Class. Book. f_^^ x2i_ IIlSTOrJCAL VIEW OF 7i?v THE AMERICAN DEVOLUTION, BY J' GEORGE WASHINGTON GREENE, AUTHOR OF "historical STUDIES," "BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES," ETC. " As to those, however, who shall desire to have a clear view of past events, and indeed oi /uture ones (such and similar events being, according to the natural course of human affairs, again to occur) ; for those to esteem them useful will be sufficient to answer every purpose I have in view." Thucvdides, Book I. c. xxiL BOSTON: TICKNOR AND T I E L D S 1865. Eut«reer- suade themselves that the Tliames w.:s not the iirst of rivers. More especially did tliey rejoice to see h^nglish- men and converse with them. The verv name was a talisman that opened every door, broke down the barriers of the most exclusive circle, and trans- formed the dull retailer of crude oj)inions and stale jests into a critic and a wit. In nine years, — years lull of incident, and which passed so rapidly that the keenest eye was unable to see what a mighty work tlu-y were doing, — all this was clianged radically and forever. The thirteen Colonies became thirteen United States, with a name and a tlag, auer and hard })ressed by poverty, had preferred a wikler- ness for their home to a yoke for their consciences, should so far belie their blood as tamely to renounce theii* birthright wlien they were become a power- ful pe<)))k', and had made that wilderness a garden? Antry wciv opt'iicd, now shackles were forged, and every fresh product of their enterprise was promptly adtled to the lists of ])rohil)ition. The Xavi<:;ation A( t, in its enlarged form, was ])assed in 4»U)0 ; in 170^5 it had woven its toils around Amer- ican enterprise in twenty-nine separate acts, each l)reathing its spirit and enforcinti; its claims. It is not dithcult to imairine the feelings with whicli these acts were received. Open resistance, indeeil, was impossible, and remonstrance would have been unavailing. Still the obedience that was rendered wore oftener the air of nMuonstrance than of clieeHul acquiescence ; and although tlie right was generally conceded, the exercise of it excited bickerings and heart-burnings that gradu- ally prepared the way for independence. The en- tei*prising spirit itself could not l)e repressed; and smuggling, its natural outlet, became almost as reputable, anri far more profitable, than regular trade. Thus the relation of Englaml to her Colonies, which might have been a relation of mutual good offices, became, on her part, a mere business rela- tion, founded upon the principle of capital and labor, and conducted witli a single eye to her own interests. They formed for her a market of con- sumption and vujiply, consuming large quautities of lier manufactures, and suj>plying her, at tlio CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 13 lowest rates, with many objects that she required for her own consumption. What they sent out as raw material, she returned prepared for use. Her ship-owners grew rich as they carried the sure freight to and fro. Her manufactures gave free play to their spirit of entei-prise, for their market was secured to them by a rigorous monopoly. She had the exclusive right of buying, and therefore bought upon her own terms ; the exclusive right of seUing, and therefore set her own prices. If with all these restrictions and obstacles the Colonies still continued to grow in wealth and strength, it was because in a new country, where land was cheap, the spirit of industry could not be crushed from a distance of three thousand miles by the spirit of monopoly. Still the feeling engendered by this relation was not of a kind to make it lastincr. That of the Americans was distrust and suspicion, strangely mixed up with filial reverence, — an instinctive sense of injury, instantly met by the instinctive suggestion, that there must be some constituticmal reason for doing it, or it would not be done. That of England was summed up with somewhat more of concision than of elegance in Attorney-General Seymor's reply to Commissioner Blair. Pleading warmly for a moderate enlargement of the moder- ate allowance to the churches of Virginia, " Con- sider, sir," said the pious commissioner, " that the people of Virginia have souls to save." " Damn 14 LECTURE I. yoiu- souls I " was tiie ready answer ; *' make to- bacco." A second cause, equally active, and in its effects equally ])owert'ul with the Hrst, was Ent;Hsh i^no- rani'e ot" America. Nothing alienates man from man more surely than the want of mutual aj)pre- ciation. Sympathy founded upon respect for our feelings, and a just estimate of our worth, is one of the earliest cravings of the human heart. It begins with our first recognition of existence, im- j)arting an irresistible ehxpiencc to the eye and to the lips of infancy. It grows with our yt)uth, and, as we rise into manhood, finds new strength in reason and experience, teaching us in their daily lessons that without it tjiere can be no sure fnnidation for the jnirest and noblest sentiments of our nature. It is the only teehng which can reconcile us to that condition of mutual depend- ence in which it luus' pleased our Maker to place us in this life ; and working, as all the feelings which he has implanted in our breasts work, for the accomj)lishment of its a]iproj)riate end, it cher- ishes in the harmonious co-o]>e ration of fellow- citizens the germ of that beneficent concurrence of human wills and human desires, which, in God's chosen time, will beconn* the brotherhood of the nations. Few Knglishnit'U had accurate ideas of the na- ture, the extent, or even the position of the Colo- nies. And when the Duke of Newcastle hiu'ried CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 15 to tlie King with the information that Cape Breton was an ishmd, he did what perhaps half his col- leagues in the ministry, and more than half his colleagues in Parliament, would have done in his place. They knew that the Colonies were of vast extent ; that they lay far away beyond the sea ; that they produced many things which English- men wanted to buy, and consumed many things which Englishmen wanted to sell ; that English soldiers had met England's hereditary enemies, the French, in their forests ; that English sailors had beaten French sailors on their coasts. But they did not know that the most flourishing of these Colonies had been planted by men who, prizing freedom above all other blessings, had planted them in order to secure for themselves and their children a home in which they could worship God accordmg to their own idea of worship, and put forth the strength of their minds and of their bodies accord- ing to their own conception of what was best for them here and hereafter. Hence, the ideas awakened by the mention of plantations were not ideas of brotherhood and S3^m- pathy, but of investment and gain. Like land- lords who receive their rents through an agent, -wdth- out seeing or caring to see the farm that produces, or the men who make it productive, they merely counted their money, and asked why there was not UKjre of it. And when more came, it was wel- comed as a proof that there was still more to come ; IG LECTi'IlK I. that tilt' soil liad not y«'t Ucmmi mad.' to pay Its full trilmto ; that a httlc inoiv cari', a litth* wuwv watcli- fuliioss, a little inoiv exaction, would multiply its increase many I'oKl ; and that every attempt to turn that increase to tlic advantage of the laborers was a iraud upon the state. It was known, also, that from time to time crim- inals had been sent to the ])lantations as an alter- native, if not an ecpiivalcnt, ior the dungeon or the gallows; — and what to many minds seemed hard- ly less heinous, that men too poor to pay their })as- sage across the ocean had often sold themselves into temporary servitude, in the hope of finding a home in which they might eat in security the bread which tlu-y had cariit'(l in the sweat of their brows. IMiilosophers, too, comparing the animals of the two worlds, had discovered that America was incapable of producing the same vigorous race which hail carried civilization so far In ICurope ; and that, whatever might be the grandeur of hi-r mountains, thi' vastness of her lakes, and the ma- jesty of her rivers, tlie man that was born among them must gradually degenerate both morally and physically into an infi'rl(»r being. And thu--, when thi' eye of his kindred bevond the ocean was first turned upon him, the American colonist already apj)eare(l as an inferior, condemned to lal)or in a lower Hphere, and cut off bv Nature herself from all those higher aspirati(>ns which en- noble the soul