CHAPTER III.

THE STORM OF REVOLUTION-LEXINGTON-CONCORD

TICONDEROGA-WASHINGTON CHOSEN
TO COMMAND.

66

"M

Y GOD! General Washington, how long shall we continue to retreat?"

"We shall retreat, if necessary," was Washington's calm reply, "until we cross every river, and keep on until we cross every mountain of our country-and there I will make the last stand against our enemies."

Things were not going well with the Americans who were fighting for their independence.

Everything was in favor of the British, but Washington was not the least bit discouraged.

This was amply demonstrated by his reply to General Reed.

Washington had scarcely the remnant of an army; the men who stood by him were ragged, hungry, dispirited, ill in mind and body, but willing to die for the liberty they knew would come in the end. Washington was a close observer of the events between his marriage and the culmination of the revolutionary spirit of the men of the English North American Colonies in war.

The wars of Great Britain for dominion in America, though crowned with success, had engendered a progeny of discontents in her colonies.

Washington was among the first to perceive its bitter fruits. British merchants had complained loudly of losses sustained by the depreciation of the colonial paper, issued during the previous wars in times of emergency, and had addressed a memorial on the subject to the Board of Trade.

Scarce was peace concluded when an order from the board declared that no paper issued by Colonial Assemblies should thenceforward be a legal tender in the payment of debts.

Washington deprecated this "stir of the merchants" as peculiarly illtimed, and expressed an apprehension that the orders in question "would set the whole country in flames."

Whatever might be the natural affection of the people of the colonies for the mother country-and there are abundant evidences to prove that it was deep-rooted and strong—it had never been properly reciprocated.

They desired to be considered as her own children; they were treated by her as victims for commercial plunder.

Burke asserted that her policy toward them from the beginning had been purely commercial, and her commercial policy wholly restrictive.

"It was the system of a monopoly."

Her navigation laws had shut their ports against foreign vessels; obliged them to export their productions only to countries belonging to the British crown; to import European goods solely from England and in English ships, and had subjected the trade between the colonies to duties.

All manufactures, too, in the colonies that might interfere with those of the mother country had been either totally prohibited or subjected to intolerable restraints.

The acts of Parliament imposing these prohibitions and restrictions had at various times produced sore discontent and opposition on the part of the colonies, especially among those of New England.

Nearly all the interests of these last were chiefly commercial, and among them the republican spirit predominated.

In 1764 Grenville, who was then at the head of government in England, ventured upon the policy from which Walpole had so wisely abstained.

CLAIMED THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA.

Early in March the eventful question was debated, "whether they had a right to tax America."

It was decided in the affirmative.

Next followed a resolution declaring it proper to charge certain stamp duties in the colonies and plantations, but no immediate step was taken to carry it into effect.

Mr. Grenville, however, gave notice to the American agents in London that he should introduce such a measure on the ensuing session of Parlia

ment.

In the meantime, Parliament perpetuated certain duties on sugar and molasses heretofore subjects of complaint and opposition; now reduced and modified so as to discourage smuggling, and thereby to render them more productive.

Duties, also, were imposed on other articles of foreign produce or manu

facture imported into the colonies. To reconcile the latter to these impositions it was stated that the revenue thus raised was to be appropriated to their protection and security; in other words, to the support of a standing army, intended to be quartered upon them.

The New Englanders were the first to take the field against the project of taxation.

They denounced it as a violation of their rights as freemen; of their chartered rights, by which they were to tax themselves for their support and defense; of their rights as British subjects, who ought not to be taxed, but by themselves or their representatives.

They sent petitions and remonstrances on the subject to the King, the Lords and Commons, in which they were seconded by New York and Virginia.

Franklin appeared in London at the head of agents from Pennsylvania, Connecticut and South Carolina, to deprecate, in person, measures so fraught with mischief.

In March, 1765, the act was passed, according to which all instruments in writing were to be executed on stamped paper, to be purchased from the agents of the British government.

What was more, all offenses against the act could be tried in any royal, marine or admiralty court throughout the colonies, however distant from the place where the offense had been committed, thus interfering with that most inestimable right, a trial by jury.

