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PREFACE.

The memor'y qf those eminent personages, who
proclaimed the Independence qf America, by the me
morable events and imperishable records, to which their
names are associated, is secure from the injuries of
time; although the biographer should be silent qf
their merits, and no monumental inscriptions tell
where their sacred ashes are deposited. To collect,
however, the important events of their lives, and espe
cially those incidents that are yet trusted to the pre
carious tenure of individual knowledge, appears to
me an honourable employment; and one which, if
rightly executed, may not be ungrateful to posterity.
There are indeed some obstacles of no inconsidera
ble magnitude, opposed to the execution ofthe under
taking, of tvhich the uniter is not unconscious. By
attempting to exhibit so numerous a combination qf
cotemporai-y statesmen, engaged in the same trans
actions and enterprizes, and in a corporate capacity,
he is circumsctibed in prospect, confined to a unifor
mity of scenery, and induced almost unavoidably into
tedious and frequent repetUions. He is hkewise sen-
sible that many ofthe individuals of this illustrious

PREFACE.

group, notwithstanding the virtues icith which they
were adoimed, the sacred spirit of patriotism and
liberty wilh which they were anin.ated, were neverthe
less seldom led into those scenes of tumidt arrd agita
tion, whieh embellish tlie narrations of the biographer,
and ivhich rouse and keep alive, by a diversity oj inci
dents, the fancy and admiration of the reader. In
this case, it is more prudent to offend by brevity than
fatigue by monotonous enumerations. But the few
and modest pages, which record the virtues of an
Aristides, though less amitsing, are not kss precious
to humanity, than the volumes that have been lavished
upon tlu victories of an Alexander.
To the first number., I have affixed an introduction,
which, referred to the wliole extent ofthe work, will
not be found disproportionate; amt as the seeds of
oitr Liberty and Indtpendence uere sown rvilh tlis
first elements of the country, it will not be considered
an extraneous or incoherent appendage.
This nurrrber is qffered under disadvantages, which
may not exist with the succeeding ones. Besides,
being the first pages tliat I have prepared for public
notice, they have been composed during the nights of
a few months, and deprived ofthe benefits of revision,
correction, or consultation. There are, therefore,
many superfluities I should have retrenched, many
useful additions I should have made, with a more
extensive reading and reflection. I feel, however, the
confidence that there will exist in the work when com
pleted, merits that will redeem its many imperfections,
and remler it not unworthy the patronage and com
mendations of the public.

BIOGRAPHY

OF THE SIGNERS TO THE

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

BY JOHN SANDERSON.

EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit:
BE IT BE.MEMBERED, that on the 2r.th day of April, in the forty-
fourth year of the Independence ofthe United States of America, A. D.
1820, Joseph j\I. Sanderson, of the said district, hath deposited in this
office the title ofa book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the
words following, to wit:
" Biography ofthe Signers- to the Declaration of Independence, by John
Sanderson.
In conformity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled, "An
act for the encouragement of leaming, by securing the copies of maps,
charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during
tbe times therein mentioned," and also to the act entitled " An act sup
plementary to an act entitled, an act for the encouragement of leaming,
by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and pro
prietors of such copies, duringthetimes therein mentioned," and extending
the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching histo
rical and other prints.
DAVID CALDWELL,
Chrk of the Eastern District cyf Pennsyhama.

INTRODUCTION.

A MEW OF TUE BRITISH COLONIES OF NORTH AMERICA
FROM THEIR ORIGIN TO THEIR INDEPENDENCE.

CHAPTER I.
Ofthe first settlements, character, and condition of
the inhabitants.
To the influence of commercial enterprize, we
owe the commencement of tlie British empire in
America; to religious and political persecutions, the
growtli and subversion of it. The original incentive
to tlie colonization of Virginia, was tlie hope of pos
sessing tlie rich mines that were supposed to exist
in tlie unexplored regions of tliat province. But the
rapid torrent of population, which afterwai'ds flowed
into it, and covered, by its successive inundations,
the otlier portions of this vast territory, was agitated
by a contraiy spirit. The emigrants to New England,
to Pennsylvania, Marylaud, and for tlie most pait,
to tlie Cai"olinas, ^vere distinguished ibr their piety
or superetition ; and. for the exclusive exercise of

IV INTRODUCTION.
their devotions, or predominance of their religion,
they cheerfully resigned all temporal interests and
affections, A portion of these, having encountered, in
its fiercest violence, the fury of theological animosity,
being alternately the instruments and victims of it,
renounced the unavailing struggle by voluntary mi
gration. A part were banished by the interdictions of
an iUiberal government; others were proscribed by
the conscientious bigotry of a tyrant, and sought a
refuge from the rage of their persecutors, amongst
the barbarians of the desert.
The settlement of these states was prosecuted at
a time when the principles of freedom, after an ex
tinction of many centuries, were revived in the mo
ther country; and, from the animosities, factions and
furious civil wars which distracted that kingdom,
there was produced, for the population of America,
a resolute and enterprising race of inhabitants. Of
these, some were unsuccessful in rebellion and
fled from the vengeance of the laws; others, for
a known attachment to liberty, migrated with the
connivance of their sovereigns. Next, in order, we
may comprehend those who pined in hopeless po
verty from the exorbitant exactions of corrupt and
rapacious governments, or the persecutions of adverse
fortune. Nor were these inferior to the partners of
their exile in dignity of numbers, strength or resolution

INTRODUCTION. V
of character. Some, also, of an honest ambition and
restless spirit, disdainful of inferiority, wearied ofthe
opprobrious obscurity to which their merit was de
pressed by the ascendant of wealth, by the influence
of privileged orders, andby the struggles and strata
gems of dishonorable competition, sought, in the wild
regions of an uncivilized world, the rewards of their
enterprize, or security from unmerited contempt.
In this elemental population, the Enghsh charac
ter, in conjunction with the Irish and Scotch, was
predominant; tinctured, however, in no small de
gree, by the admixture of other nations; of French,
Swedes, Hollanders, and Germans. It was formed
from the coalition of the national antipathies and
prepossessions of all Europe, animated by the most
imperious passions of the human mind, and diversi
fied in its progress, by strange contrasts and incom
patible associations. Into this " common asylum of
mankind" were thrown, by the alternate waves of
revolution and faction, the stern, bigoted repubhcan,
and the adherent of his murdered sovereign. The
pereecutor foimd refuge amongst the victims of
his persecution; tlie catholic was associated with the
hugonot, the puritan with the quaker, the pious
divine with the inexorable fanatic.
The mother country, rarely prodigal towards her
colonial ofifepring in acts of benevolence, to neglect or

VI INTRODUCTION.
injury, sometimes added indignity and insult. At an
age in which their tenderness most required the
cares of maternity, when they had already merited,
by their services and by their fidelity, a share in the
distribution of public honors and rewards, she turned
loose among them the convicts of her prisons. This
barbarous policy was, however, innoxious in its conse
quence. The malefactors thus transported, were, for
the most part, victims of ecclesiastical bigotry, roy
alists hostile to the tyranny of Cromwell, refractory
and seditious persons who had meditated or attempt
ed rebellion against the domineering spirit of their
kings, or criminal only by the ascendency of opposite
factions. Some were vagabonds and thieves. But,
of these, the number was too inconsiderable and too
extensively diff'used, to produce contamination. Cut
off" from the nutriment of his vices, even the villain,
by honest pursuits and the predominance of good
example, was reclaimed; and by an honorable con
clusion of his life, atoned for the former transgres
sions ofit. From such ancestry, we may add, were
the descendants of Romulus, the models of every
moral excellence which adorns human nature, and
of every pohtical virtue that commands the admira
tion of the world.
The subsequent population which reared the su
perstructure of the colonial edifice was derived prin-

INTRODUCTION. VII
cipally from a continuation of the causes that ori
ginally produced it. The meritorious cbaracter of
this successive accumulation of inhabitants, and the
integrity of their origin, with the few casual excep
tions I have enumerated, may be safely inferred from
their progress in the career of prosperity, their im
provement in the arts, the humanity of their institu
tions; and, no less unequivocally, from a simple re
trospect of the condition of that country to which
they removed, and a consideration of the motives by
which men, in the different stages of society, are im
pelled to migration.
The vagrant and inconstant habits of the barba
rian weaken the ties which connect him with a fixed
habitation; by the impulse of animal feelings, or the
instigation of a warlike spirit, he seeks those regions
only which may gratify his indolence or invite his ra
pacity. Among the inhabitants of civilized nations,
those who are nursed in idleness and luxury, less de
voted to virtue than to pleasure, are seduced from
their homes by the vices of a more profligate people,
or the blandishments of a milder heaven. The ruf
fian is regardless of country or kindred; and, in the
midst of corrupt and populous communities, seeks
the associates ofhis crimes, the food of his debauch;
eries and rapine. The spirit of enterprize, the sense
of dignity are extinguished in the bosom ofthe slave;

viii INTRODUCTION.
he bends his neck, with voluntary submission, to the
yoke, remains with abrutal instinct within the narrow
circle of his servitude and subsistence, and is remo
ved, but by the lash, from the dominions of his mas
ter. Those who are bound by the charities of so
cial refinement, by friendship, consanguinity, or the
love of country, are impelled to expatriation only by
the force of irresistible causes; and, when disunited,
by the pressure of honorable misfortune, from the
affections and congeniahties which consecrate the
laud of their nativity, animated by a spirit of inde
pendence, by piety to heaven and love for posterity,
they are driven, by the excitement of these generous
feelings, to seclusion or solitude, where, remote from
the converse and inhumanity of their feUow creatures,
they may enjoy the fruits of their industry, and se
curity from pride, oppression, and injustice.
The dominions of the English in America, were,
two centuries ago, covered by their native forests,
and inhabited by a race of warlike and fierce bar
barians, ignorant ofthe enjoyments, and uncorrupted
by the arts of civilized life, The face of this vast
desert is now smoothed, and its fertile plains pour
out their abundant treasures to the husbandman. A
people thus engaged in the occupations of agricul
ture must necessarily possess or acquire those social
virtues which are inseparable from that peaceful and

INTRODUCTION. IX
innocent hfe. Those who maintain their liberties or
assert their independence, must be endowed with- fa
culties adequate to the conception of their rights, and
with courage to defend them.
The colonists proceeding, for the most part, from
the same country, speaking the same language, and
governed by similar institutions, were characterized
by general features of resemblance; but local and
accidental causes, and religion, which has a power
ful influence in modifying the human mind, occa
sioned a variety of genius and dispositions among
them, which their subsequent intercourse and politi
cal union have not altogether obliterated. To com
prehend these peculiarities we must refer to the his
tory of their original establishments and institutions.
MASSACHUSETTS.
The first settlements of this province were begun
in the reign of king James the first, and in the year
1620i The reformation was scarcely eff'ected in
Englandbythe propagation of the doctrines of Luther,
when a new system of religion, under the auspices of
Calvin, again excited the ungovernable spirit of eccle
siastical dlssention. The proselytes of the latter, to
escape the persecutions of their more powerful an
tagonists, retired into Holland, and there observed,
for some years, the ceremonies of their religion, in
VOL. I. B

INTRODUCTION.

liberty, security and neglect; and enjoyed aprivilege^
unusual in that age, of following the guidance of the
faculties they had received from the Deity in off'ering
him the homage of their devotions. But, fearing
contamination from the poisonous contact of other
persuasions, and dreading, from the social inter
course and matrimonial intermixture of strangers,
the final extinction of their sect, they resolved to
migrate to America. There they hoped to worship
God in peace, during their own lives, and transmit
their religion unadulterated into the bosom of their
posterity. From their extreme opposition to the exte
rior pomp and ceremony ofthe Catholic church, from
the pure and abstract nature of their divinity, and
from the plainness of their dress and deportment,
they acquired or assumed the appellation of puritans.
They were obnoxious to the British government
from the democratical tendency of their doctrines.
These forefathers of New England, consisting of
one hundred souls, bore with them their aged parents
and infant children, left the tombs of their rela
tions, and traversed, in the infancy of navigation, an
ocean of three thousand miles. They established their
colony, amidst a race of wild and ferocious savages,
in the rains and storms of an intemperate winter and
in the frightful regions of a wilderness untrodden by
civilized man. An enterprize more bold and adventu-

INTRODUCTION. xl
rous, more glorious and important in its consequen
ces, has seldom been achieved by human courage
and ambition. Their first habitations were at New
Plymouth. The anniversary of their landing is yet
celebrated among their descendants by thanksgiving
and by such emblematic festivities and ceremonies
as represent the frugal simplicity, resignation and
christain courage of these pious apostles of their
liberty and religion. The stone first consecrated by
their footsteps, is transported, as a monument of the
memorable event, to the centre of the town, and
will, no doubt, be visited in future ages, as an object
of curiosity or veneration.
The sin of puritanism, which continued at this time
to be persecuted with unmitigated rigour in England,
furnished to the infant colony an increase of inhabi
tants. The first important expedition, composed of
fifteen hundred persons, arrived in Massachusetts,
and founded, in 1630, the towns of Salem, Charles
ton, and Boston. In this adventure were many per
sonages of distinction and fortune. Some who were
afterwards notorious in the Enghsh revolution. Oliver
Cromwell, Hampden, Pym and others, who had per
haps, been harmless in the new world, were detain
ed, after their embarkation, by an improvident pro
hibition of their sovereign, and reserved for the sub
version of his throne.

xu INTRODUCTION.
Of those who reached their place of destination,
about one hundred, less terrified by the fears of mar
tyrdom than by the gloomy prospects of the wilder
ness, went back by the return of the vessels to their
native country. The more hardy and resolute remain
ed. Of these, the one half were massacred, during the
first season, by the savages, or perished by famine and
disease; and the utmost courage was required in the
remainder, to maintain their existenqe amidst the dan
gers that environed them. But the ferocity of the
savage and the wild beast, and even the deplorable
calamities of hunger, exhibited to the imagination of
these holy adventurers a much less terrific and disgus
ting spectacle than that which they had left behind
them; the latin prayers, the printed service, organs,
ecclesiastical mitres, the gorgeous drapery and pom
pous exhibitions ofthe church of Rome; and the sa
tisfaction they experienced, of being so far removed
from the odious aspect of bishops, prelates and the
half refined, temporising followers of Luther admi
nistered a consolation to them, amidst the severities
of the seasons, the glooms and sickly atmosphere of
the desert, equal to the rudest afflictions of their ad
versity. By previous suff'erings, by the rigours of po
verty and persecution, they had already been hardened
into a constitutional bravery, and were now animated
not only by the inaccessible security of their religion.

INTRODUCTION. XUI
but by the hope of communicating its sacred inspi
ration to the natives of the country, and of redeem
ing the numerous souls of these barbarians, from the
flames of eternal perdition. By the operation of
these powerful causes, they were enabled to prose
cute enterprizes and triumph over difficulties, insu
perable in the ordinary mood and temper of the
human mind.
Although the inhabitants of this state, by long and
unintermitted injuries, were attached, with a super
stitious reverence, to the dogmas of their religion ;
their heavenly contemplations, and theological dis
putes, appear very rarely to have abstracted them
from their temporal or municipal concerns. It was
in Massachusetts, that the first rays of independence
beamed upon our country; that the sparks ofthe re
volution, first kindled into flame. And the history
of mankind, does not furnish the example of a peo
ple, who have risen with a more rapid ascent, to the
same elevation of prosperity, or have defended, with
a more resolute, high-spirited and dignified courage,
the rational principles of political freedom.
CONNECTICUT.
In the province of Connecticut the first settlements
were made at Hartford, in 1635, by emigrations

xiv INTRODUCTION.
from Massachusetts, and contained, at the end ofthe
succeeding year, about eight hundred inhabitants.
This scheme of colonization does not appear to have
been induced by the temptations of climate, by the
advantages of position or fertihty of soil; but to have
been undertaken by those who were distinguished
in their sect for a more romantic or enthusiastic
spirit of devotion. They sought, perhaps, in the intri
cate labyrinths ofthe desert, a retreat less accessible to
the infidelity which, in Massachusetts, had assailed
the integrity of the church. From a detail of the ca
lamities and perils ofthe enterprize, the adventurers
seem to have courted the approbation of heaven by
a display of religious intrepidity. Leaving a colony
already established, in want of population and sur
rounded by a superfluous waste of territory, whole
congregations, men, women, and children, preceded
by their clergy, subsisting on the milk of their cattle,
penetrated a region unexplored and almost impervi
ous to man or beast. The intermediate wilderness,
through which they passed, in solemn and awful
procession, rung, it is said, with the praises of God.
The Indians followed them in silent admiration.
A second settlement was made at New Haven, in
1637, by emigrants immediately from England, of
still more rigid and inflexible sanctity. Their earliest
ecclesiastical ordinance, was to prohibit from the
privileges of freemen, and their children from the

INTRODUCTION. XV
rites of baptism, all such as were not in full commu
nion with the church, or did not conform implicitly
with the formalities of the established religion. And
this regulation they maintained, against the recom
mendation of a more liberal policy by the citizens of
Hartford, with a stubborn and relentless pertipacity.
All civil magistrates were chosen from the clergy, or
from the most devout and influential members of the
church, whom they called pillars; and the decisions of
these holy men were received, in the aff'airs of govern
ment, as the oracles of truth. They were particularly
distinguished by their antipathy to quakers. The laws
of God, as delivered to Moses and the prophets, were
adopted as their code of jurisprudence, and were
declared sufficient for the administration of the tem
poral as well as spiritual concerns of the common
wealth. But although vice was prohibited among
them rather by manners and by the habits of industry
and good order, than by laws, they soon discovered
the necessity of a departure from their favourite sys
tem of legislation.
Some commercial regulations of these two colo
nies interrupted their harmony with their neighbours
of Massachusetts, and religious discussions involved
them in frequent discord with each other. Their po
litical institutions were purely republican, and they
have preserved them with little alteration or vicissi-

XVl INTRODUCTION.
tude to the present day. They were united under the
same jurisdiction in 1665, from a necessity of coope
ration against the contiguous tribes of savages, with
whom they maintained a perpetual and sanguinary
warfare. In battle they were no less skillful and in
trepid soldiers, than in peace they were industrious
husbandmen, rigid moralists, and bigoted theologians.
RHODE ISLAND.
A religious controversy in Massachusetts occasion
ed, in the year 1636, the settlement of Rhode Island,
where the weaker party sought refuge from the fury
of their implacable antagonists. They had incurred
the displeasure of the community, and were banish
ed, by the authority of the magistrates, principally,
for preaching and attempting to propagate the doc
trine of toleration. This was regarded by the divines
of Massachusetts as an impious rebelhon against
heaven, or what they esteemed no less iniquitous
against the sacred authority ofthe puritanical church.
It was, besides, a transgression of the fundamental
laws of the province; for here, as well as in Con
necticut, no individual was entitled to the freedom of
the body politic, who did not believe in the infallibility
of the established hierarchy, and yield an implicit
obedience to its sacred institutions.

INTRODUCTION. XVU
Rhode Island became, henceforth, an asylum for
the unfortunate; for the victims of colonial as well
as of European persecution, and its inhabitants
have, at all times, been distinguished for their hospi
tality, humanity and liberality of sentiment.
NEWHAMPSHIRE.
Settlements had been made from the adjacent
colonies in New Hampshire, as early as 1623; but,
existing under distinct and imperfect systems of go
vernment, were united in 1641, though with much
opposition, to Massachusetts. They remained under
this authority, with some temporary exceptions,
until the year 1741, when they assumed a separate
and independent jurisdiction. Being exposed to per
petual warfare with the savage tribes in the vicinity,
they nourished a hardy and martial youth, for the ser
vice of their country, who were deservedly esteemed
among the most brave and gallant soldiers of the re
volution. It was computed, in 1642, that about twenty-five
thousand emigrants had arrived upon the shores of
New England. Fifty towns or villages had been
founded, and contained nearly eight thousand men
capable of bearing arms. But the revolution of the
mother country and consequent ascendance of the
VOL. I. c

xviii INTRODUCTION.
puritans at this period arrested the rapid progress of
emigration. The Indians had long witnessed with jealousy, the
unceremonious intrusion of these strangers upon their
native grounds, to which their pre-occupancy, they
believed, had given them an inviolable title. The
sales of vast territories made by their chiefs, for
worthless trinkets, they regarded as an imposition
practised upon their inexperience, and without obli
gation. Animated to revenge by repeated injuries,
and taught, by partial defeat, the necessity of union,
the most active and vigorous measures were con
certed among them at this time for the recovery of
their dominions. Hostilities were likewise threaten
ed by the Dutch of New York; and the colonies of
New England, impelled by these alarms, entered into
a political association for their mutual defence; with
the exception, however, of the apostate province of
Rhode Island, which, at the instance of Massachu
setts, was excluded from a participation in the con
federacy from abhorrence of her heretical opinions.
But, abandoned to the exertion of her own faculties,
she courted successfully the friendship ofthe savages,
and by acts of benevolence enjoyed that security
which the others purchased by the force and terror
of their arms. A constitution was framed, and a ge
neral assembly instituted to preside over the interests

INTRODUCTION. xix
ofthe confederate states. Their connection subsist-
ed'during forty years, and contributed not a little to
wards the prosperity of New England. It produced
a greater intercourse and conformity of character
among the inhabitants, an extinction of their jealou
sies; gave success to their foreign enterprises and
vigour to their domestic administration.
NEW YORK.
New York was estabhshed by the Dutch in 1614,
and continued in their possession until the year 1664,
when it became subject to the English crown. Set
tlements were undertaken near Albany and the town
of New York, which flourished under the care of a
patient, persevering and laborious race of adventu
rers, among whom a spirit of war was kept alive by
a perpetual and unequal contest with the savages;
and with the colonies of Virginia and New England.
The inhabitants of this province were of republi
can extraction. They were the countrymen of De
Witt, Tromp, and De Ruyter; their ancestors, in a
struggle of half a century, had shaken from their
necks the yoke of a tyrant; and by economy, indus
try, and love of hberty, had reared their inconsider
able territories to rank and reputation among the
nations of Europe. In America, they cultivated the

XX INTRODUCTION.
same free institutions, and extended their forts and
settlements, with characteristic enterprize, from the
banks ofthe Connecticut, through Jersey and Dela
ware to the eastern confines of Maryland. They
defended their possessions with obstinate valour, and
though forced to yield them, at length, to the superi
ority of the English arms, they retained a predomi
nant influence in their subsequent administration.
The colony of New York, after its conquest, was
annexed to the jurisdiction of New England, until
1691, and then erected into a distinct and independ
ent government. NEW JERSEY.
The first settlements of the Jerseys by the Swedes
were cotemporary with those of New York. In 1676
they were divided into East and West Jersey, the
former of which, in 1682, was transferred by the
proprietors to William Penn, and contained at this
time, about seven hundred families. They were con
solidated in 1702 into a single government, and con
nected successively with New England and New
York, until they assumed, in 1738, an independent
jurisdiction, under the title of New Jersey.
In all the vicissitudes of her colonial government,
this province maintained her free institutions unsul-

INTRODUCTION. XXl
lied, and repelled the arbitrary pretensions of her
regal governors, on various occasions, with a resolute
and magnanimous spirit. During the revolutionary
war, she sustained more than an equal share of the
evils of it; and was the theatre qf some of its most
glorious and important events.
PENNSYLVANIA.
Philadelphia, the metropolis of this province, was
founded in the year 1689. This city is celebrated
for the rapidity of its increase, the humanity of its
institutions, and no less distinguished by the singu
larity of its primitive inhabitants. They came to
America under the patronage of William Penn, a
man eminent for his rank, education and virtues,
and sought upon the solitary shores of the Delaware,
a refuge from the injuries and indignities they had
suffered in their native country. They had incurred
the hostility of other denominations, and exasperated
against them all the rage of religious insanity, by the
peculiar charaeter and genius of their institutions.
They were Christians without the rites of baptism
or communion, and what may appear a solecism in
the ecclesiastical history of those days, they were
sectarians without the spirit of persecution. The
most pacific measures were pursued in all their se-

xxii INTRODUCTION.
cular transactions, and no intricate theological dog
mas interrupted the harmony of their devotions.
They imitated, in their deportment, the patriarchal
simphcity of the apostles, rejecting every species of
superfluity in their habiliments, phraseology, and
gesticulation. All phrases of compliment or adulation
were expunged from their language, as the monu
ments of barbarism or indications of pride and ser
vility. The appellations of excellence, of mightiness,
holiness, and all other titular marks of distinction,
they reserved for their Creator, and thought them
unbecoming the weakness and imbecility of man.
They approached their chief as the Romans did the
masters of the world. No attitudes of humility were
permitted in their salutations or worship. They re
mained covered in the presence of their prince, and
stood erect before the majesty of heaven.
Other legislators, as Lycurgus and Numa, inspired
the love of virtue by theatrical ceremonies and en
thusiasm; Penn, by the sober sanctity of his example.
Without a display of the authority, or formality of
the law, he administered justice; without priests and
without anathemas or imprecations he propagated
the truths of the gospel. By circumscribing their
necessities, or by mutual acts of benevolence, his
people were exempt from the odium of beggary, and
from the reproach and disgrace of domestic servitude.

INTRODUCTION. XXUI
The science and care of the physician were supplied
among them, by industry, temperance, and modera
tion of their passions.
Their rehgion, like most others, took its rise in
the wild entliusiasm of an ignorant multitude, and
was marked in its origin by irregularities repugnant
to the spirit of Christianity. Extravagant grimaces
and contortions of limbs, in their worship, as it is
related by some, and which, in all ages, have been
the usual marks of inspiration, gave to this commu
nity the name of quakers; their love of equahty, their
reciprocal charities and tenderness for each other,
entitled them to the appellation of friends. By the
plainness of their manners; by their exemption from
the reigning follies and frivohties of the world, they
were regarded as a strange, ludicrous, and eccentric
people. They were pitied by the courtier; hated,
scourged, hung by the bigot; laughed at by fools, and
admired by philosophers.
In imitating the divine author of their rehgion, the
quakers submitted, without resentment, to mockery
and insult; without vengeance, to imprisonment and
death. By too rigid a construction of his precepts
they violated the most sacred law of human nature,
and refused to bear arms against the enemies of their
country. But by their civil and religious adminis
tration, by the piety and innocence of their morals,

xxiv INTRODUCTION.
they promoted and propagated those republican vir
tues, without which the institutions of liberty cannot
subsist among men, and independence becomes un
worthy the blood that is shed in the acquisition of it.
In Pennsylvania, the quakers reared the most du
rable monuments of their fame, and advanced to
their most elevated grade the interests of their order.
The freedom, liberality and benevolence of their
policy invited among them a numerous population,
as well from the adjacent provinces as from Europe;
and the industry of the German, the activity and
enterprise of the Irishman, joined to the preexisting
order and economy of this province, raised it to a
sudden height of prosperity, which has been seldom
equalled in the history of nations. The settlements
of William Fenn were preceded by a purchase of
their lands and solemn treaty with the natives. The
only one, it may be observed, that was not sanction
ed by the formality of an oath, and the only one,
perhaps, that was observed with a sacred and invio
lable fidelity. Of this, the best evidence is the affec
tionate intercourse which subsisted, for half a cen
tury, between the parties, so eagerly desired by the
Indians, that many of the tribes of these barbarians
not only courted the alliance and cherished the
friendship ofthe colonists, but sohcited, as a privilege,

INTRODUCTION. XXV
to be subject to the beneficent influence of their au
thority. Whoever is armed with integrity and innocence
of life, needs not the sword to protect him against
the malevolence of mankind. This honest sentiment
of poetical fancy is not quite unworthy the sober
wisdom of the sage. Pennsylvania, at least, fur
nishes the example that these virtues, accompanied
by piety and justice, may soften the ferocity of the
savage, however feeble a barrier they oppose to the
fury of fanaticism or the rage of ambition.
DELAWARE.
Delaware was first settled in 1627, by a colony of
Swedes and Finns under commission of the king of
Sweden. It was subdued by the Dutch of New York
in 1655, and remained under the dominion of that
province till 1682. It was at this period united to
Pennsylvania, and became a distinct government in
1701. In their civil administration the inhabitants of this
colony manifested a warm devotion for liberty; and
in war, a bravery and enterprize which have given
them, notwithstanding the minuteness of their terri
tory, a conspicuous rank in the annals of the revo
lution. They descended from a nation prolific in
VOL. I. D

xxvi INTRODUCTION.
heroes. The countrymen of Gustavus Vasa were no
strangers to the value of political freedom.
MARYLAND.
This province was founded by the proprietor lord
Baltimore in 1634. The first expedition consisted
of about two hundred Roman Catholics of distin
guished fortune and rank, who with their adherents
sought in America a retreat from religious persecu
tion and from the arbitrary and grievous injuries
they sustained by the illiberal policy of the British
government. Here, with a magnanimity unusual in
such circumstances, they extended to all sects, that
associated with them, the entire enjoyment of reli
gious freedom. And so far had they been taught by
their own sufferings, to appreciate and revere this
sacred privilege, that even a contumelious expression
against other denominations was expressly forbidden
by their laws. The puritan expelled from Virginia,
the quaker from Massachusetts, the Dutch from the
Delaware, after the conquest of their possessions by
the English: all found among them a welcome asy
lum; and their province, cherished by this liberal
policy, soon grew into importance by the industiy
and enterprise of a viriuous population.

INTRODUCTION, XXVU
CromweU, with his bigoted parliament, at length
took off'ence at this catholic system of moderation.
It was regarded as a masked battery erected in the
new world against the dominion of the saints. He
was, besides, unwiUing that even in the desert the
enemies of the Lord should find security from his
holy indignation. These catholics had likewise been
mutinous and disdainful, on some occasions, of the
authority of the arbitrary and rapacious governors
who had been placed over them. Commissioners
were therefore deputed by CromweU for the protec
tion of the province, and the cathohcs, by an act of
assembly, were outlawed, and prosecutions com
menced against those who were guilty of popery and
prelacy, as weU as against quakers, and " all such
as under the profession of Christ, practised licenti
ousness." By this mischievous policy of Cromwell the colo
ny of Maryland was kept, during several years, in a
state of revolutionary turbulence, until order was re
established in 1658, by the auspicious death of that
tyrant. VIRGINIA.
Frequent enterprises were undertaken for the co
lonization of Virginia, unsuccessfully, by the adven
turous and unfortunate sir Walter Raleigh. The

xxvui INTRODUCTION.
territory of this province was afterwards granted by
patent to the London company, and the first perma
nent settlement commenced at James Town in
1601. This httle community which, at the expira
tion of three years, contained five hundred inhabi
tants, failing in provisions and attacked at the same
time by the Indians, was, in the space of six months,
reduced almost to extinction. Sixty persons only
escaped from massacre and starvation, who were
preserved by the providential arrival fi-om England,
of a supply of men antl provisions.
By this accession of numbers the exhausted vigor
of the colony was repaired, its settlements extended,
and in 1620, it had acquired a population of twelve
hundred souls. There prevailed, however, in the
province, a scarcity of women; and many of the in
habitants, destitute of wives, threatened a return to
their native country; but, for this evil, a remedy less
violent than that of the Romans on a similar occa
sion, was provided. One hundred and fifty females
of the best quality, young, virtuous and handsome,
were exported by the London merchants in exchange
for tobacco. The discontented became, therefore,
reconciled to their solitude, and the affairs of the
colony wore again the aspect of peace and prosperity,
when a second attempt of the savages nearly involv
ed them in the fate of their predecessors. Amidst

INTRODUCTION. XXIX
their social intercourse and occupations, three hun
dred and fifty, unconscious of danger, unresisting
and defenceless, fell, in the same hour, by the hand
of the assassins. A furious war ensued, to which
was superadded the miseries of famine; when arri
vals from the mother country again arrested the pro
gress of their calamities.
Soon after this period the company of the propri
etors was dissolved; and, in the reign of Charles I,
the administration of the colonies devolved upon the
crown. The most rigorous laws were enacted to
establish and preserve uniformity of rehgion, and
maintain the ascendancy of the episcopal church.
Some rebeUious proceedings in 1676 interrupted,
for a while, the pubhc tranquiUity; but no events
changed the direction of their institutions, or con
trolled the progress of their prosperity.
Tbe province of Virginia is the eldest sister of the
colonial family. But titles more sacred than that of
primogeniture recommend her to respect and vene
ration. Unsustained by the heat of rehgious enthu
siasra, or political excitement, she triumphed, during
her infancy and orphanage, over the rudest malevo
lence of fortune, and in the successive scenes of her
history, maintained, by her merits, a rank of preemi
nence in the new world. She reared, for the defence
of her liberty, a race of citizens ingenious in peace

xxx INTRODUCTION,
and intrepid in war; she is especially illustrious for
the birth of a hero, who enriched his country by his
glory, and adorned human nature by his virtues; and
whose memory, consecrated by the veneration ofthe
whole world, descends to the latest ages of posterity.
Into this state was first introduced that unhappy
condition of men who bear the figure without the
privileges of human beings, the African slaves. The
first cargo of these was introduced in the year 1620,
in imitation of the system already established in the
colonies of the West Indies. They were gradually
diffused throughout the provinces of the south; and
have long since inflicted, by the fears they inspire,
by the vices they propagate, and by the crimes they
commit, an ample vengeance upon the promoters of
their servitude. In the governments of Europe, aU
of which have participated in the guilt of this im
pious outrage against humanity, the evil is confined
to the limbs or extremities; in America it preys upon
the heart, and convulses the vital functions of the
nation. The disease, too, is immedicable. In other
countries, the freed-man is lost amidst the mass of
the community. His genealogy is forgotten, and he
assumes, in the revolution of years, the station to
which his figure and faculties intitle him. But na
ture has set a mark upon the American slave. Al
though his shackles be dissolved by the inconsiderate

INTRODUCTION. XXXI
zeal of the philanthropist, he remains nevertheless
bound by the prejudice of his complexion to the of
fices of slavery; and cut off' from the incentives of
honourable ambition, practices vice, or meditates,
perhaps, with the approbation of heaven, rebeUion
against the authors ofhis depravation.
THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA.
South Carolina was granted to the earl of Cla
rendon, the duke of Albemarle, lord Berkeley and
others, and erected into a province in 1663. Mag
nificent schemes were devised by these noblemen for
its improvement, policy and administration. It was
intended for the cultivation of the vine, the olive and
other productions of the south, and was favoured by
the special munificence of Charles the second. Gra
tuitous donations of land, exemption from taxes, and
other flattering concessions and immunities were
offered to encourage emigration, and for its govern
ment, a constitution was expressly framed by the
celebrated Locke. But the philosopher, whose su
perior faculties had penetrated and unraveUed the
intricate mazes of the human mind, appears to have
possessed less sagacity in the business of legislation,
or to have been negligent, at least, of the maxims
and practical wisdom of Solon, who founded his

xxxu INTRODUCTION.
laws and institutions upon the preexisting habits
and genius of the people, and not upon theoretical
and abstract notions of mankind.
His new modeUed system of politics was a fruit
ful source of dissention, during twenty-five years,
untfl the final abolition of it, in 1693. In the
midst of the various expedients devised for the pre
eminence of this favourite colony, harassed by the
Indians, infested by pirates, invaded by the Span
iards, and agitated by domestic controversies, it lan
guished in its agriculture, commerce and population;
and it is only from the dissolution of the proprietary
administration, in 1721, that we can date the com
mencement of its prosperity.
In 1729 this province was divided into the two
distinct governments of North and South Carolina.
In 1732, Georgia was also detached from its terri
tory; which latter state, from the continual depreda
tions of the Spaniards and Indians, and from an
impotent system of government, remained during its
colonial subjection in a languid and unprosperous
condition. The inhabitants of these provinces were
hardened under the rude disciphne of adversity, for
the struggles and vicissitudes of the revolutionary
war, and were equally distinguished in the various
scenes of it, for their gallantry of enterprise, their
prompt and determined courage. Equality of poli-

INTRODUCTION. XXXIII
tical rights and entire liberty of conscience, were
established by their fundamental laws, and regarded
with a sacred devotion. Frequent efforts vvere made
by their governors to establish among them the pre
dominance of the episcopal church, which proved
unavailing, and served only to confirm the prevalence
of religious toleration.
This country derived its original population from
France, during the sanguinary persecutions of
Charles IX; from England, Scotland, from the island
of Barbadoes, and from the neighbouring provinces.
It became, afterwards, the fortunate asylum of the
oppressed and exiled palatines of Germany, and of
the ingenious and industrious Hugonots; a part of
whom were driven to America by the revocation of
the edict of Nantz,
It is not unusual in the great government of the
world, that to one portion of mankind their supreme
blessings should proceed from the calamities or ini
quities of another; and to such dispensations of
providence, it was the fate of the British colonies in
America, to owe their existence, their prosperity,
and their independence. Those rich plains, which
now load with their liberal treasures the granaries
of the new world, unfavoured by the bigotry or the
tyranny of Europe, had been yet buried under their
native woods; and the surface of that territory which
VOL. I, E

xxxiv INTRODUCTION.
is, to day, covered by the monuments of the arts,
and the industry of civilised man, which compre
hends within its limits eight miUions of freemen, had
yet resounded with the yeU of the savage, orthe
bowlings of the ravenous wolf
Such are the principal events that attended the
first settlement of the thirteen colonies which ap
peared upon the scene of the revolutionary war, and
the outhnfes by which they may be characterized and
distinguished. I proceed now to consider such other
objects in their history as are most conspicuous, or
tend most immediately to iUustrate the genius and
disposition of the inhabitants in their approach to
wards the period of their independence.
I. As a consequence of the long and rigorous per
secutions they had sustained, the colonies were at
tached to their religious principles with an excessive
veneration, and discredited, in some instances, by
their own bigotry, whatever pretensions they might
otherwise have formed, to censure the iUiberal spirit
that persecuted them. In their original history are
some occurrences proceeding from this source,
which, in the present age, and prevalence of more
generous sentiments, are presented to our observa
tion in an odious and disgusting aspect; and have
sometimes furnished, not to an honest indignation or
conscious innocence, but to the malignity of foreign
writers, a fruitful theme of sarcasm and vituperation.

