The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 (of 5)
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"Be not surprised therefore that we, who are descended from the same
common ancestors, that we, whose forefathers participated in all the
rights, the liberties, and the constitution, you so justly boast of,
and who have carefully conveyed the same fair inheritance to us,
guaranteed by the plighted faith of government, and the most solemn
compacts with British sovereigns, should refuse to surrender them to
men, who found their claims on no principles of reason, and who
prosecute them with a design, that by having _our_ lives and property
in their power, they may with the greater facility enslave _you_."
After stating the serious condition of American affairs, and the
oppressions, and misrepresentations of their conduct, which had
induced the address; and their claim to be as free as their fellow
subjects in Britain; they say, "are not the proprietors of the soil of
Great Britain lords of their own property? Can it be taken from them
without their consent? Will they yield it to the arbitrary disposal of
any men, or number of men whatever? You know they will not.
"Why then are the proprietors of the soil of America less lords of
their property than you are of yours, or why should they submit it to
the disposal of your parliament, or any other parliament or council in
the world, not of their election? Can the intervention of the sea that
divides us cause disparity of rights, or can any reason be given why
English subjects, who live three thousand miles from the royal palace,
should enjoy less liberty than those who are three hundred miles
distant from it?
"Reason looks with indignation on such distinctions, and freemen can
never perceive their propriety."
After expatiating on the resources which the conquest of America would
place in the hands of the crown for the subjugation of Britain, the
address proceeds, "we believe there is yet much virtue, much justice,
and much public spirit in the English nation. To that justice we now
appeal. You have been told that we are seditious, impatient of
government, and desirous of independency. Be assured that these are
not facts but calumnies. Permit us to be as free as yourselves, and we
shall ever esteem a union with you to be our greatest glory, and our
greatest happiness;--we shall ever be ready to contribute all in our
power to the welfare of the empire;--we shall consider your enemies as
our enemies, and your interest as our own.
"But if you are determined that your ministers shall wantonly sport
with the rights of mankind:--if neither the voice of justice, the
dictates of the law, the principles of the constitution, nor the
suggestions of humanity, can restrain your hands from shedding human
blood in such an impious cause, we must then tell you that we will
never submit to be hewers of wood or drawers of water for any ministry
or nation in the world.
"Place us in the same situation that we were at the close of the late
war, and our former harmony will be restored."[238]
[Footnote 238: The committee which prepared this eloquent
and manly address, were Mr. Lee, Mr. Livingston, and Mr.
Jay. The composition has been generally attributed to Mr.
Jay.]
[Sidenote: Petition to the King.]
The petition to the King states succinctly the grievances complained
of, and then proceeds to say:
"Had our creator been pleased to give us existence in a land of
slavery, the sense of our condition might have been mitigated by
ignorance and habit. But thanks be to his adorable goodness, we were
born the heirs of freedom, and ever enjoyed our right under the
auspices of your royal ancestors, whose family was seated on the
British throne, to rescue and secure a pious and gallant nation from
the popery and despotism of a superstitious and inexorable tyrant.
Your majesty, we are confident, justly rejoices that your title to the
crown is thus founded on the title of your people to liberty; and,
therefore, we doubt not but your royal wisdom must approve the
sensibility that teaches your subjects anxiously to guard the blessing
they received from divine providence, and thereby to prove the
performance of that compact, which elevated the illustrious house of
Brunswick to the imperial dignity it now possesses.
"The apprehensions of being degraded into a state of servitude, from
the pre-eminent rank of English freemen, while our minds retain the
strongest love of liberty, and clearly foresee the miseries preparing
for us and for our posterity, excites emotions in our breasts, which,
though we cannot describe, we should not wish to conceal. Feeling as
men, and thinking as subjects, in the manner we do, silence would be
disloyalty. By giving this faithful information, we do all in our
power to promote the great objects of your royal cares--the
tranquillity of your government, and the welfare of your people.
