[Illustration: THE WARRIOR'S LAST RIDE (See the Battle of Deerfield, Vol. 1. , p. 205) _Painted by Frederic Remington_]

THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1492 TO 1910

By JULIAN HAWTHORNE

VOLUME I

From Discovery Of America October 12, 1492

To

Battle Of Lexington April 19, 1775

CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE

INTRODUCTION BEFORE DAWN

I. COLUMBUS, RALEIGH, AND SMITH

II. THE FREIGHT OF THE "MAYFLOWER"

III. THE SPIRIT OF THE PURITANS

IV. FROM HUDSON TO STUYVESANT

V. LIBERTY, SLAVERY, AND TYRANNY

VI. CATHOLIC, PHILOSOPHER, AND REBEL

VII. QUAKER, YANKEE, AND KING

VIII. THE STUARTS AND THE CHARTER

IX. THE NEW LEAF, AND THE BLOT ON IT

X. FIFTY YEARS OF FOOLS AND HEROES

XI. QUEM JUPITER VULT PERDERE

XII. THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM AND THE STAMP ACT

XIII. THE PASSING OF THE RUBICON

XIV. THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD

INTRODUCTION

When we speak of History, we may mean either one of several things. Asavage will make picture-marks on a stone or a bone or a bit of wood; theyserve to recall to him and his companions certain events which appearedremarkable or important for one or another reason; there was anearthquake, or a battle, or a famine, or an invasion: the chroniclerhimself, or some fellow-tribesman of his, may have performed some notableexploit. The impulse to make a record of it was natural: posterity mightthereby be informed, after the chronicler himself had passed away, concerning the perils, the valor, the strange experiences of theirancestors. Such records were uniformly brief, and no attempt was made toconnect one with another, or to interpret them. We find such fragmentaryhistories among the remains of our own aborigines; and the inscriptions ofEgypt and Mesopotamia are the same in character and intention, though moreelaborate. Warlike kings thus endeavored, from motives of pride, toperpetuate the memory of their achievements. At the time when they wereinscribed upon the rock, or the walls of the tombs, or the pedestals ofthe statues, they had no further value than this. But after the lapse ofmany ages, they acquire a new value, far greater than the original one, and not contemplated by the scribes. They assume their proper place in thelong story of mankind, and indicate, each in its degree, the manner anddirection of the processes by which man has become what he is, from whathe was. Thereby there is breathed into the dead fact the breath of life;it rises from its tomb of centuries, and does its appointed work in themighty organism of humanity. 

In a more complex state of society, a class of persons comes into beingwho are neither protagonists, nor slaves, but observers; and they meditateon events, and seek to fathom their meaning. If the observer beimaginative, the picturesque side of things appeals to him; he dissolvesthe facts, and recreates them to suit his conceptions of beauty andharmony; and we have poetry and legend. Another type of mind will give usreal histories, like those of Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus and Livy, which are still a model in their kind. These great writers took a broadpoint of view; they saw the end from the beginning of their narrative;they assigned to their facts their relative place and importance, andmerged them in a pervading atmosphere of opinion, based upon the organicrelation of cause and effect. Studying their works, we are enabled todiscern the tendencies and developments of a race, and to note the effectsof civilization, character, vice, virtue, and of that sum of them allwhich we term fate. 

During what are called the Dark Ages of Europe, history fell into thehands of that part of the population which alone was conversant withletters--the priestly class; and the annals they have left to us have noneof the value which belongs to the productions of classical antiquity. Theywere again mere records; or they were mystical or fanciful tales of saintsand heroes, composed or distorted for the glorification of the church, andthe strengthening of the influence of the priests over the people. Butthese also, in after times, took on a value which they had not originallypossessed, and become to the later student a precious chapter of thehistory of mankind. 

Meanwhile, emerging august from the shadows of antiquity, we have thatgreat body of literature of which our own Bible is the highest type, whichpurports to present the story of the dealings of the Creator with Hiscreatures. These wonderful books appear to have been composed in a style, and on a principle, the secret of which has been lost. The facts whichthey relate, often seemingly trivial and disconnected, are really but amaterial veil, or symbol, concealing a spiritual body of truth, which isneither trivial nor disconnected, but an organized, orderly and catholicrevelation of the nature of man, of the processes of his spiritualregeneration, of his final reconciliation with the Divine. The time willperhaps come when some inspired man or men will be enabled to handle ourmodern history with the same esoteric insight which informed the Hebrewscribes, when they used the annals of the obscure tribe to which theybelonged as a cover under which to present the relations of God with allthe human race, past and to come. 

 * * * * *

Modern history tends more and more to become philosophic: to be anargument and an interpretation, rather than a bald statement of facts. Thefacts contained in our best histories bear much the same relation to thehistory itself, that the flesh and bones of the body bear to the personwho lives in and by them. The flesh and bones, or the facts, have toexist; but the only excuse for their existence is, that the person mayhave being, or that the history may trace a spiritual growth or decadence. There was perhaps a time when the historian found a difficulty incollecting facts enough to serve as a firm foundation for his edifice ofcomment and deduction; but nowadays, his embarrassment is rather in theline of making a judicious selection from the enormous mass of facts whichresearch and the facilities of civilization have placed at his disposal. Not only is every contemporary event recorded instantly in the newspapersand elsewhere; but new light is being constantly thrown upon the past, even upon the remotest confines thereof. Some of the facts thus broughtbefore us are original and vital; others are mere echoes, repetitions, andunimportant variations. 

But the historian, if he wishes his work to last, must build as does theMuse in Emerson's verse, with

 . .. . "Rafters of immortal pine, Cedar incorruptible, worthy her design. "

Or he may be sure that the historian who comes after him will sift thewheat from his chaff, and leave him no better reputation than that of thequarry from which the marble of the statue comes. He must tell aconsecutive story, but must eschew all redundancy, furnish no moresupports for his bridge than its stability requires, prune his tree soseverely that it shall bear none but good fruit, forbear to freight thememory of his reader with a cargo so unwieldy as to sink it. On the otherhand, of course, he must beware of being too terse; man cannot live bybread alone, and the reader of histories needs to be told the Why as wellas the What. But the historical field is so wide that one man, in his onelifetime, can hardly hope by independent and original investigation bothto collect all the data from which to build his structure, and so toselect his timbers that only the indispensable ones shall be employed. Inreality, we find one historian of a given subject or period succeedinganother, and refining upon his methods and treatment. With each successiveattempt the outlook becomes clearer and more comprehensive, and themeaning of the whole more pronounced. The spirit, for the sake of whichthe body exists, more and more dominates its material basis, until at lastthe latter practically vanishes "in the light of its meaning sublime. "This is the apotheosis of history, which of course has not yet beenattained, and probably can never be more than approximated. 

 * * * * *

The present work is a very modest contribution toward the desired result. It makes few or no pretensions to original research. There are manyhistories of the United States and the fundamental facts thereof areknown. But it remains for the student to endeavor to solve and declare themeaning of the familiar events; to state his view of their source andtheir ultimate issue. In these volumes, I have taken the view that theAmerican nation is the embodiment and vehicle of a Divine purpose toemancipate and enlighten the human race. Man is entering upon a new careerof spiritual freedom: he is to enjoy a hitherto unprecedented condition ofpolitical, social and moral liberty--as distinguished from license, whichin truth is slavery. The stage for this grand evolution was fixed in theWestern Continent, and the pioneers who went thither were inspired withthe desire to escape from the thralldom of the past, and to nourish theirsouls with that pure and exquisite freedom which can afford to ignore theease of the body, and all temporal luxuries, for the sake of that elixirof immortality. This, according to my thinking, is the innermost core ofthe American Idea; if you go deep enough into surface manifestations, youwill find it. It is what differentiates Americans from all other peoples;it is what makes Americans out of emigrants; it is what draws the massesof Europe hither, and makes their rulers fear and hate us. It may often, and uniformly, happen that any given individual is unconscious of theSpirit that moves within him; for it is the way of that Spirit tosubordinate its manifestations to its ends, knowing the frailty ofhumanity. But it is there, and its gradual and cumulative results are seenin the retrospect, and it may perhaps be divined as to the outline of someof its future developments. 

Some sort of recognition of the American Idea, and of the Americandestiny, affords the only proper ground for American patriotism. We talkof the size of our country, of its wealth and prosperity, of its physicalpower, of its enlightenment; but if these things be all that we have to beproud of, we have little. They are in truth but outward signs of a farmore precious possession within. We are the pioneers of the new Day, or weare nothing worth talking about. We are at the threshold of our career. Our record thus far is full of faults, and presents not a few deformities, due to our human frailties and limitations; but our general direction hasbeen onward and upward. At the moment when this book is finished, we seemto be entering upon a fresh phase of our journey, and a vast horizon opensaround us. It was inevitable that America should not be confined to anyspecial area on the map of the world; it is of little importance that wefill our own continent with men and riches. We are to teach men in allparts of the world what freedom is, and thereby institute other Americasin the very strongholds of oppression. In order to accomplish this, Americans will be drawn forth and will obtain foothold in remote regions, there to disseminate their genius and inculcate their aims. In Europe andAsia are wars and rumors of wars; but there seems no reason why the truerevolution, which Americanism involves, should not be a peaceful and quietone. Our real enemies may be set in high places, but they are very few, and their power depends wholly on those myriads who are at heart ourallies. If we can assure the latter of our good faith anddisinterestedness, the battle is won without fighting. Indeed, the day forMohammedan conquests is gone by, and any such conquest would be far worsethan futile. 

These are theories and speculations, and so far as they enter into mybook, they do so as atmosphere and aim only; they are not permitted tomold the character of the narrative, so that it may illustrate a foregoneconclusion. I have related the historical story as simply and directly asI could, making use of the best established authorities. Here and there Ihave called attention to what seemed to me the significance of events; butany one is at liberty to interpret them otherwise if he will. After allthe best use of a history is probably to stimulate readers to think forthemselves about the events portrayed; and if I have succeeded in doingthat, I shall be satisfied. The history of the United States does meansomething: what is it? Are we a decadent fruit that is rotten before it isripe? or are we the bud of the mightiest tree of time? The materials forforming your judgment are here; form it according as your faith and hopemay dictate. 

JULIAN HAWTHORNE. 

BEFORE DAWN

When, four centuries ago, adventurers from the Old World first landed onthe southern shores of the Western Continent, and pushed their way intothe depths of the primeval forest, they found growing in its shadowyfastnesses a mighty plant, with vast leaves radiating upward from themould, and tipped with formidable thorns. Its aspect was unfriendly; itadded nothing to the beauty of the wilderness, and it made advance moredifficult. But from the midst of some of them uprose a tall stem, rivalingin height the trees themselves, and crowned with a glorious canopy ofgolden blossoms. The flower of the forbidding plant was the splendor ofthe forest. 

It was the Agave, or American Aloe, sometimes called the Century Plant, because it blooms but once in a lifetime. It is of the family of thelilies; but no other lily rivals its lofty magnificence. From the gloom ofthe untrodden places it sends its shaft skyward into the sunshine; it isan elemental growth: its simplicity equals its beauty. But until theflower blooms, after its ages of preparation, the plant seems to have nomeaning, proportion, or comeliness; only when those golden petals haveunfolded upon the summit of their stately eminence do we comprehend thesymmetry and significance that had so long waited to avouch themselves. 

This Lily of the Ages, native to American soil, may fittingly stand asthe symbol of the great Western Republic which, after so many thousandyears of spiritual vicissitude and political experiment, rises heavenwardout of the wilderness of time, and reveals its golden promise to those whohave lost their way in the dark forest of error and oppression. It waslong withheld, but it came at last, and about it center the best hopes ofmankind. These United States--this America of ours, as we love to call it--is unlike any other nation that has preceded or is contemporary with it. It is the conscious incarnation of a sublime idea--the conception of civiland religious liberty. It is a spirit first, and a body afterward; thusfollowing the true law of immortal growth. It is the visible consummationof human history, and commands the fealty of all noble minds in everycorner of the earth, as well as within its own boundaries. There areAmericans in all countries; but America is their home. 

The seed is hidden in the soil; the germ is shut within the darkness ofthe womb; the preparation for all birth is obscure. For more than acentury after the discovery of Columbus, no one divined the truesignificance and destiny of the nation-that-was-to-be. Years passed beforeit was understood even that the coast of the New World was anything morethan the western boundaries of the Asiatic continent; Columbus neverwavered from this conviction; the Cabots fancied that our Atlantic shoreswere those of China; and though Balboa, in 1513, waded waist-deep into thePacific off Darien, and claimed it for Spain, yet the massive immensity ofAmerica was not suspected. There was not space for it on the globe as thenplotted by geographers; it must be a string of islands, or at best but anattenuated outlying bulwark of the East. News spread slowly in those days;Vasco da Gama had reached India round the Cape of Good Hope beforeBalboa's exploit; Columbus, on his third voyage, had touched the mainlandof South America, and young Sebastian Cabot, sailing from Bristol underthe English flag, had driven his prow against Labrador ice in his effortto force a northwest passage; and still the truth was not fully realized. And when, a century later, the English colonies were assigned theirboundaries, these were defined north, south and east, but to the west theyextended without limit. Panama was but thirty miles across, and no oneimagined that three thousand miles of solid land stretched between theChesapeake and the Bay of San Francisco. Then, as now, orthodoxy foughtagainst the heresy that there could be anything that was not as narrow asitself. 

And this physical denial or belittlement of the American continent hadits mental complement in the failure to comprehend the destiny of thepeople which was to inhabit it. Spain thought only of material andtheological aggrandizements: of getting gold, and converting heathen, toher own temporal and spiritual glory; and she was as ready to shedinnocent blood in the latter cause as in the former. England, without herrival's religious bigotry, was as intent upon winning wealth throughterritorial and commercial usurpations. Though not a few of the actualdiscoverers and explorers were generous, magnanimous and kindly men, having in view an honorable renown, based on opening new fields of lifeand prosperity to future ages, yet the monarchs and the trading Companiesthat stood behind them exhibited an unvarying selfishness and greed. Thenew world was to them a field for plunder only. Each aimed to own it all, and to monopolize its produce. The priestly missionaries of the RomanCatholic faith did indeed pursue their ends with a self-sacrifice andcourage which deserve all praise; they devoted themselves at the risk andoften at the cost of their lives to the enterprise of winning souls, asthey believed, to Christ. But the Church dignitaries who sent forth thesesoldiers of religion sought through them only to increase the credit oftheir organization; they contemplated but the enlargement of their power. The thought of establishing in the wilderness a place where men might rulethemselves in freedom entered not into their calculations. The spirit ofthe old order survived the birth of the spirit of the new. 

But the conflict thus provoked was necessary to the evolution whichProvidence was preparing. The soul grows strong through hardship; truthconquers by struggling against opposition. It is by resistance, at firstinstinctive, against restraint that the infant attains self-consciousness. The first settlers who came across the ocean were animated solely by thedesire to escape from oppression in their native land; they had as yet nopurpose to set up an independent empire. But, as the breath of the forestand the prairie entered into their lungs, and the untrammeled spaciousnessof the virgin continent unshackled their minds, they began to resent, though at first timidly, the arrogant pretension to rule them across thewaves. Their environment gave them courage, made them hardy andself-dependent, enlightened their intelligence, weaned them from vaintraditions, revealed to them the truth that man's birthright is liberty. And gradually, as the reins of tyranny were drawn tighter, these pioneersof the New Day were wrought up to the pitch of throwing off allallegiance, and setting their lives upon the cast. The idea of politicalfreedom is commonplace now; but to conceive it for the first time requireda mighty effort, and it could have been accomplished nowhere else than ina vast and untrodden land. The Declaration of Independence, nearly threecenturies after Columbus's discovery of America, showed the hitherto blindand sordid world what America was discovered for. Individual men of geniushad surmised it many years before; but their hope of forecast had beendeemed but an idle vision until in a moment, as it were, the reality wasborn. 

It was essential, however, to the final success of the great revolt, thatthe men who brought it to pass should be the best of a chosen race. Andthis requisite also was secured by conflict. It was the inveteratepersuasion of many generations that America was the land of gold. Talestold by the Indians stimulated the imagination and the cupidity of thefirst adventurers; legends of El Dorado kindled the horizons that fledbefore them as they advanced. Somewhere beyond those savage mountains, amid these pathless forests, was a noble city built and paved with gold. Somewhere flowed a stately river whose waters swept between goldenmargins, over sands of gold. In some remote region dwelt a barbarianmonarch to whom gold and precious stones were as the dross of the wayside. These stories were the offspring of the legends of the alchemists of theDark Ages, who had professed to make gold in their crucibles; it was asgood to pick up gold in armfuls on the earth as to manufacture it in thelaboratory. The actual discovery of treasure in Mexico and Peru onlywhetted the inexhaustible appetite of the adventurers; they toiled throughswamps, they cut their way through woods, they scaled precipices, theyfought savages, they starved and died; and their eyes, glazing in death, still sought the gleam of the precious metal. Worse than death, to them, would have been the revelation that their belief was baseless. The thirstfor wealth is not accounted noble; yet there seems to have been somethingnot ignoble in this romantic quest for illimitable gold. There is a magicin the mere idea of the yellow metal, apart from such practical orluxurious uses as it may subserve; it stood for power and splendor--whatever good the men of that age were prone to appreciate. Howbeit, thestrongest and bravest of all lands were drawn together in the search; andinevitably they met and clashed. Foremost among the antagonists were Spainand England. The ambition of Spain was measureless; she desired not onlythe mastery of America and its riches, but the empire of the world, theleadership in commerce, and the ownership of the very gates of Heaven. England sought land and trade; she was practical and unromantic, butstrong and daring; and in her people, unlike the Spanish, were implantedthe seeds of human freedom. She had not as yet the prestige of Spain; butmen like Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh went far to win it;moreover, the star of Spain had already begun to wane, while that ofEngland was waxing. Whenever, therefore, the strength of the two rivalswas fairly pitted, England had the better of the encounter. Spain mightdominate, for a while, the southern regions of the continent; and herpriests might thread the western wildernesses, and build white-walledmissions there; but to England should belong the Atlantic coast fromLabrador to Florida: the most readily accessible from Europe, and the bestadapted to bring forth that wealth for which gold must be given inexchange. The struggle, as between the Spanish and the English, wastemporarily suspended, and it was with France that the latter now foundthemselves confronted. The French had entered America by way of the St. Lawrence, and down the Mississippi, in expectation, like the others, offinding a passage through to India; they had planted colonies andconciliated the Indians, and were destined to give England much moretrouble than her former foe had done. They, like the English, wished tolive in the new world; Spain's chief desire was to plunder it and take thebooty home with her. In the sequel, England was victorious; and thusapproved her right to be the nucleus of the Race of the Future. Finally, it was to be her fate to fight that Race itself, and to be defeated by it;and thus, as the chosen from the chosen, the inhabitants of the ThirteenColonies were to begin their career. 

The birth of America must therefore be dated, not from the discovery ofthe land, but from the culmination in revolt of the English Colonies. Allthat preceded this was as the early and ambiguous processes of nature inbringing forth the plant from the seed. Nature knows her work, and itsresult; but the onlooker sees the result only. The Creator of man knew ofwhat a child America was to be the mother: but the world, intent upon itsselfish concerns, recognized it only when the consummation had beenreached. And even now she eyes us askance, and mutters doubts as to ourendurance and our legitimacy. But America is Europe's best and onlyfriend, and her political pattern must sooner or later, and more or lessexactly, be followed by all peoples. Democracy, however unwelcome in itsfirst and outward aspect it may appear, is the logical issue of humanexperiments in government; it is susceptible of much abuse and open tomany corruptions; but these cannot penetrate far below the surface; theyare external and obvious, not vital and secret; because at heart the voiceof democracy is the voice of God. It may be silent for long, so that somewill disbelieve or despair, and say in their haste that democracy is afraud or a failure. But at last its tones will be heard, and its word willbe irresistible and immortal: the word of the Lord, uttering itselfthrough the mouth of His creatures. 

The preliminary episodes and skirmishings, therefore, which went beforethe spiritual self-consciousness of America, will be treated here inoutline only; only such events and persons as were the sources ofsubsequent important conditions will be drawn in light and shadow. Thisperiod of adventure and exploration is, it is true, rich in picturesquecharacters and romantic incident, but they have little organic relation tothe history of the true America--which is the tracing of the developmentand embodiment of an abstract idea. They belong to Europe, whose life waspresent in them, though the men acted and the incidents occurred in astrange environment. They are attractive subjects of study in themselves, but have small pertinence to the present argument. Our aim will be tomaintain an organic coherency. 

Still less can we linger in that impressive darkness before dawn whichprevailed upon the continent before the advent of Columbus. The mysterywhich shrouds the origin and annals of the races which inhabited Americaprevious to the European invasion has been assiduously investigated, butnever dispelled. At first it was taken for granted that the "Indians, " asthe red men were ignorantly called, were the aboriginal denizens of thecountry. But the mounds, ruined cities, pottery and other remains sincefound in all parts of the land, concerning which the Indians could furnishno information, and which showed a state of civilization far in advance oftheirs, were proof that a great people had existed here in the remotepast, who had flourished and disappeared without leaving any trace wherebythey could be accounted for or identified. They are an enigma comparedwith which the archeological problems of the Old World are an open book. We can form no conception of the conditions under which they lived, oftheir personal characteristics, of their language, habits, or religion. Wecannot determine whether these forerunners of the Indians were one peoplein several stages of development, or several peoples in simultaneousoccupation of the land. We can establish no trustworthy connection betweenthem and any Asiatic races, and yet we are reluctant to believe themisolated from the rest of mankind. If they had dwelt here from theircreation, why had they not progressed further in civilization?--and ifthey emigrated hither from another continent, why do their remains notindicate their source? By what agency did they perish, and when? The morekeenly we strive to penetrate their mystery, the more perplexing does itappear; the further we investigate them, the more alien from anything weare or have known do they seem. Elusive as mist, and questionable asnight, they form a suggestive background on which the vivid and energeticdrama of our novel civilization stands out in sharp relief. 

Scarcely less mysterious--though living among us still--are the red menwhom we found here. They had no written languages or history; theirknowledge of their own past was confined to vague and fanciful traditions. They were few in numbers, barbarous in condition, untamable in nature;they built no cities and practiced no industries: their women plantedmaize and performed all menial labors; their men hunted and fought. Beforewe came, they fought one another; our coming did not unite them against acommon enemy; it only gave each of them one enemy the more. After anintercourse of four hundred years, we know as little of them as we did atfirst; we have neither educated, absorbed nor exterminated them. Thefashion of their faces, and some other indications, seem to point to anorthern Asiatic ancestry; but they cannot tell us even so much as we canguess. There have been among them, now and again, men of commandingabilities in war and negotiation; but their influence upon their peoplehas not lasted beyond their own lives. Amid the roar and fever of theselatter ages, they stand silent, useless, and apathetic. They belong to ourhistory only in so far as their savage and treacherous hostilitycontributed to harden the fortitude of our earlier settlers, and to weldthem into a united people. 

