Several interviews between the magistrates and the Indian chiefs took

place on this strange occurrence, and the president and council were

flattering themselves with the idea of an amicable compromise of all

the existing difficulties, and rejoicing in the re-establishment of

friendly intercourse with the Creeks, when Mary, excited with liquor,

and disappointed in her royal views, rushed in amongst them like a fury,

told the president that these were her people, that he had no business

with them, and that he should soon be convinced of it to his cost. The

president calmly advised her to retire to her lodgings, and forbear to

poison the minds of the Indians, adding that he would otherwise order

her into close confinement; upon which, turning about to Malatche,

in great rage, she repeated, with some ill-natured comments, what the

president had said; Malatche started from his seat, laid hold of his

arms, calling upon the rest to follow his example, and dared any man

to touch the queen. The whole house was filled in a moment with tumult

and uproar; every Indian having his tomahawk in his hand, the president

and council expected nothing but instant death. During this confusion,

captain Jones, who commanded the guard, very seasonably interposed, and

ordered the Indians immediately to surrender their arms, endeavoring,

however, not merely to overawe them, but using prudence to avoid coming

to extremities: with reluctance the Indians submitted, and Mary was

conveyed to a private room, where a guard was placed over her, and all

further communication with the Indians denied her during their stay in

Savannah. Ultimately the _soi-disant_ queen was compelled to abandon

her pretensions, and the Indians were induced to depart, to the great

joy of the inhabitants, who had been so long harassed by their

turbulent visit.

The wars to which it had been subject had much retarded the progress

of the colony, and in 1752 the trustees surrendered their charter to

the king. Georgia thus became a royal government. At this time the

whole exports of Georgia did not amount to ten thousand pounds a year.

FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS.

The formation and progress of all the colonies which constituted

the North American republic at the era of its independence, have now

been traced up to the middle of the eighteenth century. From that

period circumstances tended rapidly to promote that federation which

eventually effected the independence of the colonies, and laid the

basis of their future prosperity; indeed, in the prosecution of the

French war, which commenced in 1756, the energies of the colonies

were so united in the attainment of one common object, that the

generalization of their political history from that period is not

only rendered preferable, but almost inevitable.

Not to enter into a detail of the progress of French discovery, it

is sufficient to say that France had established settlements on the

St. Lawrence and at the mouth of the Mississippi, and formed the bold

plan of uniting these points by a chain of forts, stretching across

the continent, and intended to confine the English colonists to the

eastern side of the Alleghanies. In their northern colonies, the

military strength of the French was considerable; Quebec and Montreal

were strongly fortified; and at other points, Louisbourg, Cape Breton,

and the forts of lake Champlain, Niagara, Crown Point, Frontignac,

Ticonderoga, and several others, defended the frontiers. They had

also erected a considerable fort at the junction of the Alleghany with

the Monongahela, then called Du Quesne, but now forming the site of

Pittsburg.

The proceedings of the French in America excited a strong interest

in the minds of the British government; and deeming war inevitable,

orders were sent to the governors of the several colonies to repel

force by force, and to dislodge the French from their posts on the

Ohio. These orders were accompanied with a recommendation to form a

union of the colonies for more effective defence. Delegates had already

been appointed to meet at Albany, for the purpose of conferring with

the Five Nations; and governor Shirley recommended that the subject

of union should also be discussed at the convention. The commissioners

from Massachusetts had ample powers to co-operate in the formation of

a plan; those from Maryland were instructed to observe what others did;

and those from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania,

and New York, had no instructions at all on the subject. As soon,

however, as the friendship of the Indians was thought to be secured

by a distribution of presents, the delegates appointed a committee to

devise some scheme for the proposed confederation; and the committee

recommended the adoption of a government analogous to that of the

individual colonies. There was to be a grand council, composed of

deputies from the several provinces, and a president-general, appointed

by the crown, with the power of negativing the acts of the council. The

Connecticut delegates, however, dissented from this plan, because it

placed too preponderating a power in the hands of the crown.

It was rejected by the British ministry for the very opposite reason;

they suggested, however, that the several governors, with one or two

of their counsellors, should meet and adopt such measures as the common

safety might demand. But this scheme was defeated by a provision, that

they might draw upon the British treasury for all necessary sums, which

parliament would undertake to repay _by imposing a general tax upon the

colonies_. The Massachusetts assembly sent special instructions to its

agent in London to oppose most strenuously any measure which had for

its object the establishment of taxes on the colonies, under whatever

plea of utility; and Franklin, to whom the governor of Virginia had

sent the proposition of the British minister, states most distinctly in

his letter in reply, the reasons which would ever prevent the Americans

from consenting to such a proposal. He observes that it would inspire

universal discontent among the Americans to attempt the imposition of

taxes by a parliament where they were not represented; a point of which

neither the colonies nor the British government ever lost sight, from

this period till the contest it originated terminated in the entire

separation of the former from its dependence on the British crown.

Early in the spring of 1755, the British government despatched general

Braddock to America, with a respectable force, to expel the French,

and keep possession of the territory; and preparations having been made

by France to despatch a reinforcement to her armies in Canada, admiral

Boscawen was ordered to endeavor to intercept the French fleet before

it should enter the gulf of St. Lawrence. In April, general Braddock

met the governors of the several provinces to confer upon the plan of

the ensuing campaign. Three expeditions were resolved upon; one against

Du Quesne, to be commanded by general Braddock; one against forts

Niagara and Frontignac, to be commanded by governor Shirley; and one

against Crown Point, to be commanded by general Johnston. This last

originated with Massachusetts, and was to be executed by colonial

troops raised in New England and New York.

While preparations were making for these expeditions, another, which

had been previously concerted, was carried on against the French forts

in Nova Scotia. This province was settled by the French, but was ceded

to the English by the treaty of Utrecht. Its boundaries not having

been defined, the French continued to occupy a portion of the territory

claimed by the English, and had built forts for their defence. To

gain possession of these was the object of the expedition. About two

thousand militia, commanded by colonel Winslow, embarked at Boston;

and being joined on their passage by three hundred regulars, arrived in

April at the place of their destination. The forts were invested, the

resistance made was trifling and ineffectual, and in a short time the

English gained entire possession of the province according to their own

definition of its boundaries. Three only of their men were killed.

As soon as the convention of governors was dissolved, general Braddock

proceeded to the post at Wells’ Creek, whence the army commenced its

march about the middle of June. Their progress was very much retarded

by the necessity of cutting a road; and, lest the enemy should have

time to collect in great force, the general concluded to set forward

with twelve hundred select men, while colonel Dunbar should follow

slowly in the rear, with the main body and the heavy baggage. Colonel

Washington’s regiment had been split into separate companies, and he

had only joined the army as aid to the general. The roughness of the

country prevented the advanced corps from reaching the Monongahela

till the 8th of July. It was resolved to attack Du Quesne the very

next day; and lieutenant-colonel Gage was sent in front with three

hundred British regulars, while the general himself followed at some

distance with the main body. He had been strongly cautioned by colonel

Washington to provide against an ambuscade, by sending forward some

provincial companies to scour the woods; but he held the provincials

and the enemy in equal contempt. The Monongahela was crossed the second

time, about seven miles from Du Quesne; and the army was pressing

forward in an open wood, through high and thick grass, when the front

was suddenly thrown into disorder by a volley from small arms. The

main body was formed three deep, and brought to its support: the

commander-in-chief of the enemy fell; and a cessation of the fire led

general Braddock to suppose that the assailants had fled; but he was

soon attacked with redoubled fury.

Concealed behind trees, logs, and rocks, the Indians poured upon

the troops a deadly and incessant fire; officers and men fell thickly

around, and the survivors knew not where to direct their aim to revenge

their slaughtered comrades. The whole body was again thrown into

confusion; but the general, obstinate and courageous, refused to

retreat; and instead of withdrawing them beyond the reach of the

enemy’s muskets, where their ranks might easily have been formed

anew, undertook to rally them on the very ground of attack, and in

the midst of a most incessant and deadly fire. He persisted in these

efforts until five horses had been shot under him, and every one of

his officers on horseback, except colonel Washington, was either killed

or wounded. The general at length fell, and the rout became universal.

The troops fled precipitately until they met the division under Dunbar,

then sixty miles in the rear. Sixty-four officers out of eighty-five,

and about half of the privates, were killed or wounded. General

Braddock died in Dunbar’s camp; and the whole army, which appears to

have been panic struck, marched back to Philadelphia. The provincial

troops, whom Braddock had so lightly esteemed, displayed during the

battle the utmost calmness and courage. Though placed in the rear, they

alone, led on by Washington, advanced against the Indians, and covered

the retreat; and had they at first been permitted to engage the enemy

in their own way, they would easily have defeated them.

The two northern expeditions, though not so disastrous, failed in

attaining their proposed objects. The campaign of 1755 was thus utterly

unsuccessful. Immense preparations had been made, but no desired

result was obtained. By the failure of the three expeditions, the

whole frontier was left open to the ravages of the Indians. The second

campaign was almost as pregnant with evil. Montcalm had marched against

Oswego, and by destroying it had thrown the English and American army

on the defensive. No successful measures were put in operation to carry

out the plans of the colonists, and it was necessary to wait till the

following year.

At the commencement of the following year a council was held at

Boston, composed of lord Loudoun, and the governors of the New England

provinces and of Nova Scotia. At this council his lordship proposed

that New England should raise four thousand men for the ensuing

campaign; and that a proportionate number should be raised by New

York and New Jersey. These requisitions were complied with; and in the

spring his lordship found himself at the head of a very considerable

army. Admiral Holbourn arriving in the beginning of July at Halifax

with a powerful squadron, and a reinforcement of five thousand British

troops, under George viscount Howe, lord Loudoun sailed from New York

with six thousand regulars, to join those troops at the place of their

arrival. Instead of the complex operations undertaken in previous

campaigns, his lordship limited his plan to a single object. Leaving

the posts on the lakes strongly garrisoned, he resolved to direct

his whole disposable force against Louisbourg; Halifax having been

determined on as the place of rendezvous for the fleet and army

destined for the expedition. Information was, however, soon received,

that a French fleet had lately sailed from Brest; that Louisbourg was

garrisoned by six thousand regulars, exclusive of provincials; and

that it was also defended by seventeen line-of-battle ships, which

were moored in the harbor. There being no hope of success against so

formidable a force, the enterprise was deferred to the next year; the

general and admiral on the last of August proceeded to New York; and

the provincials were dismissed.

The marquis De Montcalm, availing himself of the absence of the

principal part of the British force, advanced with an army of nine

thousand men, and laid siege to fort William Henry. The garrison at

this fort consisted of between two and three thousand regulars, and

its fortifications were strong and in very good order; and for the

additional security of this important post, general Webb was stationed

at fort Edward with an army of four thousand men. The French commander,

however, urged his approaches with such vigor, that, within six days

after the investment of the fort, colonel Monro, the commandant, having

in vain solicited succor from general Webb, found it necessary to

surrender by capitulation. The garrison was to be allowed the honors of

war, and to be protected against the Indians until within the reach of

fort Edward; but the next morning, a great number of Indians, having

been permitted to enter the lines, began to plunder; and meeting

with no opposition, they fell upon the sick and wounded, whom they

immediately massacred. Their appetite for carnage being excited, the

defenceless troops were attacked with fiend-like fury. Monro in vain

implored Montcalm to provide the stipulated guard, and the massacre

proceeded. All was turbulence and horror. On every side savages were

butchering and scalping their wretched victims. Their hideous yells,

the groans of the dying, and the frantic shrieks of others shrinking

from the uplifted tomahawk, were heard by the French unmoved. The fury

of the savages was permitted to rage without restraint until fifteen

hundred were killed, or hurried captives into the wilderness. The day

after this awful tragedy, major Putnam was sent with his rangers to

watch the motions of the enemy. When he came to the shore of the lake,

their rear was hardly beyond the reach of musket-shot. The prospect

was horrible in the extreme; the fort demolished; the barracks and

buildings yet burning; innumerable fragments of human carcasses still

broiled in the decaying fires; and dead bodies, mangled with tomahawks

and scalping knives, in all the wantonness of Indian barbarity, were

everywhere scattered around. Thus ended the third campaign in America;

happily forming the last of a series of disasters, resulting from folly

and mismanagement, rather than from want of means and military strength.

