that masterful 292 CONTINENTAL LOTTERY BOOK THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE spirit who was a sort of self-appointed king among the savage Mohawks, did not often willingly forget the precepts of that Christian creed to which good Mr. Wheelock had drawn him in his boyhood, and held the redmen back when he could from every wanton deed of blood; but the Butlers stopped at nothing, and white men and red made common cause against the border settlements. Their cruel strokes were dealt both far and near. Upon a day in July, 1778, never to be forgotten, twelve hundred men fell upon the far- away Wyoming Valley upon the Susquehanna and harried it from end to end until it was black and deso- late. In November a like terrible fate fell upon peace- ful Cherry Valley, close at hand. There could be no peace or quarter until the hands of these men were stayed. But, though very slowly, the end came. The men who mustered in the patriotic ranks knew the forest and were masters of its warfare. They had only to turn to it in earnest to prevail. There were men upon the border, too. who needed but a little aid and coun- tenance to work the work of pioneer statesmen on the western rivers. Most conspicuous among these was George Rogers Clark, the young Saxon giant who, in 1777, left his tasks as pioneer and surveyor on the lands which lay upon the south of the great river Ohio in far Kentucky, Virginia's huge western county, and made his way back to the tide-water country to propose to Mr. Henry, now governor of the revolutionized com- monwealth, an expedition for the conquest of the "Illinois country" which lay to the north of the river. He was but five-and-twenty, but he had got his stal- wart stature where men came quickly into their powers, 293 REDUCED FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST AND LAST PARTS OF PATRICK HENRY'S LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS TO GEORGE ROGERS CLARK THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE deep in the forests, where he had learned woodcraft and had already shown his mettle among men. Mr. Henry and Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Wythe and Mr. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK Madison, whom he consulted, approved his purpose very heartily. It was a thing which must be prepared for very quietly, and pushed, when once begun, with secrecy and quick despatch; but the mustering of men 295 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE and the gathering of munitions and supplies were in- cidents which made no stir in those days of familiar war. Clark could bring together what force he pleased at Pittsburgh, and excite only the expectation that a new band of armed men were about to set out for the frontiers of Kentucky. In May, 1778, he was ready. He took but one hundred and eighty picked riflemen, a modest flotilla of small boats, and a few light pieces of artillery, but they sufficed. Before the summer was out he had gained easy mastery of the little settle- ments which lay to the northward upon the Mississippi and within the nearer valley of the Wabash. He had an infinitely pleasing way of winning the friendship of men upon any border, and the Frenchmen of the settlements of the Illinois country relished the change he promised them, liked well enough the prospect of be- ing quit of the English power. There were few Eng- lishmen to deal with. When winter came Colonel Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, came south into the forest with a motley force of five hundred men, mixed of regulars, Tories, and Indians, such as St. Leger had taken against Stanwix, and occupied Vincennes again, upon the Wabash ; but Clark struck once more, sending his boats up the river and bringing his picked force straight across the frozen forests from Kaskaskia by the Mississippi; and by the end of February, 1779, Colonel Hamilton and all his levy were his prisoners. The Illinois coun- try was added to Virginia, and the grant of her ancient charter, "up into the land, west and northwest," seem- ed made good again by the daring of her frontiersmen. He could have taken Detroit itself, Clark declared, with but a few hundred men. While he cleared the 296 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE northern rivers of the British arms a force like his own descended the Mississippi, seized Natchez, and cleared the southern reaches of the great stream. That winter had witnessed a sharp shifting of the GEORGE CLARK'S FINAL SUMMONS TO COLONEL HAMILTON T< scene of the war in the east. The British command- ers there had turned away from General Washington and the too closely guarded reaches of the Hudson to try for better fortune in the far south. In December, 1778, Clinton sent thirty-five hundred men from New 297 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE York to the southern coasts by sea, and on the 29th Savannah was taken, with comparative ease, there being but a scant six hundred to defend it. The town once taken, it proved an easy matter, at that great remove from the centre of the American strength, to overrun the country back of it during the early weeks of 1779. But after that came delay again, and inac- tion, as of those who wait and doubt what next to do. The new year saw nothing else decisive done on either side. In April Spain made common cause with France against England; but Washington waited in vain the year through to see the righting transferred to America. A few strategic movements about New York, where Clinton lay; a few raids by the British; a few sharp encounters that were not battles, and the year was over. The British made sallies here and there, to pillage and burn, to keep the country in awe and bring off whatever they could lay hands upon, striking sometimes along the coast as far as Connec- ticut and even the Chesapeake at the south ; but armed bands were quick to muster to oppose and harass them wherever they went, and it was never safe for them to linger. Clinton thrust his lines out upon the river and fortified Stony Point ; but Anthony Wayne stormed the place of a sudden, with twelve hundred men, and took it, with unshotted guns at the point of the bayo- net before dawn on the morning of the I5th of July, and brought more than five hundred prisoners away with him, having come with that quick fury of reck- less attack which made men call him Mad Anthony, and having as quickly withdrawn again. Harry Lee stormed Paulus Hook in like fashion, and the British were nowhere very easy within their lines. But, for 298 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE the rest, there was little to break the monotony of wait- ing for news of the war at England's door, where the fleets of the allies threatened her. Privateersmen were CHARLES JAMES FOX as busy as ever, and as much to be feared, almost, as the French cruisers themselves; but the formal oper- ations of the war seemed vaguely postponed. With- out the co-operation of a naval force it was impossible 299 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE for Washington to do anything against Sir Henry at New York. While he waited, therefore, he despatched General Sullivan with five thousand men into the forest coun- try of the Mohawk and the Susquehanna to make an end of the cruel mischief wrought upon defenceless homes by the bitter Tories and their red allies. The little army, sent forward in divisions, swept through the country it was bidden clear like men who searched stream and valley upon a journey of discovery ; con- verged to meet their hunted foes, but fifteen hundred strong, where they lay at bay within a bend of the Chemung, the full rally of the forest country, British regulars, Tory rangers, Indian braves, Johnson, the Butlers, Joseph Brant, every leader they acknowl- edged, united to direct them, and overwhelmed them; ravaged the seats of Seneca and Cayuga far and near, till neither village nor any growing thing that they could find upon which men could subsist was left this side the Genesee; stopped short only of the final thing they had been bidden attempt, the capture of the strong- hold at Niagara itself. That was a summer's reckoning which redmen far and near were not likely to forget. In April a little army of frontiersmen under Colonel Evan Shelb} T , that stout pioneer out of Maryland who brought hot Welsh blood to the task, swept suddenly along the northw r ard reaches of the Tennessee and harried the country of the Chickamaugas, among whom Tories and British alike had been stirring war. In August, Colonel Brodhead, ordered to co-operate with General Sullivan, had taken six hundred men from his post at Fort Pitt, whence Clark had make his exit into the 300 JOHN SULLIVAN A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE west, and had destroyed the Indian settlements by the Alleghany and upon French Creek, the old routes of the French from the lakes to the Ohio. Such work was never finished. The Indians were for a little dis- lodged, disconcerted, and put to sad straits to live; CASIMIR PULASKI but they were not conquered. The terror bred a deeper thirst for vengeance among them, and a short respite of peace was sure to be followed when a new year came in with fresh flashes of war on the border, as lurid and ominous as ever. The danger was lessened, never- theless. The final conquest of the Indian country was at least begun. The backwoodsmen were with- 302 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE in sight of ultimate mastery when once peace should bring settlers crowding westward again. The fighting at sea that memorable year of doubt was of a like import, full of daring and stubborn cour- age, planned and carried through with singular initia- tive and genius, quick with adventure, bright with every individual achievement, but of necessity with- out permanent consequence. Late in July, 1779, Captain Paul Jones had sailed from a port of France in command of a little squadron, half American, half French, with which the energy of Mr. Franklin had supplied him. His flagship, the Bon Hommc Richard, was a worn-out French East Indiaman, fitted with forty guns, many of which were unserviceable; his French consorts were light craft, lightly armed ; only one ship of the squadron was fully fit for the adventures he promised himself, having come fresh from the stocks in America, and she was intrusted to the command of a French captain who obeyed orders or not, as he pleased. But Jones was a man to work with what he had, and made even that improvised fleet suffice. With it he cruised the whole length of the western coast of Ireland and circled Scotland. Off Flamborough Head he fell in with the Serapis, 44, and the Countess of Scarborough, 20, the convoy of a fleet of merchant- men, and himself took the larger ship almost unas- sisted in a desperate fight after sunset, in the first watch of the night of the 23d of September. Neither ship survived the encounter forty-eight hours, so com- pletely had they shot each other to pieces, and no man who followed the sea was likely to forget what he heard of that close grapple in the gathering night in the North Sea. "If I fall in with him again, I will A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE make a lord of him," Jones exclaimed, when he heard that the King had knighted Captain Pearson, of the Serapis, for the gallant fight. JOHN PAUL JONES For a little, in the autumn, it looked as if the naval aid for which General Washington waited had come at last. The Count d'Estaing was in the West Indies with a strong fleet, from an encounter with which the English commander in those waters had drawn off to 304 THE FIGHT BETWEEN BON HOMME RICHARD AND