that cherishes them. His success CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 17 awakened no pride ; his filial reverence called in vain for maternal affection. Tlie hand that had been held out in cordial welcome to the EnMish stranger in America, found no respondent grasp when the American stranger returned to visit the home of his fiithers in England. With a heart overflowing with love, with a memory stored with traditions, with an imagination warmed by tales and descriptions that began in the nursery ballad, and led by easy transitions to Shakespeare and Mil- ton, with a mind elevated by the examples of Eng- hsli history and the precepts of English philosophy, he was received with the repulsive colcbiess of English reserve, and the haughty condescension of English pride. Had it not been that man is never so set in his opinions as when he takes them up in order to reconcile his conscience to a preju- dice, the best minds of England would have seen that America had soon produced minds fully able to cope with theirs on their strongest ground. But the choicest lessons of experience were thrown away. From generation to generation the galling insult was repeated ; and still the Colonist loved the land whose language he spoke, and revered the institutions from wdiich he had drawn his own ideas of the duties of the sovereign and the rights of the subject. But already the work of aliena- tion was begun, and every new demonstration of English prejudice was like the'loosening of another of the ''hooks of steel" which had once grappled 18 LECTURE I. the land of his foreratliers to the " soul " of the American. A third cause is found in the nature of the in- stitutions, and more particularly of the municipal institutions, which the Colonists brought -with them. For institutions have their nature, like human be- ings, and will as consistently and as inevitably work it out. Society is a soil whereon no seed falls in vain. Years, and even centuries, may pass before the tender germ makes its slow way to the light. But grow it must, and thrive and bear its fruit ; and not merely fruit for the day, but finiit produ- cing a new, though kindred seed, which, passing through the same changes, will lead in due time- to a new and kindred o-rowth. The English colonial system was false from the beginning, — formed in erroneous conceptions of the laws of national prosperity, and the relations of sovereign and subject. But still it was, in part, an error common to all the countries which had plant- ed colonies in America, all of whom had carried it into their colonial })olicy, and done battle for it by land and by sea. Even Montesquieu, when he discovered the long-lost title-deeds of humanity, failed to cUscover amongst them, in distinct specifi- cation, the title-deeds of colonial rights. But in the application of this eiToneous system, the superiority of a free over a despotic goveni- iiu'iit was manifest. English colonies prospt-rod in a cold clinuite, and on a meagre soil, as French and CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 19 Spanish colonies never prospered under mild skies, and with a soil that almost anticipated the labors of the husbandman. This superiority, and not the protection of her armies and fleets, was the endur- ing though unconscious service which England ren- dered to America. Her colonists were the free sons of fathers so accustomed to freedom that they held life as of little worth without it ; and so trained by their municipal institutions to the forms of self- government, that even rebellion assumed the garb of order, and resistance to constituted authority moved with the precision and regularity of legal action. And here, permit me at the risk of a digression to remind you of the Important part which muni- cipal institutions have ever borne in the history of civilization. The natural growth of every gener- ous soil, we find them in Italy at the dawn of his- tory, and we find them still there through all its manifold vicissitudes. They gave energy to the long struggle with Rome. They nourished the strength which bore the imperial city to the sum- mit of glory and power. They survived the great inroad of the barbarians, appearing even in the darkest hour of the tempest like fragments of some noble ship, to which the survivors of the w^reck still cling with trembling hands, in the fond hope that the winds may yet cease and the ocean rest from its heavlno-s. Need I remind vou of those republics of the Middle Ages, which, gathering up 20 LECTURE L the lessons of Greece and Rome, enriched tliem by new lessons of then- own, lessons accepted by ev- ery free people as essential elements of freedom? Need I tell you how the spirit of industry, how connnercial enterj)rise and mechanic invention, and, better than all these, freedom ef thouirht and viiror of creative imagination, havu followed the waxing and wanintr of municipal freedom, still grow- ing with its growth and withering with its decay ? • These were the institutions which our fathers brought with them in their English form, — surely one of the best ; for by virtue of this, while they cherished that belief in inalienable rights which made independence inevitable as an aspiration, they preserved those habits of self-government without which it would never have been attainable as a blessing. The three causes which I have already men- tioned would sooner or later have produced a \io- lent separation of the Colonies from the mother country. For the colonial system would have led to a collision of interests; English ignorance to ill- directed attem]>ts at coercion ; the sentiment of inalienable rights fostered by English institutions, to hrm and resolute resistance. But many years, perhaps another century, might have passed before these causes alone would have brought on an open contest, if their action had not been hastened by the concurixMice of two other causes, one of later growth, the other almost contemporary with the first three. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 21 Tliis last was the flict that, in her war upon the freedom of colonial industry, England was at war with the spirit of her own political system. She had left nothing undone to break down the bar- riers with which Spain had fenced m her American Colonies. The illicit trade which she punished by fine and imprisonment on her own colonial coast, was long pursued on the Spanish Main, almost under the shadow of St. George's cross. Her ti-ue interest required an enlargement of her commerce, new markets for her manufactures, an expansion of her naviaation in eyery direction ; and the true interests of a country will always, sooner or later, infuse somewhat of their spirit into its con- duct, eyen where they fail to commend themselyes to its rulers. By nature and by position England was the champion of free trade. But her states- men, unable to raise themselyes aboye the preju- dices of the ao-e, seem to haye yied with each other, during eyery period of her colonial history, in do- ing all that depended upon them to transform a nation of merchants into a nation of shopkeepers. The cause of later growth was the fact that Eng- land was oppressed with debt, — her landholders oyerburdened with taxes. The monopoly which brought golden streams to the merchant and the manufacturer, brought no eyident adyantage to the country orentleman. He could not see in what his condition was to be bettered by an increase in the shipping of Bristol ; just as at this yery time the 22 LECTURE L monovc'd men of Liverpool were unable to see how the Duke of Hridixewater's canals were to be of anv use to them, ami allowcMl jiis note for X r)00 to he hawUo(l about from l)roker to brokiT in (juest of a purcliaser. Town ami country railed at each other, as they have always doni', aiid tlie landholder, as he ^ave vent to his indiiz;nation, called loudlv for some one to share with him the burden of taxation. What class so able as the rich* colonists who were thriving under his ])i-otection ? That protection, as he understood it, was an advantage well worth paviui^ for; and with a foresiirht worthy of his motives, he hailed the Stamp Act as the harbinger of that hap])V day which was to send the tax-gath- erer from his own door to that of his American factor. It was Euf^land's first misfortune that she adoj)t- ed an erroneous system. But this mi^ht have been pardoned lier, as a common error of the age. Her second misfortune was that she j)ersevered in it lons^ after its erroneousness had been demonstrated, and for this her only apology is the humiliating confession that her rulers were unfit for their places. There was no ])eriod previous to 17<)3 wherein a real statesman might not have reconciled the just claims of both countries ; givinhip luit the ait of a.