The British nation was alarmed and indignant, and the king found it

necessary to change his councils. At the head of the new ministry he

placed the celebrated William Pitt, afterwards earl of Chatham, under

whose administration public confidence revived, and the nation seemed

inspired with new life and vigor. He was equally popular in both

hemispheres. Lord Loudoun was replaced by general Abercrombie, who,

early in the spring of 1758, was ready to enter upon the campaign at

the head of fifty thousand men, the most powerful army ever seen in

America.

Three points of attack were marked out for this campaign; the first

Louisbourg; the second Ticonderoga and Crown Point; and the third,

fort Du Quesne. Its result was highly honorable to the British arms.

Of the three expeditions, two completely succeeded, and the leader of

the third had made an important conquest. Fort Du Quesne was reduced,

supplied with a new garrison, and its name changed to Pittsburg. As

usual, the Indians joined the strongest side. A peace was concluded

with all the tribes between the Ohio and the lakes; and the frontier

inhabitants of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, were once more

relieved from the terrors of fire and scalping knives.

To the commanding talents of Pitt, and the confidence which they

inspired, this change of fortune must be chiefly attributed; and in

no respect were these talents more strikingly displayed than in the

choice of men to execute his plans. The advantages of this campaign

had, however, been purchased by an expensive effort and corresponding

exhaustion of provincial strength; and, when a circular letter from

Mr. Pitt to the several governors induced the colonies to resolve upon

making the most vigorous preparation for the next, they soon discovered

that their resources were by no means commensurate with their zeal.

Notwithstanding these difficulties, it was resolved to signalize the

year 1759 by the complete conquest of Canada. The plan of the campaign

was, that three powerful armies should enter the French possessions by

three different routes, and attack all their strong-holds at nearly the

same time. At the head of one division of the army, brigadier-general

Wolfe, a young officer who had signalized himself at the siege of

Louisbourg, was to ascend the St. Lawrence and lay siege to Quebec,

escorted by a strong fleet to co-operate with his troops. The central

and main army, composed of British and provincials, was to be conducted

against Ticonderoga and Crown Point by general Amherst, the new

commander-in-chief, who, after making himself master of these places,

was to proceed over lake Champlain and by the way of Richelieu river

to the St. Lawrence, and, descending that river, form a junction

with general Wolfe before the walls of Quebec. The third army, to be

composed principally of provincials, reinforced by a strong body of

friendly Indians, was to be commanded by general Prideaux, who was

to lead this division first against Niagara, and, after the reduction

of that place, to embark on lake Ontario, and proceed down the St.

Lawrence against Montreal. It has been observed by a recent author,

‘Had the elements been laid, and the enemy spell-bound, the whole of

this brilliant plan could not have helped succeeding.’ This sentence,

however, betrays a very limited view of a plan that was well worthy

of the mind of Pitt. In this arrangement immediate advantage was not

sacrificed; while the more remote results exhibited a prospect highly

calculated to excite the ambition of the leaders, and to arouse all the

energies of the troops. It is in thus affording motives which tend to

bring physical force into most effective and persevering action, that

intellectual superiority becomes manifest, confounding the calculations

of ordinary minds.

Early in the winter, general Amherst commenced preparations for his

part of the enterprise; but it was not till the last of May that his

troops were assembled at Albany; and it was as late as the 22d of July,

when he appeared before Ticonderoga. As the naval superiority of Great

Britain had prevented France from sending out reinforcements, none of

the posts in this quarter were able to withstand so great a force as

that of general Amherst. Ticonderoga was immediately abandoned; the

example was followed at Crown Point; and the only way in which the

enemy seemed to think of preserving their province was by retarding

the English army with shows of resistance till the season of operation

should be past, or till, by the gradual concentration of their forces,

they should become numerous enough to make an effectual stand. From

Crown Point they retreated to Isle-aux-Noix, where general Amherst

understood there was a body of between three and four thousand men,

and a fleet of several armed vessels. The English made great exertions

to secure a naval superiority; and had it not been for a succession

of adverse storms upon the lake, they would most probably have

accomplished the original design of forming a junction at Quebec,

instead of being obliged to go into winter quarters at Crown Point.

In prosecution of the enterprise against Niagara, general Prideaux

had embarked with an army on lake Ontario; and on the 6th of July

landed without opposition within about three miles of the fort, which

he invested in form. While directing the operations of the siege he

was killed by the bursting of a cohorn, and the command devolved on

Sir William Johnson. That general, prosecuting with judgment and vigor

the plan of his predecessor, pushed the attack of Niagara with an

intrepidity that soon brought the besiegers within a hundred yards

of the covered way. Meanwhile, the French, alarmed at the danger of

losing a post which was a key to their interior empire in America, had

collected a large body of regular troops from the neighboring garrisons

of Detroit, Venango, and Presqu’ Isle, with which, and a party of

Indians, they resolved, if possible, to raise the siege. Apprised

of their intention to hazard a battle, general Johnson ordered his

light infantry, supported by some grenadiers and regular foot, to

take post between the cataract of Niagara and the fortress; placed the

auxiliary Indians on his flanks; and, together with this preparation

for an engagement, took effectual measures for securing his lines, and

bridling the garrison. About nine in the morning of the 24th of July,

the enemy appeared, and the horrible sound of the war-whoop from the

hostile Indians was the signal of battle. The French charged with great

impetuosity, but were received with firmness; and in less than an hour

were completely routed. This battle decided the fate of Niagara. Sir

William Johnson the next morning opened negotiations with the French

commandant; and in a few hours a capitulation was signed. The garrison,

consisting of six hundred and seven men, were to march out with the

honors of war, to be embarked on the lake, and carried to New York; and

the women and children were to be carried to Montreal. The reduction

of Niagara effectually cut off the communication between Canada and

Louisiana.

The expedition against the capital of Canada was the most daring and

important. Strong by nature, and still stronger by art, Quebec had

obtained the appellation of the Gibraltar of America; and every attempt

against it had failed. It was now commanded by Montcalm, an officer of

distinguished reputation; and its capture must have appeared chimerical

to any one but Pitt. He judged rightly, however, that the boldest and

most dangerous enterprises are often the most successful, especially

when committed to ardent minds glowing with enthusiasm, and emulous of

glory. Such a mind he had discovered in general Wolfe, whose conduct at

Louisbourg had attracted his attention. He appointed him to conduct the

expedition, and gave him for assistants brigadier-generals Monckton,

Townshend, and Murray; all, like himself, young and ardent. Early in

the season he sailed from Halifax with eight thousand troops, and,

near the last of June, landed the whole army on the island of Orleans,

a few miles below Quebec. From this position he could take a near and

distinct view of the obstacles to be overcome. These were so great,

that even the bold and sanguine Wolfe perceived more to fear than to

hope. In a letter to Mr. Pitt, written before commencing operations,

he declared that he saw but little prospect of reducing the place.

Quebec stands on the north side of the St. Lawrence, and consists of

an upper and lower town. The lower town lies between the river and a

bold and lofty eminence, which runs parallel to it far to the westward.

At the top of this eminence is a plain, upon which the upper town is

situated. Below, or east of the city, is the river St. Charles, whose

channel is rough, and whose banks are steep and broken. At a short

distance farther down is the Montmorency; and between these two rivers,

and reaching from one to the other, was encamped the French army,

strongly entrenched, and at least equal in number to that of the

English. General Wolfe took possession of Point Levi, on the southern

bank of the St. Lawrence, and there erected batteries against the

town. The cannonade which was kept up, though it destroyed many houses,

made but little impression on the works, which were too strong and too

remote to be materially affected; their elevation, at the same time,

placing them beyond the reach of the fleet.

Illustration: Siege of Quebec.

Convinced of the impossibility of reducing the place, unless he

could erect batteries on the north side of the St. Lawrence, Wolfe

soon decided on more daring measures. The northern shore of the St.

Lawrence, to a considerable distance above Quebec, is so bold and rocky

as to render a landing in the face of an enemy impracticable. If an

attempt were made below the town, the river Montmorency passed, and the

French driven from their entrenchments, the St. Charles would present

a new, and perhaps an insuperable barrier. With every obstacle fully

in view, Wolfe, heroically observing that ‘a victorious army finds no

difficulties,’ resolved to pass the Montmorency, and bring Montcalm

to an engagement. In pursuance of this resolution, thirteen companies

of English grenadiers, and part of the second battalion of royal

Americans, were landed at the mouth of that river, while two divisions,

under generals Townshend and Murray, prepared to cross it higher up.

Wolfe’s plan was to attack first a redoubt, close to the water’s edge,

apparently beyond reach of the fire from the enemy’s entrenchments, in

the belief that the French, by attempting to support that fortification,

would put it in his power to bring on a general engagement; or, if

they should submit to the loss of the redoubt, that he could afterwards

examine their situation with coolness, and advantageously regulate his

future operations.

On the approach of the British troops the redoubt was evacuated; and

the general, observing some confusion in the French camp, changed

his original plan, and determined not to delay an attack. Orders were

immediately despatched to the generals Townshend and Murray to keep

their divisions in readiness for fording the river; and the grenadiers

and royal Americans were directed to form on the beach until they could

be properly sustained. These troops, however, not waiting for support,

rushed impetuously toward the enemy’s entrenchments; but they were

received with so strong and steady a fire from the French musketry,

that they were instantly thrown into disorder, and obliged to seek

shelter at the redoubt which the enemy had abandoned. Detained here

awhile by a dreadful thunder storm, they were still within reach of

a severe fire from the French; and many gallant officers, exposing

their persons in attempting to form the troops, were killed, the whole

loss amounting to nearly five hundred men. The plan of attack being

effectually disconcerted, the English general gave orders for repassing

the river, and returning to the isle of Orleans.

Compelled to abandon the attack on that side, Wolfe deemed that

advantage might result from attempting to destroy the French fleet,

and by distracting the attention of Montcalm with continual descents

upon the northern shore. General Murray, with twelve hundred men in

transports, made two vigorous but abortive attempts to land; and though

more successful in the third, he did nothing more than burn a magazine

of warlike stores. The enemy’s fleet was effectually secured against

attacks, either by land or by water, and the commander-in-chief was

again obliged to submit to the mortification of recalling his troops.

At this juncture, intelligence arrived that Niagara was taken, that

Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been abandoned, but that general

Amherst, instead of pressing forward to their assistance, was preparing

to attack the Isle-aux-Noix.

While Wolfe rejoiced at the triumph of his brethren in arms, he

could not avoid contrasting their success with his own disastrous

efforts. His mind, alike lofty and susceptible, was deeply impressed

by the disasters at Montmorency; and his extreme anxiety, preying

upon his delicate frame, sensibly affected his health. He was observed

frequently to sigh; and, as if life was only valuable while it added

to his glory, he declared to his intimate friends, that he would not

survive the disgrace which he imagined would attend the failure of

his enterprise. Nothing, however, could shake the resolution of this

valiant commander, or induce him to abandon the attempt. In a council

of his principal officers, called on this critical occasion, it was

resolved, that all the future operations should be above the town. The

camp at the isle of Orleans was accordingly abandoned; and the whole

army having embarked on board the fleet, a part of it was landed at

point Levi, and a part higher up the river. Montcalm, apprehending from

this movement that the invaders might make a distant descent and come

on the back of the city of Quebec, detached M. de Bougainville with

fifteen hundred men, to watch their motions, and prevent their landing.

Baffled and harassed in all his previous assaults, general Wolfe

seems to have determined to finish the enterprise by a single bold

and desperate effort. The admiral sailed several leagues up the river,

making occasional demonstrations of a design to land troops; and,

during the night, a strong detachment in flat-bottomed boats fell

silently down with the stream, to a point about a mile above the city.

The beach was shelving, the bank high and precipitous, and the only

path by which it could be scaled, was now defended by a captain’s guard

and a battery of four guns. Colonel Howe, with the van, soon clambered

up the rocks, drove away the guard, and seized upon the battery. The

army landed about an hour before day, and by daybreak was marshalled on

the heights of Abraham.

