Formation of the Union, 1750-1829
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Title: Formation of the Union, 1750-1829
Author: Albert Bushnell Hart
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Most recently updated: December 30, 2020
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORMATION OF THE UNION, 1750-1829 ***
Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
FORMATION OF THE UNION
1750-1829
BY
ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, PH.D.
To the Memory
OF
THOMAS H. LAMSON,
_A GENEROUS FRIEND OF LEARNING._
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
The second volume of the EPOCHS OF AMERICAN HISTORY aims to follow out the
principles laid down for "THE COLONIES,"--the study of causes rather than
of events, the development of the American nation out of scattered and
inharmonious colonies. The throwing off of English control, the growth out
of narrow political conditions, the struggle against foreign domination,
and the extension of popular government, are all parts of the
uninterrupted process of the Formation of the Union.
So mighty a development can be treated only in its elements in this small
volume. Much matter is thrown into graphic form in the maps; the
Suggestions for Readers and Teachers, and the bibliographies at the heads
of the chapters are meant to lead to more detailed accounts, both of
events and of social and economic conditions. Although the book includes
three serious wars, there is no military history in it. To the soldier,
the movement of troops is a professional question of great significance;
the layman needs to know, rather, what were the means, the character, and
the spirit of the two combatants in each case, and why one succeeded where
the other was defeated.
To my colleague, Professor Edward Channing, I am indebted for many
suggestions on the first four chapters.
ALBERT BUSHNELL HART.
CAMBRIDGE, July 1, 1892.
PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION.
During the five years since this volume of the _Epochs of American
History_ was first issued, the literature of the subject has made
constant advances; and hence the Suggestions for Readers and Teachers and
the bibliographies at the head of each chapter have been pruned, enlarged,
and rewritten. The text has undergone fewer changes. The good-will of
users of the book has pointed out some errors and inaccuracies, which have
been corrected from time to time; and new light has in some cases dawned
upon the author. I shall always be grateful for corrections of fact or of
conclusions.
ALBERT BUSHNELL HART
CAMBRIDGE, July 1, 1897.
SUGGESTIONS FOR READERS AND TEACHERS.
Each of the volumes in the series is intended to be complete in itself,
and to furnish an account of the period it covers sufficient for the
general reader or student. Those who wish to supplement this book by
additional reading or study will find useful the bibliographies at the
heads of the chapters.
For the use of teachers the following method is recommended. A chapter at
a time may be given out to the class for their preliminary reading, or the
paragraph numbers may be used in assigning lessons. From the references at
the head of the chapter a report may then be prepared by one or more
members of the class on each of the numbered sections included in that
chapter; these reports may be filed, or may be read in class when the
topic is reached in the more detailed exercises. Pupils take a singular
interest in such work, and the details thus obtained will add a local
color to the necessarily brief statements of the text.
STUDENTS' REFERENCE LIBRARY.
The following brief works will be found useful for reference and
comparison, or for the preparation of topics. The set should cost not more
than twelve dollars. Of these books, Lodge's _Washington_, Morse's
_Jefferson_, and Schurz's _Clay_, read in succession, make up a
brief narrative history of the whole period.
1. EDWARD CHANNING: _The United States of America, 1765-1865_. New
York: Macmillan Co., 1896.--Excellent survey of conditions and causes.
2. ALEXANDER JOHNSTON: _History of American Politics_. 2d ed. New
York: Holt, 1890.--Lucid account of political events in brief space.
3, 4. HENRY CABOT LODGE: _George Washington_ (_American Statesmen
Series_). 2 vols. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889.--Covers the
period 1732-1799.
5. JOHN T. MORSE, JR.: _Thomas Jefferson_ (_American Statesmen Series_).
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1883.--Covers the period 1750-1809.
6. CARL SCHURZ: _Henry Clay_, I. (_American Statesmen Series_).
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1887.--Covers the period 1777-1833.
7. EDWARD STANWOOD: _A History of Presidential Elections_. 3d ed.
revised. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1892.--An account of the
political events of each presidential campaign, with the platforms and a
statement of the votes.
8. SIMON STERNE: _Constitutional History and Political Development of
the United States_. 4th ed. revised. New York: Putnam's, 1888.--An
excellent brief summary of the development of the Constitution.
9. HERMANN VON HOLST: _The Constitutional and Political History of the
United States_. Vol. I. _1750-1833_. _State Sovereignty and
Slavery_. Chicago: Callaghan & Co., 1877.--Not a consecutive history,
but a philosophical analysis and discussion of the principal
constitutional events.
SCHOOL REFERENCE LIBRARY.
The following works make up a convenient reference library of secondary
works for study on the period of this volume. The books should cost not
more than thirty-five dollars.
1-9. The brief works enumerated in the previous list.
10. EDWARD CHANNING and ALBERT BUSHNELL HART. _Guide to the Study of
American History_. Boston: Ginn & Co., 1896.--A classified bibliography,
with suggestions as to methods.
11. 12. GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS: _Constitutional History of the United
States from their Declaration of Independence to the Close of their Civil
War_. 2 vols. New York: Harpers, 1889-1896.--Volume I. is a reprint of
Curtis's earlier _History of the Constitution_, in two volumes, and
covers the period 1774-1790. Chapters i.-vii. of Volume II. come down to
about 1830.
13. RICHARD FROTHINGHAM: _The Rise of the Republic of the United
States_. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1872.--A careful study of the
progress of independence, from 1750 to 1783. Indispensable.
14. SYDNEY HOWARD GAY: _James Madison (American Statesmen Series)_.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1884.
15. JUDSON S. LANDON: _The Constitutional History and Government of the
United States_. A Series of Lectures. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.,
1889.--The only recent brief constitutional history, except Sterne.
16. HENRY CABOT LODGE: _Alexander Hamilton (American Statesmen
Series)_. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1882.
17. JOHN T. MORSE, JR.: _John Adams (American Statesmen Series)_.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1885.
18. JOHN T. MORSE, JR.: _John Adams (American Statesmen Series)_.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1882.
19-21. JAMES SCHOULER: _History of the United States of America under
the Constitution_. New ed. 5 vols. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1895.--
This is the only recent and complete history which systematically covers
the whole period from 1783 to 1861. The style is very inelegant, but it is
an excellent repository of facts. Vols. I.-III. (sold separately) cover
the period 1783-1830.
22. WILLIAM MILLIGAN SLOANE: _The French War and the Revolution
(American History Series)_. New York: Scribners, 1893.--Covers the
period 1700-1783.
23. FRANCIS A. WALKER: _The Making of the Nation (American History
Series)_. New York: Scribners, 1894.--Covers the period 1783-1817.
LARGER REFERENCE LIBRARY.
For school use or for extended private reading, a larger collection of the
standard works on the period 1750-1829 is necessary. The following books
ought to cost about a hundred and fifty dollars. Many may be had at
secondhand through dealers, or by advertising in the _Publishers' Weekly_.
Additional titles may be found in the bibliographies at the heads of the
chapters, and through the formal bibliographies, such as Foster's
_References to Presidential Administrations_, Winsor's _Narrative
and Critical History_, Bowker and Iles's _Reader's Guide_, and Channing
and Hart's _Guide_.
1-23. The books enumerated in the two lists above.
24-32. HENRY ADAMS: _History of the United States of America_. 9 vols. New
York: Scribners, 1889-1891.--Period, 1801-1817. Divided into four sets,
for the first and second administrations of Jefferson and of Madison; each
set obtainable separately. The best history of the period.
33. HENRY ADAMS: _John Randolph (American Statesmen Series)_. Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1882.
34-43. GEORGE BANCROFT: _History of the United States, from the Discovery
of the American Continent_. 10 vols. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1834-
1874.--Vols. IV.-X. cover the period 1748-1782. Of the third edition, or
"author's last revision," in six volumes (New York: Appleton, 1883-1885),
Vols. III.-VI. cover the period 1763-1789. The work is rhetorical and
lacks unity, but is valuable for facts.
44. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT and SYDNEY HOWARD GAY: _A Popular History of
the United States_. 4 vols. New York: Scribners, 1876-1881.--Entirely
the work of Mr. Gay. Well written and well illustrated.
45,46. JOHN FISKE: _The American Revolution_. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton,
Mifflin & Co., 1891.
47. JOHN FISKE: _The Critical Period of American History_, 1783-1789.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1888.--Remarkable narrative style.
48. DANIEL C. GILMAN: _James Monroe (American Statesmen Series)_.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1883.
49-52. RICHARD HILDRETH: _The History of the United States of America_.
Two series, each 3 vols. New York: Harpers, 1849-1856 (also later editions
from the same plates).--Vols. II.-VI. cover the period 1750-1821. Very
full and accurate, but without foot-notes. Federalist standpoint.
53. JAMES K. HOSMER: _Samuel Adams (American Statesmen Series)_.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1885.
54-57. JOHN BACH MCMASTER: _A History of the People of the United
States, from the Revolution to the Civil War_. 4 vols. New York: Appleton,
1883-1895.--The four volumes published cover the period 1784-1820. The
point of view in the first volume is that of social history; in later
volumes there is more political discussion.
58. JOHN T. MORSE, JR.: _Benjamin Franklin (American Statesmen Series)_.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889.
59, 60. FRANCIS PARKMAN: _Montcalm and Wolfe_. 2 vols. Boston: Little,
Brown & Co., 1885.
61. GEORGE PELLEW: _John Jay (American Statesmen Series)_. Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1890.
62, 63. TIMOTHY PITKIN: _A Political and Civil History of the United
States of America, from the Year 1763 to the Close of the Administration
of President Washington, in March, 1797_. 2 vols. New Haven: Howe and
Durrie & Peck, 1828.--An old book, but well written, and suggestive as to
economic and social conditions.
64. THEODORE ROOSEVELT:_ Gouverneur Morris (American Statesmen Series)_.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1888.
65. JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS: _Albert Gallatin (American Statesmen Series)_.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1884.
66-69. GEORGE TUCKER: _The History of the United States, from their
Colonization to the End of the Twenty-Sixth Congress, in 1841_. 4 vols.
Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1856-1857.--Practically begins in 1774. Written
from a Southern standpoint.
70. MOSES COIT TYLER: _Patrick Henry (American Statesmen Series)_.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1887.
71-78. JUSTIN WINSOR: _Narrative and Critical History of America_. 8 vols.
Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1886-1889.--Vol. VI. And part
of Vol. VII. cover the period 1750-1789. The rest of Vol. VII. covers
the period 1789-1830. Remarkable for its learning and its bibliography,
but not a consecutive history.
SOURCES.
In the above collections are not included the sources which are necessary
for proper school and college work. References will be found in the
bibliographies preceding each chapter below, and through the other
bibliographies there cited.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE AMERICANS IN 1750.
1. References--2. Colonial geography--3. The people and their
distribution--4. Inherited institutions--5. Colonial development of
English institutions--6. Local government in the colonies--7. Colonial
government--8. English control of the colonies--9. Social and economic
conditions--10. Colonial slavery.
CHAPTER II.
EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH (1750-1763).
11. References--12. Rival claims in North America (1690-1754)--13.
Collisions on the frontier (1749-1754)--14. The strength of the parties
(1754)--15. Congress of Albany (1754)--16. Military operations (1755-
1757)--17. The conquest of Canada (1758-1760)--18. Geographical results of
the war (1763)--19. The colonies during the war (1754-1763)--20. Political
effects of the war (1763).
CHAPTER III.
CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION (1763-1775).
21. References--22. Condition of the British Empire (1763)--23. New
schemes of colonial regulation (1763)--24. Writs of Assistance (1761-
1764)--25. The Stamp Act (1763-1765)--26. The Stamp Act Congress (1765)--
27. Revenue acts (1767)--28. Colonial protests and repeal (1767-1770)--29.
Spirit of violence in the colonies (1770-1773)--30. Coercive acts of 1774
--31. The First Continental Congress (1774)--32. Outbreak of hostilities
(1775)--33. Justification of the Revolution.
CHAPTER IV.
UNION AND INDEPENDENCE (1775-1783).
34. References--35. The strength of the combatants (1775)--36. The Second
Continental Congress (1775)--37. The national government formed (1775)--
38. Independence declared (1776)--39. New State governments formed (1775-
1777)--40. The first period of the war (1775-1778)--41. Foreign relations
(1776-1780)--42. The war ended (1778-1782)--43. Finances of the Revolution
(1775-1783)--44. Internal difficulties (1775-1782)--45. Formation of a
Constitution (1776-1781)--46. Peace negotiated (1781-1783)--47. Political
effects of the war (1775-1783).
CHAPTER V.
THE CONFEDERATION (1781-1788).
48. References--49. The United States in 1781--50. Form of the government
(1781-1788)--51. Disbandment of the army (1783)--52. Territorial
settlement with the States (1781-1802)--53. Finances (1781-1788)--54.
Disorders in the States (1781-1788)--55. Slavery (1777-1788)--56. Foreign
relations and commerce (1781-1788)--57. Disintegration of the Union (1786,
1787)--58. Reorganization attempted (1781-1787).
CHAPTER VI.
THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION (1787-1789).
59. References--60. The Federal Convention assembled (1787)--61.
Difficulties of the convention (1787)--62. Sources of the Constitution--
63. The great compromises (1787)--64. Details of the Constitution (1787)--
65. Difficulties of ratification (1787, 1788)--66. State conventions
(1787, 1788)--67. Expiration of the Confederation (1788)--68. Was the
Constitution a compact?
CHAPTER VII.
ORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT (1789-1793).
69. References--70. Geography of the United States in 1789--71. The people
of the United States in 1789--72. Political methods in 1789--73.
Organization of Congress (1789)--74. Organization of the Executive (1789,
1790)--75. Organization of the courts (1789-1793)--76. Revenue and
protection (1789, 1790)--77. National and State debts (1789, 1790)--78.
United States Bank (1791, 1792)--79. Slavery questions (1789-1798)--80.
The success of the new government (1789-1792).
CHAPTER VIII.
FEDERAL SUPREMACY (1793-1801).
81. References--82. Formation of political parties (1792-1794)--83. War
between France and England (1793)--84. American neutrality (1793)--85. The
Jay Treaty (1794-1796)--86. The Whiskey Rebellion (1794)--87. Election of
John Adams (1796)--88. Breach with France (1795-1798)--89. Alien and
Sedition Acts (1798)--90. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (1798-1800)--
91. Election of 1800, 1801--92. Causes of the fall of the Federalists.
CHAPTER IX.
REPUBLICAN SUPREMACY (1801-1809).
93. References--94. The political revolution of 1801--95. Jefferson's
civil service (1801-1803)--96. Attack on the judiciary (1801-1805)--97.
The policy of retrenchment (1801-1809)--98. Barbary Wars (1801-1806)--99.
Annexation of Louisiana (1803)--100. Federal schemes of disunion (1803-
1809)--101. The Burr conspiracy (1806, 1807)--102. Aggressions on neutral
trade (1803-1807)--103. Policy of non resistance (1805-1807)--104. The
embargo (1807, 1808)--105. Repeal of the embargo (1809).
CHAPTER X.
THE UNION IN DANGER (1809-1815)
106. References--107. Non intercourse laws (1809, 1810)--108. Fruitless
negotiations (1809-1811)--109. The war party (1811)--110. Strength of the
combatants (1812)--111. War on the northern frontier (1812, 1813)--112.
Naval war (1812-1815)--113. Disastrous campaign of 1814--114. Question of
the militia (1812-1814)--115. Secession movement in New England (1814)--
116. Peace of Ghent (1812-1814)--117. Political effects of the war (1815).
CHAPTER XI.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC REORGANIZATION (1815-1824)
118. References--119. Conditions of national growth (1815)--120. The
second United States Bank (1815)--121. Internal improvements (1806-1817)--
122. The first protective tariff (1816)--123. Monroe's administration
(1817-1825)--124. Territorial extension (1805-1819)--125. Judicial
decisions (1812-1824)--126. The slavery question revived (1815-1820)--127.
The Missouri Compromises (1818-1821)--128. Relations with Latin American
States (1815-1823)--129. The Monroe Doctrine (1823).
CHAPTER XII.
ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL REORGANIZATION (1824-1829).
130. References--131. Political methods in 1824--132. The tariff of 1824
(1816-1824)--133. The election of 1824--134. The election of 1825--135.
The Panama Congress (1825, 1826)--136. Internal improvements (1817-1829)--
137. The Creek and Cherokee questions (1824-1829)--138. The tariff of
abominations (1828)--139. Organized opposition to Adams (1825-1829)--140.
The triumph of the people (1828).
INDEX
LIST OF MAPS.
1. Territorial Growth of the United States
2. English Colonies, 1763-1775
3. The United States, 1783
4 The United States, March 4, 1801
5. The United States, March 4, 1825
FORMATION OF THE UNION.
1750-1829
CHAPTER I.
THE AMERICANS IN 1750
1. REFERENCES
BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--R. G. Thwaites, _Colonies_, §§ 39, 74, 90; notes to
Joseph Story, _Commentaries_, §§ 1-197; notes to H. C. Lodge, _Colonies,
passim_; notes to Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, V. chs.
ii.-vi., Channing and Hart, _Guide_, §§ 130-133.
HISTORICAL MAPS.--R. G. Thwaites, _Colonies_, Maps Nos. 1 and 4 (_Epoch
Maps_, Nos. 1 and 4); G. P. Fisher _Colonial Era_, Maps Nos. 1 and 3;
Labberton, _Atlas_, lxiii., B. A. Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_ (republished
from MacCoun's _Historical Geography_).
GENERAL ACCOUNTS.--Joseph Story _Commentaries_, §§ 146-190; W. E. H.
Lecky, _England in the Eighteenth Century_, II. 1-21, III. 267-305; T. W.
Higginson, _Larger History_, ch. ix.; Edward Channing, _The United
States_, 1765-1865 ch. i.; H. E. Scudder, _Men and Manners in America_;
Hannis Taylor, _English Constitution_, Introduction, I.; H. C. Lodge,
_Colonies_ (chapters on social life); T. Pitkin, _United States_, I.
85-138, Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, V. chs. ii.-vi.;
R. Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, chs. i., iv.; Grahame, _United
States_, III. 145-176.
SPECIAL HISTORIES.--W. B. Weeden, _Economic and Social History of New
England_, II. chs. xiv., xv.; G. E. Howard, _Local Constitutional
History_, I. chs. ii., iii., vii.-ix.; C. F. Adams, _History of Quincy_,
chs. iii.-xiv.; M. C. Tyler, _History of American Literature_, II.; Edward
Channing, _Town and County Government_, and _Navigation Acts_; F. B.
Dexter, _Estimates of Population_; C. F. Bishop, _Elections in the
Colonies_; Wm. Hill, _First Stages of the Tariff Policy_; W. E. DuBois,
_Suppression of the Slave Trade_; J. R. Brackett, _Negro in Maryland_.
CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--Benjamin Franklin, _Autobiography_ (1706-1771);
John Woolman _Journal_ (1720-1772); George Whitefield, _Journals_
(especially 1739); Kalm, _Travels_ (1748-1749); Robert Rogers, _Concise
Account of North America_ (1765); A. Burnaby, _Travels_ (1759-1760);
Edmund Burke, _European Settlements in America_; William Douglass,
_Summary_; the various colonial archives and documents.--Reprints in II.
W. Preston, _Documents Illustrative of American History_ (charters, etc.);
_New Jersey Archives_, XI., XII., XVIII. (extracts from newspapers);
_American History Leaflets_, No. 16; _Library of American Literature_,
III.; _American History told by Contemporaries_, II.
2. COLONIAL GEOGRAPHY.
[Sidenote: British America.]
By the end of the eighteenth century the term "Americans" was commonly
applied in England, and even the colonists themselves, to the English-
speaking subjects of Great Britain inhabiting the continent of North
America and the adjacent islands. The region thus occupied comprised the
Bahamas, the Bermudas, Jamaica, and some smaller West Indian islands,
Newfoundland, the outlying dependency of Belize, the territory of the
great trading corporation known as the Hudson's Bay Company, and--more
important than all the rest--the broad strip of territory running along
the coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Altamaha River.
[Sidenote: Boundaries.]