"Duty to your majesty and regard for the preservation of ourselves and
our posterity,--the primary obligations of nature and society, command
us to entreat your royal attention; and, as your majesty enjoys the
signal distinction of reigning over freemen, we apprehend the language
of freemen cannot be displeasing. Your royal indignation, we hope,
will rather fall on those designing and dangerous men, who, daringly
interposing themselves between your royal person and your faithful
subjects, and for several years past incessantly employed to dissolve
the bonds of society, by abusing your majesty's authority,
misrepresenting your American subjects, and prosecuting the most
desperate and irritating projects of oppression, have at length
compelled us, by the force of accumulated injuries, too severe to be
any longer tolerable, to disturb your majesty's repose by our
complaints.
"These sentiments are extorted from hearts that much more willingly
would bleed in your majesty's service. Yet so greatly have we been
misrepresented, that a necessity has been alleged of taking our
property from us without our consent, to defray the charge of the
administration of justice, the support of civil government, and the
defence, protection, and security of the colonies."
After assuring his majesty of the untruth of these allegations, they
say, "yielding to no British subjects in affectionate attachment to
your majesty's person, family, and government, we too dearly prize the
privilege of expressing that attachment, by those proofs that are
honourable to the prince that receives them, and to the people who
give them, ever to resign it to any body of men upon earth.
"We ask but for peace, liberty, and safety. We wish not a diminution
of the prerogative, nor do we solicit the grant of any new right in
our favour. Your royal authority over us, and our connection with
Great Britain, we shall always carefully and zealously endeavour to
support and maintain."
After re-stating in a very affecting manner the most essential
grievances of which they complain, and professing that their future
conduct, if their apprehensions should be removed, would prove them
worthy of the regard they had been accustomed, in their happier days
to enjoy, they add:
"Permit us then most gracious sovereign, in the name of all your
faithful people in America, with the utmost humility to implore you,
for the honour of Almighty God, whose pure religion our enemies are
undermining; for your glory which can be advanced only by rendering
your subjects happy, and keeping them united; for the interest of your
family, depending on an adherence to the principles that enthroned it;
for the safety and welfare of your kingdom and dominions, threatened
with almost unavoidable dangers and distresses; that your majesty, as
the loving father of your whole people, connected by the same bonds of
law, loyalty, faith, and blood, though dwelling in various countries,
will not suffer the transcendent relation formed by these ties, to be
farther violated, in uncertain expectation of effects that, if
attained, never can compensate for the calamities, through which they
must be gained."[239]
[Footnote 239: The committee which brought in this admirably
well drawn, and truly conciliatory address, were Mr. Lee,
Mr. John Adams, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Henry, Mr. Rutledge, and
Mr. Dickinson. The original composition has been generally
attributed to Mr. Dickinson.]
[Sidenote: Address to the American people.]
The address to their constituents is replete with serious and
temperate argument. In this paper, the several causes which had led to
the existing state of things, were detailed more at large; and much
labour was used to convince their judgments that their liberties must
be destroyed, and the security of their property and persons
annihilated, by submission to the pretensions of Great Britain. The
first object of congress being to unite the people of America, by
demonstrating the sincerity with which their leaders had sought for
reconciliation on terms compatible with liberty, great earnestness was
used in proving that the conduct of the colonists had been uniformly
moderate and blameless. After declaring their confidence in the
efficacy of the mode of commercial resistance which had been
recommended, the address concludes with saying, "your own salvation,
and that of your posterity, now depends upon yourselves. You have
already shown that you entertain a proper sense of the blessings you
are striving to retain. Against the temporary inconveniences you may
suffer from a stoppage of trade, you will weigh in the opposite
balance, the endless miseries you and your descendants must endure,
from an established arbitrary power. You will not forget the honour of
your country, that must, from your behaviour, take its title in the
estimation of the world to glory or to shame; and you will, with the
deepest attention, reflect, that if the peaceable mode of opposition
recommended by us, be broken and rendered ineffectual, as your cruel
and haughty ministerial enemies, from a contemptuous opinion of your
firmness, insolently predict will be the case, you must inevitably be
reduced to choose, either a more dangerous contest, or a final,
ruinous, and infamous submission.