Montcalm could not at first believe the intelligence; but, as soon

as he was assured of its truth, he made all prudent haste to decide

a battle which it was no longer possible to avoid. Leaving his camp

at Montmorency, he crossed the river St. Charles with the intention of

attacking the English army. No sooner did Wolfe observe this movement,

than he began to form his order of battle. His troops consisted of

six battalions, and the Louisbourg grenadiers. The right wing was

commanded by general Monckton, and the left by general Murray. The

right flank was covered by the Louisbourg grenadiers, and the rear and

left by Howe’s light infantry. The form in which the French advanced

indicating an intention to outflank the left of the English army,

general Townshend was sent with the battalion of Amherst, and the two

battalions of royal Americans, to that part of the line, and they were

formed _en potence_, so as to present a double front to the enemy. The

body of reserve consisted of one regiment, drawn up in eight divisions,

with large intervals. The dispositions made by the French general

were not less masterly. The right and left wings were composed about

equally of European and colonial troops. The centre consisted of a

column, formed of two battalions of regulars. Fifteen hundred Indians

and Canadians, excellent marksmen, advancing in front, screened by

surrounding thickets, began the battle. Their irregular fire proved

fatal to many British officers, but it was soon silenced by the steady

fire of the English.

About nine in the morning the main body of the French advanced briskly

to the charge, and the action soon became general. Montcalm having

taken post on the left of the French army, and Wolfe on the right of

the English, the two generals met each other where the battle was most

severe. The English troops reserved their fire until the French had

advanced within forty yards of their line, and then, by a general

discharge, made terrible havoc among their ranks. The fire of the

English was vigorously maintained, and the enemy everywhere yielded

to it. General Wolfe, who, exposed in the front of his battalions,

had been wounded in the wrist, betraying no symptom of pain, wrapped

a handkerchief round his arm, and continued to encourage his men. Soon

after, he received a shot in the groin; but, concealing the wound, he

was pressing on at the head of his grenadiers with fixed bayonets, when

a third ball pierced his breast.[102] The army, not disconcerted by

his fall, continued the action under Monckton, on whom the command

now devolved, but who, receiving a ball through his body, soon yielded

the command to general Townshend. Montcalm, fighting in front of his

battalions, received a mortal wound about the same time; and general

Senezergus, the second in command also fell.

The British grenadiers pressed on with their bayonets. General Murray,

briskly advancing with the troops under his direction, broke the

centre of the French army. The Highlanders, drawing their broadswords,

completed the confusion of the enemy; and after having lost their first

and second in command, the right and centre of the French were entirely

driven from the field; and the left was following the example, when

Bougainville appeared in the rear, with the fifteen hundred men who had

been sent to oppose the landing of the English. Two battalions and two

pieces of artillery were detached to meet him; but he retired, and the

British troops were left the undisputed masters of the field. The loss

of the French was much greater than that of the English. The corps of

French regulars was almost entirely annihilated. The killed and wounded

of the English army did not amount to six hundred men. Although Quebec

was still strongly defended by its fortifications, and might possibly

be relieved by Bougainville, or from Montreal, yet general Townshend

had scarcely finished a road in the bank to get up his heavy artillery

for a siege, when the inhabitants capitulated, on condition that during

the war they might still enjoy their own civil and religious rights.

A garrison of five thousand men was left under general Murray, and the

fleet sailed out of the St. Lawrence.

The fall of Quebec did not immediately produce the submission of

Canada. The main body of the French army, which, after the battle on

the plains of Abraham, retired to Montreal, and which still consisted

of ten battalions of regulars, had been reinforced by six thousand

Canadian militia, and a body of Indians. With these forces M. de

Levi, who had succeeded the marquis de Montcalm in the chief command,

resolved to attempt the recovery of Quebec. He had hoped to carry the

place by a _coup de main_ during the winter; but, on reconnoitring, he

found the outposts so well secured, and the governor so vigilant and

active, that he postponed the enterprise until spring. In the month

of April, when the upper part of the St. Lawrence was so open as to

admit a transportation by water, his artillery, military stores, and

heavy baggage, were embarked at Montreal, and fell down the river under

convoy of six frigates; and M. de Levi, after a march of ten days,

arrived with his army at Point au Tremble, within a few miles of Quebec.

General Murray, to whom the care of maintaining the English conquest

had been intrusted, had taken every precaution to preserve it; but

his troops had suffered so much by the extreme cold of the winter,

and by the want of vegetables and fresh provisions, that instead of

five thousand, the original number of his garrison, there were not at

this time above three thousand men fit for service. With this small

but valiant body he resolved to meet the enemy in the field; and on

the 28th of April marched out to the heights of Abraham, where, near

Sillery, he attacked the French under M. de Levi with great impetuosity.

He was received with firmness; and, after a fierce encounter, finding

himself outflanked, and in danger of being surrounded by superior

numbers, he called off his troops, and retired into the city. In this

action the loss of the English was near a thousand men, and that of

the French still greater. The French general lost no time in improving

his victory. On the very evening of the battle he opened trenches

before the town, but it was the 11th of May before he could mount his

batteries, and bring his guns to bear on the fortifications. By that

time general Murray, who had been indefatigable in his exertions, had

completed some outworks, and planted so numerous an artillery on his

ramparts, that his fire was very superior to that of the besiegers, and

in a manner silenced their batteries. A British fleet most opportunely

arriving a few days after, M. de Levi immediately raised the siege,

and precipitately retired to Montreal. Here the marquis de Vaudreuil,

governor-general of Canada, had fixed his head-quarters, and determined

to make his last stand. For this purpose he called in all his

detachments, and collected around him the whole force of the colony.

The English, on the other hand, were resolved upon the utter

annihilation of the French power in Canada; and general Amherst

prepared to overwhelm it with an irresistible superiority of numbers.

Almost on the same day, the armies from Quebec, from lake Ontario, and

from lake Champlain, were concentrated before Montreal; a capitulation

was immediately signed; Detroit, Michilimackinac, and, indeed, all

New France, surrendered to the English. The French troops were to be

carried home; and the Canadians to retain their civil and religious

privileges.

The history of modern Europe, with whose destiny that of the

colonies was closely interwoven, may be designated as the annals of

an interminable war. Her sovereigns, ever having the oily words of

peace on their lips, have seldom had recourse to the olive branch but

as the signal of a truce, the duration of which should be coeval with

the reinvigoration of military strength. It was thus with France on

the present occasion. Equally unsuccessful on both continents, and

exhausted by her strenuous and continued efforts, she was at length

induced to make overtures of peace; and every thing seemed to be in a

fair train for adjustment, when the treaty was suddenly broken off by

an attempt of the court of Versailles to mingle the politics of Spain

and of Germany with the disputes between France and Great Britain.

A secret family compact between the Bourbons to support each other

through evil and good, in peace and in war, had rendered Spain desirous

of war, and induced France once more to try her fortune. As the

interests of the two nations were now identified, it only remained for

England to make a formal declaration of hostility against Spain. The

colonies of New England, being chiefly interested in the reduction

of the West India islands, furnished a considerable body of troops to

carry on the war. A large fleet was despatched from England; the land

forces amounted to sixteen thousand; and before the end of the second

year, Great Britain had taken the important city of Havannah, the key

of the Mexican gulf, together with the French provinces of Martinique

Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and the Caribbee islands.

The progress of the British conquests, which threatened all the

remaining colonial possessions of their opponents, was arrested by

preliminary articles of peace, which, towards the close of 1762, were

interchanged at Fontainbleau between the ministers of Great Britain,

France, and Spain. On the 10th of February in the following year, a

definitive treaty of peace was signed at Paris, and soon after ratified.

France ceded to Great Britain all the conquests which the latter had

made in North America; and it was stipulated between the two crowns,

that the boundary line of their respective dominions in the new

hemisphere should run along the middle of the Mississippi, from its

source as far as the Iberville, and along the middle of that river,

and of lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain.

Thus terminated a war, which originated in an attempt on the part

of the French to surround the English colonists, and chain them to

a narrow strip of country along the coast of the Atlantic; and ended

with their giving up the whole of what was then their only valuable

territory in North America. The immediate advantage the colonies

derived from the successful issue of the contest was great and apparent.

Although, for a short period after the conquest of Canada had been

effected, they were subject to attacks from the Indian tribes attached

to the French, and also from the Cherokees on their south-western

borders, they were soon enabled to visit their cruelties with severe

retribution, and to procure a lasting repose, as the Indians had

no forts to which to repair for protection or aid. But the indirect

results, though almost unperceived at first, were far more important,

and prepared the way for those momentous efforts which issued in the

loss to Great Britain of the fairest portion of her colonies, and the

establishment of her vassal as a rival. The colonists became inured to

the habits and hardships of a military life, and skilled in the arts of

European warfare; while the desire of revenge for the loss of Canada,

which France did not fail to harbor, was preparing for them a most

efficient friend, and making way for the anomalous exhibition of a

despotic sovereign exerting all his power in the cause of liberty and

independence.

COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVOLUTION.

Our limits will not permit us to enter into any speculations as to the

remote origin of the American revolution. The immediate and exciting

causes of the spirit of opposition to the government were twofold;

the rigorous execution of the navigation laws, which destroyed a most

important and profitable, though contraband and illegal trade; and the

assertion by the British parliament of its right to tax the colonies.

The latter so speedily followed the former, and afforded so preferable

a ground on which to make a stand, that the navigation laws were seldom

exhibited as one of the chief grievances; although, had not the stamp

act and other similar measures been brought forward, the laws affecting

the trade of the colonies would inevitably have excited the same

opposition.

The attempt to hold a people, circumstanced as were the American

colonists, under the legislation of Great Britain, was as irrational

as it was unjust. Financial embarrassments called forth the erroneous

policy into action, which, as often happens in private life, deeply

aggravated the evil it was designed to remedy; and the attempt to wring

a few thousands per annum from the colonists, terminated in plunging

Great Britain into debt, and in depriving her of an immense territory,

which, under a just and liberal management, might still have continued

one of the most illustrious appendages of the British crown.

Plans of laying internal taxes, and of drawing a revenue from the

colonies, had been at various times suggested to the ministry, and

particularly to Sir Robert Walpole. This statesman, however, was too

wise and sagacious to adopt them. ‘I will leave the taxation of the

Americans,’ Walpole answered, ‘for some of my successors, who may have

more courage than I have, and be less friendly to commerce than I am.

It has been a maxim with me,’ he added, ‘during my administration, to

encourage the trade of the American colonies to the utmost latitude;

nay, it has been necessary to pass over some irregularities in their

trade with Europe; for, by encouraging them to an extensive and growing

foreign commerce, if they gain five hundred thousand pounds, I am

convinced that, in two years afterwards, full two hundred and fifty

thousand of this gain will be in his majesty’s exchequer by the labor

and product of this kingdom, as immense quantities of every kind of our

manufactures go thither; and as they increase in the foreign American

trade, more of our produce will be wanted. This is taxing them more

agreeably to their own constitution and laws.’ The first Pitt, also,

in his celebrated speech on the repeal of the stamp act, referring

to the conduct of the several preceding administrations, says, ‘None

of these thought, or even dreamed, of robbing the colonies of their

constitutional rights. That was reserved to mark an era of the late

administration; not that there were wanting some, when I had the honor

to serve his majesty, to propose to me to burn my fingers with an

American stamp act. With the enemy at their back, with our bayonets

at their breasts, in the day of their distress, perhaps the Americans

would have submitted to the imposition; but it would have been taking

an ungenerous and unjust advantage.’

Whatever might have been the views or wishes of any individual of

the British cabinet, at any period, relative to drawing a revenue

directly from the colonies, no one had been bold enough to make the

attempt until after the reduction of the French power in America. This

was deemed a favorable moment to call upon the Americans for taxes,

to assist in the payment of a debt, incurred, as was alleged, in a

great measure, for their protection against a powerful enemy, now no

longer an object of their dread.[103] A British statesman should have

reflected, that, if the Americans were relieved from the dread of

their ancient enemy, they no longer required the protection of the

parent country against that enemy; and that the strongest hold on their

dependence was gone when Canada was gained.

The conquest of Canada had scarcely been effected, when rumors were

extensively prevalent that a different system of government was about

to be adopted by the parent state; that the charters would be taken

away, and the colonies reduced to royal governments. The officers of

the customs began to enforce with strictness all the acts of parliament

regulating the trade of the colonies, several of which had been

suspended, or had become obsolete. Governor Bernard, of Massachusetts,

who was always a supporter of the royal prerogative, appears to

have entered fully into these views, and to have indicated, by his

appointment of confidential advisers, that his object would be to

extend the power of the government to any limits which the ministry

might require. The first demonstration of the new course intended

to be pursued, was the arrival of an order in council to carry into

effect the acts of trade, and to apply to the supreme judicature of

the province for writs of assistance, to be granted to the officers

of the customs. According to the ordinary course of law, no searches

or seizures can be made without a special warrant, issued upon probable

cause, supported by oath or affirmation, particularly designating

the place to be searched and the goods to be seized. But the writ of

assistance was to command all sheriffs and other civil officers to

assist the person to whom it was granted in breaking open and searching

every place where he might suspect any prohibited or uncustomed goods

to be concealed. It was a sort of commission, during pleasure, to

ransack the dwellings of the citizens, for it was never to be returned,

nor any account of the proceedings under it rendered to the court

whence it issued. Such a weapon of oppression in the hands of the

inferior officers of the customs might well alarm even innocence, and

confound the violators of the law.