It is in this continental strip, lying between the sea and the main chain
of the Appalachian range of mountains, that the formation of the Union was
accomplished. The external boundaries of this important group of colonies
were undetermined; the region west of the mountains was drained by
tributaries of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi rivers, and both these
rivers were held in their lower course by the French. Four successive
colonial wars had not yet settled the important question of the
territorial rights of the two powers, and a fifth war was impending.
So far as the individual colonies were concerned, their boundaries were
established for them by English grants. The old charters of Massachusetts,
Virginia, and the Carolinas had given title to strips of territory
extending from the Atlantic westward to the Pacific. Those charters had
lapsed, and the only colony in 1750 of which the jurisdiction exercised
under the charter reached beyond the Appalachian mountains was
Pennsylvania. The Connecticut grant had long since been ignored; the
Pennsylvania limits included the strategic point where the Alleghany and
Monongahela rivers unite to form the Ohio. Near this point began the final
struggle between the English and the French colonies. The interior
boundaries between colonies in 1750 were matters of frequent dispute and
law-suits. Such questions were eventually brought to the decision of the
English Privy Council, or remained to vex the new national government
after the Revolution had begun.
[Sidenote: The frontiers.]
At this date, and indeed as late as the end of the Revolution, the
continental colonies were all maritime. Each of them had sea-ports
enjoying direct trade with Europe. The sea was the only national highway;
the sea-front was easily defensible. Between contiguous colonies there was
intercourse; but Nova Scotia, the last of the continental colonies to be
established, was looked upon as a sort of outlyer, and its history has
little connection with the history of the thirteen colonies farther south.
The western frontier was a source of apprehension and of danger. In
northern Maine, on the frontiers of New York, on the west and southwest,
lived tribes of Indians, often disaffected, and sometimes hostile. Behind
them lay the French, hereditary enemies of the colonists. The natural
tendency of the English was to push their frontier westward into the
Indian and French belt.
3. THE PEOPLE AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION.
[Sidenote: Population.]
This westward movement was not occasioned by the pressure of population.
All the colonies, except, perhaps, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Delaware,
had abundance of vacant and tillable land. The population in 1750 was
about 1,370,000. It ranged from less than 5,000 in Georgia to 240,000 in
Virginia. Several strains of non-English white races were included in
these numbers. There were Dutch in New York, a few Swedes in Pennsylvania
and New Jersey, Germans in New York and Pennsylvania, Scotch Irish and
Scotch Highlanders in the mountains of Pennsylvania and South Carolina, a
few Huguenots, especially in the South, and a few Irish and Jews. All the
rest of the whites were English or the descendants of English. A slow
stream of immigration poured into the colonies, chiefly from England.
Convicts were no longer deported to be sold as private servants; but
redemptioners--persons whose services were mortgaged for their passage--
were still abundant. Many years later, Washington writes to an agent
inquiring about "buying a ship-load of Germans," that is, of
redemptioners. There was another important race-element,--the negroes,
perhaps 220,000 in number; in South Carolina they far out-numbered the
whites. A brisk trade was carried on in their importation, and probably
ten thousand a year were brought into the country. This stream poured
almost entirely into the Southern colonies. North of Maryland the number
of blacks was not significant in proportion to the total population. A few
Indians were scattered among the white settlements, but they were an alien
community, and had no share in the development of the country.
[Sidenote: Settlements.]
[Sidenote: American character.]
The population of 1,370,000 people occupied a space which in 1890
furnished homes for more than 25,000,000. The settlements as yet rested
upon, or radiated from, the sea-coast and the watercourses; eight-tenths
of the American people lived within easy reach of streams navigable to the
sea. Settlements had crept up the Mohawk and Susquehanna valleys, but they
were still in the midst of the wilderness. Within each colony the people
had a feeling of common interest and brotherhood. Distant, outlying, and
rebellious counties were infrequent. The Americans of 1750 were in
character very like the frontiersmen of to-day, they were accustomed to
hard work, but equally accustomed to abundance of food and to a rude
comfort; they were tenacious of their rights, as became offshoots of the
Anglo-Saxon race. In dealing with their Indian neighbors and their slaves
they were masterful and relentless. In their relations with each other
they were accustomed to observe the limitations of the law. In deference
to the representatives of authority, in respect for precedent and for the
observances of unwritten custom, they went beyond their descendants on the
frontier. Circumstances in America have greatly changed in a century and a
half: the type of American character has changed less. The quieter,
longer-settled communities of that day are still fairly represented by
such islands of undisturbed American life as Cape Cod and Cape Charles.
The industrious and thriving built good houses, raised good crops, sent
their surplus abroad and bought English goods with it, went to church, and
discussed politics. In education, in refinement, in literature and art,
most of the colonists had made about the same advance as the present
farmers of Utah. The rude, restless energy of modern America was not yet
awakened.
4. INHERITED INSTITUTIONS.
[Sidenote: Sources of American government.]
In comparison with other men of their time, the Americans were
distinguished by the possession of new political and social ideas, which
were destined to be the foundation of the American commonwealth. One of
the strongest and most persistent elements in national development has
been that inheritance of political traditions and usages which the new
settlers brought with them. Among the more rigid sects of New England the
example of the Hebrew theocracy, as set forth in the Scriptures, had great
influence on government; they were even more powerfully affected by the
ideas of the Christian commonwealth held by the Protestant theologians,
and particularly by John Calvin. The residence of the Plymouth settlers in
the Netherlands, and the later conquest of the Dutch colonies, had brought
the Americans into contact with the singularly wise and free institutions
of the Dutch. To some degree the colonial conception of government had
been affected by the English Commonwealth of 1649, and the English
Revolution of 1688. The chief source of the political institutions of the
colonies was everywhere the institutions with which they were familiar at
the time of the emigration from England. It is not accurate to assert that
American government is the offspring of English government. It is nearer
the truth to say that in the middle of the seventeenth century the Anglo-
Saxon race divided into two branches, each of which developed in its own
way the institutions which it received from the parent stock. From the
foundation of the colonies to 1789 the development of English government
had little influence on colonial government. So long as the colonies were
dependent they were subject to English regulation and English legal
decisions, but their institutions developed in a very different direction.
[Sidenote: Political ideas.]
Certain fundamental political ideas were common to the older and the
younger branches of the Anglo-Saxon race, and have remained common to this
day. The first was the idea of the supremacy of law, the conception that a
statute was binding on the subject, on the members of the legislative
body, and even on the sovereign. The people on both sides of the water
were accustomed to an orderly government, in which laws were made and
administered with regularity and dignity. The next force was the
conception of an unwritten law, of the binding power of custom. This idea,
although by no means peculiar to the English race, had been developed into
an elaborate "common law,"--a system of legal principles accepted as
binding on subject and on prince, even without a positive statute. Out of
these two underlying principles of law had gradually developed a third
principle, destined to be of incalculable force in modern governments,--
the conception of a superior law, higher even than the law-making body. In
England there was no written constitution, but there was a succession of
grants or charters, in which certain rights were assured to the
individual. The long struggle with the Stuart dynasty in the seventeenth
century was an assertion of these rights as against the Crown. In the
colonies during the same time those rights were asserted against all
comers,--against the colonial governors, against the sovereign, and
against Parliament. The original colonies were almost all founded on
charters, specific grants which gave them territory and directed in what
manner they should carry on government therein. These charters were held
by the colonists to be irrevocable except for cause shown to the
satisfaction of a court of law; and it was a recognized right of the
individual to plead that a colonial law was void because contrary to the
charter. Most of the grants had lapsed or had been forcibly, and even
illegally, annulled; but the principle still remained that a law was
superior to the will of the ruler, and that the constitution was superior
to the law. Thus the ground was prepared for a complicated federal
government, with a national constitution recognized as the supreme law,
and superior both to national enactments and to State constitutions or
statutes.
[Sidenote: Principles of freedom.]
The growth of constitutional government, as we now understand it, was
promoted by the establishment of two different sets of machinery for
making laws and carrying on government. The older and the younger branches
of the race were alike accustomed to administer local affairs in local
assemblies, and more general affairs in a general assembly. The two
systems in both countries worked side by side without friction; hence
Americans and Englishmen were alike unused to the interference of
officials in local matters, and accustomed through their representatives
to take an educating share in larger affairs. The principle was firmly
rooted on both sides of the water that taxes were not a matter of right,
but were a gift of the people, voted directly or through their
representatives. On both sides of the water it was a principle also that a
subject was entitled to his freedom unless convicted of or charged with a
crime, and that he should have a speedy, public, and fair trial to
establish his guilt or innocence. Everywhere among the English-speaking
race criminal justice was rude, and punishments were barbarous; but the
tendency was to do away with special privileges and legal exemptions.
Before the courts and before the tax-gatherers all Englishmen stood
practically on the same basis.
5. COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH INSTITUTIONS.
Beginning at the time of colonization with substantially the same
principles of liberty and government, the two regions developed under
circumstances so different that, at the end of a century and a half, they
were as different from each other as from their prototype.
[Sidenote: Separation of departments.]
[Sidenote: Aristocracy.]
The Stuart sovereigns of England steadily attempted to strengthen their
power, and the resistance to that effort caused an immense growth of
Parliamentary influence. The colonies had little occasion to feel or to
resent direct royal prerogative. To them the Crown was represented by
governors, with whom they could quarrel without being guilty of treason,
and from whom in general they feared very little, but whom they could not
depose. Governors shifted rapidly, and colonial assemblies eventually took
over much of the executive business from the governors, or gave it to
officers whom they elected. But while, in the eighteenth century, the
system of a responsible ministry was growing up in England under the
Hanoverian kings, the colonies were accustomed to a sharp division between
the legislative and the executive departments. Situated as they were at a
great distance from the mother-country, the assemblies were obliged to
pass sweeping laws. The easiest way of checking them was to limit the
power of the assemblies by strong clauses in the charters or in the
governor's instructions; and to the very last the governors, and above the
governors the king, retained the power of royal veto, which in England was
never exercised after 1708. Thus the colonies were accustomed to see their
laws quietly and legally reversed, while Parliament was growing into the
belief that its will ought to prevail against the king or the judges. In a
wild frontier country the people were obliged to depend upon their
neighbors for defence or companionship. More emphasis was thus thrown upon
the local governments than in England. The titles of rank, which continued
to have great social and political force in England, were almost unknown
in America. The patroons in New York were in 1750 little more than great
land-owners; the fanciful system of landgraves, palsgraves, and caciques
in Carolina never had any substance. No permanent colonial nobility was
ever created, and but few titles were conferred on Americans. An American
aristocracy did grow up, founded partly on the ownership of land, and
partly on wealth acquired by trade. It existed side by side with a very
open and accessible democracy of farmers.
[Sidenote: Powers of the colonies.]
The gentlemen of the colonies were leaders; but if they accepted too many
of the governor's favors or voted for too many of that officer's measures,
they found themselves left out of the assemblies by their independent
constituents. The power over territory, the right to grant wild lands, was
also peculiar to the New World, and led to a special set of difficulties.
In New England the legislatures insisted on sharing in this power. In
Pennsylvania there was an unceasing quarrel over the proprietors' claim to
quit-rents. Farther south the governors made vast grants unquestioned by
the assemblies. In any event, colonization and the grant of lands were
provincial matters. Each colony became accustomed to planting new
settlements and to claiming new boundaries. The English common law was
accepted in all the colonies, but it was modified everywhere by statutes,
according to the need of each colony. Thus the tendency in colonial
development was toward broad legislation on all subjects; but at the same
time the limitations laid down by charters, by the governor's
instructions, or by the home government, increased and were observed.
Although the assemblies freely quarrelled with individual governors and
sheared them of as much power as they could, the people recognized that
the executive was in many respects beyond their reach. The division of the
powers of government into departments was one of the most notable things
in colonial government, and it made easier the formation of the later
state and national governments.
6. LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE COLONIES.
[Sidenote: English local government.]
In each colony in 1750 were to be found two sets of governing
organizations,--the local and the general. The local unit appears at
different times and in different colonies under many names; there were
towns, townships, manors, hundreds, ridings, liberties, parishes,
plantations, shires, and counties. Leaving out of account minor
variations, there were three types of local government,--town government,
county government, and a combination of the two. Each of these forms was
founded on a system with which the colonists were familiar at the time of
settlement, but each was modified to meet the changed conditions of
America. The English county in 1600 was a military and judicial
subdivision of the kingdom; but for some local purposes county taxes were
levied by the quarter sessions, a board of local government. The officers
were the lord lieutenant, who was the military commander, and the justices
of the peace, who were at the same time petty judges and members of the
administrative board. The English "town" had long since disappeared except
as a name, but its functions were in 1600 still carried out by two
political bodies which much resembled it: the first was the parish,--an
organization of persons responsible as tax-payers for the maintenance of
the church building. In some places an assembly of these tax-payers met
periodically, chose officers, and voted money for the church edifice, the
poor, roads, and like local purposes. In other places a "select vestry,"
or corporation of persons filling its own vacancies, exercised the powers
of parish government. In such cases the members were usually of the more
important persons in the parish. The other wide-spread local organization
was the manor; in origin this was a great estate, the tenants of which
formed an assembly and passed votes for their common purposes.
[Sidenote: Towns.]
From these different forms of familiar local government the colonists
chose those best suited to their own conditions. New Englanders were
settled in compact little communities; they liked to live near the church,
and where they could unite for protection from enemies. They preferred the
open parish assembly, to which they gave the name of "town meeting." Since
some of the towns were organized before the colonial legislatures began to
pass comprehensive laws, the towns continued, by permission of the
colonial governments, to exercise extended powers. The proceedings of a
Boston town meeting in 1731 are thus reported:--
"After Prayer by the Revt. mr. John Webb,
"Habijah Savage Esqr. was chose to be Moderator for this meeting
"Proposed to Consider About Reparing mr. Nathaniell Williams His Kitchen
&c.--
"In Answer to the Earnest Desire of the Honourable House of
Representatives--
"Voted an Entire Satisfaction in the Town in the late Conduct of their
Representatives in Endeavoring to preserve their Valuable Priviledges, And
Pray their further Endeavors therein--
"Voted. That the Afair of Repairing of the Wharff leading to the North
Battrey, be left with the Selectmen to do therein as they Judge best--"
[Sidenote: Counties.]
The county was also organized in New England, but took on chiefly judicial
and military functions, and speedily abandoned local administration. In
the South the people settled in separate plantations, usually strung out
along the rivers. Popular assemblies were inconvenient, and for local
purposes the people adopted the English select vestry system in what they
called parishes. The county government was emphasized, and they adopted
the English system of justices of the peace, who were appointed by the
governor and endowed with large powers of county legislation. Hence in the
South the local government fell into the hands of the principal men of
each parish without election, while in New England it was in the hands of
the voters.
[Sidenote: Mixed System.]
In some of the middle colonies the towns and counties were both active and
had a relation with each other which was the forerunner of the present
system of local government in the Western States. In New York each town
chose a member of the county board of supervisors; in Pennsylvania the
county officers as well as the town officers became elective. Whatever the
variations, the effect of local government throughout the colonies was the
same. The people carried on or neglected their town and county business
under a system defined by colonial laws; but no colonial officer was
charged with the supervision of local affairs. In all the changes of a
century and a half since 1750 these principles of decentralization have
been maintained.
7. COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.
[Sidenote: General form.]
[Sidenote: Suffrage.]
Earlier than local governments in their development, and always superior
to them in powers, were the colonial governments. In 1750 there was a
technical distinction between the charter governments of Connecticut,
Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, the proprietary governments of
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, and the provincial governments of
the eight other continental colonies. In the first group there were
charters which were substantially written constitutions binding on both
king and colonists, and unalterable except by mutual consent. In the
second group some subject, acting under a royal charter, appointed the
governors, granted the lands, and stood between the colonists and the
Crown. In the third group, precedent and the governor's instructions were
the only constitution. In essence, all the colonies of all three groups
had the same form of government. In each there was an elective
legislature; in each the suffrage was very limited; everywhere the
ownership of land in freehold was a requisite, just as it was in England,
for the county suffrage. In many cases there was an additional provision
that the voter must have a specified large quantity of land or must pay
specified taxes. In some colonies there was a religious requirement. The
land qualification worked very differently from the same system in
England. Any man of vigor and industry might acquire land; and thus,
without altering the letter of the law to which they were accustomed, the
colonial suffrage was practically enlarged, and the foundations of
democracy were laid. Nevertheless, the number of voters at that time was
not more than a fifth to an eighth as large in proportion to the
population as at present. In Connecticut in 1775 among 200,000 people
there were but 4,325 voters. In 1890, the fourth Connecticut district,
having about the same population, cast a vote of 36,500.
[Sidenote: Legislature.]
The participation of the people in their own government was the more
significant, because the colonies actually had what England only seemed to
have,--three departments of government. The legislative branch was
composed in almost all cases of two houses; the lower house was elective,
and by its control over money bills it frequently forced the passage of
measures unacceptable to the co-ordinate house. This latter, except in a
few cases, was a small body appointed by the governor, and had the
functions of the executive council as well as of an upper house. The
governor was a third part of the legislature in so far as he chose to
exercise his veto power. The only other limitation on the legislative
power of the assemblies was the general proviso that no act "was to be
contrary to the law of England, but agreeable thereto."
[Sidenote: Executive.]
The governor was the head of the executive department,--sometimes a native
of the colony, as Hutchinson of Massachusetts, and Clinton of New York.
But he was often sent from over seas, as Cornbury of New York, and Dunmore
of Virginia. In Connecticut and Rhode Island the legislatures chose the
governor; but they fell in with the prevailing practice by frequently re-
electing men for a succession of years. The governor's chief power was
that of appointment, although the assemblies strove to deprive him of it
by electing treasurers and other executive officers. He had also the
prestige of his little court, and was able to form at least a small party
of adherents. As a representative of the home government he was the object
of suspicion and defiance. As the receiver and dispenser of annoying fees,
he was likely to be unpopular; and wherever it could do so, the assembly
made him feel his dependence upon it for his salary.
[Sidenote: Judiciary.]
Colonial courts were nearly out of the reach of the assemblies, except
that their salaries might be reduced or withheld. The judges were
appointed by the governor, held during good behavior, and were reasonably
independent both of royal interference and of popular clamor. The
governor's council was commonly the highest court in the colony; hence the
question of the constitutionality of an act was seldom raised: since the
council could defeat the bill by voting against it, it was seldom
necessary to quash it by judicial process. Legal fees were high, and the
courts were the most unpopular part of the governments.
8. ENGLISH CONTROL OF THE COLONIES.
[Sidenote: English statutes.]
[Sidenote: The Crown.]
[Sidenote: Parliament.]
In Connecticut and Rhode Island, where the governor was not appointed by
the Crown, the colonies closely approached the condition of republics; but
even in these cases they acknowledged several powers in England to which
they were all subject. First came English law. It was a generally accepted
principle that all English statutes in effect at the time of the first
colonization held good for the colonies so far as applicable; and the
principles of the common law were everywhere accepted. Second came the
Crown. When the colonies were founded, the feudal system was practically
dead in England; but the conception that the Crown held the original title
to all the lands was applied in the colonies, so that all titles went back
to Indian or royal grants. Parliament made no protest when the king
divided up and gave away the New World. Parliament acquiesced when by
charter he created trading companies and bestowed upon them powers of
government. Down to 1765 Parliament seldom legislated for individual
colonies, and it was generally held that the colonies were not included in
English statutes unless specially mentioned. The Crown created the
colonies, gave them governors, permitted the local assemblies to grow up,
and directed the course of the colonial executive by royal instructions.
[Sidenote: Means of control.]
The agent of the sovereign in these matters was from 1696 to 1760 the so-
called Lords of the Board of Trade and Plantations. This commission,
appointed by The Crown, corresponded with the governors, made
recommendations, and examined colonial laws. Through them were exercised
the two branches of English control. Governors were directed to carry out
a specified policy or to veto specified classes of laws. If they were
disobedient or weak, the law might still be voided by a royal rescript.