SERAP1S A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE port again to refit. The count was willing, while his hands were free, to co-operate in an attack upon the southern coast at Savannah. A portion of Washing- Ion's army was sent south to join General Lincoln in South Carolina for the attempt. Count d'Estaing put six thousand troops aboard his fleet, and by the 1 6th of September was within the harbor. But he did not strike quickly or boldly enough, took the slow way of siege to reduce the place, suffered the English com- mander to make good both the rally of his scattered force and the fortification of his position, and had done nothing when it was high time for him to be back in the Indies to guard the possessions of his own king against the English. A last assault (October 9th) failed and he withdrew. The next year a like disappointment was added. In midsummer a French fleet arrived upon the northern coast, but it proved impossible to use it. On the loth of July a French squadron put in at Newport and landed a force of six thousand men under the Comte de Rocham- beau; but a powerful British fleet presently blockaded the port, and Rochambeau could not prudently with- draw while the fleet was threatened. He had been ordered to put himself at General Washington's dis- posal; but he could not do so till the blockade was raised. Meanwhile not only Georgia but the entire South seemed lost and given over to British control. In the spring, Clinton had concentrated all his forces once more at New York; and then, leaving that all- important place strong enough to keep Washington where he was, he had himself taken eight thousand men by sea to Charleston. Two thousand more troops, already in the South, joined him there, and by the 306 WASHINGTON AND ROCHAMBEAU IN THE TRENCHES AT YORKTOWN VOL. II. 22 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 1 2th of May (1780) he had taken not only the place itself, but General Lincoln and three thousand men besides. South Carolina teemed with loyalists. Parti- san bands, some serving one side, some the other, swept and harried the region from end to end. Wherever the British moved in force, they moved as they pleased, and were masters of the country. In June General Clinton deemed it already safe to take half his force back to New York, and Cornwallis was left to complete the work of subjugation. That same month the Congress conferred the chief command in the South upon General Horatio Gates, who had been in command of the army to which Bur- goyne had surrendered at Saratoga, the army which Schuyler had made ready and which Morgan and Arnold had victoriously handled. Intriguers had sought, while Washington lay at Valley Forge, to substitute Gates for the commander-in-chief ; now he was to show how happy a circumstance it was that that selfish intrigue had failed. He met Cornwallis at Camden, in South Carolina, his own force three thousand men, Cornwal- lis's but two thousand, and was utterly, even shame- fully, defeated (August 16, 1780). "We look on Amer- ica as at our feet/' said Horace Walpole, complacently, when the news had made its way over sea. And certainly it seemed as if that dark year brought nothing but disaster upon the Americans. It was now more evident than ever that they had no government worthy of the name. The Congress had no more au- thority now than it had had in 1774, when it was ad- mitted to be nothing but a " Congress of the Committees of Correspondence " ; and it was not now made up, as it had then been, of the first characters in America, 308 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE the men of the greatest force and initiative in the patri- otic party. It could advise, but it could not command; HORATIO GATES and the states, making their own expenditures, which seemed heavy enough, maintaining their own militia, guarding their own interests in the war, following 309 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE their own leaders, often with open selfishness and in- difference to the common cause, paid less and less heed to what it asked them to do. It could not raise money by taxation; it cuuld raise very little by loan, having no legal power to make good its promises of repayment. Beaumarchais found to his heavy cost that it was next to impossible to recover the private moneys advanced through "Roderigue Hortalez et Cie." The troops acknowledge the U N I T E D S/ A T^^i^ij FACSIMILE OF THE LAST ARTICLE OF CAPITULATION AT YORKTOWN THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE and settlements where scattered garrisons lay between the commander - in - chief and his base at Charleston in the south. With the first detachment went Francis Marion, a man as formidable in strategy and sudden a*w frtvrta. tftfufuettf /to t& will do it this evening at Six, and extinguifh their lights at Nine o'clock. Decorum arid harmony are earneftly recommended to eve- ry Citizen, and a general dif- countenance to the leaft ap- pearance of riot. Q&ober 14, 1781. ORDER PERMITTING THE ILLUMINATION OF PHILADELPHIA within the border upon which King's Mountain lay, and came back a fugitive, with only two hundred and seventy men. Greene drew his forces together again. 326 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE and at Guilford Court House Cornwallis beat him, out- numbered though he was (March I5th). But to beat Greene, it seemed, was of no more avail than to beat General Washington. The country was no safer, the communications of the army were as seriously threat- ened, the defeated army was as steady and as well in hand after the battle as before; and the English with- drew to Wilmington, on the coast. It seemed a hazardous thing to take an army thence southward again, with supplies, through the forests where Greene moved ; news came that General Arnold was in Virginia with a consid- erable body of Clinton's troops from New York, to anticipate what the southern commander had planned to do for the conquest of the Old Dominion when the Car- olinas should have been " pacified " from end to end ; and Cornwallis determined to move northward instead of southward, and join Arnold in Virginia. Greene moved a little way in his track, and then turned southward again against the garrisons of the inland posts. Lord Rawdon beat him at Hobkirk's Hill (April 25th) and held him off at Eutaw Springs (September 8th) ; but both times the English withdrew to save their communications; and, though the work was slow in the doing, before winter came again they were shut within the fortifications 327 NELSON IIOUSK. CORNWALLIS'S HEAD- QUARTERS, YORKTOWN A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE of Charleston and the country-sides were once more in American possession, to be purged of loyalist bands at leisure. In Virginia, Lord Cornwallis moved for a little while freely and safely enough; but only for a little while. Baron Steuben had been busy, winter and spring, rais- ing recruits there for an army of defence; General Washington hurried the Marquis de Lafayette south- ward with twelve hundred light infantry from his own command; and by midsummer, 1781, Lafayette EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN FLAG was at the British front with a force strong enough to make it prudent that Cornwallis should concentrate his strength and once more make sure of his base of supplies at the coast. His watchful opponents out- manoeuvred him, caught his forces once and again in detail, and made his outposts unsafe. By the first week in August he had withdrawn to the sea and had taken post behind intrenchments at Yorktown, some- thing more than seven thousand strong. There, upon the peninsula which he deemed his safest coign of vantage, he was trapped and taken. At last the French were at hand. The Comte de Grasse, with twenty-eight ships of the line, six frigates, and 328 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE twenty thousand men, was in the West Indies. Wash- ington had begged him to come at once either to New York or to the Chesapeake. In August he sent word that he would come to the Chesapeake. Thereupon Washington once again moved with the sudden di- rectness he had shown at Trenton and Princeton. Rochambeau was free now to lend him aid. With four thousand Frenchmen and two thousand of his own continentals, Washington marched all the long four hundred miles straightway to the York River, in Virginia. There he found Cornwallis, as he had hoped and expected, already penned between Grasse's fleet in the bay and Lafayette's trenches across the peninsula. His six thousand men, added to Lafayette's five thousand and the three thousand put ashore from the fleet, made short work enough of the siege, drawn closer and closer about the British; and by the 1 9th of October (1781) they accepted the inevitable and surrendered. The gallant Cornwallis himself could not withhold an expression of his admiration for the quick, consummate execution of the plans which had undone him, and avowed it with manly frankness to Washington. "But, after all," he cried, "your Ex- cellency's achievements in New Jersey were such that nothing could surpass them." He liked the mastery by which he had been outplayed and taken. Here our general authorities are the same as for the period covered by the last chapter. But to these we now add Edward J. Lowell's The United States of America, 1773-1782, in the seventh volume of Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America ; John Jay's Peace Negotiations, 1782-1783, in the same volume of Winsor; G. W. Greene's Historical View of the American Revolution ; the second volume of W. B. Weeden's Economic and Social History of New England ; P. 0. Hutchinson's Life and Letters of Thomas 329 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Hutchinson ; Moses Coit Tyler's Literary History of the Ameri- can Revolution ; Lorenzo Sabine's Biographical Sketches of Ad- herents to the British Crown ; George E. Ellis' s The Loyalists and their Fortunes, in the seventh volume of Winsor ; Edward E. Hale's Franklin in France ; George Ticknor Curtis' s Constitutional History of the United States ; and William H. Trescot's Diplomacy of the American Revolution. Abundant references to authorities on the several campaigns of the revolutionary war may be found in Albert B. Hart and Edward Channing's Guide to American History, an invaluable manual. The sources for the period may be found in the contemporary pamphlets, speeches, and letters published at the time and since, among which may be mentioned, as of unusual individuality, Thomas Paine's celebrated pamphlet entitled Common Sense, the writings of Joseph Galloway, some of which are reproduced in Stedman and Hutchinson's Library of American Literature, and St. John de Crevecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer. Here again we rely, too, on the Journals of Congress and the Secret Journals of Congress ; the Debates of Parliament ; Peter Force's American Archives ; Hezekiah Niles's Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America; The Annual Register; Jared Sparks's Correspondence of the American Revolution and Diplomatic Cor- respondence of the American Revolution ; Francis Wharton's The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States ; Thomas Anburey's Travels through the Interior Parts of Amer- ica (1776-1781); the Marquis de Chastellux's Travels in North America in the Years 1780. 