Posterity may resolve these obscurities; meanwhile they remain inpicturesque contrast to the merciless publicity of our own life, and thescientific annihilation of time and distance. They are as the dark andamorphous loam in which has taken root the Flower of the Ages. If extremesmust meet, it was fitting that the least and the most highly developedexamples of mankind should dwell side by side, at the close of thenineteenth century, in a land to which neither is native: that Europe, thechild of Asia, should meet its prehistoric parent here, and work out itsdestiny before her uncomprehending eyes. The world is an inn of strangemeetings; and this encounter is perhaps the strangest of all. 

The most dangerous enemy of America has been--not Spain, France, England, or any other nation in arms, but--our own material prosperity. The lessonsof adversity we took to heart, and they brought forth wholesome fruit, purifying our blood and toughening our muscles. So long as the Spirit ofLiberty was threatened from without, she was safe and triumphant. But whenher foes abroad had ceased to harry her, a foe far more insidious began toplot against her in her own house. The tireless energy and ingenuity whichare our most salient characteristics, and which had rendered us formidableand successful on sea and land, were turned by peace into productivechannels. The enormous natural resources of the continent began to receivedevelopment; men who under former conditions would have been admirals andgenerals, now became leaders in commerce, manufactures and finance; theymade great fortunes, and set up standards of emulation other thanpatriotism and public spirit. Like the old Spanish and Englishadventurers, they sought for gold, and held all other things secondary tothat. An anomalous oligarchy sprang into existence, holding no ostensiblepolitical or social sway, yet influential in both directions by virtue ofthe power of money. Money can be possessed by the evil as well as by thegood, and it can be used to tempt the good to condone evil. The exaltedmaxim of human equality was interpreted to mean that all Americans couldbe rich; and the spectacle was presented of a mighty and generous nationfighting one another for mere material wealth. Inevitably, the lower andbaser elements of the population came to the surface and seemed to rule;the ordinary citizen, on whom the welfare of the State depends, allowedhis private business interest to wean him from the conduct of publicaffairs, which thereby fell into the hands of professional politicians, who handled them for their personal gain instead of for the common weal. We forgot that pregnant saying, "Eternal vigilance is the price ofliberty, " and suffered ourselves to be persuaded that because our writtenConstitution was a wise and patriotic document, we were forever safe evenfrom the effects of our own selfishness and infidelity. As some men aremore skillful and persistent manipulators of money than others, ithappened that the capital of the country became massed in one place andwas lacking in another; the numbers of the poor, and of paupers, increased; and the rich were able to control their political action andsap their self-respect by dominating the employment market. "Do mybidding, or starve, " is a cogent argument; it should never be in the powerof any man to offer it; but it was heard over the length and breadth offree America. The efforts of laboring men, by organization, to check thepower of capitalists, was met by the latter with organizations of theirown, which, in the form of vast "trusts" and otherwise, deprived smallmanufacturers and traders of the power of independent self-support. Strikes and lockouts were the natural outcome of such a situation; and thesinister prospect loomed upon us of labor and capital arrayed against eachother in avowed hostility. 

Danger from this cause, however, is more apparent than actual. Theremedy, in the last resort, is always in ourselves. Laws as to land andcontracts may be modified, but the true cure for all such injuries andinequalities is to cease to regard the amassing of "fortunes" as the mostdesirable end in life. The land is capable of supporting in comfort farmore than its present population; ignorance or selfish disregard of thetrue principles of economy have made it seem otherwise. The proper stateof every man is that of a producer; the craving of individuals to own whatthey have not fairly earned and cannot usefully administer, is vain anddisorderly. Men will always be born who have the genius of management; andothers who require to have their energies directed; some can profitablycontrol resources which to others would be a mischievous burden. But thistruth does not involve any extravagant discrepancy in the private meansand establishments of one or the other; each should have as much as hisneeds, intelligence and taste legitimately warrant, and no more. Suchmatters will gradually adjust themselves, once the broad underlyingprinciple has been accepted. Meanwhile we may remember that nationalhealth is not always synonymous with peace. It was the warning of our Lord--"I am not come to bring peace? but a sword. " The war which is waged withpowder and ball is often less contrary to true peace than the war whichexists while all the outward semblances of peace are maintained. We mustnot be misled by names. America is perhaps too prone to regard herself ina passive light, as the refuge merely of the oppressed and needy; but shehas an active mission too. She stands for so much that is contrary to theideas that have hitherto ruled the world that she can hardly hope to avoidthe hostility, and possibly the attacks, of the representatives of the oldorder. These, she must be able and ready to repel. We have freely shed ourblood for our own freedom; and we should not forget that, though charitybegins at home, it need not end there. We should not interpret toostrictly the maxims which admonish us to mind our own housekeeping, and toavoid entanglements with the quarrels or troubles of our neighbors. Weshould not say to the tide of our liberties, Thus far shalt thou go, andno further. America is not a geographical expression, and arbitrarygeographical boundaries should not be permitted to limit the area whichher principles control. We, who seek to bind the other nations toourselves by ties of commerce, should recognize the obligations of otherties, whose value cannot be expressed in money. 

America wears her faults upon her forehead, not in her heart; her historyis just beginning; she herself dreams not yet what her ultimate destinywill be. But so far as her brief past may serve as a key wherewith to openthe future? a study of it will not be idle. 

CHAPTER FIRST

COLUMBUS, RALEIGH AND SMITH

The records will have it that America was discovered in consequence ofthe desire of Europe to profit by the commerce of Cathay, which hadhitherto reached them only by the long and expensive process of a journeydue west. One caravan had passed on the spices and other valuables toanother, until they reached the Mediterranean. It was asked whether thetrip could not be more quickly and cheaply made by sea. Assuming, as wasgenerally done, that the earth was flat, why might not a man sail roundthe southern extremity of Africa, and up the other side to the Orient? Itwas true that the extremity of Africa might extend to the Southern ice, inwhich case this plan would not serve; but the attempt might be worthmaking. This was the view of Henry of Portugal, a scientific and ingeniousprince, whose life covered the first sixty years of the Fifteenth Century. And Portuguese mariners did accordingly sail their little ships far downthe Atlantic coast of the Dark Continent; but they did not venture quitefar enough until long after good Prince Henry was dead, and Columbus had(in his own belief) pioneered a shorter way. 

Columbus was a theorist and a visionary. Many men who have been able toshow much more plausible grounds for their theories than he could for hishave died the laughing-stock of the world. Columbus was a laughing-stockfor nearly twenty years; but though the special application of his theorywas absurdly wrong, yet in principle it chanced to be right; and he was sofortunate as to be empowered to bring it to a practical demonstration. Hisnotion was that the earth was not flat, but round. Therefore the quickestroute to the extreme East must be in exactly the opposite direction; theglobe, he estimated, could not be much over fifteen thousand miles ingirth; Cathay, by the land route, was twelve thousand miles or so east ofEurope; consequently the distance west could not be more than threethousand. This could be sailed over in a month or two, and the saving intime and trouble would be immense. --Thus did he argue--shoving theAtlantic into the Pacific Ocean, subtracting six or seven thousand milesfrom their united breadth, and obliterating entirely that westerncontinent which he was fated to discover, though he was never to suspectits existence. 

The heresy that the earth was a sphere had long been in existence;Aristotle being the earliest source to which it could be traced. Sensiblepeople did not countenance it then, any more than they accept to-day theconjecture that other planets than this may be inhabited. Theydemonstrated its improbability on historical and religious grounds, andalso made the point that, supposing it were round, and that Columbus wereto sail down the under side of it, he would never be able to climb backagain. But the Genoese was a man who became more firmly wedded to hisopinion in proportion as it met with ridicule and opposition; proofs hehad none of the truth of his pet idea; but he clung to it with adoggedness which must greatly have exasperated his interlocutors. By dintof sheer persistence, he almost persuaded some men that there might besomething in his project; but he never brought any of them to the pitch ofrisking money on it. It was only upon a woman that he was finally able toprevail; and doubtless the intelligence of Isabella of Castile was lessconcerned in the affair than was her feminine imagination. Had she knownmore, she would have done less. But so, for that matter, would Columbus. 

Almost as little is known of the personal character of this man as ofShakespeare's; and the portraits of him, though much more numerous thanthose of the poet, are even less compatible with one another. Theestimates and conjectures of historians also differ; some describe a pioushero and martyr, others a dissolute adventurer and charlatan. We areconstrained, in the end, to construct his effigy from our own bestinterpretation of the things he did. Some little learning he had; justenough, probably, to disturb the balance of his judgment. He could readLatin and make maps, and he had ample experience of practical navigation. His life as a mariner got him the habit of meditation, and this favoredthe espousal of theories, which, upon occasion, he could expound withvolubility or defend with passion, as his Italian temperament prompted. His imagination was portentous, and the Fifteenth Century was hospitableto this faculty; there was nothing--except plain but unknown facts--toomarvelous to be believed; and that Columbus was even more credulous thanhis contemporaries is proved by the evidence that even facts were notexempt from his entertainment. An ordinary appetite for the marvelouscould swallow stories of chimeras dire, and men whose heads do growbeneath their shoulders; but nothing short of the profligate capacity of aColumbus could digest such a proposition as that the earth was round andcould be circumnavigated. The type of half-educated fanatics to which hebelonged has always been common; there is nothing exceptional orremarkable in this fanatic except the fortune which finally attended hislifelong devotion to the most improbable hypothesis of his time. It hasbeen our custom to eulogize his courage and his constancy to the truth;but if he had adopted perpetual motion, instead of the rotundity of theearth, as his dogma, he would have deserved our praises just as much. Hissole claim to our admiration is, that in the teeth of all precedent andlikelihood, he succeeded by one mistake in making another: because hefancied that by sailing west he could find the Indies, he blundered upon aland whose identity he never discovered. Doubtless his blunder was ofunspeakable value; but a blunder not the less it was; while as to hiscourage and perseverance, as much has been shown by a thousand otherscientific and philosophical heretics, whose names have not survived, because the thing they imagined turned out an error. 

From another point of view, however, Columbus is specially a creature ofhis age. It was an age which felt, it knew not why, that something newmust come to pass. The resources of Europe were exhausted; men had reachedthe end of their tether, and demanded admittance to some wider pasturage. It was much such a predicament as obtains now, four hundred years later;we feel that changes--enlargements--are due, but know not what or whence. The conception of a voyage across the Atlantic, in that age, seemed ascaptivating, and almost as fantastic, as a trip to the Moon or Mars would, to an adventurer of our time. Given the vehicle, no doubt many volunteerswould offer for the journey; Columbus could get a ship, but the chances ofhis arriving at his proposed destination must have appeared asproblematical to him as the Moon enterprise in a balloon would to aworld-weary globe-trotter of to-day. It was not merely that the ship wassmall and the Atlantic large and stormy; there were legends of vastwhirlpools, of abysmal oceanic cataracts, of sea-monsters, malignantgenii, and other portents not less terrifying and fatal. Columbus wouldnot have been surprised at falling in with any of these things; but thephysical courage which must have been his most prominent trait, added toincorrigible pride of opinion, brought him through. 

But the significant feature of his achievement is, not that he sailed orthat he arrived, but that he was impelled, irresistibly as it were, tomake the attempt. He made it, because it was the one thing left in theworld that seemed worth doing; it was the only apparent way of escape fromthe despair of the familiar and habitual; it was an adventure charged withall unknown possibilities; once conceived, it must be executed at whatevercost. Columbus was fascinated; the unknown drew him like a magnet; he wasthe involuntary deputy of his period to incarnate its yearnings in act. The hour had struck; and with it, as always, appeared the man. So it hasever been in the history of the world; though we, with characteristicvanity, uniformly put the cart before the horse, and declare that it isthe man that brings the hour. 

Be that as it may, Columbus was fitted out with three boats by theSpanish king and queen, set sail from Spain on the 3d of August, 1492, andarrived at one of the Caribbean islands on the 12th of October of the sameyear. He supposed that he had found an East Indian archipelago; and withthe easy emotional piety of his time and temperament, he fell on his kneesand thanked God, and took possession of everything in sight in the name ofFerdinand and Isabella. 

The deed had been done, and Columbus had his reward. It would have beenwell for him had he recognized this fact, and not tried to get more. Hehad found land on the other side of the Atlantic; what no other man hadbelieved possible, he had accomplished; he had carried his point, andproved his thesis--or one so much resembling it that he never knew thedifference. This, and not a more sordid hope, had been the real motivepower of his career up to this time; and the moment when the light fromanother world gleamed across the water to his hungry eyes had been thehappiest that he had ever known, or would know. A mighty hope had beenfulfilled; the longing of an age had been gratified in his triumph; afresh chapter in the world's history had been begun. The thoughts andemotions that surged through the ardent Italian, as he knelt on that coralbeach, were lofty and unselfish; as were, in truth, those of the age whoserepresentative he was, when it saw him depart on his adventure. But beforethe man of destiny had risen from his knees, he had ceased to act as theinstrument of God, and had begun to think of personal emoluments. So muchhe must make over to Spain; so much he might keep for himself; so much waspromised to his shipmates. He would be famous--yes: and rich and powerfultoo; he would be a great vicegerent; his attire should be of silk andvelvet, with a gold chain about his neck, and gems on his hands. Soadversity set his name among the stars, and prosperity abased his soul todust. The remaining years of his life were a fruitless struggle to securewhat he deemed his rightful wages--to coin his immortal exploit intoducats; and his end was sorrowful and dishonored. The proudself-abnegation of the ancient Roman was lacking in the medieval Genoese. 

The white-maned horses of the Atlantic once mastered, there came ridersenough. During the next thirty years such men as Amerigo Vespucci (whoenjoyed the not singular distinction of having his name associated withthe discovery of another man), the Cabots, father and son; Balboa, andMagellan, crossed the sea and visited the new domain. Magellan performedthe only unprecedented feat left for mariners by sailing round the earthby way of the South American straits that bear his name; but Vasco da Gamahad already entered the Pacific by the Cape of Good Hope. It was by thistime beginning to be understood that the new land was really new, and notthe other side of the old one; but this only prompted the adventurers toget past or through it to the first goal of their ambition. They had notyet realized the vastness of the Pacific, and took America to be a merebreakwater protecting the precious shores of Cathay. Later, they foundthat America repaid looting on her own account; but meanwhile there wasset on foot that search for the Northwest Passage which resulted in thediscovery of almost everything except the Passage itself. To the craze fora Northwest Passage is due the exploration of Baffin's and Hudson's Bays, of the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence, and of the Great Lakes; theestablishment of the English and French fur-trading Companies, whichhastened the development of Canada; and the settlement of Oregon andWashington. It led English and Spanish explorers and freebooters up theCalifornia coast, and on to Vancouver and Bering Straits; Alaska wascircumvented, and the Northwest Passage was found, though the everlastingice mocked the efforts of the finders. In short, the entire continent wastapped and sounded with a view to forcing a way through or round it; andby the time the attempt was finally given up, the contour, size, andpossible value of America had been estimated much more quickly andaccurately than they would have been, had not India lain west of it. 

All this time Spain had been having the best of the bargain. She hadfastened upon the West Indies, Mexico, and Central and South America, andhad found gold there in abundance; she bade other nations keep hands off, and was less solicitous than they about the rumored riches of the Orient. Spain, in those days, was held to be invincible on the sea; England'sfight with the Spanish Armada was yet to come. But there were alreadyEnglishmen of the Drake and Frobisher type who liked nothing better thanto capture a Spanish galleon, and "singe the king of Spain's beard"; andthese independent sea-rovers were becoming so bold and numerous as to putthe Spaniards to serious inconvenience and loss. But the latter could notbe ousted from their vantage ground; so the English presently bethoughtthemselves that there might be gold in the more northerly as well as inthe central parts of the Continent; and they turned to seek it there. Nothing is more noticeable in every phase of these events than theconstant involuntary accomplishment of something other--and in the endbetter--than the thing attempted. As Columbus, looking for Indian spices, found America; as seekers of all nations, in their quest for a NorthwestPassage, charted and developed the continent: so Sir Walter Raleigh andhis companions, hunting for gold along the northern Atlantic seaboard, took the first steps toward founding the colonies which were in the sequelto constitute the germ of the present United States. 

Queen Elizabeth was on the throne of England; more than ninety years hadpassed since Columbus had landed on his Caribbean island. In 1565 a colonyof French Huguenots at St. Augustine had, by a characteristic act ofSpanish treachery, been massacred, men, women, and children, at the orderof Melendez, and the French thus wiped out of the southern coast of NorthAmerica forever. While England remained Catholic, the influence of Papalbulls in favor of Spanish authority in America, and matrimonial alliancesbetween the royal families of Spain and England, had restrained Englishenterprise in the west. Henry VIII. Had indeed acted independently both ofthe Spaniard and of the Pope; but it was not until Elizabeth's accessionin 1558, bringing Protestantism with her, that England ventured to assertherself as a nation in the new found world. Willoughby had attempted, in1553, the preposterous enterprise of reaching India by sailing roundNorway and the north of Asia; but his expedition got no farther than theRussian port of Archangel. In 1576 and the two succeeding years, MartinFrobisher went on voyages to Labrador and neighboring regions, at firstsearching for the Northwest Passage, afterward in quest of gold. The onlyresult of his efforts was the bringing to England of some shiploads ofearth, which had been erroneously supposed to contain the precious metal. In 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert had obtained a patent empowering him tofound a colony somewhere in the north; his object being rather to developthe fisheries than to find gold or routes to India. He was stepbrother ofSir Walter Raleigh, and the latter started with him on the first voyage;but they were forced to put back soon after setting out. Gilbert wentagain in 1583, and reached St. John's, where he erected a pillarcommemorating the English occupation; but he was drowned in a storm on theway home. Raleigh, who had stayed in England, and had acquired royal favorand a fortune, remained to carry out, in his own way, the designs whichGilbert's death had left in suspense. In 1584 he began the work. 

Raleigh perhaps deserves to be regarded as the greatest English gentlemanwho ever lived. In addition to the learning of his time, he had a toweringgenius, indomitable courage and constancy, lofty and generous principles, far-seeing wisdom, Christian humanity, and a charity that gave and forgaveto the end. He was a courtier and a statesman, a soldier and a sailor, amerchant and an explorer. His life was one of splendid and honorabledeeds; he was not a talker, and found scant leisure to express himself inwriting; though when he chose to write poetry he approved himself best inthe golden age of English literature; and his "History of the World, "composed while imprisonment in the Tower prevented him from pursuing moreactive employments, is inferior to no other produced up to that time. Suchreverses as he met with in life only spurred him to fresh efforts, and hissuccesses were magnificent, and conducive to the welfare of the world. Hewas a patriot of the highest and purest type; a champion of the oppressed;a supporter of all worthy enterprises, a patron of literature and art. Withal, he was full of the warm blood of human nature; he had all thefire, the tenderness, and the sympathies that may rightly belong to a man. The mind is astonished in contemplating such a being; he is at once soclose to us, and so much above the human average. King James I. OfEngland, jealous of his greatness, imprisoned him for twelve years, on agroundless charge, and finally slew him, at the age of sixty-six, brokenby disease, and saddened, but not soured, by the monstrous ingratitude andinjustice of his treatment. Upon the scaffold, he felt of the edge of theax which was to behead him, and smiled, remarking, "A sharp medicine tocure me of my diseases!" Such are the exploits of kings. 

Raleigh was the first man who perceived that America was to be the homeof a white people: that it was to be a dwelling-place, not a meresupply-house for freebooters and home traders. He resolved to do his parttoward making it so; he impoverished himself in the enterprise; and thoughthe colony which he planted in what is now North Carolina, but was thencalled Virginia, in honor of the queen, who was pleased thus to advertiseher chastity--though this failed (by no fault of Raleigh's) of itsimmediate object, yet the lesson thus offered bore fruit in due season, and the colonization of the New World, shown to be a possibility and anadvantage, was taken up on the lines Raleigh had drawn, and resulted inthe settlement whose heirs we are. 

In 1585, after receiving the favorable report of a preliminaryexpedition, Raleigh sent out upward of a hundred colonists under thecommand of Sir Richard Grenville, one of the heroic figures of the time, aman of noble nature but fearful passions. They landed on the island ofRoanoke, off the mouth of the river of that name, and were well receivedby the native tribes, who thought they were immortal and divine, becausethey were without women, and possessed gunpowder. It would have been wellhad the English responded in kind; but within a few days, Grenville, angryat the non-production of a silver cup which had been stolen from his partyduring a visit to a village, burned the huts and destroyed the crops; andlater, Lane, who had been left by Grenville in command of the colony, invited the principal chief of the region to a friendly conference, andmurdered him. This method of procedure would not have been countenanced bythe great promoter of the expedition; nor would he have encouraged thehunt for gold that was presently undertaken. This was the curse of thetime, and ever led to disaster and blood. Nor did Lane escape the delusionthat a passage could be found through the land to the Indies; the savages, humoring his ignorance for their own purposes, assured him that theRoanoke River (which rises some two hundred miles inland) communicatedwith the Pacific at a distance of but a few days' journey. Lane selected aparty and set hopefully forth to traverse fifty degrees of latitude; butere long his provisions gave out, and he was forced to go starving backagain. He arrived at the settlement just in time to save it fromannihilation by the Indians. 

But there were able men among these colonists, and some things were donewhich were not foolish. Hariot, who had scientific knowledge, and was acareful observer, made notes of the products of the land, and becameproficient in tobacco smoking; he also tested and approved the potato, andin other ways laid the foundation for a profitable export and importtrade. John White, an artist, who afterward was put in charge of anothercolony, made drawings of the natives and their appurtenances, which stillsurvive, and witness his fidelity and skill. Explorations up and down thecoast, and for some distance inland, were made; the salubrity of theclimate was eulogized, and it was admitted that the soil was of excellentfertility. In short, nothing was lacking, in the way of naturalconditions, to make the colony a success; yet the Englishmen grew homesickand despondent, and longed to return to England and English women. Thesupplies which they were expecting from home had not arrived; and theirsituation was rendered somewhat precarious, by the growing hostility ofthe natives, who had come to the conclusion that these godlike white menwere not persons with whom it was expedient for them to associate. 