INTRODUCTION. XXXV
Religion is a subject which, more than all others,
has confounded the intellectual pride and arrogance
of man; it seems designed by Providence to exhibit,
in its highest liggravation, the imbecility of human
reason, or contrast the divine inteUigence with the
narrowness of human comprehension. Whatever
ceremonies among men have rendered them most
ridiculous and absurd, whatever crimes most infa
mous in the eyes of their own species, and impious
in the sight of heaven, are to be traced to the iniquity
or perversion of their reHgious institutions. Nor is
it granted to any order or denomination, from the
throne to the cottage, from the philosopher to the
clown; to any nation, fi'om the rudest barbarism to
the most exquisite refinement, to claim entire ex
emption fi'om this species of extravagance and folly.
The savage, to propitiate the gi'eat spirit of all
good, imbrues his hands in the blood of the human
victim; and, in his devotions, perpetrates an impious
outrage against nature. The priest of Egypt, who
had measured the heavens by his science, lodged
the divine essence in the bosom of his cat or dog;
and, to the crocodile or the ibex, poured out the
fervor of his adorations. Amidst the monuments of
the refined and magnificent Athens, the blood of
hecatombs flowed to the rabble gods of an ignorant

xxxvi INTRODUCTION.
mythology; and the Roman, rich with the spoUs, and
with the wisdom of the world, revealed the destinies
from the bowels of an ox, or in the appetite of a
chicken consulted the designs of Omnipotence.
But these follies of antiquity, however repugnant
to reason, have disappeared in the more transcend
ant iniquities of the modern world. For the cave of
Trophonius, we have now the dungeons of the inqui
sition; for the infuriated Sybil, the ludicrous and
fantastic figure of the monk, buried amidst the pu
trefied relics of departed saints, emaciated by priva
tions, and mutilated by voluntary flagellation. For
the votive heifer, under the axe of the high priest,
the martyr now expires by the ruffian violence ofhis
holy executioner. But the evil is no longer confined
to individual infatuation. The contagious fury of
fanaticism has disturbed the harmony of empires,
and the chaste doctrines of Christianity, founded
upon humUity, charity, and peace, have been marked
in their progress by ravage, assassination and havoc.
The colonies of New England were produced and
elevated in the heat of religious frenzy; when tole
ration was accounted a criminal negligence of the
interests of heaven. They participated in the fol
hes of their cotemporaries, and paid no humble tri
bute to a common frailty of mankind. By the
scourge of the fanatic, they had been driven from

INTRODUCTION. XXXvii
their homes; and, in the land of then- exile, exercised
the same rude system of oppression against those
who were their relations by blood, and partners in
misfortune. They sought, in the bleak and barren
regions of a wilderness, the undisturbed enjoyment
of their reUgious hberty, and not only dared to ap
propriate those privileges which are the birthiight
of mankind, but to arrogate those powers of juris
diction and of punishment which belong only to the
wisdom and authority of heaven.
An attempt to justify ilhberahty so gross, and
transgressions so iniquitous, is to insult human rea
son, and to become, in some measure, an accomplice
in the guilt; we may, however, claim for our ances
tors, amidst the universal prevalence of the same
evil spirit, an immunity from foreign reproach.
Their comparative sobriety, also, amidst the rage of
a general intemperance, might be adduced, with
plausibility, in extenuation of their faults. They are
at least entitled, from aU the circumstances of their
colonization, to the fullest appUcation of those apo
logies, which, however defective and illogical, have
received no ordinary force in the mitigation of simi
lar oflfences. In the ecclesiastical records of other
nations, we perceive, as no unusual occurrence, men
who have founded and sustained the exclusive do
mination of their sects by persecutions the most

xxxviii INTRODUCTION.
outrageous, whose memory is now revered by pos
terity, and whose names are enroUed and consecrat
ed with celestial honours, in the calendar of the
saints. So much has been conceded, by ahnost
universal consent, to the prevailing infatuation of the
age. Another species of superstition, no less incompre
hensible in its nature, the usual associate and a
worthy appendage of religious bigotry, is sorcery or
witchcraft; or a belief tbat mortals in converse with
malignant spirits, may inflict diseases and other ca
lamities upon their fellow creatures, in defiance of
the power of Omnipotence. The inhabitants of
New England, under the influence of this delusion,
in 1692, perpetrated the most intemperate and tra
gical outrage. By a sacrilegious profanation of jus
tice, and with the sanction or formalities of the law,
they raised the hand of violence upon the hves of
their feUow creatures. From the fury of this im
placable frenzy, neither the tenderness of infancy
nor the delicacy of sex afforded a protection, and
men venerable for their age, vvere exposed to ex-
ciutiating torments, and suffered, by the imputation
of an imaginary crime, a death which had been re
served for atrocious and guilty offenders. This oc
currence will remain, in spite of aU the efforts of
national partiality to extenuate or conceal it, a blot

INTRODUCTION. XXXIX
upon the history of our country; and, in the new
world, at least, a signal monument of human imbe
cihty and folly.
By a partial consideration of the disgusting details
which attend these events, we should be apt, in the
present moral state of society, to consider them as
historical exaggerations, or as the transactions of a
race of barbarians notorious for their ignorance and
ferocity. The example of other nations, with greater
pretensions to intelligence and refinement, does not,
however, permit us to doubt their reality, or to as
cribe their existence to any supernatural degradation
of the hutnan mind. In the frequented communities
of France, where the grossness of human nature
was already refined by social intercourse; and where
the inhabitants were moulded to the feelings of hu
manity by the wisdom and sentiment of philosophers
and poets; not only did the people from the humble
ranks of life, perish in many hundreds each year, by
the decrees of their provincial courts, but, by the
august parliament of Paris, victims of this pitiless
superstition, from the highest order of nobihty, and
from the presence of their sovereign, were dragged
to an ignominious and excruciating death. In the
middle of the eighteenth century, and after the age
of Locke, Newton, D'Alembert, and Euler, the ,
bodies of the deceased were conjured, by this mad-

xl INTRODUCTION.
ness of the imagination, from their graves; and fed,
for many years, upon the flesh and blood of the
Germans. One third of civUized Europe was thrown
into consternation; andthe archives of the empire
yet exhibit, in the disgraceful records of these times,
the prosecutions that were instituted, and the pun
ishments that were inflicted to arrest this mischiev
ous insurrection of the dead.
The natives of Great Britain, from their gloomy
and melancholy temperament, are, perhaps, more
than others, prone to this species of superstition.
The solemn doctrine of witchcraft has been handed
down by our English ancestors, not only "in the le
gendary tales and the chronicles of an ignorant mul
titude, but sanctioned by the grave authority of
judges and ecclesiastics distinguished for their learn
ing; and constitutes a portion ofthe divinity and ju;
risprudence of the nation. In their theatrical exhi
bitions, ghosts, goblins, and witches, intermixed with
monarchs and with heroes, are dressed in all the
embellishments of genius; and their literature is filled
with conceits, than which the magic of Medea, or
the incantations of Canidia, are less extravagant and
fantastic. Trials for the punishment of sorcery were con
tinued in Great Britain until the reign of Gelorge the
second; and, during the government of Cromwell,

INTRODUCTION. xU
¦' SO prevalent was the opinion of witchcraft, that
great numbers accused of that crime were burnt by
the sentence of the magistrates, in all parts of Scot
land. In a village near Berwick, which contained
only fourteen houses, fourteen persons were punish
ed by fire; and it became a science much studied
and cultivated to distinguish a true witch by proper
trials and symptoms."*
A comparative view of this subject I have thought
requisite to ascertain the relative degree of censure
that may be justly attached to the most conspicuous
foUies of our ancestors; and to estimate the rank they
are entitled to maintain in the general scale of hu
manity. The history of mankind furnishes, by in
numerable examples, the evidence that superstition
is compatible with virtue as well as with vice, that
it has been associated with glorious actions and
atrocious crimes; and, although the inseparable com
panion of ignorance, it is sometimes the concomitant
of distinguished erudition. Instances are not rare
of those who, otherwise intelligent, have disgraced
their reason by spiritual and metaphysical conceits
no less senseless than the unnatural conceptions of
the madman. Plato studied astrology and magic in
Egypt. A learned chief justice admitted, in the
middle ofthe eighteenth century, the reality of witch-

• Hume.
VOL. I. F

xlii INTRODUCTION.
craft, in the polished empire of Great Britain.* Let , ,
us then cease to admire that, in the glooms of a so
litude, the natural abode of superstition, our ances
tors sometimes wandered into the wild regions of
fancy. At the same time, we must feel for the con
dition of human reason, and for the dignity of the
human character, the bitterest anguish of humiliation.
But these narrow prejudices of sectarian zeal and
superstition which extinguish the generous feehngs
of the heart, contract and fetter the faculties of the
understanding, however extravagant they may have
originally been in America, were, by the gradual
intercourse and admixture of various denominations,
dissolved and forgotten; and the sacred rights of
conscience at the period of the revolution, not only
recognised by the colonists universally, but confirm
ed to posterity by the laws and constitution of their
political union.
To the age of bigotry and superstition, a mutual
emulation succeeded, which promoted the integrity of
rehgion and the modest sanctity ofthe professors and
teachers of it; and a more exceUent and upright cler
gy than those who existed at this epoch in America,
are perhaps not to be discovered in the annals ofthe
church. No crafty or designing imposter, to feed the
appetites and rapacity of his order, levied his contri-
* Blackstone's Commentaries.

INTRODUCTION. xhii
butions upon the ignorance and credulity of the mul
titude; no ecclesiastic, proud ofhis representation of
St. Peter, inculcated, in the gorgeous decorations of
pride, the humble and austere sanctity ofthe gospel.
The various sects of this country, were, in their de
portment, unostentatious, frugal, economical, and re
publican. They preached the virtues of Christianity,
and practised them. The mitre of the ecclesiastic
is rarely the emblem of political freedom. But, from
the casual circumstances of their migration, the
provincial clergy were the apostles of liberty as well
as of reUgion, and by an unusual association, the pray
ers of the patriot and of the saint ascended together
to the throne of Oranipotence.
II. Amidst the enterprizes achieved by the colo
nists, but Uttle leisure was afforded them for the
cultivation of literature and science. In the short
period of a century and a half, they had founded an
empire and reared it to an independent rank and
reputation among the nations of the earth. In the
progress of their operations, they were interrupted
by the incessant ravages of the Indians, they were
embroiled in pei-petual controversies with their go
vernors, and sustained, at the same time, an unin-
termitting warfare of fifty years with the contiguous
provinces of the French. In surveying the multi
phcity and magnitude of these labours with the

xliv INTRODUCTION.
means by which they were surmounted, we shall
indeed have abundant cause for admiration, that
letters, among two and a half millions of inhabitants,
spread over so vast a surface of territory, had not
been altogether consigned to obscurity and neglect.
The concerns of a colony, under the most auspi
cious patronage, occupy too smaU a space in the eye
of mankind to rouse the ambition of the statesman,
to animate the emulation and caU forth the abUities
of the scholar. But the policy of the British govern
ment in the literary discipline, as in other objects of
the administration of her provinces, was narrow and
bigoted. Offices of distinction were almost exclu
sively conferred upon the native subjects of her own
island, and the diffusion of knowledge through the
medium of the press, or otherwise, was studiously
discouraged. To propagate a taste for learning,
which tends to inspire a liberality of sentiment, a
sense of personal dignity and independence, among
a people already too acute and inquisitive in the in
vestigation of their rights, would have been repug
nant to aU the prudential maxims of arbitrary power.
The extreme veneration of the early colonists for
their religion and deference for their clergy, most of
whom had been instructed in the best seminaries of
England, contributed, however, to estabhsh, from the
beginning, a systematic plan of instruction. In the

INTRODUCTION. xlv
erection of a colony, the building of a school, next
to a church, was an object of sacred obligation; to
instruct their children in the doctrines of their reli
gion, and to guard, as it was said, against an ihite
rate clergy, " when the learned ministers they then
enjoyed should sleep in the dust." In this spirit was
founded, in Massachusetts, the present university of
Cambridge, which contained, at the revolution, two
hundred students, and which, for near two centuries,
has not only maintained a predominant superiority
in America, but is entitled, by the erudition of its
professors, and wisdom of its discipline, to a distin
guished rank among similar institutions of foreign
countries. Although this ecclesiastical influence gave,
throughout the provinces, a general diffusion to ele
mentary leaming, it is obvious that the abstruse and
metaphysical inquiries, the subtilties and abstract
doctrine of theology which engrossed the specula
tions of the clergy of those days, incomprehensible
at aU ages, and particularly inaccessible to the un
derstanding of youth; that the rigid and austere for-
maUty with which their precepts were inculcated,
had little tendency to kindle the fire of genius or
imagination, and were better fitted to contract and
confuse the faculties of the mind than to improve or
adorn them.

Ixvi INTRODUCTION.
The intercourse, however, which necessarily sub
sisted with the mother country, the sympathy felt by
the colonies iu the violent contests which agitated that
kingdom, and the interest excited in their political wri
tings which possessed, in many instances, great hte
rary nierit, cherished a more liberal taste for learn
ing, and diminished, in some degree, the influence of
those evils which conspired to check and extinguish
it. In the negociations and discussions of the revolu
tion, the American statesmen were by no means
inferior in ingenuity and soundness of reasoning,
or accuracy of composition to the most distinguish
ed of their antagonists, who had reached, at this pe
riod, the summit of their literary fame. In the speech
es and debates of their continental and colonial
assemblies, there is an energy and dignity of lan
guage appropriate to the majesty of the occasion
which produced it, an eloquence animated by that
unaffected warrath of expression, which the love of
virtue and liberty must necessarily inspire. But the
palm of oratory is not to be borne away by native
genius even with the aid of moderate cultivation. An
unintermitting study and discipline, with the polish of
the liberal arts, is essential to the perfection of talent
which is perhaps the most inaccessible of aU human
acquisitions.

INTRODUCTION, xlvii
The difficulty of determining with precision the
boundaries of their lands, in a new country, excited
an attention to the studies of geometry and specula
tive science. The legal disputes they were involved in
for the same reason, and the providential vigilance with
which they guarded their political liberties, gave them
just ideas of the nature of government and the ad
ministration of justice. In theology, politics and law,
their writings possess great merit; and, on other sub
jects, there are some authors not defective in abilities;
but, there being no exclusive devotion to letters among
them, few possess sufficient excellence either of com
position or matter to engage the attention of posterity.
Franklin is, however, an honourable and conspi
cuous exception. This great man, by the consent
of all civilized nations, has attained a rank in the
literary as well as in the political world. Those who
are able and wUling to estimate rightly the extent and
utility of his scientific researches, the elegance and
classical purity of his compositions, the briUiant im
agination, sentiment, and beneficial influence of his
philosophical writings upon mankind, do not assign
him an humble or subordinate station among the
"Gods ofthe earth."
Those arts which contribute to elegance and re
finement, and which are co-ordinate with a crowded
population, with luxury, and the exorbitant wealth

xlviii INTRODUCTION.
of individuals, cannot be required from the progress
of society at this period in America. We must not
seek amidst the blossoms of spring for the fruits and
maturity of autumn. There is no Homer, no Milton,
to whose immortality we may pour out the effusions
of our national pride, or the homage of our admira
tion. The canvas had not yet breathed under the
pencil of an Apelles; no Phidias snatched from
death the hero who died for his country.
Preeminence in literature and the fine arts is rarely
coexistent with the pohtical glory and prosperity ofa
nation. It is not amidst the victories of Marathon or of
Salamis we are to seek the unrivalled declamations of
Demosthenes. At the table of Cincinnatus or Fabri
cius, we do not find a Virgil or Horace, nor a
Mecasnas at the supper of Curius. Socrates, from
the lips of Aspasia, embellished the maxims of his
wisdom; andthe immortal eloquence of Cicero was
nourished by the proscriptions of ScyUa, by the se
ditions of Cataline, the debaucheries of Antony, and
the rapacity of Verres.
Our ancestors of modern Europe have traced
the circulation of the blood, examined the minutest
fibres of the human frame and unravelled the intri
cate mazes of the mind; they have analyzed the
economy of the globe, from the imperceptible fluid
that pervades, and the volatile air that surrounds it

INTRODUCTION . xliX
to the solid structure of the diamond enclosed within
its bowels. They have removed, with stiU greater
ingenuity or audacity of genius, the clouds which
concealed from our eyes, the mysteries of the divini
ty, and have calculated the movements, distance,
magnitude of the heavenly bodies. Particles that
were hidden, in their exiguity, from human per
ception, and worlds that were lost in the immensity
of space, have been brought within the focus of our
vision. There is no maxim of moral or pohtical
wisdom; no reasoning upon the prosperity and
downfaU of empires, that has not been reiterated
with all the vehemence of declamation and embel
lishments of rhetoric. There is no sea that has not
been crimsoned by the blood of their heroes, no
region ofthe earth that has not been covered by the,
monuments of their valor; and, in the midst of all
this display of genius and magnificence, the devoted
mass of these civUized communities have dragged out
their cheerless and inglorious existence in all the
wretchedness of sordid want. In the midst ftfphjpaso-.
phers and divines, they have been infamous for their
ignorance or their vices; have trembled under the
imprecations of the fanatic, or groaned under the
ash of the despot.
Afriongour ancestors of America, the immortal ivy
dfcl not encircle the brow of the orator, historian
VOL. I. c

Wt,

INTRODUCTION.

or poet; nor did the scholar grow pale, in nourishing
the eternal fire of his genius, at his midnight lamp.
There vvere no groves of the Academy, no walks of
the Tusculanum, where men of" purer clay and finer
mould" niight sometimes steal from the degenerate
crowd; but the peasant was taught, within the sanc
tuary of the cottage, a knowledge of his rights, his
personal dignity and independence, and acquired in
the occupations of an honest industry, the vigor and
resolution to defend them. By this humble disciphne,
they nourished into maturity and maintained in their
majesty those republican virtues, which, in the rest
of the w^orld, have been prostituted and disgraced.
Literature is perhaps the only object upon which
the eye of an American looks back to the land of
his ancestors with humiliation and regret. And few
subjects are, indeed, more worthy of exciting the sen
sibUity of national pride and emulation. Bravery, fide
lity, generosity and most other virtues ofthe heart, are
qualities common to all nations, and are not denied
to the inferior animals of creation. But to excel in
those faculties of mind — in imaginatiop and reason,
— which are the distinctive prerogatives of man, and
which indicate his nearest affinity with the divine in
telligence that formed him, is indeed the most gener
ous and noble object of human ambition . Praise can-

INTRODUCTION, li
not therefore be lavished with profusion upon those
individuals whose genius or patronage has extended
the interests of letters. For, these are, indeed, the
most rational and dignified pleasures of man. They
exalt his aff'ections above the grossness of sordid and
illiberal appetites, cheer him in the glooms of sohtude,
and fortify him against the rigours of adversity.
They convert the ambition of the opulent and idle
into the channel of utility, and, whilst they enliven
his moments of leisure, convey, with the blandish
ments of recreation, the sentiments of virtue to his
heart. If required to determine what nation amongst
mankind is most infamous, degraded, and calamitous,
we must, without hesitation, declare it to be that
which, abounding in luxury, is destitute of the bene
fits of a Uberal instruction.
The American, however, who is less dazzled by
the literary splendor, than cheered by the felicity of
his country, wiU perhaps find less reason to bewail
than rejoice at the absence of the muses, with the
evils that attend them. For him whose sentiments
are at variance with this .doctrine, there is an abun
dant consolation in the prospect ofthe future. From
the industry and dexterity with which the Americans
have already surmounted the obstacles, and fulfilled
the duties assigned them by Providence, it may be
safely infered that in the dispensations of her ethe-

lii INTRODUCTION.
real spirit, nature has used no special munificence
towards the inhabitants of the old world. The de
scendants of that people who transformed, in less
than two centuries, the vast desert to a region of
fertUity and abundance, and laid, with so much glory,
the foundations of their independence, are not desti
ned, to hold, in arras, in arts or in literature, a rank
of inferiority.
III. From the religion and literature of any por
tion of mankind, it is usual to infer their civil and
national virtues; and, by this criterion, we cannot
estimate unfavourably the social condition of our
forefathers. Their unblemished manners and do
mestic felicity are yet commemorated, by their sur
viving cotemporaries, with no ordinary transports of
admiration. Something is perhaps to be abated for
the natural disposition of man to rail at existing
modes and institutions, and for the acknowledged
privilege of old age to amplify the virtues and em
beUish the adventures of youth. They had, however,
reached, without doubt, that state of mediocrity at
which the experience of mankind obUges us to date
the supreme pohtical happiness of a nation; equally
remote from profusion and poverty, from the rude
ness of barbarism and the vices of civilized life; and,
without claiming the license of poetical enthusiasm,

INTRODUCTION. Uii
we may safely select this period as the golden age of
our country.
Many things, indeed, which are held in admiration
by mortals, they are said to have been ignorant or
destitute of The philosopher pale with meditation*,
the pedant with grave and conscious wisdom, the
refined and fascinating courtier, and accomplished
rake, were rarely found amongst them. No profes
sional cook, it is said, by the various arts of his cu
linary science, regaled the fastidious senses of the
epicurean, or appeased the incontinence of the glut
ton. The generous wine had not yet grown old in
the ceUars of their provident ancestors; and no dwel
lings, more splendid than the temples of the divinity,
with iraposing and magnificent columns, with imperi
al arches, and aspiring domes, arrested the eye of
the architect, or poured from their spacious halls
the supplicating crowd.
In compensation for these attendants of polished
life, they were exempt from the odious presence of
the prostitute, from fawning sycophants, and impe
rious lords; from publicans, farmers of revenue,
usurers, and all that tribe of police officers, who
flourish with such rank exuberance in luxurious
communities, and who, joining with the severity of
public impositions, their private rapacity, erase from
the heart of man the characters of his patriotism

hv INTRODUCTION.
and independence. There was sometimes found
among them, the illiterate but uncorrupted peasant,
the uncultivated rustic, the ungracious clown; rarely
the obsequious parasite, and never that exquisite
Contrast of repubhcan dignity, a fop. Their prisons
were untenanted. A capital crirae or pubhc execu
tion was a strange and memorable event. No va
grants, thieves, incendiaries, disgusted the feelings
by their mendicity, or interrupted the public tran
quiUity by their crimes. The magnificent palace
had not frowned upon the humble residence of po
verty; despised and neglected merit had not crouched
beneath the emblazoned insolence of exalted beg
gary- In other countries, orators extoUed, in more elo
quent phraseology, the blessings of liberty, and poets
sung, with a more florid imagination, the enjoyments
of a simple and innocent life. The lover, too, pour
ed in more melting strains, his transitory affection.
The grace, the urbanity, which, more than virtue,
subjugates the heart; the insinuating smiles and
gentle accents of adulation; the elegance and capti
vating negligence of dress that exalt the natural at
tractions of female beauty, give excitement to tbe
passions, refine and enervate the mind, were more
frequent amidst the specious idleness and magnifi
cence of princes. These things were, nevertheless,

INTRODUCTION. Iv
admired in America, and in populous and commer
cial cities were studied with a pernicious emulation.
Social intercourse was not, however, restrained
by formality or affectation, nor outraged by licen
tiousness; intrigue and sensuality were rarely dis
guised in sentiment, or lasciviousness in the attrac
tive sweetness of modesty. The maid walked alone,
amidst the darkness of the night, and exempt from
insult, in the streets of the metropolis. Parental af
fection, youthful innocence and conjugal fidelity
were secured by domestic industry, religion, and by
the absence of those artificial decoradons which ex
alt the imagination of man, and which heighten the
charms, at the same time they increase the dangers,
the weakness and lubricity of woman. Contempt
had not, as in most other countries, discouraged the
virtues, or aggravated the afflictions of poverty: nor
had industry surrendered to pride and arrogance the
prerogatives of her superiority. In the mansion of
the rich, unceremonious welcome presided at the
board of festivity; and the master was often found,
unoff'ended by the condition or complexion of his
servant, at the same table with him. In the dweUing
of the peasant, the liberal host, with officious se
dulity, dispensed the first fruits of his labour, and
cheered the stranger with the purest offerings of his
homely munificence.

Ivi INTRODUCTION.
Thus, our forefathers, uncorrupted by the delica
cies, uninfected by the diseases of satiety, stood firth
in defence of our freedom and independence; they
enjoyed, at tbe same time, beneath the " illustrious
roof" of the cottage, a happiness which their poste
rity shaU seek fbr in vain in the midst of their fas
tidious abundance. In the goblet of gold, Thyestes
drank the blood of his son; from the cup of earth,
Fabricius poured his libations to the gods.
IV. The nations of Europe having trodden the
same path from barbarisra to civihzation, the same
virtues and vices, the same vicissitudes of prosper
ous and adverse fortune have attended them. The
familiarity and antiquity of their intercourse have
produced a degree of insensibility to the lustre of
each others perfections, and have smoothed, at the
same time, the rude features of their' deformity.
The American people, from their sudden and recent
emergence among the nations of the earth, have
been observed with a more scrupulous penetration;
on the one side, with passions embittered by political
hostility, or by the prejudices with which monarchy
usually regards the institutions of a republic; on the
other, with aU that cordiahty of feeling which age
and generosity so wiUingly bestow upon youthful
merit. Their national virtues have therefore been

INTRODUCTION. Ivii
exalted, in some instances, by excessive panegyrics,
and more frequently have been assailed by extrava
gant censure. To rectify the opinions that prevaU
on this subject, a few remarks may not be superflu
ous, and with these we shall conclude the subject of
the present chapter.
Although the blood of all nations circulates in the
veins of the American people, it is nevertheless evi
dent, from an inspection of their history and political
institutions, that they are characterized by a greater
uniformity and originality of configuration, than are
any of the communities of Europe frora which they
are descended; and, that at the same time, they pos
sess, in no inferior degree, all those national virtues
upon which mankind have founded their most ho
norable titles to consideration.
In physical endowments, in size, strength, muscu
lar activity, and beauty of conformation, they are
allowed, by the concurring evidence of travellers,
a superiority over raost nations of the old world;
and that the intermixture of diff'erent people does
not operate any moral degeneracy of the race of
man, but has a contrary tendency, is evinced by
the example of many illustrious nations. The com
monwealths of Greece, Rome, and the kingdom of
Great Britain itself, where the faculties and vir-
VOL. I. H

lviii INTRODUCTION.
tues of human nature have appeared in their bright
est lustre, were, in their institution, more variously
compounded than the communities of the American
repubhc. Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which have long
been constituent parts of the British empire, retain
all the characters of distinct and independent na
tions; and the same diversity has existed for ages
in the provinces of France, of Germany and Spain.
In America, the elements of the population are
more equally and variously distributed; and con
tinual intercourse between the states, favoured by
their proximity and coincidence of language and
government, has effaced all those prominent cha
racteristics by which they may have been originally
distinguished. The facility afforded to strangers, and
to all the orders of society, of participating in the
administration and dignities of the state, necessarily
creates a patriotic attachment to the government, ex
cites the ambition of learning its existing customs
and laws; and, by a community of pursuits and so
cial feelings, the predilections ofthe foreigner are ex
tinguished; he becomes, in mind as in manners, in
corporated with the body ofthe nation. The Jews may
afford, of this subject, the most pertinent exempUfica
tion. Thistribeof people, who, in other countries, have
existed for centuries distinct and degraded, being re-

INTRODUCTION. lix
stored, in America, to the natural privileges of man,
are regenerated, and identified with the common mass
of the population. A uniformity of character is also
established in this country by the universal diffusion
of education; promoted by the establishraent of
schools, by the freedom of discussion, and, especially,
by the circulation of literary journals, which, being
read by all, create a reciprocity of feeling, and main
tain not only an equality, but identity of knowledge,
throughout aU the orders of the community. This
important object is, in most other countries, pre
vented by a disparity of rank, by the dependence and
illiteracy of the lower classes of the state. ^
The love of liberty, wherever the character of man
is not degraded from its dignity, wiU be ranked among
the most glorious attributes of a nation. And of the
Araericans, it may be asserted, without a violation of
truth, that they possessed this virtue beyond the exam
ple of raodern times. It was by the instigation of this
spirit that the first emigrants traversed the Atlantic,
and buried themselves in the depths of an inaccessible
solitude. For who, indeed, independent ofthe dangers
ofa rude and boisterous ocean, would have exchanged
the polished and civilized nations of Europe, fora re
gion terrific in climate and aspect, infested by disease,
possessed by savages and wUd beasts, unless in quest
of liberty.'*

lx INTRODUCTION.
The frequent discussions and contests in which
they were involved during their political connexion
with the parent country, completed the extinction
of whatever partialities they might have retained in
favour of monarchy, and strengthened their abhor
rence of tyranny. Their descendants were elevated
in the same sacred antipathies. They were sur
rounded on aU sides by the images of freedom; and,
when the happiness of their condition had solicited
the regards of royalty, she- appeared among them
devested of her iUusions, and clad in the habiliments
of oppression; and these, too, ofthe most disgusting
deformity. For, more than aU other species of des
potism, that which is exercised against colonies is
odious, insatiate, and insupportable; not only from tbe
natural haughtiness of metropohtan sovereignty, but
because reraote and subordinate states are usually
adrainistered by necessitous and rapacious gover
nors, placed beyond the sphere of observation, with
out any interest in the prosperity of the people;
because the tyrant is himself exempt from fear, al
most the only sentiment that providence has reserv
ed, in the perversity of human nature, to check the
insolence and mitigate the rigors of arbitrary power.
From the facility of possessing lands in a new
country, from the restrictions upon commerce and
manufactures, the emigrants became, for the most

INTRODUCTION. Ixi
part, cultivators of the earth. They were absolute
proprietors of their farms, exempt from taxes and
from all the memorials of dependence and feudal
servitude, feeling no subordination but to that Provi
dence from whom alone they derived their protec
tion. When remote from the contagion of corrupt
cities, and the influence of tyranny, man acquires, in
the pursuits of agriculture, an elevation of mind, a
sense of personal dignity, an impatience of human
control. Not only the arrogance and servility pro
duced by unequal fortune and rank, but even that
deference which is essential in the occupations of
artificers and merchants, is unknown to him.
Thus, the colonists, nurtured from the tenderness of
youth to the vigor of maturity, under the influence of
the most salutary discipline, off'ered at the altar of
liberty their richest oblations. And for the ardor and
innocence of their devotions, we may attest the un
intermitting vigilance and the valour with which they
protected their political privileges against foreign ag
gression, the blood and treasure they expended in the
vindication of their independence, and, finally, the
establishment of a government, which, for the free
dom and liberality of its institutions, has no paraUel
in the history of nations.
That they possessed fortitude, perseverance, cour
age and enterprise, in an eminent degree, may like-

Ixii

INTRODUCTION.

wise be affirmed upon the most incontrovertible testi
mony; upon the resolute spirit with which they encoun
tered the obstacles opposed to their migration and
settlements, and the valour displayed in the various
scenes of their civil and military transactions. To
the inhabitants of New England, especially, we
may apply the quality of perseverance even to its
most obstinate excess. Nothing obsequious or plas
tic is, at least, discovered in the constitutional ele
ments of that people; and " the land of steady habits,"
so frequently used to designate a portion of their
country, appears, from its history, to be no vague or
idle denomination. Throughout the annals of the
colonies, we find no instance in which they were in
timidated at the aspect of danger, or sunk into heart
less pusiUanimity under the malevolence of fortune.
Their passage across the Atlantic, the contiguity of
their settlements to the sea coast, and to the great
inland streams that traverse their country, inspired
and cherished that spirit of commercial intrepidity
which has enriched, and distinguished their succes
sors. The condition of the colonists, who were placed in
a perpetual community with dangers and difficulties,
required the full exercise of their mental and phy
sical faculties. At the sarae tirae that exertion be
stowed upon thera an athletic vigour and activity of

INTRODUCTION. Ixiii
frame, they acquired an inteUectual vivacity, and,
what is not less important in a national than indi
vidual character, the habit of pursuing, in their ope
rations, the admonitions of experience, and the con
victions of their own senses. In ancient and cultivated
countries, where the sarae modes of labour have been
pursued for ages, men are subservient to inveterate
habits, and generations with little improvementof their
moral energies, tread on successively, upon the beaten
track of those who preceded them. In America, the
labourer appeared upon a new scene of action. The
skill of the husbandman was no longer confined to
the cultivation of the soil. He was placed in a desert
coeval with the globe, and untouched by the axe; obli
ged, by the solitude of his condition, to construct his
own buildings, provide, by his own industry, the in
struments of his trade, and derive from his individual
resources, all the means of subsistence and conve
nience. The Americans may, therefore, be charac
terized without hesitation, in a degree not inferior
to any nation of the earth, by sagacity of mind and
soundness of understanding. Many inventions of
their ingenuity might be enumerated, which conduce
not only to the promotion of the useful arts, but bear
upon them the stamp of preeminent genius.
Of humanity — that quality that most adorns the
character of a nation, that vivifying spirit that per-

Ixiv INTRODUCTION.
vades, amplifies, animates aU the other virtues ofthe
heart, and, without which, even the love of liberty is
devested of its lustre and beneficence — an equal por
tion with the most civilized nations must be allowed
to the founders of the American republic. For a di
rect confirmation of this, we may refer to their civil
institutions, to the foundation of hospitals, schools,
charitable and religious associations, to their love of
peace, and the lenient spirit with which they prose
cuted their wars. In their legislation they mitigated
the severity of the criminal laws. The privUeges
of primogeniture, confiscation, exile, corruption of
blood, game laws, and aU those majestic monuments
of inhumanity, which have resisted the ravages of
tirae, and still subsist, with few exceptions, in the
governments of Europe, were abolished from their
system of jurisprudence. By the declaration of their
independence, by their federal and state constitutions,
all those political distinctions of rank and privilege,
which, in other countries, are confirmed by the solem
nity of law, consecrated by inveterate custom, and
which, at the same time, are repugnant to aU the
principles of natural justice, religion and huraanity,
were explicitly disclaimed; and the prerogatives of
the human race vindicated, as far, at least, as ser
viUty and pride can be controlled by human insti
tutions.

INTRODUCTION.