1781, and 1782; and the Memoirs and Collections of the Historical Societies of the several original states. APPENDIX ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES Betweene the plantations vnder the Gouernment of the Massachusetts, the Plantacons vnder the Gouernment of New Plymouth, the Plantacons vnder the Gouern- ment of Connectacutt, and the Gouernment of New Haven with the Plantacons in combinacon therewith WHEREAS wee all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and ayme, namely, to ad- vaunce the kingdome of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospell in puritie with peace. And whereas in our settleinge (by a wise Providence of God) we are further dispersed vpon the Sea Coasts and Riuers then was at first intended, so that we cannot according to our desire, with convenience communicate in one Gouern- ment and Jurisdiccon. And whereas we live encompassed with people of seuerall Nations and strang languages which heareafter may proue injurious to vs or our posteritie. And forasmuch as the Natives have formerly committed sondry insolences and outrages vpon seueral Plantacons of the English and have of late combined themselues against vs. And seing by reason of those sad Distraccons in Eng- land, which they have heard of, and by which they know 331 APPENDIX we are hindred from that humble way of seekinge advise or reapeing those comfortable fruits of protection which at other tymes we might well expecte. Wee therefore doe conceiue it our bounden Dutye without delay to enter into a present consotiation amongst our selues for mutual help and strength in all our future concernements : That as in Nation and Religion, so in other Respects we bee and continue one according to the tenor and true meaninge of the ensuing Articles: Wherefore it is fully agreed and concluded by and betweene the parties or Jurisdiccons aboue named, and they joyntly and seuerally doe by these presents agreed and concluded that they all bee, and hence- forth bee called by the Name of the United Colonies of New- England. II. The said United Colonies, for themselues and their posterities, do joyntly and seuerally, hereby enter into a firme and perpetuall league of friendship and amytie, for offence and defence, mutuall advise and succour, vpon all just ocgations, both for preserueing and propagateing the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for their owne mutuall safety and wellfare. III. It is futher agreed That the Plantacons which at present are or hereafter shalbe settled within the limmetts of the Massachusetts, shalbe forever vnder the Massachu- setts, and shall have peculiar Jurisdiccon among themselues in all cases as an entire Body, and that Plymouth, Con- necktacutt, and New Haven shall eich of them haue like peculier Jurisdiccon and Gouernment within their limmetts and in referrence to the Plantacons which already are settled or shall hereafter be erected or shall settle within their limmetts respectiuely ; prouided that no other Jurisdiccon shall hereafter be taken in as a distinct head or member of this Confederacon, nor shall any other Plantacon or Jurisdiccon in present being and not already in combynacon or vnder the Jurisdiccon of any of these Confederats be 332 APPENDIX received by any of them, nor shall any two of the Confed- erats joyne in one Jurisdiccon without consent of the rest, which consent to be interpreted as is expressed in the sixth Article ensuinge. IV. It is by these Confederats agreed that the charge of all just warrs, whether offensiue or defensiue, upon what part or member of this Confederaccon soever they fall, shall both in men and provisions, and all other Disbursements, be borne by all the parts of this Confederacon, in different proporcons according to their different abilitie, in manner following, namely, that the Commissioners for eich Juris- diccon from tyme to tyme, as there shalbe occation, bring a true account and number of all the males in every Plan- tacon, or any way belonging to, or under their seuerall Jurisdiccons, of what quality or condicion soeuer they bee, from sixteene yeares old to threescore, being Inhabitants there. And That according to the different numbers which from tyme to tyme shalbe found in eich Jurisdiccon, upon a true and just account, the service of men and all charges of the warr be borne by the Poll : Eich Jurisdiccon, or Plan- tacon, being left to their owne just course and custome of rating themselues and people according to their different estates, with due respects to their qualites and exemp- tions among themselues, though the Confederacon take no notice of any such priviledg: And that according to their differrent charge of eich Jurisdiccon and Plantacon, the whole advantage of the warr (if it please God to bless their Endeavours) whether it be in lands, goods or per- sons, shall be proportionably deuided among the said Con- federats. V. It is further agreed That if any of these Jurisdic- cons, or any Plantacons vnder it, or in any combynacon with them be envaded by any enemie whomsoeuer, vpon notice and request of any three majestrats of that Juris- diccon so invaded, the rest of the Confederates, without 333 APPENDIX any further meeting or expostulacon, shall forthwith send ayde to the Confederate in danger, but in different propor- cons; namely, the Massachusetts an hundred men suffi- ciently armed and provided for such a service and jorney, and eich of the rest fourty-fiue so armed and provided, or any lesse number, if lesse be required, according to this proporcon. But if such Confederate in danger may be supplyed by their next Confederate, not exceeding the number hereby agreed, they may craue help there, and seeke no further for the present. The charge to be borne as in this Article is exprest: And, at the returne, to be victualled and supplyed with poder and shott for their journey (if there be neede) by that Jurisdiccon which em- ployed or sent for them : But none of the Jurisdiccons to exceed these numbers till by a meeting of the Commissioners for this Confederacon a greater ayd appeare necessary. And this proporcon to continue, till upon knowledge of greater numbers in eich Jurisdiccon which shalbe brought to the next mteting some other proporcon be ordered. But in any such case of sending men for present ayd whether before or after such order or alteracon, it is agreed that at the meeting of the Commissioners for this Confederacon, the cause of such warr or invasion be duly considered: And if it appeare that the fault lay in the parties so invaded, that then that Jurisdiccon or Plantacon make just Satisfac- con, both to the Invaders whom they have injured, and beare all the charges of the warr themselves without re- quireing any allowance from the rest of the Confederats towards the same. And further, that if any Jurisdiccon see any danger of any 'Invasion approaching, and there be tyme for a meeting, that in such case three majestrats of that Jurisdiccon may summon a meeting at such con- venyent place as themselues shall think meete, to consider and provide against the threatned danger, Provided when they are met they may remoue to what place they please, 334 APPENDIX Onely whilst any of these foure Confederats have but three majestrats in their Jurisdiccon, their request or summons from any two of them shalbe accounted of equall force with the three mentoned in both the clauses of this Article, till there be an increase of majestrats there. VI. It is also agreed that for the mannaging and con- cluding of all affairs proper and concerneing the whole Confederacon, two Commissioners shalbe chosen by and out of eich of these foure Jurisdiccons, namely, two for the Mattachusetts, two for Plymouth, two for Connec- tacutt and two for New Haven; being all in Church fel- lowship with us, which shall bring full power from their seuerall generall Courts respectively to heare, examine, weigh and determine all affaires.of our warr or peace, leagues, ayds, charges and numbers of men for warr, divission of spoyles and whatsoever is gotten by conquest, receiueing of more Confederats for plantacons into combinacon with any of the Confederates, and all thinges of like nature which are the proper concomitants or consequence of such a confederacon, for amytie, offence and defence, not in- termeddleing with the gouernment of any of the Juris- diccons which by the third Article is preserued entirely to themselves. But if these eight Commissioners, when they meete, shall not all agree, yet it is concluded that any six of the eight agreeing shall have power to settle and determine the business in question : But if six do not agree, that then such proposicons with their reasons, so fair as they have beene debated, be sent and referred to the foure generall Courts, vizt. the Mattachusetts, Plym- outh, Connectacutt, and New Haven : And if at all the said Generall Courts the businesse so referred be con- cluded, then to bee prosecuted by the Confederates and all their members. It is further agreed that these eight Commissioners shall meete once every yeare, besides ex- traordinary meetings (according to the fift Article) to con- 335 APPENDIX sider, treate and conclude of all affaires belonging to this Confederacon, which meeting shall ever be the first Thurs- day in September. And that the next meeting after the date of these presents, which shalbe accounted the second meeting, shalbe at Bostone in the Massachusetts, the third at Hartford, the fourth at New Haven, the fift at Plymouth, the sixt and seaventh at Bostone. And then Hartford, New Haven and Plymouth, and so in course successiuely, if in the meane tyme some middle place be not found out and agreed on which may be commodious for all the jurisdiccons. VII. It is further agreed that at eich meeting of these eight Commissioners, whether ordinary or extraordinary, they, or six of them agreeing, as before, may choose their President out of themselues, whose office and worke shalbe to take care and direct for order and a comely carrying on of all proceedings in the present meeting. But he shalbe invested with no such power or respect as by which he shall hinder the propounding or progresse of any businesse, or any way cast the Scales, otherwise then in the precedent Article is agreed. VIII. It is also agreed that the Commissioners for this Confederacon hereafter at their meetings, whether ordinary or extraordinary, as they may have commission or oper- tunitie, do endeavoure to frame and establish agreements and orders in generall cases of a civill nature wherein all the plantacons are interested for preserving peace among themselves, and preventing as much as may bee all occations of warr or difference with others, as about the free and speedy passage of Justice in every Jurisdiccon, to all the Confederats equally as their owne, receiving those that remoue from one plantacon to another without due certefy- cats; how all the Jurisdiccons may carry it towards the Indians, that they neither grow insolent nor be injured without due satisfaccion, lest warr break in vpon the Con- federates through such miscarryage. It is also agreed that 336 APPENDIX if any servant runn away from his master into any other of these confederated Jurisdiccons, That in such Case, vpon the Certyficate of one Majistrate in the Jurisdiccon out of which the said servant fled, or upon other due proofe, the said servant shalbe deliuered either to his Master or any other that pursues and brings such Certificate or proofe. And that vpon the escape of any prisoner whatsoever or fugitiue for any criminal cause, whether breaking prison or getting from the officer or otherwise escaping, upon the certificate of two Majistrats of the Jurisdiccon out of which the escape is made that he was a prisoner or such an of- fender at the tyme of the escape. The Majestrates or some of them of that Jurisdiccon w r here for the present the said prisoner or fugitive abideth shall forthwith graunt such a warrant as the case will beare