At this juncture, down upon the coast suddenly swooped a fleet of overtwenty sail with the English flag flying, and no less a personage than SirFrancis Drake in command. He was returning from a profitable piratingexpedition against the Spaniards in the West Indies, and desired tosee for himself how the colony sent out by his friend Raleigh wasprospering. Out of his easily-got abundance he generously supplied theneeds of the colonists, and presented them with a ship into the bargain, in which they might sail home should circumstances demand it. A couple ofhis most experienced officers, too, were added to the gift of the generousfreebooter; and the outlook was now very different from what it had been afew days before. Yet fate was against them; or, to speak more accurately, they had lost the spirit which should animate pioneers, and when a touchof bad luck was added to their indisposition, they incontinently beat aretreat. A storm arose, which wrecked the ship that Drake had given them, and thus deprived them of the means of escape in case other disastersshould arrive. They besought Drake to take them home with him; and he, with inexhaustible good humor, agreed to do so. His fleet, with theslack-souled colonists on board, had scarcely lost sight of the low shoresof Roanoke, when the supply ship that had been so long awaited arrivedwith all the requisites for subduing the wilderness on board. She foundthe place deserted, and, putting about, sailed for home again. A fortnightlater came Sir Richard Grenville with three ships more; and he, being of apersistent nature, would not consent to lose altogether the fruit of theefforts which had been made; he left fifteen of his men on the island, tocarry on until fresh colonists could be brought from England. But beforethis could be done the men were dead, whether by the act of God or of thesavages; and the first English experience in colonizing America was at anend. 

The story of the second colony, immediately sent out by Raleigh, endswith a mystery that probably hid a tragedy. Seventeen women and twochildren accompanied the eighty-nine men of the party. Having establishedthe fact that the land was habitable and cultivatable, Raleigh perceivedthat in order to render it attractive also it was necessary that thecolonists should have their helpmeets with them. For the first time inhistory, therefore, the feet of English women pressed our soil, and thevoices of children made music in the woodland solitudes. It had beendesigned that the more commodious bay of the Chesapeake should be thescene of this settlement; but the naval officer who should havesuperintended the removal was hungering for a West Indian trading venture, and declined to act. They perforce established themselves in the old spot, therefore, where the buildings were yet standing on the northern end ofthe little island, which, though deserted now, is for us historic ground. The routine of life began; and before the ship sailed on her return tripto England, the daughter of the governor and artist, John White, who wasmarried to one of his subordinates named Dare, had given birth to adaughter, and called her Virginia. She was the first child of Englishblood who could be claimed as American; she came into the world, fromwhich she was so soon to vanish, on the 18th of August, 1587. Whitereturned to England with the ship a week or two later. He was to returnagain speedily with more colonists, and further supplies. But he never sawhis daughter and her infant after their farewell in the landlocked bay. Hereached England to find Raleigh and all the other strong men of Englandoccupied with plans to repel the invasion that threatened from Spain, andwhich, in the shape of the Invincible Armada, was to be met and destroyedin the English Channel, almost on the first anniversary of the birth ofVirginia Dare. Nothing could be done, at the moment, to relieve the peopleat Roanoke; but in April of 1588, Raleigh found time, with the defense ofa kingdom on his hands, to equip two ships and send them in White's chargeto Virginia. All might have been well had White been content to attendwith a single eye to the business in hand; but the seas were full ofvessels which could be seized and stripped of their precious cargoes, andWhite thought it would be profitable to imitate the exploits of Drake andGrenville, and take a few prizes to Roanoke with him. But he was the assin the lion's hide. One of his ships was itself attacked and gutted, andwith the other he fled in terror back to London. Raleigh could not helphim now; his own fortune was exhausted; and it was not until the Armadahad come and gone, and the country had in a measure recovered itself fromthe shocks of war, that succor could be attempted. The charter which hadbeen granted to Raleigh enabled him to give liberal terms to a company ofmerchants and others, who on their part could raise the funds for thevoyage. But though Raleigh executed this patent in the spring of 1589, itwas not until more than a year afterward that the expedition was ready tosail. White went with them, and we may imagine with what straining eyes hescanned the spot where he had last beheld his daughter and grandchild, asthe ship glided up the inlet. 

But no one came forth between the trees to wave a greeting to hislong-deferred return; there were no figures on the shore, no smoke offamily fires rose heavenward; families and hearths alike were gone. Theplace was a desert. Little Virginia Dare and the Lost Colony of Roanokehad already passed out of history, leaving no clew to their fate exceptthe single word "CROATAN" inscribed on the bark of a tree. It was the nameof an island further down the coast; and had White gone thither, he mighteven yet have found the lost. But he was a man unfitted in all respects tolive in that age and take part in its enterprise. He was a soft, feeble, cowardly and unfaithful creature, yet vain and ambitious, and eager toshare the fame of men immeasurably larger and worthier than he. He coulddraw pictures, but he could not do deeds; and now, after having desertedthose to whom he had been in honor bound to cleave, he pleaded the excuseof bad weather and the lateness of the season for abandoning them oncemore; and, re-embarking on his ship, he went back with all his company toEngland. It was the dastardly ending of the first effort, nobly conceived, and supported through five years, to engraft the English race in the soilof America. 

Tradition hazards the conjecture that the Roanoke colony, or some ofthem, were cared for by the friendly Indians of Hatteras. There was arumor that seven of them were still living twenty years after White'sdeparture. But no certain news was ever had of them, though several laterattempts to trace them were made. Between the time when theirfaint-hearted governor had deserted them, and his return, three years hadpassed; and if they were not early destroyed by the hostile tribes, theymust have endured a more lingering pain in hoping against hope for thewhite sails that never rose above the horizon. Most of them, if not all, were doubtless massacred by the Indians, if not at once, then when itbecame evident that no succor was to be expected for them. Some, possibly, were carried into captivity; and it may be that Virginia Dare herself grewup to become the white squaw of an Indian brave, and that her blood stillflows in the veins of some unsuspected red man. But it is more likely thatshe died with the others, one of the earliest and most innocent of thevictims sacrificed on the altar of a great idea. 

White disappears from history at this point; but Raleigh never forgot hiscolony, and five times, at his own expense, and in the midst of eventsthat might have monopolized the energies of a score of ordinary men, hedispatched expeditions to gain tidings of them. In 1595 he himself sailedfor Trinidad, on the northern coast of South America, and explored theriver Orinoco, nine degrees above the equator, It was his hope to offsetthe power of Spain in Mexico and Peru by establishing an English colony inGuiana. Wars claimed his attention during the next few years, and thencame his long imprisonment; but in 1616, two years before his execution, he headed a last expedition to the southern coast of the land he hadlabored so faithfully to unite to England. It failed of its object, andRaleigh lost his head. 

But the purpose which he had steadfastly entertained did not die withhim; and we Americans claim him to-day as the first friend and father ofthe conception of a great white people beyond the sea. 

As we enter the Seventeenth Century, the figure which looms largest inthe foreground is that of Captain John Smith, governor of the colony atJamestown in 1607. But the way was prepared for him by a man as honorable, though less distinguished, Bartholomew Gosnold by name, who voyaged to theNew England coast in 1602, and was the first to set foot on its shores. The first land he sighted was what is now called Maine; thence he steeredsouthward, and disembarked on Cape Cod, on which he bestowed that name. Proceeding yet further south, between the islands off the coast, hefinally entered the inclosed sound of Buzzard's Bay, and landed on theisland of Cuttyhunk. Gosnold was a prudent as well as an adventurous man, and he was resolved to take all possible precautions against beingsurprised by the Indians. On Cuttyhunk there was a large pond, and in thepond there was an islet; and Gosnold, with his score of followers, fixedupon this speck of rocky earth as the most suitable spot in the westernhemisphere wherein to plant the roots of English civilization. They builta hut and made a boat, and gathered together their stores of furs andsassafras; but these same stores proved their undoing. They could notagree upon an equable division of their wealth; and recognizing thatdisunion in a strange land was weakness and peril, they all got into theirship and sailed back to England, carrying their undivided furs andsassafras with them. By this mishap, New England missed becoming the sceneof the first permanent English colony. For when, five years afterward, Gosnold returned to America with a hundred men and adequate supplies, itwas not to Buzzard's Bay, but to the mouth of the James River, that hesteered, and on its banks the colony was founded. Gosnold himself seems tohave been a man of the type that afterward made the New England whalersfamous in all seas; the mariners of New Bedford, New London, Sag Harborand Nantucket. But the companions of his second voyage were by no means ofthis stamp: the bulk of them were "gentlemen, " who had no familiarity withhard fare and hard work, and expected nature to provide for them in thewilderness as bountifully as the London caterers had done at home. To theaccident which brought Gosnold to a southerly instead of a northerly porton this occasion may be due the fact that Virginia instead ofMassachusetts became the home of the emigrant cavaliers. Had they, as wellas the Puritans, chosen New England for their abiding place, anamalgamation might have taken place which would have vitally modifiedlater American history. But destiny kept them apart in place as well as insentiment and training; and it is only in our own day that Reconstruction, and the development of means of intercommunication, bid fair to make ahomogeneous people out of the diverse elements which for so manygenerations recognized at most only an outward political bond. 

Captain John Smith, fortunately, was neither a cavalier nor a simplemariner, but a man in a class by himself, and just at that juncture themost useful that could possibly have been attached to this adventure. Hiscareer even before the present period had been so romantic that, partlyfor that reason, and partly because he himself was his own chiefchronicler, historians have been prone to discredit or modify many of itsepisodes. But what we know of Smith from other than a Smith source talliesso well with the stories which rest upon his sole authority that thereseems to be no sound cause for rejecting the latter. After making alldeductions, he remains a remarkable personage, and his influence upon thepromotion of the English colonial scheme was wholly beneficial. He wasbrave, ingenious, indefatigable, prudent and accomplished; he knew whatshould be done, and was ever foremost in doing it He took hold of thehelpless and slow-witted colonists as a master carpenter handles blocks ofwood, and transformed them into an efficient and harmonious structure, strong enough to withstand the first onsets of misfortune, and to endureuntil the arrival of recruits from home placed them beyond all danger ofcalamity. 

Smith was born in England in 1579, and was therefore only twenty-eightyears of age when he embarked with Gosnold. Yet he had already fought inthe Netherlands, starved in France, and been made a galley-slave by theMoslem. He had been shipwrecked at one time, thrown overboard at another, and robbed at a third. Thrice had he met and slain Turkish champions inthe lists; and he had traversed the steppes of Russia with only a handfulof grain for food. He was not a man of university education: the onlyschooling he had had was in the free schools of Alford and Louth, beforehis fifteenth year; his father was a tenant farmer in Lincolnshire, andthough John was apprenticed to a trade, he ran away while a merestripling, and shifted for himself ever after. An adventurer, therefore, in the fullest sense of the word, he was; and doubtless he had theappreciation of his own achievements which self-made men are apt to have. But there was sterling pith in him, a dauntless and humane soul, andinexhaustible ability and resource. Such a man could not fail to possessimagination, and imagination and self-esteem combined conduce tohighly-colored narrative; but that Smith was a liar is an unwarrantedassumption, which will not be countenanced here. 

The Gosnold colony had provided itself with a charter, granted by KingJames, and as characteristic of that monarch as was his treatment ofRaleigh. It was the first of many specimens of absentee landlordism fromwhich America was to suffer. It began by setting apart an enormous stretchof territory, bounded on the north by the latitude of the St. Croix River, and on the south by that of Cape Fear, and extending westwardindefinitely. To this domain was given the general title of Virginia. Itwas subdivided into two approximately equal parts, with a neutral zonebetween them, which covered the space now occupied by the cities of NewYork, Philadelphia, and Washington, and the land adjoining them. Thenorthern division was given in charge to the "Plymouth Company, " and thesouthern to the "London Company"; they were separate mercantile andcolonizing organizations, but the charter applied to both alike. 

The colonies were to be under the immediate control of a council composedof residents, but appointed by the king; this council was subordinate toanother, meeting in England; and this in its turn was subject to theking's absolute authority. The emigrants were to pay a yearly rent ofone-fifth of the gold and silver produced, and a third as much of thecopper. A five per cent duty levied on alien traffic was for the firstfive-and-twenty years to inure to the benefit of the colony, but afterwardshould be the exclusive perquisite of the Crown. The right to callthemselves and their children English was permitted to the emigrants; andthey were also allowed to defend themselves against attacks, though it wasenjoined upon them to treat the natives with kindness, and to endeavor todraw them into the fold of the Church. 

Such was James's idea of what a charter for an American colony should be. He was taking much for granted when he assumed the right to control theemigrants at all; and he was careful to deprive them of any chance tocontrol in the least degree their own affairs. America was to be the abodeof liberty; but this monarch thought only of making it a field for hisprivate petty tyranny. The colonists were to be his own personal slaves, and the deputy slaves of the Companies; after discharging all theirobligations to him and to them, they might do the best they could forthemselves with what was left, provided of course that they strictlyobserved the laws which his Majesty was kind enough also to draw up forthem, the provisions of which included the penalty of death for mostoffenses above petty larceny. A colony which, amid the hardships andunfamiliar terrors of a virgin wilderness, could enjoy all the benefits ofa charter like this, and yet survive, would seem hardy enough for anyemergency. But James was king, and kings, in those days, if they pleasedno one else, pleased themselves. 

As we have seen, the members of the colony, being persons unused to thepractice of the useful arts, were little apt to succeed even under themost favoring conditions. But they had Smith, in himself a host, and a fewother good heads and able hands; and to speak truth, the provisions oftheir charter do not seem to have unduly embarrassed them. It could annoyand hamper them occasionally, but only themselves could work themselvesserious injury; there were three thousand miles of perilous sea waterbetween their paternal monarch and them, and the wilderness, with all itsdrawbacks, breeds self-confidence and independence. The mishaps of thecolony were due to the shiftlessness of most of its members, and to theinsalubrity of the site chosen for their city of Jamestown, whereby morethan half of them perished during the first few months. On the voyage out, Smith, who had probably made himself distasteful to the gentlemenadventurers by his unconventional manners and conversation, had beenplaced under restraint--to what extent is not exactly known; and when thesealed orders under which they had sailed were opened, and it was foundthat Smith was named a member of the council, he was for some weeks notpermitted to exercise his lawful functions in that office. When thetroubles began, however, the helpless gentlemen were glad to availthemselves of his services, which he with his customary good humor readilyaccorded them; and so competent did he show himself that ere long he wasin virtual command of them all. The usual search for gold and for thepassage through the continent to India having been made, with the usualresult, they all set to work to build their fort and town, and to providefood against the not improbable contingency of famine. As crops could notbe raised for the emergency, Smith set out to traffic with the natives, and brought back corn enough for the general need. All this while he hadbeen contending with a prevalent longing on the part of the colonists toget back to England; there was no courage left in them but his, whichabounded in proportion to their need for it. Prominent among themalcontents was the deposed governor, Wingfield, who tried to bribe thecolonists to return; another member of the council was shot for mutiny. Inthe end, Smith's will prevailed, and he was governor and council and KingJames all in one; and when, at the beginning of winter, he had brought thesettlement to order and safety, he started on a journey of exploration upthe Chickahominy. He perceived the immense importance of understanding hissurroundings, and at the same time of establishing friendly relations withthe neighboring tribes of Indians; and it was obvious that none but he(for the excellent Gosnold had died of fever in the first months of thesettlement) was capable of effecting these objects. Accordingly heproceeded prosperously toward the headwaters of the river, a dozen milesabove its navigable point; but there, all at once, he found himself in themidst of a throng of frowning warriors, who were evidently resolved to putan end to his investigations, if not to his existence, forthwith. 

Another man than Smith would have committed some folly or rashness whichwould have precipitated his fate; but Smith was as much at his ease as wasJulius Caesar of old on the pirate's ship. His two companions were killed, but he was treated as a prisoner of rank and importance by the brother ofthe great chief Powhatan, by whom he had been captured. He interested andimpressed his captors by his conversation and his instruments; and at thesame time he kept his eyes and ears open, and missed no information thatcould be of use to himself and his colony. Powhatan gave him an audienceand seems to have adopted a considerate attitude; at all events he senthim back to Jamestown after a few days, unharmed, and escorted by fourIndians, with a supply of corn. But precisely what occurred during thosefew days we shall never certainly know; since we must choose betweenaccepting Smith's unsupported story, only made public years afterward, andbelieving nothing at all. Smith's tale has charmed the imagination of allwho have heard it; nothing could be more prettily romantic; the troublewith it is, it seems to most people too pretty and romantic to be true. Yet it is simple enough in itself, and not at all improbable; there is noquestion as to the reality of the dramatis personae of the story, andtheir relations one to another render such an episode as was allegedhardly more than might reasonably be looked for. 

The story is--as all the world knows, for it has been repeated all overthe world for nearly three hundred years, and has formed the subject ofinnumerable pictures--that Powhatan, for reasons of high policysatisfactory to himself, had determined upon the death of the Englishman, rightly inferring that the final disappearance of the colony would be theimmediate sequel thereof. The sentence was that Smith's brains were to beknocked out with a bludgeon; and he was led into the presence of the chiefand the warriors, and ordered to lay his head upon the stone. He did so, and the executioners poised their clubs for the fatal blow; but it neverfell. For Smith, during his captivity, had won the affection of the littledaughter of Powhatan, a girl of ten, whose name was Pocahontas. She wastoo young to understand or fear his power over the Indians; but she knewthat he was a winning and fascinating being, and she could not endure thathe should be sacrificed. Accordingly, at this supreme crisis of his career, she slipped into the dreadful circle, and threw herself upon Smith'sbody, so that the blow which was aimed at his life must kill her first. She clung to him and would not be removed, until her father had promisedthat Smith should be spared. 

So runs the Captain's narrative, published for the first time in 1624, after Pocahontas's appearance in London, and her death in 1617. Why he hadnot told it before is difficult to explain. Perhaps he had promisedPowhatan to keep it secret, lest the record of his sentimental clemencyshould impair his authority over the tribes. Or it may have been anembellishment of some comparatively trifling incident of Smith'scaptivity, suggested to his mind as he was compiling his "General Historyof Virginia. " It can never be determined; but certainly his relations withthe Indian girl were always cordial, and it seems unlikely that Powhatanwould have permitted him to return to Jamestown except for some unusualreason. 

Pocahontas's life had vicissitudes such as seldom befall an Indianmaiden. Some time between the Smith episode of 1607, and the year 1612, she married one of her father's tributary chiefs, and went to live withhim on his reservation. There she was in some manner kidnapped by oneSamuel Argall, and held for ransom. The ransom was paid, but Pocahontaswas not sent back; and the following year she was married to John Rolfe, aJamestown colonist, and baptized as Rebecca. He took her to London, whereshe was a nine days' wonder; and they had a son, whose blood still flowsin not a few American veins to-day. If she was ten years old in 1607, hemust have been no more than twenty at the time of her death in Gravesend, near London. But her place in American history is secure, as well as inthe hearts of all good Americans. She was the heroine of the firstAmerican romance; and she is said to have been as beautiful as all ourheroines should rightly be. 

When Smith, with his Indian escort, got back to Jamestown, he was just inseason to prevent the colony from running away in the boat. Soon after anew consignment of emigrants and supplies arrived from England; but againthere were fewer men than gentlemen, and Smith sent back a demand for"rather thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers up of trees' roots, well provided, than a thousand ofsuch as we have. " There spoke the genuine pioneer, whose heart is in hiswork, and who can postpone "gentility" until it grows indigenously out ofthe soil. The Company at home were indignant that their colony had not erenow reimbursed them for their expenditure, and much more; and they sentword that unless profits were forthcoming forthwith (one-fifth of the goldand silver, and so forth) they would abandon the colony to its fate. Onecannot help admiring Smith for refraining from the obvious rejoinder thatto be abandoned was the dearest boon that they could crave; but a sense ofhumor seems to have been one of the few good qualities which the Captaindid not possess. He intimated to the Company that money was not to bepicked up ready made in Virginia, but must be earned by hard work withhands and heads in the field and forest. It is his distinction to havebeen the first man of eminence visiting the new world who did not thinkmore of finding gold, or the passage to India, or both, than of anythingelse. Smith knew that in this world, new or old, men get what they workfor, and in the long run no more than that; and he made his gentlemencolonists take off their coats and blister their gentlemanly hands withthe use of the spade and the ax. It is said that they excelled aswoodcutters, after due instruction; and they were undoubtedly in allrespects improved by this first lesson in Americanism. The American ax andits wielders have become famous since that day; and the gentlemen ofJamestown may enjoy the credit of having blazed the way. 

Fresh emigrants kept coming in, of a more or less desirable quality, asis the case with emigrants still. Some of them had been sent out by otherorganizations than the London Company, and bred confusion; but Smith wasalways more than equal to the emergency, and kept his growing brood inhand. He had the satisfaction of feeling that he was the right man in theright place; and let the grass grow under neither his feet nor theirs. Theabandonment threat of the London Company led him to take measures to makethe colony independent so far as food was concerned, and a tract of landwas prepared and planted with corn. Traffic for supplies with the Indianswas systematized; and by the time Smith's year of office had expired theJamestown settlement was self-supporting, and forever placed beyond thereach of annihilation--though, the very year after he had left it, it camewithin measurable distance thereof. 

He now returned to England, and never revisited Jamestown; but he by nomeans relaxed his interest in American colonization, or his efforts topromote it. In 1614 he once more sailed westward with two ships, on atrading and exploring enterprise, which was successful. He examined andmapped the northern coast, already seen by Gosnold, and bestowed upon thecountry the name of New England. Traditions of his presence and exploitsare still told along the shores of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In the year following he tried to found a small colony somewhere in theseregions, but was defeated by violent storms; and at a subsequent attempthe fell in with French pirates, and his ship and fortune were lost, thoughhe himself escaped in an open skiff: the chains were never forged thatcould hold this man. Nor was his spirit broken; he took his map and hisdescription of New England, and personally canvassed all likely personswith a view to fitting out a new expedition. In 1617, aided perhaps by theinterest which Pocahontas had aroused in London, he was promised a fleetof twenty vessels, and the title of Admiral of New England was bestowedupon him. Admiral he remained till his death; but the fleet he was tocommand never put forth to sea. A ship more famous than any he hadcaptained was to sail for New England in 1620, and land the Pilgrims onPlymouth. Rock. Smith's active career was over, though he was buteight-and-thirty years of age, and had fifteen years of life still beforehim. He had drunk too deeply of the intoxicating cup of adventure andachievement ever to be content with a duller draught; and from year toyear he continued to use his arguments and representations upon all whowould listen. But he no longer had money of his own, and he wasforestalled by other men. He was to have no share in the development ofthe country which he had charted and named. At the time of his death inLondon in 1632, poor and disappointed, Plymouth, Salem and Boston had beenfounded, Virginia had entered upon a new career, and Maryland had beensettled by the Catholics under Lord Baltimore. The Dutch had created NewAmsterdam on Manhattan Island in 1623; and the new nation in the newcontinent was fairly under way. 