The attorneys-general of the Crown were constantly called on to examine
laws with a view to their veto, and their replies have been collected in
Chalmers's "Opinions,"--a storehouse of material concerning the relations
of the colonies with the home government. The process of disallowance was
slow. Laws were therefore often passed in the colonies for successive
brief periods, thus avoiding the effects of a veto; or "Resolves" were
passed which had the force, though not the name, of statutes. In times of
crisis the Crown showed energy in trying to draw out the military strength
of the colonies; but if the assemblies hung back there was no means of
forcing them to be active. During the Stuart period the troubles at home
prevented strict attention to colonial matters. Under the Hanoverian kings
the colonies were little disturbed by any active interference. In one
respect only did the home government press hard upon the colonies. A
succession of Navigation Acts, beginning about 1650, limited the English
colonies to direct trade with the home country, in English or colonial
vessels. Even between neighboring English colonies trade was hampered by
restrictions or absolute prohibitions. Against the legal right of
Parliament thus to control the trade of the colonies the Americans did not
protest. Protest was unnecessary, since in 1750 the Acts were
systematically disregarded: foreign vessels carried freights to and from
American ports; American goods were shipped direct to foreign countries (§
23; Colonies, §§ 44, 128).
9. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS.
[Sidenote: Social life.]
[Sidenote: Intellectual life.]
[Sidenote: Economic conditions.]
Thus, partly from circumstances, and partly by their own design, the
colonies in 1750 were developing a political life of their own. Changes of
dynasties and of sovereigns or of ministers in England little affected
them. In like manner their social customs were slowly changing. The
abundance of land favored the growth of a yeoman class accustomed to take
part in the government. Savage neighbors made necessary a rough military
discipline, and the community was armed. The distance from England and an
independent spirit threw great responsibility on the assemblies. The
general evenness of social conditions, except that some men held more land
than others, helped on a democratic spirit. The conditions of the colonies
were those of free and independent communities. On the other hand,
colonial life was at best retired and narrow; roads were poor, inns
indifferent, and travelling was unusual. The people had the boisterous
tastes and dangerous amusements of frontiersmen. Outside of New England
there were almost no schools, and in New England schools were very poor.
In 1750 Harvard, Yale, William and Mary, and the College of New Jersey
(now Princeton) were the only colleges, and the education which they gave
was narrower than that now furnished by a good high school. Newspapers
were few and dull. Except in theology, there was no special instruction
for professional men. In most colonies lawyers were lightly esteemed, and
physicians little known. City life did not exist; Philadelphia, Boston,
New York, and Charleston were but provincial towns. The colonies had only
three industries,--agriculture, the fisheries, and shipping. Tobacco had
for more than a century been the staple export. Next in importance was the
New England fishery, employing six hundred vessels, and the commerce with
the West Indies, which arose out of that industry. Other staple exports
were whale products, bread-stuffs, naval stores, masts, and pig-iron.
The total value of exports in 1750 is estimated at £814,000. To carry
these products a fleet of at least two hundred vessels was employed;
they were built in the colonies north of Virginia, and most of them in New
England. The vessels themselves were often sold abroad. With the proceeds
of the exports the colonists bought the manufactured articles which they
prized. Under the Navigation Acts these ought all to have come from
England; but French silks, Holland gin, and Martinique sugar somehow found
their way into the colonies. The colonists and the home government tried
to establish new industries by granting bounties. Thus the indigo culture
in South Carolina was begun, and many unsuccessful attempts were made to
start silk manufactures and wine raising. The method of stimulating
manufactures by laying protective duties was not unknown; but England
could not permit the colonies to discriminate against home merchants, and
had no desire to see them establish by protective duties competitors for
English manufactures. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania did in a few cases lay
low protective duties. Except for the sea-faring pursuits of the Northern
colonies, the whole continental group was in the same dependent condition.
The colonists raised their own food and made their own clothes; the
surplus of their crops was sent abroad and converted into manufactured
goods.
10. COLONIAL SLAVERY.
[Sidenote: Slave trade.]
[Sidenote: The sections.]
In appearance the labor system of all the colonies was the same. Besides
paid white laborers, there was everywhere a class of white servants bound
without wages for a term of years, and a more miserable class of negro
slaves. From Nova Scotia to Georgia, in all the West Indies, in the
neighboring French and Spanish colonies, negro slavery was in 1750 lawful,
and appeared to flourish. Many attempts had been made by colonial
legislatures to cut off or to tax the importation of slaves. Sometimes
they feared the growing number of negroes, sometimes they desired more
revenue. The legislators do not appear to have been moved by moral
objections to slavery. Nevertheless, there was a striking difference
between the sections with regard to slavery. In all the colonies north of
Maryland the winters were so cold as to interfere with farming, and some
different winter work had to be provided. For such variations of labor,
slaves are not well fitted; hence there were but two regions in the North
where slaves were profitably employed as field-hands,--on Narragansett Bay
and on the Hudson: elsewhere the negroes were house or body servants, and
slaves were rather an evidence of the master's consequence than of their
value in agriculture. In the South, where land could be worked during a
larger portion of the year, and where the conditions of life were easier,
slavery was profitable, and the large plantations could not be kept up
without fresh importations. Hence, if any force could be brought to bear
against negro slavery it would easily affect the North, and would be
resisted by the South; in the middle colonies the struggle might be long;
but even there slavery was not of sufficient value to make it permanent.
[Sidenote: Anti-slavery agitation.]
Such a force was found in a moral agitation already under way in 1750. The
Puritans and the Quakers both upheld principles which, if carried to their
legitimate consequences, would do away with slavery. The share which all
men had in Christ's saving grace was to render them brethren hereafter;
and who should dare to subject one to another in this earthly life? The
voice of Roger Williams was raised in 1637 to ask whether, after "a due
time of trayning to labour and restraint, they ought not to be set free?"
"How cursed a crime is it," exclaimed old Sewall in 1700, "to equal men to
beasts! These Ethiopians, black as they are, are sons and daughters of the
first Adam, brethren and sisters of the last Adam, and the offspring of
God." On "2d mo. 18, 1688," the Germantown Friends presented the first
petition against slavery recorded in American history. By 1750
professional anti-slavery agitators like John Woolman and Benezet were at
work in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and many wealthy Quakers had set free
their slaves. The wedge which was eventually to divide the North from the
South was already driven in 1750. In his great speech on the Writs of
Assistance in 1761, James Otis so spoke that John Adams said: "Not a
Quaker in Philadelphia, or Mr. Jefferson of Virginia, ever asserted the
rights of negroes in stronger terms."
CHAPTER II.
EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH (1750-1763).
11. REFERENCES.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, V.
560-622; Channing and Hart, _Guide_, §§ 131-132.
HISTORICAL MAPS.--No. 2, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, No. 5); Labberton,
_Historical Atlas_, lxiii.; B. A. Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_, I. 38, 63
(republished from MacCoun, _Historical Geography_); S. R. Gardiner,
_School Atlas_, No. 45; Francis Parkman, _Montcalm and Wolfe_,
frontispiece; Oldmixen, _British Empire_ (1741); _Mitchell's Map_ (1755);
_Evans's Map_ (1755); school histories of Channing, Johnston, Scudder,
Thomas.
GENERAL ACCOUNTS.--Geo. Bancroft, _United States_, III. chs. xxiii.,
xxiv., IV. (last revision, II. 419-565); R. Hildreth, _United States_, II.
433-513; W. E. H. Lecky, _England in the Eighteenth Century_, II. ch.
viii., III. ch. x.; B. A. Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_, ch. v.; W. M. Sloane,
_French War and Revolution_, ch. viii.; Bryant and Gay, _Popular History_,
III. 254-328; J. R. Green, _English People_, IV. 166-218; Abiel Holmes,
_Annals of America_, II. 41-123; Geo. Chalmers, _Revolt of the American
Colonies_, II. book ix. ch. xx.; T. Pitkin, _Political and Civil History_,
I. 138-154.
SPECIAL HISTORIES.--Francis Parkman, _Montcalm and Wolfe_ (2 vols.),
latest and best detailed account; G. Warburton, _Conquest of Canada_,
(1849); T. Mante, _Late War_ (1772); W. B. Weeden, _New England_, II. chs.
xvi., xvii.; M. C. Tyler, _American Literature_, II. ch. xviii.; Theodore
Roosevelt, _Winning of the West_, II.
CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--John Knox, _Historical Journal_ (1757-1760);
Pouchot, _Mémoires_ (also in translation); Franklin, _Works_
(especially on the Albany Congress); Washington, _Works_, especially
his _Journal_ (Sparks's edition, II. 432-447); Robert Rogers, _Journal;
Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York_, X.--Reprints in
_American History told by Contemporaries_, II.
12. RIVAL CLAIMS IN NORTH AMERICA (1690-1754).
[Sidenote: International rivalry.]
"The firing of a gun in the woods of North America brought on a conflict
which drenched Europe in blood." In this rhetorical statement is suggested
the result of a great change in American conditions after 1750. For the
first time in the history of the colonies the settlements of England and
France were brought so near together as to provoke collisions in time of
peace. The attack on the French by the Virginia troops under Washington in
1754 was an evidence that France and England were ready to join in a
struggle for the possession of the interior of the continent, even though
it led to a general European war.
[Sidenote: Legal arguments.]
The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748 (Colonies, § 112) had not laid down a
definite line between the French and the English possessions west of the
mountains, According to the principles of international law observed at
the time of colonization, each power was entitled to the territory drained
by the rivers falling into that part of the sea-coast which it controlled.
The French, therefore, asserted a _prima facie_ title to the valleys
of the St. Lawrence and of the Mississippi (§ 2); if there was a natural
boundary between the two powers, it was the watershed north and west of
the sources of the St. John, Penobscot, Connecticut, Hudson, Susquehanna,
Potomac, and James. On neither side had permanent settlements been
established far beyond this irregular ridge. This natural boundary had,
however, been disregarded in the early English grants. Did not the charter
of 1609 give to Virginia the territory "up into the land, from sea to sea,
west and northwest"? (Colonies, § 29.) Did not the Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and Carolina grants run westward to the "South Sea"? And
although these grants had lapsed, the power of the king to make them was
undiminished; the Pennsylvania charter, the latest of all, gave title far
west of the mountains.
[Sidenote: Expediency.]
To these paper claims were added arguments of convenience: the Lake
Champlain region, the southern tributaries of Lake Ontario, and the
headwaters of the Ohio, were more easily reached from the Atlantic coast
than by working up the rapids of the St Lawrence and its tributaries, or
against two thousand miles of swift current on the Mississippi. To the
Anglo-Saxon hunger for more land was added the fear of Indian attacks; the
savages were alarmed by the advance of settlements, and no principles of
international law could prevent frontiersmen from exploring the region
claimed by France, or from occupying favorite spots. There was no
opportunity for compromise between the two parties; agreement was
impossible, a conflict was a mere matter of time, and the elaborate
arguments which each side set forth as a basis for its claim were intended
only to give the prestige of a legal title. In the struggle the English
colonies had one significant moral advantage: they desired the land that
they might occupy it; the French wished only to hold it vacant for some
future and remote settlement, or to control the fur-trade.
13. COLLISIONS ON THE FRONTIER (1749-1754).
[Sidenote: The Iroquois]
For many years the final conflict had been postponed by the existence of a
barrier state,--the Iroquois, or Six Nations of Indians. This fierce,
brave, and statesmanlike race held a strip of the watershed from Lake
Champlain to the Allegheny River. For many years they had been subject to
English influence, exercised chiefly by William Johnson; but the
undisturbed possession of their lands was the price of their friendship.
They held back the current of immigration through the Mohawk. They aimed
to be the intermediary for the fur-trade from the northwest. They remained
throughout the conflict for the most part neutral, but forced the
contestants to carry on their wars east or south of them.
[Sidenote: English claims.]
Southwest of the territory of the Iroquois lay the region of the upper
Ohio and its tributaries, particularly the valleys of the Tennessee, the
Muskingum, the Allegheny, the Monongahela and its mountain-descending
tributary, the Youghioghany, of which the upper waters interlace with
branches of the Potomac. In this rich country, heavily wooded and
abounding in game, there were only a few Indians and no white inhabitants.
In 1749 France began to send expeditions through the Ohio valley to raise
the French flag and to bury leaden plates bearing the royal arms. A part
of the disputed region was claimed by Pennsylvania as within her charter
limits; Virginia claimed it, apparently on the convenient principle that
any unoccupied land adjacent to her territory was hers; the English
government claimed it as a vacant royal preserve; and in 1749 an Ohio
company was formed with the purpose of erecting the disputed region into a
"back colony." A royal grant of land was secured, and a young Virginian,
named George Washington, was sent out as a surveyor. He took the
opportunity to locate some land for himself, and frankly says that "it is
not reasonable to suppose that those, who had the first choice,... were
inattentive to ... the advantages of situation."
[Sidenote: Attempts to occupy.]
Foreseeing the struggle, the French began to construct a chain of forts
connecting the St. Lawrence settlements with the Mississippi. The chief
strategic point was at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela
rivers,--the present site of Pittsburg. The Ohio company were first on the
ground, and in 1753 took steps to occupy this spot. They were backed up by
orders issued by the British government to the governors of Pennsylvania
and Maryland "to repel force by force whenever the French are found within
the undoubted limits of their province." Thus the French and English
settlements were brought dangerously near together, and it was resolved by
Virginia to send George Washington with a solemn warning to the French. In
October, 1753, he set forth, and returned in December to announce that the
French were determined to hold the country. They drove the few English out
of their new post, fortified the spot, and called it Fort Duquesne. The
crisis seemed to Benjamin Franklin so momentous that at the end of his
printed account of the capture of the post he added a rude woodcut of a
rattlesnake cut into thirteen pieces, with the motto, addressed to the
colonies, "Join or die."
[Sidenote: No compromise.]
This was no ordinary intercolonial difficulty, to be patched up by
agreements between the frontier commanders. Both French and English
officers acted under orders from their courts. England and France were
rivals, not only on the continent, but in the West Indies, in India, and
in Europe. There was no disposition either to prevent or to heal the
breach on the Pennsylvania frontier.
[Sidenote: Washington attacks.]
When Washington set out with a small force in April, 1754, it was with the
deliberate intention of driving the French out of the region. As he
advanced towards Fort Duquesne they came out to meet him. He was the
quicker, and surprised the little expedition at Great Meadows, fired upon
the French, and killed ten of them. A few days later Washington and his
command were captured at Fort Necessity, and obliged to leave the country.
As Half King, an Iroquois chief, said, "The French behaved like cowards,
and the English like fools." The colonial war had begun. Troops were at
once despatched to America by both belligerents. In 1755 hostilities also
broke out between the two powers on the sea; but it was not until May 18,
1756, that England formally declared war on France, and the Seven Years'
War began in Europe.
14. THE STRENGTH OF THE PARTIES (1754).
[Sidenote: England and France.]
The first organized campaign in America was in 1755. Its effect was to
show that the combatants were not far from equally matched. France claimed
the position of the first European power: her army was large, her soldiers
well trained; her comparative weakness at sea was not yet evident. The
English navy had been reduced to 17,000 men; the whole English army
counted 18,000 men, of whom there were in America but 1,000. Yet England
was superior when it came to building ships, equipping troops, and
furnishing money subsidies to keep her allies in the field. The advantage
of prestige in Europe was thrown away when France allied herself with her
hereditary enemy, Austria, and thus involved herself in wars which kept
her from sending adequate reinforcements to America.
[Sidenote: The colonies.]
Until 1758 the war in the western world was fought on both sides chiefly
by the colonists. Here the British Americans had a numerical advantage
over the French. Against the 80,000 white Canadians and Louisianians they
could oppose more than 1,100,000 whites. Had the English colonists, like
the Canadians, been organized into one province, they might have been
successful within a year; but the freedom and local independence of the
fourteen colonies made them, in a military sense, weaker than their
neighbors. In Canada there was neither local government nor public
opinion; governors and intendants sent out from Paris ruled the people
under regulations framed in Paris for the benefit of the court centred in
Paris. While the colonies with difficulty raised volunteer troops, the
French commander could make a _levée en masse_ of the whole adult male
population. During the four campaigns from 1755 to 1758 the Canadians
lost little territory, and they were finally conquered only by a powerful
expedition of British regular troops and ships.
[Sidenote: Indians.]
[Sidenote: Theatre of war.]
One reason for this unexpected resistance was the aid of the Indians. The
Latin races have always had more influence over savage dependents than the
Anglo-Saxon. The French knew how to use the Indians as auxiliaries by
letting them make war on their own account and in their own barbarous
fashion. Nevertheless the Indians did not fight for the mere sake of
obliging the French, and when the tide turned, in 1759, they were mostly
detached. One other great advantage was enjoyed by the French: their
territory was difficult of access. The exposed coast was protected by the
strong fortresses of Louisbourg and Quebec, On the east, in the centre,
and on the Ohio they were in occupation and stood on the defensive. Acting
on the interior of their line, they could mass troops at any threatened
point. In the end their line was rolled up like a scroll from both ends.
Louisbourg and Fort Duquesne were both taken in 1758, but Montreal was
able to hold out until 1760.
15. CONGRESS OF ALBANY (1754).
[Sidenote: Indian treaty.]
[Sidenote: Union proposed]
Foreseeing a general colonial war, the Lords of Trade, in September, 1753,
directed the colonial governors to procure the sending of commissioners to
Albany. The first purpose was to make a treaty with the Iroquois; but a
suggestion was made in America that the commissioners also draw up a plan
of colonial union. In June, 1754, a body of delegates assembled from the
New England colonies, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The Indian
treaty was duly framed, notwithstanding the ominous suggestion of one of
the savages: "It is but one step from Canada hither, and the French may
easily come and turn you out of your doors." On June 24 the Congress of
Albany adopted unanimously the resolution that "a union of all the
colonies is at present absolutely necessary for their security and
defence;" and that "it would be necessary that the union be established by
Act of Parliament."
[Sidenote: Franklin's scheme.]
Since the extinction of the New England Confederation in 1684 (Colonies, §
69) there had been no approach to any colonial union. The suggestions of
William III., of the Lords of Trade, of ministers, of colonial governors,
and of private individuals had remained without effect To Benjamin
Franklin was committed the task of drawing up a scheme which should at the
same time satisfy the colonial assemblies and the mother government. The
advantages of such an union were obvious. Combined action meant speedy
victory; separate defence meant that much of the border would be exposed
to invasion. Franklin hoped to take advantage of the pressure of the war
to induce the colonies to accept a permanent union. His draft, therefore,
provided for a "President General," who should have toward the union the
powers usually enjoyed by a governor towards his colony. This was not
unlike a project in view when Andros was sent over in 1685. The startling
innovation of the scheme was a "Grand Council," to be chosen by the
colonial assemblies. The duty of this general government was to regulate
Indian affairs, make frontier settlements, and protect and defend the
colonists. The plan grew upon Franklin as he considered it, and he added a
scheme for general taxes, the funds to be raised by requisitions for
specific sums on the separate colonial treasurers.
[Sidenote: The union fails.]
The interest of the plan is that it resembles the later Articles of
Confederation. At first it seemed likely to succeed; none of the twenty-
five members of the congress seem to have opposed it, but not one colony
accepted it. The charter and proprietary colonies feared that they might
lose the guaranty afforded by their existing grants. The new union was to
be established by Act of Parliament. Of government by that body they knew
little, and they had no disposition to increase the power of the Crown.
The town of Boston voted "to oppose any plan of union whereby they shall
apprehend the Liberties and Priviledges of the People are endangered." The
British government also feared a permanent union, lest it teach the
colonies their own strength in organization. The movement for the union
had but the faint approval of the Lords of Trade, and received no
consideration in England. As Franklin said: "The assemblies all thought
there was too much _prerogative_, and in England it was thought to have
too much of the _democratic_."
16. MILITARY OPERATIONS (1755-1757).
[Sidenote: Character of the war]
Washington's defeat in 1754 was followed by active military preparations
on both sides. So far as the number of campaigns and casualties goes, it
was a war of little significance; but it was marked by romantic incidents
and heroic deeds. Much of the fighting took place in the forest. The
Indians showed their characteristic daring and their characteristic
unwillingness to stand a long-continued, steady attack. Their scalping-
knives and stakes added a fearful horror to many of the battles. On both
sides the military policy seemed simple. The English must attack, the
French must do their best to defend. The French were vulnerable in Nova
Scotia and on the Ohio; their centre also was pierced by two highways
leading from the Hudson,--one through Lake Champlain, the other through
the Mohawk and Lake Ontario. These four regions must be the theatre of
war, and in 1755 the British government, seconded by the colonists,
planned an attack on the four points simultaneously.
[Sidenote: Braddock's expedition.]