for the apprehending of any such person, and the delivery of him into the hands of the officer or other person that pursues him. And if there be help required for the safe returneing of any such offender, then it shalbe graunted to him that craves the same, he paying the charges thereof. IX. And for that the justest warrs may be of danger- ous consequence, espetially to the smaler plantacons in these vnited Colonies, It is agreed that neither the Mas- sachusetts, Plymouth, Connectacutt nor New-Haven, nor any of the members of any of them shall at any tyme here- after begin, undertake, or engage themselues or this Con- federacon, or any part thereof in any warr whatsoever (sudden exegents with the necessary consequents thereof excepted) which are also to be moderated as much as the case will permit) without the consent and agreement of the forenamed eight Commissioners, or at least six of them, as in the sixt Article is provided: And that no charge be required of any of the Confederats in case of a defen- siue warr till the said Commissioners haue mett and ap- proued the justice of the warr, and have agreed vpon the 337 APPENDIX sum of money to be levyed, which sum is then to be payd by the severall Confederates in proporcon according to the fourth Article. X. That in extraordinary occations when meetings are summoned by three Majistrats of any Jurisdiccon, or two as in the fift Article, If any of the Commissioners come not, due warneing being given or sent, It is agreed that foure of the Commissioners shall have power to direct a warr which cannot be dela3^ed and to send for due proporcons of men out of eich Jurisdiccon, as well as six might doe if all mett; but not less than six shall determine the justice of the warr or allow the demanude of bills of charges or cause any levies to be made for the same. XI. It is further agreed that if any of the Confederates shall hereafter break any of these present Articles, or be any other wayes injurious to any one of thother Juris- diccons, such breach of Agreement, or injurie, shalbe duly considered and ordered by the Commissioners for thother Jurisdiccons, that both peace and this present Confederacon may be entirely preserued without violation. XII. Lastly, this perpetuall Confederacon and the sev- eral Articles and Agreements thereof being read and serious- ly considered, both by the Generall Court for the Massachu- setts, and by the Commissioners for Plymouth, Connectacutt and New Haven, were fully allowed and confirmed by three of the forenamed Confederates, namely, the Massachusetts, Connectacutt and New-Haven, Onely the Commissioners for Plymouth, having no Commission to conclude, desired respite till they might advise with their Generall Court, wherevpon it was agreed and concluded by the said court of the Massachusetts, and the Commissioners for the other two Confederates, That if Plymouth Consent, then the whole treaty as it stands in these present articles is and shall continue firme and stable without alteracon : But if Plymouth come not in, yet the other three Confederates .338 APPENDIX doe by these presents confirme the whole Confederacon and all the Articles thereof, onely, in September next, when the second meeting of the Commissioners is to be at Bostone, new consideracon may be taken of the sixt Article, which concernes number of Commissioners for meeting and con- cluding the affaires of this Confederacon to the satisfaccon of the court of the Massachusetts, and the Commissioners for thother two Confederates, but the rest to stand vnques- tioned. In testymony whereof, the Generall Court of the Mas- sachusetts by their Secretary, and the Commissioners for Connectacutt and New-Haven haue subscribed these presente articles, this xixth of the third month, commonly called May, Anno Domini, 1643. At a Meeting of the Commissioners for the Confederacon, held at Boston, tlu Seventh of September. It appeareing that the Generall Court of New Plymouth, and the severall Towneships thereof have read, considered and approoued these articles of Confederacon, as appeareth by Comission from their Generall Court beareing Date the xxixth of August, 1643, to Mr. Edward Winsloweand Mr. Will Collyer, to ratifye and confirme the same on their behalf, wee there- fore, the Comissioners for the Mattachusetts, Conecktacutt and New Haven, doe also for our seuerall Gouernments, subscribe vnto them. JOHN WlNTHROP, Governor of Massachusetts, THO. DUDLEY, THEOPH. EATON, GEO. FENWICK, EDWA. HOPKINS, THOMAS GREGSON. VOL. II. 2/1 PENN'S PLAN OF UNION 1697. MR. PENN'S PLAN FOR A UNION OF THE COLONIES IN AMERICA. A BRIEFE and Plaine Scheam how the English Colo- nies in the North parts of America, viz. : Boston, Connec- ticut, Road Island, New York, New Jerseys, Pensilvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina may be made more usefull to the Crowne, and one another's peace and safty with an universall concurrence. 1st. That the severall Colonies before mentioned do meet once a year, and oftener if need be, during the war, and at least once in two years in times of peace, by their stated and appointed Deputies, to debate and resolve of such measures as are most adviseable for their better un- derstanding, and the public tranquility and safety. 2d. That in order to it two persons well qualified for sence, sobriety and substance be appointed by each Prov- ince, as their Representatives or Deputies, which in the whole make the Congress to consist of twenty persons. 3d. That the King's Commissioner for that purpose specially appointed shall have the chaire and preside in the said Congresse. 4th. That they shall meet as near as conveniently may be to the most centrall Colony for use of the Deputies. 5th. Since that may in all probability, be New York both because it is near the Center of the Colonies and for that it is a Frontier and in the King's nomination, the Govr. 340 APPENDIX of that Colony may therefore also be the King's High Commissioner during the Session after the manner of Scotland. 6th. That their business shall be to hear and adjust all matters of Complaint or difference between Province and Province. As, 1st, where persons quit their own Prov- ince and goe to another, that they may avoid their just debts, tho they be able to pay them, 2nd, where offenders fly Justice, or Justice cannot well be had upon such of- fenders in the Provinces that entertaine them, 3dly, to prevent or cure injuries in point of Commerce, 4th, to con- sider of ways and means to support the union and safety of these Provinces against the publick enemies. In which Congresse the Quotas of men and charges will be much easier, and more equally sett, then it is possible for any es- tablishment made here to do; for the Provinces, knowing their own condition and one another's, can debate that matter with more freedome and satisfaction and better adjust and ballance their affairs in all respects for their common safty. 7ly. That in times of war the King's High Commis- sioner shall be generall or chief Commander of the sev- erall Quotas upon service against a common enemy as he shall be advised, for the good and benefit of the whole. FRANKLIN'S PLAN OF UNION 1754. PLAN of a proposed Union of the several Colonies of Massachusetts-Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New- York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina for their mutual Defence and Security, and for the extending the British Settlements in North America. That humble application be made for an act of Parlia- ment of Great Britain, by virtue of which one general gov- ernment may be formed in America, including all the said Colonies, within and under which government each Colony may retain its present constitution, except in the particulars wherein a change may be directed by the said act, as here- after follows. PRESIDENT-GENERAL AND GRAND COUNCIL. That the said general government be administered by a President-General, to be appointed and supported by the crown; and a Grand Council to be chosen by the rep- resentatives of the people of the several Colonies met in their respective assemblies. It was thought that it would be best the President-General should be supported as well as appointed by the crown, that so all disputes between him and the Grand-Council concerning his salary might lae prevented ; as such disputes have been frequently of mischievous consequence in particular Colonies, especially in time of public danger. The quitrents of crown lands in America might in a short time be sufficient for this purpose. The choice of members 342 APPENDIX for the Grand-Coxmcil is placed in the House of Representatives of each government, in order to give the people a share in this new general government, as the crown has its share by the appoint- ment of the President-General. But it being proposed by the gentlemen of the Council of New York, and some other counsellors among the commissioners, to alter the plan in this particular, and to give the governors and councils of the several Provinces a share in the choice of the Grand- Council, or at least a power of approving and confirming, or of disallowing, the choice made by the House of Representatives, it was said, " That the government or constitution, proposed to be formed by the plan, consists of two branches: a President- General appointed by the crown, and a Council chosen by the peo- ple, or by the people's representatives, which is the same thing. " That, by a subsequent article, the council chosen by the people can effect nothing without the consent of the President-General appointed by the crown; the crown possesses, therefore, full one half of the power of this constitution. " That in the British constitution, the crown is supposed to possess but one third, the Lords having their share. " That the constitution seemed rather more favorable for the crown. " That it is essential to English liberty that the subject should not be taxed but by his own consent, or the consent of his elected representatives. " That taxes to be laid and levied by this proposed constitution will be proposed and agreed to by the representatives of the people, if the plan in this particular be preserved. " But if the proposed alteration should take place, it seemed as if matters may be so managed, as that the crown shall finally have the appointment, not only of the President-General, but of a majority of the Grand-Council ; for seven out of eleven governors and councils are appointed by the crown. "And so the people in all the Colonies would in effect be taxed by their governors. " It was therefore apprehended, that such alterations of the plan would give great dissatisfaction, and that the Colonies could not be easy under such a power in governors, and such an infringe- ment of what they take to be English liberty. " Besides, the giving a share in the choice of the Grand Council would not be equal with respect to all the Colonies, as their con- stitutions differ. In some, both governor and council are appointed by the crown. In others, they are both appointed by the proprietors. 