CERTAINLY AN OMINOUS SIGN.

It was an ominous sign that the first burst of opposition to this act should take place in Virginia. That colony had hitherto been slow to accord with the republican spirit of New England.

Patrick Henry's celebrated resolutions, introduced into the General Assembly of Virginia, declaring that the Assembly was the only body which could impose taxes had helped the storm along.

The Speaker of the Assembly deemed the resolutions inflammatory, but Henry defended them with all the power and force of his eloquence.

Then it was Henry said:

"Caesar had his Brutus; Charles the First his Cromwell and George the Third (cries of 'Treason! Treason!') may well profit by their example. "If this be treason, make the most of it!"

The resolutions were modified, to accommodate them to the scruples of

the Speaker and some of the weak-kneed and faint-hearted members, but their spirit was retained.

Lieutenant-Governor Fauquier, startled by this patriotic outbreak, dissolved the Assembly and issued writs for a new election; but the clarion had sounded.

The resolves of the Assembly of Virginia gave the signal for a general outcry over the continent. The movers and supporters of them were applauded as the protectors of American liberty.

Washington returned to Mount Vernon full of anxious thoughts inspired by the political events of the day and the legislative scene he had witnessed. His recent letters had spoken of the state of peaceful tranquillity in which he was living; those now written from his rural home showed that he fully participated in the popular feeling, and that while he had a presentiment of an arduous struggle, his patriotic mind was revolving means of coping with it.

Such was the tenor of a letter written to Francis Dandridge, then in London.

"The stamp act," said he, "engrosses the conversation of the speculative part of the colonists, who look upon this unconstitutional method of taxation as a direful attack upon their liberties, and loudly exclaim against the violation.

"What may be the result of this and of some other (I think I may add ill-judged) measures, I will not undertake to determine.

"This, however, I may venture to affirm, that the advantage accruing to the mother country will fall greatly short of the expectation of the ministry; for certain it is, that our whole substance already in a manner flows to Great Britain, and that whatsoever contributes to lessen our importations must be hurtful to her manufactures.

"The eyes of our people already begin to be opened, and they will perceive that many luxuries, for which we lavish our substance in Great Britain, can well be dispensed with.

"This, consequently, will introduce frugality, and be a necessary incitement to industry.

"As to the stamp act, regarded in a single view, one of the first bad consequences attending it is that our courts of judicature must inevitably be shut up, for it is impossible, or next to impossible, under our present circumstances, that the act of Parliament can be complied with, were we ever so willing to enforce its execution.

"And not to say (which alone would be sufficient) that we have not money enough to pay for the stamps, there are many other cogent reasons which prove that it would be ineffectual."

ALL AMERICAN COLONIES AROUSED.

The patriotic voice of Patrick Henry had started the House of Burgesses, echoing throughout the land, and roused one legislative body after another to follow the example of that of Virginia.

At the instigation of the General Court or Assembly of Massachusetts, a Congress was held in New York, composed of delegates from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and South Carolina.

In this they denounced the acts of Parliament imposing taxes on them. without their consent, and extending the jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty, as violations of their rights and liberties as natural-born subjects of Great Britain, and prepared an address to the King and a petition to both Houses of Parliament praying for redress.

Similar petitions were forwarded to England by the colonies not represented in the Congress.

The dismissal of Grenville from the Cabinet gave a temporary change to public affairs.

Perhaps nothing had a greater effect in favor of the colonies than an examination of Dr. Franklin before the House of Commons on the subject of the stamp act.

"What," he was asked, "was the temper of America toward Great Britain. before the year 1763?"

"The best in the world," he replied. "They submitted willingly to the government of the Crown, and paid, in all their courts, obedience to the acts of Parliament.

"Numerous as the people are in the several old provinces, they cost you nothing-forts, citadels, garrisons or armies-to keep them in subjection.

"They were governed by this country at the expense only of a little pen, ink and paper. They were led by a thread. They had not only a respect, but an affection for Great Britain, for its laws, its customs and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly increased its commerce.

"Natives of Great Britain were always treated with particular regard; to be an Old England man was, of itself, a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us."