The most difficult of the four tasks was the reduction of Fort Duquesne,
and it was committed to a small force of British regulars, with colonial
contingents, under the command of General Braddock. The character of this
representative of British military authority is summed up in a phrase of
his secretary's: "We have a general most judiciously chosen for being
disqualified for the service he is employed on in almost every respect."
Before him lay three plain duties,--to co-operate with the provincial
authorities in protecting the frontier, to impress upon the Indians the
superior strength of the English, and to occupy the disputed territory. He
did none of them. Among the provincials was George Washington, whose
experience in this very region ought to have influenced the general; but
the latter obstinately refused to learn that the rules of war must be
modified in a rough and wooded country, among frontiersmen and savage
enemies. July 9, 1755, the expedition reached a point eight miles from
Fort Duquesne. As Braddock's little army marched forward, with careful
protection against surprise, it was greeted with a volley from 250 French
Canadians and 230 Indian allies. Though the Canadians fled, the Indians
stood their ground from behind trees and logs. The Virginians and a few
regulars took to trees also, but were beaten back by the oaths and blows
of Braddock. "We would fight," they said, "if we could see anybody to
fight with." After three hours' stand against an invisible foe, Braddock's
men broke and abandoned the field. Out of 1,466 officers and men, but 482
came off safe. The remnant of the expedition fled, abandoned the country,
left the frontier unprotected; and over the road which they had
constructed came a stream of marauding Indians.
[Sidenote: Removal of the Acadians.]
In the centre the double campaign was equally unfruitful. On the borders
of Nova Scotia the French forts were captured. The victors felt unable to
hold the province, although it had been theirs since 1713, except by
removing the French Acadian inhabitants. It was a strong measure, carried
out with severity. Six thousand persons were distributed among the
colonies farther south, where their religion and their language both
caused them to be suspected and often kept them from a livelihood. The
justification was that the Acadians were under French influence, and were
likely to be added to the fighting force of the enemy; the judgment of
Parkman is that the "government of France began with making the Acadians
its tools, and ended with making them its victims."
[Sidenote: Campaigns of 1756, 1757.]
The campaigns of 1756 and 1757 were like that of 1755. After the retreat
of Braddock's expedition the frontier of Virginia and Pennsylvania was
left to the ravages of the Indians. The two colonies were slow to defend
themselves, and had no help from England. Systematic warfare was still
carried on in the centre and in the East. The French, under the guidance
of their new commander, Montcalm, lost no ground, and gained Oswego and
Fort William Henry. The English cause in Europe was declining. In the Far
East alone had great successes been gained; and the battle of Plassey in
1757 gave to England the paramount influence in India which she has ever
since exercised.
17. THE CONQUEST OF CANADA (1756-1780).
[Sidenote: William Pitt.]
[Sidenote: Campaign of 1758.]
Few characters in history are indispensable. From William of Orange to
William Pitt the younger there was but one man without whom English
history must have taken a different turn, and that was William Pitt the
elder. In 1757 he came forward as a representative of the English people,
and forced his way into leadership by the sheer weight of his character.
He secured a subsidy for Prussia, which was desperately making head
against France, Austria, and Russia in coalition. He made a comprehensive
plan for a combined attack on the French posts in America. He organized
fleets and armies. He was able to break through the power of court
influence, and to appoint efficient commanders. The first point of attack
was Louisbourg, the North Atlantic naval station of the French. Since its
capture by the New Englanders in 1745 (Colonies, § 127) it had been
strongly fortified. An English force under Amherst and Wolfe reduced it
after a brief siege in 1758. The attack through Lake George failed in
consequence of the inefficiency of the English commander, Abercrombie, but
the English penetrated across Lake Ontario and took Niagara. Nov. 25,
1758, Fort Duquesne was occupied by the English, and the spot was named
Pittsburg, after the great minister. For the first time the tide of war
set inward towards the St. Lawrence.
[Sidenote: Capture of Quebec.]
It is not evident that at the beginning the English expected more than to
get control of Lake Champlain and of the country south of Lake Erie. The
successes of 1758 led the way to the invasion, and eventually to the
occupation, of the whole country. France sent thousands of troops into the
European wars, but left the defence of its American empire to Montcalm
with 5,000 regulars, 10,000 Canadian militia, and a few thousand savage
allies. England, meanwhile, was able to send ships with 9,000 men to take
Quebec. No exploit is more remarkable than the capture of that famous
fortress. It was the key to the whole province; it was deemed impregnable;
it was defended by superior numbers. The English, after vain attempts,
were on the point of abandoning the siege. Wolfe's resolution and daring
found a way over the cliffs; and on the morning of Sept. 13, 1759, the
little English army was drawn up on the Plains of Abraham outside the
landward fortifications of the city; the fate of Canada was decided in a
battle in the open; the dying Wolfe defeated the dying Montcalm, and the
town surrendered. The fall of the rest of Canada was simply a matter of
time. One desperate attempt to retake Quebec was made in 1760, but the
force of Canada had spent itself. The 2,400 defenders of Montreal
surrendered to 17,000 assailants. The colony of New France ceased to
exist. For three years English military officers formed the only
government of Canada.
18. GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS OF THE WAR (1763).
[Sidenote: European war.]
[Sidenote: George III.]
[Sidenote: The war continued.]
The conflict in Europe continued for three years after the colonial war
was at an end. During 1758, 1759, and 1760 Frederick the Second of Prussia
had held his own, with English aid; he was now to lose his ally. The
sudden death of George the Second had brought to the throne the first
energetic sovereign since William the Third. An early public utterance of
George the Third indicated that a new dynasty had arisen: "Born and bred
in England, I glory in the name of Briton." With no brilliancy of speech
and no attractiveness of person or manner, George the Third had a positive
and forcible character. He resented the control of the great Whig
families, to whom his grandfather and great-grandfather had owed their
thrones. He represented a principle of authority and resistance to the
unwritten power of Parliament and to the control of the cabinet. He had
virtues not inherited and not common in his time; he was a good husband, a
kind-hearted man, punctilious, upright, and truthful. He had, therefore, a
certain popularity, notwithstanding his narrow-mindedness, obstinacy, and
arrogance. Resolved to take a personal part in the government of his
country, he began by building up a party of the "king's friends," which
later supported him in the great struggle with the colonies. In a word,
George the Third attempted to restore the Crown to the position which it
had occupied under the last Stuart. Between such a king and the imperious
Pitt there could not long be harmony. The king desired peace with all
powers, and especially with France; Pitt insisted on continuing aggressive
war. In 1761 Pitt was forced to resign, and Frederick the Second was
abandoned. A change of sovereigns in Russia caused a change of policy, and
Prussia was saved. Still peace was not made, and in 1762 Spain joined with
France in the war on England; but the naval supremacy of England was
indisputable. The French West India Islands and Havana, the fortress of
the Spanish province of Cuba, were taken; and France was forced to make
peace.
[Sidenote: Question of Annexations.]
[Sidenote: Canada ceded.]
In the negotiations the most important question was the disposition of the
English conquests in America. Besides the Ohio country, the ostensible
object of the war, Great Britain held both Canada and the French West
Indies. The time seemed ripe to relieve the colonies from the dangers
arising from the French settlements on the north, and the Spanish colonies
in Florida and Cuba. The ministry wavered between keeping Guadeloupe and
keeping Canada; but if they were unable to deal with 8,000 Acadians in
1755, what should they do with 80,000 Canadians in 1763? Was the
inhospitable valley of the Lower St. Lawrence worth the occupation. And if
the French were excluded from North America, could the loyalty of the
colonies be guaranteed? France, however, humbled by the war, was forced to
yield territory somewhere; Canada had long been a burden on the French
treasury; since concession must be made, it seemed better to sacrifice the
northern colonies rather than the profitable West Indies. Choiseul, the
French Minister of Foreign Affairs, therefore ceded to England all the
French possessions east of the Mississippi except the tract between the
Amitic and the Mississippi, in which lay the town of New Orleans. The
island of Cape Breton went with Canada, of which it was an outlyer. The
wound to the prestige of France he passed over with a jaunty apothegm: "I
ceded it," he said, "on purpose to destroy the English nation. They were
fond of American dominion, and I resolved they should have enough of it."
[Sidenote: Louisiana ceded.]
Meanwhile, the Spaniards clamored for some compensation for their own
losses. The English yielded up Havana, and kept the two provinces of
Florida lying along the Gulf; and France transferred to Spain all the
province of Louisiana not already given to England, that is, the western
half of the Mississippi valley, and the Isle d'Orléans. The population was
stretched along the river front of the Mississippi and its lower branches;
it was devotedly French, and it was furious at the transfer. Of all her
American possessions France retained only her West Indies and the
insignificant islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon in the Gulf of St
Lawrence. Thenceforward there were but two North American powers. Spain
had all the continent from the Isthmus of Panama to the Mississippi, and
northward to the upper watershed of the Missouri, and she controlled both
sides of the Mississippi at its mouth. England had the eastern half of the
continent from the Gulf to the Arctic Ocean, with an indefinite stretch
west of Hudson's Bay.
[Sidenote: Interior boundaries.]
The interior boundaries of the English colonies were now defined by
proclamations and instructions from Great Britain. A colony of Canada was
established which included all the French settlements near the St.
Lawrence. Cape Breton was joined to Nova Scotia. On the south Georgia was
extended to the St. Mary's River. Florida was divided into two provinces
by the Appalachicola. The interior country from Lake Ontario to the Gulf
was added to no colony, and a special instruction forbade the governors to
exercise jurisdiction west of the mountains. In Georgia alone did the
governor's command cover the region west to the Mississippi. The evident
expectation was that the interior would be formed into separate colonies.
19. THE COLONIES DURING THE WAR (1754-1763).
[Sidenote: Internal quarrels.]
Seven years of war from 1754 to 1760, and two years more of military
excitement, had brought about significant changes in the older colonies.
It was a period of great expenditure of men and money. Thirty thousand
lives had been lost. The more vigorous and more exposed colonies had laid
heavy taxes and incurred burdensome debts. The constant pressure of the
governors for money had aggravated the old quarrels with the assemblies.
The important towns were all on tide water, and not one was taken or even
threatened; hence the sufferings of the frontiersmen were not always
appreciated by the colonial governments. In Pennsylvania the Indians were
permitted to harry the frontier while the governor and the assembly were
in a deadlock over the question of taxes on proprietary lands. Braddock's
expedition in 1755 was intended to assert the claim of the English to
territory in the limits of Pennsylvania; but it had no aid from the
province thus concerned. Twice the peaceful Franklin stepped forward as
the organizer of military resistance.
[Sidenote: English control.]
In the early part of the war Massachusetts took the lead, inasmuch as her
governor, Shirley, was made commander-in-chief. Military and civil control
over the colonies was, during the war, divided in an unaccustomed fashion.
The English commanders, and even Governor Dinwiddie, showed their opinion
of the Provincials by rating all their commissions lower than those of the
lowest rank of regular British officers. The consequence was that George
Washington for a time resigned from the service. In 1757 there was a
serious dissension between Loudoun and the Massachusetts assembly, because
he insisted on quartering his troops in Boston. At first the colonies were
called on to furnish contingents at their own expense: Pitt's more liberal
policy was to ask the colonies to furnish troops, who were paid from the
British military chest. New England, as a populous region near the seat of
hostilities, made great efforts; in the last three campaigns Massachusetts
kept up every year five to seven thousand troops, and expended altogether
£500,000. The other colonies, particularly Connecticut, made similar
sacrifices, and the little colony of New York came out with a debt of
$1,000,000.
[Sidenote: Colonial trade.]
As often happens during a war, some parts of the country prospered,
notwithstanding the constant loss. New England fisheries and trade were
little affected except when, in 1758, Loudoun shut up the ports by a brief
embargo. As soon as Fort Duquesne was captured, settlers began to pass
across the mountains into western Pennsylvania, and what is now Kentucky
and eastern Tennessee. The Virginia troops received ample bounty lands;
Washington was shrewd enough to buy up claims, and located about seventy
thousand acres. The period of 1760 to 1763 was favorable to the colonies.
Their trade with the West Indies was large. For their food products they
got sugar and molasses; from the molasses they made rum; with the rum they
bought slaves in Africa, and brought them to the West Indies and to the
continent. The New Englanders fitted out and provisioned the British
fleets. They supplied the British armies in America. They did not hesitate
to trade with the enemy's colonies, or with the enemy direct, if the
opportunity offered. The conclusion of peace checked this brisk trade and
commercial activity. When the war was ended the agreeable irregularities
stood more clearly revealed.
20. POLITICAL EFFECTS OF THE WAR (1763).
[Sidenote: Free from border wars.]
[Sidenote: Pontiac's conspiracy.]
In government as well as in trade a new era came to the colonies in 1763.
Nine years had brought about many changes in the social and political
conditions of the people. In the first place, they no longer had any
civilized enemies. The Canadians, to be sure, were still mistrusted as
papists; but though the colonists had no love for them, they had no fear
of them; and twelve years later, at the outbreak of the Revolution, they
tried to establish political brotherhood with them. The colonies were now
free to expand westward, or would have been free, except for the
resistance of the Western Indians gathered about the Upper Lakes. In 1763
Pontiac organized them in the most formidable Indian movement of American
history. He had courage; he had statesmanship; he had large numbers. By
this time the British had learned the border warfare, and Pontiac was with
difficulty beaten. From that time until well into the Revolution Indian
warfare meant only the resistance of scattered tribes to the steady
westward advance of the English.
[Sidenote: Military experience.]
For the first time in their history the colonists had participated in
large military operations. Abercrombie and Amherst each had commanded from
twelve to fifteen thousand men. The colonists were expert in
fortification. Many Provincials had seen fighting in line and in the
woods. Israel Putnam had been captured, and the fires lighted to burn him;
and Washington had learned in the hard school of frontier warfare both to
fight, and to hold fast without fighting.
[Sidenote: United action.]
The war had further served to sharpen the political sense of the people.
Year after year the assemblies had engaged in matters of serious moment
They laid heavy taxes and collected them; they discussed foreign policy
and their own defence; they protested against acts of the British
government which affected them. Although no union had been formed at
Albany in 1754, the colonies had frequently acted together and fought
together. New York had been in great part a community of Dutch people
under English rule during the war; now, as most exposed to French attack,
it became the central colony. Military men and civilians from the
different colonies learned to know each other at Fort William Henry and at
Crown Point.
[Sidenote: Scheme of British control.]
[Sidenote: Theory of co-operation.]
[Sidenote: Proposed taxes.]
[Sidenote: Navigation Acts.]
This unwonted sense of power and of common interest was increased by the
pressure of the British government. Just before the war broke out, plans
had been set on foot in England to curb the colonies; legislation was to
be more carefully revised; governors were to be instructed to hold out
against their assemblies; the Navigation Acts were to be enforced. The
scheme was dropped when the war began, because the aid of the colonies in
troops and supplies was essential. Then arose two rival theories as to the
nature of the war. The British took the ground that they were sending
troops to protect the colonies from French invasion, and that all their
expeditions were benefactions to the colonies. The colonists felt that
they were co-operating with England in breaking down a national enemy, and
that all their grants were bounties. The natural corollary of the first
theory was that the colonies ought at least to support the troops thus
generously sent them; and various suggestions looking to this end were
made by royal governors. Thus Shirley in 1756 devised a general system of
taxation, including import duties, an excise, and a poll-tax; delinquents
to be brought to terms by "warrants of distress and imprisonment of
persons." When, in 1762, Governor Bernard of Massachusetts promised £400
in bounties on the faith of the colony, James Otis protested that he had
"involved their most darling privilege, the right of originating taxes."
On the other hand, the colonies systematically broke the Navigation Acts,
of which they had never denied the legality. To organize the control over
the colonies more carefully, to provide a colonial revenue for general
colonial purposes, to execute the Navigation Acts, and thus to confine the
colonial trade to the mother-country,--these were the elements of the
English colonial policy from 1763 to 1775. Before these ends were
accomplished the colonies had revolted.
CHAPTER III.
CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION (1763-1765.)
21. REFERENCES.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--Justin Winsor, _Handbook of the Revolution_, 1-25,
and _Narrative and Critical History_, VI. 62-112; W. E. Foster, _Monthly
Reference Lists_, No. 79; Channing and Hart, _Guide_, §§ 134-136.
HISTORICAL MAPS.--No. 2, this volume (Epoch Maps, No. 5); Labberton,
_Historical Atlas_, lxiv.; Gardiner, _School Atlas_, No. 46; Francis
Parkman, _Pontiac_, frontispiece; Putzger, _Atlas_, No. 21; B. A.
Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_, I. 68 (reprinted from MacCoun, _Historical
Geography_).
GENERAL ACCOUNTS.--R. Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, 158-401; E.
Channing, _United States_, 1765-1865, ch. ii.; Geo. Bancroft, _United
States_ (original ed.) V., VII, chs. i-xxvi. (last revision III., IV. chs.
i-viii.); W. E. H. Lecky, _England in the Eighteenth Century_, III. ch.
xii.; R. Hildreth, _United States_, II. 514-577; III. 25-56; G. T. Curtis,
_Constitutional History_, I. i.; J. M. Ludlow, _War of Independence_, ch.
iii.; Abiel Holmes, _Annals of America_, II. 124-198; Bryant and Gay,
_United States_, III. 329-376; Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical
History_, VI. ch. i.; T. Pitkin, _United States_, I. 155-281; H, C. Lodge,
_Colonies_, ch. xxiii.; J. R. Green, _English People_, IV., 218-234; W. M.
Sloane, _French War and Revolution_, chs. x.-xiv.; Adolphus, _England_,
II. 134-332 _passim_; Grahame, _United States_, IV. book xi. Biographies
of John Adams, Samuel Adams, Otis, Dickinson, Hutchinson, Franklin, and
Washington.
SPECIAL HISTORIES.--W. B. Weeden, _Economic and Special History of New
England_, II. chs. xviii., xix.; Wm. Tudor, _Life of James Otis_; J. K.
Hosmer, _Samuel Adams_, 21-312; J. T. Morse, _Benjamin Franklin_, 99-201;
M. C. Tyler, _Literature of the Revolution_, I., and _Patrick Henry_,
32-147; H. C. Lodge, _George Washington_, I. ch. iv.
CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--Works of Washington, Franklin, Patrick Henry, and
John Adams; James Otis, _Rights of the British Colonies asserted and
proved_: Examination of Franklin (Franklin, _Works_, IV. 161-195); W. B.
Donne, _Correspondence of George III. with Lord North_ [1768-1783]; John
Dickinson, _Farmer's Letters_; Jonathan Trumbull, McFingal (epic poem);
Mercy Warren, _History of the American Revolution_; Thomas Hutchinson,
_History of Massachusetts_, III., and _Diary and Letters_; Joseph
Galloway, _Candid Examination_; Stephen Hopkins, _Rights of the Colonies
Examined_.--Reprints in _Library of American Literature_, III.; _Old South
Leaflets_; _American History told by Contemporaries_, II.
22. THE CONDITION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE (1763).
[Sidenote: England's greatness.]
In 1763 the English were the most powerful nation in the world. The
British islands, with a population of but 8,000,000 were the
administrative centre of a vast colonial empire. Besides their American
possessions, the English had a foothold in Africa through the possession
of the former Dutch Cape Colony, and had laid the foundation of the
present Indian Empire; small islands scattered through many seas furnished
naval stations and points of defence. The situation of England bears a
striking resemblance to the situation of Athens at the close of the
Persian wars: a trading nation, a naval power, a governing race, a
successful military people; the English completed the parallel by
tightening the reins upon their colonies till they revolted. Of the other
European powers, Portugal and Spain still preserved colonial empires in
the West; but Spain was decaying. Great Britain had not only gained
territory and prestige from the war, she had risen rich and prosperous,
and a national debt of one hundred and forty million pounds was borne
without serious difficulty.
[Sidenote: English government.]
It was a time of vigorous intellectual life, the period of Goldsmith,
Edmund Burke, and Dr. Johnson. It was also a period of political
development. The conditions seemed favorable for internal peace and for
easy relations with the colonies. The long Jacobite movement had come to
an end; George the Third was accepted by all classes and all parties as
the legitimate sovereign. The system of government worked out in the
preceding fifty years seemed well established; the ministers still
governed through their control of Parliament; but the great Tory families,
which for two generations had been excluded from the administration, were
now coming forward. A new element in the government of England was the
determination of George the Third to be an active political force. From
his accession, in 1760, he had striven to build up a faction of personal
adherents, popularly known as the "king's friends;" and he had broken down
every combination of ministers which showed itself opposed to him.