The mercantile part of the community united in opposing the petition,

and was in a state of great anxiety as to the result of the question.

The officers of the customs called upon Mr. Otis for his official

assistance, as advocate-general, to argue their cause: but as he

believed these writs to be illegal and tyrannical, he resigned the

situation, though very lucrative, and if filled by a compliant spirit,

leading to the highest favors of government. The merchants of Salem and

Boston applied to Otis and Thacher, who engaged to make their defence.

The trial took place in the council chamber of the old town-house, in

Boston. The judges were five in number, including lieutenant governor

Hutchinson, who presided as chief justice; and the room was filled with

all the officers of government and the principal citizens, to hear the

arguments in a cause that inspired the deepest solicitude. The case was

opened by Mr. Gridley, who argued it with much learning, ingenuity, and

dignity, urging every point and authority that could be found, after

the most diligent search, in favor of the custom-house petition; making

all his reasoning depend on this consideration,――‘if the parliament

of Great Britain is the sovereign legislator of the British empire.’

He was followed by Mr. Thacher on the opposite side, whose reasoning

was ingenious and able, delivered in a tone of great mildness and

moderation. ‘But,’ in the language of president Adams, ‘Otis was a

flame of fire; with a promptitude of classical allusion, a depth of

research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion

of legal authorities, a prophetic glance into futurity, and a rapid

torrent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away all before him.

American independence was then and there born. The seeds of patriots

and heroes to defend the _Non sine Diis animosus infans_, to defend

the vigorous youth, were then and there sown. Every man of an immense

crowded audience appeared to me to go away as I did, ready to take arms

against writs of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the

first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then

and there the child Independence was born. In fifteen years, i. e. in

1776, he grew up to manhood and declared himself free.’[104]

In consequence of this argument, the popularity of Otis was without

bounds, and at the next election he was for the first time chosen a

member of the house of representatives, by an almost unanimous vote.

Some idea of the state of public sentiment at that period may be

derived from the following remarkable language of the governor, in his

speech at the commencement of the session. ‘Let me recommend to you to

give no attention to declamations tending to promote a suspicion of the

civil rights of the people being in danger. Such harangues might suit

well in the times of Charles and James, but in the times of the Georges

they are groundless and unjust. Since the accession of the first George,

there has been no instance of the legal privileges of any corporate

body being attacked by any of the king’s ministers or servants,

without public censure ensuing. His present majesty has given uncommon

assurances how much he has at heart the preservation of the liberty,

rights, and privileges of all his subjects. Can it be supposed that

he can forfeit his word; or that he will suffer it to be forfeited

by the acts of any servant of his with impunity? An insinuation so

unreasonable and injurious I am sure will never be well received among

you.’

In the following session governor Bernard informed the house of

representatives, that, during the recess of the legislature, he had

appropriated a small sum towards fitting out the sloop Massachusetts

to protect the fishery. The committee appointed to prepare an

answer reported to the house a message, in which, after desiring his

excellency to restore the sloop to her former condition, they add,

‘Justice to ourselves and to our constituents obliges us to remonstrate

against the method of making or increasing establishments by the

governor and council. It is in effect taking from the house their

most darling privilege, the right of originating all taxes. It is, in

short, annihilating one branch of the legislature. And when once the

representatives of a people give up this privilege, the government will

very soon become arbitrary. No necessity, therefore, can be sufficient

to justify a house of representatives in giving up such a privilege;

for it would be of little consequence to the people whether they were

subject to George or Louis, the king of Great Britain or the French

king, if both were arbitrary, as both would be if both could levy

taxes without parliament.’ ‘Treason, treason!’ cried one of the members

when these words were read; but the report was accepted, and the

message sent unaltered to the governor. The same day he returned it,

accompanied by a letter requesting that a part of it might be expunged,

as disrespectful to the king. It was then proposed to insert an

amendment in the message, expressive of loyalty; but a certain member

crying ‘Rase them, rase them,’ the obnoxious words, which had been

underlined by the governor, were erased; ‘it being obvious that the

remonstrance would be the same in effect with or without them.’ The

governor sent a vindication of his conduct to the house, and prorogued

the assembly before there was time to answer it.

The year 1764 was prolific in measures calculated to agitate and

arouse the spirit of the Americans. Early in March an act was passed,

which declared that the bills which had been issued by the several

colonial governments, should no longer be regarded as legal currency;

an enactment which, although in some cases it might have the beneficial

effect of preventing an injurious excess of paper, was very prejudicial

to the interests, as well as galling to the feelings, of the colonists.

On the 10th of March the house of commons passed eighteen resolutions

for imposing taxes and duties on the colonies. The execution of

that which declared that it might be proper to impose certain stamp

duties on them, was deferred to the next session; but the others

were immediately enforced by ‘An Act for granting certain Duties in

America;’ which, after stating that it was just and expedient to raise

a revenue there, imposed duties on silks and colored calicoes from

Persia, India, or China, and on sugar, wines, coffee, and pimento, made

the sugar and molasses act perpetual, reducing the duty on molasses

from six-pence to three-pence per gallon; and this for the express and

sole purpose of raising a revenue. The same act increased the number

of enumerated commodities, laid new and harsh restrictions on commerce,

re-enacted many of the obsolete laws of trade, and provided that

all penalties and forfeitures, accruing under any of them, might be

sued for, at the election of the informer, in any court of record

or of admiralty, or in that of vice-admiralty to be established over

all America. The declaration which was made, that all these duties

should be devoted to the maintenance of an army for the defence of

the colonies, was by no means satisfactory: it was indeed urged by the

ministry, to prove to Americans that the money which was raised from

them would ultimately be spent again among their own inhabitants; but

the colonists sagaciously conjectured, that now they had no other enemy

than a few exhausted tribes of Indians, there must be some other design

than that of defence in maintaining a standing army among them; and

they could attribute the plan to no other source than a desire on the

part of the ministry to secure the destruction of their liberties by

military force.

The direct assertion by the British parliament of its right to tax

the colonies, accompanied, as it evidently was, by a determination

to carry the principle into almost immediate effect, excited the most

extensive clamor and agitation, not only among individuals, but in the

minds of the constituted authorities. ‘Taxation without representation

is tyranny,’ was the universal watchword; the proposed exaction was

everywhere the topic of conversation, and the subject of the severest

animadversion. Every day beheld the affection of the Americans for the

parent country sensibly diminish, while the disposition to resist by

force was silently but effectually fostered. Several of the provincial

assemblies sent instructions to their agents in London to employ every

means to prevent the obnoxious measure being carried into effect.

The people of Boston, at their meeting in May, instructed their

representatives to the general court on this important subject. In

these instructions, (which were drawn up by Samuel Adams, one of

the committee appointed for that purpose,) after commenting on the

sugar and molasses act, they proceed to observe: ‘But our greatest

apprehension is, that these proceedings may be preparatory to new taxes;

for if our trade may be taxed, why not our lands? why not the products

of our lands, and every thing we possess or use? This, we conceive,

annihilates our charter rights to govern and tax ourselves. It strikes

at our British privileges which, as we have never forfeited, we hold

in common with our fellow-subjects who are natives of Britain. If

taxes are laid upon us, in any shape, without our having a legal

representation where they are laid, we are reduced from the character

of free subjects, to the state of tributary slaves. We, therefore,

earnestly recommend it to you to use your utmost endeavors to obtain

from the general court all necessary advice and instruction to our

agent, at this most critical juncture. We also desire you to use your

endeavors that the other colonies, having the same interests and rights

with us, may add their weight to that of this province; that by united

application of all who are aggrieved, all may obtain redress.’

This was the first act in the colonies, in opposition to the

ministerial plans of drawing a revenue directly from America; and

it contained the first suggestion of the propriety of that mutual

understanding and correspondence among the colonies, which laid the

foundation of their future confederacy. The house of representatives

of Massachusetts, in June following, declared, ‘That the sole right

of giving and granting the money of the people of that province, was

vested in them, or their representatives, and that the imposition of

duties and taxes by the parliament of Great Britain upon a people not

represented in the house of commons, is absolutely irreconcilable with

their rights; that no man can justly take the property of another,

without his consent; upon which original principles, the power of

making laws for levying taxes, one of the main pillars of the British

constitution, is evidently founded.’ The same sentiments are expressed,

though in stronger language, in their letter of instructions to their

agent. ‘If the colonists are to be taxed at pleasure,’ they say,

‘without any representatives in parliament, what will there be to

distinguish them, in point of liberty, from the subjects of the most

absolute prince? If we are to be taxed at pleasure, without our consent,

will it be any consolation to us, that we are to be assessed by a

hundred instead of one? If we are not represented, we are slaves.’ The

house, also, at the same time, appointed a committee, to sit during the

recess of the court, to write to the other colonies, requesting them to

join in applying for a repeal of the sugar act, and in endeavoring to

prevent the passage of the act laying stamp duties, or any other act

imposing taxes on the American provinces.

In addition to the acts and declarations of the colonial legislatures,

various individuals enlightened and animated the colonists by numerous

publications both in the newspapers and by separate pamphlets. Among

the latter, ‘The Rights of the Colonists asserted and proved,’ by

Mr. Otis, and ‘The Sentiments of a British American,’ by Oxenbridge

Thacher, were particularly distinguished. Mr. Otis, among other things,

declared, ‘That the imposition of taxes, whether on trade or on land,

on houses or ships, on real or personal, fixed or floating property

in the colonies, is absolutely irreconcilable with the rights of the

colonists, as British subjects and as men.’ On the subject of the sugar

and molasses act, Mr. Thacher stated his objections, the first of which

was, ‘That a tax was thereby laid on several commodities, to be raised

and levied in the plantations, and to be remitted home to England.

This is esteemed,’ he said ‘a grievance, inasmuch as the same are laid

without the consent of the representatives of the colonists. It is

esteemed an essential British right, that no man shall be subject to

any tax but what, in person or by his representative, he hath a voice

in laying.’

In the winter of 1765, at the request of the other agents of the

colonies Dr. Franklin, Jared Ingersoll, Mr. Jackson, and Mr. Garth,

had a conference with Mr. Grenville, on the subject of the stamp duty.

Mr. Ingersoll was from Connecticut, and had been requested to assist

Mr. Jackson in any matters relating to that colony; Mr. Garth was agent

for South Carolina, and he and Mr. Jackson were members of parliament.

These gentlemen, and particularly Dr. Franklin and Mr. Ingersoll,

informed the minister of the great opposition to the proposed tax in

America, and most earnestly entreated him, that if money must be drawn

from the colonies by taxes, to leave it with the colonists to raise it

among themselves in such manner as they should think proper, and best

adapted to their circumstances and abilities. Dr. Franklin informed

the minister, that the legislature of Pennsylvania had by a resolution

declared, ‘That as they always had, so they always should, think it

their duty to grant aids to the crown, according to their abilities,

whenever required of them in the usual constitutional way.’

Neither the remonstrances of the colonists, however, nor the

entreaties of their agents, were of any avail with the ministry or

parliament. The bill for laying the stamp and other duties was soon

brought before the house, and petitions from the colonies of Virginia,

Connecticut, and South Carolina, were offered in opposition to it. The

house, however, refused to receive them; in the first place, because

they questioned or denied the right of parliament to pass the bill; and

in the second place, because it was contrary to an old standing rule of

the house,――‘that no petition should be received against a money bill.’

The majority against receiving the petitions was very large, and those

from the other colonies were not offered. The petition from New York

was expressed in such strong language, that no member of the house

could be prevailed upon to present it. The admirable speech of colonel

Barré in reply to Charles Townshend, so familiar to all of us, although

it produced a profound impression, did not of course defeat the measure;

and the colonial petitions and remonstrances, with the petition of the

London merchants trading to America, were equally unavailing. In the

house of commons there were about two hundred and fifty for, and only

fifty against it. In the lords it passed without debate, with entire

unanimity; and on the 22d of March it obtained the royal assent.