Ixv

Among the qualities by which nations are distin
guished there is yet one that, more than aU others, has
caUed into activity the virtuous energies ofthe human
mind, and to which all ages have gratuitously offered
their highest tribute of admiration. It is that kindred
affection, that is felt and not defined, by which man
is bound to the land of his nativity; — by which the
savage cUngs to his barren mountains, and the Sibe
rian shivers amidst the ice and eternal snows' of his
native desert, in contempt of the enjoyments of a
more genial clime — it is that sympathetic spirit which
impels him to rejoice, with a generous pride, at the
prosperity of his country, and, with a filial tender
ness, to weep over her misfortunes; which identifies
her glory with his individual honour, teaches him to
regard her errors, as the foibles of a mother, with
extenuation, and to off'er the wilhng sacrifice of his
Ufe in her defence. It is patriotism. A feeling that is
interwoven with the most intimate contexture, and
comprehends, it is said, aU the honest affections and
charities of the human heart.* To this virtue our
ancestors have the most honorable and indispu
table titles; founded upon the acknowledged fideli
ty and bravery with which, on all occasions, they
defended their country, upon their sensibility to na-
* Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, familiares; sed
omnes omnium caritates patria una complexa est. Cicero.
VOL. I. I

Ixvi INTRODUCTION.
tional insult, their devotion to liberty, and, above all,
upon that beneficent and paternal regard, with which
they consulted, at the hazard of their individual re
pose, their fortunes, and their lives, the glory and
happiness of their posterity.
I have now considered most of those radical vir
tues upon which men usually vindicate their claims
to national preeminence; and have endeavoured to
estimate, without amplification, the degree of excel
lence with which they raay be applied to the Ameri
can people. That the radiance of these virtues is, in
many instances, clouded by vices, must, at the same
tirae, be admitted; for, he who clairas for his country
an exemption from the infirmities of human nature,
is justly subject to the imputation of arrogance and
vanity. It will, however, be readily confessed, that vi
ces are yet practised among the Americans with com
parative moderation, and there are, perhaps none
that appear with characteristic malignity sufficient
to deform the symmetry of the features with which I
have represented them. No race of people have, in
deed, more substantial reason to be proud of the con
dition of their birth, if man could exult with propri
ety in the enjoyment of an accidental prerogative, or
the transitory felicity of this world. But, whoever
will consider how soon the noblest faculties are per
verted, how easily the most generous virtues yield

INTRODUCTION. Ixvii
to the insidious approaches of temptation, the ten
dency of liberty to licentiousness, of prosperity to
arrogance and folly, wUl find less cause of exulta
tion at the privileges than of solicitude for the fate of
his country.

CHAPTER H.
Of the Civil Institutions qf the Colonists, and their
Political Relations vnth the Mother Country.
The annals of our country do not furnish those bril
liant transactions or vicissitudes, which animate the
narrations of the historian or which rouse and keep
ahve the admiration of the reader. Its original oc
curences have not yet acquired the reverence of age;
they are likewise unattended by those marvellous
events, by which, the chronicles of nations that are
lost in the mazes of antiquity or ignorance are usually
diversified and distinguished.
The Greeks, to enliven the duH scenes of their in
fant story, clad their sturdy ancestors in the skins of
wUd beasts, fed them upon acorns, and traced them
to their subterraneous caverns; or, to supply the bar
renness of incidents, sent forth, in the armour of in-
rincibiUty, a Hercules or a Theseus to combat the fa-

Ixx INTRODUCTION.
bled monsters ofthe desert. The Romans, to gratity
their national pride, traced their genealogy to the
gods, and enlisted the interests of heaven in the
foundation of their mighty empire. The historians
of modern Europe have used this hcense, which the
same obscurity of origin affords them, with no less ge
nius and ingenuity. They have amused or overwhel
med us with the details of ravage and devastation
which outstrip the fury of the tempest, or exceed in
terror the convulsions of the earthquake. Those sa
vage tribes, which shrunk, in the forests of Germa
ny, from the tenth legion of Caesar, are magnified
to a nation of heroes; and rayriads of barbarians
nourished amidst the uncultivated and barren re
gions of the north, have been set loose, by the prolific
fancy of these writers, in massacre and havoc, upon
the civihzed world.
But the history of the origin of our country is not
less instructive, though less amusing, by being limited
to the simplicity of truth. In this dreary region, the
American citizen is to investigate the principles of
his existing laws, or to trace to their elements the in
stitutions of his liberty, and observe by what cultiva
tion and care of his ancestors, the seeds of his inde
pendence have grown up and ripened into maturity.
He derives, at the same time, from their example,
from their virtues and errors those salutary lessons

INTRODUCTION. Ixxi
of instruction, upon which depends the duration of
his poUtical freedom. For, by the same arts, by
which liberty is vindicated, it must be propagated
and maintained. And no people are perhaps so prone
to become the instruments of tyranny, or sink with
more headlong precipitation into the abyss of cor
ruption than those who have lived under the institu
tions of a republic. Under the dominion of a foreign
prince, a priest holds the sceptre ofthe Caesars; the
subjects of a despot are seated upon the sacred ashes
of Sparta.
Having, in the preceding chapter, enumerated the
principal causes which induced the first settlement of
the colonies, with such remarks as were thought most
pertinent to illustrate the character of the inhabitants,
the design of the present and succeeding ones is to
treat concisely of their civil institutions and the po
litical relations that subsisted between them and the
mother country, the wars they achieved, and the
spirit with which they sustained them.
A right of possession over the territories ofthe new
world was assumed amongst the sovereigns of Europe
by preoccupancy or priority of discovery. By some it
was derived from the munificence of the pope, who
asserted a divine right to these unappropriated re
gions of the earth, as representative of heaven. On
the former of these titles, the king of England estab-

IXXU INTRODUCTION.
Ushed his dominions in America. The lands of this vast
country were considered as the exclusive property
of the crown, placed without the precincts of the
realm and exempt from parhamentary jurisdiction or
control. They were apportioned by the royal authori
ty, and confered successively upon corporations and
individuals, to be held by them under the denomina
tion of proprietors, and in subordination to the king
only as their supreme sovereign and lord.
Such an appropriation of these territories, was
not founded upon any principle of human reason or
justice, but upon the tyrannical doctrine ofthe feudal
tenures, introduced by the Norman conquest, and
which, at this period, was a fiction even in Enghsh
law, " that the king is the universal lord and original
proprietor of aU the lands in his kingdom." The
colonists, whose occupancy and personal labour had
given to themselves the most justifiable right to this
country, entertaining but general notions of property
and little skiUed in the niceties of law, unconsciously
admitted in their first settlements this extension of
the feudal system, and acquiesced in the absurd title
of their monarch. By usage it was ripened into an
established prerogative, and was employed, in various
instances, by an exorbitant increase of the price of
land or a refusal of the petitions for it, to arrest

INTRODUCTION. IxxiU
the progress of population in America. But it is
easy to conceive that the bold adventurers, who
first spread their colonies over a surface of the globe,
so distant, so obscure, so desolate, were not induced
into the enterprize, for institutions less liberal, a go
vernment less free, or privUeges less sacred, than those
they aspired to, or abandoned in their native country.
As a prelude to their emigration, charters were, there
fore, required ofthe king, in which not only was the
secure possession of the soil conveyed to themselves,
their heirs and successors forever, but the frame and
powers of government, and mode of administration
were defined, and aU those principles of liberty,
deemed most essential in the British constitution,
explicitly recognised.
These charters, though granted to communities
distinct and independent of each other, were, never
theless, substantially the same; and their political in
stitutions bore to those of England as near a confor
mity as the nature of a colonial government could
admit. To a president or governor, who held his of
fice at the discretion of the king, was delegated aU
the executive, judicial, and military authority resid
ing in the crown . The governor, his assistants, with
the representatives of the freemen, composed the
legislative council, and were invested with all the
powers of legislation inherent in the parliament, re-
VOL. I. K

Ixxiv INTRODUCTION.
Strained only from such acts as were repugnant to
the laws and constitution of England.
The settlements of New England were origin
ally undertaken at a time of faction and turbulence,
without a premeditated plan of colonization, and
were exempt from the interposition, care and cogni
zance of the mother country. During this salutary
neglect, absolved from external subjection, and pro
fiting by the immunities of their invisibility they had
not only established in their different communities in
dependent sovereign republics, but had acquired those
habits of independence, and imbibed that inextin
guishable spirit of freedom, which afterwards the
interposing power of Great Britain was unable to
mitigate or control. AU officers, civil and military,
were chosen by the suffrage of the inhabitants. The
executive power was vested in a governor, deputy
and assistants, the legislative in a general court, com
posed of the above and the freemen of the common
wealth. This country, which had been acquired by the la
bour, lives, and fortunes of these adventurers, was
afterwards, by their prince, distributed araong his
favourites, or sold to companies and individuals who
had contributed nothing to the foundation of it. The
form of governraent already established was, howe
ver, by their original charters, permitted to subsist;

INTRODUCTION. IXXV
and Connecticut, by a pertinacious defence of her
privileges, and by favoring heaven, retained her free
institutions down to the period of her independence.
The haughty and high-spirited republicans of Mas
sachusetts yielded, in 1692, with a reluctant and
indignant submission, the choice of their governor to
the crown. But they asserted and maintained with
so great obstinacy the influence of their colonial le
gislature that they circumscribed this authority ofthe
king, and rendered it, in some degree, impotent and
innoxious to the liberties of the province.
Such, in their original estabhshments, were the po
htical institutions of the colonists and their primitive
relations with the mother country. They had migra
ted to America with all the attributes of freemen,
and under the sanction of that eternal privilege which
nature has impartially conferred upon thehumanrace.
They departed, because their happiness required
it, from the land in which accident and not choice
had determined their birth. They sought a habita
tion in America, as their Saxon ancestors in the is
land of Britain, and like them were absolved, by the
principles of natural justice, frora aU claims of depen
dance or superiority asserted over them by that coun
try from which they had migrated. Their own blood
was spilt in acquiring lands for their settlement, their
own fprtunes expended in making that settlement

Ixxvi INTRODUCTION.
effectual; " for themselves they fought, for themselves
they conquered, and for themselves alone they had a
right to hold their dominions," But a portion of this
natural sovereignty they had, from ignorance, impro
vidence, or convenience, surrendered to the feudal
pretensions of the English monarchy, retaining,
however, those rights which were inherent in them,
as citizens of the British empire in Europe,
Charles the first, who ruled his native kingdom
with the violence of a despot, extended also the arm
of tyranny to his foreign dominions. Without regard
to the natural rights of the colonists or the privile
ges of their charters, he had conceived, in the mad
assumption ofhis regal prerogatives, that these distant
countries were to be governed as provinces under ab
solute subjection to the crown. He made laws, ordi
nances, constitutions, without their participation. He
appointed royal commissioners who were erected into
a council for the plantations, and a supreme court of
appeal for the colonial governments, to enforce obe
dience to his arbitrary decrees. This commission was
annuUed at the death of that profligate monarch, but
the same system of violence descended to his succes
sors. It was exercised with lenity, during the com
monwealth, and resumed, at the restoration, with all
the rage and insolence of tyranny.

INTRODUCTION. IXXvU
After the revolution, when the principles of liber
ty were better understood and defined, this assump
tion of authority by the king and his privy council to
make laws for British subjects, even in America, was
urged with diffidence, or disguised in more cautious
and insidious formalities. The same unconstitutional
power was afterwards delegated, on various occa
sions, to the provincial governors, and a clause was
uniformly annexed to their commissions, asserting
the unhmited authority of the crown.
These acts of usurpation first devised by the king
in his individual capacity, and afterwards exerted by
the commonwealth without the intervention of royal
ty, were consummated at the reestabhshment of the
monarchy by the collective sovereignty of king, lords,
and commons.
All communication of the royal power with the
other branches of the legislature was repugnant to
the charters and aUegiance ofthe colonies; but, being
admitted, necessarily established a new connexion
of rights and obligations. From that moment the
American people were no longer a distinct but a
coherent and indivisible part of the British empire;
and not having forfeited, by the act of' migration,
their constitutional liberties, were entitled to a parti
cipation in the legislative authority destined to govern
them. Since, by the very spirit of that constitution
to which the parliament itself owed its existence,

Ixxviu INTRODUCTION,
every individual ofthe realm, either in person or by his
representatives, was supposed to be present in this
great councU ofthe nation. And the right of partici
pation, when considered with regard to the imposition
of internal taxes, became sacred and inviolable. For,
in this act of legislation, the king and lords were but
consentient authorities. It was confined to the agency
ofthe commons as the immediate deputies ofthe peo
ple, who knowing more intimately the condition and
interests of the cities and counties they were chosen
to represent, were the natural protectors of the pos
sessions and industry of the kingdom.
On the power of refusing or granting money, the
dignity, preeminence, even the existence ofthe house
of commons reposed. It was on this solid basis that
thepeople had raised, by the labour of many centuries,
and the expense of much blood, an inexpugnable bar
rier against the domineering arabition of their kings.
But they who with so much spirit and intripidity had
vindicated their own liberty, were wUling to encroach
upon that of others. Over their kinsmen of America,
they usurped a jurisdiction which they had them
selves disclaimed by rebellion, and attempted to ap
propriate those privileges which they had proclaimed
as the birthright of Englishmen, and which they had
consecrated by the death or expulsion of their sove-
reigns and by the blood of a civil war.

INTRODUCTION. Ixxix
In the exercise of this supreme jurisdiction ofpar
liament in the administration of the provinces, there
do not occur, unless we may except some tran
sient ordinance to gratify local or reUgious partiali
ties, any acts tending to confer on them dignity or
honour, or to promote their prosperity. It is the in
famous and distinguishing characteristic of this au
thority to have been exerted only in measures of seve
rity and oppression, in odious and impotent attempts
to repress industry, extinguish liberty, and extort obe
dience to usurped and despotic power. However
conspicuous in the eyes of mankind may appear this
august council of the British nation, for wisdom, elo
quence, and devotion to freedom, however magnani
mous in their transactions with the rest of the world,
the records of their colonial administration will pre
sent to the eyes of future generations, but the gloomy
naratives of iniquity and folly, of contemptuous inso
lence or obdurate insensibihty. Like the gods of
Epicurus they seem, in their ambrosial felicity, to
have been regardless of their children, unless, to in
spire them with humihty and awe, they sometimes
bombarded them with thunder-bolts, or terrified them
with storms.
During the tender years of their infancy, exposed
in a wUd, perilous and solitary region, where their
condition required the consoling cares of maternity,
they were then too distant and too inconsiderable to

Ixxx INTRODUCTION.
arrest observation amidst the magnificent politics of
Europe. When they had smoothed the desert, and
by the hard hand of indefatigable toil, had drawn
from its bosom abundant nourishment, when com
merce and arts had lent their aid to the labours of
the husbandman, they became then the objects of
regard, and their rights and privileges a subject of
discussion. The first impressions received by the British par
liament in weighing the destinies of these colonies
was gloomy and inauspicious. Violent fears were
manifested by their most eminent politicians, that the
prosperity of the new world and the temptations to
emigrate to it, would exhaust the vigour of the mo
ther country. Measures were therefore devised, by
public writings, by restraints on emigration, by or
dinances and acts of parliaraent to counteract an evil
so portentous.
Apprehensions of a rivalry in trade afforded a se
cond cause of alarm much less visionary and phantas-
tic; and against the natural rights of free commerce,
which the colonies possessed with all parts of the
world, the parliament commenced, by the most fla
grant acts of injustice, the career of her ungenerous
and iUiberal hostility. From the insular situation of
Great Britain, the genius and disposition of her in
habitants, it is upon her trade and maritime strength

INTRODUCTION. IxXXl
that depend the security and preeminence of her
empire;, and to monopohze the commerce of the
world, has employed all the nerves of her warriors and
engrossed aU the speculations of her statesmen. The
maintenance of her commercial superiority, she re
gards as a law of self preservation, in which it is per
mitted not only to violate, without criminaUty, the
equal rights of foreign nations, but without injury or
compunction the personal liberly of her own subjects.
The sensibility of her legislators is, therefore, on this
subject, more than all others, prompt and exquisite,
and their sagacity acute and providential.
As early as 1650, under the commonwealth, all
foreign nations were forbidden, by act ofparliament,
to trade with the English plantations of America,
which were now to be excluded from the commerce
of the whole world, except of the island of Great
Britain. This arbitrary law was, indeed, soon after
wards revoked in favour of the petitions and impor
tunities of the coibnists; but on the accession of
Charles the second to the throne, the same tyran
nical limitations, with a more gradual and unrelent
ing severity, were imposed upon them. Among the
earhest transactions of his reign, a duty was laid
upon aU merchandize exported from or imported
into the English colonial dominions. This regulation
was soon followed by a series of similar restrictions,
VOL. I. L

Ixxxii INTRODUCTION.
and at last by the famous navigation act, by which the
whole commerce of the colonies, with the exception
of some enumerated commodities that could not be
furnished or received by the mother country, was
restricted to English vessels, to be navigated by
Englishraen, and transported to those countries only
belonging to the English crown. By this exclusive
privilege of American commerce, the British mer
chants were enabled to raise the price of their com
modities and diminish that of the colonial produce
according to the dictates of their avarice. And they
indulged in this licence with no ordinary rapacity.
Even the " enumerated articles," it was not permit
ted to carry to any port to the northward of Cape
Finisterre; and the surplus produce, which remained
from the consumption of the English market, was
nevertheless made subservient to the interest of the
British traders. It was transported, according to ithe
injunctions ofthe law, to their ports; it was estima
ted at their discretion, and being shipped from
thence to foreign countries, was sold for their exclu
sive profit, at its full value.
When the parliament, by these arbitrary measures,
had regulated, as it was called, the commerce ofthe
American states; proceeding one step further, she
interposed her sovereignty in limiting their internal
rights, in modifying their civil and municipal institu-

INTRODUCTION. IxXXui
tions. Acts were successively passed for regulating
their money, changing the nature of estates, and of
evidence in the courts of common law; for dissolving
legislative bodies, taking away their charters, abolish
ing their laws, and altering fundamentally the forms
of their government.
An object which kindled in England an early soli
citude, was the prohibition of colonial manufactures.
This measure, recommended by political writers,
was enforced by the legislature with unintermitting
vigilance; not frora any fear of rival industry in the
arts, which, from the scarcity of labourers and the
facility of repressing American fabrics by a forc
ed importation, was sufficiently precluded; nor was
it altogether from a spirit of commercial cupidity;
but in conformity with the general design of re
taining the provincial governments in subjection to
the absolute wiU of the mother country. And the
most potent expedient for this purpose was to involve
them in a dependence for the primary necessities of
life. It required less sagacity than usually distinguished
the councils of the British nation to foresee that her
colonies of America, by their natural growth, were
destined to become a great and powerful empire; and
that the inhabitants of a vast continent nursed in the
sentiments of political freedom, and hardened by the

Ixxxiv INTRODUCTION.
occupations of a laborious industry, must, at no very
distant period, disdain subjection to the petty domi
nions of an island. Of this event they had already
given them frequent and ominous indications. The
parliament, therefore, jealous of her authority, and
indignant at this anticipated diminution of it, sought,
as a necessary precaution, to repress the exuberance
of their prosperity. It was in obedience to this pohcy
that, by refusing the appropriation of lands, she re
strained the extension of their settlements towards
the west, and confined them, as far as possible, to the
vicinity of the sea coast, where they might be more
accessible to her power and subservient to her will;
that she impeded the propagation of knowledge
through the medium ofthe press; and endeavoured
to counteract all projects or principles of union
amongst them, even when a confederacy of the dif
ferent provinces, against the depredations of the sa
vages and ambitious designs of the French, seemed
essential to their mutual protection. She assumed
also, as if to remind them of the inferiority of their
condition, a tone of haughtiness in the assertion of
her pretensions. But this illiberal spirit of hostility
served only to dissolve the ties of confidence and
aff'ection, to provoke suspicion; and, by giving con
tinual impulse to the spirit of liberty, to precipitate
that event it was designed to prevent.

INTRODUCTION, IxXXV
In the fifth year ofthe reign of George the second
an act was passed, by which American subjects were
forbidden to make hats for themselves of the furs of
their own country — And shall posterity then ask why
the spirit of their forefathers was excited to rebeUion?
In what conquered province ofa Roman tyrant shall
they seek an act of despotism more insolent! in what
region of abject slaves, a state of dependence more
infamous and servile! — By another act of the same
reign, the iron taken from the sofl of their own pos
sessions, they were forbidden to manufacture; and
notwithstanding its utihty in the purposes of husban
dry, the difficulties of its transportation, they were
constrained, nevertheless, with aU the incumbrances
of insurance, commission, freight and duties, to bear
it beyond an ocean of one thousand leagues, and
back to the original place of its departure, to support
the machinery of the island of Great Britain.
These encroachments upon their liberties, the
colonists, even in their humble beginnings, and when
the instruments of tyranny were armed with omnipo
tent power, opposed with a resolute and dignified spi
rit. Their petitions and addresses to the throne, the
remonstances and resolutions of their provincial as
semblies, were temperate, but decisive and magnani
mous, equally remote from insolence and supplica-

Ixxxvi INTRODUCTION.
tion, and were, at the same tirae, direct and prophetic
revelations of their future independence.
New England and Virginia, from the priority of
their settlements, and a concurrence of accidental
causes, had attained a preeminence of rank amongst
the other provinces. Their example was, therefore,
the more contagious and formidable, and their trans
gressions the more enormous; they became, on this
account, the immediate objects of royal indignation.
Massachusetts, beyond the rest, was accounted mu
tinous and refractory. She was accused of aiming at
independence, of a contempt of sovereign authority,
a disregard of the acts of navigation, and of refusing
to acknowledge the appellate jurisdiction of the par
Uament, ot- of the king in council, in the administra
tion of justice.
To hear and determine these and other offences
of less magnitude, and at the same time to 'impress
the colonies with a sense of their own impotence
and inferiority, commissioners were, in 1664, ap
pointed by Charles the second and despatched, with
great pomp and ceremony, to America. These re
presentatives of the crown having arrived in Boston,
were received with marks of sullen displeasure.
Pubhc business was suspended, a day of fasting
and prayer was decreed thVoughout the whole pro
vince to " implore the mercy of heaven under their

INTRODUCTION. IxXXvii
many distractions and troubles." The general court
was convened, and a resolution passed, in which
it was declared, " that they would bear true faith
and allegiance to his majesty, and adhere to their
patent, which they had obtained so dearly and
had enjoyed so long under the undoubted rights of
God and man." They agreed then an address to the
crown, in which, having enumerated their privUe
ges, the apprehensions they entertained of danger
to their liberties, they concluded in these words,
" Let our government live, our patent live, let our
magistrates live, so shall we aU have further cause
to say from our hearts, let the king live forever."
The royal judges, with a pompous exhibition of
authority, proceeded then to take cognizance of such
offences as appertained to their office, when a com
munication was received from the general court, in
which the members declared that although this inter
position ofthe royal power was a raanifest intrusion
upon the independence or their legislature, the re
presentatives of their sovereign were entitled to re
spect, and should receive it; but, at the same time,
their duty to their fellow subjects, forbid them to
yield to any pretensions incompatible with the liberty
and dignity of their province. Discussions ensued,
and the proceedings were soon involved in confusion.

Ixxxviii INTRODUCTION.
Seeing the futility of threats, of arguments, and af
fected moderation, by which they had successively
endeavoured to establish their authority, the commis
sioners atterapted at length a practical assertion ofit.
An inquiry was instituted against the governor of
the province and his associates, and the parties were
sumraoned to appear immediately before the royal
tribunal. But their higb minded antagonists, disdain
ful of this insolent exertion of arbitrary power,
caused their disapprobation to be proclaimed by the
sound of a trumpet; and declared, at the same tirae,
by a publick manifesto, " that in duty to God, to their
sovereign, and to their fellow subjects, they were re
solved to resist these tyrannical proceedings, and all
who should countenance or abet them."
The commissioners unable to effect the objects
of their mission, and indignant at the rude opposition
they had encountered, returned to England, with
furious threats of royal vengeance against these in
solent and disobedient subjects. The king, when
inforraed of these transactions, ordered the general
court to send agents to explain, and make reparation
of their offences; which summons, by aff'ecting to
disbelieve its authenticity, they cunningly evaded;
and by a succession of domestic calamities, the pro
jects of the king over his transatlantic dominions
were, fbr some years, suspended.

INTRODUCTION. Ixxxix
In 1676 the charges against Massachusetts weYe
renewed with various appendages to her former
transgressions. A quo wan^anto was issued against her
charter, and it vvas decreed in the high court of
chancery, " that her letters patent and the enrolment
thereof should be cancelled." — As Charles did not
survive this decree but a short period, the execution
of it was left for his successor, a prince of a more
implacable temper and no less hostUe to the liberties
of the provinces. But a short time was necessary to
verify the gloomy presages that had been formed ofhis
administration. To humble the colonists and reduce
them to an entire subjection to the crown appears to
have been among the most favourite projects of this
monarch. Commissioners were first appointed for
the execution ofhis designs, but being disapproved
for the indulgence and lenity of their measures, were
discontinued, and Sir Edmond Andros, governor of
New York, a personage less susceptible of tender
impressions, and a more fit and obsequious instru
ment of a tyrant, was substituted in their place, with
the magnificent title of captain general and vice ad
miral ofthe province of New England.
This infamous viceroy, with no less cruelty and
rapacity, but less courage than Verres, began his
administration by studied indignities off'ered to the
colonial legislatures, by restrictions upon commerce,
VOL. I. M

xc INTRODUCTION.
the imposition of taxes, and many rigorous and im
politic regulations. The government of Rhode Island
was dissolved; Connecticuf annexed to Massachu
setts, and writs were issued for the purpose^ of can
ceUing all the charters that yet remained in validity,
and military force was employed to resist opposition.
The colonists petitioned, remonstrated, threatened;
and, at length, weary of the opprobrious dominion
of this frantic and domineering satrap, burst into
open resistance. The people by a simultaneous im
pulse, throughout the whole town of Boston, ^-ose in
arms. The drums were beaten in every quarter.
Boys, with clubs in their hands, were seen animating
each other to battle. Old men, feeling again the fires
of their youth, by their presence, expressions, ges
tures, encouraged their offspring to this honorable
rebelhon. The governor was seized, and, with fifty
of his most obnoxious adherents, imprisoned. The
administration was resumed by the former magis
trates, and tranquiUity restored to the province.
The British government had asserted in 1692, her
sovereignty over the people of Massachusetts, by the
usurped nomination of their governor; but in leaving
to the discretion of their legislature the provision of
his salary, had neglected one of the objects most
essential to the strength and dignity of this office.
When experience had discovered the effect of this

INTRODUCTION. XCi
improvident omission, instructions were transmitted
to the province, requiring that an adequate and per
manent support should be affixed to the charge of
the governor, of the judges and other officers ofthe
crown. The requisition was rejected, and a contro
versy arose from this provocation, that for several
years, by the rancour and hostility with which it was
sustained, excluded almost every other object of le
gislation. As the history of this contest exhibits, by
a very pertinent example, the temper and spirit ofthe
colonists, at that early period, the suspicion and so
licitude with which they watched over the protection
of their liberties, the details of it are not unworthy
of being treasured in the memory of their posterity.
The principles of good government require, indeed,
that the executive and judicial offices, especially in
popular comraunites, be independent of the legisla
tive; but, in these subordinate states, remote from
the immediate influence of the crown, and adminis
tered frequently by rapacious governors, without a
natural connexion of interest with the country, a
check upon their authority was considered a neces
sary security against the abuses of their power, and
raisappUcation of the public money.
The first representations on this subject were made
in 1721, and during the heat of other altercations, to
the house of representatives. It was replied by that

XCII INTRODUCTION.
assembly "that they humbly conceived the sum grant
ed to their governor, an honorable allowance, and the
affair of setfling salaries being a matter of great
weight and whoUy new to the house, and many of
their members being absent, they did not think it
proper to enter upon the consideration ofit; but desi
red that the court might rise. The subject, in the
succeeding sessions, was urged with great importu
nity, and rejected with the same peremptory disap
probation; and the discussion soon rose to such a
heat of animosity as to preclude aU hopes of conces
sion on either part. The governor, to obtain a deci
sion on this and other points of dissention, went over
to England. His pretensions were confirmed. An
explanatory charter, defining explicitly the powers
of the governor, was directed to the general court,
with an intimation at the same tirae that on refusal
of their sanction, the whole controversy would be
submitted to the investigation of parliament; and the
result would be the entire vacation of their charter.
On meeting the assembly, in 1728, governor Bur
net, who was now for the first time appointed to that
office, submitted the king's orders, requiring that the
support of the executive power should no longer de
pend upon the temporary and arbitrary will of the
legislature. He declared also his resolution to adhere
implicitly to the letter of his instructions. After

INTRODUCTION. XCIU
dehberation, the house resolved that, in duty to their
province and constituents, they could not consent to
this invasion of their privileges; a message was then
sent to the governor declaring the motives and prin
ciples of their refusal, and requesting that the court
might be adjourned. It was replied that a recess
could not be granted before the termination of the
business for which they were convened. An answer
was also returned by the governor, detaUing, with
much asperity of language, thereasons in support of
his pretentions. He repeated his determination not
to deviate from his instructions, and advised the
court not to provoke, from the vengeance of the
British government, a dissolution of their charter.
These threats and admonitions produced only from
the representatives, a renewal of their former decla
ration, not to recede from the ground they had as
sumed. A statement of the whole controversy was
then prepared and transmitted throughout the several
towns of the province, to justify their non-compliance
with the orders of the king; in the conclusion of
which the arguments against a definite salary are
recapitulated as follows:
First, because it is an untrodden path which nei
ther we nor our predecessors have gone in, and we
cannot certainly foresee the many dangers that may

xciv INTRODUCTION .
be in it, nor can we depart from that way which has
been found safe and comfortable.
Secondly, because it is the undoubted right of all
Englishmen, by magna charta, to raise and dispose
of money for the public service, of their own free
accord, without compulsion.
Thirdly, because it must necessarily lessen the dig
nity and freedom of the house of representatives, in
making acts and raising and applying taxes, and
consequently cannot be thought a proper method to
preserve that balance in the three branches of the le
gislature which seems necessary to form, maintain,
and uphold the constitution.
Fourthly, because the charter fully empowers the,
general assembly to make such laws as they shall
judge for the good and welfare ofthe inhabitants; and
if they, or any part ofthem, judge this not to be for
their good, they neither ought nor could comply with it;
for, as to act beyond or without the powers granted in
the charter might justly incur the king's displeasure,
so not to act up and agreeably to those powers, might
justly be deemed a betraying of the rights and privi
leges therein granted; and if they should give up this
right they would open a door to many other inconve
niences. The passions excited by the long agitation of this
contest, had now spread throughout the whole pro-

INTRODUCTION. XCV
vince. A general meeting of the inhabitants of Bos
ton, convened for that purpose, passed a vote una
nimously, against fixing the salary of the governor.
In consequence of which the court was adjourned,
to meet immediately at Salem, where their delibe
rations, it was supposed, would be less influenced by
the pubhc excitement. But the members of this as
sembly, who possessed within themselves the prin
ciples of action, were not to be affected by a change
of place or external objects. A memorial was now
prepared by them to the king stating the motives of
their opposition, and praying a mitigation of the
royal orders. Agents were appointed to bear their
despatches and represent them in England. Tbe
govemor refused to concur in the vote passed to de
fray their expense. It was furnished by subscription
among the merchants of Boston. A report of the
board of trade, in disapprobation of their measures,
was, soon afterwards, transmitted to the court frora
these agents, with the assurance at the same time
that by a farther opposition to the king's orders, the
aff'air would, no doubt, be carried before parliaraent.
But, "it is better," they added, "that the liberties
of the people be taken from thera than given up by
theraselves." Propositions continued to be made alternately by
each party and rejected. In every message of the

XCVI INTRODUCTION.
colonists their usual resolution was repeated; not to
renounce the venerable privileges of their ancestors,
or depart from the sacred authority of the charter.
The governor, at length, wearied of fruitless expedi
ents, and despairing of success, consented with the
approbation of the crown, to receive the discretiona
ry sum off'ered by the assembly, reserving the right
to insist, in future, upon their comphance with the
king's instructions. This approach to an accommo
dation was cheerfully hailed by the court, and the
controversy was not afterwards renewed until the
period of the revolution.
These prelusive contests for freedom in America
are indeed humble, but they are precious monuments
of our national glory. To our ancestors they are im
perishable titles to veneration; and afford, at the
same time, to their descendants, a solemn and salu
tary admonition. WhUst the sacred spirit which
impelled them to action shall subsist unextinguished
among the mass of mankind, shall enlighten the in
telligence and animate the hearts of their statesmen,
the projects of ambition shall have bounds, and the
tyrant shall sit uneasy upon his throne.
II. The executive and judiciary institutions of
America, no less than the legislative, were involved
in intricacy and confusion. To the governors were
delegated, by the crown, the erection of courts and

INTRODUCTION . XCVU
the appointment of the judges. The former of these
privileges was contested, and being claimed as the
prerogative of the provincial legislatures, was the
source of perpetual dissension. The common law of
England, vyith such statutes as preceded the estab
lishment of the colonies, constituted the basis of their
jurisprudence; but the extent of the apphcation of
these laws and customs, not being determined with
precision, and being variously modified by the colo'
nial courts, which were distinct and independent of
each other, rendered the judicial proceedings intri
cate, capricious and uncertain. No courts of equity
or appeal aff'orded redress to the subject against ini
quitous decisions, or reconcUed the discordant prin
ciples which impeded the administration of justice.
The powers of chancery were, in some instances,
vested in the governors, who being seldom trained
to the profession ofthe law, were incompetent to that
high office. An appeal lay in all cases to the par
liament, or to the king in council, which was dis
claimed in the colonies, from its inconvenience and
incompatibility with the liberties ofthe people. The
modes of procedure and formalities of pleading
were modeUed upon those of the mother country. The
colonists appear, however, to have pursued, with no
servile imitation, the practice of the English courts,
and to have reverenced the authority of English
VOL. I. N

xcvm INTRODUCTION.
jurisconsults with a less implicit devotion, than has
been manifested by their successors since the era
of their independence.
III. The colonies being broken into smaU and
separate communities, over an immense surface of
territory, their disconnected force was of conse
quence inadequate to any extensive military opera
tions. Their early struggles against the natives ofthe
country were almost confined to individual exertion;
and of these the mother country was, for the most
part, an indifferent spectator. No common principle
of union, except in the contiguous provinces of New
England, subsisted among them. A dissociable
temper, was originally favoured by the difficulty of
communication, and by religious antipathies, and
after the diminution of these causes, was studiously
fomented by Great Britain, as the surest means by
which she might retain these remote subjects in a
pacific subordination to her interest and wiU. It does
not comport with the pohcy of metropoUtan govern
ments to inspire into their colonial subjects a spirit
of military ambition. To retain man in ignorance, of
his strength, as well as of his rights, is essential to
his subjection.
The suprerae military command was delegated by
the king to the royal governors, who became the ob
sequious instruments of his designs, and were sus-

INTRODUCTION, XCIX
pended or recalled when they ceased to be so. These
men were generally unskilled in war, were regarded
with Uttle affection by the colonists, and feeling
themselves but slender attachments for a people
among whom their residence was temporary, no
important enterprize was attempted, no mUitary sub
ordination, no regular system of operations was es
tablished; and the undiscipUned valour ofthe inhabi
tants, at least sufficient, under a discreet guidance,
for their security, was, for the most part, dissipated
in turbulence or lost in fruitless impetuosity.
When the French power had grown around them
to a dangerous magnitude, and threatened not only
the peace and safety of the inhabitants, but the ex
istence of the British possessions, these evUs were
then felt. As a remedy, it was proposed, in America,
to give concert and stability to their operations, by a
general confederacy of the states. This scherae was
rejected in England from a fear that it might furnish
a principle of association among the colonists, danger
ous to the sovereignty ofthe mother country. The
expedient preferred, was the appointment ofa milita
ry commander in chief, with a dictatorial power over
all the other authorities already granted by the crown.
This reason was considered, on the one side, as a da
ring encroachment upon the liberties of the province,
and produced much discord and embarrassment

C INTRODUCTION.
amidst the most important operations. On the other
side, apprehensions were entertained that an accom-
¦ pUshed''and popular chief, invested with powers so
extensive, so reimote froih the sphere of control, might
accelerate an event they were solicitous of preventing.
Men were therefore selected for this dictatorship,
who were not preeminent for ambition, for gallantry
of enterprize or miUtary skUl. From governor Shirly
the high dignity was soon transferred to general
Abercrombie, and at length rested with entire safety
upon lord Loudon, This nobleman, by a tardy, im
potent and arrogant administration, fomented the
preexisting dissentions, protracted the war, and either
overturned the well concerted schemes of the pro
vincial officers, or obstructed the execution of them.
Thus circumscribed in their operations, and des
titute of the funds requisite for defraying the expense
of any considerable enterprize, the miUtary concerns
of the colonists, more than those of other countries,
are barren of instruction or amusement. Splendid
victories, magnificent scenes of desolation and admi
rable discipline are to be found only in those exten
sive empires, where war and havoc have become the
trade of ambition, and where mighty armies are nou
rished from the dregs of a superfluous and vitiated
population.