"Motives thus cogent, arising from the emergency of your unhappy
condition, must excite your utmost diligence and zeal, to give all
possible strength and energy to the pacific measures calculated for
your relief. But we think ourselves bound in duty to observe to you,
that the schemes agitated against the colonies have been so conducted,
as to render it prudent that you should extend your views to mournful
events, and be in all respects prepared for every contingency. Above
all things, we earnestly entreat you, with devotion of spirit,
penitence of heart, and amendment of life, to humble yourselves, and
implore the favour of Almighty God; and we fervently beseech his
divine goodness to take you into his gracious protection."[240]
[Footnote 240: Mr. Lee, Mr. Livingston, and Mr. Jay, were
also the committee who brought in this address.]
The letter to the people of Canada required no inconsiderable degree
of address. The extent of that province was not so alarming to its
inhabitants as to their neighbours; and it was not easy to persuade
the French settlers, who were far the most numerous, that the
establishment of their religion, and the partial toleration of their
ancient jurisprudence, were acts of oppression which ought to be
resisted. This delicate subject was managed with considerable
dexterity, and the prejudices of the Canadians were assailed with some
success.
Letters were also addressed to the colonies of St. Johns, Nova Scotia,
Georgia, and the Floridas, inviting them to unite with their brethren
in a cause common to all British America.[241]
[Footnote 241: These letters, as well as that to the
inhabitants of the province of Quebec, were prepared by Mr.
Cushing, Mr. Lee, and Mr. Dickinson.]
After completing the business before them, and recommending that
another Congress should be held at the same place on the tenth of the
succeeding May, the House dissolved itself.
{October.}
The proceedings of Congress were read throughout America, with
enthusiastic admiration. Their recommendations were revered as
revelations, and obeyed as laws of the strongest obligation. Absolute
unanimity could not be expected to exist; but seldom has a whole
people been more united; and never did a more sincere and perfect
conviction of the justice of a cause animate the human bosom, than was
felt by the great body of the Americans. The people, generally, made
great exertions to arm and discipline themselves. Independent
companies of gentlemen were formed in all the colonies; and the whole
face of the country exhibited the aspect of approaching war. Yet the
measures of Congress demonstrate that, although resistance by force
was contemplated as a possible event, the hope was fondly cherished
that the non-importation of British goods would induce a repeal of the
late odious acts. It is impossible to account for the non-importation
agreement itself. Had war been considered as inevitable, every
principle of sound policy required that imports should be encouraged,
and the largest possible stock of supplies for an army be obtained.
[Sidenote: New counsellors and judges.]
With the laws relative to the province, governor Gage received a list
of thirty-two new counsellors, a sufficient number of whom, to carry
on the business of the government, accepted the office, and entered on
its duties.
[Sidenote: Obliged to resign.]
All those who accepted offices under the new system, were denounced as
enemies to their country. The new judges were unable to proceed in the
administration of justice. When the court houses were opened, the
people crowded into them in such numbers that the judges could not
obtain admittance; and, on being ordered by the officers to make way
for the court, they answered that they knew no court, independent of
the ancient laws and usages of their country, and to no other would
they submit.[242] The houses of the new counsellors were surrounded by
great bodies of people, whose threats announced to them that they must
resign their offices, or be exposed to the fury of an enraged
populace. The first part of the alternative was generally embraced.
[Footnote 242: Minot.]
[Sidenote: Boston neck fortified.]
In this irritable state of the public mind, and critical situation of
public affairs, it was to be expected that every day would furnish new
matter of discontent and jealousy. General Gage deemed it a necessary
measure of security, to fortify Boston neck; and this circumstance
induced the inhabitants to contemplate seriously an evacuation of the
town, and removal into the country. Congress was consulted on this
proposition; but was deterred from recommending it, by the
difficulties attending the measure. It was however referred to the
provincial congress, with the declaration that, if the removal should
be deemed necessary, the expense attending it ought to be borne by all
the colonies.