This enactment, which was to come into operation on the 1st of November,

excited the most serious alarm throughout the colonies. It was viewed

as a violation of the British constitution, and as destructive of the

first principles of liberty; and combinations against its execution

were everywhere formed. The house of burgesses in Virginia, which was

in session when intelligence of the act was received, passed several

spirited resolutions, asserting the colonial rights, and denying

the claim of parliamentary taxation. The resolutions were introduced

into the Virginia assembly by the eloquent Patrick Henry, who, on

the envelope of a copy of them in his own hand-writing, has given the

following interesting particulars: ‘They formed,’ says Mr. Henry, ‘the

first opposition to the stamp act, and the scheme of taxing America by

the British parliament. All the colonies, either through fear, or want

of opportunity to form an opposition, or from influence of some kind

or other, had remained silent. I had been for the first time elected a

burgess a few days before, was young inexperienced, unacquainted with

the forms of the house, and the members that composed it. Finding the

men of weight averse to opposition, and the commencement of the tax

at hand, and that no person was likely to step forth, I determined

to venture; and alone, unadvised, and unassisted on a blank leaf of

an old law book wrote the within. Upon offering them to the house,

violent debates ensued. Many threats were uttered, and much abuse cast

on me, by the party for submission. After a long and warm contest, the

resolutions passed by a very small majority, perhaps of one or two only.

The alarm spread throughout America with astonishing quickness, and

the ministerial party were overwhelmed. The great point of resistance

to British taxation was universally established in the colonies. This

brought on the war, which finally separated the two countries, and gave

independence to ours. Whether this will prove a blessing or a curse,

will depend upon the use our people make of the blessings which a

gracious God hath bestowed on us. If they are wise, they will be great

and happy. If they are of a contrary character, they will be miserable.

Righteousness alone can exalt them as a nation.’

‘It was in the midst of this magnificent debate,’ says his biographer,

Mr. Wirt, ‘while he was descanting on the tyranny of the obnoxious act,

that he exclaimed in a voice of thunder, “Cæsar had his Brutus――Charles

the First his Cromwell――and George the Third”――(“Treason,” cried the

speaker; “Treason, treason,” echoed from every part of the house:

it was one of those trying moments which are decisive of character.

Henry faltered not for an instant; but rising to a loftier attitude,

and fixing on the speaker an eye of the most determined fire, he

finished his sentence with the firmest emphasis,)――“_may profit by

their example_. If this be treason, make the most of it.”’

In the province of Massachusetts the dissatisfaction at the passing

the stamp act was strong, and was strongly manifested. On the meeting

of the legislature in May, it was recommended that there should be

an early meeting of committees from the houses of representatives

or burgesses in the several colonies, to consult together on their

grievances and devise some plan for their relief. In accordance with

the views of the Massachusetts legislature, the proposed convention was

held at New York in October, and consisted of twenty-eight delegates

from the assemblies of the colonies, excepting the assemblies of

Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, which were either not in session,

or were otherwise prevented from sending representatives. Timothy

Ruggles of Massachusetts was chosen president. A declaration of rights

and grievances was adopted. A petition to the king, and a memorial to

each house of parliament were also agreed on; and it was recommended to

the several colonies to appoint special agents, who should unite their

utmost endeavors in soliciting redress.

The populace in various parts of the colonies were unwilling to wait

for the effect of the constitutional measures their representatives

were adopting. One day in the month of August the effigy of Andrew

Oliver, the proposed distributor of stamps in Massachusetts, was found

hanging on a tree, afterwards well known by the name of Liberty tree,

in the main street of Boston. At night it was taken down, and carried

on a bier, amidst the acclamations of an immense collection of people,

through the court-house, down King street, to a small brick building,

supposed to have been erected for the reception of the detested stamps.

This building being soon levelled with the ground, the rioters next

attacked Mr. Oliver’s house, and having broken the windows, entered it,

and destroyed part of the furniture. The next day, however, Mr. Oliver

authorized several gentlemen to announce on the exchange, that he had

declined having any concern with the office of stamp master; but in

the evening a bonfire was made, and a repetition of this declaration

exacted of him. On the 26th the tumults were renewed. The rioters

assembled in King street, and proceeded to the house of the deputy

register of the court of admiralty, whose private papers, as well

as the records and files of the court, were destroyed. The house

of Benjamin Hallowell, jun., comptroller of the customs, was next

entered; and elevated and emboldened by liquors found in his cellar,

the mob, with inflamed rage, directed their course to the house of

lieutenant-governor Hutchinson, who, after vainly attempting resistance,

was constrained to depart to save his life. By four in the morning one

of the best houses in the province was completely in ruins, nothing

remaining but the bare walls and floors. The plate, family pictures,

most of the furniture, the wearing apparel, about nine hundred pounds

sterling, and the manuscripts and books which Mr. Hutchinson had been

thirty years collecting, besides many public papers in his custody,

were either carried off or destroyed. The whole damage was estimated

at two thousand five hundred pounds.[105]

The town of Boston the next day voted unanimously, that the selectmen

and magistrates be desired to use their utmost endeavors, agreeably

to law, to suppress the like disorders for the future, and that the

freeholders and other inhabitants would do every thing in their power

to assist them. The officer appointed to receive the stamped paper,

which was daily expected, having resigned his commission, the governor

determined to receive the paper into his own charge at the castle; and,

by advice of council, he ordered the enlistment of a number of men to

strengthen the garrison. This caused great murmur among the people. To

pacify them he made a declaration in council, that he had no authority

to open any of the packages, or to appoint a distributor of stamps;

that his views in depositing the stamped paper in the castle, and in

strengthening the garrison there, were to prevent imprudent people from

offering an insult to the king; and to save the town, or province, as

it might happen, from being held to answer for the value of the stamps,

as they certainly would be if the papers should be taken away. This

declaration the council desired him to publish, but it did not stop the

clamor. He was forced to stop the enlistment, and to discharge such men

as had been enlisted. The first day of November, on which the stamp act

was to begin its operation, was ushered in at Boston by the tolling of

bells; many shops and stores were shut; and effigies of the authors and

friends of that act were carried about the streets, and afterwards torn

in pieces by the populace.

Nor was Massachusetts alone;――the obnoxious act received similar

treatment in the other colonies. On the 24th of August a gazette

extraordinary was published at Providence, with _Vox Populi vox Dei_,

for a motto; effigies were exhibited, and in the evening cut down and

burnt. Three days afterwards, the people of Newport conducted effigies

of three obnoxious persons in a cart, with halters about their necks,

to a gallows near the town-house, where they were hung, and after

a while cut down and burnt amidst the acclamations of thousands. On

the last day of October, a body of people from the country approached

the town of Portsmouth, (New Hampshire,) in the apprehension that the

stamps would be distributed; but on receiving assurance that there was

no such intention, they quietly returned. All the bells in Portsmouth,

Newcastle, and Greenland, were tolled, to denote the decease of Liberty;

and in the course of the day, notice was given to her friends to attend

her funeral. A coffin, neatly ornamented, and inscribed with ‘LIBERTY,

aged CXLV. years,’ was prepared for the funeral procession, which began

from the state-house, attended with two unbraced drums; minute guns

were fired until the corpse arrived at the grave, when an oration

was pronounced in honor of the deceased: but scarcely was the oration

concluded, when, some remains of life having been discovered, the

corpse was taken up; and the inscription on the lid of the coffin was

immediately altered to ‘LIBERTY REVIVED;’ the bells suddenly struck

a cheerful sound, and joy appeared again in every countenance. In

Connecticut, Mr. Ingersoll, the constituted distributor of stamps,

was exhibited and burnt in effigy in the month of August; and the

resentment at length became so general and alarming, that he resigned

his office.

The spirit manifested by the citizens of New York produced a similar

resignation; and the obnoxious act was contemptuously cried about the

streets, labelled, ‘The Folly of England and Ruin of America.’ The

stamp papers arriving toward the end of October, lieutenant-governor

Colden took every precaution to secure them. On the first of November,

many of the inhabitants of New York, offended at the conduct and

disliking the political sentiments of the governor, having assembled in

the evening, broke open his stable, and took out his coach; and after

carrying it through the principal streets of the city, marched to the

common, where a gallows was erected, on one end of which they suspended

his effigy, with a stamped bill of lading in one hand, and a figure of

the devil in the other. When the effigy had hung a considerable time,

they carried it in procession suspended to the gallows to the gate

of the fort, whence it was removed to the bowling green, under the

muzzle of the guns, and a bonfire made, in which the whole pageantry,

including the coach, was consumed, amidst the acclamations of several

thousand spectators. The next day, the people insisting upon having the

stamps, it was agreed that they should be delivered to the corporation,

and they were deposited in the city hall. Ten boxes of stamps, which

arrived subsequently, were committed to the flames.

At Philadelphia, on the appearance of the ships having the stamps on

board, all the vessels in the harbor hoisted their colors half-mast

high, the bells were muffled, and continued to toll until evening.

The body of Quakers, with a part of the church of England and of the

Baptists, seemed inclined to submit to the stamp act; but great pains

were taken to engage the Dutch and the lower class of people in the

opposition, and Mr. Huges, the stamp master, found it necessary at

length to resign. In Maryland, Mr. Hood, the stamp distributor for

that colony, to avoid resigning his office, fled to New York; but he

was constrained by a number of freemen to sign a paper, declaring his

absolute and final resignation. In Virginia, when the gentleman who had

been appointed distributor of stamps arrived at Williamsburg, he was

immediately urged to resign: and the next day he so handsomely declined

acting in his office, that he received the acclamations of the people;

at night the town was illuminated, the bells were rung, and festivity

expressed the universal joy.

Associations had already been formed in the colonies, under the

title of the Sons of Liberty, and were composed of some of the most

respectable of their citizens. The association in New York held a

meeting on the 7th of November, at which it was determined that they

would risk their lives and fortunes to resist the stamp act. Notice of

this being sent to the Sons of Liberty in Connecticut, an union of the

two associations was soon after agreed upon, and a formal instrument

drawn and signed; in which, after denouncing the stamp act as a

flagrant outrage on the British constitution, they most solemnly

pledged themselves to march with their whole force whenever required,

at their own proper cost and expense, to the relief of all who should

be in danger from the stamp act or its abettors; to be vigilant in

watching for the introduction of stamped paper, to consider all who are

caught in introducing it as betrayers of their country, and to bring

them if possible to condign punishment, whatever may be their rank;

to defend the liberty of the press in their respective colonies from

all violations or impediments on account of the said act; to save all

judges, attorneys, clerks, and others from fines, penalties, or any

molestation whatever, who shall proceed in their respective duties

without regard to the stamp act; and lastly, to use their utmost

endeavors to bring about a similar union with all the colonies on the

continent. In pursuance of this plan, circular letters were addressed

to the Sons of Liberty in Boston, New Hampshire, and as far as South

Carolina, and the proposal was received with almost universal

enthusiasm.

Societies were formed also in most of the colonies, including females,

and those of the highest rank and fashion, of persons who resolved

to forego all the luxuries of life, sooner than be indebted for them

to the commerce of England under the restrictions imposed upon it by

parliament. These societies denied themselves the use of all foreign

articles of clothing; carding, spinning, and weaving became the daily

employment of ladies of fashion; sheep were forbidden to be used as

food, lest there should not be found a sufficient supply of wool; and

to be dressed in a suit of homespun was to possess the surest means of

popular distinction. So true were these patriotic societies to their

mutual compact, that the British merchants and manufacturers soon began

to feel the necessity of uniting with the colonies in petitioning

parliament for the repeal of the obnoxious law; and the table of the

minister was loaded with petitions and remonstrances from most of the

manufacturing and mercantile towns in the kingdom.

PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION.

While the colonies were thus brought into a state bordering on

insurrection by the injudicious and unjust measures of the Grenville

administration, the administration itself was rapidly hastening to its

dissolution. George III. had ascended the throne not long after the

capture of Quebec and in the following October, the patriot Pitt, who

had devised and executed the grand scheme of expelling the French from

North America, resigned the seals of office. Lord Bute, who appears to

have been a personal friend of the new king, was appointed Mr. Pitt’s

successor; and under his brief administration the peace of Paris was

concluded. He was succeeded by Mr. Grenville, whose name will always

bear an unhappy notoriety as the author of the stamp act; and whose

measures have formed the subject of the preceding division. However the

king might approve his political sentiments, and the king was a decided

tory, Grenville was not personally in favor with his majesty; and the

result was, (after some unsuccessful negotiation with Mr. Pitt, who

expressed his unwillingness to go to St. James’ ‘without he could carry

the constitution along with him,’) the formation of the Rockingham

administration.