Jamestown, as has been said, narrowly escaped extinction in the winter of1609. The colonists found none among their number to fill Smith's place, and soon relapsed into the idleness and improvidence which he had soresolutely counteracted. They ate all the food which he had laid up forthem, and when it was gone the Indians would sell them no more. Squads ofhungry men began to wander about the country, and many of them weremurdered by the savages. The mortality within the settlement was terrible, and everything that could be used as food was eaten; at length cannibalismwas begun; the body of an Indian, and then the starved corpses of thesettlers themselves were devoured. Many crawled away to perish in thewoods; others, more energetic, seized a vessel and became pirates. Inshort, such scenes were enacted as have been lately beheld in India and inCuba. The severity of the famine may be judged from the fact that out offive hundred persons at the beginning of the six months, only sixtydiseased and moribund wretches survived. And this in a land which had beendescribed by its discoverers as a very Garden of Eden, flowing with milkand honey. 

Meanwhile, great things were preparing in England. Smith's warning thatAmerica must be regarded and treated as an agricultural and industrialcommunity, and not as a treasure-box, had borne fruit; and a new charterwas applied for, which should more adequately satisfy the true conditions. It was granted in 1609; Lord Salisbury was at the head of the promoters, and with him were associated many hundreds of the lords, commoners andmerchants of England. The land assigned to them was a strip four hundredmiles in breadth north and south of Old Point Comfort, and across to thePacific, together with all islands lying within a hundred miles of shore. In respect of administrative matters, the tendency of the new charter wastoward a freer arrangement; in especial, the company was to exercise thepowers heretofore lodged with the king, and the supreme council was to bechosen by the shareholders. The governor was the appointee of thecorporation, and his powers were large and under conditions almostabsolute. The liberties of the emigrants themselves were not specificallyenlarged, but they were at least emancipated from the paternal solicitudeof the stingy and self-complacent pettifogger who graced the Englishthrone. 

Lord Delaware was chosen governor; and Newport, Sir Thomas Gates and SirGeorge Somers were the commissioners who were to conduct the affairs ofthe colony until his arrival. A large number of emigrants, many of whomcontributed in money and supplies to the expedition, were assembled, andthe fleet numbered altogether nine vessels. But Newport and his fellowcommissioners suffered shipwreck on the Bermudas, and did not reachJamestown till nine months later, in May, 1610. The calamitous state ofthings which there awaited them was an unwelcome surprise; and thedespairing colonists would be contented with nothing short of exportationto Newfoundland. But before they could gain the sea, Lord Delaware withhis ships and provisions was met coming into port; and the intendingfugitives turned back with him. The hungry were fed, order was restored, and industry was re-established. A wave of religious feeling swept overthe little community; the rule of Lord Delaware was mild, but just andfirm; and all would have been well had not his health failed, andcompelled him, in the spring of 1611, to return to England. The colony wasdisheartened anew, and the arrival of Sir Thomas Dale in Delaware's placedid not at first relieve the depression; his training had been military, and he administered affairs by martial law. But he believed in the futureof the enterprise, and so impressed his views upon the English councilthat six more ships, with three hundred emigrants, were immediately sentto their relief. Grates, who brought these recruits to Jamestown, assumedthe governorship, and a genuine prosperity began. Among the most importantof the improvements introduced was an approximation to the right ofprivate ownership in land, which had hitherto been altogether denied, andwhich gave the emigrants a personal interest in the welfare of theenterprise. In 1612 a third charter was granted, still further increasingthe privileges of the settlers, who now found themselves possessed ofalmost the same political powers as they had enjoyed at home. It was stillpossible, as was thereafter shown, for unjust and selfish governors toinflict misery and discontent upon the people; but it was also possible, under the law, to give them substantial freedom and happiness; and thatwas a new light in political conceptions. 

More than thirty years had now passed since Raleigh first turned his mindto the colonizing of Virginia. He was now approaching the scaffold; but hecould feel a lofty satisfaction in the thought that it was mainly throughhim that an opportunity of incalculable magnitude and possibilities hadbeen given for the enlargement and felicity of his race. He had sowed theseed of England beyond the seas, and the quality of the fruit it shouldbear was already becoming apparent to his eyes, soon to close forever uponearthly things. The spirit of America was his spirit. He was for freedom, enlightenment, and enterprise; and whenever a son of America has fulfilledour best ideal of what an American should be, we find in him some of thetraits and qualities which molded the deeds and colored the thoughts ofthis mighty Englishman. 

Nor can we find a better example of the restless, practical, resourcefulside of the American character than is offered in Captain John Smith; evenin his boastfulness we must claim kinship with him. His sterling manhood, his indomitable energy, his fertile invention, his ability as a leader andas a negotiator, all ally him with the traditional Yankee, who carries onin so matter-of-fact a way the solution of the problems of the newdemocracy. Both these men, each in his degree, were Americans beforeAmerica. 

And with them we may associate the name of Columbus; to him also we mustconcede the spiritual citizenship of our country; not because of the barefact that he was the first to reach its shores, but because he had a soulvaliant enough to resist and defy the conservatism that will believe in nonew thing, and turns life into death lest life should involve labor andself-sacrifice. Columbus, Smith, and Raleigh stand at the portals of ourhistory, types of the faith, success and honor which are our heritage. 

CHAPTER SECOND

THE FREIGHT OF THE MAYFLOWER

The motive force which drove the English Separatists and Puritans to avoluntary exile in New England in 1620 and later, had its origin in thebrain of the son of a Saxon slate cutter just a century before. MartinLuther first gave utterance to a mental protest which had long been on thetongue's tip of many thoughtful and conscientious persons in Europe, butwhich, till then, no one had found the courage, or the energy, or theconviction, or the clear-headedness (as the case might be) to formulateand announce. Once having reached its focus, however, and attained itsexpression, it spread like a flame in dry stubble, and produced results inmen and nations rarely precedented in the history of the world, whosevibrations have not yet died away. 

Henry VIII. Of England was born and died a Catholic; though of religionof any kind he never betrayed an inkling. His Act of Supremacy, in 1534, which set his will above that of the Pope of Rome, had no religiousbearing, but merely indicated that he wanted to divorce one woman in orderto marry another. Nevertheless it made it incumbent upon the Pope toexcommunicate him, and thus placed him, and England as represented by him, in a quasi-dissenting attitude toward the orthodox faith. And coming as itdid so soon after Luther's outbreak, it may have encouraged Englishmen tothink on lines of liberal belief. 

Passionate times followed in religious--or rather in theological--matters, all through the Sixteenth Century. The fulminations of Luther and thelogic of Calvin set England to discussing and taking sides; and whenEdward VI. Came to the throne, he was himself a Protestant, or indeed aPuritan, and the stimulus of Puritanism in others. But the mass of thecommon people were still unmoved, because there was no means of getting atthem, and they had no stomach for dialectics, if there had been. The newideas would probably have made little headway had not Edward died and Marythe Catholic come red-hot with zeal into his place. She lost no time incatching and burning all dissenters, real or suspected; and as many ofthese were honest persons who lived among the people, and were known andapproved by them, and as they uniformly endured their martyrdom withadmirable fortitude and good-humor, falling asleep in the crackling flameslike babes at the mother's breast, Puritanism received an advertisementsuch as nothing since Christianity had enjoyed before, and which all theunaided Luthers, Melanchthons and Calvins in the world could not havegiven it. 

This lasted five years, after which Mary went to her reward, andElizabeth came to her inheritance. She was no more of a religion-mongerthan her distinguished father had been; but she was, like him, jealous ofher authority, and a martinet for order and obedience at all costs. Acertain intellectual voluptuousness of nature and an artistic instinctinclined her to the splendid forms and ceremonies of the Catholic ritual;but she was too good a politician not to understand that a large part ofher subjects were unalterably opposed to the papacy. After someconsideration, therefore, she adopted the expedient of a compromise, thesubstance of which was that whatever was handsome and attractive inCatholicism was to be retained, and only those technical points droppedwhich made the Pope the despot of the Church. In ordinary times this wouldhave answered very well; human nature likes to eat its cake and have ittoo; but this time was anything but ordinary. The reaction from old to newways of thinking, and the unforgotten persecutions of Mary, had made menvery fond of their opinions, and preternaturally unwilling to enter intobargains with their consciences. At the same time loyalty to the Crown wasstill a fetich in England, as indeed it always has been, except at andabout the time when Oliver Cromwell and others cut off the head of theFirst Charles. Consequently when Elizabeth and Whitgift, her Archbishop ofCanterbury, set about putting their house in order in earnest, they weremet with a mixture of humble loyalty and immovable resistance which wouldhave perplexed any potentates less single-minded. But Elizabeth andWhitgift were not of the sort that sets its hand to the plow and thenturns back; they went earnestly on with their banishments and executions, paying particular attention to the Separatists, but keeping plenty in handfor the Puritans also. --The Separatists, it may be observed, were socalled because their aim was to dispart themselves entirely from theorthodox communion; the Puritans were willing to remain in the fold, buthad it in mind to purify it, by degrees, from the defilement which theyheld it to have contracted. The former would not in the least particularmake friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, or condone the sins ofthe Scarlet Woman, or of anybody else; they would not inhale foul air, with a view to sending it forth again disinfected by the fragrance oftheir own lungs. They took their stand unequivocally upon the plain letterof Scripture, and did away with all that leaned toward conciliating thelighter sentiments and emotions; they would have no genuflexions, noaltars, no forms and ceremonies, no priestly vestments, no ApostolicSuccession, no priests, no confessions, no intermediation of any kindbetween the individual and his Creator. The people themselves should makeand unmake their own "ministers, " and in all ways live as close to thebone as they could. The Puritans were not opposed to any of these beliefs;only they were not so set upon proclaiming and acting upon them in seasonand out of season; they contended that the idolatry of ritual, since ithad been several centuries growing up, should be allowed an appreciabletime to disappear. It will easily be understood that, at the bottom ofthese religious innovations and inflammations, was a simple movementtoward greater human freedom in all directions, including the political. It mattered little to the zealots on either side whether or not the secretlife of a man was morally correct; he must think in a certain prescribedway, on pain of being held damnable, and, if occasion served, of beingsent to the other world before he had opportunity to further confirm hisdamnation. The dissenters, when they got in motion, were just asintolerant and bigoted as the conformists; and toward none was thisintolerance more strongly manifested than toward such as were in the main, but not altogether, of their way of thinking. The Quakers and theIndependents had almost as hard an experience in New England, at the handsof the Puritans, as the latter had endured from good Queen Bess and herhenchmen a few years before. But really, religion, in the absolute sense, had very little to do with these movements and conflicts; the impulse wassupposed to be religion because religion dwells in the most interiorregion of a man's soul. But the craving for freedom also proceeds from aninterior place; and so does the lust for tyranny. Propinquity was mistakenfor identity, and anything which was felt but could not be reasoned aboutassumed a religious aspect to the subject of it, and all the artillery ofHeaven and Hell, and the vocabulary thereof, were pressed into service tochampion it. 

But New England had to be peopled, and this was the way to people it. Thedissenters perceived that, though they might think as they pleased inEngland, they could not combine this privilege with keeping clear of thefagot or the gibbet; and though martyrdom is honorable, and perhapsgratifying to one's vanity, it can be overdone. 

They came to the conclusion, accordingly, that practical common sensedemanded their expatriation; and some of them humbly petitioned herMajesty to be allowed to take themselves off. The Queen did not showherself wholly agreeable to this project; womanlike, and queenlike, shewanted to convince them even more than to be rid of them; or if they mustbe got rid of, she preferred to dispose of them herself in the mannerprescribed for stubborn heretics. But the lady was getting on in years, and was not so ardently loved as she had been; and her activity againstthe heretics could not keep pace with her animosity. She had succeeded inmany things, and her reign was accounted glorious; but she had won noglory by the Puritans and Separatists, and her campaign against them hadnot succeeded. They were stronger than ever, and were to grow strongeryet. It was remembered, too, by her servants, that, when she was dead, some one might ascend the throne who was less averse to nonconformity thanshe had been; and then those who had persecuted might suffer persecutionin their turn. So although the prayer of the would-be colonists was notgranted, the severity against them was relaxed; and as Elizabeth's lastbreath rattled in her throat, the mourners had one ear cocked toward thewindow, to hear in what sort of a voice James was speaking. 

Their fears had been groundless. The new king spoke Latin, and "pepperedthe Puritans soundly. " The walls of Hampton Court resounded with hisshrill determination to tolerate none of their nonsense; and he declaredto the assembled prelates, who were dissolving in tears of joy, thatbishops were the most trustworthy legs a monarch could walk on. Thedissenters, who had hoped much, were disappointed in proportion; but theywere hardened into an opposition sterner than they had ever felt before. They must help themselves, since no man would help them; and why not--since they had God on their side? They controlled the House of Commons, and made themselves felt there, till James declared that he preferred ahermitage to ruling such a pack of malcontents. The clergy renewed theirpersecutions; the government of England was a despotism of the strictestkind; and the fire which had been repressed in Puritan bosoms began toemit sullen sparks through their eyes and lips. 

A group of them in the north of England established a church, and calledupon all whom it might concern to shake off anti-Christian bondage. JohnRobinson and William Brewster gave it their support, and their meetingswere made interesting by the spies of the government. Finally they weredriven to attempt an escape to Holland; and, after one miscarriage, theysucceeded in getting off from the coast of Lincolnshire in the spring of1608, and were transported to Amsterdam. They could but tarry there; theironly country now was Heaven; meanwhile they were wandering Pilgrims on theface of the earth, as their Lord had been before them. From Amsterdam theypresently removed to Leyden, where they conducted themselves with suchpropriety as to win the encomiums of the natives. But their holyprosperity did not make them happy, or enable them to be on comfortableterms with the Dutch language; they could not get elbow-room, or feel thatthey were doing themselves justice; and as the rumors of a fertilewilderness overseas came to their ears, they began to contemplate theexpediency of betaking themselves thither. It was now the year 1617; andnegotiations were entered into with the London Company to proceed undertheir charter. 

The London Company were disposed to consider the proposition favorably, but the affair dragged, and when it was brought before the government itwas quashed by Bacon, who opined that the coat of Christ must be seamless, and that even in a remote wilderness heretics must not be permitted torend it. The Pilgrims might have replied that if a coat is already torn, it profits not to declare it whole; but they were not students ofrepartee, and merely relinquished efforts to secure support in thatdirection. They must go into exile without official sanction, that wasall. The king's law enjoined, to be sure, that if any dissenters werediscovered abroad they were straightway to be sent to England fordiscipline; but inasmuch as the threat of exile was, at the same time, held over the same dissenters at home, it would seem a saving of troubleall round to go abroad and trust to God. "If they mean to wrong us, " theyaptly remarked, "a royal seal, though it were as broad as the house floor, would not protect us. " A suggestion that the Dutchmen fit them out fortheir voyage, and share their profits, fell through on the question ofprotection against other nations; and when they had prepared their mindsto make the venture without any protection at all, it turned out thatthere was not capital enough in the community to pay for transport. Withinthree years, however, this difficulty was overcome, and in July of 1620two ships were hired--the "Speedwell" and the "Mayflower"--and theprogenitors of religious and civil liberty in America were ready to setforth. 

There was not accommodation for them all on the two vessels, the one ofsixty tons, the other of thrice as many; so a division was made, Robinsonremaining in Leyden with one party, until means could be had to bring themover; and Brewster accompanying the emigrants, supported by John Carverand Miles Standish. Robinson, one of the finest and purest spirits of thetime, died while waiting to join his friends; but most of the others werebrought over in due season. 

The hymns of praise and hope which were up-lifted on the shores of DelftHaven, in the hour of farewell between those who went and those whostayed, though the faith which inspired them was stanch, and the voiceswhich chanted them musical and sweet, could not restrain the tears thatflowed at the severing of ties which had been welded by exile, hardship, and persecution for conscience' sake; nor were the two "feasts" whichcomforted the bellies of the departing ones able to console their hearts. It is different with trips across the Atlantic nowadays: and different, likewise, are the motives which prompt them. 

The "Speedwell" turned back at Plymouth, England, and the "Mayflower"went on alone, with her company of one hundred and two, including women, some of whom were soon to be mothers. The Atlantic, though a good friendof theirs, was rough and boisterous in its manners, and tossed them ontheir way rudely; in that little cabin harrowing discomfort must have beenundergone, and Christian forbearance sorely tried. The pitching andtossing lasted more than two months, from the 6th of September till the7th of December, when they sighted--not the Bay of New York, as they hadintended, but the snow-covered sand mounds of Cape Cod. It was at best aninhospitable coast, and the time of their visit could not have been worsechosen. 

But indeed they were to be tested to the utmost; their experiences duringthat winter would have discouraged oak and iron; but it had no such effectupon these English men and women of flesh and blood. The New Englandwinter climate has its reputation still; but these people were not fit forthe encounter. They had been living in the moist mildness of Holland forthirteen years, and for more than sixty days had been penned in thatstifling "Mayflower" cabin, seasick, bruised and sleepless. It sleeted, snowed, rained and froze, and they could find no place to get ashore on;their pinnace got stove, and the icy waves wet them to the marrow. Standish and some others made explorations on land; but found nothingbetter than some baskets of maize and a number of Indian graves buried inthe snow-drifts. At last they stumbled upon a little harbor, upon whichabutted a hollow between low hills, with an icebound stream descendingthrough it to the sea. They must make shift with that or perish. It wasthe 21st of December. 

That date is inscribed on the front page of our history, and the PilgrimFathers and their wives and daughters are celebrated persons, though theywere only a lot of English farmers in exile for heresy. But no dreams ofrenown visited them then; they had nothing to uphold them but theiramazing faith. What that faith must have been their conduct demonstrates;but it is difficult to comprehend such a spirit; we remember all thepersecutions, all the energy of new convictions, and still it seemsmiraculous. Liberty to think as they pleased, and to act upon theirbelief: that was all they had to fight with. It seems very thin armor, anineffective sword: but what a victory they won!

Before they disembarked, a meeting was held in the cabin for thetransaction of certain business. Since then, whenever a handful of Yankeeshave been gathered together, it has been their instinct to organize andpass resolutions. It is the instinct of order and self-government, theputting of each man in his proper place, and assigning to him hisfunction. This meeting of the Pilgrims was the prototype, and theresolutions they passed constitute the model upon which our commonwealthis based. They promised one another, in the presence of God, equal lawsand fidelity to the general good: the principles of a free democracy. 

They disembarked on the flat bowlder known as Plymouth Rock and set towork to make their home. With the snow under their feet, the dark, nakedwoods hemming them in, and concealing they knew not what savage perils;with the bitter waves flinging frozen spray along the shore, andimmitigable clouds lowering above them--memory may have drawn a picture ofthe quiet English vales in which they were born, or of the hazy Dutchlevels, with the windmills swinging their arms slumberously above thestill canals, and the clean streets and gabled façades of the prosperousHolland town which had sheltered and befriended them. They thought offaces they loved and would see no more, and of the secure and tranquillives they might have led, but for that tooth of conscience at theirhearts, which would give them peace only at the cost of almost all thathumanity holds dear. Did any of them wish they had not come? did any doubtin his or her heart whether a cold abstraction was worth adopting in lieuof the great, warm, kindly world? Verily, not one!

They got to work at their home-making without delay; but all were ill, and many were dying. That winter they put up with much labor a few loghuts; but their chief industry was the digging of clams and of graves. Half of their number were buried before the summer, and there was not foodenough for the rest to eat. John Carver, who had been elected governor atlanding, died in April, having already lost his son. But those who didsurvive their first year lived long; it is wonder that they ever died atall, who could survive such an experience. 

Spring came, and with it a visitor. It was in March--not a salubriousmonth in New England; but the trees were beginning to pat out brown budswith green or red tips, and grass and shrubs were sprouting in shelteredplaces, though snow still lay in spots where sunshine could not fall. Thetrailing arbutus could be found here and there, with a perfume that allthe cruelty of winter seemed to have made only more sweet. Birds weresinging, too, and the settlers had listened to them with joy; they hadgone near to forget that God had made birds. On some days, from the south, came the breathing of soft, fragrant airs; and there were breadths of bluein the sky that looked as if so fresh and tender a hue must have been justcreated. 

The men, in thick jerkins, heavy boots, and sugarloaf hats, were busyabout the clearing; some, like Miles Standish, wore a steel plate overtheir breasts, and kept their matchlocks within reach, for though apestilence had exterminated the local Indians before they came, and, withthe exception of one momentary skirmish, in which no harm was done, nothing had been seen or heard of the red men--still it was known thatIndians existed, and it was taken for granted that they would be hostile. Meanwhile the women, in homespun frocks and jackets, with kerchiefs roundtheir shoulders, and faces in which some trace of the English ruddinesshad begun to return, sat spinning in the doorways of the huts, keeping aneye on the kettles of Indian meal. The morning sunlight fell upon a scenewhich, for the first time, seemed homelike: not like the lost homes inEngland, but a place people could live human lives in, and grow fond of. The hope of spring was with them. 

All at once, down the forest glade, treading noiselessly on moccasinedfeet, came a tall, wild, unfamiliar figure, with feathers in his blackhair, and black eyes gleaming above his high cheekbones. An Indian, atlast! He had come so silently that he had emerged from the shadow of theforest and was almost amid them before he was seen. Some of the settlers, perhaps, felt a momentary tightening round the heart; for though we arealways in the hollow of God's hand, there are times when we are surprisedinto forgetfulness of that security, and are concerned about carnalperils. Captain Standish, who had taken a flying shot at some of theseheathen four or five months ago, caught up a loaded musket leaning againstthe corner of a hut, and stood on his guard, doubting that more of thesavages were lurking behind the trees. He had even thus early in Americanhistory come to the view long afterward formulated in the epigram that theonly good Indians are the dead ones. 

But the keen, spare savage made no hostile demonstration; he pausedbefore the captain, with the dignity of his race, and held out his emptyhands. And then, to the vast astonishment of Standish and of the otherswho had gathered to his support, he opened his mouth and spoke English:"Welcome, Englishmen!" said he. They must have fancied, for an instant, that the Lord had wrought a special miracle for them, in bestowing uponthis native of the primeval forest the gift of tongues. 

There was, however, nothing miraculous about Samoset, who had picked uphis linguistic accomplishment, such as it was, from a fellow savage whohad been kidnapped and taken to England, whom he afterward introduced tothe colony, where he made himself useful. Samoset's present business wasas embassador from the great chief and sachem, Massasoit, lord ofeverything thereabout, who sent friendly greetings, and would be pleasedto confer with the new comers, at their convenience, and arrange analliance. 