\)t oven the sincerity of his con- victions can j)urify liini from the taint of unneces- sary bhxulshecl ; for lie erred in thinrjs wlierein it is not permitttMl to man to err ami hold himself guiltless. With none of the characteristics of greatness himself, he could not hear rrreat men around him ; and while no one can blame him for seizin*^ the earliest opportunity to throw oil' (Jren- ville as a tedious formalist, no one should forget that the ear which was reluctantly opened to Chat- ham and Fox drank in with avidity the congenial counsels of a Bute and a Wedderhuin. And thus the English tax-payer, groaning under liis burdens, joined heartily with short-sighted min- isters and a narrow-minded king in the attemj)t to draw a revenue from the Colonies by Parliamen- tary taxation. While the contest lasted, he sup- ported govi'rnment with his vote and his jnirse, submitting, though not without an occasional mur- mur, to an increase of his present load, in the tinn hope of futun' relief. And when, at length, the inevitable dav of defeat came, he was the last to see that from the begiiniing the attempt had been liopeless. And this brings to view a circumstance which, though not an original cause of alienation, added materially to the difficulty of eftecting a cordial reconciliation when the dispute became a discussion of Parliamentary rights. It is one of the great CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 25 advantages of the English constitution, that it has grown up with the growth of the Enghsh nation. Thus, as society has continued its progress, the con- stitution has nearly kept pace with that progress ; never much in advance, never long in the rear; sometimes guiding, sometimes waiting upon its footsteps ; but always the faithful exponent of the feelinirs and convictions of the bulk of the nation. Some of these adaptations and expansions have been made silently ; the statute-book reflecting, as it were with an instinctive sympathy, the mind and the heart of the people. But by far the greater part have cost lono- and bitter contests, — convulsions some of them, and some of them blood. And in them all the spirit of the constitution has been pre- served, although the letter has often changed, — its spirit of freedom, which was already a living spirit under the Plantagenets, though a feeble one, which tempered the arrogance of the Tudors, and never was truer to its mission than when it crushed the Stuarts. ' But while this gradual development has been attended by many advantages, it has been produc- tive also of an unusual degree of that uncertainty and contradiction which always attend the inter- pretation of a constitution, whether compressed within a few pages like our own, or scattered through hundreds of folios like that of England. An absolute government — France or Spain — would have brought the claims of the Colonists to 2 26 LECTURE I. the decision of the sword from the berrinnintinctl\- \'nv what tli'-y were contending, and were prepared to stake their ail upon the issue. As a chaj)ter of Knglish and American history, th»' Ain'-riean Ke\(»lntinn is but tin- attempt of (»ne peojde to pr«*seribe tlu' bounds ot' the imlusti-y of another, and aj»jtropriate its pr«»fits. As a <'hapter, and one, too, ot" the brightest ami Ijest in tlie his- tory of humanity, it is the j)rotest «)f inalienable right.s against hereditary j)rerogative ; the demon- stration of a people's power to think justly, decide wisely, and act lirmlv for themselves. LECTURE II. THE PHASES OF THE REVOLUTION. IN my first Lecture I endeavored to show the his- torical position of the American Revohition, and point out the causes which produced it. We saw, that, as a purely English and American question, it was the necessary consequence of the colonial system, — a struggle for monopoly on one side, and free labor on the other. We saw that, as a chap- ter in the history of European civilization, it was a struggle between hereditary prerogative and in- alienable rifrhts. Both of these views will be con- firmed by the historical sketch which I propose to give you this evening of the phases through which it passed in the progress of its development. The first permanent English Colony in America was planted in 1607, and by 1643 the foundations of New England had been so securely laid, that Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven formed a league for mutual protection against the French and Indians, under the signifi- cant title of the United Colonies of New England. 2 * C 3i LECTURE II. History has nowlierc rcronli'd <;rcater porsever- aiice, or a more inarvclloiis growth. ()n what, as we look at the inap, soi'iiis a narrow strip oi" laiul hetwixt the wildoriu'ss and tlie ocean, with a wily enciny ever at their doors, they had hnih seajK>rts and inland towns, and extended with wonder- ful celerity their conquests over man and over nature. Tliere were jealousies and dissensions anion li; them. There were frequent misunder- standinjrs with l^niiland about undefined rii^hts. The Church, too, from whicli they had fled that they mi^lit worship (iod in their own way, had already ca^t longing eyes upon their new alxxlf, as a field rij)e Inr her chosen reapers. Hut their strong municipal organization controlled jealousies and dissensions, even where it failed to suppress them. However vajrue Knirlish ideas of their rights might be, there were certain points whereon their own were perfectly defined. And when the Church from longing prepared to pass to open inva- sion, they pre]>ared tor open resistance. They had hardlv emerged from infancy when they begsm to wear the aspect and speak the language of vigor- ous manhood. For they had been j)lante(l at happy moments, — when James was starting qu<*stions which cniMiM'lled iiierj to tliiuk, and CharK's doing things which compelled men to act. Those among tliem which had charters watched them jealously an»l interpreted them liberally. Those that had not vet olitaiued them spareil no exertions to oh- PHASES OF THE REVOLUTION. 35 tain tliera ; fulling back, meanwhile, upon their municipal institutions as a resource that met all their present wants. A few more years like the past, and the whole seaboard would be peopled. As yet, however, one element of strength was wanting, — a spirit of union; for the New Eng- land Union was rather the expression of an im- mediate want, than a natural aggregation of sym- pathetic parts. Plymouth was soon merged in Massachusetts, and New Haven in Connecticut. And both Massachusetts and Connecticut, which had never admitted little Rhode Island to their con- federacy, would gladly have divided her between them. New York was still Dutch, and remained Dutch in feelings and habits long after it had be- come English in name. New Jersey was not yet settled. A few Swedes were trying to build up colonies in what some years later became Pennsyl- vania and Delaware. Catholics, with an unconge- nial code of religious toleration, held Maryland, — wliile Virginia, the oldest and wealthiest Colony of all, had grown up under the shadow of the Church, and with a reverence for the King which seemed to place an insuperable barrier betwixt her and her unbishop-loving and more than half republican sisters of the East. Thus each Colony still stood alone ; each still looked to England as to a mother to whom they were all bound by natural and not unwelcome ties. Yet something which might have awakened sus- 36 LECTURE II. picion luui alivudy ocrurrcd. The Piltxrims had not yet ^atliered in tlie first liarvcst wliich they wninrr with weary hands troni the uncrratefnl soil of Plymouth, when an Kn;i;lish Order in Conneil was issued, lorlnddiuf^ the exj^ortation to foreign countries of any colonial profluct which had not ])reviously paid duty in Enj^land. The only Col- ony to which tliis order could as yet api)lv was Virpnia ; but what would not a mother he likely to ask of her children in the day of j)rosperity, who already asked so much in the day of trial ? Twenty-two years passed, and a warning voice came from New England ; ** where," says tlie clu'onicler, '^ the supplies from England failing much, men began to look about them, and fell to a manufacture of cotton." Prophetic glances, these, into a distant future ; but, like so nuich of human foresight, tliwarted and made useless by human passion. It was in no unkind spirit towards New Eng- land that Parliament passed the Navigation Act of 1651, but partly to curb the aggressions of Hol- land, and partly to arouse the slumbering energy of English nautical enterprise. New England might have asked much of the rulers of the Com- monwealth which she wisely refrained from asking. There was little that Virginia could have asked which would not have been grante(l irrud«:infrlv, if granted at all. The Commonwealth passed away, and the Restoration found the Colonies stronger in PHASES OF THE REVOLUTION. 