INTRODUCTION, Cl
IV, The principles upon which the commerce of
the American states was established, required that
the entire profits of their trade should center in
Great Britain. The produce of their culture, stock,
the rude materials and natural productions of their
territories were exported for the exclusive benefit of
British trade and manufactures; and from the mo
ther country alone, or ather discretion were they per
mitted to derive the necessaries of Ufe. Such enu
merated commodities as were superfluous in the
British market, they were aUowed to export to foreign
nations, south of Cape Finisterre, that the proceeds
of this circuitous traffic might enable them to ex
tinguish their debt, and increase their importation of
English manufactures.
Notwithstanding the restrictions with which the
colonial commerce Was fettered by a tyrannical sys
tem of monopoly, it had acquired at the revolution,
much vigour and activity. To Great Britain it was
a source of opulence and power, and the native
Americans had acquired among foreign nations, for
commercial enterprize and intrepidity, an honorable
fame. New England, from the position and nature of
her territory, was especially devoted to commerce;
and amidst the cold and boisterous waves ofthe
north, had nursed, for the service of her countryj a
bold and resolute race of seamen. " There is no sea,''

CU INTRODUCTION.
says Burke, " but what is vexed by her fisheries, no
climate that is not witness tober toils. Neither the
perseverance of Holland, nor fhe activity of France,
nor the dexterous and firra sagacity of English en
terprise, ever carried this perilous raode of hardy
industry to the extent to which it has been pushed
by this recent people, who are still, as it were, in
the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of
manhood." In the beginning of the eighteenth century, the
export trade of Great Britain to her American co
lonies, was computed at three hundred and fifty
thousand pounds sterling; it had reached, in the year
preceding the revolution, the amount of three and a
half millions. At the latter period, the importation
into Great Britain of colonial produce was estimated
at one miUion and a half The balance in favour of
England was liquidated,. though with much exertion
and difficulty, by the colonists, from the proceeds of
their circuitous commerce, and by the occasional
relaxation, or evasion of the navigation act. Two
miUions remained in arrears at the commencement
of the revolutionary war.
V. The colonists possessed no domestic means for
the supply of gold and silver coin. The small quan
tities derived frora foreign countries by their Umited
commerce, were almost wholly employed in the ex-

INTRODUCTION. CIU
tinction of their debt wifh Great Britain, The rapid
growth of their settlements required an extension of
their circulating medium. It created, at the same
time, an additional importation of English manufac
tures, and aggravated their deficiency in the balance
of trade. A paper currency was therefore deemed
indispensible in the economy of their government,
as a compensation for the inadequate supplies of
specie; nor was this pohcy disapproved by the
raother country under proper regulations, as it ne
cessarily converted what remained among them of
solid money into the channel of the British market.
A prevaUing calamity of our forefathers, if it waS
one, and at which they murmured with loudest im
portunity against heaven, was the want of gold.
This paper raoney, in its usual form, was emitted
by their legislators, in promissory notes, and was
redeemed by a tax, at a period prescribed by the
law. The legislators of Pennsylvania erected, in
1739, a loan office, and profitting, as it is said, by
the foUies of their compatriots, administered it by
discreet and prudent regulations. By limiting the
loan of each individual, they gave to the benefits of
the institution a diffusive influence, and prevented
partial accumulations of wealth. Accommodations
were afforded to the borrower, by protracted terms
of payment, and easy interest, which was employed in

CIV INTRODUCTION.
objects of public utiUty. Recent emigrants, or poor
persons were enabled by these facilities to purchase
moderate estates, and prosecute their settlements,
whilst they were restrained, at the same time, from
extravagant or ruinous speculations. By giving to
the funds of this institution a positive security, by con
fining the quantity of its emissions, and extending
its uses, by maintaining, as far as the nature of such
money wiU admit, its parity with the silver in circu
lation, the spirit of honest industry was invigorated;
lands, commodities and labour bore that mediocrity of
price which tends most to enrich, and to promote the
permanent welfare of the community, which, to be
vigorous and healthy, must neither be depressed by
inanition, nor exalted by artificial exciteraent. In a
review of this institution, by the assembly of Penn
sylvania in 1752, it was declared to be a principal
agent in promoting the increase of the population
and prosperity of the province.
In the colonies of New England and CaroHna,
where the manufacture of this money first origina
ted, it was prosecuted with a raore licentious indul
gence. In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, especial
ly, where the habits of the people were commercial,
a rage for paper money pervaded every order of
society, with an avidity so ravenous and insatiate,
that aU the efforts of enlightened individuals, and the

INTRODUCTION. CV
conflicting experience of half a century could scarce
ly mitigate or control it.
An immoderate quantity of this money was first
thrown into circulation in New England, for defray
ing the expenses of the Canadian war, which prece
ded the peace of Utrecht. Gold and silver disap
peared, paper depreciated, speculation ruined and
enriched individuals, demoralized and disquieted the
community; industry languished, and the people in
bitter exclamations bewailed the misery ofthe times.
Soon, however, expedients were devised for the re
Uef of these calamities, and the resurrection of trade;
and magnificent projects of numerous statesmen were
conceived to sustain, and embeUish the baseless fa
bric of their follies. Among the parties produced, in
the agitation of this subject, " the first a small one,
actuated by the principle which always ought to
govern, that honesty is the best policy, were in favour
of calUng in the paper money and relying on the in
dustry of the people to replace it by a circulating
medium of greater stabiUty."* The scheme which
prevailed was the establishment of a bank, under the
auspices of the general court of Massachusetts. Fifty
thousand pounds were issued in bUls of credit for
five years, and trustees appointed to the superinten-
* Marshal,
VOL. I. 0

GVl INTRODUCTION.
dence of the .institution. The distress continued,
nevertheless, with symptoms of aggravation; and stifl
the inhabitants murmured at the dispensations of
providence. The governor, then, recommended
some more effectual measures to supply the poverty
of money and reanimate commerce. A second loan
was, therefore, resolved upon. One hundred thou
sand pounds were now voted by the legislature fbr
ten years. This sum, entrusted to commissioners,
was distributed, in branches, throughout the whole
province. The remedy again proved inadequate;
and to mitigate the paroxysms of a distemper so
stubborn and immedicable, it was proposed to in
crease once more the causes of the excitement. But
a further emission of biUs of credit were prohibited
in this province, by a salutary interposition of the
crown. Connecticut, devoted to the pursuits of agricul
ture, was exempt, in a great measure, from the
pressure of these calamities. The spirit of specula
tion had not violated the peace of the cottage, or in
terrupted the repose of the husbandman. Rhode
Island, no less commercial than Massachusetts,
choosing her own governor, and therefore not sub
ject to similar prohibitions from Great Britain, is
sued, as a loan to her inhabitants, one hundred thou
sand dollars. The merchants of Boston, from a fear

INTRODUCTION, CVU
that this splendid capital might divert from their city
the current of trade, now emitted upon the credit of
their own funds, ten thousand pounds, and with a
pernicious emulation proceeded to the erection of a
private bank. This institution, as the loans were
secured by mortgage upon real estate, was dignified
with the name of the land bank. To give it, at least,
the virtual sanction and authority of government, the
principal subscribers were elected members of the
general court. The directors themselves, it is said,
mingled in the iniquities of speculation, and issued biUs
without limitation or security for their redemption.
But the extravagance had now reached its maturity.
By appUcation to parliament the company was dis
solved, and the rage of that folly which had disqui
eted, corrupted and embroiled these provinces for
half a century, ceased at length. The people were
at last taught by the rude lessons of experience,
that money does not constitute the wealth and pros
perity ofa state; that the immoderate increase of
their currency, had exalted the rate of exchange,
and the price of commodities; had impaired public
credit, discouraged the payment of debts, and sub
stituted cunning, speculation and inhumanity instead
of the pursuits of a regular and honorable industry.
At the height of their pecuniary distresses a sum of
money, in specie, was voted to the colonies by the

cvm INTRODUCTION.
British parUament as a reimbursement for their ex
penses of the late war; and with this it was proposed
to redeem, at its depreciated value, the paper in cir
culation. The measure was resisted, for a whUe, with
violent opposition. Apprehensions were entertained
that a reduction so vast and so sudden, of the circu
lating medium, would injure the trade and industry
of the province. This alarm was found, on experi
ment, to be chimerical. Specie immediately took the
place of paper. Trade, so far from sustaining a shock,
flourished more than before this change; and the com
merce of Massachusetts immediately received an im
pulse, greater than was given to that of her neigh
bours, who retained their paper medium.*
The inhabitants of Carolina indulged no less wan
tonly than those of New England, in these specious
hopes of fortune; and passed through the same series
of projects and sustained the same calamities in the
fruitless search of it. On this subject, which is ac
knowledged to be of no ordinary magnitude in the in
terests and happiness ofa nation, the colonists almost
universally exhibited a profligate levity of attention or
an ignorance of their true poUcy, directly opposed to
that prudence and sagacity for which they were
distinguished in the other concerns ofthe administra
* Marshal.

INTRODUCTION, CIX
tion. But the follies of our own times do not permit
us to dweU censoriously upon those of our forefathers,
and the same fatal indocility of human nature wiU no
doubt rescue us, in our turn, from the animadversions
of posterity.

CHAPTER HI.
.Ofthe wars which preceded the Revolution.
When Great Britain, by an accumulation of inju
ries and indignities, had impeUed her American sub
jects to rebellion, and led her hostile armies across
the Atlantic, men of distinguished miUtary virtues
suddenly appeared upon the scene of action. From
the obscurity of a province, that was as yet unno
ticed by the eye of mankind, they came forth to en
counter, in the plenitude of her wrath and ambition,
the forces of a mighty empire, consolidated by ages,
and covered by the monuments of her victories. By
the valour and magnanimity with which they resisted
the contentious waves of this rude opposition, they
extorted the admiration of their enemy, and in the
memory of all nations, established, as accomplished
officers and intrepid soldiers, a splendid and imper
ishable fame.
It becomes, therefore, an object of interest, to an
American especially, to look back upon those previ
ous scenes in which his ancestors were trained for the

CXU INTRODUCTION,
achievements of that memorable period. For the
preeminent talents and sacred spirit of freedom,
which conducted them through the fierce struggles
they encountered in the vindication of their indepen
dence, were not of sudden or extemporaneous pro
duction. The qualities ofthe heart, like the strength
ofthe body, are matured by time, invigorated by ex
ercise, and sustained by salutary nutrition; and the
moral as well as the physical exceUence of man de
pends upon the constitutional virtues of his progeni
tors. There is, perhaps, no nation upon the earth, that
has been nursed through its infancy, in a more stern
and rugged adversity; none that has sustained its ex
istence under the pressure of more formidable dan
gers, and approached more frequently or more nearly
to the brink of irrevocable ruin. The colonists, during
theprogress of their settlements, were exposed to al
most continued hostihties, and even their short inter
vals of peace were interrupted by the most tragical
scenes of distress, and perpetual apprehensions of
war. They were placed amidst a race of barbarians
whose ferocity not only exceeded the example of past
ages, but whatever in romance, the imagination of
man had conceived; and throughout the vast surface
of those fertile provinces, from which their posterity
now gather the rich fruits of abundance, there is per-

INTRODUCTION. CXlll
haps no field of cultivated soU that has not been con
secrated by the blood of its original possessor.
War, in its mildest aspect, is distinguished by
deeds of atrocity which confound the sober reason,
and degrade the character of mankind; and it seems
to have been reserved for the new world, to exhibit
this evil in its most hideous and disgusting enormity.
AU those salutary restraints, which rautual fear, in
terest or humanity had devised, among civilized na
tions, to mitigate the calamities or horrors of it, have,
in this distant continent, as if removed from the eye
of heaven and the observation of raan, been thrown
off or disregarded; and nations professing the mild
charities of the christian religion, boasting their pre
eminence in literature, in reason, and virtue, have,
fbr the petty interests of a province, associated in
the havoc of war, with the ruthless and sanguinary
barbarian; not to sooth, but exasperate his native
fierceness, and by his instrumentality or coopera
tion, to perpetrate those deeds of cruelty which, for
the honor of human nature, should be hushed in si
lence, or buried in eternal oblivion.
The desultory and petty warfare carried on against
the natives ofthe country, although more calamitous
and afflicting than the operations of disciplined troops
is nevertheless destitute of that interest, variety and
succession of incidents which animate the narrations
VOL, I, p

CXIV INTRODUCTION,
ofthe historian. From the early settlements of the
provinces we have an undiversified exhibition of vil
lages in flames, and the promiscuous murder of their
inhabitants; accompanied by whatever is terrific in
the records of individual distress; the screaming in
fant mangled on the bosom of its mother; the hus
bandman, amidst the harvest of his labour; and his
bones bleach upon the field his hands had cultivated;
Here, the trembling victim is borne into captivity,
that, from the studied ingeniiity of his executioner,
he may undergo more excruciating and exquisite tor
tures. Elsewhere, the collected savages surround the
soUtary cottage, and the father dies, in defence ofhis
supphcating offspring, by the hand of the inexorable
assassin. The details of these depredations and murders are
not only uninstructive and disgusting, but volumes
are insufficient for the enumeration of them. The
savages acquired, however, on some occasions, by
the junction of their tribes, the more vigorous move
ments of regular armies. The first acts of hostihty,
which appear worthy of the denomination of war,
arethose of Virginia, in 1622, in the infancy of that
province. These were commenced on the part of
the Indians, in a moment of apparent security, by a
siraultaneous raassacre of three hundred and fifty of
the inhabitants. Of eighty settlements, eight only
resisted the violence of the conflict. The enemy,

INTRODUCTION. CXV
however, atoned for their perfidy by the loss of their
principal warriors, and the expulsion of those who
remained, from their native possessions.
In New England, a very formidable combination
was formed, in 1637, by the Piquods, one ofthe most
wariike aud hostile tribes of the north. Their first
incursions were directed against the settlements of
Connecticut, and were repulsed with a courage that
reflects a high honor upon the military spirit of that
province. But the extremity of the danger to which
they had been exposed, and the calamities they had
suff'ered, induced them to abuse their superiority, and
inffict too rude a vengeance upon the aggressors.
Their victory was sullied by acts of cruelty towards
the Indians, and the war was terminated by the en
tire extinction of their tribe.
But, in the course of these Indian hostilities, that
which is denominated Philip's war, of 1675, is the
most important and conspicuous; both for the enor
mity ofthe danger, and the obstinate courage dis
played in the prosecution of it. Philip, the instigator
of this war, was the son of Massassoet, who ruled a
powerful tribe upon the shores of the bay of Massa
chusetts. This bold and accomplished chief, anima
ted by the ambition of recovering his native territo
ries, had prepared in secret, and brought into the
field an army of four thousand warriors. The sudden

.CXVI INTRODUCTION.
impetuosity ofhis incursions, spread terror and de
vastation throughout the settlements of New Eng
land, and threatened them with total ruin. He had
furnished his associates, by ingenious expedients,
with arms; he established among them a regularity
of discipline, and conducted his enterprizes with a
prudence and dexterity to which the wild spirit of
the savage was, tUl then, thought unequal. Many
sanguinary battles were fought, and six hundred of
the flower and strength of these provinces, whose
lives and occupations were precious to the prospe
rity of their country, perished in the field. The cul
tivation of the earth and the activities of commerce,
ceased. Flourishing towns were reduced to ashes.
Settlements were desolate; and the labours of half a
century were buried, in the short space of a year,
amidst the ravages of war. But the impetuous valour
of the savage yielded at length to the steady courage
and perseverance of the colonists; and Philip, the
author of their calamities, having prosecuted his de
signs to the last ruin of his tribe, and the extinction
of his adherents, with all the iUustrious merits, and
without the reputation of a hero, fell by the hands
of an assassin.
The colonies of the south, of more recent origin,
of less numerical strength and stability of govern
ment, were persecuted by these fierce barbarians

INTRODUCTION. CXVU
with no less rigorous hostihty. Various tribes of
tripple their number, distinguished for a superior
ferocity and martial spirit, and often exasperated
beyond their natural animosity by the instigation of
the Spaniards, waged an eternal war against them;
accompanied by the most horrible devastations. The
first acts of aggression, which are preeminent for
atrocity, were undertaken, in 1712, by the Tusca-
roras, a powerful tribe of North Carolina. This war,
which was commenced without any previous indica
tion, by the massacre, in a single night, of one hun
dred and thirty-seven of the inhabitants, was prose
cuted with much fury and bloodshed, and appeased
only by the entire extermination of the enemy. It
was, however, but the prelude of a more sanguinary
conflict, which three years afterwards was main-
tained against the fierce warriors of the Yamas-
sees. The forces of this nation, with that of their
confederates, which appeared on this occasion on
the field, amounted to six thousand warriors. The
whole province, except Charleston, into which the
fugitive inhabitants had fled for safety, became a
scene of desolation, and the destructive torrent had
already approached to the vicinity of that town. The
colonists, in this desperate extremity, marched out
to battle, and, with twelve hundred men, the whole
force of the province, defeated their antagonists, in

CXVllI INTRODUCTION.

an obstinate and bloody engagement; drove them be
yond the confines of the settlement; stript them of
their native territories, and pursued them with
slaughter to the inaccessible deserts of thfe south.
They were received with hospitality by the Span
iards of St. Augustin, and continued, for many years,
to ravage the frontiers ofthe English with implacable
and unintermitted vengeance. The Carolinians twice
encountered, in addition to these Indian hostilities,
a formidable invasion from Florida, and twice led
their armies to the capital of that province. They
sustained, likewise, a domestic warfare against the
animosities of faction, the rapacity of their gover
nors, and the insurrection of their slaves. Their
fields were cultivated, their harvests were collected,
and even their public devotions were off'ered to hea
ven, under arms. We shall rarely find the example of
a people who were more prodigal of their blood, or
who have been aUotted by providence fewer intervals
for the enjoyment of security and repose.
These are the principal military occurrences ante
rior to the year 1692, and which proceeded from
the natives for the most part, without foreign aid or
instigation. The wars against Canada became, at this
period, the grand object in which all other operations
were immerged. The events which first kindled the
flames of this contest were connected with the poM-

INTRODUCTION. CXIX
tics of Europe only; it was however undertaken with
zeal and carried on in America, with the most furious
animosity. The people of New England who were contigu
ous to the settlements of the French, had long viewed
their progress with concern, and rejoiced at whatever
accident might furnish them the occasion or means
to arrest it. From the extensive influence which
the French had acquired, by their situation and in
sinuating policy, over the native inhabitants of the
country, rendered their proximity the more danger
ous; and their entire expulsion from America was
regarded by the English colonists as essential to the
peace of their dominions. ReUgious rancour, also,
which long and rigorous persecution had rendered
outrageous and iraplacable, embittered their hostile
spirit, and completed the extinction of aU those social
feelings and charities that otherwise characterize
these nations, and eff"aced from their hearts the im
pressions of humanity.
The murder of a heretic was, in those days of su
perstition, perpetrated without criminality or com
punction. Popery and iniquity were identified, and
the massacre ofa Frenchman was regarded by raany
a pious protestant as a most grateful sacrifice to
propitiate the favour of heaven. If, to these causes
of excitement, we add the national antipathies that

cxx INTRODUCTION.
subsisted between English and Frenchmen, perpe
tuated and confirmed by the tradition of ages, the
zeal with which loyalty and patriotism inspired them
towards the interests of their mother country, we
shaU no longer be surprised that the operations of
this war were prosecuted with a spirit more fierce
and rapacious than is approved by the humanity or
the laws of civilized nations.
The settlements of the French in Acadie and
Canada, which were contemporaneous with those of
New England, had been subdued by the English in
the war of 1629; and restored, soon after, at the
peace of St. Germains. This restitution was made
without a definition of boundaries, which, at that early
period, were seldora ascertained with precision. A
few years afterwards, a fort, erected by the Plymouth
company on the Penobscot, was seized by the French
as being within the present limits of their territory;
and was retained against frequent attempts of the
Enghsh to regain it, until the year 1654. They
were then dislodged from it, and Acadie was again
subdued by the English forces, in the same expedi
tion. Such were the relations of these rival colonies at
the coramencement of the war in 1692; when the
ambition of Louis XIV., not satisfied with the sub-

*-^y.'.

INTRODUCTION, CXXI
version of empires in Europe, extended its ravages
across the Atlantic.
In this year a project was formed in France for
the conquest of New York, When preparations for
the enterprise were already matured, a sudden and
formidable invasion of the savages, defeated the
execution of it. The Indians of the Five Nations,
the only tribes who retained sorae attachment to the
English, landed in the island of Montreal, and put
to death one thousand of the inhabitants. Pursuing
afterwards their destructive incursions with a rapid
and irresistible fury, the whole province was involv
ed in the most abject miseries of war and famine.
Peace was, however, effected with these savages,
and to give occupation to their restless and turbulent
spirits, they were employed in expeditions against the
frontiers of New Hampshire. A party penetrated as
far as Schenectady, in New York, burnt the town,
and slaughtered the inhabitants with indiscriminate
havoc, and with circumstances of Qruelty which have,
perhaps, no parallel in the catalogue of human atro
cities. To arrest these depredations, and revenge their
injuries, the people of the northern provinces pre
pared to invade the dominions of their enemy.
Their operations commenced by a successful ex
pedition against Port Royal. A fleet of forty vessels
VOL. I. Q

CXXU INTRODUCTION.
sailed for Quebec, from Massachusetts, The troops
of Connecticut and New York proceeded against
Montreal. This enterprise, by the improvident
measures and misconduct of the royal governor who
presided over it, proved, on all sides, unsuccessful.
The array returned without a single offensive ope
ration; the soldiers were dispirited; the credit ofthe
provinces, in defraying the expenses, impaired; and
the officers and projectors were loaded with the well
merited reprehensions of their countrymen. A de
sultory war was now" carried on against the frontier
settlements of New England, without opposition, and
with all the rage of savage barbarity.
In 1693, solicitations for assistance, which had
been frequently urged and listened to by the British
governraent with inflexible insensibility, were re
newed; and king William consented to employ an
auxUiary force of four thousand five hundred men,
which was deemed sufficient for the reduction of
Quebec. This armament was first directed against
the island of Martinique; in which enterprise, the
one half of their number, attacked by the mahgnant
fevers of that chmate, died; the expedition was,
therefore, abandoned, the remaining force being in
sufficient for the prosecution of it; and the magnifi
cent hopes of the colonists were again clouded by
disappointment. During this course of impolicy and

INTRODUCTION. CXXIII
disaster, the French had recovered the possession of
Acadie, and commenced an ill-concerted expedition
against Boston, when the peace of Ryswick put an
end to these fruitless hostiUties, and tranquiUity was
for a while restored.
In 1702, a controversy about boundaries, kindled
the preexisting sparks of dissention, and produced a
recommencement of the war. It was prosecuted for
several years, with the usual depredations of the
savages, expensive and ineffectual expeditions, many
fruitless deputations to England, and undistinguished
by any decisive or remarkable event. At length
queen Anne, who had now succeeded to the throne,
yielding to the importunate solicitations of the colo
nies, resolved to afford them assistance adequate to
the accomplishment of their favourite project. A
few frigates were first sent to act against Port Royal,
which surrendered with Uttle resistance, and was
named Anapolis, in honor of the queen. This was
soon foHowed by a more formidable force, destined
for the reduction of Quebec. It consisted of seven
regiments of veterans, who had served under the
duke of Marlborough, one regiment of marines, to
which were added, two of provincial troops; in all,
six thousand five hundred men.
The greatest activity was, on this occasion, exert
ed by the colonists to furnish their portion of men,

CXXIV INTRODUCTION.
and supplies of money and provisions for the army.
The fleet set sail from Boston with the most san
guine expectation of success. But these magnificent
prospects, and animating hopes were, in a single
night, dissipated by the winds of heaven. Eight
transports, on entering the mouth of the St. Law
rence were wrecked, and one thousand persons per
ished. On the inteUigence of this disaster, a coope
rating force of four thousand men, furnished by New
York, Connecticut and New Jersey, and directed
against Montreal, retired with precipitation to Alba
ny, Before any further movements were meditated,
the treaty of Utrecht put a termination to the war.
In 1744, hostihties being recommenced in Europe,
the colonies with equal zeal and animosity resumed
their arms. Several offensive operations w^re at
tempted unsuccessfully by the French. On the part
of New England the campaign was begun in 1745,
by a briUiant and hazardous enterprise; the conquest
of Lewisburgh, capital of Cape Breton, The po
sition of this place rendered the possession of it
highly important to the French, Twenty-five years,
and thirty mUlions of livres had been expended in its
fortification; and the unexpected capture of it was
much deplored in France, was a subject of exulta
tion in England, and the enterprise being projected,
and achieved almost exclusively by the colonists,

INTRODUCTION. CXXV
produced great glory to the American arras. Four
thousand troops, levied principally in Massachusetts,
were employed in the expedition. Colonel Pepperel,
an officer of little experience, but great spirit and
activity, conducted the siege. This being the most
splendid and only decisive advantage gained over the
enemy during tlie war, attempts were made by the
British officers, by magnifying the services of the
fleet, to arrogate the principal honors of tbe achieve
ment. But the conspicuous merit of the provincial
army extorted at length the involuntary applause.
Their commander was rewarded with the title of
baronet, and a regiment was given him in the En
glish establishment in America. A like honor was
conferred upon governor Shirly, and a reimburse
ment was made by the parliament of the expenses
incurred during the expedition.
Preparations were now made by the colonies, ani
mated by their previous success, for the invasion of
Canada; but disappointments in the promised coope
ration of England, arrested the immediate prosecu
tion ofthe design; and, in the mean time, intelligence
was received of the approach of a formidable
French fleet and army, which had been fitted out for
the devastation of the whole of the American coast
and the entire conquest of New Englaud, It was
commanded by the duke D'Anville, and consisted of

CXXVI INTRODUCTION.
forty ships of war and fifty-six transports, laden with
provisions and military stores, carrying thir.ty-five
hundred land forces, and forty thousand stand of
arms designed for the Canadians and friendly Indi:
ans. But an accident, which was assigned by the
English colonies to an immediate interposition of
Providence, relieved them fi"om the calamities with
which they were threatened. The fleet was envel-
loped in a furious storm. Many of the vessels were
wrecked with the loss of the crews, and the rest dis
persed. The scattered troops only reached the point
of destination to be destroyed, almost to utter extinc
tion, by a contagious disease. The projected invasion
was consequently reUnquished. The fragments of
this mighty armament being, however, coUected, an
attempt was devised against Anapohs. They saUed
for this purpose, and being again overtaken, on the
coast, by a tempest, were wrecked or dispersed.
The few who escaped of this fatal armada returned
singly to France. The commander in chief, and vice
adrairal, rendered desperate by so rapid a succession
of disasters, and unwilling to survive their humiha
tion, perished by suicide. The treaty of Aix-la-Cha-
peUe was now signed, in 1748, by which it was sti
pulated that all conquests, during the late war, should
be restored. And the repossession of Cape Breton

INTRODUCTION. CXXVH
by the French, was regarded in America, with much
discontent and mortification.
The implacable animosity which a rivalry of inte
rests had kindled in the bosoms of French and Eng
lishmen, left to the European continent, but few and
transient intervals of repose. The unpropitious prox
imity of their possessions in the new world, had en
gendered the same principles of discord. The flames
of war, which were scarcely composed, by the late
peace, burst out again into a more violent conflagra
tion, and with a rage only to be extinguished by the
dissolution of the French power in America.
The French, in the beginning of the eighteenth
century, having discovered the mouth of the Missis
sippi, had founded there, in 1722, the colony of New
Orleans. AUured by the commercial advantages of
that river, and by the delicious cliraate and fertUe
regions of Louisiana, they had advanced, in de
tached settlements, towards the lUinois and Ohio,
and had penetrated at length to the vicinity of their
Canadian dominions. A new field was here insen
sibly opened to their ambition. Already strengthen
ed by a continuity' of fortifications, stretched along a
line of twelve hundred miles; by the affection of the
savages, whose numerous tribes were trained under
their standard to mihtary subordination; possessing
or claiming an immense territory, unlimited towards

cxxvni INTRODUCTION.
the westem ocean, they now aspired to the conquest
of the English settlements upon the Atlantic, and to
the establishment of an universal monarchy in the
new world. The extensive country embraced within
the grasp of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi, were
but a section of the projected " empire of New
France;" and the great lakes, which form the point
of connection of these rivers, were designed as the
throne of their magnificent dominions.
This project, so congenial to the illimitable and
gothic arabition of the French, was laid upon a deep
and solid foundation. In magnitude, as well as con
formity of design, it appears, indeed, to have been
modeUed upon the conceptions of nature herself in
the production of this vast continent. The bonds of
union, and strength of empire, must necessarily be
more indissoluble in the vicinity of navigable rivers.
The numerous conveniences and reciprocity of in
terests produced by such streams, afford the strong
est motives of association; and the laborious inhabi
tants who cultivate their adjacent and fertile plains,
must ever prevaU over the luxurious population of
overgrown sea-port towns. The waters of the great
lakes, of the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, with
their various communicating streams, are the cha
racteristic lineaments by which the hand of Provi
dence has designated the force and direction of

INTRODUCTION. CXXIX
the American empire. These are the channels through
which the principles of life and vigor are to circu
late, by which the heart is to be animated, and the
extremest members to receive their nutriment and
control. The English colonists saw with alarm the ambi
tious projects of their enemy, and were conscious of
the necessity of breaking down, in its origin, the for
midable circumvalation with which they were en
closed. Settlements were atterapted by the English,
in 175.S, upon the Ohio, which intersected the line
of connection between the northern and southern
colonies of the French. They were warned by the
governor of Canada to desist. The admonition was
disregarded. Some traders of the company were,
therefore, seized and carried off as prisoners of war
to the neighbouring French forts upon lake Erie,
Major Washington was despatched, by the governor
of Virginia, to remonstrate against this outrage, and
to require, at the same time, that the French com
mander should retire from the dominions ofhis Bri
tannic majesty. But the conference terminated in
mutual recriminations; and it became soon evident,
from the haughty replies of the French, that these
disputed claims were to be submitted to the decision
ofthe sword.
VOL. I. R

cxxx INTRODITCTION.
A smaU force was levied and placed under the
command of Washington, for the occupation and
defence of the disputed territory. He encountered
a party of the enemy, who offered resistance to his
march, and defeated them. Proceeding, then, to
occupy an advantageous position at the junction of
the AUeghany and Monongahela, fbr the erection of
a fort, he was attacked by a superior force in the
vicinity of that place, and compelled, after a coura
geous defence, to capitulate. The French were
enabled, by the defeat of this enterprise, to seize the
advantageous position designed by Washington, and
to put theraselves in a firm posture of defence.
The population of the English colonies was, at
this period, computed at about one miUion of inha
bitants; that of the French did not exceed fifty-two
thousand. With this disparity of force, the French,
however, possessed collateral advantages, arising
both from the nature of their government and local
situation, at least paramount to the numerical supe
riority of their rival.
The first settleraents of Canada were commenced
by military expeditions, and the parties engaged in
them, had obtained, by a conformity of pursuits, and
the benefits derived from their commerce, an entire
ascendant over the natives of the country. In the
active and violent occupations of the chace, tbeir

INTRODUCTION. GXXXl
bodies were invigorated and matured for the arts of
war. They acquired in this manner of Ufe, a know
ledge ofthe country, and selected the strongest mili
tary positions, all which, being connected by naviga
ble waters, and placed under the superintendence of
a single governor, gave union and energy to their
operations. The British settlements, on the contrary, were
altogether civU institutions, and without any general
system of political union. Dispersed upon remote
and independent streams, under separate jurisdic
tion, so little interraediate communication subsisted
amongst them, that even a journey from one to the
other was, in many instances, a perilous enterprise.
This dissociable temper was also favoured by reli
gious antipathies, to which rautual persecution had
exclusively and pertinaciously attached them. Whilst
the erection of a mihtary fortress was the first pre
paration of their adversary, in the foundation of a
colony, theirs was the building of a church. With
this pacific and religious spirit, the great object of
their temporal ambition was the acquisition of lands;
and treating the Indians, after the example of most
other nations, as an exception to the eternal and
universal laws of justice, they sometimes gratified
this cupidity by the abuse of treaties, by fraudulent
pretences, and by the violation of engagements

CXXXU INTRUODCTION.
which, with the rest of the world; they had, no doubt,
considered inviolable and sacred. To this cause we
may partially ascribe that peculiar disaffection and
hostility towards thera, which prevailed araongst the
savages, and which were studiously fomented by the
intrigues and instigation of the French. The neces
sity, also, of penetrating towards the possessions of
their enemy, through a wilderness of inhospitable
woods and mountains, without roads, without ad
vanced posts, or magazines of forage, and exposed
to continual ambuscades of an adversary whose na
tive residence was the desert, opposed, in addition
to the other adverse circumstances I have enumerat
ed, a very powerful obstacle to the success of their
military expeditions.
In making preparations for the present conflict,
various expedients were devised, by the English co
lonies, to counteract the natural and political advan
tages of their enemy. The first measure was to
court new friendships, strengthen their alliances
which already subsisted between the Indian tribes,
and concert araongst themselves a more general and
uniform system of operations. Commissioners from
the different states, as far south as Maryland, were
convened at Albany, to hold a conference with the
Five Nations; at the same time, a committee, select
ed of one member from each province, digested and

INTRODUCTION. CXXXUl
represented a plan of union for the administration of
the colonies. It was proposed that a general gov
ernment should be constituted by act of parhament,
and administered by a president appointed by the
crown, with a grand council, elected at the interval
of three years by the suffrages of the people. To
levy taxes, to organize the army, erect fortifications,
to pass laws, and concert measures for the mutual
benefit and security of the provinces, were the essen
tial powers delegated to this national assembly.
The project was, however, rejected in Great
Britain, for reasons already mentioned; it was
formally opposed by the commissioners of Connec
ticut, and not generally approved throughout the
other colonies. An assembly, thus vested with su
preme jurisdiction, whose chief officer was placed
under the influence of the crown, was regarded not
only as a renunciation of their separate indepen
dence, but an authority formidable to the liberties of
the people. The war was, therefore, prosecuted by
English troops, aided by the voluntary contributions
of each province.
General Braddock arrived in America in 1755,
and, in conference with the several governors of" the
states, fixed the plan of the first campaign. The
principal British force, led by that officer in person,
with reinforcements from Virginia and Maryland,

CXXXIV INTRODUCTION.
was designed against fort Du Quesne. Simultaneous
moveraents were prepared against Niagara and
Crown Point by American regulars, and by troops
levied for this object in New England and New
York. As a prelude to these operations, an expedition
was undertaken from Massachusetts against the
French military posts of Nova Scotia, the liraits of
which country had long been a subject of contesta
tion yet undetermined. The comraand, on this oc
casion, was conferred upon lieutenant colonel Monc
ton, a British officer, it is said, of distinguished mi
litary talents; who, in the course ofa single month,
with the loss of three men only, gained entire pos
session of that province. This auspicious com
mencement of the war, diffused great joy in New
England, but the conclusion of the enterprise was
marked by an act of inhumanity which covers with
disgrace the authors of it.
At the surrender of Accadie, or Nova Scotia, by
the treaty of Utrecht, the inhabitants, who were
Frenchmen, frora an honourable devotion to their
native country, had refused the oath of aUegiance to
Great Britain, but with the quaUfication of not bear
ing arms against France, in defence of the English
title to that province. A stipulation of neutrality was,
therefore, admitted by the British commander. In