These were good words, and they must have taken a weight from every heartthere; not only the dread of immediate attack, but the omnipresent andabiding anxiety that the time would come when they would have to fight fortheir lives, and defend the persecuted church of the Lord against foes whoknew nothing of conformist or nonconformist, but who were as proficient asQueen Mary herself in the use of fire and torture. These misgivings mightnow be dismissed; if the ruler of so many tribes was willing to standtheir friend, who should harm them? So they all gathered round Samoset onthat sunny spring morning; the women observing curiously and in silencehis strange aspect and gestures, and occasionally exchanging glances withone another at some turn of the talk; while the sturdy Miles, and GovernorCarver, pale with illness which within a month reunited him with the sonhe had loved, and Elder Brewster, with his serious mien, and Bradford, whowas to succeed Carver, with his strong, authoritative features andthoughtful forehead;--these and more than a score more of the brethrenstood eying their visitor, questioning him earnestly and trying to makeout his meaning from his imperfect English gruntings. And they spoke oneto another of the action that should be taken on his message, or commentedwith pious exclamations on the mercy of the Lord in thus raising up forthem protectors even in the wilderness. Meanwhile a chipmunk flitted alongthe bole of a fallen tree, a thrush chirped in the brake, a deer, passingairy-footed across an opening in the forest, looked an instant and thenturned and plunged fleetly away amid the boughs, and a lean-bellied wolf, prospecting for himself and his friends, stuck his sinister snout througha clump of underbrush, and curled his lips above the long row of his whiteteeth in an ugly grin. This friendship boded no good to him. 

The coming of Samoset was followed after a while by the introduction ofSquanto, the worthy savage who had enjoyed the refining influences ofdistant England, whose services as interpreter were of much value in thatjuncture; and after a short time Massasoit himself accepted the settlers'invitation to become their guest during the making of the treaty. He wasreceived with becoming honor; the diplomatists proceeded at once tobusiness, and before twilight the state paper had been drawn up, signedand sealed. Its provisions ran that both parties were to abstain fromharming each other, were to observe an offensive and defensive alliance, and to deliver up offenders. These terms were religiously kept for half acentury; by which time the colonists were able to take care of themselves. Its good effects were illustrated in the case of the chief Canonicus, whowas disposed to pick a quarrel with the Englishmen, and sent them, as asymbol of his attitude, a rattlesnake's skin wrapped round a sheaf ofarrows. Bradford, to indicate that he also understood the language ofemblems, sent the skin back stuffed with powder and bullets. Canonicusseems to have fancied that these substances were capable of destroying himspontaneously, and returned them with pacific assurances. Such weapons, combined with the alliance, were too much for him. Canonicus was chief ofthe Narragansetts; Massasoit, of the Wampanoags. In 1676 the son ofMassasoit, for some fancied slight, made war upon the settlers, and theNarragansetts helped him; in this war, known as King Philip's, thesettlers suffered severely, though they were victorious. But had it comeduring the early years of their sojourn, not one of them would havesurvived, and New England might never have become what she is now. 

Meantime the Pilgrims, pilgrims no longer, settled down to make thewilderness blossom as the rose. At their first landing they had agreed, like the colonists of Virginia, to own their land and work it in common;but they were much quicker than the Jamestown folk to perceive theinexpediency of this plan, and reformed it by giving each man or family aprivate plot of ground. Agriculture then developed so rapidly that cornenough was raised to supply the Indians as well as the English; and theimportation of neat cattle increased the home look as well as theprosperity of the farms. There was also a valuable trade in furs, whichstimulated an abortive attempt at rivalry. None could compete with thePilgrims on their own ground; for were they not growing up with thecountry, and the Lord--was He not with them? More troublesome than thiseffort of Weston was the obstruction of the Company in England, and itsusurious practices; the colonists finally bought them out, and reliedhenceforth wholly on themselves, with the best results. As years went bytheir numbers increased, though but slowly. They did not invite theco-operation of persons not of their way of thinking, and the world wasnever over-supplied with Separatists. On the other hand, they were activeand full of enterprise, and sent out branches in all directions, whichshared the vitality of the parent stock. Every man of them was trained toself-government, and where he went order and equity accompanied him. Apurer democracy could not be framed; for years the elections were made bythe entire body of the assembled citizens; His Dread Majesty, King James, never sent them his royal Charter, but the charter provided by their ownlove of justice and solid good sense served them far better. Theirgovernors were responsible directly to the people, and were furtherrestrained by a council of seven members. This political basis is thatupon which our present form of government rests; but it is strange to seewhat Daedalian complications, and wheels within wheels, we have contrivedto work into the superstructure. A modern ward heeler in New York couldhave taken up the whole frame of government in Seventeenth Century NewEngland by the butt end, and cracked it like a whip--provided of course thePilgrim fathers had allowed him to attend the primaries. 

But it is more probable that the ward heeler would have found himselfpromptly in the presence of one of those terrific magistrates whose grimdecrees gave New England naughty children the nightmare a century afterthe stern-browed promulgators of them were dust. The early laws againstcrime in New England were severe, though death was seldom or neverinflicted save for murder. But more irksome to one used to the lax habitsof to-day would have been the punctilious rigidity with which they guardedthe personal bearing, speech, and dress of the members of their community. Yet we may thank them for having done so; it was a wise precaution; theyknew the frailties of the flesh, and how easily license takes an ell if aninch be given it. Nothing less iron than was their self-restraint couldhave provided material stanch enough to build up the framework of ournation. One might not have enjoyed living with them; but we may beheartily glad that they lived; and we should be the better off if more oftheir stamp were alive still. 

But these iron people had their tender and sentimental side as well, andthe self-command which they habitually exercised made the softening, whenit came, the more beautiful. One of the love romances of this littlecolony has come down to us, and may be taken as the substantial truth; ithas entered into our literature and poetry, and touches us more nearlyeven than the tale of Pocahontas. Its telling by our most popular poet hasbrought it to the knowledge of a greater circle of readers than it couldotherwise have reached; but the elaboration of his treatment could addnothing to the human charm of it, or sharpen our conception of the leadingcharacters in the drama. Miles Standish had been a soldier in theNetherlands before joining the Pilgrims, and to him they gave the militaryguardianship of the colony, with the title of captain. He was then aboutthirty-six years of age, a bluff, straightforward soldier, whom a life ofhardship had made older than his years. He had known little of women'ssociety, but during the long voyage he came to love Priscilla Mullens, andwhen the spring came to the survivors at Plymouth, he wished to marry her. But he would not trust, as Othello did, to the simple art of a soldier towoo her; and Priscilla was probably no Desdemona. But there was a youthamong the colonists, just come of age, whom Standish had liked andbefriended, and who, though a cooper and ship-carpenter by trade, wasgifted with what seemed to Standish especial graces of person and speech. Alden had not been one of the original pilgrims; he had been hired torepair the "Mayflower" while she lay at Southampton, and decided to sailon her when she sailed; perhaps with the hope of making his fortune in thenew world, perhaps because he wished to go where Priscilla went. She was agirl whom any man might rejoice to make his wife; vigorous and wholesomeas well as comely, and endowed with a strong character, sweetened by atouch of humor. John had never spoken to her of his love, any more thanMiles had; whether Priscilla's clear eyes had divined it, we know not; butit is likely that she saw through the cooper and the soldier both. 

The honest soldier was a fool, and saw nothing but Priscilla, and feltnothing but his love for her. He took John Alden by the arm, and, leadinghim apart into the forest, proposed to him to go to young Mistress Mullensand ask her if she would become the wife of Captain Standish. Alden washonest, too; but he was dominated by his older friend, and lacked thecourage to tell him that he had hoped for Priscilla for himself; he letthe critical moment for this explanation pass, and then there was nothingfor it but to accept the Captain's commission. We can imagine how thissituation would be handled by the analytic novelists of our day; how theywould spread Alden's heart and conscience out on paper, and dry them, andpick them to pieces. The young fellow certainly had a hard thing to do; hemust tread down his own passion, and win the girl for his rival into thebargain. To her he went, and spoke. But the only way he could spur himselfto eloquence was to imagine that he was Standish, and then woo her as hewould have done had Standish been he. 

Maidens of rounded nature, like Priscilla, pay less attention to what aman says than to the tones of his voice, the look in his eyes, and hisunconscious movements. As Alden warmed to his work, she glanced at himoccasionally, and not only wished that Heaven had made her such a man, butdecided that it had. So, when the youth had finished off an ardentperoration, in which the Captain was made to appear in a guise of heroicgallantry that did not suit him in the least, but which was the best Johncould do for him: there was a pause, while the vicarious wooer wiped hisbrow, and felt very miserable, remembering that if she yielded, it wouldbe to Miles and not to him. She divined what was in his mind, and sent himto Heaven with one of the womanliest and loveliest things that ever womansaid to man: "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" she asked, gazingstraight at him, with a quiver of her lips that was half humor and halfthe promise of tears. 

John still had before him a bad quarter of an hour with the Captain; itwas as hard to make him understand that he had not played the traitor tohim as it had been to persuade Priscilla to do what she had not done; butthe affair ended without a tragedy, which would have spoiled it. CaptainStandish, when Priscilla married, went to live in Duxbury; and a year ortwo later worked off his spleen by slaying the Indian rascals who wereplotting to murder the Weston settlers at Weymouth. He and his men did notwait for the savages to strike the first blow; they made no pretense ofexhausting all the resources of diplomacy before proceeding toextremities. They walked up to the enemy, suddenly seized them by thethroat, and drove the knives which the Indians themselves wore throughtheir false hearts. There was no more trouble from Indians in that regionfor a long time; and Captain Standish's feelings were greatly relieved. Asfor John and Priscilla, they lived long and prospered, John attaining theage of eighty-seven, which indicates domestic felicity. They had issue, and their descendants live among us to this day in comfort and honor. 

King James, like other spiteful and weak men, had a long memory, and amidthe many things that engaged his attention he did not forget the colonistsof Plymouth, who had exiled themselves without a charter from him. In thesame year which witnessed their disembarkation at Plymouth Rock, heincorporated a company consisting of friends of his own, and gave them atract of country between the fortieth and the forty-eighth parallels ofnorth latitude, which of course included the Plymouth colony. In additionto all other possible rights and privileges, it had the monopoly of thefisheries of the coast, and it was from this that revenue was mostcertainly expected, since it was proposed to lay a tax on all tonnageengaged in it. All the new company had to do was to grant charters to allwho might apply, and reap the profits. But the scheme was fated tomiscarry, because the pretense of colonization behind it was impotent, andthe true object in view was the old one of getting everything that couldbe secured out of the country, and putting nothing into it. The fisheriesmonopoly was powerfully opposed in Parliament and finally defeated; smallsporadic settlements, with no sound principle or purpose within them, appeared and disappeared along the coast from Massachusetts to thenorthern borders of Maine. One grant conflicted with another, titles werein dispute, and lawsuits were rife. The king sanctioned whatever injusticeor restriction his company proposed, but his decrees, many of themillegal, were ineffective, and produced only confusion. Agriculture washardly attempted in any of the little settlements authorized by thecompany, and the only trade pursued was in furs and fishes. The rights ofthe Indians were wholly disregarded, and the domain of the French at thenorth was infringed upon. All this while the Pilgrims continued theirindustries and maintained their democracy, undisturbed by the feeblemachinations of the king; and in 1625 the death of the latter temporarilycleared the air. Charles affixed his seal to the famous MassachusettsCharter four years later; and though Gorges and some others continued toharass New England for some time longer, the plan of colonizing byfisheries was hopelessly discredited, and the development of civil andreligious liberties among the serious colonists was assured. 

The experiments thus far made in dealing with the new country had had asignificant result. The Plymouth colony, going out with neither charternor patronage, and with the purpose not of finding gold or makingfortunes, but of establishing a home wherein to dwell in perpetuity--whichwas handicapped by the abject poverty of its members, and by theseverities of a climate till then unknown--this enterprise was found tohold the elements of success from the start, and it steadily increased inpower and influence. It suffered from time to time from the tyranny ofroyal governors and the ignorance or malice of absentee statesmanship; butnothing could extinguish or corrupt it; on the contrary, it went "slowlybroadening down, from precedent to precedent, " until, when the moment ofsupreme trial came to the Thirteen Colonies, the descendants of thePilgrims and the Puritans, and the men who had absorbed their ideas, putNew England in the van of patriotism and progress. It is a noble record, and a pregnant example to all friends of freedom. 

In suggestive contrast with this was the Jamestown enterprise. As we haveseen, this colony was saved from almost immediate extinction solely by thegenius and energy of one man, whom his fellow members had at first triedto exclude altogether from their councils and companionship. Belonging toa class socially higher and presumably more intelligent than the Pilgrims, and continually furnished with supplies from the Company in England, theywere unable during twelve years to make any independent stand againstdisaster. In a climate which was as salubrious as that of New England wasrigorous, and with a soil as fertile as any in the world, they dwindledand starved, and their dearest wish was to return to England. They weresaved at last (as we shall presently see) by two things; first, by thediscovery of the value of tobacco as an export, and of its usefulness as acurrency for the internal trade of the country; and secondly, and muchmore, by the Charter of 1618, which gave the people the privilege ofhelping to make their own laws. That year marked the beginning of civilliberty in America; but what it had taken the Jamestown colonists twelveweary and disastrous years to attain, was claimed by the pious farmers ofPlymouth before ever they set foot on Forefather's Rock. Willingness tolabor, zeal for the common welfare, indifference to wealth, independence, moral and religious integrity and fervor--these were some of the traits andvirtues whose cultivation made the Pilgrims prosperous, and the neglect orlack of which discomfited the Virginia settlers. The latter, man for man, were by nature as capable as the former of profiting by right conditionsand training; and as soon as they obtained them they showed favorableresults. But in the meantime the lesson was driven home that a virgincountry cannot be subdued and rendered productive by selfish and unjustprocedure: a homely and hackneyed lesson, but one which can never be toooften quoted, since each fresh generation must buy its own experience, andit often happens that a situation essentially old assumes a novel aspect, owing to external modifications of time and place. 

The Plymouth Colony, after remaining long separate and self-supporting, consented to a union with the larger and richer settlements ofMassachusetts. The charter secured by the latter, and the manner in whichit was administered, were alike remarkable. The granting of it wasfacilitated by the threatened encroachments of other than Englishmen uponthe New England domain; it was represented to Charles that it wasnecessary to be beforehand with these gentry, if they were to berestrained. Charles was on the verge of that rupture with law and order inhis own realm which culminated in his dismissal of Parliament, and for tenyears attempting the task of governing England without it. He approved thecharter without adequately realizing the full breadth and pregnancy of itsprovisions, which, in effect, secured civil and ecclesiasticalemancipation to the settlers under it. But what was quite as important wasthe consideration that it went into effect at a time incomparablyfavorable to its success. The Plymouth colony had proved that a godly andself-denying community could flourish in the wilderness, in the enjoymentof spiritual blessings unattainable at home. The power of English prelacydid not extend beyond the borders of England: idolatrous ceremonies couldbe eschewed in Massachusetts without fear of persecution. Thousands ofPuritans were prepared to give up their homes for the sake of liberty, andonly waited assurance that it could be obtained. The condition of societyand education in England was vicious and corrupt; and though it mightbecome brave and true men to suffer persecution in witness of their faith, yet there was danger that their children might be induced to fall awayfrom the truth, after they were gone. Martyrdom was well, but it must notbe allowed to such an extreme as to extirpate the proclaimers of thetruth. Many of those who were prepared to take advantage of the charterwere of the best stock in England, men of brains and substance as well aspiety; graduates of the Universities, country gentlemen, men of the worldand of affairs. A colony made of such elements would be a new thing in theearth; it would comprise all that was strong and wise in human society, and would exclude every germ of weakness and frailty. The sealing of thecharter was like the touching of the electric button which, in our day, sets in motion for the first time a vast mechanical system, or fires asimultaneous salute of guns in a hundred cities. King Charles I. , who wasto lose his anointed head on the block because he tried to crush popularliberty in England, was the immediate human instrument of giving thepurest form of such liberty to English exiles beyond the sea. 

The charter constituted an organization called the Governor and Companyof Massachusetts Bay in New England. The governor, annually elected by themembers, was assisted by a deputy and assistants, and was to call abusiness meeting monthly or oftener, and in addition was to preside fourtimes a year at an assembly of the whole body of the freemen, to make lawsand determine appointments. Freedom of Puritan worship was assured, inpart explicitly, in part tacitly. The king had no direct relation withtheir proceedings, beyond the general and vague claims of royalprerogative; and it was an open question whether Parliament had the powerto override the authority of the patentees. 

It will be seen that this charter was in no respect inharmonious with thesystem of self-government which had grown up among the Plymouth colonists;it was a more complete and definite formulation of principles which mustever be supported by men who wish so to live as to obtain the highestsocial and religious welfare. It was the stately flowering of a seedalready obscurely planted, and though it was to be now and again checkedin its development, would finally bear the fruit of the Tree of Life. 

CHAPTER THIRD

THE SPIRIT OF THE PURITANS

Among the characteristic figures of this age, none shows strongerlineaments than that of John Endicott. He was, at the time of his comingto Massachusetts, not yet forty years of age; he remained there till hisdeath at six-and-seventy. He was repeatedly elected governor, and died inthe governor's chair. In 1645 he was made Major-general of the Colonialtroops; nine years before he had headed a campaign against the PequotIndians. His character illustrated the full measure of Puritan sternness;he was an inflexible persecutor of the Quakers, and was instrumental incausing four of them to be executed in Boston. In his career is found nofeeble passage; he was always Endicott. He was a man grown before heattained, under the ministrations of Samuel Skelton of Cambridge, inEngland, the religious awakening which placed him in the forefront of thePuritan dissenters of his time; and it may be surmised that the force ofnature which gave him his self-command would, otherwise directed, haveopened still wider the gates of license and recklessness which marked theconduct of many in that period. But, having taken his course, hedisciplined himself to the strictest observances, and required them ofothers. He was a man of perfect moral and physical courage, austere andcholeric; yet there was in him a certain cheerfulness and kindliness, likesunshine touching the ruggedness of a granite bowlder. An old portrait ofhim presents a full and ruddy countenance, without a beard, and with largeeyes which gaze sternly out upon the beholder. When the MassachusettsCompany was formed, it contained many men of pith and mark, such asSaltonstall, Bellingham, Eaton, and others; but, by common consent, Endicott was chosen as the first governor of the new realm, and he sailedfor Boston harbor in June, 1628. He took with him his wife and children, and a small following of fit companions, and landed in September. 

Many tales are told of the doings of Endicott in Massachusetts. Likethose of all strong men, his deeds were often embellished with legendaryornaments, but the exaggerations, if such there be, are colored by a trueconception of his character. At the time of his advent, there was atMerrymount, or Mount Walloston, now within the boundaries of Quincy, nearBoston, a colony which was a survival of the one founded by Thomas Weston, through the agency of Thomas Morton, an English lawyer, who was more thanonce brought to book for unpuritanical conduct. Here was collected, in1628, a number of waifs and strays, and other persons, not in sympathywith the rigorous habits of the Puritans, whose proceedings were of a moreor less licentious and unbecoming quality, calculated to disturb the orderand propriety of the realm. Endicott, on being apprised of their behavior, went thither with some armed men, and put a summary end to the colony;Morton was sent back to England, and the "revelries" which he hadcountenanced or promoted were seen no more in Massachusetts. The era forgayeties had not yet come in the new world. Endicott would not besatisfied with crushing out evil; he would also nip in the bud all suchlightsome and frivolous conduct as might lead those who indulged in it toforget the dangers and difficulties attending the planting of the reformedfaith in the wilderness. 

More impressive yet is the story of how he resented the project of Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the most zealous supporter of the folliesand iniquities of King Charles, to force the ritual of the orthodox churchupon the people of Massachusetts. When Endicott received from GovernorWinthrop the letter containing this news, whose purport, it carried out, would undo all that the Puritans had most passionately labored toestablish; for which they had given up their homes and friends, and to thesafe-guarding of which they had pledged their lives, their fortunes, andtheir sacred honor:--he was deeply stirred, and resolved that a publicdemonstration should be made of the irrevocable opposition of the peopleto the measure. He was at that time captain of the trained band of Salem, which was used to meet for drill in the square of the little settlement. It had for a long time disquieted Endicott and other Puritan leaders thatthe banner of England, under which, as Englishmen, they must live andfight, should bear upon it the sign of the red cross, which was the veryemblem of the popery which their souls abhorred. It had seemed to themalmost a sin to tolerate it; and yet it was treason to take any libertieswith the national ensign. But Endicott was now in a mood to encounter anyrisk; since, if Laud's will were enforced, there would be little left inNew England worth fighting for. 

Accordingly, on the next training day, when the able men of Salem weredrawn up in their breastplates and headpieces, with the Red-Cross flagfloating over them, and the rest of the townspeople, with here and therean Indian among them, looking on: Endicott, in his armor, with his swordupon his thigh, spoke in passionate terms to the assembly of the matterwhich weighed upon his heart. And then, as a symbol of the Puritanprotest, and a pledge of his vital sincerity, he took the banner in hishand, and, drawing his sword, cut the cross out of its folds. Theunparalleled audacity and rashness of this act, which might have broughtupon New England a revocation of her charter and destruction of theliberties which already exceeded those vouchsafed to Englishmen at home, alarmed Winthrop, and sent a thrill throughout the colony. But the deedwas too public to be disavowed, and Endicott and they must abide theconsequences. Information of the outrage was carried to Charles; but hewas fortunately too much preoccupied at the moment with the struggle forhis crown at home to be able to take proper action upon the slight putupon his authority in Salem. No punishment was inflicted upon the boldsoldier, who thus anticipated by nearly a century and a half the stepfinally taken by the patriots of 1776. 

To return, however, to Endicott's arrival in Boston (as it was afterwardnamed, in honor of that Lincolnshire Boston from which many of theemigrants came). There were already a few settlers there, who had come infrom various motives, and one or two of whom were inclined to assertsquatter sovereignty. The rights of the Indians were respected, inaccordance with the injunctions of the Company; and Sagamore John, whoasserted his rights as chief over the neck of land and the hillypromontory of the present city, was so courteously entreated that hepermitted the erection of a house there, and the laying out of streets. While these preparations were going forward, the bulk of the firstemigration, numbering two hundred persons, with servants, cattle, arms andother provisions, entered the harbor. They had had a prosperous and piousvoyage, being much refreshed with religious services performed daily; andit may be recorded as perhaps a unique fact in the annals of oceannavigation that the ship captain and the sailors punctuated the setting ofthe morning and noon watches with the singing of psalms and with prayer. This sounds apocryphal; but it is stated in the narrative of "NewEngland's Plantation, " written and circulated by Mr. Higginson soon aftertheir arrival; and it must be remembered that the ship carried a supply ofpersonages of the clerical profession out of proportion to the number ofthe rest of the passengers. But palliate the marvel how we may, we cannothelp smiling at it, and at the same time regretting that the Puritansthemselves probably had no realization of the miracle which wastransacting under their noses. They doubtless regarded it as a matter ofcourse, instead of a thing to occur but once in a precession of theequinoxes. 