On the twenty-second of February, 1766, a bill was introduced in the

house of commons for a repeal of the stamp act. The mover of the bill

was general Conway, the same individual who in the first instance had

denied the authority of parliament to impose it. On the proposed repeal

a warm and interesting debate ensued, and it was finally carried by

a large majority. In the upper house it was carried by a vote of one

hundred and five to seventy-one.

On the 19th of March, his majesty went to the house of peers, and

passed the bill for repealing the American stamp act, as also that

for securing the dependency of the colonies on the British crown. On

this occasion the American merchants made a most numerous appearance

to express their gratitude and joy; ships in the river displayed

their colors; the city was illuminated; and every method was adopted

to demonstrate the sense entertained of the wisdom of parliament in

conciliating the minds of the people on this critical occasion. In

America, the intelligence was received with acclamations of the most

sincere and heart-felt gratitude by all classes of people. Public

thanksgivings were offered up in all the churches. The resolutions

which had been passed on the subject of importations were rescinded,

and their trade with the mother country was immediately renewed with

increased vigor. The homespun dresses were given to the poor, and once

more the colonists appeared clad in the produce of British looms.

The administration of the marquis of Rockingham terminated in July,

1766, and a new ministry was formed, under the direction of Mr. Pitt,

composed of men of different political principles and parties. The duke

of Grafton was placed at the head of the treasury; lord Shelburne was

joined with general Conway, as one of the secretaries of state; Charles

Townshend was made chancellor of the exchequer; Camden lord chancellor;

Pitt had the privy seal, and was made a peer, with the title of the

earl of Chatham; and lord North and George Cooke were joint paymasters.

Under this chequered administration, the scheme of taxing America was

revived. In May, 1767, the new chancellor of the exchequer submitted a

plan of this kind to parliament. Charles Townshend was a man of genius

and talents, but of high passions, eccentric, and versatile. He had

warmly supported Grenville in the passage of the stamp act, and had

voted with the marquis of Rockingham in its repeal. The ex-minister

Grenville may indeed be considered the real author of the second plan

for taxing the colonies, for he was ever urging the subject on the new

ministers.[106]

The measure proposed by Townshend to the house was for imposing duties

on glass, paper, pasteboard, white and red lead, painters’ colors, and

tea, imported into the colonies. The preamble declared, ‘that it was

expedient to raise a revenue in America, and to make a more certain and

adequate provision for defraying the charge of the administration of

justice and the support of the civil government in the provinces, and

for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing them.’

The earl of Chatham was then confined by sickness in the country; the

bill passed both houses without much opposition, and on the 29th of

June received the royal assent.

The conduct of the assemblies of Massachusetts and New York had given

great dissatisfaction in Great Britain. The refusal of the assembly

of the latter to comply with the requisitions of the mutiny act, in

particular, had excited the indignation of the ministry and parliament

to such a degree, that three days after the passage of the new tax bill

an act was passed restraining the legislature of that province from

passing any act whatever, until they had furnished the king’s troops

with all the articles required by the mutiny act. The ministry at the

same time determined to establish a new board of custom-house officers

in America. An act was therefore passed, enabling the king to put the

customs and other duties in America, and the execution of the laws

relating to trade there, under the management of commissioners to be

appointed for that purpose, and to reside in the colonies. This, as the

preamble declares, would ‘tend to the encouragement of commerce, and to

better securing the rates and duties, and the more speedy and effectual

collection thereof.’ These three acts arrived in America about the same

time.

The appropriation of the new duties to the support of crown officers

and to the maintenance of troops in America, was a subject of serious

complaint. It had long been a favorite object of the British cabinet

to establish in the colonies a fund, from which the salaries of the

governors, judges, and other officers of the crown, should be paid,

independent of the annual grants of the colonial legislatures. As these

officers held their places during the pleasure of the king, the people

of Massachusetts, it will be remembered, had uniformly resisted such

establishment, though repeatedly urged on the part of the crown. On

this subject the house of representatives maintained, in resolutions

indicative of great firmness, their former purpose. The house also,

during this session, addressed a circular letter to the other colonies,

stating the difficulties to be apprehended by the operation of the

late acts of parliament, and requesting their co-operation for redress.

When the question of addressing a circular to the colonies was first

presented to the house it was opposed, as seeming to countenance the

meeting of another congress, heretofore so offensive to the British

government; and the motion was negatived. The subject was afterwards

reconsidered, and the letter so worded as to satisfy a large majority

of the house. The other colonies approved of the proceedings of

Massachusetts, and joined in applying to the king for relief.

The circular letter of Massachusetts created no little alarm in the

British cabinet. Directions were issued by the secretary of state to

the governor of this colony, requiring him to demand of the house of

representatives a recantation of that offensive measure. This the house

peremptorily refused. They viewed the letter of lord Hillsborough as

an unwarrantable attempt on their rights; and in their answer to the

communication of the governor on this subject, express themselves with

no little warmth. ‘If the votes of the house were to be controlled

by the direction of a minister,’ they say, ‘we have left us but a

shadow of liberty!’ On the question to rescind, Mr. Otis, one of the

representatives from Boston, said――‘When lord Hillsborough knows that

we will not rescind our acts, let him apply to parliament to rescind

theirs. Let Britain rescind their measures, or they are lost forever.’

On receiving information of the decision of the house, the governor

immediately dissolved the assembly. This ministerial mandate to the

other colonies was equally disregarded.

Americans looked with astonishment at such a system of policy

proceeding from a ministry of which lord Chatham constituted a part.

They found it impossible to reconcile the conduct now adopted towards

them with their ideas of his lordship’s character. They had heretofore

regarded him as a friend, in whose honest and liberal principles they

might securely trust the management of all that concerned the colonies;

but here was a melancholy evidence before their eyes of the insincerity

of ministerial professions. In justice to the character of lord Chatham,

however, it must be observed, that he was not in parliament during

any part of the time that these measures of Mr. Townshend were under

discussion. The state of his health was such as not only to detain him

from his seat in the house, but to render him incapable of attending to

any of the duties of his high station; and it appears that his opinion

weighed but little with the men whom he had raised to power.

Charles Townshend, from whom all the troubles and commotions that

were now rapidly spreading through the colonies in a great measure

originated, did not live to witness their effects. He died in September,

1767, and was succeeded as chancellor of the exchequer by Frederick

lord North, a young nobleman, then but little known in the political

world, but who will be found to make a conspicuous figure in the sequel

of this history. Very soon afterwards, lord Chatham, disgusted at the

corrupt influence which manifested itself in every act of the court,

and sick of the political world, resigned the privy seal.

The colonists meanwhile were adopting all the peaceable means in their

power to show their sense of the wrongs heaped upon them. Petitions,

memorials, and remonstrances to the king and parliament, and letters

to the individual friends of America, were addressed from all the

legislatures; but the most favorable reply which any of them received

was an exhortation to suffer with patience and in silence. To suffer

tamely, and without seeking redress, however, was not the character

of the sturdy sons of freedom who inhabited the colonies. They entered

into the same kind of resolutions of non-importation, the effects of

which had been so severely felt by the traders in England under the

stamp act. Boston, as before, took the lead. At a town meeting held

in October, it was voted that measures should be immediately taken to

promote the establishment of domestic manufactures, by encouraging the

consumption of all articles of American manufacture. They also agreed

to purchase no articles of foreign growth or manufacture, but such as

were absolutely indispensable. New York and Philadelphia soon followed

the example of Boston; and in a short time the merchants themselves

entered into associations to import nothing from Great Britain but

articles that necessity required.

The new board of commissioners of the customs established at Boston had

now entered on the duties of their office. From the great excitement

at that place, a collision between the new custom-house officers and

the people was by no means improbable. The indignation of the people

of Boston was at length excited to open opposition by the seizure of

Mr. Hancock’s sloop Liberty, for a violation of the revenue laws. Under

the idea that the sloop would not be safe at the wharf in their custody,

the custom-house officers had solicited aid from a ship of war which

lay in the harbor, the commander of which ordered the sloop to be cut

from her fastenings and brought under the guns of his ship. It was to

prevent this removal that the mob collected; many of the officers were

severely wounded in the scuffle, and the mob, being baffled in their

attempts to retain the sloop at the wharf, repaired to the houses of

the collector, comptroller, and other officers of the customs, where

they committed many acts of violence and injury to their property.

This riotous disposition continued for several days, during which

the commissioners applied to the governor for assistance, but his

excellency not being able to protect them, advised them to remove from

Boston; they consequently retired, first on board the Romney man-of-war,

and then to castle William. The excitement at Boston was greatly

increased about this time by the impressment of some seamen belonging

to that town by order of the officers of the Romney. The inhabitants

of Boston were assembled on this occasion, and their petition to the

governor, praying his interference to prevent such outrages for the

future, shows to what a state of alarm, anxiety, and even despair,

they were then reduced. ‘To contend,’ they said, ‘against our parent

state, is, in our idea, the most shocking and dreadful extremity; but

tamely to relinquish the only security we and our posterity retain for

the enjoyment of our lives and properties without one struggle, is so

humiliating and base, that we cannot support the reflection.’

The general court of Massachusetts having been dissolved by governor

Bernard, who refused to convene it again without his majesty’s

command, on the proposal of the selectmen of Boston to the several

towns in the colony, a convention met in that town on the 22d of

September, to deliberate on constitutional measures to obtain redress

of their grievances. The convention, disclaiming legislative authority,

petitioned the governor; made loyal professions; expressed its aversion

to standing armies, to tumults and disorders, its readiness to assist

in suppressing riots, and preserving the peace; recommended patience

and good order; and, after a short session, dissolved itself.

The day before the convention rose, advice was received that a

man-of-war and some transports from Halifax, with about nine hundred

troops, had arrived at Nantasket harbor. On the day after their arrival,

the fleet was brought to anchor near castle William. Having taken a

station which commanded the town, the troops, under cover of the cannon

of the ships, landed without molestation, and, to the number of upwards

of seven hundred men, marched, with muskets charged, bayonets fixed,

martial music, and the usual military parade, into the common. In

the evening, the selectmen of Boston were required to quarter the

two regiments in the town; but they absolutely refused. A temporary

shelter, however, in Faneuil hall, was permitted to one regiment that

was without its camp equipage. The next day, the state-house, by order

of the governor, was opened for the reception of the soldiers; and,

after the quarters were settled, two field-pieces, with the main guard,

were stationed just in its front. Every thing was calculated to excite

the indignation of the inhabitants. The lower floor of the state-house,

which had been used by gentlemen and merchants as an exchange, the

representatives-chamber, the court-house, Faneuil hall――places with

which were intimately associated ideas of justice and freedom, as well

as of convenience and utility――were now filled with troops of the line.

Guards were placed at the doors of the state-house, through which the

council must pass in going to their own chamber. The common was covered

with tents. Soldiers were constantly marching and countermarching to

relieve the guards. The sentinels challenged the inhabitants as they

passed. The Sabbath was profaned, and the devotion of the sanctuary

disturbed, by the sound of drums and other military music. There was

every appearance of a garrisoned town. The colonists felt disgusted and

injured, but not overawed, by the presence of such a body of soldiery.

After the troops had obtained quarters, the council were required

to provide barracks for them, agreeably to act of parliament; but

they resolutely declined any measure which might be construed into a

submission to that act. In a few weeks several more transports arrived

at Boston from Cork, having on board part of the sixty-fourth and

sixty-fifth British regiments, under colonels Mackey and Pomeroy.

The general court of Massachusetts was at length convened, on the 31st

of May, and their first act was to send a committee to the governor,

assuring him of their intention to make a thorough inquiry into the

grievances of the people, and to have them redressed; and demanding

of his excellency to order the removal of the forces from the harbor,

and from the gates of the capital, during the sitting of the assembly.

To this message the governor replied, ‘that he had no control of

the king’s troops stationed in the town or province, and that he had

received no orders for their removal.’

The assembly proved to be independent and resolute, and came to an

open breach with governor Bernard. This body was accordingly removed

to Cambridge, and the troops retained possession of the capital. On

the 6th of July, the assembly received a message from the governor,

desiring funds for the expenditures of his majesty’s troops, and

provision for their further quartering in Boston and Castle island,

according to act of parliament. This measure was strenuously resisted,

and all provision of the kind was peremptorily refused. The prorogation

of the assembly to the 10th of January following immediately ensued.