343 APPENDIX In some, the people have a share in the choice of the council ; in others, both government and council are wholly chosen by the people. But the House of Representatives is everywhere chosen by the people; and, therefore, placing the right of choosing the Grand Council in the representatives is equal with respect to all. " That the Grand Council is intended to represent all the several Houses of Representatives of the Colonies, as a House of Repre- sentatives doth the several towns or counties of a Colony. Could all the people of a Colony be consulted and unite in public meas- ures, a House of Representatives would be needless, and could all the Assemblies consult and unite in general measures, the Grand Council would be unnecessary. " That a House of Commons or the House of Representatives, and the Grand Council are alike in their nature and intention. And, as it would seem improper that the King or House of Lords should have a power of disallowing or appointing Members of the House of Commons; so, likewise, that a governor and council appointed by the crown should have a power of disallowing or appointing members of the Grand Council, who, in this constitution, are to be the representatives of the people. " If the governor and councils therefore were to have a share in the choice of any that are to conduct this general government, it should seem more proper that they should choose the President- General. But this being an office of great trust and importance to the nation, it was thought better to be filled by the immediate appointment of the crown. " The power proposed to be given by the plan to the Grand Council is only a concentration of the powers of the several assemblies in certain points for the general welfare ; as the power of the President- General is of the several governors in the same point. " And as the choice therefore of the Grand Council, by the rep- resentatives of the people, neither gives the people any new powers, nor diminishes the power of the crown, it was thought and hoped the crown would not disapprove of it." Upon the whole, the commissioners were of opinion, that the choice was most properly placed in the representatives of the people. ELECTION OF MEMBERS. That within months after the passing such act, the House of Representatives that happens to be sitting within that time, or that shall be especially for that pur 344 APPENDIX pose convened, may and shall choose members for the Grand Council, in the following proportion, that is to say, Massachusetts Bay 7 New Hampshire 2 Connecticut 5 Rhode Island 2 New York 4 New Jersey 3 Pennsylvania 6 Maryland 4 Virginia 7 North Carolina 4 South Carolina 4 48 It was thought, that if the least Colony was allowed two, and the others in proportion, the number would be very great, and the expense heavy ; and that less than two would not be convenient, as, a single person being by any accident prevented appearing at the meeting, the Colony he ought appear for would not be rep- resented. That, as the choice was not immediately popular, they would be generally men of good abilities for business, and men of reputation for integrity, and that forty-eight such men might be a number sufficient. But, though it was thought rea- sonable that each Colony should have a share in the representative body in some degree according to the proportion it contributed to the general treasury, yet the proportion of wealth or power of the Colonies is not to be judged by the proportion here fixed : be- cause it was at first agreed, that the greatest Colony should not have more than seven members, nor the least less than two ; and the setting these proportions between these two extremes was not nicely attended to, as it would find itself, after the first election, from the sum brought into the treasury by a subsequent article. PLACE OF FIRST MEETING. Who shall meet for the first time at the city of Phila- delphia in Pennsylvania, being called by the President- General as soon as conveniently may be after his appoint- ment. 345 APPENDIX Philadelphia was named as being nearer the centre of the Colonies, where the commissioners would be well and cheaply accommodated. The high roads, through the whole extent, are for the most part very good, in which forty or fifty miles a day may very well be, and frequently are, travelled. Great part of the way may likewise be gone by water. In summer time, the passages are frequently performed in a week from Charleston to Philadelphia and New York, and from Rhode Island to New York through the Sound, in two or three days, and from New York to Philadelphia, by water and land, in two days, by stage boats, and street carriages that set out every other day. The journey from Charleston to Philadelphia may likewise be facilitated by boats running up Chesapeake Bay three hundred miles. But if the whole journey be performed on horseback, the most distant members, viz., the two from New Hamp- shire and from South Carolina, may probably render themselves at Philadelphia in fifteen or twenty days; the majority maybe there in much less time. NEW ELECTION". That there shall be a new election of the members of the Grand Council every three years; and, on the death or resignation of any member, his place should be sup- plied by a new choice at the next sitting of the Assembly of the Colony he represented. Some Colonies have annual assemblies, some continue during a governor's pleasure ; three years was thought a reasonable me- dium as affording a new member time to improve himself in the business, and to act after such improvement, and yet giving op- portunities, frequently enough, to change him if he has misbe- haved. PROPORTION OF MEMBERS AFTER THE FIRST THREE YEARS. That after the first three years, when the proportion of money arising out of each Colony to the general treas- ury can be known, the number of members to be chosen for each Colony shall, from time to time, in all ensuing elections, be regulated by that proportion, yet so as that 346 APPENDIX the number to be chosen by any one Province be not more than seven, nor less than two. By a subsequent article, it is proposed that the General Council shall lay and levy such general duties as to them may appear most equal and least burdensome, etc. Suppose, for instance, they lay a small duty or excise on some commodity imported into or made in the Colonies, and pretty generally and equally used in all of them, as rum, perhaps, or wine ; the yearly produce of this duty or excise, if fairly collected, would be in some Colonies greater, in others less, as the Colonies are greater or smaller. When the collector's accounts are brought in, the proportions will appear; and from them it is proposed to regulate the proportion of the rep- resentatives to be chosen at the next general election, within the limits, however, of seven and two. These numbers may therefore vary in the course of years, as the Colonies may in the growth and increase of people. And thus the quota of tax from each Colony would naturally vary with its circumstances, thereby preventing all disputes and dissatisfaction about the just pro- portions due from each, which might otherwise produce penicious consequences, and destroy the harmony and good agreement that ought to subsist between the several parts of the Union. MEETINGS OF THE GRAND COUNCIL AND CALL. That the Grand Council shall meet once in every year, and oftener if occasion require, at such time and place as they shall adjourn to at the last preceding meeting, or as they shall be called to meet at by the President-General on any emergency; he having first obtained in writing the consent of seven of the members to such call, and sent due and timely notice to the whole. It was thought, in establishing and governing new Colonies or settlements, or regulating Indian trade, Indian treaties, etc., there would, every year, sufficient business arise to require at least one meeting, and at such meeting many things might be suggested for the benefit of all the Colonies. This annual meeting may either be at a time and place certain, to be fixed by the President- General and Grand Council at their first meeting ; or left at liberty, to be at such time and place as they shall adjourn to, or be called to meet at, by the President-General. 347 APPENDIX In time of war, it seems convenient that the meeting should be in that colony which is nearest the seat of action. The power of calling them on any emergency seemed necessary to be vested in the President-General ; but, that such power might not be wantonly used to harass the members, and oblige them to make frequent long journeys to little purpose, the consent of seven at least to such call was supposed a convenient guard. CONTINUANCE. That the Grand Council have power to choose their speaker; and shall neither be dissolved, prorogued, nor con- tinued sitting longer than six weeks at one time, without their own consent or the special command of the crown. The speaker should be presented for approbation; it -being con- venient, to prevent misunderstandings and disgusts, that the mouth of the Council should be a person agreeable, if possible, to the Council and President-General. Governors have sometimes wantonly exercised the power of proroguing or continuing the sessions of assemblies, merely to harass the members and compel a compliance; and sometimes dissolve them on slight disgusts. This it was feared might be done by the President-General, if not provided against; and the inconvenience and hardship would be greater in the general government than in particular Colonies, in proportion to the dis- tance the members must be from home during sittings, and the long journeys some of them must necessarily take. MEMBERS' ALLOWANCE. That the members of the Grand Council shall be allowed for their service ten shillings per diem, during their session and journey to and from the place of meeting; twenty miles to be reckoned a day's journey. It was thought proper to allow some wages, lest the expense might deter some suitable persons from the service; and not to allow too great wages, lest unsuitable persons should be tempted to cabal for the employment, for the sake of gain. Twenty miles were set down as a day's journey, to allow for accidental hindrances on the road, and the greater expenses of travelling than residing at the place of meeting. 348 APPENDIX ASSENT OF PRESIDENT-GENERAL AND HIS DUTY. That the assent of the President-General be requisite to all acts of the Grand Council, and that it be his office and duty to cause them to be carried into execution. The assent of the President-General to all acts of the Grand Council was made necessary in order to give the crown its due share of influence in this government, and connect it with Jhat of Great Britain. The President-General, besides one half of the legislative power, hath in his hands the whole executive power. POWER OF PRESIDENT-GENERAL AND GRAND COUN- CIL, TREATIES OF PEACE AND WAR. That the President-General, with the advice of the Grand Council, hold or direct all Indian treaties, in which the general interest of the Colonies may be concerned, and make peace or declare war with Indian nations. The power of making peace or war with Indian nations is at pres- ent supposed to be in every Colony, and is expressly granted to some by charter, so that no new power is hereby intended to be granted to the Colonies. But as, in consequence of this power, one Colony might make peace with a nation that another was justly engaged in war with ; or make war on .slight occasion without the concurrence or approbation of neighboring Colonies, greatly endangered by it ; or make particular treaties of neutrality in case of a general war, to their own private advantage in trade, by supply- ing the common enemy, of all which there have been instances, it was thought better to have all treaties of a general nature under a general direction, that so the good of the whole may be consulted and provided for. INDIAN TRADE. That they make such laws as they judge necessary for regulating all Indian trade. Many quarrels and wars have arisen between the colonies and Indian nations, through the bad conduct of traders, who cheat the Indians after making them drunk, etc., to the great expense of the colonies, both in blood and treasure. Particular colonies are so interested in the