INTRODUCTION. CXXXV
the present contest, either believing their preexisting
obligation with their sovereign indissoluble, or from
a national predilection, stronger than duty, about
three hundred of these people were taken in the gar
rison of Beau Sejour, in arms against the English.
From the obvious difficulty of retaining them in
subjection to English authority, and the impoUcy of
expeUing them from the province, to increase the
neighbouring forces of Canada, it was resolved, by
a council held to determine their fate, to disperse
them amongst the colonies of their enemy. They
were- then driven from their homes, their lands for
feited to the crown; and, to prevent the subsistence
of those who might attempt an escape from the ven
geance so cruelly inflicted upon them, the whole
country was laid waste, and their houses reduced to
ashes. Thus, the inhabitants of Accadie, from a
blind attachment to their native country, were pre
cipitated from the height of prosperity, into the most
abject miseries of exUe, beggary and scorn.
General Braddock, in the mean time, having ma
tured his preparations, advanced on his fatal expedi
tion against fort Du Quesne. UnwiUing to retard
the execution of his enterprise by the tedious delays
attendant on the march of a numerous army, im
peded by the transportation of baggage and mUitary
stores; and wishing, at the same time, to anticipate

cxxxvi INTRODUCTION.
the designs of the eneray, he placed himself at the
head of twelve hundred chosen troops, and proceed
ed in advance towards the point of destination. And,
now, in fuU confidence of success, he moved on with
slow and heedless march, through an open woodland
upon the borders of the Monongahela. The instru
ments of destruction, in silent ambuscade, awaited
his approach; and in the midst of this improvident
security, when least conscious of the peril, the im
pending storm burst upon him, with all the accumu
lated horrors of death and defeat. His brave sol
diers, as if by the lightning of heaven, witbout the
consolation of resistance or revenge, feU around him.
The whole army was thrown into irrevocable confu
sion. Instead of advancing, or retreating from the
perilous position into which his indiscretion had led
them; as if to afford the assailants all the immuni
ties and advantages of their invisibility, he resolved
to reestablish the order of his devoted troops upon
the same ground; amidst the unintermitting fire and
unerring bullets of their inaccessible foe. In this at
tempt, one half of the private soldiers perished in
indiscriminate slaughter. Of eighty-five officerfs, sixty-
four were killed or wounded. Washington alone
remained on horseback. The general himself, re
ceived at length a mortal wound, was bome from

INTRODUCTION. CXXXVil
the field, and the remains of the army fled in dis
order and trepidation.
Braddock is represented as a soldier of much per
sonal courage, but of a temper, haughty, sullen and
imperious, entertaining a dangerous contempt for his
enemy, and an arrogant disregai'd for the admoni
tions of his friends. The advice of the provincial
officers, whose experience of Indian warfare, had
taught them to foresee the consequence ofhis teme
rity, he received with a disdainful or aff'ected supe
riority. The colonial troops he represented in his
letters to England, as a factious undisciplined rabble;
theybore him, however, frora the field, andpreserved,
by their courage, the remnants of his defeated army.
To the last scene of this tragic adventure, he retain
ed his characteristic inflexibility, and atoned, by an
intrepid, stern and contumacious sacrifice of life, for
his obstinacy and indiscretion.
The inteUigence of this disaster soon reached the
main army, which advanced, with much toil, through
the craggy and mountainous desert. Whatever had
been heard of Indian ferocity, crowded upon the
imagination of the British soldier. He represented
the fierce and ravenous foe, now rioting with all the
havoc of savage barbarity, in the blood of his slaugh
tered associates; and the body of the expiring general,
which was, in the mean time, borne to the encamp-
VOL, I, s

CXXXVin INTRODUCTION.
ment, embittered the agony of his feelings. The
darkness of the intervening night, the hideous yell of
the savages that pierced, at intervals, through the
silence of the vast solitude, filled the fugitives, who
flocked in from all sides, with many visions of super
stitious horror, • and the whole camp, by the conta
gion of their fears, was involved in sudden fright and
laraentation. As if reduced to the last necessity, their
baggage was destroyed; all further operations ofthe
carapaigA relinquished, and the whole of the army feU
back, with headlong precipitation, to Philadelphia.
Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, were left to
the unrestrained depredations of the enemy; the
wretched inhabitants of the frontier were murdered,
or driven into the interior, and alarm was spread to
the most distant extreraities of the sea coast.
The invasion of Canada was attended with few
events to relieve the gloomy aspect of the West. The
troops for this service were furnished, at the discre
tion of each province, and the conflicting interests and
discordant views of governments, without mutual
consent or a controling power, retarded the opera
tions ofthe campaign until the season of hostUity was
past. The expedition against Crown Point, which
consisted of three thousand seven hundred men, and
commanded by general Johnson, arrived in the end
of September, at the south of Lake George. Being

INTRODUCTION. CXXXIX
opposed, in this place, by a smaU force of twelve
hundred regulai-s and six hundred Indians, an en
gagement ensued, in which the baron Dieskeau, com
mander of the French troops, was kiUed, his baggage
taken, and his forces completely routed.
The faUures and defeats, which marked the opera
tions of the whole campaign, bestowed no ordinary
lustre upon this solitary and superficial advantage.
The intelUgence was hailed throughout the north
with transports of joy. The general was loaded with
caresses; and the briUiant achievement reanimated
a httle the depressed spirits of the South. In Eng
land the title of baronet was conferred on him by the
king, and five thousand pounds sterling, as a more
solid testimonial of the gratitude of his country, were
voted by the parliament. But this officer, overloaded
by the honours of his victory, attempted no further
movements to advance the interests of the war. The
residue of the campaign was passed in languid and
ineffectual operations. The enemies' territory was
untouched, their forts unmolested, and the troops, at
length, destitute of clothing, and provisions, and satis
fied with their laurels, became importunate for re
turn; they were discharged, therefore, without hav
ing accorapUshed any of the ultimate objects em
braced in the expedition.

cxl INTRODUCTION.
General Shirly, now commander in chief, and to
whom was assigned the execution of the enterprise
against Niagara, completed his preparations against
the last of August, and with fifteen hundred men ad
vanced as far as Oswego; but the season being spent,
and further delay occasioned by a continuation of
rains, it became manifest that no signal service could
be atterapted by a force so inconsiderable; seven hun
dred men being retained to complete the fortification
ofthe place, the rest returned to the inglorious obscu
rity of their firesides. Thus the campaign of 1 755,
undertaken with the brightest prospects, exhibits in
its progress, unless we except the events of Nova
Scotia and Crown Point, a series of disaster, disap
pointment, and disgrace; and, at its termination, the
whole frontiers of the British provinces were expos
ed to the most afflicting of aU human sufferings, the
perpetual incursions of the Indians, whose ferocity
transcended on this occasion, aU preceding examples
of cruelty and outrage. The details of this indivi
dual distress are lost, amidst the more magnificent
ravages of the world, to the records of history; but
verbal tradition still preserves, in humble life, the
mournful remembrance of it. The raurders, the
havoc, the massacres of the savage yet employ,, with
undiminished interest, the winter evenings of the
cottage, and the unlettered offspring of the peasant,

INTRODUCTION. CXli
in ages yet to come, wiU, no doubt, listen with as
tonishment and horror to the dismal tales of these
times. To alleviate the calamities, and obliterate the dis
graces of the preceding year, the most vigorous mea
sures were concerted for the ensuing campaign. A
grand council of war was held at New York. It
was resolved to raise, ibr the expedition of Crown
Point, ten thousand men; six thousand for that of
Niagara; three thousand for fort Du Quesne. Some
subordinate movements were, at the same tirae,
projected. To effect these preparations, general Shir
ly exerted his utmost diligence and activity; but
though the colonies were animated with the warm
est zeal for the promotion of this war, no force
could be furnished by them, adequate, especially
under the evU auspices of the British generals, to the
successful prosecution ofit. Mihtary operations were,
in America, expensive and laborious. Troops were
necessarily collected from a vast extent of territory,
and the supplies of ammunition and provisions trans
ported by land, through a rude and uncultivated coun
try. The colonial governments without revenue or
credit, unused to taxation and already overwhelmed
by the expenses of previous wars, were no longer
able to provide the subsistence of so considerable a
force. Nor was it without an extraordinary impulse.

cxlii INTRODUCTION.
that men accustomed to prosperous civil pursuits,
were drawn into the ranks of an army, by voluntary
enlistments. After magnificent projects and indefati
gable efforts for the honors of the campaign, the
whole number of soldiers assembled at the general
rendezvous, did not exceed seven thousand men.
This force was, with much labour and expense,
marched to the borders of Lake George, and being
reviewed by the comraanding officer, was declared,
contrary to the opinion of more accomplished mili
tary men, insufficient for the magnitude of the under
taking. The deficiency in numbers was, however,
supplied by the arrival of English troops under gene
ral Abercrombie, who was appointed to supersede
Shirly in the chief command. But the predilection
shown to British soldiers, manifested by the eleva
tion of native Englishmen to the offices of preemi
nence and dignity in the army, kindled, in the sus
ceptible minds of the colonists, the sparks of discord,
and counteracted whatever benefits might have
otherwise resulted from an accession of force. For
although the Americans, humbled by previous defeats,
were eager for the success of the campaign, and con
scious of the necessity of concert in the administra
tion of it; all these feelings of interest and inclination
were extinguished by this opprobrious intimation of
inferiority. The stubborn spirit of their forefathers

INTRODUCTION. CXllii
revived. It soon became evident that no military
enterprize could be attempted, by the association of
these incompatible elements.
The heat of the altercation which arose on this
subject, was however diminished by the arrival of
lord Loudun, who was now elevated to the chief
command of his majesty's forces. This nobleman,
with some petulant remqnstrances against their in
docility, acceded to the solicitation of the American
officers, that their troops raight be permitted to act
separately, and according to their original organiza
tion. Half the season had elapsed in discussions and
preparations; and before any enterprize was at
terapted. Monsieur de Montcalm, successor of Dies
keau in Canada, proceeded against Oswego, and
the garrison, consisting of sixteen hundred men, pro
visioned for six months, capitulated as prisoners of
war. Colonel Mercer, the commandant of this place,
an officer of spirit and intrepidity, perished in its de
fence. A considerable naval force, on the lake, was
at the same time captured by the enemy. By these
unprosperous events the British army was diverted
from all off'ensive operations, and distributed along
the most accessible parts of the frontier to protect it
against the invasions of the French. In addition to
other disasters, the small pox, more frightful to the

cxhv INTRODUCTION.
provincials tban the swords of their enemy, broke
out at Albany, and the British troops being stationed
in garrisons, the reSt of the army was discharged.
No attempt was made towards Ontario, or fort Du
Quesne. Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia were
unable to protect their frontiers against the Indians;
and thus the enterprizes of this year, like the last,
were concluded in disgrace, discomfiture and defeat.
For the objects of the campaign of 1 757, a grand
military council was convened by lord Loudun at
Boston, composed of the governors of New England
and Nova Scotia, amongst whom his lordship presi
ded; sensible that his merits were too minute for vul
gar coraprehension, he sought to place hiraself, on
a more conspicuous elevation, by depressing the ob
jects around him. He commenced the deliberations
of the assembly, with an invective against the neg
ligence of his predecessors, dwelt long upon his own
services, enumerated the defeats, the calamities that
might have been sustained, but for the signal bravery
of the British army, and attributed, in aU the bitter
ness of recrimination, to the incompetency of colo
nial troops, the disasters of the preceding campaign.
Having thus sown the seeds of distrust and aUena
tion, and having secured, as he supposed, by this
usual expedient of conscious inferiority, an immunity
from past disgraces, and laid the foundation ofhis fu-

INTRODUCTION. ^^'^
ture infaUibiUty, he proceeded to estimate the contri-
butionsof each province. His requisitions for thecom-
pletion ofthe army being speedily complied with, he
appeared eariy in the spring, upon the field, with an
imposing and terrific apparatus of war. His army
had increased, by reinforcements firom England, to
twenty thousand men, and twenty ships of the Une
were placed at his disposition. Glorious enterprises,
portentous and formidable invasions were threaten
ed. The whole campaign vvas pregnant with great
and important events. But it was the usual fate of
his lordship's miUtary projects, to be exhibited for a
while m all the inflation of vanity, and to terminate
at length in abortion.
The capture of Louisburgh, which had already
been the theatre of glory to the American arms, was
the first enterprize which the adventurous ambition
of this officer prompted him to undertake. The
whole of the forces under his control, by land and
sea, were assembled at HaUfax, destined to proceed
from thence upon this briUiant adventure; but, learn
ing that the preparations ofthe French were formid
able for the defence of that fortress, the general was
alarmed, and with characteri.stic prudence, resolved
to postpone the execution of it, Leavmg, also, the
provinces of the North open to the predatory incur
sions of the Indians, he retumed with the admiral
VOL, I, T

cxlvi INTRODUCTION.
to New York, and the provincial troops were dis
charged. Montcalm, who was eraboldened by these irreso
lute movements, and apprehending no further dan
ger of invasion from an adversary so impotent and
unwarlike, laid siege to fort William Henry, upon
lake George. This fortress was defended by three
thousand men, and commanded the access to the
British provinces on the North. The garrison, after
a gaUant resistance, capitulated; and, with this
achievement, ended the operations of the campaign.
Lord Loudun, now, went into winter quarters, but
attempting to distribute a portion of his troops among
the citizens of Massachusetts, a resistance to this
measure involved him in a rude controversy with that
stubborn people, which he sustained with his usual
vigor and decision. He required, with furious de
nunciations of vengeance, an immediate compliance
with his orders. But his antagonists remaining nn
terrified by threats, the conspicuous glare of the
meteor was suddenly extinguished; he receded from
the contest, and tranquiUity was restored. Having
now, during two campaigns, disgraced the American
arms, this officer disappeared from the scene of ac
tion; and, wearied of the rigorous austerities of a
mihtary life, returned to the bosom of that obscurity

INTRODUCTION, CXlvil
for which nature, more powerful than birth or incli
nation, had designed him.
In the comraenceraent of the campaign of 1758,
the French possessed aU the important military posts,
and every physical advantage essential to the suc
cessful prosecution of it. The prosperity of their
arms in Europe, was still more conspicuous and
preeminent. But their season of glory had ap
proached its meridian, and the spirit of Great Britain,
which an evil administration had depressed, in every
quarter of the globe, to the depths of ignominy, now
resumed its native elevation. This change in the
political aff'airs of these two nations is usually attri
buted, and perhaps with good reason, to the instru
mentality of WUliam Pitt,
• The animosity with which this statesman was
animated towards the French nation; the indignant
humiliation he felt at their successes and the prostra
ted majesty of his own country, caUed forth, on this
occasion, aU that prophetic wisdoni and eloquence,
with which nature had so profusely endowed him.
He infused new hfe into the languid councils of his
countrymen, reanimated their martial spirit, and in
America as weU as Europe, turned back the impe
tuous career of victory upon the operations of his
enemy.

Cxlvui INTRODUCTION.
The enterprizes of this year, as early as the sea
son would permit it, were prosecuted against Louis
burgh, ^ Crown Point, and fort Du Quesne; and, on
the part of the English, with an army the most for
midable that had yet appeared upon the American
continent. It consisted of fifty thousand men; twen
ty thousand of whom were provincial troops; and
being, for the most part, led by officers of experience
and military skill, though not without disaster, oblite
rated in some degree, the remembrance of the pre
ceding campaign. The French perceiving the immi
nence of the danger, oraitted no effort to resist it.
They were commanded by a brave and enterprizing
leader, andthe struggle was maintained, on both sides,
with all the activity and spirit of national emulation.
The expedition against Louisburgh, conducted by ge
neral Wolfe, under many circumstances of disadvan
tage, after an obstinate resistance, and a loss of six
hundred men, was crowned with success, and the
whole island of Cape Breton surrendered to the
English. The possession of this place, as it com
manded the access to the St. Lawrence, favoured the
expedition against Quebec in the following year.
The proceedings against Crown Point, by general
Abercrombie, undertaken with an army of sixteen
thousand men, and with the most favourable presages
of success, terminated ingloriously. In the progress

Missing Page

cl INTRODUCTION.
of it. From this fortress, the Indians had carried
on, for several years, against the adjacent provinces
of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, their de
structive warfare, and here received, from their pa
trons, the recompense of their midnight murders.
But, independent of all other obligations than inte
rest, and observing the decrease of ^^^le French autho
rity, in these regions, all those triP^^i who inhabited
between the Lakes and the Ohio, u^wcting the more
prosperous fortunes of the Engh^, concluded a
peace with them; and approved their zeal and fide
lity to their new masters by the ^assacre of their
former friends.
The foundations of the French power being thus
undermined, by the events of 1758, a last effort was
now made by the English, and with increased vigor
and impetuosity, to accomplish its total subversion.
The main force, under general Amherst, command
er in chief, was led against Ticonderoga and Crown
Point; and these forts being in a feeble state of de
fence, were evacuated at his approach. A second
division of the army under general Prideaux under
took the seige of Niagara, during which that officer
being kiUed by the accidental explosion of a piece of
ordnance, the command devolved upon general John
son; and the garrison, consisting of six hundred
men, soon afterwards surrendered prisoners of war.

INTRODUCTION. ch
After the capture of these fortresses, it was design
ed, by the original plan of the campaign, that these
two divisions of the army, should co-operate in the
reduction of Quebec; but, for reasons not well ascer
tained, either being content, in their moderate ambi
tion, with the innocent and bloodless victories they
had achieved, or deterred by the forces collected at
Montreal, the officers wasted the rest of the cam
paign in fruitless and impotent adventures; and gene
ral Wolfe, who had now ascended the St. Lawrence,
appeared alone in the last scene and catastrophe of
this memorable drama.
Quebec was the heart of the French dominions in
America, and here all the energies of their expiring
power, in this period of consternation and disaster,
had retired fi"om the extremities. It was deemed,
both by nature, and art, the most impregnable city
of the whole continent. On the south, it was washed
by the St. Lawrence, and was protected on that side
by fortifications, which, by the favour of the river,
were considered inaccessible. On the East it was'
washed by the St. Charles, upon the shore of which
was entrenched, on this occasion, an army of ten
thousand men. An ordinary mind would have re
garded the siege of this place, with the forces here
employed against it, as an extravagant and chimeri
cal project; and a pusfllanimous spirit would have

ciii INTRODUCTION.
shrunk from the magnitude of the attempt. It
was therefore the more suited to the adventurous
ambition of Wolfe. This officer, as he has mani
fested by his correspondence with the English minis
ter, as weU as by the events of his life, was a man of
a melancholy temper, and of a restless and romantic
valour; impatient, and wearied of mediocrity, he sigh
ed after the fame of some glorious achievement. AH
the resources of his fruitful imagination were how
ever disconcerted, by the advantages and dexterity
of his enemy. Many unavailing efforts were made to
approach the town by the side of the water; and
many expedients to seduce his too experienced ad
versary to battle, until the season of action was wast
ed, and the army became importunate to return from
what they considered a mad and impracticable en
terprise. But to relinquish an expedition which had
been prosecuted with so much labour and expense,
upon which the interests of the war so intimately de
pended, and with which his own military glory was
interwoven, pressed upon his sensible heart, with aU
the terrors of ignominy, and with the bitterest an
guish of humiliation. He resolved therefore to ac
coraplish his purpose, or to perish in the attempt.
All that part of the city of Quebec, which faces
the open country, being placed upon an eminence,
and the approach to it being supposed inaccessible,

INTRODUCTION.

cliii

was less dUigently fortified. A smaU distance above
the town a narrow pathway led from the shore up
the adjacent rocks. So rugged and impervious was
the ascent by this place, that no precautions were
thought necessary for the defence of it. Here the
British general designed to assail his enemy where
he was least apprehensive of danger. Embarking
his whole army upon the fleet, he moved up, during
the day, a few leagues above the town; and amus
ing his vigilant adversary by a feint debarkation,
waited untU darkness bad concealed his designs. A
strong detachraent being put on board of the flat-
bottomed boats, floated down with the stream, and
under the obscurity of midnight, to the place of de
scent. Wolfe, who conducted the enterprise in per
son, first leaped upon the shore. At the head of
his brave associates, he ascended amongst the dark
and craggy precipices ofthe mountain; and by mu
tual assistance, by the aid of the projecting rocks,
branches of trees, and roots that grew amongst the
cliff's, they reached the elevation unperceived. He ad
vanced with silent celerity and dispersed the guard.
The rest of his legions followed; and the whole army
with the return of the morning, were displayed upon
the heights of Abraham.
Montcalm, who, secure in his inaccessible en
trenchments, had mocked, during the whole siege,
VOL, I. u

cliv INTRODUCTION,
the impotent and futile projects of his adversary, was
now constrained to submit the fate of Quebec, and
of the war, to the hazard of an unequal battle. With
a force composed, fbr the most part, of militia and
Indians, inferior in numbers as weU as discipUne,
he marched out to encounter, upon their own ground,
an army of veteran soldiers, who, animated by the
successful temerity of their chief, and fired by his
spirit, now hurled the weapons of provocation and
defiance. After a fruitless attempt, by his Indians
and Canadian militia, to make a diversion of the En
gUsh force, the French commander, opposed in the
order' of battle to his formidable antagonist, led on
his regular troops. They advanced with a rapid step
and commenced the engagement with impetuosity
and valour. The .English, with a more temperate
courage, reserving their fire, awaited the enemies'
approach, and began the charge with an irresistible
and destructive slaughter. The action soon became
general, and was sustained with all the obstinate
bravery which national antipathies or emulation,
which despair or success could inspire, Montcalm,
amidst the universal havoc of those legions who had
been the companions of his glory while they lived,
sunk in the heat of the battle. The British general,
at the same time, animating his men by his presence
and example, fought with heroic courage amidst

INTRODUCTION, clV
the fury of the engagement, and signalized his valour
by the forfeit of his life. When these officers had dis
appeared from the scene of action, the conflict was
sustained with various and doubtful success, untU
their second in command had likewise perished.
The left wing of the French at last being charged
by the bayonet with great violence, was thrown into
confusion, and, after many obstinate struggles to re
new the attack, driven from the field. The disor
der soon afterwards communicated to the centre and
to the right wing; the rout became general, resist
ance ceased, and victory perched upon the banners
of Great Britain.
In strength of numbers, and magnitude of slaugh
ter, this battle holds but an humble and subordinate
Station, amongst the splendid victories of the world;
but the important consequences of it, the heroic spi
rit, variety of incidents, and tragic dignity with which
the whole scene was exhibited, bestow upon it a live
ly interest with posterity. The two generals, who
had been borne from the raidst of the conflict, sur
vived just long enough to witness the issue of it.
They closed their raortal career with expressions
of joy and satisfaction; the one, that he had not lived
to witness the humiliation of his defeat; the other,
that he died victoriously. The memory of the brave
Moiltcalm, is preserved by his countrymen with af-

clvi INTRODUCTION.
fection; With sympathy for his fate and admiration
of his virtues. The intrepid and indefatigable Wolfe,
has received, what he most courted in his life, a glori
ous immortality, and stands preeminent in the short
list of British heroes, who have adorned the annals
of the new world.
Quebec capitulated to the English army, and was
garrisoned by five thousand men. The French pow
er was now in the ghmmerings of extinction; a last
effort was nevertheless made to reanimate the ex
piring flame. During the whole of the foUowingyear,
a desultory warfare was carried on, which assumed,
in some instances, a sanguinary character. Quebec
was besieged, in its turn, by the French, and the
English army repulsed before its waUs, with the loss
of one thousand men. But this attempt proving
abortive, the remnants of the French army, having
exhausted every means of resistance, stipulating for
the Canadians, the enjoyment of their religion and
property, renounced the conflict. On the eighth of
Septeraber 1760, they surrendered to the arms of his
Britannic majesty. A definitive treaty was conclud
ed, three years aferwards, at Paris, by which the
whole of the possessions east of the Mississippi, with
the exception of the Island of Orleans, was annexed
to the dorainions of Great Britain.

CHAPTER IV,
The causes which produced immediately the Indepen
dence qf the Colonies.
During the first joy occasioned by the prosper
ous termination of the war with France, much cor
diality subsisted between Great Britain and her
American subjects; and all those distrusts and animo
sities, which had so often disquieted their political
harmony, were for a while, lost in mutual congratu
lations. But avarice and ambition, those great de
stroyers of the wisdom and happiness of mankind,
and which, at all times, prevailed in the provincial
government of the mother country, even over a sense
of her own interest, permitted but a short triumph
to these benevolent feeUngs.
Two years had not yet expired, since the restora
tion of peace, when the colonists, from the midst of
their transient anticipations of a long prosperity,
were borne into the tumults of a more solemn and
sanguinary conflict. In the late war they had fought

clviii

INTRODUCTION.

for glory and for dominion. They were now to con
tend for their liberty; to dissolve the ties of kindred
and of allegiance, and to vindicate their indepen
dence by the blood of a furious civil war. A brief
enumeration of the injuries and acts of hostility
which produced these events, will complete the ob
jects ofthe present introduction.
The arras of Great Britain were, at this pe-
1764. . ^
nod, victorious by land and by sea. Her cora
raercial power, which pervaded the extremities of
the globe, had kindled the jealousy and awakened
the secret animosity of all Europe. This dangerous
preeminence, she had acquired, by the expense of
immense treasures, and by the accumulation of a
debt of six hundred and fifty miUions of doUars. An
extension of revenue was therefore required, to re
lieve her financial embarrassments, to sustain the
magnitude ofthe empire; and no less gratify the im
moderate ambition of her rulers, which enflaraed by
recent prosperity, now grasped at the entire sove
reignty of the ocean. Amongst the various expe
dients employed, on this occasion, the taxation of
the American colonies became a favourite project;
which, flattering the cupidity or the necessities of the
multitude, was sanctioned by popular approbation.
This system was begun by numerous limitations,
not unprecedented, but distinguished for their seve-

INTRODUCTION.

clix

rity, imposed upon the colonial trade. " To restrain
iUicit commerce and prevent smuggling," the com
manders on the coast, were converted into revenue
officers; and, from ignorance or neghgence of the
custom house laws, raany vexatious seizures were
made by them. This injury was encouraged by
impunity, for redress could be obtained only in the
courts of Great Britain. It was aggravated also, by
an appendant regulation requiring that the forfeitures
and penalties accruing under this act, should be re
covered in the courts of admiralty, in contempt of
the usual jurisdiction of the provinces.
Frora their trade with the English, French and
Spanish West Indies, the colonies had derived a sup
ply of specie, which sufficed their doraestic circula
tion, enabled them to liquidate their debts, and in
crease their importations of British goods. This
trade, not expressly authorized by the commercial
laws of Great Britain, was first interrupted by these
new revenue officers, and soon afterwards by exces
sive duties laid by pariiament, equivalent to an entire
prohibition. It was ordered, also, that these duties
should be paid in silver or gold, and an act was, at
the same time passed, depriving of legal currency,
all bills of credit, to be afterwards issued by the colo
nies. A system of legislation no less preposterous
than tyrannical; for, a revenue was demanded by

clx INTRODUCTION.
precluding the sole avenues which lay open for the
acquisition of it.
These injurious transactions, which exposed the
whole commerce of America to the rapacity of indi
viduals, were, at length, consummated by the memo
rable stamp act. By this act, it was designed that
bonds, deeds, and other instruments of writing, to ac
quire a legal authority, should be executed upon
stamped paper; and upon this paper a tax, for defray
ing, it is said, the expenses ofthe late war in America,
was to be levied. This biU was proposed by the minis
ter of finance, George Grenville, and was reraitted,
for discussion to the next meeting of parliament.
The regulations by which the provincial commerce
had been previously fettered, were rigorous and un
warrantable; but, from their early and gradual im
position, few inquiries had been made upon the
origin or nature ofthem. They had, indeed, excit
ed discontent, and, on some occasions, remonstrance;
but were, for the most part, tolerated as natural in
firraities of the constitution, against which it were
useless and perhaps impious to murmur. There was,
besides, some retribution, however inadequate for
the loss of liberty, in the extensive trade, in the wealth
and dignity of Great Britain ; and the navigation laws
had been, on many occasions, eluded by the negli
gence or connivance of the government. Taxes

INTRODUCTION. clxi
raised upon foreign coraraerce, are more than others
concealed from common observation; a choice is also
left to the subject, to accept or refuse the payment of
them. The colonists had preserved the intenial ad
ministration of the state exempt, in a great measure,
from foreign interposition; and, where the reality had
been lost, some image of freedom stiU remained. But
the acts ofthe present year were passed in such rapid
succession; executed with so much rigor, and with
so profligate a disregard to the most sacred privi
leges of the Americans, as kindled an immediate
and universal alarm.
The stamp act, especially, became, in private cir
cles, and public assemblies, with aU ages and sexes
and conditions, the prevailing subject of discussion.
With the natural propensity and ingenuity of irritat
ed minds, all past transgressions of the British go
vernment, remote, unnoticed or long since buried in
oblivion, were summoned by the Americans in aggra
vation of the present outrages-. The persecutions
by which their forefathers had been exiled from
their native country; the neglect, the indignities and
injuries they had sustained during the infancy of th6ir
settlements, from the insolence of their governors,
and from the domineering ambition of the parli
ament; the rapacious and tyrannical violations of
the freedom of commerce, from the fundamental
VOL, L x

Clxii INTRODUCTION.
act of navigation to the present time; all these
were minutely and pathetically enumerated; and
symptoms of violent opposition were manifested
throughout the whole continent. The colonial as
semblies, especially of Massachusetts and Virginia,
addressed remonstrances to the throne, and to both
houses of parUament; and instructions were despatch
ed to their agents, to employ every effort in resist
ing the ambitious projects of the British legislature.
When, by the salutary improvidence of the
1765. parhament, a whole year had been granted
to the colonists, for deliberations which awakened
their vigilance and alarmed their apprehensions, the
stamp act, on the twenty-second of March, received
the sanction of a law. It passed the house of com
mons, after a display of much arguraent, eloquence
and sophistry, by a raajority of two hundred votes;
it was approved with great coraplacency in the house
of lords; and aUeviating, as it was supposed, the bur
thens ofthe British subjects, or involving others, at
least, in a participation of their calamities, it was
promulgated with great joy throughout the whole na
tion. The torch of the revolution was now lighted. From
a tone of supplication or remonstrance, the colonists,
on the inteUigence of this event, assumed a threaten
ing aspect. Resolutions were immediately passed,

INTRODUCTION, clxiii
in the assembly of Virginia, asserting that the right
to levy taxes within that province, belonged to its
legislature, and that any atterapt to vest it elsewhere,
was iUegal, unconstitutional, and repugnant to the
liberties of Great Britain, as weU as of America.
Private associations were at the same time organiz
ed, assuming the appellation of the " Sons of Liber
ty;" with a regulai' correspondence, and with the
avowed resolution of resisting the operations of the
stamp act. Others were constituted to discourage
the importation of British goods, and to promote the
use of domestic manufactures. And a coat of En
glish cloth became, in a short time, an emblem of
disgrace, for which, the proprietor of it was exposed
to insult and popular vengeance.
Meanwhile, by the circulation of violent essays in
pamphlets and news papers, by mutual discussions,
by the harangues of patriotic and sometiraes sedi
tious orators, by the declamations of the pulpit, the
multitude were enflamed; and, according to the eter
nal laws of popular enthusiasm, proceeded to acts
of disorder and outrage. ¦
Assemblies of the people, in riotous concourse,
preceded by emblematic images, with fierce excla
mations, and threats of violence, first paraded in the
streets of Boston. The fury soon spread, as a
contagion, to the other towns of New England. The

clxiv INTRODUCTION.
officers for the distribution of stamps, who, to render
the act less odious, were chosen from the residents
of the colonies, were the special victims of popular
resentment. Some, by the clamorous insults, threats
and maledictions ofthe mob, were forced to resign;
in many instances, dragged before a magistrate, they
confirmed their resignation by an oath. Of others,
the effigies were borne in solemn procession through
the streets, and, after the formalities of a trial and
condemnation, hung, or strewed in the air amidst
the furious acclamations of the crowd. Of the most
offensive individuals, when darkness or intoxication
had increased the audacity of the multitude, the win
dows were broken; their houses were razed to the
ground, ransacked, and even the ruins of them were
demolished; that ofthe governor, who was forced to
fly for refuge in the night, was plundered, and the
public records destroyed. These unwarrantable ex
cesses were disapproved by the censure of the gene
ral court. Some of the assaUants were immediately
seized, imprisoned, and liberated by their associates.
A reward was offered fbr their detection, and none
incurred the odium or danger of their apprehension.
The arrival of the staraps frora England, in the
course of these proceedings, exasperated still fur
ther the pubhc temper, and provoked the irrevoca
ble fury of the populace. The event was announc-

INTRODUCTION. clxV
ed in PhUadelphia, where tbey first landed, by de
monstrations of public mourning. The flags in the
harbour were placed at half mast. The bells were
muffled, and toUed, during the day, a funeral knell.
The city was in commotion, during a whole week,
by the concourse and deliberations of the people.
Officers were compeUed to declare their resignation,
and the most determined resistance was manifested
to the operations of the stamp act; the quakers
alone remaining unmoved amid the general uproar
and confusion.
The first of September, the day designated by the
law for the emission of the stamps, was commemo
rated with no less mournful solemnity, and with
greater turbulence, at Boston and New York. In
the latter city, the lieutenant governor, conducted with
"the usual formahties of imprecations and insults to
the place of execution, was hung in effigy; and after
wards burnt, with a portion ofhis plundered proper
ty, in a conflagration of the odious stamped paper.
This ceremony, to provoke and to brave the resent
ment of their adversaries, was exhibited by the peo
ple, in the presence of the garrison, and under the
mouths ofthe British cannon.
At a convention of the more sober, and not less
patriotic citizens of New York, to whom these out
rageous proceedings were odious and discreditable,

Clxvi INTRODUCTION.
associations were constituted in concert with those
already existing in New England, and in corres
pondence with the provinces of the south, which
moderating the headlong impetuosity of the multi
tude, converted their factious enthusiasm into a
more systematic and honourable opposition. By the
mutual efforts of this confederacy, the operations of
the stamp act were effectually controlled. On the
day appointed for its introduction, scarce a rem
nant of the execrable and abhored paper was found
upon the continent as a meraorial of its existence.
At the instance of Massachusetts, a congress of de
puties, from most ofthe states, were assembled on the
seventh of October, at New York. A declaration
of the rights of the colonies, a detail of their injuries,
petitions to the king, and memorials to parhament,
were fraraed and published by this assembly. These
being executed with much force of argument and
eloquence, and by a body of men so numerous and
respectable, bestowed great authority and dignity as
weU as uniforraity upon the cause ofthe opposition;
and afforded, at the same time, a model for that ge
neral congress, which afterwards conducted with so
much glory the transactions of the war.
During the last year the British ministry,
1766. , * ^ ^
the great promoters of these commotions
in America, for reasons not well explained^ were

INTRODUCTION. ClxvU
dismissed from office. The marquis of Rocking
ham, a man of approved virtue, received the place
of Mr, Grenville. General Conway, their earliest
and most strenuous advocate, was appointed secre
tary of state for the colonies. The other merabers
were ahke favourable to the sarae interests.
It was the good fortune of the Araericans, in this
glorious contention for their Uberties, to enlist not only
the sympathy and benevolence of all Europe in their
favour, but the co-operation, in the British parlia
ment, of the most illustrious personages of their age.
Lord Chatham, less a friend, perhaps, to American
freedom, than eager for the preeminence of his na
tive country, and hostile to the pernicious counsels
of his pohtical adversaries, defended the interests of
the colonies, with aU the force ofhis unrivalled elo
quence. In this he was seconded by the immortal
genius of Burke. There are a few other names,
as Camden and Barre, revered in every region to
which their fame has extended; but from the feel
ings of an American, they demand a special tribute
of veneration.
The first efforts of the ministry on the meeting of
parliament, was to procure the revocation of the
stamp act. This measure produced, with the oppo
sition, whose inclinations and honour were interested
in the prevention of it, a fierce and memorable con-