And now, it might be supposed, began the building of the city: theclearing of the forest, the chopping of wood, the sawing of beams, thedigging of foundations, the ringing of hammers, and the uprising on everyside of the dwellings of civilization. And certainly steps were taken toprovide the company with shelter from the present summer heats and fromthe snows of winter to come; and they had brought with them artisansskilled to do the necessary work. But though the Puritans never could becalled remiss in respect of making due provision for the necessities ofthis life, yet all was done with a view to the conditions of the life tocome; and in the annals of the time we read more of the prayers and fasts, the choosing of ministers, and the promotion and practice of godliness ingeneral, than we do of any temporal matters. Men there were, likeEndicott, who united the strictest religious zeal with all manner ofpractical abilities; but there were many, too, who had been no moreaccustomed to shift for themselves than were the gentlemen of Jamestown. They differed from the latter, however, in an enlightened conception ofthe work before them, in enthusiasm for the commonweal, and indetermination to familiarize themselves as soon as possible with therequirements of their situation. The town did not come up in a night, likethe shanty cities of our western pioneers; nor did it contain gamblinghouses and liquor saloons as its chief public buildings. These men werebuilding a social structure meant to last for all time, and houses inwhich they hoped to pass the years of their natural lives; and theyproceeded with what we would now consider unwarrantable deliberation andwith none too much technical skill. They sought neither wealth nor theluxuries it brings; but, rather, welcomed hardship, as apt to chasten thespirit; and never felt themselves so thoroughly about their properbusiness as when they were assembled in the foursquare little log hutwhich they had consecrated as the house of God. Boston and Salem grew:they were larger and more commodious at the end of the twelvemonth thanthey had been at its beginning; but more cannot be said. Sickness, misfortune, and scarcity handicapped the settlers; many died; the yield oftheir crops was wholly inadequate to their needs; servants whose work wasindispensable could not be paid, and were set free to work for themselves, and the outlook was in all respects gloomy. If the enterprise was to besaved, the Lord must speedily send succor. 

The Lord did not forget His people. A great relief was already preparingfor them, and the way of it was thus. --

The record of the former chartered companies had shown that conductingthe affairs of colonists on the other side of the ocean was attended withserious difficulties on both parts. The colonists could not make theirneeds known with precision enough, or in season, to have them adequatelymet; and the governing company was unable to get a close knowledge of itsbusiness, or to explain and enforce its requirements. Furthermore, therewas liable to be continual vexatious interference on the part of the kingand his officers, detrimental to the welfare of colonists and companyalike. 

The men who constituted the Massachusetts Company were not concernedrespecting the pecuniary profits of the venture, inasmuch as they lookedonly for the treasures which moth nor rust can corrupt; their "plantation"was to the glory of God, not to the imbursement of man. Nor were theyanxious to impose their will upon the emigrants, or solicitous lest thelatter should act unseemly; for the men who were there were of the samecharacter and aim as those who were in England, and there could be nodifferences between them beyond such as might legitimately arise as to themost expedient way of reaching a given end. But the Company could easilyapprehend that the king and his ministers might meddle with their projectsand bring them to naught; and since those affairs, unlike mercantile ones, were not of a nature to admit of compromise, they earnestly desired toprevent this contingency. 

Debating the matter among themselves, the leaders of the organizationconceived the idea of establishing the headquarters of the Company in themidst of the emigrants in America: of becoming, in other words, emigrantsthemselves, and working side by side with their brethren for the commongood. This plan offered manifest attractions; it would remove them fromunwelcome propinquity to the Court, would be of great assistance to thework to do which the Company was formed, would give them the satisfactionof feeling that they were giving their hands as well as their hearts tothe service of God, and, not least, would give notice to all the Puritansin England, now a great and influential body, that America was the mostsuitable ground for their earthly sojourning. 

These considerations determined them; and it remained only to put theplan into execution. Twelve men of wealth and education, eminent amongwhom was John Winthrop, the future governor of the little commonwealth, met and exchanged solemn vows that, if the transference could legally beaccomplished, they would personally voyage to New England and take uptheir permanent residence there. The question was shortly after put to thegeneral vote, and unanimously agreed to; a commercial corporation (asostensibly the Company was) created itself the germ of an independentcommonwealth; and on October 20th John Winthrop was chosen governor forthe ensuing twelvemonth; money was subscribed to defray expenses; asspeedily as possible ships were chartered or purchased; the numbers of themembers of the Company were increased, and their resources augmented, bythe addition of many outside persons in harmony with the movement, andwilling to support it with their fortunes and themselves; and by the earlyspring of 1630 a fleet of no less than seventeen ships, accommodatingnearly a thousand emigrants representing the very best blood and brain ofEngland, was ready to sail. 

At the moment of departing, there was a quailing of the spirit on thepart of some of the emigrants; but Winthrop comforted them; he told themthat they must "keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace"; that, in the wilderness, they would see more of God than they could in England;and that their plantation should be of such a quality as that the foundersof future plantations should pray that "The Lord make it likely that ofNew England. " These were good words. Nevertheless, there were not a fewseceders, and it was not till the year had advanced that the full numberof vessels found their way to the port of Boston. But eleven ships, including the Arbella which bore Winthrop, sailed at once, with sevenhundred men and women, and every appliance that experience and forethoughtcould suggest for the convenience and furtherance of life in a newcountry. Their going made a deep impression throughout England. 

And well it might! For these people were not unknown and rude, like thePlymouth Pilgrims; they were not fiercely intolerant fanatics, whosesincerity might be respected, but whose company must be irksome to allless extreme than themselves. They were of gentle blood and training;persons whose acquaintance was a privilege; who added to the richness andcharm of social life. That people of this kind should remove themselves tothe wilderness meant much more, to the average mind, than that religiousoutcasts like the Pilgrims should do so. For the latter, one place mightbe as good as another; but that the others should give up their homes andtraditions for the hardships and isolation of such an existence seemedincomprehensible; and when no other motive could be found than that whichthey professed--"the honor of God"--grave thoughts could not but beawakened. The sensation was somewhat the same as if, in our day, a hundredthousand of the most favorably known and highly endowed persons in thecountry were to remove to Chinese Tartary to escape from the corruptionand frivolity of business and social life, and to create an idealcommunity in the desert. We could smile at such a hegira if Tom, Dick andHarry were concerned in it; but if the men and women of light and leadingabandon us, the implied indictment is worth heeding. 

The personal character and nature of Winthrop are well known, and mayserve as a type for the milder aspect of his companions. He was of agentle and conciliating temper, affectionate, and prizing the affection ofothers. There was a certain sweetness about him, a tendency to mildjoyousness, a desire to harmonize all conflicts, a disposition to thinkgood, that good might come of it. He was indisposed to violence in opinionas much as in act; he believed that love was the fulfilling of the law, and would dissolve opposition to the law, if it were allowed time andopportunity. His cultivated intellect recognized a certain inevitableness, or preordained growth in mortal affairs, which made him sympathetic eventoward those who differed from him, for did they not use the best lightthey had? He conformed to the English church, and yet he absented himselffrom England, not being willing to condemn the orthodox ritual, yetfeeling that the Gospel in its purity could be more intimately enjoyed inAmerica. He was no believer in the theory of democratic equality; itseemed to him contrary to natural order; there were degrees and gradationsin all things, men included; there were those fitted to govern, and thosefitted to serve; power should be in the hands of the few, but they shouldbe "the wisest of the best. " He had no doubts as to the obligations ofloyalty to the King, and yet he gave up home and ease to live where theKing was a sentiment rather than a fact. But beneath all this engagingsoftness there was strength in Winthrop; the fiber of him was fine, but itwas of resolute temper. Simple goodness is one of the mightiest of powers, and he was good in all simplicity. He could help his servants in thehumblest household drudgery, and yet preserve the dignity befitting theGovernor of the people. He was not a man to be bullied or terrified, buthis wisdom and forbearance disarmed an enemy, and thus removed all need offighting him. He dominated those around him spontaneously andinvoluntarily; they, as it were, insisted upon being led by him, andcommanded him to exact their obedience. His influence was purifying, encouraging, uplifting, and upon the whole conservative; had he lived ahundred years later, he would not have been found by the side of Adams, Patrick Henry, and James Otis. Sympathy and courtesy made him seemyielding; yet, like a tree that bends to the breeze, he still maintainedhis place, and was less changeable than many whose stubbornness did notprevent their drifting. His insight and intelligence may have enabled himto foresee to what a goal the New England settlers were bound; but thoughhe would have sympathized with them, he would not have been swayed to jointhem. As it was, he wrought only good to them, for they were in theformative stage, when moderation helps instead of hindering. He mediatedbetween the state they were approaching, and that from which they came, and he died before the need of alienating himself from them arrived. Hisresoluteness was shown in his resistance to Anne Hutchinson and hersupporter, Sir Harry Vane, who professed the heresy that faith absolvedfrom obedience to the moral law; they were forced to quit the colony; andso was Roger Williams, as lovely as and in some respects a loftiercharacter than Winthrop. In reviewing the career of this distinguished andengaging man, we are surprised that he should have found it on hisconscience to leave England. Endicott was born to subdue the wilderness, and so was many another of the Puritans; but it seems as if Winthrop mighthave done and said in King Charles's palace all that he did and said inMassachusetts, without offense. But it is probable that his moderationappears greater in the primitive environment than it would have done inthe civilized one; and again, the impulse to restrain others from excessmay have made him incline more than he would otherwise have done towardthe other side. 

But tradition has too much disposed us to think of the Puritans as of menwho had thrown aside all human tenderness and sympathy, and were sternlyand gloomily preoccupied with the darker features of religion exclusively. Winthrop corrects this judgment; he was a Puritan, though he was sunny andgentle; and there were many others who more or less resembled him. Thereason that the somber type is the better known is partly because of itsgreater picturesqueness and singularity, and partly because the early lifeof New England was on the whole militant and aggressive, and thereforebrought the rigid and positive qualities more prominently forward. 

It would be difficult to exaggerate the piety of the dominating powers inMassachusetts during the first years of the colony's existence. It wasalmost a mysticism. That intimate and incommunicable experience which issometimes called "getting religion"--the Lord knocking at the door of theheart and being admitted--was made the condition of admission to theresponsible offices of government. This was to make God the ruler, throughinstruments chosen by Himself--theoretically a perfect arrangement, but inpractice open to the gravest perils. It not merely paved the way toimposture, but invited it; and the most dangerous imposture is that whichimposes on the impostor himself. It created an oligarchy of the mostinsidious and unassailable type: a communion of earthly "saints, " whomight be, and occasionally were, satans at heart. It is essentially atvariance with democracy, which it regards as a surrender to the selfishlicense of the lowest range of unregenerate human nature; and yet it isincompatible with hereditary monarchy, because the latter is based onuninspired or mechanical selection. The writings of Cotton Mather exhibitthe peculiarities and inconsistencies of Puritanism in the most favorableand translucent light, for Mather was himself wedded to them, and of amost inexhaustible fertility in their exposition. 

Winthrop was responsible for the "Oath of Fidelity, " which required itstaker to suffer no attempt to change or alter the government contrary toits laws; and for the law excluding from the freedom of the body politicall who were not members of its church communion. The people, however, stipulated that the elections should be annual, and each town chose tworepresentatives to attend the court of assistants. But having thusasserted their privileges, they forbore to interfere with the judgment oftheir leaders, and maintained them in office. The possible hostility ofEngland, the strangeness and dangers of their surroundings in America, andthe appalling prevalence of disease and mortality among them, possiblydrove them to a more than normal fervor of piety. Since God was somanifestly their only sword and shield, and was reputed to be so terribleand implacable in His resentments, it behooved them to omit no means ofconciliating His favor. 

Winthrop found anything but a land flowing with milk and honey, when hearrived at Salem, where the ships first touched. As when, twenty yearsbefore, Delaware came to Jamestown, the people were on the verge ofstarvation, and it was necessary to send a vessel back to England forsupplies. There were acute suffering and scarcity all along the NewEngland coast, and though the spirit of resignation was there, it seemedlikely that there would be soon little flesh left through which tomanifest it. The physical conditions were intolerable. The hovels in whichthe people were living were wretched structures of rough logs, roofed withstraw, with wooden chimneys and narrow and darksome interiors. They werepatched with bark and rags; many were glad to lodge themselves in tentsdevised of fragments of drapery hung on a framework of boughs. Thesettlement was in that transition state between crude wilderness andpioneer town, when the appearance is most repulsive and disheartening. There is no order, uniformity, or intelligent procedure. There is a clumpof trees of the primeval forest here, the stumps and litter of a half-madeclearing there, yonder a patch of soil newly and clumsily planted; wigwamsand huts alternate with one another; men are digging, hewing, running tohead back straying cattle, toiling in with fragments of game on theirshoulders; yonder a grave is being dug in the root-encumbered ground, andhard by a knot of mourners are preparing the corpse for interment. Thereis no rest or comfort anywhere for eye or heart. The only approximatelydecent dwelling in Salem at this time was that of John Endicott. Higginsonwas dying of a fever. Lady Arbella, who had accompanied her husband, IsaacJohnson, had been ailing on the voyage, and lingered here but a littlewhile before finding a grave. In a few months two hundred personsperished. It was no place for weaklings--or for evil-doers either; amongthe earliest of the established institutions were the stocks and thewhipping-post, and they were not allowed to stand idle. 

Winthrop and most of the others soon moved on down the coast towardBoston. It had been the original intention to keep the emigrants in onebody, but that was found impracticable; they were forced to divide up intosmall parties, who settled where they best could, over an area of fifty ora hundred miles. Nantasket, Watertown, Charlestown, Saugus, Lynn, Maiden, Roxbury, all had their handfuls of inhabitants. It was exile within exile;for miles meant something in these times. More than a hundred of theemigrants, cowed by the prospect, deserted the cause and returned toEngland. Yet Winthrop and the other leaders did not lose heart, and theircourage and tranquillity strengthened the others. It is evidence of theindomitable spirit of these people that one of their first acts was toobserve a day of fasting and prayer; a few days later the members of thecongregation met and chose their pastor, John Wilson, and organized thefirst Church of Boston. They did not wait to build the house of God, butmet beneath the trees, or gathered round a rock which might serve thepreacher as a pulpit. There was simplicity enough to satisfy the mostconscientious. "We here enjoy God and Jesus Christ, " wrote Winthrop: "I donot repent my coming: I never had more content of mind. "

After a year there were but a thousand settlers in Massachusetts. Amongthem was Roger Williams, a man so pure and true as of himself to hallowthe colony; but it is illustrative of the intolerance which was from thefirst inseparable from Puritanism, that he was driven away because he heldconscience to be the only infallible guide. We cannot blame the Puritans;they had paid a high price for their faith, and they could not but guardit jealously. Their greatest peril seemed to them to be dissension ordisagreements on points of belief; except they held together, their wholecause was lost. Williams was no less an exile for conscience' sake thanthey; but as he persisted in having a conscience strictly his own, insteadof pooling it with that of the church, they were constrained to let himgo. They did not perceive, then or afterward, that such action arguedfeeble faith. They could not, after all, quite trust God to take care ofHis own; they dared not believe that He could reveal Himself to others aswell as to them; they feared to admit that they could have less than thewhole truth in their keeping. So they banished, whipped, pilloried, andfinally even hanged dissenters from their dissent. We, whose religioustolerance is perhaps as excessive as theirs was deficient, are slow toexcuse them for this; but they believed they were fighting for much morethan their lives; and as for faith in God, it is surely no worse to fallinto error regarding it than to dismiss it altogether. 

In a community where the integrity of the church was the main subject ofconcern, it could not be long before religious conservatism would bereflected in the political field. Representative government was concededin theory; but in practice, Winthrop and others thought that it would bebetter ignored; the people could not easily meet for deliberations, andhow could their affairs be in better hands than those of the saints, whoalready had charge of them? But the people declined to surrender theirliberties; there should be rotation in office; voting should be by ballotinstead of show of hands. Taxation was restricted; and in 1635 there wasagitation for a written constitution; and the relative authority of thedeputies and the assistants was in debate. Our national predisposition to"talk politics" had already been born. 

Among these early inconsistencies and disagreements Roger Williams stoodout as the sole fearless and logical figure. Consistency and bravery werefar from being his only good qualities; in drawing his portrait, thedifficulty is to find shadows with which to set off the lights of hischaracter. The Puritans feared the world, and even their own constancy;Williams feared nothing; but he would reverence and obey his conscience asthe voice of God in his breast, before which all other voices must behushed. He was not only in advance of his time: he was abreast of anytimes; nothing has ever been added to or detracted from his argument. WhenJohn Adams wrote to his son, John Quincy Adams, "Your conscience is theMinister Plenipotentiary of God Almighty placed in your breast: see to itthat this minister never negotiates in vain, " he did but attire in thediplomatic phraseology which came naturally to him the thought whichWilliams had avouched and lived more than a century before. Thoughabsolutely radical, Williams was never an extremist; he simply went to thefountain-head of reason and truth, and let the living waters flow whitherthey might. The toleration which he demanded he always gave; of those whohad most evilly entreated him he said, "I did ever from my soul honor andlove them, even when their judgment led them to afflict me. " His long lifewas one of the most unalloyed triumphs of unaided truth and charity thatour history records; and the State which he founded presented, during hislifetime, the nearest approach to the true Utopia which has thus far beenproduced. 

Roger Williams was a Welshman, born in 1600, and dying, in the communitywhich he had created, eighty-five years later. His school was the famousCharterhouse; his University, Cambridge; and he took orders in the Churchof England. But the protests of the Puritans came to his ears before hewas well installed; and he examined and meditated upon them with all thequiet power of his serene and penetrating mind. It was not long before hesaw that truth lay with the dissenting party; and, like Emerson longafterward, he at once left the communion in which he had thought to spendhis life. He came to Massachusetts in 1631, and, as we have seen, was notlong in discovering that he was more Puritan than the Puritans. Whendifferences arose, he departed to the Plymouth Colony, and there abode forseveral useful years. 

But though the men of Boston and Salem feared him, they loved him andrecognized his ability; indeed, they never could rid themselves of anuneasy sense that in all their quarrels it was he who had the best of theargument; they were often reduced to pleading necessity or expediency, when he replied with plain truth. He responded to an invitation to returnto Salem, in 1633, by a willing acceptance; but no sooner had he arrivedthan a discussion began which continued until he was for the second andfinal time banished in 1636. The main bone of contention was the right ofthe church to interfere in state matters. He opposed theocracy asprofaning the holy peace of the temple with the warring of civil parties. The Massachusetts magistrates were all church members, which Williamsdeclared to be as unreasonable as to make the selection of a pilot or aphysician depend upon his proficiency in theology. He would not admit thewarrant of magistrates to compel attendance at public worship; it was aviolation of natural right, and an incitement to hypocrisy. "But the shipmust have a pilot, " objected the magistrates, "And he holds her to hercourse without bringing his crew to prayer in irons, " was Williams'srejoinder. "We must protect our people from corruption and punish heresy, "said they. "Conscience in the individual can never become public property;and you, as public trustees, can own no spiritual powers, " answered he. "May we not restrain the church from apostasy?" they asked. He replied, "No: the common peace and liberty depend upon the removal of the yoke ofsoul-oppression. "

The magistrates were perplexed, and doubtful what to do. Laud in Englandwas menacing them with episcopacy, and they, as a preparation forresistance, decreed that all freemen must take an oath of allegiance toMassachusetts instead of to the King. Williams, of course, abhorredepiscopacy as much as they did; but he would not concede the right toimpose a compulsory oath. A deputation of ministers was sent to Salem toargue with him: he responded by counseling them to admonish themagistrates of their injustice. He was cited to appear before the staterepresentatives to recant; he appeared, but only to affirm that he wasready to accept banishment or death sooner than be false to hisconvictions. Sentence of banishment was thereupon passed against him, buthe was allowed till the ensuing spring to depart; meanwhile, however, theinfection of his opinions spreading in Salem, a warrant was sent to summonhim to embark for England; but he, anticipating this step, was already onhis way through the winter woods southward. 

The pure wine of his doctrine was too potent for the iron-headedPuritans. But it was their fears rather than their hearts that dismissedhim; those who best knew him praised him most unreservedly; and evenCotton Mather admitted that he seemed "to have the root of the matter inhim. "

Williams's journey through the pathless snows and frosts of anexceptionally severe winter is one of the picturesque and impressiveepisodes of the times. During more than three months he pursued his lonelyand perilous way; hollow trees were a welcome shelter; he lacked fire, food and guides. But he had always pleaded in behalf of the Indians; hehad on one occasion denied the validity of a royal grant unless it werecountersigned by native proprietors; and during his residence in Plymouthhe had learned the Indian language. All this now stood him in good stead. The man who was outcast from the society of his white brethren, becausehis soul was purer and stronger than theirs, was received and ministeredunto by the savages; he knew their ways, was familiar in their wigwams, championed their rights, wrestled lovingly with their errors, mediated intheir quarrels, and was idolized by them as was no other of his race. Pokanoket, Massasoit and Canonicus were his hosts and guardians during thewinter and spring; and in summer he descended the river in a birch-barkcanoe to the site of the present city of Providence, so named by him inrecognition of the Divine mercies; and there he pitched his tent besidethe spring, hoping to make the place "a shelter for persons distressed forconscience. "

His desire was amply fulfilled. The chiefs of the Narragansetts deededhim a large tract of land; oppressed persons locked to him for comfort andsuccor, and never in vain; a republic grew up based on liberty ofconscience, and the civil rule of the majority: the first in the world. Orthodoxy and heresy were on the same footing before him; he trusted truthto conquer error without aid of force. Though he ultimately withdrew fromall churches, he founded the first Baptist church in the new world; hetwice visited England, and obtained a charter for his colony in 1644. Williams from first to last sat on the Opposition Bench of life; and wesay of him that he was hardly used by those who should most have honoredhim. Yet it is probable that he would have found less opportunity to dogood at either an earlier or a later time. Critics so keen and unrelentingas he never find favor with the ruling powers; he would have been at leastas "impossible" in the Nineteenth Century as he was in the Seventeenth;and we would have had no Rhode Island to give him. We can derive morebenefit from his arraignment of society two hundred and fifty years agothan we should were he to call us to account to-day, because no resentmentmingles with our intellectual appreciation: our withers seem to beunwrung. The crucifixions of a former age are always denounced by thosewho, if the martyr fell into their hands, would be the first to nail himto the cross. 