37 population, in wealth, and in that spirit which makes population and wealth availing. The period of indefinite relations was passed ; the first phase of revolution,- the period of definite subjection, was begun. For now — 1660 — that Act of Navigation of which that of 1651 was but the outline, and which Lords and Commons, histo- rians and orators, united in extolling as the pal- ladium of English commerce, a charta maritima second only to Magna Charta itself, first took its place on the statute-book. '^ It will enable your Majesty to give the law to foreign princes abroad, as your royal predecessors have done before you," said the Speaker of the House of Commons to Charles, as he presented the bill for approval. " By this act," says an historian of commerce, " we have absolutely excluded all other nations from any di- rect trade or correspondence with our American plantations." By this act, a philosopher might have said, you have opened a breach betwixt your- selves and your Colonies, which every year will widen, till the sword completes what the pen began, and severs you from them forever. It might have been supposed that there was little in those Colonies, as yet, to excite the avaricious longings of commercial monopoly. But monopoly has a keen eye, if not a prophetic one ; and seldom does an immediate interest escape its eager search. " No sugar, tobacco, cotton-wool, indigo, ginger, fiistic or other dyeing woods, of the growth or 38 LECTURE II. inaniifactiire of our Asian, African, or American colonics, shall i)e shipped from the said colonies to any jdace but JOn^iand, Jrcland, or to some other of his Majesty's said plantations, there to be landed, under forfeiture as before. And to make eiK'ctual this last-named clause, for the sole benefit of our own navigation and people, the owners of the ships shall give bonds at their settin*^ out for the due performance thereof." Thus reads the thirteenth clause. A few years later, Ireland, which, as you will observe, is here put upon the same footincr with England, was excluded by name. You will observe, too, tliat the Anu'iican Colonies stand last upon the list ; so much had Kngland yet to learn, both about their imj)ortance and their character. The articles mentioned in this clause obtainrd the name of ''enumerated comnnxlities," henctdorth an irritatinij and odious name in our c()lonial his- o tory. Thus England took her position towards the Col- onies deliberately and (Kdinitely. Henceforth they were to work for her; to grow strong, that they might adtl to her strength ; to grow rich, that they might aid her in heaping up riches ; but not to grow either in strength or in wealth, except by the means, and in the dirrction, that she prevscrilx?d. It behooves us to ponder well this thirteiMith clause ; to weigh it word by wonl, that we may midrrstand the spirit in which it was conceived, and tin* spirit which it awakened. Its object was the general PHASES OF THE REVOLUTION. 39 increase of sliipping and navigation, — " wherein," says the preamble, " under the good providence and protection of God, the wealth, strength, and safety of this kingdom are so much concerned." Words well chosen, and whose truth none can gainsay ; for it is only by the portion of truth which is mixed up with them that radical errors ever succeed in commending themselves to the human mind. And here the proportion of truth was not only large, — for national prosperity is closely al- lied with commercial prosperity, — but the error was singularly in harmony with the opinions and feelings of the age. " So long as your Majesty is master at sea," said the Speaker, *' your mer- chants will be welcome wherever they come." Change the form of expression, and what does this mean, but that superior strength is to dictate the laws of commerce, as it dictates the terms of a treaty ? And what is this but the alliance of com- merce, whose power is founded upon interest, — I use the word in its true sense, — with the sword, whose power is founded upon fear ? Follow it a little further ; push it to its logical consequences, and you have that simple formula, so repugnant to truth, to morality, and to religion. My gain is your loss ; your loss is my gain.* * A great empire has been established for the sole purpose of raising up a nation of customers, who should be obliged to buy from the shops of our diflcrent producers all the goods with which those could supply them." — Smith, Wealth, &c., B. IV, Ch. VIII. Vol. II. p. 517. 40 LECTURE II. But could we expect men to foresee the disas- trous constMjuences of this narrow and seHish pol- icy, who undertook, as this rarliaincnt did, in the same session in whicdi they passed the Navigation Act, to encourarincij)le, and susceptible of indefinite extension. Not many years passed before rice and molasses came more largtdy into demand; and the spirit of enti'rprise was presently rewarded by tlu'ir prom|>t insertion upon the catiilogue. Then the hardy trailer, who, at the hazard of his life, had penetrated to the banks of the Ohio, and established trading-posts in the wilderness, was cheered in his industry by seeing his fui*8 and peltries honorably classed with the other privileged articles which were reserved exclu- sively for tlie English market. Copper ore stands close by their side, — a!i enumeratiou of the same year, the eighth of (leorge I., and showing how well prepared the House of Hanover came to tread in the footsteps of the House (.f Stuart. A still wider sweep was taken by George H., when pitch, PHASES OF THE REVOLUTIOX. 41 tar, turjientine, masts, yards, and bowsprits were condemned by the ready Yeas of the House of Commons to make a voyage to England — and eleven weeks in those days was nearly the average length of the voyage — before they could be of- fered at any other market. The same spirit extended to royal charters. Al- ready, in the charter of Pennsylvania, the right of taxation had been expressly reserved to Parlia- ment. And when the charter of Massachusetts was renewed by William and Mary, or rather a new charter granted after the arbitrary sequestra- tion of the first by Charles, all the pine forests of Maine, not already granted to individuals, were treated as the property of the King, and every tree in them of more than tw^enty-four inches diameter at above a foot from the ground reserved to fur- nish masts for the royal navy. A hundred pounds sterling was the penalty for cutting one of those trees without a special license, w^th the addition of twenty lashes on the bare back if it w^as done in disguise. The position was taken. All that remained to do was to enforce the law. This required officers, and they were easily found. There were already officers of the customs, with their registers of en- try and clearance. And now, to protect the inter- ests of the royal navy, a new officer was appointed, — a ''Surveyor-General of the King's Woods"; and, as he could not watch them all in person, he was 42 LECTCllE II. furnished with a f:foodly band of deputies and un- derliniX"^, who, from the eliief with his anij)le salary and lanr*' jn'rcjuisites to the suhaht-ni with his fees for specilie services, were bound, each in liis decree, to u})hoKl the Kin^^'s chiinis to tlie jnues that had been iirowinir tliere for centuries, so straight and tall, without the King's aid or permission. It was a gootllv net-work, spreading far over the land, and iratherinir, what such nets in such hands alwavs gather, a full draught of litigation and discontent. For the Colonists could not bring themselves all at once to look upon the doings of Parliament as kind and wise. Thev had workctl liartl to make for themselves comfortal)le homes, and telt that the labor tlu'V had bestowed upon those homes gave them a right to enjoy them in tlieir own way. When the Pilgrims first came, their chief care was pn)vision and shelter ; how they couKl most readily make the earth give them food; how they could most readilv construct for themselves, out of the trees of the forest, dwellings which should be a j)rotection both from the inclemency of the weather and a sudden attack of the savages. They j)lanted and reaped with arms at hand for immediate use. Thev went to meeting with their guns loaded for instant service. All ar«Mnid them was wilderness, — a Icafv can(»|)y of l>oundless forest. In a few years, fifteen thousand acres «)f this wilderness were under culii\ation. lOverywhere, as you went, your eye was greeted by cornfields and orchards PHASES OF THE REVOLUTION. 