trade, as not to be willing to admit such 349 APPENDIX a regulation as might be best for the whole ; and therefore it was thought best under a general direction. INDIAN PURCHASES. That they make all purchases from Indians, for the crown, of lands not now within the bounds of particular colonies, or that shall not be within their bounds when some of them are reduced to more convenient dimensions. Purchases from the Indians, made by private persons, have been attended with many inconveniences. They have frequently interfered and occasioned uncertainty of titles, many disputes and expensive lawsuits, and hindered the settlement of the land so disputed. Then the Indians have been cheated by such private purchases, and discontent and wars have been the consequence. These would be prevented by public fair purchases. Several of the Colony charters in America extend their bounds to the South Sea, which may perhaps be three or four thousand miles in length to one or two thundred miles in breadth. It is supposed they must in time be reduced to dimensions more con- venient for the common purposes of government. Very little of the land in these grants is yet purchased of the Indians. It is much cheaper to purchase of them, than to take and maintain the possession by force ; for they are generally very reasonable in their demands for land ; and the expense of guarding a large frontier against their incursions is vastly great ; because all must be guarded, and always guarded, as we know not where or when to expect them. NEW SETTLEMENTS. That they make new settlements on such purchases by granting lands in the King's name, reserving a quit-rent to the crown for the use of the general treasury. It is supposed better that there should be one purchaser than many ; and that the crown should be that purchaser, or the Union in the name of the crown. By this means the bargains may be more easily made, the price not enhanced by numerous bidders, future disputes about private Indian purchases, and monopolies of vast tracts to particular persons (which are prejudicial to the settlement and peopling of the country), prevented ; and, the land 350 APPENDIX being again granted in small tracts to the settlers, the quit-rents reserved may in time become a fund for support of government, for defence of the country, ease of taxes, etc. Strong forts on the Lakes, the Ohio, etc., may, at the same time they secure our present frontiers, serve to defend new colonies settled under their protection ; and such colonies would also mut- ually defend and support such forts, and better secure the friend- ship of the far Indians. A particular colony has scarce strength enough to exert itself by new settlements, at so great a distance from the old; but the joint force of the Union might suddenly establish a new colony or two in those parts, or extend an old colony to particular passes, greatly to the security of our present frontiers, increase of trade and people, breaking off the French communication between Canada and Louisiana, and speedy settlement of the intermediate lands. The power of settling new colonies is therefore thought a valuable part of the plan, and what cannot so well be executed by two unions as by one. LAWS TO GOVERN THEM. That they make laws for regulating and governing such new settlements, till the crown shall think fit to form them into particular governments. The making of laws suitable for the new colonies, it was thought, would be properly vested in the president-general and grand council ; under whose protection they must at first necessarily be, and who would be well acquainted with their circumstances, as having settled them. When they are become sufficiently populous, they may by the crown be formed into complete and distinct govern- ments. The appointment of a sub-president by the crown, to take place in case of the death or absence of the president-general, would perhaps be an improvement of the plan ; and if all the governors of particular provinces were to be formed into a standing council of state, for the advice and assistance of the president-general, it might be another considerable improvement. RAISE SOLDIERS, AND EQUIP VESSELS, ETC. That they raise and pay soldiers and build forts for the defence of any of the colonies, and equip vessels of force 351 APPENDIX to guard the coasts and protect the trade on the ocean, lakes, or great rivers; but they shall not impress men in any colony, without the consent of the legislature. It was thought, that quotas of men, to be raised and paid by the several colonies, and joined for any public service, could not always be got together with the necessary expedition. For in- stance, suppose one thousand men should be wanted in New Hamp- shire on any emergency. To fetch them by fifties and hundreds out of every colony, as far as South Carolina, would be inconvenient, the transportation chargeable, and the occasion perhaps passed before they could be assembled ; and therefore it would be best to raise them (by offering bounty money and pay) near the place where they would be wanted, to be discharged again when the service should be over. Particular colonies are at present backward to build forts at their own expense, which they say will be equally useful to their neighboring colonies, who refuse to join, on a presumption that such forts will be built and kept up, though they contribute nothing. This unjust conduct weakens the whole; but, the forts being for the good of the whole, it was thought best they should be built and maintained by the whole, out of the common treasury. In the time of war, small vessels of force are sometimes necessary in the colonies to scour the coasts of small privateers. These being provided by the Union will be an advantage in turn to the colonies which are situated on the sea, and whose frontiers on the land-side, being covered by other colonies, reap but little immediate benefit from the advanced forts. POWER TO MAKE LAWS, LAY DUTIES, ETC. That for these purposes they have power to make laws and lay and levy such general duties, imposts or taxes, as to them shall appear most equal and just (considering the ability and other circumstances of the inhabitants in the several colonies), and such as may be collected with the least inconvenience to the people; rather discourag- ing luxury, than loading industry with unnecessary bur- dens. The laws which the president-general and grand council are 352 APPENDIX empowered to make are such only as shall be necessary for the government of the settlements ; the raising, regulating, and pay- ing soldiers for the general service ; the regulating of Indian trade ; and laying and collecting the general duties and taxes. They should also have a power to restrain the exportation of provisions to the enemy from any of the colonies, on particular occasions, in time of war. But it is not intended that they may interfere with the constitution or government of the particular colonies, who are to be left to their own laws, and to lay, levy and apply their own taxes as before. GENERAL TREASURER AND PARTICULAR TREASURER. That they may appoint a General Treasurer, and Par- ticular Treasurer in government when necessary; and, from time to time, may order the sums in the treasuries of each government into the general treasury, or draw on them for special payments, as they find most conven- ient. The treasurers here meant are only for the general funds and not for the particular funds of each colony, which remain in the hands of their own treasurers at their own disposal. MONEY, HOW TO ISSUE. Yet no money to issue but by joint orders of the Pres- ident-General and Grand Council, except where sums have been appointed to particular purposes, and the President- General is previously empowered by an act to draw such sums. To prevent misapplication of the money, or even application that might be dissatisfactory to the crown or the people, it was thought necessary to join the president-general and grand council in all issues of money. ACCOUNTS. That the general accounts shall be yearly settled and reported to the several Assemblies. 353 APPENDIX By communicating the accounts yearly to each Assembly, they will be satisfied of the prudent and honest conduct of their representatives in the grand council. QUORUM. That a quorum of the Grand Council, empowered to act with the President-General, do consist of twenty-five members; among whom there shall be one or more from a majority of the Colonies. The quorum seems large, but it was thought it would not be satisfactory to the colonies in general, to have matters of impor- tance to the whole transacted by a smaller number, or even by this number of twenty-five, unless there were among them one at least from a majority of the colonies, because otherwise, the whole quorum being made up of members from three or four colonies at one end of the union, something might be done that would not be equal with respect to the rest, and thence dissatisfaction and discords might rise to the prejudice of the whole. LAWS TO BE TRANSMITTED. That the laws made by them for the purposes aforesaid shall not be repugnant, but, as near as may be, agreeable to the laws of England, and shall be transmitted to the King in Council for approbation, as soon as may be after their passing; and if not disapproved within three years after presentation, to remain in force. This was thought necessary for the satisfaction of the crown, to preserve the connection of the parts of the British empire with the whole, of the members with the head, and to induce greater care and circumspection in making of the laws, that they be good in themselves and for the general benefit DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT-GENERAL. That, in case of the death of the President-General, the Speaker of the Grand Council for the time being shall sue- 354. APPENDIX ceed, and be vested with the same powers and authorities, to continue till the King's pleasure be known. It might be better, perhaps, as was said before, if the crown appointed a vice-president, to take place on the death or absence of the president-general ; for so we should be more sure of a suitable person at the head of the colonies. On the death or absence of both, the speaker to take place (or rather the eldest King's govern- or) till his Majesty's pleasure be known. OFFICERS, HOW APPOINTED. That all military commission officers, whether for land or sea service, to act under this general constitution, shall be nominated by the President-General; but the appro- bation of the Grand Council is to be obtained, before they receive their commissions. And all civil officers are to be nominated by the Grand Council, and to receive the President-General's approbation before they officiate. It was thought it might be very prejudicial to the service, to have officers appointed unknown to the people or unacceptable, the generality of Americans serving willingly under officers they know ; and not caring to engage in the service under strangers, or such as are often appointed by governors through favor or in- terest. The service here meant, is not the stated, settled service in standing troops ; but any sudden and short service, either for defence of our colonies, or invading the enemy's country (such as the expedition to Cape Breton in the last war ; in which many substantial farmers and tradesmen engaged as common soldiers, under officers of their own country, for whom they had an esteem and affection ; who would not have engaged in a standing army, or under officers from England). It was therefore thought best to give the Council the power of approving the officers, which the people will look on as a great security of their being good men. And without some such provision as this, it was thought the ex- pense of engaging men in the service on any emergency would be much greater, and the number who could be induced to engage much less ; and that therefore it would be most for the King's service and the general benefit of the nation, that the prerogative should relax a little in this particular throughout all the colonies in Amer- VOL. I,.