Although the nation was not yet conscious of it, the forces were at work
which eventually were to create a party advocating the king's prerogative,
and another party representing the right of the English people to govern
themselves.
[Sidenote: Effect on the colonies.]
This change in political conditions could not but affect the English
colonial policy. The king's imperious tone was reflected in all
departments, and was especially positive when the colonies began to
resist. It cannot be said that English parties divided on the question of
governing the colonies, but when the struggle was once begun, the king's
bitterest opponents fiercely criticised his policy, and made the cause of
the colonists their own. The great struggle with the colonies thus became
a part of the struggle between popular and autocratic principles of
government in England.
23. NEW SCHEMES OF COLONIAL CONTROL (1763).
[Sidenote: Grenville's colonial policy.]
Allusion has already been made (§ 19) to vague schemes of colonial control
suggested during the war. More serious measures were impending. When
George Grenville became the head of the cabinet, in April, 1763, he took
up and elaborated three distinctly new lines of policy, which grew to be
the direct causes of the American Revolution. The first was the rigid
execution of the Acts of Trade; the second was the taxation of the
colonies for the partial support of British garrisons; the third was the
permanent establishment of British troops in America. What was the purpose
of each of these groups of measures?
[Sidenote: Navigation acts.]
[Sidenote: Effect of the system.]
The object of the first series was simply to secure obedience to the
Navigation Acts (Colonies, Section 44, 128),--laws long on the statute
book, and admitted by most Americans to be legal. The Acts were intended
simply to secure to the mother-country the trade of the colonies; they
were in accordance with the practice of other nations; they were far
milder than the similar systems of France and Spain, because they gave to
colonial vessels and to colonial merchants the same privileges as those
enjoyed by English ship-owners and traders. The Acts dated from 1645, but
had repeatedly been re-enacted and enlarged, and from time to time more
efficient provision was made for their enforcement. In the first place,
the Navigation Acts required that all the colonial trade should be carried
on in ships built and owned in England or the colonies. In the second
place, most of the colonial products were included in a list of
"enumerated goods," which could be sent abroad, even in English or
colonial vessels, only to English ports. The intention was to give to
English home merchants a middleman's profit in the exchange of American
for foreign goods. Among the enumerated goods were tobacco, sugar, indigo,
copper, and furs, most of them produced by the tropical and sub-tropical
colonies. Lumber, provisions, and fish were usually not enumerated; and
naval stores, such as tar, hemp, and masts, even received an English
bounty. In 1733 was passed the "Sugar Act," by which prohibitory duties
were laid on sugar and molasses imported from foreign colonies to the
English plantations, Many of these provisions little affected the
continental colonies, and in some respects were favorable to them. Thus
the restriction of trade to English and colonial vessels stimulated ship-
building and the shipping interest in the colonies. From 1772 to 1775 more
than two thousand vessels were built in America.
[Sidenote: Illegal trade.]
[Sidenote: Difficulty of enforcement.]
The chief difficulty with the system arose out of the obstinate
determination of the colonies, especially in New England, to trade with
their French and Spanish neighbors in the West Indies, with or without
permission: they were able in those markets to sell qualities of fish and
lumber for which there was no demand in England. Well might it have been
said, as a governor of Virginia had said a century earlier: "Mighty and
destructive have been the obstructions to our trade and navigation by that
severe Act of Parliament,... for all are most obedient to the laws, while
New England men break through them and trade to any place where their
interests lead them to." The colonists were obliged to register their
ships; it was a common practice to register them at much below their
actual tonnage, or to omit the ceremony altogether. Colonial officials
could not be depended upon to detect or to punish infractions of the Acts,
and for that purpose the English Government had placed customs officers in
the principal ports. Small duties were laid on imports, not to furnish
revenue, but rather to furnish fees for those officers. The amount thus
collected was not more than two thousand pounds a year; and the necessary
salaries, aggregating between seven and eight thousand pounds, were paid
by the British government.
24. WRITS OF ASSISTANCE (1761-1764).
[Sidenote: Smuggling.]
[Sidenote: Argument of James Otis.]
Under the English acts violation of the Navigation Laws was smuggling, and
was punishable in the usual courts. Two practical difficulties had always
been found in prosecutions, and they were much increased as soon as a more
vigorous execution was entered upon. It was hard to secure evidence, for
smuggled goods, once landed, rapidly disappeared; and the lower colonial
judges were both to deal severely with their brethren, engaged in a
business which public sentiment did not condemn. In 1761 an attempt was
made in Massachusetts to avoid both these difficulties through the use of
the familiar Writs of Assistance. These were legal processes by which
authority was given to custom-house officers to make search for smuggled
goods; since they were general in their terms and authorized the search of
any premises by day, they might have been made the means of vexatious
visits and interference. In February, 1761, an application for such a writ
was brought before the Superior Court of Massachusetts, which was not
subject to popular influence. James Otis, advocate-general of the colony,
resigned his office rather than plead the cause of the government, and
became the leading counsel in opposition. The arguments in favor of the
writ were that without some such process the laws could not be executed,
and that similar writs were authorized by English statutes. Otis in his
plea insisted that no English statute applied to the colonies unless they
were specially mentioned, and that hence English precedents had no
application. But he went far beyond the legal principles involved. He
declared in plain terms that the Navigation Acts were "a taxation law made
by a foreign legislature without our consent." He asserted that the Acts
of Trade were "irreconcilable with the colonial charters, and hence were
void." He declared that there were "rights derived only from nature and
the Author of nature;" that they were "inherent, inalienable, and
indefeasible by any laws, pacts, contracts, governments, or stipulations
which man could devise." The court, after inquiring into the practice in
England, issued the writs to the custom-house officers, although it does
not appear that they made use of them.
[Sidenote: Effect of the discussion.]
The practical effect of Otis's speech has been much exaggerated. John
Adams, who heard and took notes on the argument, declared, years later,
that "American independence was then born," and that "Mr. Otis's oration
against Writs of Assistance breathed into this nation the breath of life."
The community was not conscious at the time that a new and startling
doctrine had been put forth, or that loyalty to England was involved. The
arguments drawn from the rights of man and the supremacy of the charters
were of a kind familiar to the colonists. The real novelty was the bold
application of these principles, the denial of the legality of a system
more than a century old.
[Sidenote: Enforcement.]
So far was the home government from accepting these doctrines that in 1763
the offensive Sugar Act was renewed. New import duties were laid, and more
stringent provisions made for enforcing the Acts of Trade; and the ground
was prepared for a permanent and irritating controversy, by commissioning
the naval officers stationed on the American coast as revenue officials,
with power to make seizures.
25. THE STAMP ACT (1763-1765).
[Sidenote: Plan for a stamp duty.]
[Sidenote: Questions of troops.]
The next step in colonial control met an unexpected and violent
resistance. In the winter of 1763-1764 Grenville, then English prime
minister, called together the agents of the colonies and informed them
that he proposed to lay a small tax upon the colonies, and that it would
take the form of a stamp duty, unless they suggested some other method.
Why should England tax the colonies? Because it had been determined to
place a permanent force of about ten thousand men in America. A few more
English garrisons would have been of great assistance in 1754; the Pontiac
outbreak of 1763 had been suppressed only by regular troops who happened
to be in the country; and in case of later wars the colonies were likely
to be attacked by England's enemies. On the other hand, the colonies had
asked for no troops, and desired none. They were satisfied with their own
halting and inefficient means of defence; they no longer had French
enemies in Canada, and they felt what seems an unreasonable fear that the
troops would be used to take away their liberty. From the beginning to the
end of the struggle it was never proposed that Americans should be taxed
for the support of the home government, or even for the full support of
the colonial army. It was supposed that a revenue of one hundred thousand
pounds would be raised, which would meet one-third of the necessary
expense.
[Sidenote: Stamp Act passed.]
Notwithstanding colonial objections to a standing army, garrisons would
doubtless have been received but for the accompanying proposition to tax.
On March 10, 1764, preliminary resolutions passed the House of Commons
looking towards the Stamp Act. There was no suggestion that the
proposition was illegal; the chief objection was summed up by Beckford, of
London, in a phrase: "As we are stout, I hope we shall be merciful."
The news produced instant excitement in the colonies. First was urged the
practical objection that the tax would draw from the country the little
specie which it contained. The leading argument was that taxation without
representation was illegal. The remonstrances, by an error of the agents
who had them in charge, were not presented until too late. Franklin and
others protested to the ministry, and declared the willingness of the
colonies to pay taxes assessed in a lump sum on each colony. Grenville
silenced them by asking in what way those lump sums should be apportioned.
After a short debate in Parliament the Act was passed by a vote of 205 to
49. Barré, one of the members who spoke against it, alluded to the
agitators in the colonies as "Sons of Liberty;" the phrase was taken up in
the colonies, and made a party war-cry. George the Third was at that
moment insane, and the Act was signed by a commission.
[Sidenote: Expectations of success.]
Resistance in the colonies was not expected. Franklin thought that the Act
would go into effect; even Otis said that it ought to be obeyed. It laid a
moderate stamp-duty on the papers necessary for legal and commercial
transactions. At the request of the ministry, the colonial agents
suggested as stamp collectors some of the most respected and eminent men
in each colony. Almost at the same time was passed an act somewhat
relaxing the Navigation Laws; but a Quartering Act was also passed, by
which the colonists were obliged, even in time of peace, to furnish the
troops who might be stationed among them with quarters and with certain
provisions.
26. THE STAMP ACT CONGRESS (1765.)
[Sidenote: Internal and external taxes.]
Issue was now joined on the question which eventually separated the
colonies from the mother-country. Parliament had asserted its right to lay
taxes on the colonists for imperial purposes. The colonies had up to this
time held governmental relations only with the Crown, from whom came their
charters. They had escaped taxation because they were poor, and because
hitherto they had not occasioned serious expense; but they had accepted
the small import duties. They found it hard to reconcile obedience to one
set of laws with resistance to the other; and they therefore insisted that
there was a distinction between "external taxation" and "internal
taxation," between duties levied at the ports and duties levied within the
colonies.
[Sidenote: Remonstrances.]
The moment the news reached America, opposition sprang up in many
different forms. The colonial legislatures preferred dignified
remonstrance. The Virginia Assembly reached a farther point in a set of
bold resolutions, passed May 29, 1765, under the influence of a speech by
Patrick Henry. They asserted "that the General Assembly of this colony
have the only and sole exclusive right and power to lay taxes and
impositions upon the inhabitants of this colony;" and that the Stamp Act"
has a manifest tendency to destroy British as well as American freedom."
On June 8, 1765, Massachusetts suggested another means of remonstrance, by
calling upon her sister colonies to send delegates to New York "to
consider of a general and united, dutiful, loyal, and humble
representation of their condition to his Majesty and to the Parliament."
[Sidenote: Riots.]
[Sidenote: Non-Importation.]
Meanwhile opposition had broken out in open violence. In August there were
riots in Boston; the house of Oliver, appointed as collector of the stamp
taxes, was attacked, and he next day resigned his office. Hutchinson was
acting governor of the colony: his mansion was sacked; and the manuscript
of his History of Massachusetts, still preserved, carries on its edges the
mud of the Boston streets into which it was thrown. The town of Boston
declared itself "particularly alarmed and astonished at the Act called the
Stamp Act, by which we apprehend a very grievous tax is to be laid upon
the colonies." In other colonies there were similar, though less violent,
scenes. Still another form of resistance was suggested by the
organizations called "Sons of Liberty," the members of which agreed to buy
no more British goods. When the time came for putting the act into force,
every person appointed as collector had resigned.
[Sidenote: Stamp Act Congress.]
These three means of resistance--protest, riots, and non-importation--were
powerfully supplemented by the congress which assembled at New York, Oct.
1765. It included some of the ablest men from nine colonies. Such men as
James Otis, Livingston of New York, Rutledge of South Carolina, and John
Dickinson of Pennsylvania, met, exchanged views, and promised co-
operation. It was the first unmistakable evidence that the colonies would
make common cause. After a session of two weeks the congress adjourned,
having drawn up petitions to the English government, and a "Declaration of
Rights and Grievances of the Colonists in America." In this document they
declared themselves entitled to the rights of other Englishmen. They
asserted, on the one hand, that they could not be represented in the
British House of Commons, and on the other that they could not be taxed by
a body in which they had no representation. They complained of the Stamp
Act, and no less of the amendments to the Acts of Trade, which, they said,
would "render them unable to purchase the manufactures of Great Britain."
In these memorials there is no threat of resistance, but the general
attitude of the colonies showed that it was unsafe to push the matter
farther.
[Sidenote: Repeal of the Stamp Act.]
Meanwhile the Grenville ministry had given place to another Whig ministry
under Rockingham, who felt no responsibility for the Stamp Act. Pitt took
the ground that "the government of Great Britain could not lay taxes on
the colonies." Benjamin Franklin was called before a committee, and urged
the withdrawal of the act. The king, who had now recovered his health,
gave it to be understood that he was for repeal. The repeal bill was
passed by a majority of more than two to one, and the crisis was avoided.
[Sidenote: Right of taxation asserted.]
To give up the whole principle seemed to the British government
impossible; the repeal was therefore accompanied by the so-called
Dependency Act. This set forth that the colonies are "subordinate unto and
dependent upon the Imperial Crown and Parliament of Great Britain, and
that Parliament hath, and of right ought to have, full power to make laws
and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and
people of America subjects to the Crown of Great Britain in all cases
whatsoever." Apparently matters had returned to their former course. The
gratitude of the colonies was loudly expressed; but they had learned the
effect of a united protest, they had learned how to act together, and they
were irritated by the continued assertion of the power of Parliament to
tax and otherwise to govern the colonies.
27. REVENUE ACTS (1767).
[Sidenote: Townshend's plans.]
[Sidenote: Quarrel with New York.]
The repeal of the Stamp Act removed the difficulty without removing the
cause. The year 1766 was marked in English politics by the virtual
retirement of Pitt from the government. His powerful opposition to
taxation of the colonies was thus removed, and Charles Townshend became
the leading spirit in the ministry. Jan. 26, 1767, he said in the House of
Commons: "I know a mode in which a revenue may be drawn from America
without offence.... England is undone if this taxation of America is given
up." And he pledged himself to find a revenue nearly sufficient to meet
the military expenses in America. At the moment that the question of
taxation was thus revived, the New York Assembly became involved in a
dispute with the home government by declining to furnish the necessary
supplies for the troops. An Act of Parliament was therefore passed
declaring the action of the New York legislature null,--a startling
assertion of a power of disallowance by Parliament.
[Sidenote: Enforcement.]
The three parts of the general scheme for controlling the colonies were
now all taken up again. For their action against the troops the New York
Assembly was suspended,--the first instance in which Parliament had
undertaken to destroy an effective part of the colonial government. For
the execution of the Navigation Acts a board of commissioners of customs
was established, with large powers. In June, 1767, a new Taxation Act was
introduced, and rapidly passed through Parliament. In order to avoid the
objections to "internal taxes," it laid import duties on glass, and white
lead, painters' colors, paper, and tea. The proceeds of the Act, estimated
at, £40,000, were to pay governors and judges in America. Writs of
Assistance were made legal. A few months afterwards,--December, 1767,--a
colonial department was created, headed by a secretary of state. The whole
machinery of an exasperating control was thus provided.
[Sidenote: Question of right of taxation.]
Issue was once more joined both in England and America on the
constitutional power of taxation. The great principle of English law that
taxation was not a right, but a gift of the persons taxed through their
representatives, was claimed also by the colonies. Opinions had repeatedly
been given by the law officers of the Crown that a colony could be taxed
only by its own representatives. The actual amount of money called for was
too small to burden them, but it was to be applied in such a way as to
make the governors and judges independent of the assemblies. The principle
of taxation, once admitted, might be carried farther. As an English
official of the time remarked: "The Stamp Act attacked colonial ideas by
sap; the Townshend scheme was attacking them by storm every day."
28. COLONIAL PROTESTS AND REPEAL (1767-1770).
[Sidenote: Colonial protest.]
[Sidenote: Massachusetts circular.]
[Sidenote: Coercive measures.]
This time the colonies avoided the error of disorderly or riotous
opposition. The leading men resolved to act together through protests by
the colonial legislatures and through non-importation agreements. Public
feeling ran high. In Pennsylvania John Dickinson in his "Letters of a
Farmer" pointed out that "English history affords examples of resistance
by force." Another non-importation scheme was suggested by Virginia, but
was on the whole unsuccessful. In February, 1768, Massachusetts sent out a
circular letter to the other colonies, inviting concerted protests, and
declaring that the new laws were unconstitutional. The protest was
moderate, its purpose legal; but the ministry attempted to destroy its
effect by three new repressive measures. The first of them, April, 1768,
directed the governors, upon any attempt to pass protesting resolutions,
to prorogue their assemblies. The second was the despatch of troops to
Boston: they arrived at the end of September, and remained until the
outbreak of the Revolution. The third coercive step was a proposition to
send American agitators to England for trial, under an obsolete statute of
Henry the Eighth.
[Sidenote: Effect of the tax.]
Meanwhile the duties had been levied. The result was the actual payment of
about sixteen thousand pounds; this sum was offset by expenses of
collection amounting to more than fifteen thousand pounds, and
extraordinary military expenditures of one hundred and seventy thousand
pounds. Once more the ministry found no financial advantage and great
practical difficulties in the way of colonial taxation. Once more they
determined to withdraw from an untenable position, and once more, under
the active influence of the king and his "friends," they resolved to
maintain the principle. In April, 1770, all the duties were repealed
except that upon tea. Either the ministry should have applied the
principle rigorously, so as to raise an adequate revenue, or they should
have given up the revenue and the principle together.
29. SPIRIT OF VIOLENCE IN THE COLONIES (1770-1773).
[Sidenote: Troops in Boston.]
[Sidenote: Collision with the mob.]
Repeal could not destroy the feeling of injury in the minds of the
colonists; and repeal did not withdraw the coercive acts nor the troops.
The garrison in Boston, sustained at the expense of the British treasury,
was almost as offensive to the colonists of Massachusetts as if they had
been taxed for its support. From the beginning the troops were looked upon
as an alien body, placed in the town to execute unpopular and even illegal
acts. There was constant friction between the officers and the town and
colonial governments, and between the populace and the troops. On the
night of March 5, 1770, an affray occurred between a mob and a squad of
soldiers. Both sides were abusive and threatening; finally the soldiers
under great provocation fired, and killed five men. The riot had no
political significance; it was caused by no invasion upon the rights of
Americans: but, in the inflamed condition of the public mind, it was
instantly taken up, and has gone down to history under the undeserved
title of the Boston Massacre. Next morning a town meeting unanimously
voted "that nothing can rationally be expected to restore the peace of the
town and prevent blood and carnage but the immediate removal of the
troops." The protest was effectual; the troops were sent to an island in
the harbor; on the other hand, the prosecution of the soldiers concerned
in the affray was allowed to slacken. For nearly two years the trouble
seemed dying down in Massachusetts.
[Sidenote: Samuel Adams.]
[Sidenote: Committee of Correspondence.]
That friendly relations between the colonies and the mother-country were
not re-established is due chiefly to Samuel Adams, a member of the
Massachusetts General Court from Boston. His strength lay in his
vehemence, his total inability to see more than one side of any question,
and still more in his subtle influence upon the Boston town meeting, upon
committees, and in private conclaves. He seems to have determined from the
beginning that independence might come, ought to come, and must come. In
November, 1772, he introduced into the Boston town meeting a modest
proposition that "a committee of correspondence be appointed ... to state
the Rights of the Colonists and of this Province in particular as Men, as
Christians, and as Subjects;--and also request of each Town a free
communication of their Sentiments on this subject." The committee blew the
coals by an enumeration of rights and grievances; but its chief service
was its unseen but efficient work of correspondence, from town to town. A
few months later the colony entered into a similar scheme for
communication with the sister colonies. These committees of correspondence
made the Revolution possible. They disseminated arguments from province to
province: they had lists of those ripe for resistance; they sounded
legislatures; they prepared the organization which was necessary for the
final rising of 1774 and 1775.