[Sidenote: Military stores seized by general Gage.]
The fortification of Boston neck was followed by a measure which
excited still greater alarm. The time for the general muster of the
militia approached. Under real or pretended apprehensions from their
violence, the ammunition and stores which were lodged in the
provincial arsenal at Cambridge, and the powder in the magazines at
Charlestown, and some other places which was partly private and partly
provincial property, were seized, by order of the governor, and
conveyed to Boston.
Under the ferment excited by this measure, the people assembled in
great numbers, and were with difficulty dissuaded from marching to
Boston, and demanding a re-delivery of the stores. Not long
afterwards, the fort at Portsmouth in New Hampshire was stormed by an
armed body of provincials; and the powder it contained was transported
to a place of safety. A similar measure was adopted in Rhode Island.
About the same time a report reached Connecticut that the ships and
troops had attacked Boston, and were actually firing on the town.
Several thousand men immediately assembled in arms, and marched with
great expedition a considerable distance, before they were undeceived.
It was in the midst of these ferments, and while these indications of
an opinion that hostilities might be expected daily were multiplying
on every side, that the people of Suffolk assembled in convention, and
passed the resolutions already mentioned, which in boldness surpass
any that had been adopted.
[Sidenote: Provincial congress in Massachusetts.]
Before the general agitation had risen to its present alarming height,
governor Gage had issued writs for the election of members to a
general assembly. These writs were afterwards countermanded by
proclamation; but the proclamation was disregarded; the elections were
held; and the delegates, who assembled and voted themselves a
provincial congress, conducted the affairs of the colony as if they
had been regularly invested with all the powers of government; and
their recommendations were respected as sacred laws.
[Sidenote: Prepares for defence.]
They drew up a plan for the defence of the province; provided
magazines, ammunition and prepares stores for twelve thousand militia;
and enrolled a number of minute men, a term designating a select part
of the militia, who engaged to appear in arms at a minute's warning.
On the approach of winter, the general had ordered temporary barracks
to be erected for the troops, partly for their security, and partly to
prevent the disorders which would unavoidably result from quartering
them in the town. Such however was the detestation in which they were
held, that the select men and committees obliged the workmen to desist
from the work, although they were paid for their labour by the crown,
and although employment could, at that time, be seldom obtained. He
was not much more successful in his endeavours to obtain carpenters in
New York; and it was with considerable difficulty that these temporary
lodgments could be erected.
The agency for purchasing winter covering for the troops was offered
to almost every merchant in New York; but such was the danger of
engaging in this odious employment, that not only those who were
attached to the party resisting the views of administration, but those
also who were in secret friendly to those views, refused undertaking
it, and declared "that they never would supply any article for the
benefit of men who were sent as enemies to their country."
[Sidenote: King's speech to parliament.]
In Great Britain, a new parliament was assembled; and the King, in his
opening speech, informed them, "that a most daring spirit of
resistance and disobedience still prevailed in Massachusetts, and had
broken forth in fresh violences of a very criminal nature; that the
most proper and effectual measures had been taken to prevent these
mischiefs; and that they might depend upon a firm resolution to
withstand every attempt to weaken or impair the supreme authority of
this legislature over all the dominions of the crown."
[Sidenote: Proceedings of that body.]
{1775}
The addresses re-echoed the sentiments of the speech; all amendments
to which were rejected in both houses by considerable majorities.[243]
Yet the business respecting America was not promptly introduced.