- aS APPENDIX ica ; as it had already done much more in the charters of some par- ticular colonies, viz. : Connecticut and Rhode Island. The civil officers will be chiefly treasurers and collectors of taxes ; and the suitable persons are most likely to be known by the council. VACANCIES, HOW SUPPLIED. But, in case of vacancy by death or removal of any officer civil or military, under this constitution, the Governor of the province in which such vacancy happens, may ap- point, till the pleasure of the President-General and Grand Council can be known. The vacancies were thought best supplied by the governors in each province, till a new appointment can be regularly made; otherwise the service might suffer before the meeting of the presi- dent-general and grand council. EACH COLONY MAY DEFEND ITSELF IN EMERGENCY, ETC. That the particular military as well as civil establish- ments in each colony remain in their present state, the general constitution notwithstanding; and that on sud- den emergencies any colony may defend itself, and lay the accounts of expense thence arising before the presi- dent-general and general council, who may allow and order payment of the same, as far as they judge such ac- counts just and reasonable. Otherwise the union of the whole would weaken the parts, con- trary to the design of the union. The accounts are to be judged of by the president-general and grand council, and allowed if found reasonable. This was thought necessary to encourage colonies to defend themselves, as the expense would be light when borne by the whole ; and also to check imprudent and lavish expense in such defences ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION-ijjj. To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the under- signed Delegates of the States affixed to our Names, send greeting. WHEREAS the Delegates of the United States of Amer- ica in Congress assembled did on the fifteenth day of Novem- ber in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventyseven, and in the Second Year of the Inde- pendence of America agree to certain articles of Confedera- tion and perpetual Union between the States of Newhamp- shire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhodeisland and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl- vania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North - Carolina, South-Carolina and Georgia in the Words following, viz. Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the States of Newhampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhode- island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New- York, New- Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South- Carolina and Georgia. ARTICLE I. The stile of this confederacy shall be " The United States of America." ARTICLE II. Each State retains its sovereignty, free- dom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled. ARTICLE III. The said States hereby severally enter 357 APPENDIX into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sov- ereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever. ARTICLE IV. The better to secure and perpetuate mut- ual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different States in this Union, the free inhabitants of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and im- munities of free citizens in the several States; and the people of each State shall have free ingress and re- gress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions and restrictions as the inhabi- tants thereof respectively, provided that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of prop- erty imported into any State, to any other State of which the owner is an inhabitant; provided also that no imposi- tion, duties or restriction shall be laid by any State, on the property of the United States, or either of them. If any person guilty of, or charged with treason, fel- ony, or other high misdemeanor in any State, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the United States, he shall upon demand of the Governor or Executive power, of the State from which he fled, be delivered up and re- moved to the State having jurisdiction of his offence. Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States to the records, acts and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other State. ARTICLE V. For the more convenient management of the general interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the legislature of each State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first 358 APPENDIX Monday in November, in every year, with a power reserved to each State, to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in their stead, for the remainder of the year. No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor by more than seven members; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six years; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the United States, for which he, or another for his benefit receives any salary, fees or emolument of any kind. Each State shall maintain its own delegates in a meet- ing of the States, and while they act as members of the committee of the States. In determining questions in the United States, in Con- gress assembled, each State shall have one vote. Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or questioned in any court, or place out of Con- gress, and the members of Congress shall be protected in their persons from arrests and imprisonments, during the time of their going to and from, and attendance on Congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. ARTICLE VT. No State without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to. or receive any embassy from, or enter into any conferrence, agreement, alliance or treaty with any king prince or state; nor shall any person holding any office of profit or trust under the United States, or any of them, accept of any present, emolument, office or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince or foreign state ; nor shall the United States in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility. No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, con- federation or alliance whatever between them, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, 359 APPENDIX specifying accurately the purposes for which the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue. No State shall lay any imposts or duties, which may interfere with any stipulations in treaties, entered into by the United States in Congress assembled, with any king, prince or state, in pursuance of any treaties already proposed by Congress, to the courts of France and Spain. No vessels of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any State, except such number only, as shall be deemed necessary by the United States in Congress assembled, for the defence of such State, or its trade; nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any State, in time of peace, except such number only, as in the judgment of the United States, in Congress assembled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary for the defence of such State; but every State shall always keep up a well regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutred, and shall provide and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a due number of field pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition and camp equipage. No State shall engage in any war without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, unless such State be actually invaded by enemies, or shall have re- ceived certain advice of a resolution being formed by some nation of Indians to invade such State, and the danger is so imminent as not to admit of a delay, till the United States in Congress assembled can be consulted: nor shall any State grant commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters of marque or reprisal, except it be after a declara- tion of war by the United States in Congress assembled, and then only against the kingdom or state and the subjects thereof, against which war has been so declared, and under such regulations as shall be established by the United States in Congress assembled, unless such State be infested by pirates, in which case vessels of war may be fitted out foi 360 APPENDIX that occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall con- tinue, or until the United States in Congress assembled shall determine otherwise. ARTICLE VII. When land-forces are raised by any State for the common defence, all officers of or under the rank of colonel, shall be appointed by the Legislature of each State respectively by whom such forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such State shall direct, and all vacan- cies shall be filled up by the State which first made the appointment. ARTICLE VIII. All charges of war, and all other ex- penses that shall be incurred for the common defence or general welfare, and allowed by the United States in Con- gress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treas- ury, which shall be supplied by the several States, in pro- portion to the value of all land within each State, granted to or surveyed for any person, as such land and the build- ings and improvements thereon shall be estimated ac- cording to such mode as the United States in Congress assembled, shall from time to time direct and appoint. The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the Legislatures of the several States within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. ARTICLE IX. The United States in Congress assembled, shall have the sole and exclusive right and power of de- termining on peace and war, except in the cases mentioned in the sixth article of sending and receiving ambassadors entering into treaties and alliances, provided that no treaty of commerce shall be made whereby the legislative power of the respective States shall be restrained from im- posing such imposts and duties on foreigners, as their own people are subjected to, or from prohibiting the ex- portation or importation of any species of goods or com- modities whatsoever of establishing rules for deciding APPENDIX in all cases, what captures on land or water shall be legal, and in what manner prizes taken by land or navai forces in the service of the United States shall be divided or ap- propriated of granting letters of marque and reprisal in times of peace appointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas and establishing courts for receiving and determining finally appeals in all cases of captures, provided that no member of Congress shall be appointed a judge of any of the said courts. The United States in Congress assembled shall also be the last resort on appeal in all disputes and differences now subsisting or that hereafter may arise between two or more States concerning boundary, jurisdiction or any other cause whatever; which authority shall always be exercised in the manner following. Whenever the legis- lative or executive authority or lawful agent of any State in controversy with another shall present a petition to Congress, stating the matter in question and praying for a hearing, notice thereof shall be given by order of Congress to the legislative or executive authority of the