But the Puritanism of Williams, and that of those who banished him, wereas two branches proceeding from a single stem; their differences, whichwere the type of those that created two parties in the community, were theinevitable result of the opposition between the practical and thetheoretic temperaments. This opposition is organic; it is irreconcilable, but nevertheless wholesome; both sides possess versions of the same truth, and the perfect state arises from the contribution made by both to thecommon good--not from their amalgamation, or from a compromise betweenthem, Williams's community was successful, but it was successful, on thelines he laid down, only during its minority; as its population increased, civil order was assured by a tacit abatement of the right of individualindependence, and by the insensible subordination of particular to generalinterests. In Massachusetts, on the other hand, which from the firstinclined to the practical view--which recognized the dangers surroundingan organization weak in physical resources, but strong in spiritualconviction, and which, by reason of the radical nature of thoseconvictions, was specially liable to interference from the settled powerof orthodoxy:--in Massachusetts there was a diplomatic tendency in thework of building up the commonwealth. The integrity of Williams's logicwas conceded, but to follow it out to its legitimate conclusions wasdeemed inconsistent with the welfare and continuance of the popularinstitutions. The condemnation of dissenters from dissent sounded unjust;but it was the alternative to the more far-reaching injustice of sufferingthe structure which had been erected with such pains and sacrifice to fallto pieces just when it was attaining form and character. The time foruniversal toleration might come later, when the vigor and solidity of thenucleus could no longer be vitiated by fanciful and transient vagaries. The right of private judgment carried no guarantee comparable with thatwhich attached to the sober and tested convictions of the harmonious bodyof responsible citizens. 

When, therefore, the young Henry Vane, coming to Boston with the prestigeof aristocratic birth and the reputation of liberal opinions, was electedGovernor in 1635, and presently laid down the principle that "Ishmaelshall dwell in the presence of his brethren, " he at once met withopposition; and he and Anne Hutchinson, and other visionaries andenthusiasts, were made to feel that Boston was no place for them. Yet atthe same time there was a conflict between the body of the freemen and themagistrates as to the limits and embodiments of the governing power; themagistrates contended that there were manifest practical advantages inlife appointments to office, and in the undisturbed domination of men ofapproved good life and intellectual ability; the people replied that allthat might be true, but they would still insist upon electing anddismissing whom they pleased. Thus was inadvertently demonstrated theinvincible security of democratic principles; the masses are alwayswilling to agree that the best shall rule, but insist that they, themultitude, and not any Star Chamber, no matter how impeccable, shalldecide who the best are. Herein alone is safety. The masses, of course, are not actuated by motives higher than those of the select few; but theirimpartiality cannot but be greater, because, assuming that each voter hasin view his personal welfare, their ballots must insure the welfare of themajority. And if the welfare of the majority be God's will, then the truthof the old Latin maxim, Vox Populi vox Dei, is vindicated without anyrecourse to mysticism. The only genuine Aristocracy, or Rule of the Best, must in other words be the creation not of their own will and judgment, but of those of the subjects of their administration. 

The political experiments and vicissitudes of these early times are ofvastly greater historical importance than are such external episodes, as, for example, the Pequot war in 1637. A whole tribe was exterminated, andthereby, and still more by the heroic action of Williams in preventing, byhis personal intercession, an alliance between the Pequots and theNarragansetts, the white colonies were preserved. But beyond this, theaffair has no bearing upon the development of the American idea. Duringthese first decades, the most profound questions of national statesmanshipwere discussed in the assemblies of the Massachusetts Puritans, with anacumen and wisdom which have never been surpassed. The equity and solidityof most of their conclusions are extraordinary; the intellectual abilityof the councilors being purged and exalted by their ardent religiousfaith. The "Body of Liberties, " written out in 1641 by Nathaniel Ward, handles the entire subject of popular government in a masterly manner. Itwas a Counsel of Perfection molded, by understanding of the prevailingconditions, into practical form. The basis of its provisions was theprimitive one which is traced back to the time when the Anglo-Saxon tribesmet to choose their chiefs or to decide on war or other matters of generalconcern. It was the basis suggested by nature; for, as the chief historianof these times has remarked, freedom is spontaneous, but the artificialdistinctions of rank are the growth of centuries. Lands, according to thisinstrument, were free and alienable; the freemen of a corporation heldthem, but claimed no right of distribution. There should be no monopolies:no wife-beating: no slavery "Except voluntary": ministers as well asmagistrates should be chosen by popular vote. Authority was given toapproved customs; the various towns or settlements constituting thecommonwealth were each a living political organism. No combination ofchurches should control any one church:--such were some of the provisions. The colonies were availing themselves of the unique opportunity affordedby their emancipation, in the wilderness, from the tyranny and obstructionof old-world traditions and licensed abuses. 

By the increasing body of their brethren in England, meanwhile, NewEngland was looked upon as a sort of New Jerusalem, and letters from theleaders were passed from hand to hand like messages from saints. Up to thetime when Charles and Laud were checked by Parliament, the tide ofemigration set so strongly toward the American shores that measures weretaken by the King to arrest it; by 1638, there were in New England morethan twenty-one thousand colonists. The rise of the power of Parliamentstopped the influx; but the succeeding twenty years of peace gave themuch-needed chance for quiet and well-considered growth and development. The singular prudence and foresight of Winthrop and others in authority, during this interregnum, was showed by their declining to accept certainapparent advantages proffered them in love and good faith by their Englishfriends. A new patent was offered them in place of their royal charter;but the colonists perceived that the reign of Parliament was destined tobe temporary, and wisely refused. Other suggestions, likely to lead tofuture entanglements, were rejected; among them, a proposition fromCromwell that they should all come over and occupy Ireland. This is ascurious as that other alleged incident of Cromwell and Hampden having beenstopped by Laud when they had embarked for New England, and being forcedto remain in the country which soon after owed to them its freedom fromkingly and episcopal tyranny. 

Material prosperity began to show itself in the new country, now that thefirst metaphysical problems were in the way of settlement. In Salem theywere building ships, cotton was manufactured in Boston; the export tradein furs and other commodities was brisk and profitable. The EnglishParliament passed a law exempting them from taxes. After so muchadversity, fortune was sending them a gleam of sunshine, and they weremaking their hay. But something of the arrogance of prosperity must alsobe accredited to them; the Puritans were never more bigoted and intolerantthan now. The persecution of the Quakers is a blot on their fame, onlysurpassed by the witchcraft cruelties of the concluding years of thecentury. Mary Dyar, and the men Robinson, Stephenson and Leddra wereexecuted for no greater crime than obtruding their unwelcome opinions, andoutraging the propriety of the community. The fate of Christison hung fora while in the balance; he was not less guilty than the others, and hedefied his judges; he told them that where they murdered one, ten otherswould arise in his place; the same words that had been heard many a timein England, when the Puritans themselves were on their trial. Neverthelessthe judges passed the sentence of death; but the people were disturbed bysuch bloody proceedings, and Christison was finally set free. It must notbe forgotten that the Quakers of this period were very different fromthose who afterward populated the City of Brotherly Love under Penn. Theywere fanatics of the most extravagant and incorrigible sort; loud-mouthed, frantic and disorderly; and instead of observing modesty in their garb, their women not seldom ran naked through the streets of horrified Boston, in broad daylight. They thirsted for persecution as ordinary persons dofor wealth or fame, and would not be satisfied till they had provokedpunishment. The granite wall of Puritanism seemed to exist especially forthem to dash themselves against it. Such persons can hardly be deemedsane; and it is of not the slightest importance what particular creed theyprofess. They are opposed to authority and order because they areauthority and order; in our day, we group such folk under the name, Anarchists; but, instead of hanging them as the Puritans did, we let themfroth and threaten, according to the policy of Roger Williams, until thelack of echoes leads them to hold their peace. 

Although slavery, or perpetual servitude, was forbidden by the statute, there were many slaves in New England, Indians and whites as well asnegroes. The first importation of the latter was in 1619, by the Dutch, itis said. No slave could be kept in bondage more than ten years; it wasstipulated that they were to be brought from Africa, or elsewhere, onlywith their own consent; and when, in 1638, it appeared that a cargo ofthem had been forcibly introduced, they were sent back to Africa. Prisoners of war were condemned to servitude; and, altogether, the feelingon the subject of human bondage appears to have been both less and morefastidious than it afterward became. There was no such indifference as wasshown in the Southern slave trade two centuries later, nor was there anyof the humanitarian fanaticism exhibited by the extreme Abolitionists ofthe years before the Civil War. It may turn out that the attitude of thePuritans had more common-sense in it than had either of the others. 

The great event of 1643 was the natural outcome of the growth andexpansion of the previous time. It was the federation of the four coloniesof Massachusetts, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut. Connecticut hadbeen settled in 1680, but it was not till six years afterward that a partyheaded by the renowned Thomas Hooker, the "Son of Thunder, " and one of themost judicious men of that age, journeyed from Boston with the deliberatepurpose of creating another commonwealth in the desert. Connecticut didnot offer assurances of a peaceful settlement; the Indians were numerousthere, and not well-disposed; and in the south, the Dutch of New Amsterdamwere complaining of an infringement of boundaries. These ominousconditions came to a head in the Pequot war; after which peace reigned formany years. A constitution of the most liberal kind was created by thesettlers, some of the articles of which led to a correspondence betweenHooker and Winthrop as to the comparative merits of magisterial andpopular governments. Unlearned men, however religious, if elected tooffice, must needs call in the assistance of the learned ministers, who, thus burdened with matters not rightly within their function, might err incounseling thereon. Of the people, the best part was always the least, andof that best, the wiser is the lesser. --This was Winthrop's position. Hooker replied that to allow discretion to the judge was the way totyranny. Seek the law at its mouth; it is free from passion, and shouldrule the rulers themselves; let the judge do according to the sentence ofthe law. In high matters, business should be done by a general council, chosen by all, as was the practice of the Jewish and other well-orderedstates. --This is an example of the political discussions of that day inNew England; both parties to it concerned solely to come at the truth, andfree from any selfish aim or pride. The soundness of Hooker's view may bededuced from the fact that the constitution of Connecticut (which differedin no essential respect from those of the other colonies) has survivedalmost unchanged to the present day. Statesmanship, during two and a halfcenturies, has multiplied details and improved the nicety of adjustments;but it has not discerned any principles which had not been seen withperfect distinctness by the clear and venerable eyes of the Puritanfathers. 

Eaton, another man of similar caliber, was the leading spirit in the NewHaven settlement, assisted by the Reverend Mr. Davenport; many of thecolonists were Second-Adventists, and they called the Bible theirStatute-Book. The date of their establishment was 1638. The incoherentpopulation of Rhode Island caused it to be excluded from the federation;but Williams, journeying to London, obtained a patent from the exiled butnow powerful Vane, and took as the motto of his government, "Amor VincetOmnia. " New Hampshire, which had been united to Massachusetts in 1641, could have no separate part in the new arrangement; and Maine, anindeterminate region, sparsely inhabited by people who had come to seeknot God, but fish in the western world, was not considered. The articlesof federation of the four Calvinist colonies aimed to provide mutualprotection against the Indians, against possible encroachment fromEngland, against Dutch and French colonists: they declared a league notonly for defense and offense, but for the promotion of spiritual truth andliberty. Nothing was altered in the constitutions of any of thecontracting parties; and an equitable system of apportioning expenses wasdevised. Each partner sent two delegates to the common council; allaffairs proper to the federation were determined by a three-fourths vote;a law for the delivery of fugitive slaves was agreed to; and thecommissioners of the other jurisdictions were empowered to coerce anymember of the federation which should break this contract. The title ofThe United Colonies of New England was bestowed upon the alliance. Thearticles were the work of a committee of the leading men in the country, such as Winthrop, Winslow, Haynes and Eaton; and the confederacy lastedforty years, being dissolved in 1684. 

It was a great result from an experiment begun only about a dozen yearsbefore. It was greater even, than its outward seeming, for it containedwithin itself the forces which should control the future. This country ismade up of many elements, and has been molded to no small extent bycircumstances hardly to be foreseen; but it seems incontestable that itwould never have endured, and continued to be the goal of all pilgrims whowish to escape from a restricted to a freer life, had not its corner-stonebeen laid, and its outline fixed, by these first colonists of New England. It has been calculated that in two hundred years the physical increase ofeach Puritan family was one thousand persons, dispersed over the territoryof the United States; and the moral influence which this posterity exertedon the various communities in which they fixed their abode is beyondcomputation. But had the Puritan fathers been as ordinary men: had theycome hither for ends of gain and aggrandizement: had they not been unitedby the most inviolable ties that can bind men--community in religiousfaith, brotherhood in persecution for conscience' sake, and an intense, inflexible enthusiasm for liberty--their descendants would have had nospiritual inheritance to disseminate. Many superficial changes have comeupon our society; there is an absence of a fixed national type; there aremany thousands of illiterate persons among us, and of those who are stillignorant of the true nature of democratic institutions; all the tongues ofEurope and of other parts of the world may be heard within our boundaries;there are great bodies of our citizens who selfishly pursue ends ofprivate enrichment and power, indifferent to the patent fact thatmultitudes of their fellows are thereby obstructed in the effort to earn alivelihood in this most productive country in the world; there are manywho have prostituted the name of statesmanship to the gratification ofpetty and transient ambitions: and many more who, relieved by the thriftof their ancestors from the necessity to win their bread, have renouncedall concern in the welfare of the state, and live trivial and empty lives:all this, and more, may be conceded. But such evil humors, be it repeated, are superficial, attesting the vigor, rather than the decay, of thecentral vitality. America still stands for an idea; there is in it animmortal soul. It was by the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay that this soulwas implanted; to inspire it was their work. They experienced therealities, they touched the core of things, us few men have ever done; forthey were born in an age when the world was awakening from the spiritualslumber of more than fifteen hundred years, and upon its bewildered eyeswas breaking the splendor of a great new light. The Puritans were theimmediate heirs of the Reformation (so called; it might more truly havebeen named the New Incarnation, since the outward modifications of visibleform were but the symptoms of a freshly-communicated informingintelligence). It transfigured them; from men sunk in the gross andsensual thoughts and aims of an irreligious and priest-ridden age--an agewhich ate and drank and slept and fought, and kissed the feet of popes, and maundered of the divine right of kings--from this sluggish degradationit roused and transfigured the Englishmen who came to be known asPuritans. It was a transfiguration, though its subjects were the uncouth, almost grotesque figures which chronicle and tradition have made familiarto us. For a people who were what the Puritans were before Puritanism, cannot be changed by the Holy Ghost into angels of light; their stubborncarnality will not evaporate like a mist; it clings to them, and being nowso discordant with the impulse within, an awkwardness and uncouthnessresult, which suggest some strange hybrid: to the eye and ear, they areunlovelier and harsher than they were before their illumination; butProvidence regards not looks; it knew what it was about when it chosethese men of bone and sinew to carry out its purposes. Once enlisted, theynever could be quelled, or seduced, or deceived, or wearied; they were infatal earnest, and faithful unto death, for they believed that God wastheir Captain. They had got a soul; they put it into their work, and it isin that work even to this day. 

It does not manifestly appear to our contemporary vision; it isoverloaded with the rubbish of things, as a Greek statue is covered withthe careless debris of ages; but, as the art of the sculptor is vindicatedwhen the debris has been removed, so will the fair proportions of theState conceived by the Puritans, and nourished and defended by their sons, declare themselves when in the maturity of our growth we have assimilatedwhat is good in our accretions, and disencumbered ourselves of what isvain. It is the American principle, and it will not down; it is a solventof all foreign substances; in its own way and time it dissipates allthings that are not harmonious with itself. No lesser or feebler principlewould have survived the tests to which this has been subjected; but thisis indestructible; even we could not destroy it if we would, for it is noinalienable possession of our own, but a gift from on High to the whole ofmankind. But let us piously and proudly remember that it was through thePuritans that the gift was made. Other nations than the English havecontributed to our substance and prosperity, and have yielded their bestblood to flow in our veins. They are dear to us as ourselves, as howshould they not be, since what, other than ourselves, are they? None theless is it true that what was worthiest and most unselfish in the impulsethat drove them hither was a reflection of the same impulse that actuatedthe Puritans when America was not the most powerful of republics, but awilderness. None of us all can escape from their greatness--from the debtwe owe them: not because they were Englishmen, not because they made NewEngland; but because they were men, inspired of God to make the earth freethat was in bondage. 

CHAPTER FOURTH

FROM HUDSON TO STUYVESANT

There are two scenes in the career of Henry Hudson which can never beforgotten by Americans. One is in the first week in September, 1609. Alittle vessel, of eighty tons, is lying on the smooth waters of a largeharbor. She has the mounded stern and bluff bows of the ships of that day;one of her masts has evidently been lately stepped; the North Americanpine of which it is made shows the marks of the ship-carpenter's ax, andthe whiteness of the fresh wood. The square sails have been rent, andmended with seams and patches; the sides and bulwarks of the vessel havebeen buffeted by heavy seas off the Newfoundland coast; the paint andvarnish which shone on them as she dropped down the reaches of the ZuyderZee from Amsterdam, five months ago, have become whitened with salt anddulled by fog and sun and driving spray. Across her stern, above therudder of massive oaken plank clamped with iron, is painted the name "HALFMOON, " in straggling letters. On her poop stands Henry Hudson, leaningagainst the tiller; beside him is a young man, his son; along the bulwarklounge the crew, half Englishmen, half Dutch; broad-beamed, salted tars, with pigtails and rugged visages, who are at home in Arctic fields and inEquatorial suns, and who now stare out toward the low shores to the northand west, and converse among themselves in the nameless jargon--the rudecompromise between guttural Dutch, and husky English--which has servedthem as a medium of communication during the long voyage. It is a goodharbor, they think, and a likely country. They are impatient for theskipper to let them go ashore, and find out what grows in the woods. 

Meanwhile the great navigator, supporting himself, with folded arms, against the creaking tiller, absorbs the scene through his deep-set eyesin silence. Many a haven had he visited in his time; he had been withinten degrees of the North Pole; he had seen the cliffs of Spitzbergen loomthrough the fog, and had heard the sound of Greenland glaciers breakinginto vast icebergs where they overhung the sea; he had lain in thethronged ports of the Netherlands, where the masts cluster like nakedforests, and the commerce of the world seethes and murmurs continually; hehad dropped anchor in quiet English harbors, under cool gray skies, withundulating English hills in the distance, and prosperous wharfs and busystreets in front. He had sweltered, no doubt, beneath the heights ofHong-Kong, amid a city of swarming junks; and further south had smelledthe breeze that blows through the straits of the Spice Islands. He knewthe surface of the earth, as a farmer knows his farm; but never, hethought, had he beheld a softer and more inviting prospect than this whichspread before him now, mellowed by the haze of the mild September morning. 

On all sides the shores were wooded to the water's edge: a giant forest, unbroken, dense and tall, flourishing from its own immemorial decay, matted with wild grape vine, choked with brush, wild as when the Creatormade it; untouched, since then. It was as remote--as lost to mankind--asit was beautiful. The hum and turmoil of the civilized world was like thememory of a dream in this tranquil region, where untrammeled nature hadworked her teeming will for centuries upon silent centuries. Here weresuch peace and stillness that the cry of the blue jay seemed audacious;the dive of a gull into the smooth water was a startling event. To theimaginative mind of Hudson this spot seemed to have been set apart byProvidence, hidden away behind the sandy reaches of the outer coast, sothat irreverent man, who turns all things to gain, might never discoverand profane its august solitudes. Here the search for wealth was never topenetrate; the only gold was in the tender sunshine, and in the foliage ofhere and there a giant tree, which the distant approach of winter waslulling into golden slumber. But then, with a sigh, he reflected that allthe earth was man's, and the fullness thereof; and that here too, perhaps, would one day appear clearings in the primeval forest, and other vesselswould ride at anchor, and huts would peep out from beneath theovershadowing foliage on the shores. But it was hard to conjure up such apicture; it was difficult to imagine so untamed a wilderness subdued, inever so small a degree, by the hand of industry and commerce. 

Northwestward, across the green miles of whispering leaves, the landappeared to rise in long, level bluffs, still thronged with serried trees;a great arm of the sea, a mile or two in breadth, extended east of north, and thither, the mariner dreamed, might lie the long-sought pathway to theIndies. A tongue of land, broadening as it receded, and swelling in lowundulations, divided this wide strait from a narrower one more to theeast. All was forest; and eastward still was more forest, stretchingseaward. Southward, the land was low--almost as low and flat as theNetherlands themselves; an unexplored immensity, whose fertile soil hadfor countless ages been hidden from the sun by the impervious shelter ofinterlacing boughs. No--never had Hudson seen a land of such enduringcharm and measureless promise as this: and here, in this citadel ofloneliness, which no white man's foot had ever trod, which, till then, only the eyes of the corsair Verrazano had seen, near a century before--here was to arise, like Aladdin's Palace, the metropolis of the westernworld; enormous, roaring, hurrying, trafficking, grasping, swarming withits millions upon millions of striving, sleepless, dauntless, exulting, despairing, aspiring human souls; the home of unbridled luxury, of abysmalpoverty, of gigantic industries, of insolent idleness, of genius, oflearning, of happiness and of misery; of far-reaching enterprise, ofpolitical glory and shame, of science and art; here human life was toreach its intensest, most breathless, relentless and insatiableexpression; here was to stand a city whose arms should reach westward overa continent, and eastward round the world; here were to thunder thestreets and tower the buildings and reek the chimneys and arch the bridgesand rumble the railways and throb the electric wires of American New York, the supreme product of Nineteenth Century civilization, radiant with thevirtues and grimy with the failings that mankind has up to this timedeveloped. 

On the 23d of June, two years later, Henry Hudson was the central figurein another scene. He sat in a small, open boat, hoary with frozen spray;he was muffled in the shaggy hide of a white bear, roughly fashioned intoa coat; a sailor's oilskin hat was drawn down over his brow, and beneathits rim his eyes gazed sternly out over a wide turbulence of gray waters, tossing with masses of broken ice. His dark beard was grizzled with frost;his cheeks were gaunt with the privations of a long, arctic winter spentamid endless snows, in darkness unrelieved, smitten by storms, strugglingwith savage beasts and harried by more inhuman men. He sat with his handat the helm; against his other shoulder leaned his son, his inseparablecompanion, now sinking into unconsciousness; the six rowers--the stanchcomrades who, with him, had been thrust forth to perish by the mutineers--plied their work heavily and hopelessly; their rigid jaws were set; nowords nor complaints broke from them, though was slowly settling roundtheir valiant hearts. Overhead brooded a somber vault of clouds; thecircle of the horizon, which seemed to creep in upon them, was oneunbroken sweep of icy dreariness, save where, to the southeast, the darkhull of the "Discovery, " and her pallid sails, rocked and leaned acrossthe sullen heave of the waters. She was bound for Europe; but whither isHudson bound?