Clxviii INTRODUCTION.
troversy. The arguments and principles urged in
the original production of this law, were again re
peated with aU the amplifications of passion, in sup
port of it. Mr. GrenvUle, especially, a shrewd law
yer, and well used in the arts of disputation, de
fended this offspring of his foUies, with a paternal
sohcitude. In an elaborate speech, composed with
much ingenuity and sophistry of arguraent, having
assumed the right of taxation in the parliament, and
detailed the benefits derived by the colonies, from
their connexion with the British government, he then
inveighed, with pathetic declamation, at their avarice,
andthe ingratitude of refusing thisinadequate retribu
tion, to the mother country, for so frequent and pro
digal dispensations of her bounties. He enumerated
the late riots and insurrections, fomented, as he said,
by the lenity of governraent; by the inflammatory
speeches, approbation or connivance of the present
ministers and their adherents. On these grounds,
therefore, he deprecated the repeal of the law, as a
raeasure fraught with calamity to the nation; as an
encouragement to rebellion, and a prostration of the
honour and dignity of parharaent and majesty of the
British empire, at the feet of an insolent and frantic
multitude. " It is my opinion," repUed Lord Chatham, " that
this kingdom has no right to lay a tax upon the colo-

INTRODUCTION, clxix
nies. At the same time I assert the authority of this
kingdom to be sovereign and supreme, in every cir
cumstance of government, and legislation whatever.
Taxation is no part of the governing or legislative
power. The taxes are a voluntary -gift, and grant
of the commons alone. The concurrence of the
peers, and of the crown, is necessary only as a form
of law. This house represents the commons of
Great Britain, The people of America, represented
in their assemblies, have inviolably exercised this
constitutional privilege of granting their own money;
they would have been slaves, if they had not enjoyed it,
" We are told that America is obstinate, — almost in
open rebeUion, I rejoice that America has resisted.
Three miUions of people so dead to all the feeUngs
of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would
have been fit instruments to make slaves of all the
rest, " The honourable gentleman boasts of his bounties
to America, Are not these bounties intended final
ly for the benefit of this kingdom.? If they are not
he has misapplied the national treasures. I speak
from accurate knowledge, when I say that the pro
fit of Great Britain, from the trade of the colonies,
is two miUions per annum. This is the fund which
carried you triumphantly through the last war; this
is the price America pays for her protection.
VOL. I. Y

CIXX INTRODUCTION.
"The Americans have been wronged; they have
been driven to madness by injustice. WUl you pun
ish them for the madness you have occasioned? No;
let this country be the first to resume its prudence
and temper. I wiU pledge myself for the colonies,
that, on their part, resentment and animosity will
cease. Upon the whole, I beg leave to tell the house
in a few words what is really my opinion. It is that
the stamp act be repealed, absolutely, totally, and
immediately." With the authority and eloquence of WiUiam Pitt,
other causes conspired, of no less potent influence in
the determination of this question. The merchants, to
whom were due at this period, frora the colonies, more
than two milUons of oollars, and the manufacturers,
many of whom, by the interruption ofthe American
trade, being reduced to the verge of ruin, had raised
loud clamours in the nation, against the stamp act;
and now were present at the bar of pariiament, with
petitions, imploring the repeal of it. A jealousy of
the British power, or adrairation of the gallant spi
rit with which the Araericans had risen up against
the force ofa mighty empire, in vindication of their
freedom, had awakened to this subject, the attention
of all Europe, In England, from the desire of popu
larity; from sympathy in the injuries of the colonies,
or indignation at the despotic rigours of parUament,

INTRODUCTION. clxxi
violent parties were excited throughout the whole
kingdom; and these being animated by coUoquial dis
putations, and by the political essays of newspapers
and pamphlets, exasperated the opposition and pro
moted the interests of the ministry.
Another incident not unworthy of relation condu
ced also to the same object. Benjamin Franklin,
whose public writings and intercourse with influeur
tial individuals, had already promoted the cause of
his countrymen in London, was summoned to ap
pear for examination before the house of commons.
To witness' this scene the galleries were crowd
ed with spectators, who had flocked in partly to
enjoy the humiUation of a rebel; many, from an
idle curiosity; and a few, from veneration of his ta
lents and virtues; some also were irapatient to see a
patriot contend for the liberties of his country, for
the most sacred principles of the English consti
tution, and for the dearest privileges of mankind.
The calm, the unmoved dignity with which he ap
peared before this august council, in the midst of
an imposing and attentive multitude, and in the pre
sence of the most distinguished personages of his
age; the pertinence of his replies, and the force of
his reasoning, made a deep impression upon the feel
mgs ofthe audience, and had no humble agency
in promoting, on this occasion, the interests of his

Clxxn INTRODUCTION.
country. Posterity wiU not be indifferent to the
ashes of this great man. It will no doubt be remem
bered with admiration, and perhaps with regret, that,
amidst the pride and princely magnificence ofa court,
a mechanic of Pennsylvania extorted the veneration
of kings, and, in the plain robes of republican sim
plicity, awed into respect the insolence of their satel
lites. The question was now put and the stamp act was
repealed — it was repealed, that monument of tyran
ny, infatuatioh and ignorance; but the secret rancour
of the heart, the humUiated pride, the insatiate ava
rice, the spirit of domination and revenge, were not
repealed. The joyful news, with many expressions
of congratulation, was transmitted by general Con
way to America; and to inspire a just sense of the
vast obligation, the colonists were reminded, in many
words of " the moderation, the forbearance, the un
exampled lenity and tenderness of the parliament to
wards them;" it was hoped also that a respectful grati
tude and cheerful obedience to the legislative author
ity of Great Britain would be the effects of so much
grace and condescension on the part of his majesty.
The joy occasioned amongst the Americans at
the revocation of this act, was equal to the rage
with which they had opposed the execution of it
In the province of Virginia, no less distinguished

INTRODUCTION, clxxUi
for loyalty, than love of liberty, it was immoderate
and universal. In the first transports ofthe legisla
ture, a statue was voted to the king, in acknowledg
ment of his tender mercies; and to those illustrious
individuals who had, with so much ardour and elo
quence, defended their interests in parliament, an
obeUsk was to be erected as a testimony of their eter
nal gratitude, WiUiam Pitt, for his explicit approba
tion of their resistance, became a special object of
veneration. The pious republicans of New England,
who usually refered their feUcities to the immediate
bounty of heaven, paid also, on this occasion, their
principal honours to these terrestrial divinities.
But how transitory was the dominion of these gra
cious feehngs; the clamorous voice of discord was
heard even amidst the harmony of their felicitations.
The odious restrictions upon commerce still subsist
ed. The repeal of the stamp act was accompanied
by a declaratory resolution, asserting the right of
parliament, " to bind the colonies in all cases what
soever;" by an injunction that aU injuries of indivi
duals, sustained in the execution of the late law,
should be compensated by the colonies; and finally,
by the revival of a former regulation, whereby they
were required to prepare barracks, and certain
provisions for his majesty's forces, which it might
be necessary to station in America, This was called

clxxiv INTRODUCTION.
the mutiny act, and was not less odious and tyran
nical than any of its predecessors. Very animated
controversies arose, therefore, on the subject of
these laws with the governor of New York, which
spread afterwards to Massachusetts. This soon pro
duced a reaction in England, and a triumph to the
defeated partizans of the stamp act. Now it was
asserted, with bitter sarcasm against the ministry,
that the Americans were a factious and ungovern
able race of people; that forbearance, instead of
mitigating their spirit of turbulence, had rendered
them stiU more audacious, insolent and rebeUious;
that no other course remained but to apply those
measures of severity, which former moderation and
concessions had rendered indispensable. These sen
tiraents soon prevailed throughout the nation, and it
was resolved to overawe by force, those whom gentle
means had failed to correct; but, the appUcation was
too late. The same blast which extinguishes the
taper, kindles the volcano into flame.
An administration less pacific and subservient
" to the interests of the colonies was required.
The duke of Grafton was, accordingly, made secre
tary of the treasury; the earl of Shelburn, secretary
of state, Charies Townsend, chanceUor-of the exche
quer, and, finally, WiUiam Pitt, keeper of the seals.
The latter had been recently created viscount Pin-

INTRODUCTION. clxXV
cent and earl of Chatham, and having reached the
extremity of old age, was prevented, by his infirmi
ties, from an effectual opposition to the councils of
his colleagues. A biU was immediately brought for
ward and passed, with little opposition, ^under the
auspices of Mr. Townsend, imposing a duty upon tea,
glass, colours, and other articles imported from Eng
land to the colonies. The fund arising from these du
ties, was placed at the disposal of the parliaraent, to
be used in defraying the expenses of the administra
tion in America, From which thfe governor and
judges were especially to receive their salaries, and
were thereby rendered subservient to the ministry,
and independent of the colonial legislatures. To col
lect this revenue, " a permanent administration of
the customs," created by act of parliament, was at
the same time established at Boston; and thus, as it
were to render the other acts of their selfish and
mischievous ambition the more odious, a luxurious
and ravenous tribe of financiers and tax gatherers,
were set loose among a people accustomed to a labo
rious Ufe, to riot upon the hard savings of their fru
gality and industry.
The temper of the colonies, by their recent con
tentions, and by the rapaciousness and insolence
of the British governors, had become irritable and
suspicious; the people had acquired also, in their

Clxxvi INTRODUCTION.
discussions, more accurate notions of their privi
leges, and more generous and exalted sentiments of
liberty; some perhaps, disdainful ofthe ignominy of
provincial subjection to an authority situated at the
distance of one thousand leagues, or anticipating a
more noble destination for their country, already as
pired to the glory and distinction of independence,
The imposition of these duties, which, at an earlier
period, might have been suff'ered, if not without mur
muring, at least without a violent opposition, was
treated as a dangerous and intolerable encroachment
upon their privUeges; and the dependence of theroyal
governors, frora the earliest connexion with Great
Britain, was deemed indispensable to the preserva
tion of their liberties. It was now remembered,
that in Massachusetts, whilst Canada yet remained
in possession of France; when, by the vicinity ofa
restless enemy and her influence over the savages,
their ancestors were kept in perpetual alarm and oc
cupation, they had nevertheless asserted the right of
self taxation, and even then opposed with triumphant
success all efforts of the British government, to estab
lish over them the independence of these regal offi
cers; few were, therefore, found at the present time,
willing to encounter the everlasting infamy of a sub
mission, in the vigour of manhood, and confidence of
strength, to usurpations which their generous forer

INTRODUCTION. clxxvii
fathers, environed by dangers, and in the weakness
of their minority, had resisted with spirit and indig
nation. With these principles of combustion we may
easily conceive that the passions of the people of
America, were kindled, on the pubUcation of the
late laws, to a violent and dangerous conflagration.
At the meeting of the assembly of Massa
chusetts, a letter detaihng the motives and
reasons of the opposition to the late acts, was trans
mitted to their agent in England; others werfe ad
dressed to the principal members ofparliament; and,
finally, a circular was communicated to the general
assemblies of the other provinces, recapitulating
their privileges, stating their grievances, and invok
ing the co-operation of aU the states in resistance to
the usuipations which had been practised upon their
natural aud constitutional liberties.
These transactions gave great umbrage to the ad
ministration in England, and were treated, in a let
ter from the earl of Hillsborough to the provincial
governors, as factious and insolent; tending to inflame
the minds of his majesty's good subjects, to promote
unwarrantable combinations, and subvert the true
principles of the British constitution. In confor
mity wifh instructions from the crown, the house of
representatives was required, by the governor, " to
rescind the resolutions which gave birth to the cir-
VOL, I. z

Clxxviii INTRODUCTION,
cular letter, and to declare their disapprobation of
that rash and hasty proceeding."
The question being put to the house, after much
irritating discussion with the governor, was deter
mined in the negative. The resolution was then
transmitted, with a letter, stating the motives of the
refusal; on the reception of which, the assembly,
according to the instructions of the British govern
ment, was dissolved by proclamation.
This altercation was conducted with temperance
and dignity on the part of the court, but with a una
nimous and determined spirit. The passions ofthe
people were in some instances exasperated to ac
tions of outrage. Without enthusiasm nothing great
or glorious is achieved by mortals, and popular en
thusiasm is rarely limited by the rules of discretion.
A vessel of John Hancock, an eminent citizen of
Boston, was seized by the comraissioners of the
custoras; by this transaction a violent uproar was
excited throughout the whole city. The officers and
their assistants were pursued, beaten, and forced
•to take refuge aboard a vessel of war then in the
harbour. The boat of the collector was taken, and
burnt with triumph by a tumultuous assemblage of
the people, who patroUed the streets tiU a late hour
of the night.

INTRODUCTION. clxxix
' Orders had already been given to general Gage,
for introducing into the province a military force, as
a protection to the coUectors of the revenue, and the
late riot was made a pretext for hastening that fatal
proceeding. A committee was deputed, in a town
meeting, to the governor to obtain information on
this subject, and to solicit a convocation of the gene
ral court; which being rejected, an assembly of de
puties from the whole province was immediately
convened; and resolutions were passed " that as tliere
was sorae probabUity of a war with France, all the
inhabitants should provide themselves with a com
plete mUitary equipment, according to law." They
were, however, soon interrupted by the approach of
the troops. Two regiments, commanded by colonel
Dalrymple, had now arrived, under convoy, in the
harbour. The councU was required by the gover
nor to provide quarters for them in the city. It was
refused. They were then landed under cover of
their ships, and marched with loaded muskets, fixed
bayonets, a train of artUlery, and with aU the impos
ing solemnity of military parade, to the centre of the
city. Quarters were again demanded and refused.
The main guard, with two field pieces, was there
fore stationed in front of the state house, and the
remainder of the regiments, by the order of the
governor, occupied that building. Thus, the cham-

clxXX INTRODUCTION,
ber of representatives became a garrison of foreign
troops. The counsels of state were overawed by
the presence of armed soldiers; the streets were fill
ed with tents; the citizens were constrained in their
occupations and enjoyments, and often insulted by the
guard; their divine service, too, was interrupted by
mihtary music.
In England aU orders of the state were now
17o9. unanimous in asserting the sovereignty ofpar
liament. In joint resolutions, both houses expressed
their abhorrence of the seditious spirit of the pro-
vinees, and their approbation of his majesty's mea
sures for the restoration of order, with the assurance
of their support in the execution of the laws. They
solicited the king, at the same time, to obtain from the
governors, information ofthe treasons, and the names
ofthe persons most active in promoting such off'ences,
within the colony of Massachusetts. These threats
were directed exclusively against this province, that
others might be deterred from an imitation of her
example. But the assembly of Virginia, irritated by
the invidious distinction, and eager to merit a share
of the threatened parUamentary vengeance, now
passed resolutions, asserting that their right as Brit
ish subjects, entitied them, at aU times, to petition
for redress of injuries, and to solicit, when necessary,
the concurrence of the other colonies in the accom-

INTRODUCTION, clxXXi
plishment of their object; and deprecating the ini
quitous resolution of parliament, of transporting be
yond sea, American subjects for trial, and thereby
depriving them of their most inestimable privileges,
of a jury from their vicinage, and ^ of producing
witnesses in their defence, A petition was at the
same time addressed to the king, urging the same
arguments and supplicating from his royal interces
sion and paternal bounty, a mitigaition of the intole
rable evils which threatened the happiness and liber
ty of the country.
The governor, fearing the contagious efi'ect of
these proceedings upon the people, abruptly dissolv
ed the assembly. The members retired to a private
house, and continued their deliberations. A resolu
tion was passed, signed by aU the members and
subscribed by the people throughout the province,
&) discourage the use of foreign merchandise, and
prohibit entirely the use of tea. The same measure,
already observed in New England, was now gradual
ly adopted in the other provinces. The women, with
a generous pati-iotism, renounced aU their ornaments
of British manufacture, and dressed in the rude pro
duce of their own looms. The names of all those who
departed from the principles of this association were
published in the public prints, as the enemies of their
country.

clxxxii INTRODUCTION.
The general court of Massachusetts was convened
to obtain the necessary appropriation for the support
of government. The members refused to consult,
as long as the freedom of their deliberations was vio
lated by the presence of an armed force. They re
quired the removal of the ships from the harbour,
and of the garrison from the town, as a preliminary
to further proceedings. To obviate this objection the
governor transferred the assembly to Cambridge;
which artifice only increased their dissentions. En
tertaining, therefore, no hope of accomplishing his
object, and to avoid fruiUess discussions the court
was prorogued.
A change in the administration produced at length
a determination of repealing, at the succeeding ses
sion of parliaraent, all the duties except that on tea.
This capricious policy had no eff'ect in mitigating
the incensed feelings of the colonies; for, it servea
only to indicate more conspicuously the tenacity with
which the parliament adhered to the principle of
supremacy, which now constituted the sole grounds
of the altercation. The fifth of March of this year, is memorable
1770. for the massacre of Boston. The insolence
of the British soldiery, who had been taught to con
sider the inhabitants of this country in a state of
barbarism or rebelUon, and the detestation with

INTRODUCTION, clxXxUi
which these instruments of tyranny were, on the
other hand, viewed by the citizens, had produced a
succession of insults and injuries; and their animo
sities, in the present instance, being exasperated by
mutual provocation, burst out into open affray, A
party ofthe king's troops, under the orders of captain
Preston, either animated to fury by their antagonists,
who assailed them, it is said, with ice, and snow baUs,
and mud, or instigated by a dastardly resentment,
fired upon the unarmed multitude. Five were se
verely wounded, some others slightly, and three fell
dead upon the spot. The alarm bells were rung,
and the whole city was thrown into immediate con
sternation. The troops, by the mterposition of in
fluential individuals, and by the assurance of the go
vernor that the laws should be enforced against the
ofi'enders, escaped from the infuriated rage of the
populace. After some opposition from the governor,
they were, the next day, removed in consequence of
the soUcitations, importunities and threats of the
people, without the precincts of the city.
This being the first blood shed during these un
happy contentions, it produced an universal alarm;
and, more than any occurrence of the war, left a
profound impression upon the minds of the Bosto
nians, On the eighth of March, the obsequies of
the dead were celebrated with the most mournful

clxXXiv INTRODUCTION.
demonstrations of funeral solemnity; by a suspension
of aU public occupations; by the toUing of bells in
Boston and the neighbouring towns; by processions
moving in sadness towards the place of sepulture,
where, in the midst of an imraense multitude, in pro
found silence, and with aU the indications of extreme
grief and compassion, the bodies were deposited in
the tomb.
The trial of captain Preston, and of the rest termi
nated in their acquital; two only being found guilty
of unpremeditated homocide. And thus the majes
ty of the laws triumphed over the sentiments of popu
lar resentment and indignation.
„ Few events occurred, during tiie two preced
ing years, worthy of commemoration. The
Gaspee, an armed schooner, stationed at Providence
to enforce the navigation laws, had been boarded by
the inhabitants and burnt; and five hundred pounds
offered as a reward for the apprehension of the offen
ders, produced no discovery. A tidesman, in the act
of detaining a vessel, in obedience to the late laws,
had been stripped and exposed in the streets of Bos
ton besmeared with tar and covered with feathers,
to the contempt, to the insults or pity of the people.
Committees of correspondence had also been consti
tuted in the state of Massachusetts, whose reciprocal
communications, joined with the coUision and aspe-

INTRODUCTION. clxXXV
rity of popular discussions throughout the other pro
vinces, and with the many political essays that were
written with great abUities of argument and warmth
of eloquence, and distributed amongst the people,
had retained the public mind in a high state of irri
tation. Several letters to the department of state in En
gland, from governor Hutchinson and lieutenant
governor Oliver, were in this year, discovered mys
teriously by doctor Franklin, and transmitted to the
assembly of Massachusetts, These letters repre
sented the opposition in America scornfully. It was
described as a petty faction, nourished only by ira
punity and by the lenient measures that had been
used for the suppression of it. They recommended
an entire alteration ofthe colonial charters, and es
pecially that the governors and judges should receive
their salaries of the crown.
This correspondence diff'used in the pubhc prints
throughout the provinces, aff'orded fresh aUments to
the flames of discord and resentment.
To counteract the resolutions of the colonies against
the importation and use of tea, which deprived the
British government of an important revenue, an at
tempt was made to introduce that article by the in
strumentality of the East India company. By an
act ofparliament, aU teas were first exempted from
VOL. I, A a

clxXXVi INTRODUCTION.
the usual duties of exportation, and large shipments
were made, and factors employed, in the American
ports, to receive them. No sooner was the arrival
of these vessels made known, than the people assem
bled in various places throughout the whole conti
nent, and in the commercial cities, took measures to
prevent their landing. In Charleston, after a violent
opposition, the teas were debarked and rotted in the
ceUars of the consignees. In Pennsylvania, the agents
were constrained by the menaces of the people to
resign. In Boston, the inhabitants collected in a
vast concourse in a " town meeting," resolved " that
the tea shaU not be landed, and that no duty shall
be paid." This resolution was voted with acclama-
tion§ and other symptoms of popular excitement. At
the dissolution of the assembly an immense crowd
repaired to the harbour, where about twenty persons,
in the disguise of Mohawk Indians, went aboard the
vessels, broke open the chests in which the tea was
contained, and strewed the contents of them upon
the surface of the ocean. Without further injury,
they suddenly disappeared, and the spectators retired
in silence to their habitations.
At the news of this outrage, the national pride
1774 e
of Great Britain was kindled. AU orders ot
the state were clamorous for revenge; soldiers, citi
zens, nobility, and rabble. The proceedings were

INTRODUCTION. clxXXVii
transmitted in a message from the crown. The par
liament rung with bursts of indignation, and the
uplifted hand of vengeance fell upon the devoted town
of Boston.
A bUl was brought in by the prime minister, Lord
North, caUed the " Boston port bill," to discontinue
the landing or shipping of any goods, wares or mer
chandise whatsoever at the harbour of that city. A
biU for the " regulating of the province" then suc
ceeded, by which its charter was subverted. The
nomination of the magistrates and councU was vested
in the crown, and offices, were made to subsist during
royal pleasure.
An act was likewise passed "for the impartial
administration of justice," which ordained that any
person indicted for homicide or other capital off'ences
committed in aiding the magistrates in the execution
of the laws, might be sent by the governor to any
other colony, or to England, if necessary, for trial.
This was followed by an act which authorized the
quartering soldiers in the houses of the citizens; and
lastly, by the Quebec bill, which granted to catholics
an equal participation in the dignities of the state,
and to the inhabitants the privilege of the French
laws; established a legislative council invested with
arbitrary power, and extended the limits of the pro
vince, so as to comprehend the territory between the

clxxxvui INTRODUCTION.
lakes, the Ohio and Mississippi; and thus by increas
ing the dominions, securing the fideUty and subordi
nation of this colony, they procured a place of de
barkation for troops and munitions of war, and aug
mented the influence and facUities of the royal party
in America.
Such were the laws produced by the ministerial
councils of lord North, to whose infatuation, and that
of lord Bute, — for he too was a counsellor ofthe king,
— not less than to the generous zeal of their advocates,
or to their own virtues, were the colonists indebted
for the acquisition of theie freedom and indepen
dence. On the arrival of the news of the port bill
at Boston, an assembly of the people was immediate
ly convened. A resolution was passed in which they
appealed to the Divinity, and to the world, against the
injustice and inhumanity of Great Britain, and ex
horted the other colonies to unite in opposition to
these rigorous violations of their common liberty.
The sarae sentiraents were reciprocated by the other
provinces. By the legislature of Virginia, the first
of June, on which the port bill was to coramence its
operations, was set apart as a day of fasting, humi
liation and prayer, to implore the interposition of
heaven in averting the calaraities which threatened
the destruction of their freedom, and the evils of a
civil war. But the governor, fearing the effect of

INTRODUCTION. clxxxix
their pious resolution, dissolved the assembly. The
members then formed themselves into a private as
sociation, and continued their consultations; the most
iraportant was the proposal of a general congress to
deliberate upon their coramon interests. The as
sembly of Massachusetts had been adjourned to meet
at Salem, where general Gage, the present governor,
off'ended by the violence of their proceedings, sent
his secretary to dissolve them. The doors were shut,
and the order of dissolution was read aloud upon the
stair case.
The members then formed a society, in imitation
of those which prevailed in England during the civU
war, under the title of a " league and covenant," in
which they obligated themselves, in the presence of
the supreme Being, to suspend aU intercourse with
Great Britain untU the obnoxious laws were repeal
ed. This league, by a proclamation of the governor,
was declared to be a traitorous and criminal combi
nation contrary to the allegiance due to their sover
eign. The declaration, on the other hand, was pro
nounced by the people, to be itself, an illegal and
tyrannical encroachment upon one of the most essen
tial privileges of British subjects, that of consulting
together for the preservation of their liberties. The
operations of the civil government under the new
system were every where interrupted, by the fury of

CXC INTRODUCTION.
the enraged populacfe, who forced the magistrates to
resign or suspend the functions of their office, and
crowding around the haU of justice, impeded the
entrance of the court, declaring, with threatening
looks and expressions, that they recognized no other
authority than the ancient laws and usages of their
country; and to none else would they submit.
The first day of June having arrived, the whole
continent presented an uninterrupted scene of sad
ness and mourning; the occupations of the field,
and the activities of coraraerce, except among the
quakers of Philadelphia, ceased; pulpits resounded
with prayers, and the bells of every city rung the
funeral kneU. Copies ofthe late acts of pariiament,
printed upon mourning paper, with black borders
and other emblematic figures were dispersed among
the people; and in some places burnt, in solemn cere
mony, by the assembled multitude.
The inhabitants of Boston, by the entire suspen
sion of trade, being destitute of occupation sunk from
the height of prosperity to sudden and deplorable
distress. They did not, however, in the hour of tri
bulation, forget the heroic courage and resignation
of their forefathers. They were encouraged, indeed,
by the most powerful incentives to human fortitude,
that of suffering fbr the general interests of mankind,
and for the liberty of their country. With the assu-

INTRODUCTION. CXCl
ranee of divine approbation, they derived from the
sympathy of their compatriots and the friends of
freedom in every corner of the globe, from a confi
dence of the everlasting fame and gratitude of pos
terity, a consolation even beyond vvhat martyrs feel,
who die for their holy reUgion.
The other cities and provinces, contrary to the
illiberal hopes of the British ministry, did not seek
to profit by the calamities of the Bostonians, The
neighbouring towns of Marblehead and Salem, off'er
ed them the use of their ports, wharves and ware
houses, gratuitously; from more distant places, they
received daily, the most sympathetic expressions of
encouragement and condolence, and pecuniary aid,
which however inadequate to the relief of their dis
tresses, was not ungenerously contributed.
Meanwhile, all the measures of the British go
vernment tended to increase the existing animosities,
and accelerate the moment of hostilities. Two re
giments of infantry were landed by general Gage,
and quartered in Boston; they were gradually rein
forced by others from Ireland, Halifax and New
York; and to impede, if necessary, the communica
tion of Boston with the surrounding country, these
troops were employed in fortifying the isthmus which
connects the peninsula^ on which that city is built,
with the continent. The military stores of the pro-

CXCU INTRODUCTION.
vincial magazines at Charlestown were seized and
transported to Boston. At this outrage the whole
country was in sudden alarm. In Massachusetts the
people were restrained with great difficulty from acts
of hostility. The fort at Portsmouth was attacked
by a body of provincials, carried by storra, and the
powder conveyed to a place of safety; the same was
accomphshed in Rhode Island. A report was spread
through Connecticut, that the British garrison and
fleet had coraraenced hostilities against Boston;
about thirty thousand of the inhabitants rose sponta
neously in arms and marched towards that city.
During these coraraotions the first general congress
consisting of fifty-five deputies, were elected, and on
the 4th of September, convened at Philadelphia. For
president they chose Peyton Randolph of Virginia;
for secretary, Charles Thomson. The personages
who composed this assembly, were, in private life,
distinguished for their virtues, for honour, integrity,
strength of character, and pubhc spirit. Many of
them were men of admirable talents and capacity.
There was, perhaps, no one of thera who would not
have solicited, as the most glorious prerogative of his
life, the privilege of dying for the Uberties of his
country. To these now, were consigned, by the votes
and affection of their fellow citizens, the destinies of

INTRODUCTION. CXCIU
America. To give coherence, consistency and sta
biUty to the scattered elements of many distant and
independent communities; to concUiate the conflict
ing passions of various sects, exasperated by politi
cal and religious antipathies; to control, by the sole
authority of their virtues, the levity, the irrevocable
and headlong turbulence of popular fury; to encoun
ter the accumulated animosity, the sarcasm, the
disdain, the resentraent, and imraediate vengeance of
their enemy; to lead forth the infant forces of a peo
ple, who had scarce yet risen from the bosom of the
desert, who had not yet burst from the obscurity of
provincial subjection, in array against the strength
of an empire, consohdated by the revolution of ages,
and now in the plenitude of her power, wrath and
ambition, were the duties which devolved upon them;
and which required no humble faculties, no common
audacity, no ordinary vigour and elevation of mind.
Letters were first addressed by this congress of
encouragement and admonition, to the people of
Massachusetts; and resolutions were passed requir
ing the other colonies to supply their necessities as
long as the occasion should require it. They resolv
ed that aU importations of EngUsh goods should be
prohibited, and that exportation to that country
should also cease in December ofthe following year,
unless before that time, their grievances were re-
VOL. L B b

CXClV INTRODUCTION.
dressed. A declaration of rights was then published,
in which were enumerated the constitutional and
natural pririleges of the colonies, the aggressions of
the British government, and finally the measures that
could alone appease their mutual resentments and
effect a cordial reconciliation. This was accompa
nied by an address to the people of Great Britain, to
the king and to the inhabitants of British America;
in which they endeavoured to mitigate the incensed
feelings of their sovereign by expressions of loyally;
to conciliate the affection of the English nation, by
a pathetic appeal to their generosity and love of
Uberty, and to instigate their countrymen, and par
ticularly of Canada, to unite and persevere in the
vindication of their just and honourable pretensions.
These papers of congress were composed with an
eloquence, a force, and dexterity of reasoning, that
has seldom been surpassed. They were read not only
in America, but in all Europe, and especially in
France, with avidity. At home the admonition and
laws of this assembly, were regarded as the oracles
of ti-uth. They were ratified by the Ifegislatures, un
less we may except the city of New York where tiie
influence of the royal party was predominant, and
were obeyed with a religious veneration. The cause
accjuired new advocates in England, and excited new
interest and admiration tiiroughout the whole world.

INTRODUCTION. CXCV
By these measures of congress no change was
however produced in the councils of the ministry;
and from the continued hostile preparations of their
commander, it became, at length, evident that arms
must determine the dispute. Preparations were,
therefore, made with promptitude for this last fatal
necessity. A mUitary ardour soon pervaded every
province. The militia were regularly trained to
martial exercises; artiUery, ammunition, and other
warlike stores were provided with unintermitting ac
tivity. In Massachusetts the assembly met in con
travention of the governor's order. Twelve thousand
militia, and a number of minute men, or soldiers
who engaged at a minute's warning, were armed and
trained for the immediate defence of the province.
Magazines and military stores were provided, and
every thing wore the image of war.
From the hurable notions entertained in England
of American bravery or public spirit, these hostile
preparations had excited less solicitude than disdain
or contempt. It had been convenient fbr the British
officers, in the late war, to extenuate their defeats,
to magnify their achievements, or emblazon their
own valour by imputations of cowardice upon the
provincial troops. These tales had been received by
the wiUing credulity of their countrymen, and propa
gated by national pride throughout all orders of the

CXCVI INTRODUCTION.
kingdom; and the prevailing sentiments were now
animated by ministerial artifice, and party animosity
to extreme insolence and presumption. A distin
guished moralist* was hired to vilify them; and fi[om
the sacred priest, who overwhelmed them with pious
imprecations, to the vain boasting soldier, who loaded
them with patriotic curses, aU united in the general
stiain of vituperation; cowards, convicts, and some
times the more dignified appellation of rebels and pa-
racides were their mildest and most honourable terms
of distinction. Even statesmen of erainent virtues,
and officers of the highest mUitary dignities, were in
some degree infected by the contagion of this salu
tary prejudice. The pusillanimous character of the
Americans, their rehgion and raanners, were the
usual themes of merriment, which, on this occasion,
softened the solemnity of parliamentary debate.
" The strength of Great Britain, can, in a good
cause," said lord Chatham, " crush America to
atoms." " With two regiments of infantry, said an
iUustrious commander,! I wUl drive the inhabitants
from one end of the continent to the other." The
bad farae of the Americans, has on various occa
sions, promoted the glory and prosperity of their
arms, and aggravated the disgraces of their enemy.
* Dr, Johnson. t General Grant.

INTRODUCTION. CXCVU
To cherish concord at home, and division 1775.
amongst the enemy, the great art of skUful
politicians, was that by which the ministry of Great
Britain hoped, on this occasion, to effect the subjec
tion of America and the subversion of their liberties.
The extensive dispersion of the colonies, the diver
sity of interests and opinions that were supposed to
prevail among them, and the late disposition mani
fested by New York, in refusing to ratify the acts of
the general congress, had cherished a confidence of
success. Lord North, began, therefore, his adrai
nistration of this year, by obtaining from the house
of commons, a declaration that " the inhabitants of
Massachusetts were in a state of rebelhon." This
was succeeded by a bill, marked by the same insi
dious partiality for restraining the commerce of New
England, and their entire exclusion frora the fisheries
upon the coast of Newfoundland, in which they had
employed six thousand seamen, and realized an an
nual profit of one miUion and a half of dollars. This
prohibition was afterwards extended to all the rest
to punish their adherence to the prescribed colonies
of the North, except to the favourite ones of North
Carolina and New York. Thus, whUst the minister
With one hand applied the rod of chastisement, he
extended with the other, the off'erings of his munifi
cence. For the purpose of creating, as he afterwards

CXCVllI INTRODUCTION.
acknowledged, dissentions in America, he submitted
to the house of commons a " concUiatory propo
sition," the spirit of which was, that each colony
would be permitted, by the forbearance of Great
Britain, to tax itself, provided that the sura levied
would be adequate to the wishes of parliament.
Thus, Lord North, by additional provocations, by
increasing the causes of excitement, designed to
appease the rage of a popular commotion, and at
tempted to create a division among the provinces by
strengthening the principles of their cohesion. What
ever had been done by the mediation of eloquence
and genius, on the part ofthe opposition to counter
act the designs of the ministry, served but to precipi
tate the career of their blind and tyrannical ambi
tion; all the efforts, the threats and supplication of
the colonies to obtain a redress of their grievances,
had produced an accumulation of injuries; until both
parties, at length, wearied of fruitless discussions,
exasperated by reciprocal recriminations beyond the
convictions of reason or clemency, subraitted the
controversy to the decision of war.
The first interest of the provincials was the pre
paration of military stores, which they had procured
with much address and activity. General Gage,
from information that a quantity of artillery and am
munition had been coUected about eighteen miles

INTRODUCTION. CXCIX
from Boston, sent, under the command of Ueutenant
colonel Sraith, a detachment of eight hundred men
to destroy it. This enterprize, though undertaken
with great secrecy, and in the night, was, by the
vigilance of the provincials, anticipated and defeated.
On the morning of the nineteenth of April, on ap
proaching the village of Lexington, about seventy of
the militia suddenly collected from the neighbour
hood, appeared under arms. Major Pitcairn, who
led the van of the British troops, rode with much
speed towards them, and with the insulting appeUa
tion of rebels, ordered them to lay down their arms
and disperse. The admonition being disregarded,
his soldiers then rushed on with impetuosity, by his
order, and commenced firing, which they continued
with furious uproar, as if clamour was essential to
the dispersion of their adversary, untU the militia had
disappeared. Eight men were killed, in this encoun
ter, and many were wounded.
The royal detachraent proceeded, then, to Con
cord, the place of their destination, and began, with
out interruption, the destruction of the stores. Soon,
however, the alarm was spread in the surrounding
country, the miUtia assembled, the royal troops were
beaten, and fell back with precipitation and confu
sion, to Lexington. By the arrival of lord Percy,
at the head of sixteen companies of foot, a corps of

cc INTRODUCTION.
marines, and two companies of artillery, they were
rescued, in this emergency, from entire extermina
tion or defeat. By the aid of this reinforcement,
they eff'ected, with great difficulty, their retreat to
Charlestown. Here, they sought refuge, during the
night, under the canon of their ships, and on the
succeeding morning, crossed over to Boston. The
loss of the British regulars, in killed, wounded and
prisoners, was two hundred and seventy-three men:
of the provincial militia, ninety.
The surprise and humiUation ofthe EngUsh troops,
at the result of this expedition, was extreme. To be
thus beaten from the field, thus driven within the
walls of their fortress, and besieged there, by an un
disciplined and disorderly multitude; to see the vete
ran troops of a royal army thus fugitive and tena
cious of their safety, and " cowards" thus prodigal of
their blood, or prompt in action, were images of
disgrace, not a little painful to the imagination. Some
began to suspect that the war they had excited with
so much levity, might prove sanguinary, and perilous
beyond their hopes; that these "rebels" were less
dastardly or contemptible than they had supposed or
wished them to be; and finally that "five regiments
of British infantry" might be insufficient to traverse
the whole continent, or drive them from one end of
it to the other.