43 and cottages that told of peace within doors and without. And now, as a new generation — a gen- eration born upon the soil — was beginning to reap the f'niit of their fathers' sacrifices, they were told that they must not use tlieir strength so freely ; that, before they employed the means which they had created, tliey must ask permission of that mother three thousand miles off, who had looked so coldly on them, if she looked at all, while they were creating them. With all the love they bore that mother, — and we have already seen that they loved her, — there was an instinctive rising of the Colonial spirit against claims which the tamest among them could not but regard as an unjust re- straint upon their industry. Even if the farmer could submit, could the merchant fail to see whitlier these restrictions were tending? The merchant did see, and became the ally of smurro-lers. The farmer did not submit without murmurs that prepared the way for questionings ; and these questionings, growing bolder year by year, and more searching, led, at last, to open re- sistance. Among the pine forests of Maine there was a hardy race of lumberers, men who could not understand the King's claim to the trees which thev had been so freely cutting down as their own. From the first appearance of the "Surveyor-Gen- eral" anioiio; them, they began to make his office uncomfortable for him. A feud sprang up between them, which no mediation, no authority could allay ; 44 LECTURE II. for it had* its ori<;iii in tliat instinct of riglit wliicli often loads man Ut resist a«:i;ressi()n, even where lie fails to perceive its remoter consequences. The con- test between the Maine lumln'mien and the royal surveyoi-s was the ]>ri'hide of the greater contest which was to set Anurican industry free from ev- ery restraint but such as American le^nslators should see fit to impose ujK)n it for the good of Americans. As the old French war prepared Washington for the peculiar trials of the Revolutionary war, this petty warfare between obscure men prepared the popular mind of Massachusetts — of which Maine was as yet a p;irt — for the discussion of that broader aj)i)lication of the same comprehensive principle which led step by step to the Declaration of Independence. Of all the errors of legislation, there is none so fatal as the making of laws agtiinst which the pub- lic mind instinctively rebels. For it is only when law is in harmony with the society for which it is formed, that men will give it that cheerful obedi- ence which makes it strong for the protection of goo\v men wlio were iiprio;lit and linii(»ral»K' in t'vcrythiiii; cNe could be dishonest and dishonorable in this. And this brought thcin to the true (juestion, When had they intru>ted a legislature, so tar renioviMJ troni them by habit, by association, and l>y interest, with au- thority to control their industry and set bounds to their enterprise ? l^ut it was not till alter many trials, and a lull exi)erience of the true character of such legisla- tion, tliat this question was asked. Tlie Colonist longed for freedom without aspiring to indepen- dence. It was not till the sj)irit of mon(jpoly had spread from their foreign to their domestic com- merce, — it was not till each Colony had been j)ut by statute in the position of a foreign nation to- wards its sister Ct)lony, — that they saw what a vile spirit tliey were dealing with, ami to what an un- natural condition it was leading them. When a hatter was forbidden to take more than two ap- prentices at a time, or any apprentice for less than seven years, — when he was encouraged to buy slaves, and forbid«len to use them in the only way wherein he could make his purchase profitable, — he felt aggrieved, deeply aggrieved. 15ut when he was forbidden to send his hats to an adjacent Col- ony that was ready to pay him a fair price for them, and to which he could send them without incon- venience or risk, and get something in return that PHASES OF THE REVOLUTION. 47 he wanted very much, he felt that the legislator who made these laws for lihn had made them in wanton defiance of his interest and liis rights. Woollen manufacturers were subjected to the same restraints. Iron might be taken from the mine. America produced, and England wanted it ; but every process which could add to the value of the unwrought ore was reserved for English hands. It could neither be slit nor rolled ; nor could any plating forge be built to work with a tilt-hammer, or any furnace for the making of steel. It was just ninety years from the passing of the Naviga- tion Act when this last link was added to the chain. Such laws defied nature, and they for whom they were made, obeying nature, learnt to defy the law. But now a new phase begins. There are ru- mors of war on the frontiers ; not the war of the white man with the red man, but the long-cher- ished hatred of England for France, and of France for England, transplanted to America ; English colonists and English soldiers against French colo- nists and French soldiers, with Indian wiles and cruelty to aid them in the work of destruction. Already, in the last war, the Colonies had displayed their strength as efficient and active allies, taking the strong post of Louisburg without help from England. It was resolved in this to bring out their strength with more system and regularity, and a Congress was convened at Albany to consult upon the best way of doing it. Franklin availed him- 48 LECrURi: II. . self of the opportunity to briiifr fonvard a j)lan of Union, wliicli, hy pvin^; tlicin a roninion rallyinlan, w Inch, hy puttin«; the con- trol of the united stren«jrth of the Colonies into the hands of royal a«;ents, would have conHrmcd them in their subjection. Both failed. But two ^reat words had been uttered, — C'on<^ress and Union; and henceforth men bei^an to think about them and talk about them in a way which soon fjave them that place in the ])ublic mind which no ideas can hold lonu; without ^ainini:; a j)lace in the public heart. Yet ICni^land had never betV>re had such an op- portunity of confirmini:; the Colonists in their love for their haughty mother. The war was in one sen.se as much their war as hers. Success would rid them forever of a dangerous enemy. Failure would fix an enterprisin*; rival upon half the long line of their frontiers. Military <:lory had attrac- tions for their young men. The prospect of a secure frontier and enlarged territory had attrac- tions for their statesmen. And the old English feeling of hatred tor France, the old leaven of na- tional hostilitv, had lost little ot" its strength by being transplantecl tVom the ( )ld World to the New. Then was the time tor taking as brothers the hands which the Colonists held out Xn them as children. 'J'hen was the time for soothing dissensions, rooting PHASES OF THE HE VOLUTION. 49 out jealousies, uniting judiciously by feeling what might still have been long united by interest. You all know how England profited by the op- portunity. You know how English regulars looked down upon Provincial volunteers, on the parade- ground and in camp ; and how they were com- pelled to look up to them in the woods, and with the war-whoop ringing in their ears. You know how Provincial colonels were outranked by Royal cap- tains ; how the distinctions which are the elements of military discipline were made to depend upon the caprice of an official who came to-day to go to-morrow, instead of the sure ground of tried merit and approved service. You all know that a Washington asked in vain for a King's commission, while the honor of the King's soldiers and the safety of the King's subjects were intrusted to a Braddock. And knowing this, can you wonder that Americans thought somewhat less reverently of English wisdom, and spoke with somewhat less confidence of English invincibility ? that, while they rejoiced in England's laurels, they should remember their own wounds, and be prepared to look more closely and more sceptically upon their mutual relations ? These relations had now reached their most critical moment. Canada was conquered; the North was free from the dancjer of foreinrn inva- sion ; England was triumphant everywhere, though loaded with debt; the Colonies jubilant over their 50 LECTURE 11. own successes, and prepared to spring forward with increased elasticity in the career of industrial de- velopment. There were few intelligent men, on either side of the Atlantic, who