other State in controversy, and a day assigned for the appearance of the parties by their lawful agents, who shall then be directed to appoint by joint consent, commissioners or judges to constitute a court for hearing and determining the matter in question : but if they cannot agree, Congress shall name three persons out of each of the United States, and from the list of such persons each party shall alternately strike out one, the petitioners beginning, until the number shall be reduced to thirteen ; and from that number not less than seven, nor more than nine names as Congress shall direct, shall in the presence of Congress be drawn out by lot, and the persons whose names shall be so drawn or any five of them, shall be commissioners or judges, to hear and finally determine the controversy, so always as a major part of the judges who shall hear the cause shall agree 362 APPENDIX in the determination : and if either party shall neglect to attend at the day appointed, without showing reasons, which Congress shall judge sufficient, or being present shall refuse to strike, the Congress shall proceed to nominate three persons out of each State, and the Secretary of Con- gress shall strike in behalf of such party absent or refusing; and the judgment and sentence of the court to be appointed, in the manner before prescribed, shall be final and con- clusive; and if any of the parties shall refuse to submit to the authority of such court, or to appear or defend their claim or cause, the court shall nevertheless proceed to pro- nounce sentence, or judgment, which shall in like manner be final and decisive, the judgment or sentence and other proceedings being in either case transmitted to Congress, and lodged among the acts of Congress for the security of the parties concerned : provided that every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, shall take an oath to be adminis- tered by one of the judges of the supreme or superior court of the State where the cause shall be tried, " well and truly to hear and determine the matter in question, according to the best of his judgment, without favour, affection or hope of reward:" provided also that no State shall be de- prived of territory for the benefit of the United States. All controversies concerning the private right of soil claimed under different grants of two or more States, whose jurisdiction as they may respect such lands, and the States which passed such grants are adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at the same time claimed to have originated antecedent to such settlement of jurisdiction, shall on the petition of either party to the Congress of the United States, be finally determined as near as may be in the same manner as is before prescribed for deciding dis- putes respecting territorial jurisdiction between different States. The United States in Congress assembled shall also 363 APPENDIX have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulat- ing the alloy and value of coin struck by their own au- thority, or by that of the respective States. fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the United States regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the States, pro- vided that the legislative right of any State within its own limits be not infringed or violated establishing and reg- ulating post-offices from one State to another, throughout all the United States, and exacting such postage on the papers passing thro' the same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said office appointing all officers of the land forces, in the service of the United States, except- ing regimental officers appointing all the officers of the naval forces, and commissioning all officers whatever in the service of the United States making rules for the government and regulation of the said land and naval forces, and directing their operations. The United States in Congress assembled shall have authority to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess of Congress, to be denominated "a Committee of the States," and to consist of one delegate from each State ; and to ap- point such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general affairs of the United States under their direction to appoint one of their num- ber to preside, provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any term of three years; to ascertain the necessary sums of money to be raised for the service of the United States, and to ap- propriate and apply the same for defraying the public ex- penses to borrow money, or emit bills on the credit of the United States, transmitting every half year to the re- spective States an account of the sums of money so bor- rowed or emitted, to build and equip a navy to agree upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions 364 APPENDIX from each State for its quota, in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in such State; which requisition shall be binding, and thereupon the Legislature of each State shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men and cloath, arm and equip them in a soldier like manner, at the expense of the United States ; and the officers and men so cloathed, armed and equipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled: but if the United States in Congress assembled shall, on consideration of circum- stances judge proper that any State should not raise men, or should raise a smaller number than its quota, and that any other State should raise a greater number of men than the quota thereof, such extra number shall be raised, of- ficered, cloathed, armed and equipped in the same manner as the quota of such State, unless the legislature of such State shall judge that such extra number cannot be safely spared out of the same, in which case they shall raise, officer, cloath, arm and equip as many of such extra number as they judge can be safely spared. And the officers and men so cloathed, armed and equipped, shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled. The United States in Congress assembled shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value thereof, nor as- certain the sums and expenses necessary for the defence and welfare of the United States, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit of the United States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war, to be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a commander in chief of the army or navy, unless nine States assent to the same: nor shall a question on any other point, except for 365 APPENDIX adjourning from day to day be determined, unless by the votes of a majority of the United States in Congress as- sembled. The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any place within the United States, so that no period of adjourn- ment be for a longer duration than the space of six months, and shall publish the journal of their proceedings monthly, except such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances or military operations, as in their judgment require secresy ; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each State on any question shall be entered on the journal, when it is desired by any delegate; and the delegates of a State, or any of them, at his or their request shall be furnished with a transcript of the said journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the Legislatures of the several States. ARTICLE X. The committee of the States, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States in Congress assembled, by the consent of nine States, shall from time to time think expedient to vest them with ; provided that no power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise of which, by the articles of confederation, the voice of nine States in the Congress of the United States assembled is requisite. ARTICLE XI. Canada acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this Union : but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States. ARTICLE XII. All bills of credit emitted, monies bor- rowed and debts contracted by, or under the authority of Congress, before the assembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be deemed 366 APPENDIX and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States, and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged. ARTICLE XIII. Every State shall abide by the deter- minations of the United States in Congress assembled, on all questions which by this confederation are submitted to them. And the articles of this confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time here- after be made in any of them; unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be after- wards confirmed by the Legislatures of every State. And whereas it has pleased the Great Governor of the world to incline the hearts of the Legislatures we respec- tively represent in Congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said articles of confederation and perpetual union. Know ye that we the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do by these presents, in the name and in behalf of our re- spective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and con- firm each and every of the said articles of confederation and perpetual union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained : and we do further solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress assembled, on all questions, which by the said confederation are submitted to them. And that the articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the States we re[s]pec- tively represent, and that the Union shall be perpetual. In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in Con- gress. Done at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsyl- vania the ninth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight, and in the third year of the independence of America. 367 APPENDIX On the part & behalf of the State of New Hampshire. JOSIAH BARTLETT, JOHN WENT WORTH, Junr., August 8th, 1778. On the part and behalf of the State of Massachusetts Bay JOHN HANCOCK, FRANCIS DANA, SAMUEL ADAMS, JAMES LOVELL, ELBRIDGE GERRY, SAMUEL HOLTEN. On the part and behalf of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. WILLIAM ELLERY, JOHN COLLINS. HENRY MARCHANT, On the part and behalf of the State of Connecticut. ROGER SHERMAN, TITUS HOSMER, SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, ANDREW ADAMS. OLIVER WOLCOTT, On the part and behalf of the State of New York. JAS. DUANE, WM. DUER, FRA. LEWIS, Gouv. MORRIS. On the part and in behalf of the State of New Jersey, Novr. 26, 1778. JNO. WlTHERSPOON, NATH. SCUDDER. On the part and behalf of the State of Pennsylvania ROBT. MORRIS, WILLIAM CLINGAN, DANIEL ROBERDEAU, JOSEPH REED, JONA. BAYARD SMITH, 226. July, 1778. On the part & behalf of the State of Delaware. THO. M'KEAN, NICHOLAS VAN DYKE. Feby. 12, 1779. JOHN DICKINSON, May sth, 1779. On the part and behalf of the State of Maryland. JOHN HANSON, DANIEL CARROLL, March I, 1781. Mar. I, 1781. 368 APPENDIX On the part and behalf of the State of Virginia. RICHARD HENRY LEE, JNO. HARVIE, JOHN BANISTER, FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE. THOMAS ADAMS, On the part and behalf of the State of No. Carolina. JOHN PENN, July 21, 1778. JNO. WILLIAMS. CORNS. HARNETT, On the part and behalf of the State of South Carolina HENRY LAURENS, JNO. MATHEWS, WILLIAM HENRY DRAYTON, RICHD. HUTSON. THOS. HEYWARD, Junr. On the part and behalf of the State of Georgia. JNO. WALTON, EDWD. LANGWORTHY. 24th July, 1778. EDWD. TELFAIR, THE END OF VOL. II University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which It wss borrow&d. RE i /WS16199* 000 487 108 3