Administration seems to have hesitated on the course to be adopted;
and the cabinet is said to have been divided respecting future
measures. The few friends of conciliation availed themselves of this
delay, to bring forward propositions which might restore harmony to
the empire. Lord Chatham was not yet dead. "This splendid orb," to use
the bold metaphor of Mr. Burke, "was not yet entirely set. The western
horizon was still in a blaze with his descending glory;" and the
evening of a life which had exhibited one bright unchequered course of
elevated patriotism, was devoted to the service of that country whose
aggrandisement seemed to have swallowed up every other passion of his
soul. Taking a prophetic view of the future, he demonstrated the
impossibility of subjugating America, and urged, with all the powers
of his vast mind, the immediate removal of the troops from Boston, as
a measure indispensably necessary, to open the way for an adjustment
of the existing differences with the colonies. Not discouraged by the
great majority against this motion, he brought forward a bill for
settling the troubles in America, which was rejected by sixty-one to
thirty-two voices.
[Footnote 243: Belsham.]
The day after the rejection of this bill, lord North moved, in the
house of commons, an address to his Majesty, declaring that, from a
serious consideration of the American papers, "they find a rebellion
actually exists in the province of Massachusetts Bay." In the course
of the debate on this address, several professional gentlemen spoke
with the utmost contempt of the military character of the Americans;
and general Grant, who ought to have known better, declared that "at
the head of five regiments of infantry, he would undertake to traverse
the whole country, and drive the inhabitants from one end of the
continent to the other."
The address was carried by 288 to 106; and on a conference, the house
of lords agreed to join in it. Lord North, soon after, moved a bill
for restraining the trade and commerce of the New England provinces,
and prohibiting them from carrying on the fisheries on the banks of
Newfoundland.[244]
[Footnote 244: Belsham.]
While this bill was pending, and only vengeance was breathed by the
majority, his lordship, to the astonishment of all, suddenly moved,
what he termed his conciliatory proposition. Its amount was, that
parliament would forbear to tax any colony, which should tax itself in
such a sum as would be perfectly satisfactory. Apparent as it must
have been that this proposition would not be accepted in America, it
was received with indignation by the majority of the house; and
ministers found some difficulty in showing that it was in maintenance
of the right to tax the colonies. Before it could be adopted lord
North condescended to make the dangerous, and not very reputable
acknowledgment, that it was a proposition designed to divide America,
and to unite Great Britain. It was transmitted to the governors of the
several colonies, in a circular letter from lord Dartmouth, with
directions to use their utmost influence to prevail on the
legislatures to accede to the proposed compromise. These endeavours
were not successful. The colonists were universally impressed with too
strong a conviction of the importance of union, and understood too
well the real principle of the contest, to suffer themselves to be
divided or deceived by a proposition, conciliatory only in name.
After the passage of the bill for restraining the trade of New
England, information was received that the inhabitants of the middle
and southern colonies, were supporting their northern brethren in
every measure of opposition. In consequence of this intelligence, a
second bill was passed for imposing similar restrictions on East and
West Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and the
counties on the Delaware. The favourite colonies of New York and North
Carolina were omitted, as being less disaffected than the others.
Fortunately, some time afterwards, the house of commons refused to
hear a petition from the legislature of New York, which alone had
declined acceding to the resolutions of congress, on the suggestion of
the minister that it contained claims incompatible with the supremacy
of parliament. This haughty rejection had some tendency to convince
the advocates of milder measures than had been adopted in their sister
colonies, that there was no medium between resistance and absolute
submission.
The King's speech, and the proceedings of parliament, served only to
convince the leaders of opposition in America, that they must indeed
prepare to meet "mournful events." They had flattered themselves that
the union of the colonies, the petition of congress to the King, and
the address to the people of Great Britain, would produce happy
effects. But these measures removed the delusion. The provincial
congress of Massachusetts published a resolution informing the people
that there was real cause to fear that the reasonable and just
applications of that continent to Great Britain for peace, liberty,
and safety, would not meet with a favourable reception; that, on the
contrary, the tenor of their intelligence, and general appearances,
furnished just cause for the apprehension that the sudden destruction
of that colony, at least, was intended. They therefore urged the
militia in general, and the minute men in particular, to spare neither
time, pains, nor expense, to perfect themselves in military
discipline; and also passed resolutions for procuring and making fire
arms and bayonets.[245]
[Footnote 245: Prior documents. Minot.]