INTRODUCTION. CCl
The royal army, by the arrival of three distinguish
ed generals, Bui^yne, Clinton, and Howe, with rein
forcements from England, was increased to twelve
thousand men. General Gage, that he might oblite
rate the disgraces of Lexington, and check, in its
origin, the audacious spirit of the Americans, now
meditated some more decisive enterprise. As a pre
lude to hostiUties, a proclamation was published de
claring the province under martial law, and off'ering
at the same time a pardon, with the exception of
Samuel Adams and John Hancock, to aU who would
lay down their arms and submit to the royal authority.
The British troops were stationed in Boston and
on the neck of the peninsula upon which that city
stands, towards the south. Opposite to the entrance
of this neck, was the right wing of the provincial
army; the centre occupied Cambridge to the west of
the city, and the left wing, composed principally of
the militia of Massachusetts, was flanked by Charles
town, a viUage to the north, and separated by a nar
row sheet of water frora Boston. It was by this latter
avenue, that the .British general, wishing to extricate
himself from his present state of privation and inac
tivity, designed to urge his passage into the open
country. Receiving intelligence of this project, the
Americans took immediate measures to prevent it.
A detachment of a thousand men under the conduct
VOL, L c c

ceil INTRODUCTION.
of colonel Prescot, vvere ordered to occupy, during
the obscurity of the night, the heights of Bunker's
HiU; a position which commanded the issue from the
peninsula of Charlestown; but the party eraployed in
this service, by misconception of the order, or mis
take, commenced their works upon Breeds' Hill,
another eminence of the peninsula, which overlooks
the whole town of Boston. A battery erected upon
this ground would have not only disconcerted the
projected movement of the royal army, but have
rendered their residence in the city precarious and
insecure. It was therefore required of the British
coramander imperiously to dislodge his antagonists
from this formidable position. An attempt was raade
for this purpose by the artiUery of the fleet and gar
rison, which proving unsuccessful, precipitated the
necessity of a fierce and sanguinary combat. This
was the battie of Breeds' HiU. It was fought upon
the 17th of June; and from the spirit and intrepidity
with which it was sustained by both parties, the im
pressions made by it upon the opinions of men at
that early period of the conflict, and its influence
upon the whole war, it is justly entitied to a special
remembrance in the annals ofthe revolution.
About midday the royal camp was put in motion.
Ten companies of grenadiers and as many of in
fantry were transported by general Howe, across the

INTRODUCTION. CCIU
bay; and being debarked, under the protection of
their vessels of war, without molestation, were array
ed upon the opposite bank. From an observation of
the provincial troops, the strength of their position
and determined countenance, the British officer sus
pending the attack, awaited the arrival from Boston,
of reinforcements. With an accession of force which
was deemed adequate to the enterprise, he advanced
into Charlestown, and set fire to it; the houses of
which being of wood, the whole viUage was wrapped
in immediate conflagration.
The citizens of Boston and the reserve ofthe En
gUsh army, occupying, in immense crowds, the eleva
tions of the city, the spires and roofs of houses,
awaited, in aU the anguish of suspense, the impend
ing conffict The inhabitants also of the neighbour
ing country, whom curiosity had drawn towards the
scene of action, covered the declivities and summits
of the surrounding hilk To the Americans espe
cially, whose interests the most sacred were commit
ted to the hazard of this battle, whose brothers, hus
bands or fathers were exposed before their eyes to
the most imminent peril, the whole scene was preg
nant with extreme sohcitude and terror.
The provincial troops, during these preliminary
movements, had strengthened their position with un
wearied diUgence. They now remained quiet in their

cciv INTRODUCTION.
station and reserved their whole force until the enemy
had approached them within one hundred yards, A
fire was then poured upon thera with such unerring
precision, and especially upon the officers, that the
line was suddenly broken, and with the loss of many
men they retreated in disorder to the place of their
debarkation. Being raUied, however, by the activity
of their commander, they were again led to the
charge. As before, they approached without moles
tation to the brink ofthe entrenchments, and although
upon this occasion the assault was urged with an
obstinate and desperate courage, they again shrunk
from the unremitting violence ofthe provincial mus
ketry, with a flight so precipitate that many sought
refuge in their boats; leaving their general alone, for
some time, upon the field of battie.
The spectators, who, during the vicissitudes of this
conflict, according to their various interests, had
been animated by fear, hope or desperation, now sur
veyed the scene of action with mute astonishment
and horror. The field of battle was covered with
the slain. The fire of four hundred houses, by this
time agitated with all the destructive rage of that
element, rolled its volumes of flame and smoke to
wards the heavens; and the wretched inhabitants,
from the terror of the conflagration, or of miUtary
fury, fled upon aU sides with cries and lamentations.

INTRODUCTION. CCV
The whole scene exhibited a spectacle more atro
cious and magnificent, than language or imagination
can adequately describe.
By the intervention and aid of general Clinton, at
this critical moment, the order of the dispersed sol
diers was retrieved, and they were a third time led
to the attack. But the Americans had now exhaust
ed their ammunition, and all the means of supply,
by the necessity of their position, were intercepted.
They were likewise destitute of bayonets, and re
duced to the last resort of defending themselves with
the but end of their muskets; this they did with ex
traordinary eflforts of valor, and it was not until the re
doubt had been filled with their slaughtered enemy,
that the signal was given for retreat.
The isthmus of Charlestown, where two floating
batteries and a vessel of war had been placed by the
English, was the sole issue of escape, and presented
to the retreating army the most imminent dangers.
This movement was however achieved, and with a
loss much less considerable than bad been anticdpat^-
ed. The troops were afterwards withdrawn to a
place of security, without molestation; for the enemy
had sustained too severe an opposition to urge their
pursuit. They sought no further advantage of their
victory than the possession of Bunker's Hill; an ac-

CCVl INTRODUCTION,
quisition that did not relieve them from their unpro
fitable and inglorious blockade.
Of three thousand persons, nearly eleven hundred,
the pride and strength of the British army, were, in
this battie, kiUed or wounded. The loss of the provin- '
cials, did not exceed the half of thatnumber. Amongst
those who perished, and amongst those who are
numbered with the noblest victims of the revolution,
was the virtuous and brave general Warren; a man
whose name will be as long dear to posterity, as ge
nius and eloquence, and the love of liberty, are tities
of admiration araongst mankind.
Whatever confidence the British officers and army
had heretofore reposed in the cowardice of the Ame
rican troops, was, by the issue of this battle, greatly
diminished; and their subsequent operations were
therefore administered with a more studious vigUance
and circumspection. The provincials, on the contrary,
conceived, from these prelusive successes, many
presumptuous hopes, many wild and extravagant
notions of military discipUne, not a litfle injurious to
their interests in the future administration of the war.
Frora this period the hopes of conciliation were
determined, the sacred horror which men feel of
civU bloodshed no longer interposed a barrier to the
impetuosity of the torrent, which now spread with
uninterrupted ravage and devastation. The burning

INTRODUCTION. CCVU
•f Charlestown, the inhabitants of which but a few
days before had dispensed to the British soldiers,
wearied, wounded, and fugitive from the battle of
Lexington, the tenderest offices of generosity and hos
pitality, was a wanton and barbarous outrage, which
excited in the hearts of the Americans no mode
rate feelings of animosity; and by a continuation of
the same system of desolation and unrelenting rapa
city, the enemy not only destroyed the aff'ections of
kindred, but kindled, in their stead, those rancorous
passions of resentment and revenge, vvhich the blood
of many wars shaU not expiate, and the revolution
of many ages shaU not extinguish.
Of the remaining transactions of this year, the
most important was the appointment of general
Washington to the chief coramand of the American
army; the proceedings of congress, which compre
hended regulations of the army, of the finances, ad
dresses to the British nation, to the king, and a de
claration of rights, with a detail of the necessities
that had urged a resort to arms in their vindication^
ai^d finally the expedition to Canada, which more
than counterbalanced by its disasters, the prosperous
events that had happened in Massachusetts. Of this
it may be proper to give some detail.
A successful enterprise had been concerted, early
in the season, by a few individuals pf Connecticut,

CCVm INTRODUCTION.
and conducted by colonels Allen and Arnold, against
the fortress of Ticonderoga, upon Lake Champlain.
The party consisted of no more than two hundred
and seventy men. They obtained possession of that
place, containing a great quantity of military stores,
and of Crown Point, with the entire coramand of
the lake.
To continue these successes and to defeat the
hostile preparations of the governor of Canada, two
thousand raen under the coramand of General Mont
gomery and Schuyler, were also marched into that
province. The fortress of Chamblee, and that of
St. John's surrendered, after a vigorous resistance,
to their arms. Proceeding thence to Montreal, and
after the expulsion of the British general Carleton,
they took possession of that town on the nineteenth
of November. Colonel AUen, in an imprudent at
tempt upon this place had, a few days before, been
taken prisoner, loaded with irons and sent, in that
condition, to England.
Montgomery, being left by general Schuyler, pro
ceeded now to the fatal term of his expedition, the
siege of Quebec, which he undertook with a few
and iU appointed troops, during the severity of a
ferocious climate. But victory had already attended
his arras, nor could he renounce this enterprise
without an injurious diminution of his fame. He

INTRODUCTION, CCIX
was joined before the city, by the forces of Arnold,
of seven hundred men, sent by general Washington,
to cooperate in this enterprise by the way of the
Kennebeck river, through the district of Maine; but
these were already worn out by toUs and dispirited
by a succession of sufferings the most dreadful that
imagination can conceive. They had traversed,
amidst the snows and storms of a fierce and horrible
climate, a region of several hundred mUes, desti
tute of habitations, intercepted by intricate forests,
swamps, rivers and inaccessible raountains; and hav
ing exhausted their provisions, in the midst of these
frightful solitudes, the whole army had been reduc
ed to the most wretched means of subsistence; to
feed upon the flesh of dogs, and for some days upon
the leather of their accoutrements; but unable to
sustain life by this scanty nutrition, great multitudes
had perished by famine, or had sunk under the pres
sure of fatigue and disease.
These shattered forces, Montgomery conducted
against an antagonist of spirit and activity, to the as
sault ofthe town. The main divisions were led by
Amoldj on the side of St. Roques, and by himself
upon that of Cape Diamond; a rugged precipice, the
skirts of which were washed by the river, and its
passes interrupted, at that time, byenormous masses of
snow and ice. Having surmounted these impediments
VOL. I. D d

CCX INTRODUCTION.
at the head of two hundred men, whom he had ani
mated by his example and exhortations, he advanced
within a few paces of the first barrier, when the dis
charge of a single gun from a battery almost desert
ed, put a period to his life. With two of his most
gallant officers, and several private soldiers, who per
ished bythe same explosion, he feU dead upon the spot.
The command having, therefore, devolved upon an
officer of less valour, the remaining troops were
drawn off from the assault, and the enemy employed
against Arnold their undivided forces.
This part of the enterprise, after many efforts of
bravery by the officers and soldiers, proved likewise
unfortunate, Arnold, his leg being broken in the
first onset, was borne from the field. The honour of
this division was however sustained by captain Mor
gan, an officer of no less spirit or intrepidity, who hav
ing assaUed and taken two batteries of the enemy,
penetrated even to the town; but the garrison now re
lieved from all other apprehensions, by the death of
Montgomery, sallied out, and attacked him with their
whole force in the rear. The provincials displayed in
this emergency, the most resolute courage; but being
overpowered at length by numbers and overcome by
fatigue, many of them were slain and the reraainder
taken prisoners. Arnold continued, however, with

INTRODUCTION. CCXl
the remnants ofhis army, to blockade the town and
to cut off' the suppUes ofthe garrison.
The loss on the part of the English in this siege,
was inconsiderable. The Americans, by the death
of Montgomery, which they bewailed with no com
mon sensibility, were bereft of one of the brightest
ornaments of their country. This officer was a na
tive of Ireland, and had served with distinction in
the late war against France. He had adopted America
as his home, and became the most strenuous advo
cate of her liberties. With a graceful and dignified
person, and gentle manners, with all the character
istic virtues of his nation, he possessed in an eminent
degree the noblest accomphshments of a soldier. He
was brave, enterprising and generous even to profu
sion; of an arabition which disdained inferiority, and
of a genius capacious of the first honors of the state.
We cannot reflect upon his amiable and resplendent
qualities, and the sacred interests whichrequired their
exertion, without murmuring at the fatahty which
imposed upon him this wUd and ill-omened expedi
tion. — But thus in the flower of youth, or in the midst
of their magnificence, perish the brightest ornaments
of human nature, whilst the wretch, who supplicates
death as the relief of his calamities, drags out his
existence to the extremity of old age.

CCXU INTRODUCTION.
The chief coramand of Montgomery's forces was
entrusted to general Thomas, at whose decease,
which happened a few months after, they were trans
ferred to general Sullivan. They were retained by
some unaccountable improvidence, in the enemy's
territory, for nearly six months, destitute of every
corafort, without reinforceraents or means of preser
vation, until their active adversary had matured his
plans for their annoyance and expulsion. They eff'ect
ed their retreat in the months of May and June,
with every species of distress, and with an obstinate
courage and patience, worthy of their former repu
tation and suff'erings.
, ^ „ On the 1 7th of March of this year, the town
1776. ^ ¦' .
of Boston was evacuated by the Bntish army;
a measure which had been rendered necessary by the
prudent operations of general Washington, who, hav
ing seized and fortified tbe heights of Dorchester,
had reduced them to extremities, and rendered their
residence of the city insecure. They removed, there
fore, to Halifax, and were accompanied by most of
those who retained their attachments to the royal
party. This event was hailed by the Bostonians,
who had so long been constrained by the imperious
doraination of a foreign military force, with the live
liest demonstrations of joy; and Washington, the au

INTRODUCTION. CCXlU
thor of so signal a benefit', they received, with the
sincerest expressions of gratitude.
Whilst these events passed in the north, the pro
vinces of the south were not altogether exempt from
occupation. Governor Dunmore of Virginia, by re
moving secretiy from the provincial magazine of
Williamsburgh, some military stores, had excited
amongst the inhabitants, a violent spirit of resent
ment and insurrection; to appease which he had
threatened to lay the town in ashes, and arra the
slaves against their masters; and from the exaspera
tion occasioned by this atrocious menace, his lord
ship had been constrained not only to pay an equiva
lent for the objects suborned, but to take refuge on
board a man of war for personal security.
Having collected a considerable naval force, prin
cipally of negroes, whom he had seduced, by the
hopes of freedom and plunder, from their masters,
this infamous viceroy carried on a predatory war
fare upon the coast, and formed at length a project
of seting fire to the town of Hampton. From which
attempt being repulsed, he proclairaed raartial law
in the province, oflfering, at the sarae tirae, protec
tion and Uberty to all slaves who should join the
royal standard. An action took place with this mot
ley confederacy at the great bridge, in which the
governor was defeated. He proceeded thence to

CCXIV INTRODUCTION,
Norfolk, and on the firsi day of January, set fire to
the town, which, no eflfort being made by the inha
bitants for its extinction, was reduced to ashes.
Instigated by the same ferocious spirit of revenge,
he then employed agents to seduce the Indians to a
war upon the frontier, and continued himself his
depredations in the vicinity of the rivers; in burning
houses, robbing plantations, and distressing indivi
duals; untU his adherents, notwithstanding his prompt
capacity for mischief, growing mutinous aud discon
tented, were dispersed amongst the Spanish settie
ments of Florida and Bermuda. Thus terminated
the civU robberies of lord Dunmore, and forever, the
royal government of Virginia.
The sarae arts, no less irapolitic than barbarous,
had been practised by the governors of North and
South Carolina. They had been detected, in cor
respondence with Dunmore, in attempts to excite
war with the savages and insurrection among the
slaves, and like him had taken refuge, from the just
vengeance of their criraes, on board their vessels of
war. In North Carolina, the royalists being embodied
under a general M'Donald, who had been commis
sioned for that purpose, gave battle to the provincials
at Moore's creek bridge, where they were routed
with considerable loss, and their commander taken
prisoner.

INTRODUCTION. CCXV
The hopes of the party vvere, however, kept alive
by the arrival from the north of general Clinton, who
at this time, had concerted, with a forraidable naval
force, an attack upon Charleston; an enterprise
which, by the activity of general Lee and by the gal
lant courage of the provincial militia, was likewise
defeated. Th^ defence, by colonel Moultrie, of Sul
livan's island, upon this occasion, is enumerated
amongst the briUiant achievements of the war.
Notwithstanding the numerous and important
transactions of this year by land, the congress had
prepared with diligence a maritime force, which con
tributed not a littie to the progress of their military
operations, and in its infancy perforraed exploits not
unworthy its future destination. The interruption of
the fisheries had left unemployed many excellent
seamen, and with these five frigates or corvettes, and
thirty gun-sloops, had been armed and put to sea
early in the season. In a descent upon the island
of New Providence, under the conduct of Ezekiel
Hopkins their commodore, they had carried oflf one
hundred and fifty casks of powder and other mUitary
stores; made many valuable prizes upon the coast,
and even venturing into the open sea, had sustained
frequent engagements, with a distinguished success
and intrepidity.

CCXVI INTRODUCTION.
Thus by a series of prosperous events, in the origin
of these contentions for their liberties, the Americans
were, by degrees, animated with new hopes, and
inspired with the designs of independence. Even
from their defeats, and from their wild and imprac
ticable enterprises, by discovering an erainent cour
age, patience and dexterity in raartial exercises, they
had derived a happy presage of the future prosperity
of their arms. The enemy, on the other hand, had
exercised their vengeance during the progress of their
military operations, by the most outrageous '*cts of
insolence and ferocity; by the conflagration of towns,
the proscription of individuals, the instigation of
savages, by the insurrection of slaves, or by the era
ployraent of foreign mercenaries; and finally by acts
of violence and rapine which have been seldom ex
ceeded by the most uncultivated barbarism. And
thus were the aflfections of consanguinity and of loy
alty gradually extinguished, until the denominations
of sovereign and subject, once respected and honour
able in America, became odious and humUiating dis-
, tinctions. Rejecting, therefore, aU thoughts of accommoda
tion upon principles corapatible with their freedom,
they began in private conference, and in popular as
sociations, to discuss freely the subject of indepen
dence. Essays, also, written with great abilities

INTRODUCTION. CCXVU
and eloquence, tending to animate the zeal and kin
dle the animosity ofthe multitude circulated profuse
ly amongst them. Of which the writings of Thomas
Paine are justly numbered with the most powerful
instruments of American freedom, and have entitied
the author of them to no common degree of venera
tion. Encouraged by this propension of tiie people to
wards independence, the congress published, on tiie
6th of May, a resolution, in which they recoraraend
ed, after an enumeration of the causes which pre
cluded the hopes of reconciliation with Great Britain,
the adoption by each state of such civil regulation
and form of government, as should be thought ne
cessary for the' security of their liberties.
The provincial assemblies, in those states in which
the regal governraents were not already abolished,
speedily acted upon this resolution, with the excep
tion of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Nevv York. In
these it was acceded to, not without murmurs of
disapprobation. The prevailing sentiments of tiie people were
however, by this preUminary measure, sufficiently
ascertained; and on the 9th of June, was introduced
the final resolution of independence.
It was discussed in a committee of the whole
house, but delayed by some irresolution on the part
* VOL. I. EC

GCXVIU INTRODUCTION.
of Pennsylvania and Maryland, until the 4th of July;
it was then agreed to unanimously, and published
with a declaration, expressed in the foUowing terms.
" When, in the course of human events, it becomes
necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands which have Connected them with another,
and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station, to which the laws of
nature and of nature's God entitie thera, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the
separation .
" We hold these truths to be self-evident — that aU
men are created equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unahenable rights; that
amongst these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. That to secure these rights, governments
are instituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed; that whenever any
form of government becoraes destructive of these
ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish
it, and to Institute new government, laying its foun
dation on such principles, and organizing its powers
in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to
eflfect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed,
wiU dictate, that governments long established should
not be changed for light and transient causes; and

INTRODUCTION. CCXlx
accordingly all experience hatii shown, that man
kind are more disposed to suflfer, while evUs are
suflferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the
foruis to which they are accustomed. But when a
long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing inva
riably the same object, evinces a design to reduce
them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is
their duty, to throw off' such government, and to pro
vide new guards for their future security. Such has
been tiie patient suflferance of these colonies, and
such is now the necessity which constrains them to
alter their former systems of government.
" The history of the present king of Great Britain
is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, aU
having in direct object the establishment of an abso
lute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let
facts be submitted to a candid world.
" He has refused his assent to laws the most whole
some and necessary for the pubhc good.
" He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of
immediate and pressing iraportance, unless suspended
in their operation, tiU his assent should be obtained;
and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to
attend to them,
" He has refused to pass other laws for the accora
modation of large districts of people, unless those
people would relinquish the right of representation

«
ccxx INTRODUCTION.
in the legislature, a right inestimable to them, and
formidable to tyrants only.
" He has called together legislative bodies at places
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the deposi
tory of their public records, for the sole purpose of
fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
" He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly
for opposing, with manly firmness, his Invasions on
the rights of the' people.
" He has refused, for a long time, after such disso
lutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the
legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have
returned to the people at large, for their exercise;
the state remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all
the dangers of invasion from without, and convul
sions within.
" He has endeavoured to prevent the population of
these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for
naturahzation of foreigners; refusing to pass others,
to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the
conditions of new appropriations of lands.
" He has obstructed the administration of justice,
by refusing his assent to laws, for estabhshing judi
ciary powers.
" He has made judges dependent on his wiU alone,
for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and
payment of their salaries.

INTRODUCTION. eCXXI
" He has erected a multitude of new offices, and
sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our people,
and eat out their substance,
" He has kept among us, in times of peace, stand
ing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.
" He has affected to render the miUtaiy indepen
dent of, and superior to, the civU povver.
" He has combined with others, to subject us to a
jurisdiction, foreign to our constitution and unac
knowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their
acts of pretended legislation.
"For quartering large bodies of armed troops
among us:
" For protecting them, by a mock trial, from pun
ishment for any murders which they should commit
on tiie inhabitants of these states:
" For cutting oflf our trade vvith aU parts of the
world: "For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
" For depriving us, iu many cases, of tiie benefits
of trial by jury:
" For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for
pretended oflfences.
" For abohshing the free system of English laws in
a neighbouring prorince, estobhshing therein an ar
bitrary government, and enlai'ging its boundaries, so
as to render it at once au example and fit instru-

CCXXU INTRODUCTION.
ment for introducing the same absolute ride into
tiiese colonies:
" For taking a^vay our charters, abolishing our
most valuable laws, and altering fundauientally the
forms of our governments:
"• For suspending our own legislatures, and decla
ring themselves invested with power to legislate for
us in all cases whatsoever.
*• He has abdicated government here, by declaring
us out of his protection, and waging war against us.
" He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts,
burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our peo
ple. " He is, at this time, transporting large armies of
foreign mercenaries, to romplete the works of death,
desolation and tyranny, already begun, with circum
stances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paraUeled in
the raost barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the
head of a civUized nation.
"He has constrained our feUow-citizens, talcen
captive on the high seas, to bear arms against tiieir
country, to become the executioners of their friends
and bretiiren, or to fall themselves by their hands,
" He has excited domestic insurrections amongst
us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants
of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose

INTRODUCTION, CCXXUl
known rule of warfare is an undistinguished de
struction of aU ages, sexes, and conditions.
" In every stage of these oppressions, we have pe
titioned for redress, in the most humble terms; our
repeated petitions have been answered only by re
peated injury, A prince, whose character is thus
marked, by every act, which may define a tyrant, is
unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
" Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our
British brethren. We have warned them, from time
to time, of attempts by their legislature, to extend
an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have
reminded them ofthe circumstances of our emigra
tion and settlement here. We have appealed to their
native justice and magnanimity, and we have con
jured them, by the ties of our common kindred to
disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably in
terrupt our connexions and correspondence. They,
too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of con
sanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the ne
cessity, which denounces our separation, and hold
them, as we hold the rest of mankind — enemies in
war — in peace, friends.
" We, therefore, the representatives of the United
States of America, in general C ongress assembled,
appealing to the Supreuie Judge of the world, for
the rectitude of our intentions. Do, in the name, and

6CXXIV INTRODUCTION,
by authority, of the good people of these colonies,
solemnly publish and declare, that these United
Colonies are, and of right, ought to be, free and in
dependent States; — that they are absolved from all
allegiance to the British crown, and that aU political
connexion, between them and the state of Great
Britain, is and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that,
as free and independent States, they have full power
to levy war, conclude peace, contract aUiances, esta
blish commerce, and to do aU other acts and things,
which independent states may of right do. And, for
the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance
on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually
pledge to each other, our Uves, our fortunes, and our
sacred honour.

3®mM! 3im^i©(ExKs;

Eng-aved-iyJ-Bloiigacre from an ori^aal picture
Painiecl by Copley in 1765.

2 HANCOCK.
with which be administered his theological duties,
gained a great ascendant in the aflfections ofhis pa
rishoners. He is especiahy praised for his devotion to
learning; and the literary institutions of his native
state derived many signal benefits from his patron
age and benefactions.
In the enumeration of his ancestors, as far, at
least, as my information extends, his paternal uncle
merits the most conspicuous aud grateful recoUec
tion. This gentieman, by his industry and a series
of prosperous enterprises, from an humble and
obscure condition of fortune, became the most em
inent merchant of New England, and was distin
guished, at the same time, foi; many patriotic virtues
and many excellent qualities of inteUect, He sus
tained some of the highest offices in the govern
ment of the town; was for many years a mem
ber of his majesty's provincial council; and what
is no usual attribute of his profession, has transmit
ted the honorable fame of promoting the literature
of his country. He studied especially the interests of
Harvard University, increased its library, founded a
professorship; and the name of Hancock, in letters of
gold, now adorns one of the alcoves of that institu
tion, in testimony of his liberaUty.
Under the tutelage of this uncle, John Hancock,
whose father had died during his infancy, received

HANCOCK. 8
his education. He was graduated at Harvard col
lege in 1754; and being endowed with a rigorous
understanding, a rich and strong imagination, and
a docihty of temper, it is reasonable to suppose that
he performed his coUegiate. exercises with the usual
celerity and success. It is, however, repeated by
certain biographers and historians, who have noti
ced this period ofhis life, that he discovered, during
his studies, no superiority of inteUect, or emula
tion of Uterary fame; and, by some, these imputa
tions, which become frivolous to those who have
considered the subsequent incidents and character
of his Ufe, have been extended and propagated with
a studied maUgnity; for, Hancock, in comraon with
aU those who have adorned human na^are by their
rirtues, has derived from the Ucentious interpreta
tions of the malevolent, and misconceptions of the
ignorant and credulous, an additional titie to the es
teem and veneration of those who are able to appre
ciate his iUustrious merits.
Youthful indications, are at all events, no positive
eridence ofthe force of inteUectual endowments; and
precocity of genius, though often a subject of gratu
lation, is perhaps no more to be admired or sohcited,
tban that the harvest shoidd yield its fruits in imma
turity, or that the buds should expand before the sea
son of vegetation. The imputation of dulness, and

4 HANCOCK,
even of stupidity has been attached, during the rudi
ments of their education, to some of the brightest
ornaments of literature; and many have excited the
admiration of the world by a youthful pregnancy of
genius, whose names have perished before the hour
of parturition.
At the conclusion of his collegiate studies Mr.
Hancock entered as a clerk in the counting house
ofhis uncle, who was then at the height ofhis com
mercial prosperity. In 1760, he risited England;
was present at the funeral of George II. and at the
coronation of his successor. Soon after his return
to America he was invested, by the decease and
munificence of his patron, and at the age of twenty-
seven years, with a fortune, which is said to have
been more magnificent than that of any other indi
vidual of his native province.
From this prehminary notice, we may pursue
him to tbe scenes of public life; for his ambition
soon strayed from the precincts of the counting
house, and his private life ceased with his minority.
He was first chosen selectman of the town of
Boston, a municipal office which he held many years;
and was elected, in 1766, with James Otis, Samuel
Adams, and Thomas Cushing, a representative to
the general assembly of the province.

HANCOCK. 5
His introduction to pubhc notice was favoured,
it is said, by his coUeague Mr. Adams, which is
indeed no humble evidence of the excellence of
his merit; for that gentleman is described as a man of
punctilious observation, of a chaste and delicate hon
our; from which we may infer that he used not wil
Ungly the instrumentality of vice or of ignorance,
and that his sagacity was not deceived by superfi
cial or meretricious pretensions.
The friendship of these men was oh some oc
casions, during the heat of discussion or competition
of honours, interrupted; but their esteem was coex
istent with their lives, and their contentions were
marked by no injurious or malignant animosity.
Some modern writers, no doubt, from tbe predUec-
tions and aversions of party, have asserted that Han
cock attained his distinction in tbe government, with
out personal merit, by the influence ofhis illustrious
patronage, or of his wealth. Upon what evidence of
facts, or of probabilities, these assertions are haz
arded, is not comprehended from an examination
ofhis hfe.
In those governments in which the instruments of
power are concealed from observation, honours are
often lavished upon men no otherwise distinguished
from the multitude, than by the appendages of
their office. In corrupt republics, many are raised.

6 HANCOCK.
to a temporary enjoyment of authority, by faction, and
vvith perhaps no more sentiment of the sacred obli
gations of it, than the prancing steed of the rich
trappings with which he is caparisoned. In all gov
ernments, a frivolous object may, indeed, be so far
dressed in the drapery of novelty, as to arrest for a
while the stare and admiration of the crowd; but it
was the lot of Mr. Hancock to reside in a community
in which raen seldora rose to distinction by the influ
ence of celebrated naraes; in which the virtues of hu
man nature were unprofanedby thfe projects of inor
dinate ambition. He was bred up in a revolution, of
which the elevations were surrounded by precipices;
where folly may have sometiraes mounted by its own
levity, wickedness by Intrigue or Insolence, and stupid
ity raay have been dragged by extraneous force to the
summit; but where wisdom and virtue alone main
tained their preeminence. He commenced his career
of public honours at an early period ofhis hfe; was
amongst those who kindled into flame the first sparks
ofthe liberty and independence of his country; en
joyed the highest dignities of his native state until
his death, and shone conspicuously in some of the
most brilliant scenes of the revolution.
Adams concealed, without doubt, underthe rug
ged garb of his republican simplicity, a predomina
ting mind, and possessed, it is said, the happy secret

HANCOCK. 7
of transfusing his inspiration to the hearts of his
compatriots; but communication implies, ataU times,
a capacity to receive; and the apphcation of another's
principles, personal address and dexterity. Achilles,
in placing his shield upon the arm of his friend,
did not communicate his valour or his strength.
As representative of the provincial assembly, the
colleagues of Mr. Hancock bore an honourable tes
timony to the exceUence of his principles and abi
hties; for, as appears from the journals of their pro
ceedings, he was nominated to aU their important
committees; and, notwithstanding the dignity of his
associates, appoiuted chairman upon deliberations
which Involved the highest interests of the commu
nity. The first provocation of the British government
which created a spirit of civil discord amongst her
prorinces, was the imposition of duties upon the
importation of foreign merchandize, and other in
juries impairing the prosperity of the colonial com
merce. Upon which occasion, aU the address and dili
gence of Mr. Hancock, in opposition to a system of le
gislation so rapacious and tyrannical, were exerted. It
was by his agency, and that of a few other citizens
of Bostcyi, that for the purpose of procuring a revo
cation of these duties, associations were instituted to
prohibit the importation of British goods; a policy.

8 HANCOCK.
which soon afterwards being imitated in the other
colonies, first served to awaken the apprehensions
ofthe people, and to kindle those passions that were
essential to the success of the war and the preserva
tion of their liberties. For, the agitation of this sub
ject produced, indeed, no common animosity, and in
some instances acts of atrocity and outrage; of
which may be mentioned amongst the most con
spicuous, the case of Mr. Otis, a gentieman very
eminently distinguished, at that tirae, for his elo
quence and many excellent accomplishments, who,
at the instigation ofa British officer, was assailed by
a band of ruffians, with a violence which impaired
his reason .and accelerated his death.
About the same tirae, a vessel of Mr. Hancock,
being loaded, it was said, in contravention of the re
venue laws, was seized, by the custom house officers,
and carried under the guns of an arraed vessel, at
that tirae in the harbour, for security; but the people,
exasperated by this offensive exertion of authority,
assembled and pursuing the officers, beat them with
clubs, and drove them aboard their vessels, or to a
neighbouring castle, where they fled for protection.
The boat of the coUector was then burnt in triumph,
by the mob, and the houses of some of his most ob
noxious adherents were, in the first transports of
this popular fury, razed to the ground.

HANCOCK. 9
These riotous proceedings were. Indeed, reproba
ted bythe legal authorities, and instructions given for
the punishraent of the oflfenders, but the resentraents
of the people were, nevertheless, violently excited;
and Hancock, although his narae only was connected
with the transaction, derived from it an Increase of
popularity. This occurrence is especiaUy worthy of
notice, as being one of those original causes, which
precipitated to a crisis, the contentions subsisting
between the colonies and the mother country.
The governor of the province, under pretence of
maintaining the order of the town, of protecting the
officers of the revenue, and of preventing a recur
rence of similar commotions, introduced, soon after
these events, into Boston, several regiraents of Brit
ish troops; a raeasure that more than all others, at
this early period of their disaflfectlons, served to irri
tate the inhabitants and nourish the seeds of rebellion;
for raen who are bred up to a railitary life, for the most
part, assume an imperious and insolent superiority
over the civil orders of the community, and usually
claim by profession an exemption from the ordinary
rules and sensibilities of humanity. In the present
instance, they were prepossessed with degrading sen
timents of the people amongst whom they were sta
tioned, and by a special discipline, prepared for acts of
violence and ferocity. They had besides grown old in
VOL. L Gg

10 HANCOCK.
batties, and were practised in the occupation and hor
rors of war and bloodshed. The inhabitants, on the
other hand, independent of the feelings inspired by
the insulting aspect and parade of foreign troops in
their city, regarded thera, on this occasion, as the
instruments of a tyranny, which all the miseries and
everlasting infamy of servitude, forbid them to en
dure; and, under the empire of these sentiments,
embittered very frequently by contumelious express
ions, which men more promptly resent than real
injuries, the parties did not long abstain from acts
of injury and outrage.
On the evening of the fifth of March 1770, a
small party of the British soldiers parading in King
street, and being assailed by a tumultuary assem
blage of the people, with balls of snow and other ac
cidental weapons, fired upon them by the order of
their officer, to disperse them. Upon whicb occasion
several of the crowd were vyounded and a few were
killed. This affray is usually termed "the massacre of
Boston," and although originating in the provocations
of the raob, was regarded by the people as an act of
atrocious Iniquity, which required an immediate and
signal revenge. The tolling of bells and the clamours
of the inhabitants soon spread the alarm through
the town, and the raultitude, with whatever arras fury
administered, and with the usual impetuosity of po--

HANCOCK. 11
pular rage and resentment, flocked in from all sides.
But during the first moraent of stupefaction or con
fusion, occasioned by the unusual and sanguinary
scene — for this was the first eflfusion of blood since the
origin of their contentions — theofifenders were with
drawn; and by this interception of their rage, by the
intervention of individuals of the popular party, and
by the assurances of the governor that the guUty were
arrested for the punishraent of the laws, all further
acts of violence were prevented.
An assembly of the citizens was convened on the
succeeding day, principaUy by the instigation of Mr.
S. Adams; and Mr. Hancock, with some others, ap
pointed to request of the governor, a reraoval of the
British troops frora the town. This, the governor,
by interposing the plea of insufficient authority, and
by other arts of prevarication, endeavoured to evade.
A second committee being then selected, of which
Hancock was chairman, voted the excuse inadmis
sible, and by a more peremptory tone of expostu
lation urged and obtained their removal. The pro
minence and instrumentality of Mr. Hancock in this
emergency aflfords no vague evidence of the high
estiraation in which he was, at that period, held by
his countrymen.
The bodies of the slain being, a few days after
their decease, borne to the place of sepulture, were

12 HANCOCK.
deposited in the same tomb. Their obsequies were
consecrated by many raelancholy ceremonies, by
thetoUlng of bells iu Boston, and in the neighbour
ing towns; by funeral processions, and by various
other emblematic demonstrations of mourning which
awoke the compassion or roused the indignation
of the multitude. From a speech of Mr. Han
cock, in commemoration of this event, I shall here
oflfer a few desultory extracts. It was pronounced
during the fiercest rage of British animosity, and
furnishing, at the same time, an evidence of the spi
rit aod principles of the orator, as weU as of his
capacity for eloquence, may not be considered altoge
ther a digression from the purpose of his biography.
" I have, from the eariiest recollections of youth,
rejoiced in the felicity of my fellow raen; and have
considered it as the indispensable duty of every
member of society to promote, as far as in him
lies, the prosperity of every individual of his spe
cies, but more especially of the comraunity to which
he belongs; and also, as a faithful subject of the
state, to use his utraost endeavours to detect, and
defeat every traitorous plot which its enemies may
devise for its destruction.
" Security to the persons and property of the go
verned, is so obviously the design and end of civil
government, that to attempt a logical deraonstration

HANCOCK. IS
of it, would be like burning tapers at noon day, to
assist the sun in enlightening the world; and it can
not be either virtuous or honourable, to attempt to
support Institutions, of which this is not the great and
principal basis.
'¦ Some boast of being friends to governraent; I am
a friend to righteous governraent, to a government
founded upon the principles of reason and justice;
but I glory in publicly avowing my eternal enmity to
tyranny; and here suflfer me to ask what tenderness,
what regard, have the rulers of Great Britain mani
fested in their late transactions, for the security of
tiie persons or property of the inhabitants of these
colonies.'' or rather, what have they omitted doing
to destroy that security? they have usurped the right
of ruling us, in aU cases whatever, by arbitrary laws;
they have exercised this pretended right by imposing
a tax upon us without our consent; and lest we should
show some reluctance at parting with our property,
their fleets and armies are sent to enforce their mad
and tyrannical pretensions. The town of Boston, ever
faithful to the British crown, has been Invested by a
British fleet; thetroops of George the third have cross
ed the Atlantic, not to engage an enemy, but to as
sist a band of traitors in trampling on the rights and
liberties of his most loyal subjects; those rights and
hberties which, as a father, he ought ever to regard.