[Sidenote: "Gaspee" burned.]
[Sidenote: Tea.]
[Sidenote: Hutchinson letters.]
[Sidenote: Boston Tea-party.]
Shortly before the creation of this committee, an act of violence in Rhode
Island showed the hostility to the enforcement of the Acts of Trade. The
"Gaspee," a royal vessel of war, had interfered legally and illegally with
the smuggling trade. On June 9, 1772, while in pursuit a vessel, she ran
aground. That night the ship was attacked by armed men, who captured and
burned her. The colonial authorities were indifferent: the perpetrators
were not tried; they were not prosecuted; they were not even arrested. On
Dec. 16, 1773, a similar act of violence marked the opposition of the
colonies to the remnant of the Townshend taxation acts. The tea duty had
been purposely reduced, till the price of tea was lower than in England.
Soon after the appointment of the Committees of Correspondence public
sentiment in Massachusetts was again aroused by the publication of letters
written by Hutchinson, then governor of Massachusetts, to a private
correspondent in England. The letters were such as any governor
representing the royal authority might have written. "I wish," said
Hutchinson, "the good of the colony when I wish to see some fresh
restraint of liberty rather than the connection with the parent state
should be broken." The assembly petitioned for the removal of Hutchinson,
and this unfortunate quarrel was one of the causes of a decisive step, the
Boston Tea-party. An effort was made to import a quantity of tea, not for
the sake of the tax, but in order to relieve the East India Company from
financial difficulties. On December 16, the three tea ships in the harbor
were boarded by a body of men in Indian garb, and three hundred and forty-
two chests of tea were emptied into the sea. Next morning the shoes of at
least one reputable citizen of Massachusetts were found by his family
unaccountably full of tea. In other parts of the country, as at Edenton in
North Carolina, and at Charleston in South Carolina, there was similar
violence.
30. COERCIVE ACTS OF 1774.
[Sidenote: Public feeling in England.]
The British government had taken a false step by its legislation of 1770,
but the colonies had now put themselves in the wrong by these repeated
acts of violence. There seemed left but two alternatives,--to withdraw the
Tea Act, and thus to remove the plea that Parliament was taxing without
representation; or to continue the execution of the Revenue Act firmly,
but by the usual course of law. It was not in the temper of the English
people, and still less like the king, to withdraw offensive acts in the
face of such daring resistance. The failure to secure the prosecution of
the destroyers of the "Gaspee" caused the British government to distrust
American courts as well as American juries. One political writer, Dean
Tucker, declared that the American colonies in their defiant state had
ceased to be of advantage to England, and that they had better be allowed
quietly to separate. Pitt denied the right to tax, but declared that if
the colonies meant to separate, he would be the first to enforce the
authority of the mother-country.
[Sidenote: Coercive statutes.]
[Sidenote: Quebec Act.]
Neither orderly enforcement, conciliation, nor peaceful separation was the
policy selected. England committed the fatal and irremediable mistake of
passing illegal statutes as a punishment for the illegal action of the
colonists. Five bills were introduced and hastily pushed through
Parliament. The first was meant as a punishment for the Tea-party. It
enacted that no further commerce was to be permitted with the port of
Boston till that town should make its submission. Burke objected to a bill
"which punishes the innocent with the guilty, and condemns without the
possibility of defence." The second act was intended to punish the whole
commonwealth of Massachusetts, by declaring void certain provisions of the
charter granted by William III. in 1692. Of all the grievances which led
to the Revolution this was the most serious, for it set up the doctrine
that charters proceeding from the Crown could be altered by statute.
Thenceforward Parliament was to be omnipotent in colonial matters. The
third act directed that "Persons questioned for any Acts in Execution of
the Law" should be sent to England for trial. It was not intended to apply
to persons guilty of acts of violence, but to officers or soldiers who, in
resisting riots, might have made themselves amenable to the civil law. The
fourth act was a new measure providing for the quartering of soldiers upon
the inhabitants, and was intended to facilitate the establishment of a
temporary military government in Massachusetts. The fifth act had no
direct reference to Massachusetts, but was later seized upon as one of the
grievances which justified the Revolution. This was the Quebec Act,
providing for the government of the region ceded by France in 1763. It
gave to the French settlers the right to have their disputes decided under
the principles of the old French civil law; it guaranteed them the right
of exercising their own religion; and it annexed to Quebec the whole
territory between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and the Great Lakes. The
purpose of this act was undoubtedly to remove the danger of disaffection
or insurrection in Canada, and at the same time to extinguish all claims
of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia to the region west of
Pennsylvania.
31. THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS (1774).
[Sidenote: Gage's quarrel with Massachusetts.]
The news of this series of coercive measures was hardly received in
Massachusetts before General Gage appeared, bearing a commission to act as
governor of the province; and in a few weeks the Port Bill and the
modifications of the charter were put in force. If the governor supposed
that Boston stood alone, he was quickly undeceived. From the other towns
and from other colonies came supplies of food and sympathetic resolutions.
On June 17th, under the adroit management of Samuel Adams, the General
Court passed a resolution proposing a colonial congress, to begin
September 1st at Philadelphia. While the resolutions were going through,
the governor's messenger in vain knocked at the locked door, to
communicate a proclamation dissolving the assembly. The place of that body
was for a time taken by the Committee of Correspondence, in which Samuel
Adams was the leading spirit, and by local meetings and conventions. In
August, Gage came to an open breach with the people. In accordance with
the Charter Act, he proceeded to appoint the so-called "mandamus"
councillors. An irregularly elected Provincial Congress declared that it
stood by the charter of 1692, under which the councillors were elected by
the General Court. The first effect of the coercive acts was, therefore,
to show that the people of Massachusetts stood together.
[Sidenote: Delegates chosen.]
[Sidenote: The Congress.]
Another effect was to enlist the sympathy of the other colonies. The
movement for a congress plainly looked towards resistance and revolution.
In vain did the governors dissolve the assemblies that seemed disposed to
send delegates. Irregular congresses and conventions took their place, and
all the colonies but Georgia somehow chose delegates. The first
Continental Congress which assembled in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774,
was, therefore, a body without any legal status. It included, however,
some of the most influential men in America. From Massachusetts came
Samuel Adams and John Adams; from New York, John Jay; from Virginia,
Patrick Henry and George Washington. The general participation in this
congress was an assurance that all America felt the danger of
parliamentary control, and the outrage upon the rights of their New
England brethren.
[Sidenote: Declaration of Rights.]
This feeling was voiced in the action of the Congress. Early resolutions
set forth approval of the action of Massachusetts. Then came the
preparation of a "Declaration of Rights" of the colonies, and of their
grievances. They declared that they were entitled to life, liberty, and
property, and to the rights and immunities of free and natural born
subjects within the realm of England. They denied the right of the British
Parliament to legislate in cases of "taxation and internal polity," but
"cheerfully consent to the operation of such Acts of the British
Parliament as are _bona fide_ restrained to the regulation of our external
commerce." They protested against "the keeping up a standing army
in these colonies in times of peace." They enumerated a long list of
illegal Acts, including the coercive statutes and the Quebec Act.
[Sidenote: The Association.]
The only action of the First Continental Congress which had in any degree
the character of legislation was the "Association,"--the only effective
non-importation agreement in the whole struggle. The delegates united in a
pledge that they would import no goods from England or other English
colonies, and particularly no slaves or tea; and they recommended to the
colonies to pass efficient legislation for carrying it out. The
Revolutionary "congresses" and "conventions," and sometimes the
legislatures themselves, passed resolutions and laid penalties. A more
effective measure was open violence against people who persisted in
importing, selling, or using British goods or slaves.
[Sidenote: Action of the Congress.]
The First Continental Congress was simply the mouthpiece of the colonies.
It expressed in unmistakable terms a determination to resist what they
considered aggressions; and it suggested as a legal and effective means of
resistance that they should refuse to trade with the of mother-country.
Its action, however, received the approval of an assembly or other
representative body in each of the twelve colonies. Before it adjourned,
the congress prepared a series of addresses and remonstrances, and voted
that if no redress of grievances should have been obtained, a second
congress should assemble in May, 1775.
32. OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES (1775).
[Sidenote: Attitude of the Whigs.]
[Sidenote: Coercion]
When Parliament assembled in January, 1775, it was little disposed to make
concessions; but the greatest living Englishman now came forward as the
defender of the colonies. Pitt declared that the matter could only be
adjusted on the basis "that taxation is theirs, and commercial regulation
ours." Although he was seconded by other leading Whigs, the reply of the
Tory ministry to the remonstrance of the colonies was a new series of
acts. Massachusetts was declared in a state of rebellion; and the
recalcitrant colonies were forbidden to trade with Great Britain, Ireland,
or the West Indies, or to take part in the Newfoundland fisheries.
[Sidenote: Affairs in Massachusetts.]
[Sidenote: Lexington and Concord.]
Before these acts could be known in America, matters had already drifted
to a point where neither coercion nor conciliation could effect anything.
Through the winter 1774-1775 Gage lay for the most part in Boston, unable
to execute his commission outside of his military lines, and unwilling to
summon a legislature which was certain to oppose him. The courts were
broken up, jurors could not be obtained, the whole machinery of government
was stopped. Meanwhile, in February, 1775, the people had a second time
elected a provincial congress, which acted for the time being as their
government. This body prepared to raise a military force, and asked aid of
other New England colonies. April 19, 1775, a British expedition was sent
from Boston to Lexington and Concord to seize military stores there
assembled for the use of the provincial forces. The British were
confronted on the village green of Lexington by about one hundred
militiamen, who refused to disperse, and were fired upon by the British.
At Concord the British found and destroyed the stores, but were attacked
and obliged to retire, and finally returned to Boston with a loss of three
hundred men. The war had begun. Its issue depended upon the moral and
military support which Massachusetts might receive from the other
colonies.
33. JUSTIFICATION OF THE REVOLUTION.
[Sidenote: Malcontents put down.]
The cause of Massachusetts was unhesitatingly taken up by all the
colonies, from New Hampshire to Georgia. America was united. This
unanimity proceeded, however, not from the people, but from suddenly
constituted revolutionary governments. No view of the Revolution could be
just which does not recognize the fact that in no colony was there a large
majority in favor of resistance, and in some the patriots were undoubtedly
in a minority. The movement, started by a few seceders, carried with it a
large body of men who were sincerely convinced that the British government
was tyrannical. The majorities thus formed, silenced the minority,
sometimes by mere intimidation, sometimes by ostracism, often by flagrant
violence. One kind of pressure was felt by old George Watson of Plymouth,
bending his bald head over his cane, as his neighbors one by one left the
church in which he sat, because they would not associate with a "mandamus
councillor." A different argument was employed on Judge James Smith of New
York, in his coat of tar and feathers, the central figure of a shameful
procession.
[Sidenote: Early organization.]
Another reason for the sudden strength shown by the Revolutionary movement
was that the patriots were organized and the friends of the established
government did not know their own strength. The agent of British influence
in almost every colony was the governor. In 1775 the governors were all
driven out. There was no centre of resistance about which the loyalists
could gather. The patriots had seized the reins of government before their
opponents fairly understood that they had been dropped.
[Sidenote: Feeling of common interest.]
Another influence which hastened the Revolution was a desire to supplant
the men highest in official life. There was no place in the colonial
government for a Samuel Adams or a John Adams while the Hutchinsons and
the Olivers were preferred. But no personal ambitions can account for the
agreement of thirteen colonies having so many points of dissimilarity. The
merchants of Boston and New Haven, the townsmen of Concord and Pomfret,
the farmers of the Hudson and Delaware valleys, and the aristocratic
planters of Virginia and South Carolina, deliberately went to war rather
than submit. The causes of the Revolution were general, were wide-spread,
and were keenly felt by Americans of every class.
[Sidenote: Resistance of taxation.]
The grievance most strenuously put forward was that of "taxation without
representation." On this point the colonists were supported by the
powerful authority of Pitt and other English statesmen, and by an unbroken
line of precedent. They accepted "external taxation;" at the beginning of
the struggle they professed a willingness to pay requisitions apportioned
in lump sums on the colonies; they were accustomed to heavy taxation for
local purposes; in the years immediately preceding the Revolution the
people of Massachusetts annually raised about ten shillings per head. They
sincerely objected to taxation of a new kind, for a purpose which did not
interest them, by a power which they could not control. The cry of
"Taxation without representation" had great popular effect. It was simple,
it was universal, it sounded like tyranny.
[Sidenote: Resistance of garrisons.]
A greater and more keenly felt grievance was the establishment of
garrisons. The colonies were willing to run their own risk of enemies.
They asserted that the real purpose of the troops was to overawe their
governments. The despatch of the regiments to Boston in 1768 was plainly
intended to subdue a turbulent population. The British government made a
serious mistake in insisting upon this point, whether with or without
taxes.
[Sidenote: Resistance to Acts of Trade.]
By far the most effective cause of the Revolution was the English
commercial system. One reason why a tax was felt to be so great a hardship
was, that the colonies were already paying a heavy indirect tribute to the
British nation, by the limitations on their trade. The fact that French
and Spanish colonists suffered more than they did, was no argument to
Englishmen accustomed in most ways to regulate themselves. The commercial
system might have been enforced; perhaps a tax might have been laid: the
two together made a grievance which the colonies would not endure.
[Sidenote: Stand for the charters.]
The coercive acts of 1774 gave a definite object for the general
indignation. In altering the government of Massachusetts they destroyed
the security of all the colonies. The Crown was held unable to withdraw a
privilege once granted; Parliament might, however, undo to-morrow what it
had done to-day. The instinct of the Americans was for a rigid
constitution, unalterable by the ordinary forms of law. They were right in
calling the coercive acts unconstitutional. They were contrary to the
charters, they were contrary to precedent, and in the minds of the
colonists the charters and precedent, taken together, formed an
irrepealable body of law.
[Sidenote: Oppression not grievous.]
[Sidenote: Restraints on trade.]
[Sidenote: Resistance to one-man power.]
In looking back over this crisis, it is difficult to see that the
colonists had suffered grievous oppression. The taxes had not taken four
hundred thousand pounds out of their pockets in ten years. The armies had
cost them nothing, and except in Boston had not interfered with the
governments. The Acts of Trade were still systematically evaded, and the
battle of Lexington came just in time to relieve John Hancock from the
necessity of appearing before the court to answer to a charge of
smuggling. The real justification of the Revolution is not to be found in
the catalogue of grievances drawn up by the colonies. The Revolution was
right because it represented two great principles of human progress. In
the first place, as the Americans grew in importance, in numbers, and in
wealth, they felt more and more indignant that their trade should be
hampered for the benefit of men over seas. They represented the principle
of the right of an individual to the products of his own industry; and
their success has opened to profitable trade a thousand ports the world
over. In the second place the Revolution was a resistance to arbitrary
power. That arbitrary power was exercised by the Parliament of Great
Britain; but, at that moment, by a combination which threatened the
existence of popular government in England, the king was the ruling spirit
over Parliament. The colonists represented the same general principles as
the minority in England. As Sir Edward Thornton said, when minister of
Great Britain to the United States, in 1879: "Englishmen now understand
that in the American Revolution you were fighting our battles."
CHAPTER IV.
UNION AND INDEPENDENCE (1775-1783).
34. REFERENCES.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, VI.
_passim_, VII. 1-214, VIII. App.; and _Readers' Handbook of the
Revolution_; W. F. Allen, _History Topics_, 107, 108; W. E. Foster,
_References to the Constitution of the United States_, 11-14; Channing and
Hart, _Guide_, §§ 136-141.
HISTORICAL MAPS.--Nos. 2 and 3 this volume (_Epoch Maps_, Nos. 4 and
5); H. C Lodge, _Colonies_, frontispiece; Scribner, _Statistical Atlas_,
Pl. 12; Rhode, _Atlas_, No. xxviii.; Geo. Bancroft, _United States_
(original edition), V. 241; Labberton, _Atlas_, lxiv.; B. A. Hinsdale,
_Old Northwest_, I. 176, 180 (republished from T. MacCoun, _Historical
Geography_); List of contemporary maps in Winsor, _Handbook_, 302, school
histories of Channing, Johnston, Scudder, Thomas.
GENERAL ACCOUNTS.--G T. Curtis, _Constitutional History_, I. chs. i.-
iv. (History of the Constitution, I 28-123); W. E. H. Lecky, _England in
the Eighteenth Century_, IV. ch iv.; Geo. Bancroft, _United States_, VII.
chap. xxvii. (last revision, IV. Chs. ix.-xxvii, V.); R. Hildreth, _United
States_, IV. 57-373, 411-425, 440-444; Edward Channing, _United States_,
1765-1865, ch iii.; W. M. Sloane, _French War and Revolution_ chs. xviii.-
xxiv.; H. C. Lodge, _George Washington_, I. chs. v.-xi.; Abiel Holmes,
_Annals of America_, II. 199-353; Bryant and Gay, _United States_, III.
377-623, IV. 1-74; Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, VI chs
ii.-ix., VII. chs. i., ii.; J. R. Green, _English People_, IV. 254-271;
Adolphus, _England_, II. 333-433, _passim_; Story, _Commentaries_, §§
198-217; T. Pitkin, United States, I. 282-422, II. 37-153.
SPECIAL HISTORIES.--G. W. Greene, _Historical View_; R. Frothingham,
_Rise of the Republic_, 403-568; John Fiske, _American Revolution_; J. M.
Ludlow, _War of American Independence_, chs. v.-viii.; Geo. Pellew, _John
Jay_, 59-228; E. J. Lowell, _Hessians_; Charles Borgeaud, _Rise of Modern
Democracy_; M. C. Tyler, _Literature of the Revolution_, II.; L. Sabine,
_American Loyalists_; H. B. Carrington, _Battles of the Revolution_; W. B.
Weeden, _New England_, II. chs. xx, xxi.; W. G. Sumner, _Financier and
Finances of the American Revolution_.
CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--_Journals of Congress, Secret Journals of
Congress_, works and full biographies of the Revolutionary Statesmen;
Peter Force, _American Archives_; Jared Sparks, _Correspondence of the
Revolution_; F. Wharton, _Diplomatic Correspondence_; John Adams and
Abigail Adams, _Familiar Letters_; Tom Paine, _Common Sense_; Crevecoeur,
_Letters from an American Farmer_ [1770-1781]; J. Anbury, _Travels_ [1776-
1781]; Chastellux, _Voyage de Newport_ [also in translation, 1780-1781];
W. B. Donne, _Correspondence of George III. with Lord North_ [1768-1783];
Francis Hopkins, _Essays and Writings_; Philip Freneau, _Poems_; Baroness
Riedesel, _Letters and Memoirs_.--Reprints in Niles, _Principles and Acts
of the Revolution_; D. R. Goodloe, _Birth of the Republic_, 205-353;
Mathew Carey, _Remembrancer_; Frank Moore, _Diary of the American
Revolution_, _Old South Leaflets_, _American History told by
Contemporaries_, II.
35. THE STRENGTH OF THE COMBATANTS (1775).
[Sidenote: Power of Great Britain.]
When we compare the population and resources of the two countries, the
defiance of the colonists seems almost foolhardy. In 1775 England,
Ireland, and Scotland together had from eight to ten million souls; while
the colonies numbered but three millions. Great Britain had a considerable
system of manufactures, and the greatest foreign commerce in the world,
and rich colonies in every quarter of the globe poured wealth into her
lap. What she lacked she could buy. In the year 1775 the home government
raised ten million pounds in taxes, and when the time came she was able to
borrow hundreds of millions in all the colonies together, two million
pounds in money was the utmost that could be raised in a single year by
any system of taxes or loans. In 1776 one hundred and thirty cruisers and
transports brought the British army to New York: the whole American navy
had not more than seventeen vessels. In moral resources Great Britain was
decidedly stronger than America. Parliament was divided, but the king was
determined. On Oct 15, 1775, he wrote: "Every means of distressing America
must meet with my concurrence." Down to 1778 the war was popular in
England, and interfered little with her prosperity.
[Sidenote: Weakness of America.]