In August, 1769, Sir Francis Bernard was recalled, and left the

administration to lieutenant-governor Hutchinson. The occasion of his

taking leave was one of great joy to Boston. The bells were rung, guns

were fired from Mr. Hancock’s wharf, Liberty tree was covered with

flags, and in the evening a great bonfire was made upon Fort hill.

In 1770, lord North was elevated to the premiership; and his

administration will ever be celebrated by the fact, that it cost the

country more money, and lost it more territory, than that of any other

man. His first measure was for the repeal of the port duties of 1767,

with the exception of the duty on tea; this was to be retained in token

of the supremacy of parliament. This single reservation was of course

sufficient to frustrate all hopes of making this bill a peace-offering

to the Americans.

The public mind in the colonies was still farther agitated by the

continuance of the troops of the line in Boston. The inhabitants felt

that their presence was designed to overawe and control the expression

of their sentiments, and the military appear to have viewed their

residence in the town in the same light. Under the excitement that was

thus occasioned, affrays were frequently occurring between the populace

and the soldiers; and it would appear that, as might be expected,

neither party conducted themselves with prudence or forbearance. On

the one hand, the soldiers are represented as parading the town, armed

with heavy clubs, insulting and seeking occasion to quarrel with the

people;[107] while, on the other, the populace are declared to be the

aggressors, and the military to have acted on the defensive.[108] Early

in the evening of the 5th of March, the inhabitants were observed to

assemble in different quarters of the town; parties of soldiers were

also driving about the streets, as if both the one and the other had

something more than ordinary upon their minds.

About eight o’clock, one of the bells of the town was rung in such

manner as is usual in case of fire. This called people into the streets.

A large number assembled in the market-place, not far from King street,

armed with bludgeons, or clubs. A small fray between some of the

inhabitants arose at or near the barracks at the west part of the town,

but it was of little importance, and was soon over. A sentinel who

was posted at the custom-house, not far from the main guard, was next

insulted, and pelted with pieces of ice and other missiles, which

caused him to call to the main guard to protect him. Notice was soon

given to captain Preston, whose company was then on guard, and a

sergeant with six men was sent to protect the sentinel; but the captain,

to prevent any precipitate action, followed them himself. There seem to

have been but few people collected when the assault was first made on

the sentinel; but the sergeant’s guard drew a greater number together,

and they were more insulted than the sentinel had been, and received

frequent blows from snowballs and lumps of ice. Captain Preston

thereupon ordered them to charge; but this was no discouragement to

the assailants, who continued to pelt the guard, daring them to fire.

Some of the people who were behind the soldiers, and observed the

abuse of them, called on them to do so. At length one received a blow

with a club, which brought him to the ground; but, rising again, he

immediately fired, and all the rest, except one, followed the example.

This seems, from the evidence on the trials and the observation of

persons present, to have been the course of the material facts. Three

men were killed, two mortally wounded, who died soon after, and several

slightly wounded. The soldiers immediately withdrew to the main guard,

which was strengthened by additional companies. Two or three of the

persons who had seen the action ran to the lieutenant-governor’s house,

which was about half a mile distant, and begged he would go to King

street, where they feared a general action would come on between the

troops and the inhabitants. He went immediately, and, to satisfy the

people, called for captain Preston, and inquired why he had fired upon

the inhabitants without the direction of a civil magistrate. The noise

was so great that his answer could not be understood; and some persons,

who were apprehensive of the lieutenant-governor’s danger from the

general confusion, called out, ‘The town-house, the town-house!’ when,

with irresistible violence, he was forced up by the crowd into the

council chamber.

There demand was immediately made of him, to order the troops to

withdraw from the town-house to their barracks. He refused; but calling

from the balcony to the great body of people who remained in the street,

he expressed his great concern at the unhappy event; assured them

he would do every thing in his power to obtain a full and impartial

inquiry, that the law might have its course; and advised them to go

peaceably to their homes. Upon this there was a cry――‘Home, home!’ and

a great part separated, and went home. He then signified his opinion to

lieutenant-colonel Carr, that if the companies in arms were ordered to

their barracks, the streets would be cleared and the town in quiet for

that night. Upon their retiring, the rest of the inhabitants, except

those in the council chamber, retired also.

Lieutenant-colonel Dalrymple, at the desire of the lieutenant-governor,

came to the council chamber, while several justices were examining

persons who were present at the transactions of the evening. From the

evidence it was apparent that the justices would commit captain Preston,

if taken. Several hours passed before he could be found, and the people

suspected that he would not run the hazard of a trial; but at length

he surrendered himself to a warrant for apprehending him, and, having

been examined, was committed to prison. The next morning the soldiers

who were upon guard surrendered also, and were committed. This was

not sufficient to satisfy the people, and early in the forenoon they

were in motion again. The lieutenant-governor caused his council

to be summoned, and desired the two lieutenant-colonels of the

regiments to be present. The selectmen of Boston were waiting the

lieutenant-governor’s coming to council, and, being admitted, made

their representation, that, from the contentions arising from the

troops quartered in Boston, and, above all, from the tragedy of the

last night, the minds of the inhabitants were exceedingly disturbed;

that they would presently be assembled in a town meeting; and that,

unless the troops should be removed, the most terrible consequences

were to be expected.

The justices also of Boston and several of the neighboring towns had

assembled, and desired to signify their opinion, that it would not be

possible to keep the people under restraint, if the troops remained

in town. The lieutenant-governor acquainted both the selectmen and the

justices, that he had no authority to alter the place of destination of

the king’s troops; but that he expected the commanding officers of the

two regiments, and would let them know the applications which had been

made. Presently after their coming, a large committee from the town

meeting presented an address to the lieutenant-governor, declaring

it to be the unanimous opinion of the meeting that nothing could

rationally be expected to restore the peace of the town, ‘and prevent

blood and carnage,’ but the immediate removal of the troops. The

committee withdrew into another room to wait for an answer. Some of the

council urged the necessity of complying with the people’s demand; but

the lieutenant-governor declared that he would, upon no consideration

whatever, give orders for their removal. Lieutenant-colonel Dalrymple

then signified, that, as the twenty-ninth regiment had originally

been designed to be placed at the castle, and was now peculiarly

obnoxious to the town, he was content that it should be removed to the

castle, until the general’s pleasure should be known. The committee was

informed of this offer, and the lieutenant-governor rose from council,

intending to receive no further application upon the subject; but the

council prayed that he would meet them again in the afternoon, and

colonel Dalrymple desiring it also, he complied.

Before the council met again, it had been intimated to them that

the ‘desire’ of the governor and council to the commanding officer

to remove the troops, would cause him to do it, though he should

receive no authoritative ‘order.’ As soon as they met, a committee

from the town meeting attended with a second message, to acquaint

the lieutenant-governor that it was the unanimous voice of the people

assembled, consisting, as they said, of near three thousand persons,

that nothing less than a total and immediate removal of the troops

would satisfy them. Ultimately the scruples of the lieutenant-governor

were overcome, and he expressed his desire that the troops should be

wholly withdrawn from the town to the castle, which was accordingly

done. The funeral of the victims was attended with extraordinary pomp.

Most of the shops were closed, all the bells of the town tolled on the

occasion, and the corpses were followed to the grave by an immense

concourse of people arranged six abreast, the procession being closed

by a long train of carriages belonging to the principal gentry of the

town. Captain Preston and the party of soldiers were afterwards tried.

The captain and six of the men were acquitted, and two were brought in

guilty of manslaughter; a result which reflected great honor on John

Adams and Josiah Quincy, the council for the prisoners, and on the jury.

During the year 1771, nothing of moment occurred either in Boston or

the colonies. The encouragement given by the agreement of the merchants

to smuggling, occasioned continual contests with revenue officers; and

it appears that the magistrates, when appealed to, refused to interfere.

One circumstance, however, transpired, which must not be omitted.

Early in this year, Mr. Hutchinson received his appointment to the

office of governor of Massachusetts, an office which his political

opponents allege to have always been the darling object of his ambition;

while he maintains, that, however in ordinary times he might have

desired it, he now ‘determined, not only to desire to be excused

from the honor intended for him, but to be superseded in his place of

lieutenant-governor; and he wrote to the secretary of state accordingly.’

The occurrences of the year 1772, afforded new sources of mutual

animosity. The destruction of his majesty’s revenue schooner Gaspee,

was one of those popular excesses which highly incensed the British

ministry. Lieutenant Doddington, who commanded that vessel, had

become very obnoxious to the inhabitants of Rhode Island, by his

extraordinary zeal in the execution of the revenue laws. On the 9th of

June, the Providence packet was sailing into the harbor of Newport, and

lieutenant Doddington thought proper to require the captain to lower

his colors. This the captain of the packet deemed repugnant to his

patriotic feelings, and the Gaspee fired at the packet to bring her to:

the American, however, still persisted in holding on her course, and

by keeping in shoal water, dexterously contrived to run the schooner

aground in the chase.

As the tide was upon the ebb, the Gaspee was set fast for the night,

and afforded a tempting opportunity for retaliation; and a number

of fishermen, aided and encouraged by some of the most respectable

inhabitants of Providence, being determined to rid themselves of so

uncivil an inspector, in the middle of the night manned several boats,

and boarded the Gaspee. The lieutenant was wounded in the affray; but,

with every thing belonging to him, he was carefully conveyed on shore,

as were all his crew. The vessel, with her stores, was then burnt; and

the party returned unmolested to their homes. When the governor became

acquainted with this event, he offered a reward of five hundred pounds

for the discovery of the offenders, and the royal pardon to those

who would confess their guilt. Commissioners were appointed also to

investigate the offence, and bring the perpetrators to justice; but,

after remaining some time in session, they reported that they could

obtain no evidence, and thus the affair terminated; a circumstance

which forcibly illustrates the inviolable brotherhood which then united

the people against the government.

Active resistance to the measures of the British government in

relation to the colonies, had for some time been principally confined

to Massachusetts. The other colonists, however, had not been idle or

indifferent spectators of the scenes that had passed in Massachusetts.

To remain long in their present state seemed impossible; and in

the event of an opposition by force, unity of action, as well as of

sentiment, was all important. To promote this object, the house of

burgesses in Virginia originated what ultimately proved a powerful

engine of resistance――a committee for corresponding with the

legislatures of the several colonies; and by this means a confidential

communication and interchange of opinions was kept up between them.

The British government determined to carry the duty on tea into effect,

and the East India company were authorized to export their tea free

of duties to all places whatever; by which means it could be furnished

more cheaply in America than before it had been made a source of

revenue.

Confident of finding a market at their reduced prices, the company

freighted several ships with that article, and appointed agents for the

disposal of it. Cargoes were sent to New York, Philadelphia, Charleston,

and Boston. The inhabitants of the two former cities sent the ships

back to London; and in the latter the tea was unloaded and stored in

cellars, where it finally perished.

At Boston, before the vessels arrived with it, a town meeting was

called to devise measures to prevent the landing and sale within the

province. The agreement not to use tea while a duty was imposed was now

solemnly renewed; and a committee was chosen to request the consignees

of the East India company neither to sell nor unlade the tea which

should be brought into the harbor. They communicated the wishes of the

town to the merchants, who were to have the custody and sale of the

tea; but they declined making any such promise, as they had received

no orders or directions on the subject. On the arrival of the vessels

with the tea in the harbor of Boston, another meeting of the citizens

was immediately called. ‘The hour of destruction,’ it was said, ‘or

of manly opposition, had now come;’ and all who were friends to the

country were invited to attend, ‘to make an united and successful

resistance to this last and worst measure of the administration.’ A

great number of the people assembled from the adjoining towns, as well

as from the capital, in the celebrated Faneuil hall, the usual place of

meeting on such occasions, but the meeting was soon adjourned to one of

the largest churches in the town. Here it was voted, as it had been at

a meeting before the tea arrived, that they would use all lawful means

to prevent its being landed, and to have it returned immediately to

England.

After several days spent in negotiations, the consignees still refused

to return the tea, and, fearing the vengeance of an injured people,

they retired to the castle. The owner of the ship which brought the

tea was unable to obtain a pass for her sailing, as the officer was

in the interest of the British ministers. Application was then made

to the governor, to order that a pass be given for the vessel; but he

declined interfering in the affair. When it was found no satisfactory

arrangement could be effected, the meeting broke up; but, late in the

evening, a number of men, disguised as Mohawk Indians, proceeded to the

vessels, then lying at the wharf, which had the tea on board, and in

a short time every chest was taken out, and the contents thrown into

the sea; but no injury was done to any other part of their cargoes. The

inhabitants of the town, generally, had no knowledge of the event until

the next day. It is supposed, the number of those concerned in the

affair was about fifty; but who they were has been only a matter of

conjecture to the present day.

PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION.

The British ministry appear to have been highly gratified that the town

of Boston, which they ever regarded as the focus of sedition in America,

had rendered itself, by the violent destruction of the property of the

East India company, obnoxious to their severest vengeance. On the 7th

of March lord North presented a message from his majesty to both houses

of parliament, commenting on the outrageous proceedings at the town and

port of Boston. In a few days a bill was introduced ‘for the immediate

removal of the officers concerned in the collection of customs from

Boston, and to discontinue the landing and discharging, lading and

shipping, of goods, wares, and merchandise, at Boston, or within

the harbor thereof.’ The bill also levied a fine upon the town, as

a compensation to the East India company for the destruction of their

teas, and was to continue in force during the pleasure of the king. The

opposition to this measure was very slight, and it was finally carried

in both houses without a division.

This, however, was only a part of lord North’s scheme of coercion.

He proposed two other bills, which were intended to strike terror into

the province of Massachusetts, and to deter the other colonies from

following her example. By one of these, the constitution and charter

of the province were completely subverted, all power taken out of the

hands of the people, and placed in those of the servants of the crown.

The third scheme of lord North was the introduction of ‘a bill for

the impartial administration of justice in Massachusetts.’ By this

act, persons informed against or indicted for any act done for the

support of the laws of the revenue, or for the suppression of riots

in Massachusetts, might by the governor, with the advice of the

council, be sent for trial to any other colony, or to Great Britain;

an enactment which, in effect, conferred impunity on the officers of

the crown, however odious might be their violations of the law.

These plans of the administration were opposed by Burke, lord Chatham,

Barré, and others, in language of the highest indignation. They

originated in mistaken views of the opinion and temper of the people.

The government, too, maintained that any measures were justifiable for

supporting the authority of the king and parliament, and calculated on

bringing the refractory and disaffected to submission by severity and

force.

As a measure indicative of a determination to conduct the proceedings

against the refractory colonists with the utmost vigor, general Gage

was appointed, with powers of the most unlimited extent, to supersede

governor Hutchinson. The offices of governor of the province of

Massachusetts and commander of his majesty’s forces in America were

united in his person. The intelligence of the passing of the Boston

port bill had preceded general Gage a few days. On the day after his

arrival, the general court having been dissolved by the late governor,

a town meeting was convened and very numerously attended. They declared

and resolved, ‘that the impolicy, injustice, inhumanity, and cruelty

of the act, exceed all their powers of expression; and therefore,’

they say, ‘we leave it to the censure of others, and appeal to God and

the world.’ They also declared it as their opinion, that, ‘if the other

colonies come into a joint resolution to stop all importation from,

and exportation to, Great Britain, and every part of the West Indies,

till the act be repealed, the same would prove the salvation of North

America and her liberties.’

The idea was probably entertained by the British ministry, that

the other colonies would be inclined rather to avail themselves

of the commercial advantages which the closing of one of the chief

sea-ports would open to them, than to make common cause with Boston,

at the hazard of incurring a similar penalty. In this instance, as in

most others, the government made a great miscalculation of American

character. The several colonies lost no time in expressing the deepest

sympathy for the sufferings of the inhabitants of Boston, and in

contributing to their pecuniary necessities, as well as in affording

them moral countenance. In this patriotic course Virginia took the lead.

The convention of Virginia recommended to the committee of

correspondence, that they should communicate with their several

corresponding committees, on the expediency of appointing deputies from

the several colonies of British America, to meet in general congress

at such place annually as might be deemed most convenient; there to

deliberate on those general measures which the united interests of

America might from time to time require.

Similar expressions of determined opposition to the port bill, and

assurances of support to the disfranchised citizens of Boston, were

made wherever the act became known. In some places it was printed

upon mourning paper, and hawked about the streets; in others it was

publicly burned, with every demonstration of abhorrence. At New York

there was a considerable struggle between the friends of administration

and the friends of liberty, but the latter at length prevailed, by

the influence and management of two individuals, who had on several

occasions manifested great activity and zeal in their opposition to

the obnoxious measures of the ministry. Addresses were also sent from

Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, and some other provinces, to the committee

of Boston, assuring them of support, and declaring that they considered

the cause of Boston as the common cause of the country.

The two last of the coercive enactments of the British legislature did

not reach Boston till July. By one, the governor alone was authorized

to appoint all civil officers; and by the other, the counsellors were

to be selected by the king and his ministers in England. A list of

those appointed was soon made known, and gave great dissatisfaction,

as they were the most unpopular characters in the province. To add to

the anxiety which now pervaded every breast, a large military force

was ordered into the province, an act of parliament having been passed,

which directed the governor to provide quarters for them in any town he

might choose.

It had been agreed by the delegates which had now been appointed by

most of the colonies, that they should meet in general congress in

September; and the desire to await the result of its determinations

prevented any violent proceedings during the interim; while, however,

great attention was given by the inhabitants to military discipline.

Independent companies were formed, who elected their own officers,

many of whom had served during the French war, and were well able to

instruct their pupils in military tactics. On the other hand, general

Gage was no less active in adopting measures calculated, in his

estimation, to overawe the inhabitants, and to deter them from having

recourse to force. With this view, although ostensibly for the purpose

of preventing desertion, he fortified the isthmus which connects Boston

with the main land, called Boston neck, the only entrance by land into

the town of Boston, and therefore the only route by which, according to

the port bill, the merchants and traders could carry on their business.

This measure, however, served only the more to exasperate the people,

and the subsequent seizure of the gunpowder at Charlestown added to

their alarm.

Before daybreak, on the 1st of September, general Gage despatched

a party of soldiers to bring into his own custody a quantity of

provincial powder from the arsenal at Charlestown. Immediately this

transaction became generally known, the inhabitants of the neighboring

towns flew to arms, and agreed on Cambridge as a general rendezvous;

and it was with great difficulty that they were dissuaded, by their

more prudent leaders, from marching at once to Boston to require

the restoration of the powder, or, in case of refusal, to attack the

garrison.

It was under the excitement of these circumstances that, in defiance

of the act of parliament, and the governor’s proclamation founded

upon it prohibiting public assemblies, the county of Suffolk, of which

Boston was the capital, elected delegates to meet for the purpose of

taking into consideration the most proper course to be adopted in the

present state of affairs. With a boldness and decision surpassing that

of any former assembly, they passed resolutions declaring themselves

constitutionally exempt from all obedience to the late measures of the

British parliament, that the government of the province was in fact

dissolved, and that they should consider all persons who dared to act

in any official capacity under the new regulations as open enemies

of their country. They sent a copy of their resolutions, and of their

letter to the governor, with his answer, to the general congress, upon

whose judgment they rested the decision of their future conduct.

This congress, which will ever be celebrated in the page of history,

and held sacred in the annals of liberty, met at Philadelphia, on

the 5th of September. Representatives from eleven of the colonies

were present at the opening, and those from North Carolina arrived

shortly after; Georgia alone having demurred to send delegates. Peyton

Randolph, of Virginia, was elected president, and Charles Thompson, of

Philadelphia, secretary; and after a brief controversy on the mode of

voting, which resulted in the determination that each province should

have only one vote, whatever number of delegates might be present, the

assembly proceeded to business with all the solemnity of an organized

legislature.

‘The most eminent men of the various colonies were now, for the first

time, brought together. They were known to each other by fame, but they

were personally strangers. The meeting was awfully solemn. The object

which had called them together was of incalculable magnitude. The

liberties of no less than three millions of people, with that of all

their posterity, were staked on the wisdom and energy of their councils.

No wonder, then, at the long and deep silence which is said to have

followed upon their organization; at the anxiety with which the members

looked round upon each other, and the reluctance which every individual

felt to open a business so fearfully momentous. In the midst of this

deep and death-like silence, and just when it was beginning to become

painfully embarrassing, Mr. Henry arose slowly, as if borne down by

the weight of the subject. After faltering, according to his habit,

through a most impressive exordium, in which he merely echoed back

the consciousness of every other heart, in deploring his inability to

do justice to the occasion, he launched gradually into a recital of

the colonial wrongs. Rising, as he advanced, with the grandeur of his

subject, and glowing at length with all the majesty of the occasion,

his speech seemed more than that of mortal man.’[109] Mr. Henry was

followed by Mr. Richard Henry Lee, in a speech scarcely less powerful,

and still more replete with classic eloquence. One spirit of ardent

love of liberty pervaded every breast, and produced a unanimity as

advantageous to the cause they advocated, as it was unexpected and

appalling to their adversaries.

One of the first acts of this assembly was the appointment of a

committee, consisting of two from each colony, to state the rights

of the colonists in general, the several instances in which those

rights had been violated, and the means most proper to be pursued for

obtaining a restoration of them. The congress proceeded with great

deliberation; its debates were held with closed doors, and it was not

till the 14th of October that they published a series of resolutions,

embodying in spirited language their opinions on the chief subjects of

difference between the colonies and the mother country. An agreement

was also signed by all the members to abstain from commercial

intercourse with Great Britain.

Upon the principles and in the spirit of the preceding resolutions,

was composed an address to the people of Great Britain, as also one

to the king; a statement to the aggrieved colonies, and an address to

the inhabitants of Canada. These documents were drawn up with great

ability. The gentlemen selected from the several colonies for this

memorable congress were no less distinguished for their talents than

their patriotism; and when perusing these state papers, no one can

fail to regret that the speeches delivered on that occasion by such

distinguished statesmen and orators as John Adams, John Jay, Richard

Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, John Dickinson, Samuel Chase, John Rutledge,

and many others of that illustrious band of patriots, are lost to the

world.

During the session of the congress most of the colonies had adopted the

plan of instituting provincial assemblies, regardless of their old form

of government. In Massachusetts, general Gage had convoked a general

court, to assemble at Salem, on the 5th of October; but events which

subsequently transpired, induced him to issue a proclamation dissolving

the assembly. The members, however, regarded that proclamation as

illegal, and met at Salem on the day appointed. After waiting in vain

the whole day for the governor’s appearance to administer the oaths,

they resolved themselves into a provincial congress, and adjourned

to Concord. After appointing John Hancock president, and addressing

a communication to the governor, they again adjourned, to meet at

Cambridge on the 17th. Here they appointed a committee of safety, and

a committee of supplies. They also voted to enlist one-fourth of the

militia as minute men, to be frequently drilled, and held in readiness

for service at a minute’s warning; and after appointing three general

officers, they adjourned to the 23d of November.

Before the close of the year the busy note of preparation resounded

through almost every colony. The Massachusetts committees were

indefatigable in providing for the most vigorous defence in the spring.

They had procured all sorts of military supplies for the service

of twelve thousand men, and had engaged the assistance of the three

neighboring provinces of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

While these hostile preparations were proceeding in America, the

British monarch was meeting a new parliament. The king informed his

parliament, that a most daring resistance and disobedience to the

law still prevailed in Massachusetts, and had broken out in fresh

violences; that these proceedings had been countenanced and encouraged

in the other colonies, and that unwarrantable attempts had been made to

obstruct the commerce of the kingdom, by unlawful combinations; and he

expressed his firm determination to withstand every attempt to weaken

or impair the supreme authority of parliament over all the dominions

of the crown. Addresses in answer to the speech, concurring in the

sentiments expressed by the king, were carried in both houses, by large

majorities.

After the recess, parliament met on the 20th of January, and on the

same day lord Chatham moved, ‘That an humble address be presented to

his majesty, most humbly to advise and beseech his majesty, that, in

order to open the way towards our happy settlement of the dangerous

troubles in America, by beginning to allay ferments and soften

animosities there; and, above all, for preventing in the mean time

any sudden and fatal catastrophe at Boston, now suffering under daily

irritation of an army before their eyes, posted in their town; it may

graciously please his majesty that immediate orders may be despatched

to general Gage for removing his majesty’s forces from the town of

Boston, as soon as the rigor of the season and other circumstances,

indispensable to the safety and accommodation of the said troops,

may render the same practicable.’ This motion was supported by one

of the most eloquent and impressive speeches ever delivered by that

distinguished statesman and orator.