14 HANCOCK.
and as a king, he is bound, in honour, to defend from
violations, even at the risk of his own life.
"These troops, upon their first arrival, took
possession of our senate house, pointed their can
non against the judgment hall, and even continu
ed them there whilst the suprerae court of the pro
vince was actually sitting to decide upon the lives
and fortunes of the king's subjects. Our streets
nightly resounded with the noise of riot and debau
chery; our peaceful citizens were houriy exposed to
shameful insults, and often felt the eflfects of their
violence and outrage. But this was not all; as though
they thought it not enough to violate our civil rights,
they endeavoured to deprive us of the enjoyment of
our religious privileges; to vitiate our raorals, and
thereby render us deserving of destruction. Hence
the rude din of arras which broke in upon your
solemn devotions in your temples, on that day hal
lowed by heaven, and set apart by God himself for
his peculiar worship. Hence, irapious oaths and
blaspheraies so often tortured your unaccustomed
ear. Hence, all the arts which idleness aud luxury
could invent, were used, to betray our youth of one
sex into extravagance and eflfeminacy, and of the
other to infaray and ruin; and did they not succeed
but too weU? did not a reverence for religion sensi
bly decay? did not our infants almost learn to hsp

HANCOCK. 15
eut curses before they knew their horrid import?
did not our youth forget they were Araericans, and
regardless of the admonitions of the wise and aged,
copy with a servile imitation, the frivolity and vices
of their tyrants? and must I be compelled to ac
knowledge, that even the noblest, fairest part of all
the lower creation did not entirely escape the cursed
snare? — or why have I seen an honest father clothed
with shame; or why a virtuous raother drowned in
tears? " But I forbear, and come reluctantly to the trans
actions of that dismal night, when in such quick
succession we felt the extremes of grief, astonish
ment, and rage; when heaven in anger, for a dread
ful moment, suflfered heU to take the reins; when Sa
tan with his chosen band opened the sluices of New
England's blood, and sacrilegiously polluted our land
vrith the dead bodies of her guUtless sons.
" Let this sad tale of death never be told without a
tear; let not the heaving bosom cease to burn with a
manly indignation at the relation of it, through
the long tracts of future time; let every parent tell
the shameful story to his listening children, till tears
of pity glisten in their eyes, or boihng passion shakes
their tender frames.
"Dark and designingknaves, murderers, parricides !
how dare you tread upon the earth, which has drunk

16 HANCOCK.
the blood of slaughtered innocence shed by your
hands? how dare you breathe that air which wafted
to the ear of heaven, the groans of those vvho fell a
sacrifice to your accursed ambition? — ^but if the la
bouring earth doth uot expand her jaws; If the air
you breathe is not commissioned to be the minister
of death; yet, hear it, and tremble! the eye of heaven
penetrates the darkest chambers of the soul; and
you, though screened from human observation, must
be anaigned, must lift your hands, red with the blood
of those whose death you have procured, at the tre
mendous bar of God.
" But I gladly quit the therae of death — I would
not dwell too long upon the horrid eflfects which
have already foUowed frora quartering regular troops
in this town; let our misfortunes Instruct posterity
to guard against these evils. Standing armies are
sometiraes (I would by no means say generally,
much less universally) composed of persons who
have rendered themselves unfit to live in civil socie
ty; who are equally indiflferent to the glory of a
George or a Louis; who for the addition ofone pen
ny a day to their wages, would desert from tiie chris
tian cross, and fight under the crescent of the Turk
ish Sultan; from such men as these, what has not a
state to fear? with such as these, usurping Csesar
passed the Rubicon; with such as these he humbled

HANCOCK. 17
mighty Rome, and forced the mistress of the world
to own a master in a traitor. These are the men
whom sceptered robbers now employ to frustrate
the designs of God, and render vain the bounties
which his gracious hand pours indiscriminately upon
his creatures."
By the sentiments of this latter pai'agrapb, Han
cock gave great oflfence to the British officers, who
went in numbers, the succeeding year, to the old
South Church, whilst an oration was repeated on the
same occasion, by Doctor Warren, with the design of
provoking a riot and taking revenge for l^e insult.
A captain of the Royal Welsh fusUeers standing for
some time upon the pulpit stairs, played with a hand
ful of buUets, and at length with a vehement and
fierce exclamation endeavoured to alarm the meeting
with the cry of fire! — but the town clerk, with a
voice which is said to have rivalled the thunder, ap
peased the tumult; and the riotous officers being si
lenced and overawed, the solemnity vvas concluded
vrithout further molestation.
The remainder of this discourse comprehends a
detail of the various acts of injury and oppression
sustained for many years under the administration
of Great Britain, in language very honorable to the
talents and sentiments of the orator.
VOL. 1. H h

18 HANCOCK,
It is in some parts, perhaps, more declamatory,
than the usual style of the revolution, which vvas
commonly very foreign from the noisy eloquence of
faction or the gUtter of false magnificence. It de
rives, however, an interest, independent of the arts
of composition, from the occasion upon which it was
pronounced; in giving new lustre to the reputation
of Mr. Hancock, which at this period was injuri
ously diminished.
Conscious ofthe fatal influence ofhis popularity to
the designs of the British government, tiie governor
of the province, had endeavoured by studied civilities
or by direct overtures, made, it was said, at the in
stigation of lord North the prime minister, to pro
cure his disaflfection to the interests of the provincial
party; and by the malevolence of rivals, or an insi
dious artifice of the enemy, joined to the natural
proneness of mankind, to aggravate the imperfec
tions of their fellow creatures, reports were soon
spread detrimental to his fame.
The seductions of the governor, he was said to
have resisted with too littie asperity; to have violated,
on some occasions, the non-importation agreement;
and even to have solicited a contract for supplying the
British army with provisions. These imputations
were founded upon no external evidence, but were
circulated with such sedulous malignity, and at a

Hancock. 19
time in which parties were loud, clamorous and ma-
levolent,that even those who were secure of the inte
grity of his principles, feared, frora these arts, a dirai
nution of his zeal for the liberties of his country. His
manners also and habits of life, though exempt from
all insolence and pride or prodigality, savoured more,
it was said, of the magnificence of the courtier, than
of repubhcan severity; and his wealth was supposed
too great for democratic simplicity or popular pre
dilections. Connected with these appearances, were
some political occurrences, which had no tendency
to appease the animosities of his rivals, or check the
insolence of slander.
The provincial assembly, that it might be more
subservient to ministerial authority, when remote from
the vigilance or commotions of a populous city, had
been transferred to Cambridge. This measure pro
duced a vehement altercation with the governor, who
after several sessions, yielded to the importunities of
the members of returning to Boston, with the prori
sion that "the right of convening elsewhere should be
expressly admitted." Upon this question, Hancock vo
ted vrith the majority and in opposition to his friend
and colleague, Adams, who strenuojusly opposed the
proposition. The latter of these patriots being severe
and sarcastic in debate, the former petulant and im
patient of contradiction; a division of Sentiment pro-

go HANCOCK.
duced, therefore, a transient intermission of their
intercourse and friendship, with a fierce and defa
matory coUision amongst their adherents. But to
those who reside in a free government it need
scarcely be observed how littie credit is due to the
malicious recrirainations of party spirit; these are
inseparable ingredients of popular distinction, and
are regarded without alarm, especially in the lives of
those who have been wiUing to provoke the censure
ofthe multitude by raeriting their homage.
Of these two popular leaders, the manners and
appearance were in direct opposition, notwithstand
ing the conforraity of their political principles, and
their equal devotion to the liberties and independence
of tbeir country; and this dissiraUarity tended no
doubt to aggravate the passions and aniraosities of their
adherents. Mr. Adams was poor, and in his dress and
manners, simple and unadorned. Hancock, on the
other hand, was numbered with the richest in
diriduals ofhis country. His equipage was splendid
and magnificent; and such as at present is unknown
in America. His apparel, was sumptuously embroid
ered with gold and silver and lace, and all the other
decorations fashionable amongst men of fortune of
that day; he rode, especially upon public occasions,
with six beautiful bays, and with servants in livery.
He was graceful and prepossessing in manners, and

HANCOCK. 21
very passionately addicted to what are caUed the ele
gant pleasures of Ufe, to dancing, music, concerts,
routs, assemblies, card parties, rich wines, social
dinners and festivities; aU which the stern republi
can virtues of Mr. Adams regarded with indifference,
if not with contempt.
He had been appointed, at an earlier period of
his political career, speaker of the provincial assem
bly, and his election, in a written communication
from the governor, was disapproved; he had been
chosen in 1 767 to the executive councU, and expe
rienced, in that office the same honourable rejection.
This disapprobation, which had been continued for
many years and had become, by repetition, essential
to his farae, was now suddenly suspended, and the
noraination to the council was approved; which was
regarded as no equivocal evidence of the depravation
of his principles. To counteract the eflfect of this
inridious immunity, and other unprovoked civilities
of the governor, Mr. Hancock refused his seat
amongst the counsellors, and pronounced soon after
wards, his oration of the fifth of March, to which
I have already referred. A declaration ofhis senti
ments, so expUcit, furnished hlmf a victorious and
honourable vindication, and contributed in no small
degree to the renovation ofhis popularity. He made
also, from the usual tenderness of reconciliation.

22 HANCOCK.
new acquisitions of aflfection amongst the people,
and on the other hand incurred, by his integrity, the
immediate vengeance of the British government.
He had hitherto been captain of the cadet com
pany or guard of the governor, and was now removed
from that office by general Gage. The company,
retuming the standard they had received upon the
accession of his exceUency, disbanded themselves in
testimony of their resentment. This guard was com
posed of some of tbe most respectable inhabitants
of the town of Boston. Their uniform was magnifi
cent, and their dexterity in martial exercises had ex
cited the praises of the British army. Hancock, in
1767, had been compUmented with a lieutenancy by
governor Bernard; but declaring his determination
to hold no office under a man whose vices and prin
ciples he considered hostile to the liberties of his
country, tore up the commission in the presence of
many citizens; for which bold act he received the
severe reprehension and threats of the royal govern
or. Soon after the departure of this officer be was
chosen captain, with the rank of colonel; a station
which he filled vrith great respectability.
The last instauce, during the British administra
tion, ofthe parade of this company, was at the funeral
of Ueutenant governor OUver, under the chief gov
ernment of general Gage: when Mr. Samuel Adams,

HANCOCK, 23
hearing tliat Hancock designed, with tlie company, to
perCorin the usual military honore to the deceased,
who had boon one of tiie most obnoxious tories of
tiie wliole continent, hastened to dissuade him fix)m
his pnrpose. But Hancock, in observing to his friend
tiiat the honore vvei\^ desiijned for the office, and
not tiie man. pei-sistod in his resolution. This inci
dent, as it shows tiie indepeudenoe of the character
of Mr. Hancock, as well as the propriety of his priii-
f iplos. is not unworthy of iTinark.
The battie of Lexington uow announced the coni-
mcncenient of the revolutionary war. To gain pos-
sessitni of the persous of Hancock aud Adams, who
lodged together in that village, was ono of tiie mo
tives, it is said, oltiie expedition which led to that uie-
nuM-able oonflict The desii;n, though covei^d vvith
giYal seoreoy. was anticipated, and tiie victims esca
ped, upon the entranoe of their habitation by tiie Bri
tish troops. Thus, by the felicitous intervention of a
moment, wei'e rescued tixini a virulent enemy, and
perliaps from Uie executioner, those vvho were to con
tribute by tiieir futuro virtues, to tiie revolution of
enipiros, aud to be hauded down to posterity as tiie
benefaCtoi's of mankiud.
The defeat of tiie Enjilisli in tiiis battie was Ibl-
lovved by tiie go\ ei'iior's proclamation deolariui; tiie
provmce iu a state of rebeUion; oflTei-ini:;. at the

24 HANCOCK.
same time, pardon to all whose penitence should re
commend them to this act of grace, with the excep
tion of those notorious oflfenders, Samuel Adams and
John Hancock. These, by the enormity of their guilt,
which was declared too flagitious for impunity, were
reserved to propitiate the ferocity of the royal ven
geance. But this signal and glorious denunciation, less
the eflfect of good policy, than of passion, advanced
these popular chiefs upon the hsts of fame; they were
every where hailed with increased acclamations and
applauses, and not only by their iUustrious merits, but
by the dangers to which they were exposed, were en
deared to the aflfections of their countrymen.
Hancock, in October 1774, was unaniraously elect
ed president ofthe provincial congress of Massachu
setts. In the year 1775, he attained the meridian of
his political distinction and the highest honour that
the confidence or the esteem of his compatriots could
bestow upon him; being made president of the con
tinental congress. By his long experience in busi
ness, as moderator of the town meetings, president
and speaker of the provincial assemblies and con
ventions, during times of great turbulence and com
motion, in his native state, he was eminently quali
fied, as weU as by his natural dignity of manners, to
preside in this great councU of the nation.

HANCOCK. 25
When the chair of the presidency was oflfered hira,
he is said, however, to have received the intelligence
with embaiTassment and hesitation; from what sen
timents I do not pretend to determine. By sorae it
has been attributed to a consciousness of inferiority;
for there is no honorable action or sentiraent of virtue
amongst men, that, by the ingenious maUgnity of hu
man reason, may not be ascribed to a mean or a dis
honorable motive. Having passed by a regular gra
dation through the various offices of state, it is
however, reasonable to suppose, that he was neither
abashed by novelty, nor terrified by precipitate eleva
tion; and being already upon the lists of proscription,
and living in commerce with dangers, that his emo
tions were not produced, on this occasion, by a heart
less pusiUanimity. Modesty, it is at least well known
from the never faihng experience of life, is not the
oflfspring of ignorance, nor is wisdom engendered by
presumption. Of Washington, it has likewise been
remarked, that in receiving the chief command of the
army, he discovered the same insubordination of feel
ing; which the historian will not fail to enumerate
amongst the virtues of that great man.
That there were in this assembly, personages of a
superior age to that of Mr. Hancock, and men, at the
same time, of preeminent virtues and talents, will not
be denied; who required at least some indications of
VOL. I. I i

26 HANCOCK.
deference, from a generous mind, in reverence of
their merits. It was, besides, an occasion upon which
calmness and composure had been littie commenda
ble; aud upon which indlflference, or a haughty and
supercihous confidence had been criminal in him
who was crowned with the principal honors. For
rarely in the vicissitudes of nations, has it happened
that Interests more sacred have been confided to the
infirmity of human wisdom or integrity; and that a
spectacle more imposing has been exhibited to hu
man observation.
Mr. Hancock was relieved from this timorous sen
sibility, it is said, by the obtrusion of some strong
nerved meraber of the south, who led him or bore
hira to the chair; and when placed in that office, he
presided over it with a dignity and capacity that extor
ted the respect and approbation even of his eneraies.
But the operations of corporate assemblies, how
ever glorious and however honourable they may be, it
is rarely permitted to adduce in testimony of indi
vidual merit; and, in the present instance, Mr. Han
cock being excluded frora pubhc discussions, and
from the deliberations of comraittees, by the injunc
tions ofhis office, details are inadmissible in the iUus
tration ofhis character. The coramon transactions of
this assembly, in which he displayed no inferiority
of zeal, industry or integrity, must, therefore, be

HANCOCK, 27
passed vrithout enumeration; although they are re
ferred to the most splendid period of his life, and are
alone sufficient to dignify and protect his memory
amongst the latest generations of mankind.
The declaration of independence, though signed
by all the members of the congress, was accompa
nied in its first pubUcation by the signature of Mr.
Hancock alone; an accidental association, which,
although it conferred no special title to praise beyond
his colleagues, preoccupied tbe admiration ofthe pub
Uc, and contributed, in no smaU degree, to the exten
sion ofhis fame.
In October of 1777, having for two years and a
half, sustained the duties of the presidency of con
gress, Mr. Hancock, wasted by unremitting appli
cation to business and by the severity of the gout,
which had rendered his health infirm and precarious,
resigned his office; and amidst the, felicitations of
his countrymen, who contended vrith each other in
the magnificence of their applauses and demonstra
tions of respect, retired to his native province.
A convention was, about this time, appointed to
frame a constitution for the state of Massachusetts,
to which he was elected, and vrith his usual dUigence
and fideUty assisted in their deUberations. On all
occasions, he had favoured repubUcan institutions;
and, on the present, contended for the moderation of
the executive authority.

28 HANCOCK.
He was elected in 1 780, governor of the common
wealth; the first who was appointed under the sanc
tion of the new constitution, and derived his power
from the suflfrages of the people. He was annually
continued in that office until the year 1785, when he
resigned; and, after an intermission of two years, du
ring which he had been succeeded by Mr. Bowdoin,
was reelected, and remained in the chair untU the
conclusion of his life.
Hancock had been involved during the early peri
od of his career, in the perpetual turbulence of the
revolution; nor was he perraitted, in the conclusion of
it, to enjoy the blandishraents of tranquiUity. The ac
cumulation of debts during the war, and the necessity
of a cumbrous imposition of taxes for their diminu
tion; added to the usual depravation* of morals or
disqualification for civil occupations, consequent to a
long suspension of the arts of industry, had filled the
community with various griefs, and necessities; and
had diffused in the whole country a spirit of insubor
dination, which threatened the subversion of aU order
and govemment.
Associations were first formed amongst the most
seditious, to solicit a redress of grievances; a mea
sure which they sanctioned under the example ofthe
late revolution; and bewailing the public distress
with bitter and pathetic lamentations, or urging

HANCOCK. 29
their pretensions with specious and patriotic expres
sions, the ordinary rhetoric of rebellion, the youthful,
the imprudent and restless were soon allured to their
standard; became the proselytes of ffieir iniquity and
the associates of their crimes; for the mass of man
kind are governed by names, and sacrifice, with a
most heedless improvidence, their honesty as well as
their felicity to the modulation of agreeable sounds.
The force of this faction, in New England, was
estimated at twelve thousand persons. The majority
of the people, were, especially in Massachusetts, in
disposed to the government; and many of them de
vised the total demolition of it. The most audacious,
some of whom had penetrated even into the sanctu
ary of the legislature, demanded an abolition of debts
and taxes, and an equal distiibution of property;
which they considered as a just reward of the tolls
they had encountered in the late war; and amidst the
inflammatory and seditions harangues of these fero
cious incendiaries, the whole state was embroiled in
disorder and insurrection.
The prorinces, being erected into disconnected
republics, of which the institutions were yet recent
and unconfirmed, opposed a feeble barrier to the
impetuosity of the torrent. The first outrages were
exercised against the officers of justice, who by acts
of violence, were restrained from the administra-

30 HANCOCK.
tion of their duties; and depredations were some
times made upon the property of individuals. The
governor, and the general assembly, having used
many eflforts of conciliation, by temporising expedi
ents, which never faU to Increase the insolence of a
riotous multitude, employed against them, at length,
four thousand ofthe mUitia; and the insurgents be
ing destitute of a head to direct their operations, af
ter a resistance altogether inadequate to the appre
hensions they had excited, a few only being killed,
or wounded, and many made prisoners, the rest were
dispersed. They maintained, nevertheless, a dan
gerous predominance in the state, and riot and dis
order stiU subsisted until the year 1 787, when, by the
agency of Mr. Hancock, at that time governor, they
were finally repressed, with a celerity that merited
universal applause. The principals, to the number
of fourteen, having surrendered, were condemned by
the suprerae court to suffer capitally for their treason;
but were reprieved by the interposition of the gover
nor. This act pf clemency, was however attributed,
by some of the more rigid republicans of those
times, to a want of energy, nor did it pass without
severe animadversions.
At this period of factious disorder, and especially
during his competition for the office of governor,
Hancock did not escape reprehension. He was as-

HANCOCK. 31
sailed by antagonists who were neither impotent in
genius nor inconsiderable in numbers, with great
virulence and animosity. He appears, however, to
have been more sensible to the commendations of
his countrymen, than moved by their reproaches;
for, during his life he employed no official vindica
tions, either of supplication or revenge, and no ex
pedients to propitiate slander; whUst, on aU occasions,
he received the horaage of the people, with the
most sensible elevation of feeling, and courted it
perhaps with intemperance. Obloquy is the usual
attendant of human elevation, and amidst the various
and conflicting passions of republican communities,
awakened by a contention for public honours; amidst
the empty conceits or extravagant presumptions of
the ignorant, the malignity of the vicious, and the
emulation of rivals, to expect an exemption from it,
would discover indeed littie depth of understanding,
or a very hmited experience of human nature.
But the repression of disorder and faction in the
state, towards the conclusion of his life, and the
salutary diligence of his administration appeased
almost entirely these resentments and animosities of
party. His agency in promoting the adoption of the fe
deral constitution, may be mentioned with the ob
jects which most recommended him to esteem

32 HANCOCK.
amongst his cotemporaries, and which entitie him
to the regards of posterity.
An opposition to this system of government ex
isted in raany parts of the continent, and, in Mas
sachusetts, the majority of the convention were
supposed to disapprove it. Of this assembly, Han
cock, who was believed to be averse to tbe confede
ration, had been elected president, but by sickness,
had been withdrawn from their deliberations until
the last week of the session. He then appeared and
voted in its favour; and to his diligence in removing,
by appropriate amendments, the apprehensions and
objections of many in the opposition, added to his
address and authority upon this occasion, is usually
ascribed the adoption ofthe constitution in Massa
chusetts; and with no greater ornaraent could we de
sire to coraplete the raonuraent of his fame, than by
recording his instrumentality in the promotion of a
measure so indispensible to the glory and prosperity
of his country.
He did not, however, in favouring a confederate
republic, vindicate with less scrupulous vigilance
the dignity of the individual states. In a suit com
menced against Massachusetts, by the court of the
United States, in which he was summoned upon a
writ, as governor, to answer the prosecution, he re
sisted the process, and maintained inviolate the sove-

HANCOCK, 33
reignty of the commonwealth. A recurrence of a
similar colUsion of authority was, in consequence of
this opposition, prevented by an amendment of the
federal constitution.
This incident is enumerated amongst the latest
events of his administration and of his life. He died
suddenly on tiie Sth of October, 1793, and in the 55th
year of his age. During several days, his body lay
in state at his mansion, where great multitudes
thronged to pay the last offices of their grief and af
fection. His obsequies were attended with great
pomp and solemnity, and amidst the tears of his
countrymen, he was committed to the dust.
He had married, about twenty years before his
death. Miss Quincy, daughterof an eminent magistrate
of Boston, and one of the most ancient and distin
guished families in New England. By this matri
monial connection he had aflforded new pledges of
his fidelity, and acquired additional influence and
zeal in the service of his country. No children were,
however, left to inherit his fortune or perpetuate his
name; his only son having died during his youth.
Having now related the principal events of the life
of Mr. Hancock, it maybe permitted to add something
more particular of his person and character. In sta
ture he was above the middle size, of excellent pro
portion of Umbs, of extreme benignity of counte-
VOL. I. K k

34 HANCOCK.
nance; possessing a flexible and harmonious voice,
a manly and dignified aspect. By the improvement
of these natural qualities from observation and ex
tensive intercourse with the world, he had acquired
a pleasing elocution with the most graceful and con
ciUating manners; acquisitions which are perhaps
less fitted to the austere virtues of a republic than
to the gUtter and magnificence of monarchy; but
were used by Mr. Hancock, in arts so liberal and
beneficial to his country, that the most unsocial and
supercilious advocate of sobriety, will pardon him
the possession of them.
Of his talents it is a sufficient evidence, that, in the
various stations to which his fortune had elevated
him in the repubhc, he acquitted himself with an
honourable distinction and capacity. His communi
cations to the general assembly and bis correspond
ence as president of congress, are titles of no ordi
nary commendation. Of extensive erudition he has
given no positive testimony. His knowledge was
practical and familiar. He neither penetrated the
intricacies of profound research, nor did he mount
inaccessible elevations.
From the progress of society in America, during
the age in which he lived, when two and a half
millions of inhabitants were dispersed over a vast and
rugged territory, and engaged in laborious occupa-

HANCOCK. 35
tions, it may be reasonably inferred that there existed
no very powerful incentives to literary emulation; and
vrithout thisrivifying principle, which animates to la
bour and softens the austerities of mental applica
tion, the quaUties of the most generous nature may
be consigned to oblivion and obscurity. Corrup
tion may be luminous in the dark, but of solid bo
dies the fire is struck out by collision. There was
besides no trade or occupation which produced, at
that j>eriod, in the colonies, an opprobrious distinc
tion; commercial pursuits were especiaUy the ave
nues to wealth and to honours, and poverty was en
dured with impunity.
These causes may have repressed in some degree,
the cultivatipn of those arts which are co-ordinate
with a luxurious and crowded population; and the
muses, in the bustle of more profitable devotions,
may have been partiaUy neglected; but, from the con
nexion which his fortune, business, and travels into
Europe had given him vrith the world, Hancock had
acquired an extensive knowledge of human nature;
and, from the political discussions in which he was
early and perpetuaUy involved, had enriched his un
derstanding vrith acquisitions, not less various, and
accommodated to the purposes of hfe, or to the im
provement of the mind, than are usuaUy attained in
the shade of Uterar? retirement, either under tbe lash

36 HANCOCK.
of the pedagogue, or from the oflScial lectures ofthe
professor. Of the other statesmen and warriors of the revo
lution, and especially ofthe members ofthe continen
tal congress, it may be observed, that in wisdom and
intelligence, as well as integrity and magnanimity, they
suflfer no degradation in being compared with the
most illustrious patriots of ancient or modern times.
As an orator, Mr. Hancock spoke without elabora
tion or pretension, but agreeably on aU subjects. His
harangues are, perhaps, destitute of that originality
of thought, or felicity of expression tbat constitutes
the exceUence of a cultivated genius, but exhibit, as
far as we have perused them, no common compre
hension of things or powers of language, and were
especially weU suited, at the time in which he lived,
to popular declamation.
That he derived from the dispositions of nature
and the habits of discipline, many excellent virtues,
may be affirmed, as well on the testimony of his
cotemporaries who knew him, as from a reference to
the incidents of his life. In the first place, it is no
trivial comraendation, that at an age when the vani
ties of human nature are predominant, possessing a
superfluity of wealth, liberal sentiments, and being, at
the sarae time, exempt from parental authority, he be
took himself to honorable and laborious occupations

HANCOCK. 37
rather than to indulgence or youthful profusion; and
that he did not grow arrogant or insolent, from the
superiority ofhis advantages, entitles him tono small
degree of praise. In those countries in which titles or
pedigree preoccupy the honours of the state, money
is devested of a portion of its power upon the mind;
but, in republics, where it bestows an unrivalled pre
eminence, many excellent and great qualities of the
heart, are essential to counteract its malignant in
fluence. The munificence and generosity of his character
are admitted by universal consent; though not without
the imputations and cavils to which all human per
fections are subject, frora the interpretation of igno
rance and malevolence. By his enemies it has been
remarked not unfrequently that his acts of liberality,
his colloquial accomplishments, and other faculties
of persuasion were exerted whoUy in the acquisition
of popularity. That he courted this capricious di
rinity with too great devotion, may perhaps be allow
ed; that he did it with success, admits of no doubt, for,
he is remembered as the most popular individual of
Massachusetts, of his own or any other tirae. But the
desire of popularity is the Impulse of a generous spi
rit, the spring of noble actions, and that of Mr. Han
cock was founded upon no meretricious devices, no
arts of a deraagogue, no obliquity of morals, and no
prostration of dignity or honor.

38 HANCOCK.
Of this element of his character, as it is perhs^
the most godlike rirtue of human nature, a few ex
amples may be permitted in illustration.
Previous to the demise ofhis paternal uncle, whom
I have already mentioned as his patron and benefac
tor, the hall of the university had been destroyed by
fire. The deceased, it was said, had expressed the
intention of leaving five hundred pounds for the re
paration of its library. No such appropriation was,
however, made by his will; yet the sum was paid,
without hesitation, by his heir.
The salary allowed by the constitution to the chief
magistrate of the commonwealth of Massachusetts,
had occupied, for several years, the debates ofthe
legislatm-e. It was declared to be exorbitant, and
was enumerated amongst the various grievances that
had occasioned riot and insurrection in the state.
An act for its reduction from eleven to eight hundred
pounds, had passed both houses of the legislature.
but was negatived by the govemor; and the subject
being resumed, under the administration of Mr. Han
cock, he intercepted all farther discussion of it, by
a voluntary remission of the sum.
In 1775, it was proposed by the American officere
who carried on the siege of Boston, that they might
procure the expulsion of the enemy, to bombard or
destroy the town. The entire wealtii of Mr, Han-

HANCOCK. 39
eock was exposed, by the execution of this enter
prize, to inevitable ruin; and whUst he felt for the
suflferlngs of others with a very generous compassion,
he required that no regard to his personal interests
should obstruct the operations of the army. His pri
vate fortune, he observed, should on no occasion,
oppose an obstacle to the liberties of his country.
An enterprize was undertaken in 1778, in co-ope
ration with the fleet of tiie French admiral D'Estaing
against Newport, in Rhode Island, by a detachment
from the regular army under Washington, and se
ven thousand of the militia of New England, which
excited in the whole continent the most extravagant
expectations. On tiie arrival of these troops in the isl
and, the fleet of lord Howe appeared upon tiie coast.
D'Estaing regardless ofhis obligations with ihe Ame
rican troops, instead of supporting, assisting and de
fending them, and solicitous only for his own glory,
hastened to tiie pureuit of the enemy, and exposed
the army of his allies to all the calamities of a de
feat and disgrace. In consequence of this manoeuvre,
the Americans were left in the midst of innumerable
difficulties and dangers, to make good their retreat;
which they achieved, however, without the loss of
artiUery or baggage; and the fleet arrived at tiie
same time in the harbour, shattered by a furious
storm.

40 HANCOCK,
Under these circumstances the French were not
received in Boston with the usual hospitahty of its
inhabitants, and in many instances, with a sullen dis
pleasure, and symptoms of irritation which threat
ened the most violent eflfects; but Mr. Hancock, inter
posing, on this occasion, relieved his country from
this threatening calamity, by his conciliating man
ners and unbounded hospitality. His house, which
was elegant and spacious, was thrown open with
rich wines, and every species of splendid enter
tainment, to the French admiral and aU his officers,
frora thirty to forty of whom dined every day at his
table. In addition to which, he gave, at his own ex
pense, a grand pubhc baU at Concert Hall, attended
by the Count, his officers, with the principal ladies
and gentlemen ofthe town. Thus harmony was re
stored, a friendly intercourse with the inhabitants
was reestabhshed, which terminated in a recipro
cation of esteera and respect.
These are but a few of the many particulars I
raight enumerate, did the subject require a further
illustration; for there are, indeed, few lives, either
ancient or modern, that aflford, of disinterested gene
rosity, raore frequent and iUustrious exaraples. Cha
rity was the coraraon business of his life. From his
private benevolence, a thousand famihes received
their daily bread; and there is perhaps no individual

HANCOCK. 41
mentioned in history, who has expended a more am
ple fortune in promoting the liberties of his country.
Social amusements were courted by Mr. Hancock,
with a very passionate inclination. His habitation,
was every day crowded with guests, either of citizens
or strangers who were aUured by the inteUigence of
his convereation, or the splendour of his hospitahty;
whom he entertained however, with no riotous dissi
pation, but vrith a becoming elegance and propriety;
nor is he to be censured, if oflfering to his countrymen
no example of insolence, or Uliberal debauch; if using
the beneficence of fortune, he sometimes reUeved the
austerities of occupation or softened the clamors of
faction by the pleasures of a generous festirity. He
encountered, in the promotion of honest enterprises,
many labours and dangers; and has left upon the re
cords ofhis country, a testimony which the malevo
lence of time cannot destroy, that no seductions of
pleasure, that not even the decrepitude of disease
withheld him fivm the serrice of the repubhc.
His exertions were employed, it should also be re
membered, not only vrithout intermission, but from
the minutest to the most exalted duties of a states
man; from the humble debates of a town meeting, to
the deUberations of a senate. And to have retained,
for the most part, with a frank and generous dispo
sition, with a famiUarity of intercourse and continual
VOL, I. L 1

42 HANCOCK.
exhibition, the evanescent aflfections of the multi
tude; and this, too, amidst the factious passions of a
revolution, implies no ordinary dexterity and address.
For what is there in moral or physical exceUence
that does not lose, by frequency, the admiration of
mortals.? — Genius is devested of her sublimity, wit
of her ornaments, and even virtue is disrobed of her
majesty by exposure to their capricious observation.
No being has yet reached an elevation of human
honours, inaccessible to the arrows of defamation;
he is neither shielded by the innocence of his hfe,
nor is he protected by tbe sacredness of the tomb;
and to ask why Hancock soraetimes sustained in a
free state, interruptions of his popularity, is a vain
disquisition. It is to ask why those whom the world
should regard with veneration, have been persecuted
with outrageous and unrelenting malevolence; why
Aristides languished in exile, or Mfltiades perished
in a dungeon.
We must not, however, in the detaU of his merits,
lavish unqualified praise; for, exorbitant as weU as
inadequate commendations, are often no less inju
rious to the reputation of great men, than malignant
censure. EvU qualities usually spring up in the most
generous and liberal nature, which the most sedulous
discipUne raay fail to eradicate. In the fertility of the
same soil, the noxious plant vegetates with the mild

HANCOCK. 43
and wholesome aliments of life. That Hancock had
blemishes of character, as he was a man, must,
therefore, be admitted;
Nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur,
but none have been transraitted to us, not even by
the resentraents of faction, which bear the'tmputation
ofa crime; and it appears neither useful nor honor
able to inquire with a scrupulous Ingenuity, into the
trivial imperfections of men who have great and pre
dominating virtues. The censure of cotemporaries
may indeed, admit some excuse in a sufficiently
honest principle of human nature, the impatience or
disdain of superiority; and the acrimony of party spi
rit may aflford some plea for the violation of more
sacred obhgations; but it is neith^ pious, nor can it
be grateful in posterity, to perpetuate these rival ani
mosities.

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