How was it in America? Canada, the Floridas, the West Indies, and Nova
Scotia held off. Of the three millions of population, five hundred
thousand were negro slaves, carried no muskets, and caused constant fear
of revolt. John Adams has said that more than a third part of the
principal men in America were throughout opposed to the Revolution; and of
those who agreed with the principles of the Revolution, thousands thought
them not worth fighting for. There were rivalries and jealousies between
American public men and between the sections. The troops of one New
England State refused to serve under officers from another State. The
whole power of England could be concentrated upon the struggle, and the
Revolution would have been crushed in a single year if the eyes of the
English had not been so blinded to the real seriousness of the crisis that
they sent small forces and inefficient commanders. England was at peace
with all the world, and might naturally expect to prevent the active
assistance of the colonies by any other power.
[Sidenote: The two armies.]
[Sidenote: Hessians.]
[Sidenote: Indians.]
[Sidenote: Discipline.]
When the armies are compared, the number and enthusiasm of the Americans
by no means made up for the difference of population. On the average,
33,000 men were under the American colors each year; but the army
sometimes fell, as at the battle of Princeton, Jan. 2, 1777, to but 5,000.
The English had an average of 40,000 troops in the colonies, of whom from
20,000 to 25,000 might have been utilized in a single military operation;
and in the crisis of the general European war, about 1780, Great Britain
placed 314,000 troops under arms in different parts of the world. The
efficiency of the American army was very much diminished by the fact that
two kinds of troops were in service,--the Continentals, enlisted by
Congress; and the militia, raised by each colony separately. Of these
militia, New England, with one fourth of the population of the country,
furnished as many as the other colonies put together. The British were
able to draw garrisons from other parts of the world, and to fill up gaps
with Germans hired like horses; yet, although sold by their sovereign at
the contract price of thirty-six dollars per head, and often abused in
service, these Hessians made good soldiers, and sometimes saved British
armies in critical moments. Another sort of aliens were brought into the
contest, first by the Americans, later by the English. These were the
Indians. They were intractable in the service of both sides, and
determined no important contest; but since the British were the invaders,
their use of the Indians combined with that of the Hessians to exasperate
the Americans, although they had the same kind of savage allies, and
eventually called in foreigners also. In discipline the Americans were far
inferior to the English. General Montgomery wrote: "The privates are all
generals, but not soldiers;" and Baron Steuben wrote to a Prussian officer
a little later: "You say to your soldier, 'Do this,' and he doeth it; but
I am obliged to say to mine, 'This is the reason why you ought to do
that,' and then he does it." The British officers were often incapable,
but they had a military training, and were accustomed to require and to
observe discipline. The American officers came in most cases from civil
life, had no social superiority over their men, and were so unruly that
John Adams wrote in 1777: "They quarrel like cats and dogs. They worry one
another like mastiffs, scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts."
[Sidenote: Commanders.]
The success of the Revolution was, nevertheless, due to the personal
qualities of these officers and their troops, when directed by able
commanders. In the early stages of the war the British generals were slow,
timid, unready, and inefficient. Putnam, Wayne, Greene, and other American
generals were natural soldiers; and in Washington we have the one man who
never made a serious blunder, who was never frightened, who never
despaired, and whose unflinching confidence was the rallying point of the
military forces of the nation.
[Sidenote: Plans of campaign.]
The theatre of the war was more favorable to the British than to the
Americans. There were no fortresses, and the coast was everywhere open to
the landing of expeditions. The simplest military principle demanded the
isolation of New England, the source and centre of the Revolution, from
the rest of the colonies. From 1776 the British occupied the town of New
York, and they held Canada. A combined military operation from both South
and North would give them the valley of the Hudson. The failure of
Burgoyne's expedition in 1777 prevented the success of this manoeuvre. The
war was then transferred to the Southern colonies, with the intention to
roll up the line of defence, as the French line had been rolled up in
1758; but whenever the British attempted to penetrate far into the country
from the sea-coast, they were eventually worsted and driven back.
36. THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS (1775).
[Sidenote: Conception of a "Congress."]
Before the war could be fought, some kind of civil organization had to be
formed. On May 10, 1775, three weeks after the battle of Lexington, the
second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia, and continued, with
occasional adjournments, till May 1, 1781. To the minds of the men of that
day a congress was not a legislature, but a diplomatic assembly, a meeting
of delegates for conference, and for suggestions to their principals. To
be sure, this Congress represented the people, acting through popular
conventions, and not the old colonial assemblies; yet those conventions
assumed to exercise the powers of government in the colonies, and expected
the delegates to report back to them, and to ask for instructions.
Nevertheless, the delegates at once began to pass resolutions which were
to have effect without any ratification by the legislatures. Of the nine
colonies which gave formal instructions to their representatives, all but
one directed them to "order" something, or to "determine" something, or to
pass "binding" Acts.
[Sidenote: Advisory action.]
Thus Congress began rather as the adviser than as the director of the
colonies; but it advised strong measures. On May 30, 1775, a plan of
conciliation suggested by Lord North was pronounced "unreasonable and
insidious." On the request of the provincial congress of Massachusetts
Bay, it recommended that body to "form a temporary colonial government
until a governor of his Majesty's appointment will consent to govern the
colony according to its charter." June 12, Congress issued a proclamation
recommending "a day of public humiliation, fasting, and prayer." Like the
First Continental Congress, it framed several petitions and addresses to
the British people and to the king of Great Britain. During the first six
weeks of its existence, therefore, the Second Continental Congress acted
chiefly as the centre for common consultation, and as the agent for joint
expostulation.
37. THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT FORMED (1775).
[Sidenote: War in Massachusetts.]
[Sidenote: National military measures.]
The situation rapidly passed beyond the stage of advice. The people of
Massachusetts and the neighboring colonies, on their own motion, had shut
up the governor of the colony and his troops in the town of Boston, and
were formally besieging him. On June 17 the British made their last
sortie, and attacked and defeated the besieging forces at Bunker Hill.
Neither the country nor Congress could long stand still. Precisely a week
after assembling, Congress voted that certain commerce "must immediately
cease." A week later, May 26, they "Resolved, unanimously, that the
militia of New York be armed and trained ... to prevent any attempt that
may be made to gain possession of the town;" and on June 14 the momentous
resolution was reached that "an American continental army should be
raised." On the following day George Washington, Esq., of Virginia, "was
unanimously selected to command all the continental forces raised or to be
raised for the defence of American liberty." In October the fitting out of
a little navy and the commissioning of privateers were authorized.
These acts were acts of war such as up to this time had been undertaken
only by individual colonies or by the home government. They were, further,
acts of united resistance, and in form they pledged the whole country to
the establishment of a military force, and the maintenance of hostilities
until some accommodation could be reached.
[Sidenote: National diplomacy.]
[Sidenote: Other national powers.]
In other directions the Continental Congress showed similar energy.
November 29, 1775, "a Committee of Correspondence with our friends abroad"
was ordered, and thus began, the foreign relations of the United States of
America. National ambassadors were eventually sent out; no colony presumed
to send its own representative across the sea; foreign affairs from this
time on were considered solely a matter for the Continental Congress. In
like manner, Congress quietly took up most of the other matters which had
been acknowledged up to this time to belong to the home government.
Congress assumed the control of the frontier Indians, till this time the
wards of England. The post-national office had been directed by English
authority; Congress took it over. The boundaries and other relations of
the colonies had been strictly regulated by the home government; Congress
undertook to mediate in boundary disputes. Parliament had controlled
trade; Congress threw open American ports to all foreign nations, and
prohibited the slave-trade. In financial matters Congress went far beyond
any powers ever exercised by England. June 22 it ordered an issue of two
million dollars in continental paper currency, and subscriptions to
national loans were opened both at home and abroad.
[Sidenote: Basis of national authority.]
This assumption of powers is the more remarkable since their exercise by
England had caused the Revolution. The right to raise money by national
authority, the right to maintain troops without the consent of the
colonies, and the right to enforce regulations on trade,--these were the
three disputed points in the English policy of control. They were all
exercised by the Continental Congress, and accepted by the colonies. In a
word, the Continental Congress constituted a government exercising great
sovereign powers. It began with no such authority; it never received such
authority until 1781. The war must be fought, the forces of the people
must be organized; there was no other source of united power and
authority; without formally agreeing to its supremacy, the colonies and
the people at large acquiesced, and accepted it as a government.
[Sidenote: Organization of the government.]
For the carrying out of great purposes Congress was singularly
inefficient. The whole national government was composed of a shifting body
of representatives elected from time to time by the colonial or State
legislatures. It early adopted the system of forming executive committees
out of its own number: of these the most important was the Board of War,
of which John Adams was the most active member. Later on, it appointed
executive boards, of which some or all the members were not in Congress:
the most notable example was the Treasury Office of Accounts. Difficult
questions of prize and maritime law arose; and Congress established a
court, which was only a committee of its own members. In all cases the
committees, boards, or officials were created, and could be removed, by
Congress. The final authority on all questions of national government in
all its forms was simply a majority of colonies or States in the
Continental Congress.
38. INDEPENDENCE DECLARED (1776).
[Sidenote: Tendency towards independence.]
Under the direction of Congress and the command of General Washington the
siege of Boston was successfully pushed forward during the winter of 1775-
76. From the beginning of the struggle to this time two political currents
had been running side by side,--the one towards a union of the colonies,
the other towards independence. Of these the current of union had run a
little faster. Notwithstanding the authority which they had set over
themselves, the colonies still professed to be loyal members of the
British empire. To be sure, there is a strong smack of insincerity in the
protestations poured forth by the assemblies and the second Continental
Congress. But John Adams says: "That there existed a general desire of
independence of the Crown in any part of America before the Revolution, is
as far from the truth as the zenith is from the nadir." Yet Patrick Henry
declared as early as September, 1774. that "Government is dissolved.
Fleets and armies and the present state of things show that government is
dissolved. We are in a state of nature, sir.... All America is thrown into
one mass."
[Sidenote: Hesitation.]
[Sidenote: Suggestion of independence.]
From the moment that the Second Continental Congress had ordered the
colonies to be put in a state of defence, either independence must come,
or thee colonies must submit. No far-seeing man could expect that England
would make the concessions which the colonies declared indispensable. Yet
for more than a year Congress hesitated to declare publicly that the
Americans would not return to obedience. As forgiving and loyal subjects
of a king misled by wicked advisers, they still seemed supported by
precedent and acting on the rights of Englishmen. Suggestions were made
throughout 1775 looking towards independence Thus the New Hampshire
Revolutionary Convention declared that "the voice of God and of nature
demand of the colonies to look to their own political affairs." In May,
1775, came the resolutions of a committee of Mecklenburg County, North
Carolina. In declaring that the government of the colonies had ceased to
exist, they were probably not different in spirit from many other
resolutions passed by like bodies. On July 8, 1775, Congress sent its last
formal petition to the Crown. In it "Your Majesty's faithful subjects" set
forth "the impossibility of reconciling the usual appearance of respect
with a just Attention to our own preservation against those artful and
cruel Enemies who abuse your royal Confidence and Authority for the
Purpose of effecting our destruction." Congress was determined to wait
until the petition had been received. On the day when it was to have been
handed to the king, appeared a royal proclamation announcing that open and
armed rebellion was going on in America.
[Sidenote: Congress determined.]
The news of the fate of the petition reached Philadelphia on October 31.
The hesitation of Congress was at an end. Three days later it resolved to
recommend the people of New Hampshire to establish their own government.
The next day similar advice was given to South Carolina, with the promise
of continental troops to defend the colony. Here for the first time was an
official recognition of the fact that the colonies stood no longer under
English control. It was an assertion that independence existed, and the
steps towards a formal declaration were rapid.
[Sidenote: Independence decided on.]
[Sidenote: Declaration of Independence.]
[Sidenote: Rights of man.]
In this as in other similar crises Congress waited to find out the wish of
the colonial legislatures. By May 15, 1776, the opinion of so many
colonies had been received in favor of a declaration of independence that
Congress voted, "That it is necessary that the exercise of every kind of
authority under the Crown of Great Britain should be totally suppressed."
Congress was now committed; and during the next few weeks the form of the
declaration was the important question for discussion. Throughout the
country, resolutions in favor of independence were passed by legislatures,
conventions, and public meetings. On July 4, 1776, Congress adopted a
solemn Declaration of Independence. Like the statement of grievances of
1765 and the declaration of 1774, this great state paper, drawn by the
nervous pen of Thomas Jefferson, set forth the causes of ill-feeling
toward Great Britain. First comes a statement of certain self-evident
truths, a reiteration of those rights of man upon which Otis had dwelt in
his speech of 1761. Then follows an enumeration of grievances put forward
in this crisis as their justification in the face of the world; yet of the
twenty-nine specifications of oppressive acts, not more than five were
manifestly illegal according to the prevailing system of English law. So
far as the Declaration of Independence shows, liberality and concession on
the part of England might even then have caused the Revolution to halt.
[Sidenote: Assertion of independence.]
Another part of the Declaration is a statement that "These United Colonies
are free and independent states, dissolved from all allegiance to Great
Britain, and have the powers of sovereign states." In form and spirit this
clause does not create independent states, but declares that they are
already independent. Independence in no wise changed the status or
character of the Continental Congress: it continued to direct military
operations and foreign negotiations, to deal with the Indians, and to
regulate national finances. The immediate effect of the Declaration of
Independence was that it obliged every American to take sides for or
against the Revolution. No one could any longer entertain the delusion
that he could remain loyal to Great Britain while making war upon her. It
was, therefore, a great encouragement to the patriots, who speedily
succeeded, in most colonies, in driving out or silencing the loyalists.
There is a tradition that another member of Congress said to Franklin at
this time, "We must all hang together." "Yes," replied Franklin, "we must
all hang together, or we shall all hang separately."
39. NEW STATE GOVERNMENTS FORMED (1775-1777).
[Sidenote: Is the Union older than the States?]
[Sidenote: Revolutionary governments.]
A practical result of the Declaration of Independence was that from that
day each colony assumed the name of State; and the union changed its name
of "The United Colonies" to the proud title of "The United States of
America." Were the new States essentially different from the colonies?
This is one of the insoluble questions connected with the formation of the
Union. Calhoun later declared that the Declaration of Independence changed
the colonies from provinces subject to Great Britain to States subject to
nobody. Lincoln in his message of July 4, 1861, said that "The Union gave
each of them whatever of independence and liberty it has. The Union is
older than any of the States, and in fact it created them as States." That
the States did not regard independence as freeing them from their relation
to Congress may be seen from the fact that their new governments were
formed under the direction or with the permission of Congress. The
outbreak of the Revolution in 1775 had suddenly destroyed the
constitutional governments with which the colonies were familiar.
Everywhere courts were prevented from sitting, and governors were impeded
or driven out. In order to organize resistance and also to carry out the
ordinary purposes of government, in each colony there arose a
revolutionary and unauthorized body, known as the Provincial Convention,
or Provincial Congress, which took upon itself all the powers of
government. The new arrangement was unsatisfactory to a people accustomed
to orderly government and to stable administrations. They turned to
Congress for advice. At first Congress suggested only temporary
arrangements. In November, 1775, it encouraged the colonies to form
permanent organizations, and on May 10, 1776, it advised them all to
"adopt such governments as shall ... best conduce to the happiness and
safety of their constituents in particular, and America in general."
[Sidenote: State constitutions.]
Acting under these suggestions, the colonies had already begun before July
4, 1776, to draw up written instruments of government. In two States,
Connecticut and Rhode Island, the old charters were so democratic that
with a few slight changes of phraseology they were sufficient for the new
conditions. In all other colonies the opportunity was taken to alter the
familiar machinery. The Provincial Conventions, or, in one case, a special
Constitutional Convention, drew up a constitution and put it into force.
Since the governor had been unpopular, in several cases his place was
supplied by an executive council. The courts were reorganized on the old
basis, and the judges were left appointive. The first constitution to be
formed was that of New Hampshire. January 5, 1776, the Provincial Congress
voted "to take up civil government as follows." By 1777, nine other new
constitutions had thus been provided. They mark an epoch in the
constitutional history of the world. The great English charters and the
Act of Settlement were constitutional documents; but they covered only a
small part of the field of government. Almost for the first time in
history, representatives of the people were assembled to draw up
systematic and complete constitutions, based on the consent of the
governed.
[Sidenote: Constitution of Massachusetts.]
Singularly enough, the last State to form a definite constitution was
Massachusetts. Till 1776, that colony claimed to be acting under a charter
which England was ignoring. The General Court then chose councillors of
its own to act as an executive. Dissensions broke out, and a considerable
body of the people of Berkshire County repudiated this government and
demanded a new constitution. In 1780 a constitution was drafted by a
convention assembled solely for that purpose, and, for the first time in
the history of America, the work of a convention was submitted for
ratification by a popular vote.
40. THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE WAR (1775-1778).
[Sidenote: British military policy.]
Two policies presented themselves to the British government at the
beginning of the war. They might have used their great naval strength
alone, blockading the coast and sealing every harbor; thus the colonies
would be cut off from the rest of the world, and allowed to enjoy their
independence until they were ready to return to their allegiance. The
alternative of invasion was chosen; but it was useless, with the forces
available, to occupy any considerable part of the interior. By threatening
various parts of the coast, the Americans could be obliged to make many
detachments of their few troops. By occupying the principal towns, such as
Newport, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and Savannah, the centres of
resistance could be broken up, the loyalists encouraged, and bases
established, from which the main American armies were to be reached and
destroyed. On the sea the navy was to be used to ruin American commerce
and to prevent the importation of supplies.
[Sidenote: American military policy.]
The policy of the Americans was, not to attempt to defend the whole coast,
but to keep as large a number of troops as they could raise together in
one body, as a substantial army; to defend their land communication from
New England to the South; and by standing ready for operations in the
field, to prevent the British from making any large detachments. They must
hold as much of their territory as possible, in order to prevent
defections; and they must take every advantage of their defensive
position, in order at length to hem in and capture the opposing armies on
the coast, as they did finally at Yorktown. The open gate through the
Hudson they strove to close early in the war by invasion of Canada. On the
sea all they could do was to capture supplies and destroy commerce, and by
the ravages of their privateers to inspire the enemy with respect.
[Sidenote: Plans frustrated.]
Neither party was able to carry out its plans. The British took all the
principal seaports, but were able to hold none, except New York, to the
end of the war. First Burgoyne and later Cornwallis made a determined
attempt to penetrate far into the interior, and both were captured. On the
other hand, the Americans could not shake off the main central army, and
there was danger to the very last that the British would beat them in one
pitched battle which would decide the war.
[Sidenote: Campaign of 1776.]
[Sidenote: Princeton and Trenton.]
Military operations began with several surprises to the advantage of the
colonists. They took Ticonderoga and invested Boston before the British
government believed that a fight was impending. An expedition to Canada
failed in 1775-76, but Boston fell. Down to the day of the Declaration of
Independence the advantage was clearly with the colonists. The hard, stern
struggle of the war began in August, 1776, with the arrival of the British
in the harbor of New York. The Americans were attacked on Long Island, and
obliged to retreat across the river; when the militia were attacked on
that side Washington says: "They ran away in the greatest confusion,
without firing a shot." Eye-witnesses relate that "His Excellency was left
on the ground within eighty yards of the enemy, so vexed with the infamous
conduct of the troops that he sought death rather than life." The American
army with difficulty escaped northward, and Washington was obliged to
abandon the important line of the Hudson, and to retreat before the
British towards Philadelphia. The campaign of 1776 had gone against the
Americans. Suddenly out of the gloom and despair came two brilliant little
victories. Crossing the Delaware on Christmas night, 1776, Washington
struck and beat parts of the British forces at Trenton and Princeton. They
retired, and the patriots held Philadelphia during the winter.
[Sidenote: Campaign of 1777.]
[Sidenote: Steadfastness of the American army.]
In the spring of 1777 Howe transferred his troops by sea to the
Chesapeake, beat the Americans, occupied Philadelphia, and lay in that
city till the next year. It was a dear success. While the main British
force was thus withdrawn from New York, an attempt was made to pierce the
colonies from the northward. Burgoyne slowly descended during the summer
of 1777; but, unsupported by Howe, on October 17 he was obliged to
surrender his whole army at Saratoga. This victory roused the spirit and
courage of the new nation, and strengthened the hands of the envoys who
were begging for French alliance. It enabled Washington to maintain a
small army in winter quarters at Valley Forge, twenty miles from
Philadelphia. Whatever the early faults of American troops and officers,
they had learned to obey and to suffer as soldiers, patriots, and heroes.