did not foresee that sooner or later the Colonies must become independent. It was evident that what had already been done to develop their natural resources was but a feeble beginning, if compared with the immense results which must follow the opening of the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi to that race of sturdy farmers and resolute woodsmen who had so prompt- ly carried cultivation from the shores of the Atlan- tic to the foot of the Alleghanies. Their popula- tion was fast approaching three millions. The Earth gave them iron, lead, copper, all the metals required for calhng forth all her strength. They were hardy sailors as well as robust farmers, as fa- miliar with the compass as with the plough, and as skilled in finding their way on the pathless ocean as in the illimitable forest. On every side the thou- sand voices of streams and water-courses seemed to be calhng for the busy wheels that were to en- able them to join their mightier sisters in the great work of civilization. And when all these forces were combined, what was to prevent these Colonies from dissolving their connection with England, and establishino; a 2;ovemment of their own ? Such strength could not long be held in bondage by a small island three thousand miles off. Such enter- PHASES OF THE REVOLUTION. 51 prise could not always submit to the laws imposed by interested jealousy. Sucli energy could not always be the minister of another's will, the agent of another's power.' The historian Robertson, fresh from the study of Charles the Fifth's vain attempt at universal dominion, saw clearly that the same natural laws which had concurred in frustrating the designs of the mighty Emperor, would some day set bounds to the aspirations of England, and make America the seat of independent empire. The philosopher Smith, while tracing the laws which govern the growth of nations in wealth, found a law among them which marked out the limits of colonial subjection ; and, following it in its development, believed that the day would come when England would voluntarily transfer the scep- tre from an island to a continent, and English kings build their palaces on the banks of the Hud- son or the Potomac. Had the rulers of England been statesmen, they would have assumed ultimate independence as in- evitable, and set themselves in all earnestness to prepare the way for it. There was yet much that England could do for the Colonies, and still more that the Colonies could do for England. Mutual good offices, cherishing mutual affection, might still prolong a connection useful to both. And when the day of separation came, when, by the sure ac- tion of an inherent principle, both were brought to see that it was now better for both that they 52 LKCTUni: II. sliould hrnrofortli live a)>art, they mij^lit pass by an l'n>^y and natural transition, tliat would leave no lieart-hurnintTs behind it, from the relation of sover- eign and subject to the relation of friend and ally. But the rulers of England were not statesmen. We enter upon a new phase, — a phase of sys- tematic aggression and prompt resistance. George Grenville, looking out from the little watch-tower that he had built for himself on a crumbling wall of the constitution, sxiw tliut the Colonies were forbidden to trade with the colonies of France and Spain, and j)resently resolved to enforce the laws against smuggling. Naval <»flicers were made offi- cers of the customs, and exerted their authority in a manner far more fatal to legitimate trade than to contraband. The regular officers of the customs, not to be outdone in zeal, a})])lied for writs of assist- ance to authorize them to extend their searches to private dwellings. And thus was brought on that celebrated trial, so eventful in Massachusetts an- nals ; and then, too, was first heard from the mouth of James Otis the watch-word of the Revolution, — '' 'i'axation wiiliout rt'j)resentation is tyrannv." The ministry ]><.'rsevered in its stringent entoree- ment of the laws of trade. The Colonies remon- strated against the restraints upon legitimate com- merce; pointed in vain to the steatly (low of the wealtli it brought them towards the manufactories and counting-houses of England, and thus, event- ually, into the exchequer it«elf. The line of sight PHASES OF THE REVOLUTION. 53 from Grcnville's watcli-tower did not rcacli as far as this. He only saw that tlic exchequer was low, and — exact logician — to fill it, devised the Stamp Act. IIow resolutely that act was met, and how promptly it was repealed, you all know. Had the spirit of that repeal been adhered to, the day of separation might yet have been put off almost in- definitely, in spite of the fermentation of the pub- lic mind, and the pregnant questions that had been started. For if any already thought of indepen- dence, it was rather as a contingency to be feared than as a blessing to be asked for. Even what George the Third called " the waste-paper of the Declaratory Act " would have failed to gall the Col- onists to resistance, if it had not been closely fol- lowed up by the resolutions of Charles Townshend, imposing a real tax under the name of impost duties on glass, paper, painters' colors, and tea. But there was a contemptuous s[)irit in those resolutions, far more ^T'^iUhif' than the resolutions themselves : for they seemed to say, with a civil sneer, if you do not choose to let us bind your hands, we will bind your feet, and much good may your hands do you I Other irritating acts were passed, renewing the agitation of the public mind, and foreshadowing still more arbitrary legislation if this were tamely submitted to. England took her ground, arrogant and menacing, with a threat on her lips, and her sword half drawn. America took hers, indi'^nant 54 LECTURE II. and resolute, prepared to meet tlireats with defi- ance, and tlie sword witli tlie sword. Resistance was ()rt:;ani/.tMl ; — no loiin;cr an ebul- lition of popular fet'liiii:, easily aroused by the pres- ence of an object, easily allayed by its removal ; no longer dependent uj)on a few leading minds or a few warm hearts; — but a system, thouirhtfullv devised and thoughtfully accepted ; a necessity from which there was no escape but unconditional submission ; a resource which, promptly and wisely used, would establish freedom on foundations that could not be sliaken. Patrick Henry's A'irginia Resolutions, and the Declaration of Rights by the Congress of 1705, told the American story in lan- guage so clear, so firm, and so earnest, that no man not ])assion-blinded could read them and doubt the sincerity of conviction in which they were con- ceived. And to us, at this distance from the blind- ing passions of the hour, it seems marvellous that an English statesman could have read them with- out recognizing in them the pnnciples and the spirit whicli had raised England to such prosperity. Hut unfortunately \\^v England, her statesmen did not recognize in tliem either those princijdes or that spirit, and the few who read them understand- ingly had no influence with the King, no control- ling V(Mce in Parliament. But Americans read them and felt their ideas grow clearer, their liearts wax firmer, as they read. There is a period in the growth of the public mind, PHASES OF THE REVOLUTION. 55 just as there is in the growth of the individual mind, when ideas and feeUngs are so mixed up, that men can hardly tliink clearly or act firmly without something to arrange their ideas and de- fine theii' feelings for them. There was a general pei*suasion among the Colonists that their rights had begn invaded, and that there was a design of invading them still further. There was a deep- rooted conviction tliat resistance was lawful ; a feehng, second only to their religious feehngs, that it was a duty. The doctrine that an English Par- liament had no right to tax them was not a new doctrine. New York had announced it by a sol- emn act of legislation as early as 1691 ; Massa- chusetts, in an enumeration of her rights and priv- ileges, in 1G92. Both of these acts, it is true, were formally disallowed by the English govern- ment ; but they remained none the less a part of American history. Nor was the doctrine that England had a right to tax America new in England. For in 1696 it was deliberately advocated in an elaborate pam- phlet, and no less deliberately refuted in two pam- phlets, ui)on the ground which Americans always put it upon, — that taxation went with representa- tion. Tliere had been various other indications, too, at various times, of the continued existence of both doctrines ; — of what some Englishmen wanted, and of what every American who bad ever