At one time barely five thousand men were fit for duty. "Naked and
starving as they are." wrote Washington, "we cannot sufficiently admire
the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiers." With the first
days of the year 1778 came the darkest hour of the Revolution. The little
army, the indispensable hope, was beginning to thin out; the finances of
the country were desperate; nine hundred American vessels had been
captured; an apathy had fallen upon the country. Yet light was beginning
to dawn: Steuben, the German, had begun to introduce the discipline which
was to make the American army a new and powerful instrument; Lafayette had
brought the sympathy of France and his own substantial services; more than
all, during these dark days the American envoys were concluding the treaty
with France which was to save the Union.
41. FOREIGN RELATIONS (1776-1780).
[Sidenote: Interest of France.]
[Sidenote: English plan of reconciliation.]
From the beginning of the American struggle the French government had
looked on with interest and pleasure. The arrogance of England during the
previous war and during the negotiations of 1763 had excited a general
dislike throughout Europe. When, in June, 1776, Silas Deane appeared at
Paris as the American envoy, he found, not recognition, but at least
sympathy and assistance. Beaumarchais, a play-writer and adventurer, was
made an unofficial agent of France; and through him arms and supplies from
royal arsenals came into the hands of the Americans. More to the purpose,
money was placed at the disposal of the envoys. In 1776 a million francs
were thus secured; in 1777 two millions. The arrival of Franklin in Paris
in December, 1776, increased the American influence, and negotiations were
entered upon for a treaty. The English cabinet, understanding the danger
of a double war, made a last effort at reconciliation with the colonies.
In 1778 Lord North brought forward an act declaring that Parliament "will
not impose any duty, taxes, or assessment whatever ... in North America or
the West Indies, except only such duties as it may be expedient to impose
for the regulation of commerce, the net produce of such duties to be
always paid and applied to and for the use of the colony in which the same
shall be levied." The principle which had been so strenuously asserted by
the home government from 1765 to 1774 was now abandoned; it might
reasonably be expected that the violent acts of Massachusetts directed
against taxation would be forgiven. Commissioners were sent to America
with almost unlimited powers to remove the grievances of the colonies, and
to restore peace and concord.
[Sidenote: Alliance with France.]
Before they were appointed, a treaty of alliance had been made, Feb. 6,
1778, between the United States and France. With it went a treaty of
commerce, insuring reciprocal trade with France. The colonies, which in
1758 had been fiercely fighting the French as their hereditary enemies,
were now delighted at the prospect of their support. The peace commission
remained in America from June to October; but though they offered every
concession short of absolute independence, the Americans remained firm,
and entered with confidence on the campaign of 1778.
42. THE WAR ENDED (1778-1782).
[Sidenote: Stubbornness of George III.]
[Sidenote: Campaign of 1778.]
The European crisis was favorable to the Americans; the British government
had hitherto been unable to reduce them; the Germans would furnish no more
mercenaries; a strong minority in Parliament opposed the American war;
France had declared war in March, 1778, and Spain was about to follow.
Proper reinforcements could not be sent to America. The country cried out
for Pitt, who had declared himself positively against American
independence. The king resolutely refused. "No advantage to this country,
no personal danger to myself," said he, "can ever make me address myself
to Lord Chatham or to any other branch of the opposition." Pitt died on
May 11, and the chance of a statesmanlike policy disappeared. When the
French fleet, with four thousand troops, appeared in American waters in
July, 1778, Washington formed the hopeful plan of driving the British out
of the country. Philadelphia had been abandoned by Clinton, acting under
orders of the British government. Only two places were left in the
possession of the British,--New York city and Newport, Rhode Island. The
combined American and French expedition against Newport was a failure,
although, as Washington said, "it would have given the finishing blow to
British pretensions of sovereignty over this country."
[Sidenote: The war continued.]
Meanwhile, in England the king was imposing his relentless will upon a
ministry tired of the war, and upon the English people. It was the climax
of George the Third's effort to escape from the principle of Parliamentary
responsibility. "This country," he said, "will never regain a proper tone
unless ministers, as in the reign of King William, will not mind now and
then being in a minority." In April, 1779, Spain allied herself with
France, and the combined fleets of those two powers obtained the mastery
of the seas. Paul Jones, with a little fleet under an American commission,
captured two British men-of-war, almost in sight of the English coast.
[Sidenote: Southern campaign.]
A new plan was formed for an American campaign in 1779. Forces were
directed against Georgia and South Carolina,--States in which there were
many loyalists. Savannah was taken, Charleston was assailed, and the
expedition under Cornwallis penetrated far into North Carolina. Yet at the
end of 1780 the British held, besides New York, only the provinces of
South Carolina and Georgia. In September, 1780, Benedict Arnold all but
delivered to the hands of the enemy the important fortress of West Point.
He was weary of the struggle, and anxious to secure his own safety.
[Sidenote: Surrender of Yorktown.]
With renewed spirit the Americans in 1781 took the offensive in the
Carolinas under Greene. Cornwallis moved northward to the peninsula of
Yorktown. The moment had come. By a rapid movement of Washington's army
and the effective cooperation of the French fleet, Cornwallis was trapped
at Yorktown; and on Oct. 19, 1781, he surrendered, with eight thousand
men. It was the first decided victory which Washington had himself gained.
It made evident to England the hopelessness of continuing the contest; and
in November, 1782, peace was made.
[Sidenote: Reasons for American success.]
The Revolutionary war was successful because the English underestimated
the strength of the movement at the beginning, because the English
commanders were incapable, and because in the later period, when the
British were aroused, their strength was diverted by the dangerous
European war. It was gained finally by the firmness and resolution of the
people, and that resolution is typified in Washington. His patience and
endurance, his ability to hold in check large forces with small armies
imperfectly equipped, his power to keep the country up to the support of
the war, mark him as one of the world's great military commanders.
43. FINANCES OF THE REVOLUTION (1775-1783).
[Sidenote: Resources.]
The successful termination of the war is the more remarkable because it
was fought by a government almost without means, and finally without
credit. The saddest part of the suffering at Valley Forge is that it was
unnecessary. There was always food and clothing in the country, but
Congress had no money to buy it. Congress had no power to lay taxes, and
the colonies, most of which were spending large sums on their own militia,
were not disposed to supply the general treasury. The pay of the
Continental troops and of the general officers, the furnishing of
equipments and stores, the support of foreign embassies, were burdens that
must be borne, and Congress must find the means.
[Sidenote: Continental currency.]
The most successful and the most disastrous resource was the issue of
paper-money. When, in June, 1775, it was proposed to meet the general
expenses by putting forth two millions in Continental notes, there was but
feeble objection. It was the only way of raising money which seemed to
cost nobody anything. In the course of a year four millions more followed.
Congress, with commendable foresight, called upon each colony to pay in a
sum sufficient to retire its proportion of the issue. Nothing was paid,
and the printing-press was again put in motion, until in January, 1779,
fifty millions were issued at a time. In November, 1779, the limit of two
hundred millions was reached. In order to float these notes the States
passed acts making them a legal tender; but at the same time they were
themselves issuing large sums in a similar currency. Counterfeits
abounded, but it soon became a matter of little difference whether a bill
was good or bad, since the best was worth so little. From the time of the
capture of New York by the British in 1776 the notes began to fall. In
1778 the news of the French alliance caused a little rise; but in 1781 the
bills fell to a point where a thousand dollars exchanged for one dollar in
specie, and a Philadelphia wag made out of the notes a blanket for his
dog. The Continental currency was never redeemed, and was consequently a
forced tax on those who were least able to pay, since every holder lost by
its depreciation while in his hands.
[Sidenote: Loans.]
The absolutely necessary expenditures, without which no army could make
head against the British, were from twenty to twenty-five million specie
dollars each year. Of this the Continental bills furnished on an average
some eight or ten millions. Another method of raising money was that of
borrowing on funded loans. Great schemes were put forth. The United States
were to borrow at four per cent; they were to borrow two millions; they
were to borrow ten millions; they were to borrow twenty millions. The
result was that in three years $181,000 was thus loaned, and up to the end
of the war but $1,600,000,--hardly a hundredth part of the necessary
means. Failing to raise money directly, recourse was bad to the so-called
loan-office certificates. These were issued to creditors of the
government, and bore interest. The greater part of the military supplies
were paid for in this extravagant and demoralizing fashion, and in 1789
they had to be settled, with accumulated interest amounting to nearly
fifty per cent. Better success was had in Europe. No private banker would
lend money to a set of rebels not recognized by any government as
independent, but the French and Spanish governments were willing to
advance both money and stores. In this way the United States received
about three million dollars.
[Sidenote: Requisitions.]
When it was evident that the domestic loan had failed, Congress called
upon the States to furnish five millions of dollars, apportioned among
them according to their importance. These requisitions were repeated at
intervals during the Revolution, but always with the same effect. Not a
fourth part of the sums asked for was paid by the States. A system of
"specific supplies" was adopted in 1778, by which the States were allowed
to pay their quotas in kind. It added a new source of confusion, and
brought no more revenue.
[Sidenote: Miscellaneous resources.]
Every device that the government could put into operation for raising
money was eventually tried. A lottery brought considerable sums into the
treasury, the supplies for the army were seized at Valley Forge and
elsewhere, and paid for in certificates. Bills were drawn on foreign
ministers for funds which it was hoped they might have in hand by the time
the bills reached them, and the government bought, and sent abroad to meet
its indebtedness, cargoes of tobacco and other products.
[Sidenote: Speculation.]
The financial burdens of the government were increased by a spirit of
extravagance, speculation, and even of corruption. Washington wrote,
"Unless extortion, forestalling, and other practices which have ... become
exceedingly prevalent can meet with proper checks, we must inevitably sink
under such a load of accumulated oppressions." The whole cost of the war
is estimated at one hundred and thirty-five millions. Of this about one
hundred millions had been raised through the Continental bills and other
devices. About thirty-five millions remained as a national debt.
44. INTERNAL DIFFICULTIES (1775-1782).
[Sidenote: Weakness of Congress.]
That Congress was able to make no better provision for the finances was
due to a decline in its prestige rather than to a lack of interest in the
war. Some of the ablest members were drawn into military service, or sent
on foreign missions. The committee system made it inefficient, and it was
difficult to bring it to a decision upon the most important matters. In
vain did Washington storm, and implore it to act quickly and intelligently
on military matters of great moment. Its relations with the States changed
as the war advanced. Dec. 7, 1776; Congress made Washington for a time
almost a dictator. In 1779 the Virginia legislature formally denied that
it was "answerable to Congress for not agreeing with any of its
recommendations."
[Sidenote: The loyalists.]
To the frequent unfriendly relations with the States was added the
constant conflict with the loyalists. Throughout the colonies the
adherents to England or the sympathizers with the English government were
under grave suspicion. Many of them left the country; some enlisted with
the British, and returned to fight against their own land. A body of
loyalists led the hostile Indians into the Wyoming valley to torture and
to murder. The loyalists who remained at home were often the medium of
communication with the British lines. Some of them, like Dr. Mather Byles
of Boston, and George Watson of Plymouth, were allowed to remain on
condition that they held their tongues. Washington was so exasperated with
them that he termed them "execrable parricides." In every State the
loyalists were feared and hated. When the British invaded the country, the
loyalists joined them; when the British were repulsed, thousands of them
were obliged to abandon their homes.
[Sidenote: Dissensions in States.]
The finances of the States were as much disturbed as those of the Union.
Their paper-money issues shared the same fate. Their debts, funded and
unfunded, increased. They were harassed by internal divisions, even among
the patriots. In Massachusetts, Berkshire County remained until 1780
practically independent, and the county convention did not scruple to
declare to the General Court that there were "other States which will, we
doubt not, as bad as we are, gladly receive us."
45. FORMATION OF A CONSTITUTION (1776-1781).
[Sidenote: Preliminaries of a constitution.]
[Sidenote: Articles submitted.]
One cause of the weakness of Congress and the disorders in the States was
the want of a settled national government. The Continental Congress
understood that it was but a makeshift, and on the day when a committee
was formed to frame a Declaration of Independence, another committee was
appointed to draw up Articles of Confederation. It reported July 12, 1776;
but the moment discussion began, it was seen that there were almost
insuperable difficulties. The first was the question whether each State
should have one vote, as in the existing government, or whether each
should cast a number of votes in proportion to its population; the second
question was how revenue should be raised and assessed; the third was how
the western country should be held; the fourth was what powers should be
given to the general government, and what retained by the States; the
fifth, how disputes within the Union should be settled. When, on Nov. 15,
1777, Congress had finally adopted a draft of Articles of Confederation,
the decline of its power and influence was reflected in the proposed
instrument of government. On the question of representation, the rule of
vote by States was continued. The only taxation was a formal system of
requisitions on the States. Here the question of slavery was unexpectedly
brought in: the Northern States desired to apportion the taxes according
to total population, including slaves. "Our slaves are our property" said
Lynch, of South Carolina; "If that is debated, there is an end of the
Confederation. Being our property, why should they be taxed more than
sheep?" A compromise was reached, by which requisitions were to be
assessed in proportion to the value of lands in the several States. The
question of control of territory was not distinctly settled by the
articles. The powers to be conferred upon the Confederation were
practically limited to war, peace, and foreign affairs. A cumbrous system
of arbitration courts was established for disputes between States, but
there was no machinery for settling quarrels between States and the
national government.
[Sidenote: The Western lands.]
[Sidenote: Maryland will not ratify.]
[Sidenote: Articles in force.]
Congress had spent a year and a half in forming the Articles of
Confederation. The States took three and a half years in ratifying them.
Ten States early signified their willingness to adopt them. Three others
stood out because the Western lands were left in dispute. In 1776 when the
British authority had been declared no longer existent in the colonies,
each of the new States considered itself possessed of all the British
lands which at any time had been included within its boundary; and in 1778
Virginia had captured the few British posts northwest of the Ohio, and had
shortly after created that immense region, now the seat of five powerful
States, into the "County of Illinois." On the other hand, it was strongly
urged that the Western territory had been secured through a war undertaken
by all the colonies for the whole country, and that the lands ought to be
reserved to reward the continental soldiers, and to secure the debt of the
United States. For the sake of union, two of the three dissatisfied
commonwealths agreed to the Articles of Confederation. One State alone
stood firm: Maryland, whose boundaries could not be so construed as to
include any part of the lands, refused to ratify unless the claims of
Virginia were disallowed; Virginia and Connecticut proposed to close the
Union without Maryland; Virginia even opened a land office for the sale of
a part of the territory in dispute; but threats had no effect. New York,
which had less to gain from the Western territory than the other
claimants, now came forward with the cession of her claims to the United
States; and Virginia, on Jan. 2, 1781, agreed to do the like. On March 1,
1781, it was announced that Maryland had ratified the Articles of
Confederation, and they were duly put into force. From that date the
Congress, though little changed in personnel or in powers, was acting
under a written constitution, and the States had bound themselves to abide
by it.
46. PEACE NEGOTIATED (1779-1782).
[Sidenote: Instructions of 1779.]
[Sidenote: Instructions of 1781.]
Thus the settlement of the final terms of peace fell to the new
government, but rather as a heritage than as a new task. Instructions
issued by Congress in 1779 had insisted, as a first essential, on an
acknowledgment by Great Britain of the independence of the United States.
Next, adequate boundaries were to be provided; the United States must
extend as far west as the Mississippi, as far south as the thirty-first
parallel, and as far north as Lake Nipissing. The third desideratum was
undisturbed fishery rights on the banks of Newfoundland. Finally, it was
expected that a treaty of commerce would be yielded by Great Britain after
the peace was made. In 1781 Virginia, alarmed by Cornwallis's invasion,
succeeded in carrying a very different set of instructions. The only
essential was to be the substantial admission that America was
independent; in all else the treaty was to be made in a manner
satisfactory to the French minister of foreign affairs.
[Sidenote: The king consents to peace.]
[Sidenote: Independence.]
[Sidenote: Boundary.]
[Sidenote: Instructions ignored.]
Before peace could be reached it was necessary to break down the iron
opposition of the king. On Feb. 28, 1781 Conway's motion, looking to the
cessation of the war, was adopted by Parliament. "The fatal day has come,"
said the king. It was not merely his American policy which had failed; the
party of the "King's Friends" was beaten; North resigned; and after twelve
years of strenuous opposition, the king was obliged to accept a Whig
ministry, which he detested, and to let it negotiate for peace. A part of
the ministry still cherished the delusion that the Americans would accept
terms which did not leave them independent. The firmness of the American
envoys was effectual; a royal commission was at last addressed to Oswald,
authorizing him to treat with "the commissioners of the United States of
America" in Paris. Then came the important question of boundary. Without
the thirteen colonies the possession of the Floridas was of little value
to England, and they had been reduced by a Spanish expedition in 1781;
they were therefore returned to Spain. For a long time the English
insisted that a neutral belt of Indian territory should be created west of
the mountains. That point was finally waived; the Americans withdrew their
pretensions to the territory north of Lake Erie; and the St. Lawrence
River system, from the western end of Lake Superior to the forty-fifth
parallel, was made the boundary. From the forty-fifth parallel to the sea,
the boundary was described as following the "highlands which divide those
rivers that empty themselves into the St. Lawrence from those which fall
into the Atlantic Ocean." The country was little known; the commissioners
were probably confused; and the ground was thus prepared for a dispute
which lasted fifty-nine years. In the course of the negotiations the
American ambassadors, Jay, Adams, Franklin, and Laurens, became suspicious
of the French court. There is now some reason for believing that
Vergennes, the French minister, had dealt honorably with the American
interests, and could have secured excellent terms. "Would you break your
instructions?" asked one of the fellow-commissioners of Jay. "I would," he
replied, "as I would break this pipe." Thenceforward the Americans dealt
directly and solely with the English envoys.
[Sidenote: The Mississippi.]
[Sidenote: The fisheries.]
The next question to be settled was the claim of the English to the
navigation of the Mississippi, which was supposed to reach northward into
British territory. It was yielded; the Americans, however, received no
corresponding right of navigation through Spanish territory to the sea.
Next came the fisheries. As colonists the New Englanders had always
enjoyed the right to fish upon the Newfoundland banks, and to land at
convenient spots to cure their fish. Adams, representing New England,
insisted that "the right of fishing" should be distinctly stated; he
carried his point.
[Sidenote: Loyalists.]
[Sidenote: Debts.]
[Sidenote: Slaves.]
[Sidenote: Treaty signed.]
The main difficulties disposed of, three troublesome minor points had to
be adjusted. The first was the question of loyalists. They had suffered
from their attachment to the British government; they had been exiled;
their estates had been confiscated, their names made a by-word. The
British government first insisted, and then pleaded, that the treaty
should protect these persons if they chose to return to their former
homes. The Americans would agree only that Congress should "earnestly
recommend" to the thirteen legislatures to pass Relief Acts. Then came the
question of private debts due to the British merchants at the outbreak of
the Revolution, and still unpaid. Some of the American envoys objected to
reviving these obligations; but Adams, when he arrived, set the matter at
rest by declaring that he had "no notion of cheating anybody." Finally
came the question of the treatment of the slaves who had taken refuge with
the British armies; and the English commissioners agreed that the British
troops should withdraw "without causing any destruction or the carrying
away any negroes or other property of the American inhabitants." On Nov.
30, 1782, a provisional treaty was signed; but it was not until Sept. 3,
1783 after the peace between France and England had been adjusted, that
the definitive treaty was signed, in precisely the same terms.
With great difficulty a quorum was assembled, and on Jan. 14, 1784, it was
duly ratified by Congress. The treaty was a triumph for American
diplomacy. "It is impossible," says Lecky, the ablest historian of this
period, "not to be struck with the skill, hardihood, and good fortune that
marked the American negotiations. Everything the United States could with
any show of plausibility demand from England, they obtained."
47. POLITICAL EFFECTS OF THE WAR.
[Sidenote: American union.]
Thus in seven years America had advanced from the condition of a body of
subordinate colonies to that of a nation. Furthermore, the people, who at
the beginning of the struggle were scattered and separated, and who
scarcely knew each other, were now united under a government; the
Confederation, however weak, was the strongest federation then in
existence. The people had learned the lesson of acting together in a great
national crisis, and of accepting the limitations upon their governments
made necessary by the central power.
[Sidenote: Union not perfected.]
The spirit of the new nation
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