thought upon the subject was determined not 56 LECTURE 11. to submit to. Wiilpole's advisors were not alone in their loncrint;; tor American places and pensions, when they advised him to tax America. Hut W'al- pole was almost alone in his wisdom when he an- swered that America was already p:\vinor her full tax in tlie manner most agreeable to tlie constitu- tion of England and her own. Patrick Henry's Resolutions, and the Declaration of Ricrhts of the Congress of 1765, brought these ideas and convictions, which had been tlt)ating to and fro in the poj)ular mind, to a tlefinite sliape ; gave them a form which every one could take in at a glance ; exj)ressed them with a distinctness which letl no room for misinterpretation, and a solemn earnestness which left no doubt of the depth and intensity of the convictions from which they sprang. Henceforward American statesmen had a chart to guide them in the stormy sea upon which tht'v were entering : a chart whereon many of the shoals, many of the rocks they were to meet, were not set down, but wliich contained, nevertheless, in bnld and accurate lines, the course they were to steer, and tlie haven in which tliev might hope for rest. Resistance tirst took the form of retaliation. England attempt<'d to reach the American purse by taxation. America returned tlie blow by agree- ments of non-importation. England sent out ship- loads of tea subject to th«» new dutv. America refused to receive it. England know that America PHASES OF THE REVOLUTION. 57 needed her woollens. America stopped eatinc; lamb, and ate very little mutton, that she might raise more wool and make woollens of her own. Had England's bitterest enemy dictated her policy at this critical juncture, he could not have pre- scribed a course better adapted to train the Colo- nists to resistance, and familiarize them betimes with the sacrifices which successful resistance re- quired. Events follow^ed rapidly. It soon became evi- dent that force must be employed ; and Boston being the chief sinner, a British garrison was sent to overawe Boston. But all that ministers gained by their garrison was to bring on a collision be- tween the citizens and the soldiers, which embit- tered the public mind, and prepared it for further resistance. The act of indirect taxation — Charles Townshend's act — was modified on commercial principles ; the duties on glass, paper, and painters' colors were repealed ; a small duty on tea alone being left, like the declaratory clause in the repeal of the Stamp Act, to establish the right. Minis- ters could not see that what they were treating as a question of money, America treated as a ques- tion of principle. The tea ships came. Some were sent back with their cargoes. Some were allowed to unload, and the tea stored in cellars and other places, where it j)resently became worthless from damp. Boston went a step further, and threw it into the bav. Never had Kiuff Geortro 3* 58 LECTURE II. been so insulted before ; and, glowin^ij all over with royal in(ll;;nati()n, came the Boston Port Bill, and the bill tor altcrinii; tlu' cliarlrr of Massachusetts. But already the minds and hearts of the Colo- nists had been l)rou^lit into close communication l)y the establishment of Committees of Correspond- ence ; *' the foulest, subtlest, and most venomous serpents that ever issued from the egg of sedition,'' says a royalist ; " the great invention for organiz- ing the Revolution," says the eloquent historian of the United States ; first organized in New York in 1704, but not felt in all their strength till their re- organization in Massachusetts in 1772, as a Provin- cial measure,* and in \'irginia in 1778, as a Colo- nial measure. Tlh' chain was now complete in all its links. 10\i'ry puUc-bcat of Massachusetts throbbed through the Colonies ; everv fiery Wf)rd of the great orator of Virginia was felt from New Hampshire to Georgia ; and every bold resolve, every wise counsel, every budding asjiiration, was transmitted from Colony to Colony for examination and approval. The foundations of the Union were laid. The Revolution entennl upon its last phase ; and it was henceforth but a cpiestion of a year more or a vear less, how soon a new Congress • " These last [Committees of Correspondence] were cnjjincs whirh operated with more encrjry and consistency than any others which were put in motion in the commencement of our o|>|>o8ition : they may he called the ( omcr-stono of our revolu- tion or new empire." — Mr. Dana to Mr. Gerry, Austin's Life of (Jorry, Vul. I. pp 299, .390. PHASES OF THE REVOLUTION. 59 sliould gatlier up the rich inlu'ritance of tlio Con- gress of 17 Go, and declare the independence of the Colonies. We, with the whole of tliis past before us, with all its scattered elements wrouMit into an harmoni- ous series, can see this necessity plainly enough. I)ut It was by no means so easy to see it then. Many Americans, who loved their own country de- votedly, still clunir with lino;erin()d was shed on that holy CO LECTURE U. day to be forgotten, either by those who shed it or tliosc who gave it so freely. On the lOtli of May the second Congress met ; and at the dawn of that same day, before they were yet organized, P^han Allen took possession, in their name, of Ticon- deroga, the key of the Canadas. Thirteen anxious months, twenty-four ieverish days, were yet to pass before the irrevocable step was taken. But independence had already been foreseen a^ a necessity bef«)re it was accej)ted as a boon ; and when the solemn declaration was sent fortli on its errand of justice and mercy, the last lingering hope of reconciliation had long been ex- tinguished in the lieart of Washington. The Rev- olution was accomplished ; the War of Indepen- dence began. A war which, at first, neither party was pre- pared for ; of which neither party had compre- liended the magnitude, nor foreseen the duration. England had rated the courage of the Colonists too low to call out her strength for a serious con- test. America li:ul rati'd hor }):itriotism too high to tiike advantage, as she miglit and ought to have done, of tiie first fervor of popular zeal. Lexing- ton and Bunker Hill taught the Kngli^h to respect irregular trooj)s. But they resjxM-ted them too nmch. They taught the Americans to rely upon undisciplined ardor ; but they earned tlieir reliance too far. In a few months, the nu»n who had for- saken their fields anrl firesides for the camn before PHASES OF THE REVOLUTION. 61 Boston forsook tlic camp as their terms of service expired, and tliey began to think how profitless their fields and how lonely their firesides must be without them. New men came in very slowly to take their places, and the work of instruction and discipline was to be begun anew at the beginning of each campaign. The first period of the war covers a series of reverses and humiliations, imperfectly redeemed by occasional success. Washington was firmly taking his place as the controlling mind ; but there were still some who thought themselves his equals, and a few who fancied themselves his superiors. The surprise of Trenton, the brilliant winter march into the Jerseys, tore away the scales from most eyes. Yet more than one still wilfully turned away from the light ; men who, having read of Caisar and Cromwell^ forgot, or failed to see, that America was neither corrupt Rome nor aristocratic England, — that there were neither the elements of a monarchy in her institutions, nor of a usurper in her pure-minded leader. And thus new obsta- cles were wantonly thrown in his way ; even a rival brought forward to divide the public mind, and supplant him, if possible, in the ])ublic heart. The spring, summer, and autumn of ITTT were critical momi'iits. Enghind was meditating a fear- fnl blow ; nothino; less than the severin;:^ of the Eastern from the Middle States, by seizing the line of the Hudson and opening communication with G2 LECTURE II. Canada hy Lake Goor^e and Lake Chaniplain. Burp)yne was cominrr down, with his En<;Hsh and German veterans, and their Indian alHes. Howe was f^oino; up, with his shi})s on tlie river, and his troops on its banks. Severed from her Soutliern sisters, would New England have fallen ? Cut off from New England, with their prinei})al city al- ready in the hands of the enemy, their second city defenceless, and tlicir long seahoard exposed to hourly invasion, could the Middle and Southern States have persevered ? Thank Ciod, we need not seek to penetrate these recesses of a once possible future. It is enough for us to know that His mercy spared us the trial, and averted the blow when it seemed to be already descending upon our heads. We now know bv what human ministry it was done. We n(jw know that Charles Lee, then a prisoner in New York, brooding over the failure of his own schemes of selfish aggrandizement, })re- pared for the Howes a })lan of operations in the South, which, it" vigorously carried out, would have l)een no less fatal to our cause than the invasion that was threatening us from the North. We know that tlu' English (ieneral, without accepting it in its full extent, accepted it so far as to re- nounce his j)lan of co-operation with Hurgoyne, and turn his anns against Philadelphia. Thus Schuy- ler was K'ft free to heap up obstacle upon obstacle in the j)ath of Hurgoyne, and(iates to reap the fruit of Schuvler's labors. PHASES OF THE REVOLUTION. 63 This, too, was tlie time when Wasliinrrton's per- sonal enemies were busiest and fullest of hope ; that his prudence was condemned as sloth, his caution as irresolution ; that his wisest measures were mis- represented, and failures, which he had not the means to prevent, boldly laid to his charge, be- cause it was well known that he would never re- veal the secret of his country's weakness to his countiy's enemies in order to shield himself from the calumnies of his own. And thus, through cal- umny and reproach, the great, good man went fii-mly forward in the path of duty, and cast the bold attack of Germantown into the scale which, turning wholly towards us by the capitulation of Saratoga, gave us the long-coveted alliance with France. From that time, Washington's superiority was scarcely disputed. He became the representative of the Revolution ; towering above all others in America, as Franklin towered above all others in Europe. The army looked up to him with rever- ence, warmed by love. Citizens acknowledged that his virtue was as exalted as his wisdom. And Congress, which — no longer the Congress of the '* Declaration " — had lost much of its hold upon the public mind, was mainly indebted to the re- spectful deference with which he continued to treat it, for that portion of j)ubllc confidence which it still retained. The autumn of 1777 and the winter that fol- 64 LECTURE II. lowed it were the turninor points in the wai'. The estabUshment of Washin«;toii'8 suj»reinacy gave a more decided character of unity to our civil as well as to our military councils. The moral effect of the military successes of the autumn was confirmed hy the introduction of a uniform system of disci- pline anf Inde- ])endence, but the change of public sentiment, the alteration in the relations between JOngland and the Colonies, which produced that war. In l)otli of these. Congress bore an important part. The fii-st Congress, as well as the first essay of union, belong to early colonial history. The first union, as I have already said, was that of New England in 1«)48. The first Congress was that of New York, in 1»J'.)0. The suggestion came from Massachusetts, atid the j)lace first indicated for the meeting was RluMle Island. \\\\i this was subse- quently changed to New York ; and there, upon a call of the (reni'nd Coiu't of MassachuseU-s by COiVGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION. 69 cinnilar li'ttors, delegates from Massac.luisetts, Ply- moutli, Connecticut, and New York met to pre- pare a plan of concerted action for tlie invasion of Canada. And it is worthy of remark that the Massachusetts government, which made the call, was the government which sprang up between the overthow of Andros and the arrival of the new charter, and in which the popular element was more freely mingled ; and the New York govern- ment which accepted it was the government of Leisler, which sprang directly from an uprising of the people. Thus the earliest utterance of the people's voice was a call for union. Far more important, however, was the Albany Congress of 1754. Seven Colonies, New York, Pennsylvania, ]\Iaryland, and the four Colonies of New England, stronger by the growth, wiser by the experience of another half-century, met in Congress, ostensibly to renew the treaty with the Six Nations, really, to take counsel together about a plan of union and confederacy. In feeling, Vir- ginia was with them also ; but the quarrel between her (jovernor and House of Burgesses rendered it impossible for her to send a legal delegation. The delegates from Massachusetts came with authority to enter at once uj)on the true subject, and pledge her to the union ; for aln-ady the Board of Trade had inclined its ears to the suggestions of the royal Governors ; and salaries, pensions, and sinecures, for whicli nothing but taxation could have supplied 70 LECTURE III. the moans, floated in dazzling visions b^-furc the eyes of placcnu'ii and courtiers. No one doubted the importance of union, — the necessity of concerted action. War was at the door; war on the sea-hoard; war all alonix tlieir northern and their western frontier. They had men and tiiey had money ; hut without union nei- tlier their men nor their money could be made subservient to the common welfare. On the 19th of June tlie dek'^rates met, twenty- five in all, — local celebrities of their dav and gjen- eration, — earnest and thoughtful men. But wisest of them all, and witli a wisdom not of his dav and generation alone, but of all a<^es, that son of a Bos- ton soap-boiler, who was born in Milk Street, and whose serene tiice looks down njxm us, lifchke, in Greenough's bronze, as we ;x" through School Street. It was inij)ossible that what concerned the welfare of the Colonies so nearly should escape the keen eve of Bi-njamin Franklin. He had thouMit of it, in«leed, long and deeply and wisely, as was liis wont ; drawing, perhaps, some ideas from Penn's ])lan of 10' >7, and Coxe's Corolana, first/ published in 1722, and republished ill 1741. But whatever entered his plastic mind came out again with that mind's impress uj)on it ; and one of the characteristics of that mi ml was its power of com- |irehending present wants, and of meeting them, nnt by ])alliatives, but by remedies. A judicious employment of the resources of the Colonies for CONGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION. 71 the protection of the Colonies, was the want ; un- ion the renit'dy. This all saw, all felt. But the conditions under which that remedy could hest he applied were iinperlectly seen and understood, both in Euiiland and in America. Franklin, who cheerfully set his name to the Declaration of Inde|)endence in 177(3, had no thought of asking for independence in 1754. That it must some day come, that such Colonies would sooner or later grow beyond the control of a small and distant island, he saw plainly ; — saw it as the historian Robertson saw it, and wished to put the evil day far off; — as the father of political econo- my saw it, and felt that both mother and daughter would gain by it. But he felt that the hour was not yet come, and that the truest-hearted Ameri- can might still be both loyal to England and tme to tlie best interests of America. Therefore the Union that he asked for was a Union in honorable sul»jection to the crown, leav- ing the royal prerogative untouched, while it put the rights of the Colonies beyond the reach of fur- ther aggression, — a Union which, leaving to Eng- land an indefinite enjoyment of her supremacy, should accustom the Colonies to concerted action and collective growth, and thus slowly prepare the way for the inevitable day of separation. But the Provincial Assemblies, to whom, after its acceptance by the Congress, it was referred for approval, condemned it as having '' too nmch of 72 LECTURK III. the prcrotrative in it" ; while it was condemned in Eni)S instead of sleamlxiats oil Narrai^ausett Hav, and Lonix Island Sound, and the hroad Ixooui ni" the Hudson; we nuist see them Ivini!; at anchor close under the shore, wait- ing for the tide to turn before tliey venture to liice the terrors of Ilell-Gate or the perils of the High- lands ; we must look on that Jersey shore, which six ferry-boats an hour have made a part of New York citv, as sej)arated from it by a body of deep and rapid water, which turned woman's cheek pale and often made stout men hesitate ; we must see a weeklv mail slowly creeping along roads, which, none too good evm in summer, in winter were often imj)assable ; we must remember that men had not vet got over wondering that electricity and liixlitning were the same thing, — that even the wooden telegraph was not yet invented, — and that people, in great emergencies, talked from a dis- tance by beacon fires, and sent expresses which made folks stare when, by killing a horse or two, they succeeded in conveying in twenty-four hours iutellitrence that we can send alon