His end befitted his life; he vanished into the unknown, as he had comefrom it. There is no record of the time or place of his birth, or of hisearly career, nor can any tell where lie his bones; we only know that hislimbs were made in England, and that the great inland sea, called afterhim, ebbs and flows above his grave. He first comes into the ken ofhistory, sailing on the seas, resolute to discover virgin straits andshores; and when we see him last, he is still toiling onward over thewaves, peering into the great mystery. Possibly, as has been suggested, hemay have been the descendant of the Hudson who was one of the founders ofthe Muscovy Company, in whose service the famous navigator afterwardvoyaged on various errands. It matters not; he lived, and did his work, and is no more; his strong heart burned within him; he saw what none hadseen; he triumphed, and he was overcome. But the doubt that shrouds hisend has given him to legend, and the thunder that rolls brokenly among thedark crags and ravines of the Catskills brings his name to the hearer'slips. 

The Dutch had had many opportunities offered to them to discover NewYork, before they accepted the services of Henry Hudson, who was willingto go out of his own country to find backers, so only that he might beafloat. Almost every year, from 1581 onward, the mariners of theNetherlands strove, by east and by west, to pass the barrier that Americainterposed between them and the Eastern trade they coveted. The Dutch EastIndia Company was the first trading corporation of Europe; and after thewar with Spain, during the twelve years' truce, the little country wasoverflowing with men eager to undertake any enterprise, and with money tofit them out. The Netherlands suddenly bloomed out the most prosperouscountry in the world. 

They would not be hurried; they took their time to think it over, asDutchmen will; but at length they conceived an immense project foracquiring all the trade, or the best part of it, of both the West and theEast. They studied the subject with the patient particularity of theirrace; they outclassed Spain on the seas, and they believed they couldstarve out her commerce. Some there were, however, who feared that infinding new countries they would lose their own; Europe was again in aturmoil, and they were again fighting Spain before New Amsterdam wasfounded. But meanwhile, in 1609, quite inadvertently, Henry Hudsondiscovered it for them at a moment when they supposed him to be battlingwith freezing billows somewhere north of Siberia. When he was stopped byNova Zembla ice, he put about and crossed the Atlantic to Nova Scotia, andso down the coast, as we have seen, to the Chesapeake, the Delaware, andfinally the Hudson. He told his tale in glowing words when he got back;but the Dutch merchants perhaps fancied he was spinning sailors' yarns, and heeded not his report till long after. 

Hudson, after passing the Narrows, anchored near the Jersey shore, andreceived a visit from some Indians with native commodities to exchange forknives and beads. They presented the usual Indian aspect as regarded dressand arms; but they wore ornaments of red copper under their feathermantles, and carried pipes of copper and clay. They were affable, butuntrustworthy, stealing what they could lay their hands on, and a few dayslater shooting arrows at a boatload of seamen from the ship, and killingone John Colman. Hudson went ashore, and was honored with dances andchants; upon the whole, the impression mutually created seems to have beenfavorable. An abundance of beans and oysters was supplied to the crew; andno doubt trade was carried on to the latter's advantage; we know thatyears afterward the whole of Manhattan Island was purchased of its ownersfor four-and-twenty dollars. The present inhabitants of New York Citycould not be so easily overreached. 

Hudson now began the first trip ever made by white men up the greatriver. How many millions have made it since! But he, at this gentlest timeof year, won with the magic not only of what he saw, but of the unknownthat lay before him--what must have been his sensations! As reach afterreach of the incomparable panorama spread itself out quietly before him, with its beauty of color, its majesty of form, its broad gleam of placidcurrent, the sheer lift of its brown cliffs, its mighty headlands settingtheir titanic shoulders across his path, its toppling pinnacles assumingthe likeness of giant visages, its swampy meadows and inlets, lovely withflowers and waving with rushes, its royal eagles stemming the pure airaloft, its fish leaping in the ripples--and then, as he sailed on, mutewith enchantment, the blue magnificence of the mountains soaringheavenward and melting into the clouds that hung about their summits--asall this multifarious beauty unfolded itself, Hudson may well have thoughtthat the lost Eden of the earth was found at last. And ere long, hedreamed, the vast walls through which the river moved would diverge andcease, like another Pillars of Hercules, and his ship would emerge intoanother ocean. It was verily a voyage to be remembered; and perhaps itreturned in a vision to his dimming eyes, that day he steered his openboat through the arctic surges of Hudson's Bay. 

For ten days or more he pressed onward before a southerly breeze, until, in the neighborhood of what now is Albany, it became evident that thePacific was not to be found in northern New York. He turned, therefore, and drifted slowly downward with the steady current, while the matchlesslines of the American autumn glowed every day more sumptuously from thefar-billowing woods. What sunrises and what sunsets dyed the waters withliquid splendor: what moons, let us hope, turned the glories of day intothe spiritual mysteries of fairyland! Hudson was not born for repose; hisfate was to sail unrestingly till he died; but as he passed down throughthis serene carnival of opulent nature, he may well have wished that here, after all voyages were done, his lot might finally be cast; he may wellhave wondered whether any race would be born so great and noble as tomerit the gift of such a river and such a land. 

He landed at various places on the way, and was always civilly andhospitably welcomed by the red men, who brought him their wild abundance, and took in return what he chose to give. The marvelous richness of thevegetation, and the vegetable decay of ages, had rendered the margins ofthe stream as deadly as they were lovely; fever lurked in every glade andbower, and serpents whose bite was death basked in the sun or crept amongthe rocks. All was as it had always been; the red men, living in the midstof nature, were a part of nature themselves; nothing was changed by theirpresence; they altered not the flutter of a leaf or the posture of astone, but stole in and out noiseless and lithe, and left behind them notrace of their passage. It is not so with the white man: before him, nature flies and perishes; he clothes the earth in the thoughts of his ownmind, cast in forms of matter, and contemplates them with pride; but whenhe dies, another comes, and refashions the materials to suit himself. Soone follows another, and nothing endures that man has made; for this ishis destiny. And at length, when the last man has dressed out his dollsand built his little edifice of stones and sticks, and is gone: nature, who was not dead, but sleeping, awakes, and resumes her ancient throne, and her eternal works declare themselves once more; and she dissolves thebones in the grave, and the grave itself vanishes, with its record of whatman had been. What says our poet?--

 "How am I theirs, When they hold not me, But I hold them?"

In 1613, or thereabout, Christianson and Block visited the harbor and gotfurs, and also a couple of Indian boys to show the burghers of Amsterdam, since they could not fetch the great river to Holland. In 1614 they wentagain with five ships--the "Fortune of Amsterdam, " the "Fortune of Hoorn, "and the "Tiger of Amsterdam" (which was burned), and two others. Blockbuilt himself a boat of sixteen tons, and explored the Sound, and the NewEngland coast as far as Massachusetts Bay; touched at the island known byhis name, and forgathered with the Indian tribes all along his route. Theexplorers were granted a charter in the same year, giving them a threeyears' monopoly of the trade, and in this charter the title New Netherlandis bestowed upon the region. The Dutch were at last bestirring themselves. Two years after, Schouten of Hoorn saw the southernmost point of Tierradel Fuego, and gave it the name of his home port as he swept by; and threeother Netherlanders penetrated to the wilds of Philadelphia that was tobe. A fortified trading post was built at Albany, where now legislationinstead of peltries is the subject of barter. At this juncture internalquarrels in the Dutch government led to tragic events, which stimulatedplans of western colonization, and the desire to start a commonwealth onHudson River to forestall the English--for the latter as well as the Dutchand Spanish claimed everything in sight. The Dutch East India Companybegan business in 1621 with a twenty-four year charter, renewable. It wasgiven power to create an independent nation; the world was invited to buyits stock, and the States-General invested a million guilders in it. Itsfield was the entire west coast of Africa, and the east coast of North andSouth America. Such schemes are of planetary magnificence; but of all thisrealm, the Dutch now hold the little garden patch of Dutch Guiana only, and the pleasant records of their sojourn on Manhattan Island between theyears 1623 and 1664. 

Indeed, the Dutch episode in our history is in all respects refreshingand agreeable; the burghers set us an example of thrift and steadiness toogood for us to follow it; and they deeded to us some of our best citizens, and most engaging architectural traditions. But it is not after all forthese and other material benefits that we are indebted to them; we thankthem still more for being what they were (and could not help being): fortheir character, their temperament, their costume, their habits, theirbreadth of beam, their length of pipes, the deliberation of theircourtships, the hardness of their bargains, the portentousness of theirtea-parties, the industrious decorum of their women, the dignity of theirpatroons, the strictness of their social conduct, the soundness of theireducation, the stoutness of their independence, the excellence of theirgood sense, the simplicity of their prudence, and above all, for thewooden leg of Peter Stuyvesant. In a word, the humorous perception of theAmerican people has made a pet of the Dutch tradition in New York andPennsylvania; as, likewise, of the childlike comicalities of theplantation negro; the arch waggishness of the Irish emigrants, and thecherubic shrewdness of the newly-acquired German. The Dutch gained much, on the sentimental score, by transplantation; their old-world flavor andrich coloring are admirably relieved against the background of unbakedwilderness. We could not like them so much or laugh at them at all, did wenot so thoroughly respect them; the men of New Amsterdam were worthy oftheir national history, which recounts as stirring a struggle as was evermade by the love of liberty against the foul lust of oppression. The Dutchare not funny anywhere but in Seventeenth Century Manhattan; nor can thissingularity be explained by saying that Washington Irving made them so. Itinheres in the situation; and the delightful chronicles of DiedrichKnickerbocker owe half their enduring fascination to their sterlingveracity--the veracity which is faithful to the spirit and gambols onlywith the letter. The humor of that work lies in its sympathetic andcreative insight quite as much as in the broad good-humor and imaginativewhimsicality with which the author handles his theme. The caricature of atrue artist gives a better likeness than any photograph. 

The first ship containing families of colonists went out early in 1623, under the command of Cornelis May; he broke ground on Manhattan, whileJoris built Fort Orange at Albany, and a little group of settlers squattedround it. May acted as director for the first year or two; the trade infurs was prosecuted, and the first Dutch-American baby was born at FortOrange. 

Fortune was kind. King Charles, instead of discussing prior rights, offered an alliance; at home, the bickerings of sects were healed. PeterMinuit came out as director-general and paid his twenty-four dollars forthe Island--a little less than a thousand acres for a dollar. At allevents, the Indians seemed satisfied from Albany to the Narrows. TheBattery was designed, and there was quite a cluster of houses on theclearing back of it. An atmosphere of Dutch homeliness began to temper thethin American air. The honest citizens were pious, and had texts read tothem on Sundays; but they did not torture their consciences with spiritualself-questionings like the English Puritans, nor dream of disciplining orbanishing any of their number for the better heavenly security of therest. The souls of these Netherlander fitted their bodies far better thanwas the case with the colonists of Boston and Salem. Instead of starvingand rending them, their religion made them happy and comfortable. Insteadof settling the ultimate principles of theology and government, theyenjoyed the consciousness of mutual good-will, and took things as theycame. The new world needed men of both kinds. It must, however, beadmitted that the people of New Amsterdam were not wholly harmonious withthose of Plymouth. Minuit and Bradford had some correspondence, in which, while professions of mutual esteem and love were exchanged, uneasy thingswere let fall about clear titles and prior rights. Minuit was resolute forhis side, and the attitude of Bradford prompted him to send for a companyof soldiers from home. But there was probably no serious anticipation ofcoming to blows on either part. There was space enough in the continentfor the two hundred and seventy inhabitants of New Amsterdam and for thePilgrim Fathers, for the present. 

Spain was an unwilling contributor to the prosperity of the Dutchcolonists, by the large profits which the latter gained from the captureof Spanish galleons; but in 1629 the charter creating the order ofPatroons laid the foundation for abuses and discontent which afflicted thesettlers for full thirty years. Upon the face of it, the charter wasliberal, and promised good results; but it made the mistake of notsecuring popular liberties. The Netherlands were no doubt a free country, as freedom was at that day understood in Europe; but this freedom did notinvolve independence for the individual. The only recognized individualitywas that of the municipalities, the rulers of which were not chosen bypopular franchise. This system answered well enough in the old home, butproved unsuited to the conditions of settlers in the wilderness. TheAmerican spirit seemed to lurk like some subtle contagion in the remotestrecesses of the forest, and those who went to live there became affectedwith it. It was longer in successfully vindicating itself than in NewEngland, because it was not stimulated on the banks of the Hudson by theNew England religious fervor; it was supported on grounds of practicalexpediency merely. Men could not prosper unless they received the rewardsof industry, and were permitted to order their private affairs in a mannerto make their labor pay. They were not content to have the Patroon devourtheir profits, leaving them enough only for a bare subsistence. The Dutchfamilies scattered throughout the domain could not get ahead, while yetthey could not help feeling that the bounty of nature ought to benefitthose whose toil made it available, at least as much as it did those whotoiled not, but simply owned the land in virtue of some documentarytransaction with the powers above, and therefore claimed ownership alsoover the poor emigrant who settled on it--having nowhere else to go. Theemigrants were probably helped to comprehend and formulate their ownmisfortunes by communications with stragglers from New England, whoregaled them with tales of such liberties as they had never beforeimagined. But the seed thus sown by the Englishmen fell on fruitful soil, and the crop was reaped in due season. 

The charter intended, primarily, the encouragement of emigration, and didnot realize that it needed very little encouragement. The advantagesoffered were more alluring than they need have been. Any person who, within four years, could establish a colony of fifty persons, was givenprivileges only comparable to those of independent princes. They wereallowed to take up tracts of land many square miles in area, to governthem absolutely (according to the laws of the realm), to found andadminister cities, and in a word to drink from Baucis's pitcher to theirhearts' content. In return, the home administration expected the benefitof their trade. Two stipulations only restrained them: they were to buytitles to their land from the Indians, and they were to permit, on penaltyof removal, no cotton or woolen manufactures in the country. That was amonopoly which was reserved to the weavers in the old country. 

This was excellent for such as could afford to become patroons; but whatabout the others? The charter provided that any emigrant who could pay forhis exportation might take up what land he required for his needs, andcultivate it independently. Other emigrants, unable to pay their fare out, might have it paid for them, but in that case, of course, incurred amortgage to their benefactors. In effect, they could not own the productof the work of their hands, until it had paid their sponsors for theiroutlay, together with such additions in the way of interest on capital asmight seem to the sponsors equitable. 

The Company further undertook to supply slaves to the colony, should theyprove to be a paying investment; and it was chiefly because the climate ofNew York was less favorable to the Guinea Coast negro than was thatfurther south, that African slavery did not take early and firm root inthe former region. Philosophers have long recognized the influence ofdegrees of latitude upon human morality. The patroon planters coulddispense with black slaves, since they had white men enough who cost themno more than their keep, and would, presumably, not involve the expense ofoverseers. Everything, therefore, seemed harmonious and sunshiny, and theCompany congratulated itself. 

But the patroons, through their agents, began buying up all the land thatwas worth having, and found it easy to evade the stipulation restrictingthem to sixteen miles apiece. One of them had an estate runningtwenty-four miles on either bank of the Hudson, below Albany (or FortOrange as it was then), and forty-eight miles inland. It was superb; butit was as far as possible from being democracy; and the portly VanRensselaer of Rennselaerwyck would have shuddered to his marrow, could hehave cast a prophetic eye into the Nineteenth Century. 

The Company at home presently discovered that its incautious liberalityhad injured its own interests, as well as those of poor settlers; for theestates of the patroons covered the trading posts where the Indians cameto traffic, and all the profits from the latter swelled the pockets of thepatroons. But the charter could not be withdrawn; the directors must becontent with whatever sympathetic benefits might be conferred by theincreasing wealth of the colony. The patroons were becoming more powerfulthan their creators, and took things more and more into their own lordlyhands. Neither patroons nor Company concerned themselves about the people. The charter had, indeed, mentioned the subjects of schools and religiousinstructors for the emigrants, but had made no provision for themaintenance of such; and the patroons conceived that such luxuries weredeserving of but the slightest encouragement. The more a poor man knows, the less contented is he. Such was the argument then, and it isoccasionally heard to-day, when our trusts and corporations are annoyed bythe complaints and disaffections of their only half ignorant employés. 

Governor Minuit was not held to be the best man in the world for hisposition, and he was recalled in 1632, and Wouter Van Twiller, whopossessed all of his predecessor's faults and none of his virtues, tookhis place. A governor with the American idea in him would have savedManhattan a great deal of trouble, and perhaps have enabled the Dutch tokeep their hold upon it; but no such governor was available, and worsethan Van Twiller was yet to come. A colony had already been planted inDelaware, but unjust dealings with the Indians led to a massacre whichleft nothing of the Cape Henlopen settlement but bones and charredtimbers. The English to the south were led to renew the assertion of theirnever-abandoned claim to the region; there were encroachments by theEnglish settlers on the Connecticut boundary, and the Dutch, deprived bythe wars in Europe of the support of their countrymen at home, were toofeeble to do more than protest. But protests from those unable to enforcethem have never been listened to with favor--not even by the English. Besides, the Dutch, though amenable to religious observances, were farfrom making them the soul and end of all thought and action; and this lackof aggressive religious fiber put them at a decided political disadvantagewith their rivals. Man for man, they were the equals of the English, or ofany other people; as they magnificently demonstrated, forty yearsafterward, by defeating allied and evil-minded Europe in its attempt toexpunge them as a nation. But the indomitable spirit of Van Tromp and DeRuyter was never awakened in the New Netherlands; commercialconsiderations were paramount; and though the Dutch settlers remained, andwere always welcome, the colony finally passed from the jurisdiction oftheir own government, with their own expressed consent. 

Van Twiller vanished after eight years' mismanagement, and the sanguinaryKieft took the reins. But before his incumbency, Sweden, at the instanceof Gustavus Adolphus, and by the agency of his chancellor Oxenstiern, bothmen of the first class, lodged a colony on Delaware Bay, which subsistedfor seventeen years, and was absorbed, at last, without one stain upon itsfair record. Minuit, being out of a job, offered his experienced servicesin bringing the emigrating Swedes and Finns to their new abode, and theybegan their sojourn in 1638. They were industrious, peaceable, religiousand moral, and they declared against any form of slavery. They threw out abranch toward Philadelphia. But Gustavus Adolphus had died at Luetzenbefore the Swedes came over, and Queen Christina had not the ability tocarry out his ideas, even had she possessed the power. The Dutch began todispute the rights of the Scandinavians; Rysingh took their fort Casimirin 1654, and Peter Stuyvesant with six hundred men received theirsubmission in the same year. But this success was of no benefit to theDutch; the tyrannous monopolies which the Company tried to establish inDelaware, instead of creating revenues, caused the country to be desertedby the settlers, who betook themselves to the less oppressive Englishadministrations to the southward; and it was not until the English tookpossession of both Delaware and the rest of the New Netherlands that itbegan to yield a fair return on the investment. 

But we must return to the ill-omened Kieft. It was upon the Indianquestion that he made shipwreck, not only incurring their deadly enmity, but alienating from himself the sympathies and support of his owncountrymen. The Algonquin tribe, which inhabited the surrounding country, had been constantly overreached in their trade with the Dutchmen; theprinciple upon which barter was carried on with the untutored savagebeing, "I'll take the turkey, and you keep the buzzard: or you take thebuzzard, and I'll keep the turkey. " This sounded fair; but when the Indiancame to examine his assets, it always appeared that a buzzard was all hecould make of it. Partly, perhaps, by way of softening the asperities ofsuch a discovery, the Dutch merchant had been wont to furnish his victimwith brandy (not eleemosynary, of course); but the results weredisastrous. The Indians, transported by the alcohol beyond theanything-but-restricted bounds which nature had imposed upon them, feltthe insult of the buzzard more keenly than ever, and signified theirresentment in ways consistent with their instincts and traditions. In 1640an army of them fell upon the colony in Staten Island, and slaughteredthem, man, woman and child, with the familiar Indian accessories oftomahawk, scalping-knife and torch. The Staten Islanders, it should bestated, had done nothing to merit this treatment; but Indian logicinterprets the legal maxim "Qui facit per alium, facit per se, " as meaningthat if one white man cheats him, he can get his satisfaction out of thenext one who happens in sight. Staten Island was a definite and convenientarea, and when its population had been exterminated, the Indians couldfeel relieved from their obligation. Not long afterward an incident suchas romancers love to feign actually took place; an Indian brave who, as achild years before, had seen his uncle robbed and slain, and had vowedrevenge, now having become of age, or otherwise qualified himself for theenterprise, went upon the warpath, and returned with the long-covetedscalp at his girdle. Evidently the time had come for Governor Kieft toassert himself. 

It was of small avail to invade the wilds of New Jersey, or to offerrewards for Raritans, dead or alive. The sachems were willing to expresstheir regret, but they would not surrender the culprits, and declared thatthe Dutchmen's own brandy was the really guilty party. Kieft would notconcede the point, and the situation was strained. At this juncture, theunexpected happened. The Mohawks, a kingly tribe of red men, who claimedall Northeast America from the St. Lawrence to the Delaware, and who hadalready driven the Algonquins before them like chaff, sent down a warparty from northern New York, and demanded tribute from them. There weremore Algonquins than there were Mohawks; but one eagle counts for morethan many kites. The kites came fluttering to Fort Orange for protection:not so much that they feared death or torture, but they were overawed bythe spirit of the Mohawk, and could not endure to face him. Kieft fanciedthat he saw his opportunity. He would teach the red scoundrels a lessonthey would remember. There was a company of soldiers in the Fort, and inthe river were moored some vessels with crews of Dutch privateers onboard. Kieft made up his party, and when night had fallen he sent them ontheir bloody errand, guided by one who knew all the camps andhiding-places of the doomed tribe. It was a revolting episode; a hundredIndians were unresistingly murdered. They would have made a strongerdefense had they not been under the impression that it was the Mohawks whowere upon them; and to be killed by a Mohawk was no more than an Algonquinshould expect. But when it transpired that the Dutch were theperpetrators, the whole nation gave way to a double exasperation: first, that their friends had been killed, and secondly that they had sufferedunder a misapprehension. The settlers, in disregard of advice, were livingin scattered situations over a large territory, and they were all indanger, and defenseless, even if New Amsterdam itself could escape. Kieftwas heartily cursed by all impartially; he was compelled to make overturesfor peace, and a pow-wow was held in Rockaway woods, in the spring of1643. Terms were agreed upon, and, according to Indian usage, gifts wereexchanged. But those of the chiefs so far exceeded in value the offeringsof Kieft that these were regarded as a fresh insult; war was declared, and dragged along for two years more. It was not until 1645 that thegrand meeting of the settlers and the Five Nations took place at FortAmsterdam, and the treaty of lasting peace was ratified. Kieft sailed fromNew Amsterdam with the consciousness of having injured his countrymen morethan had any enemy; but he was drowned off the Welsh coast, without havingbrought forth fruits meet for repentance. 

Peter Stuyvesant is a favorite character in our history because he was amanly and straightforward man, faithful to his employers, fearless indoing and saying what he thought was right, and endowed with a full shareof obstinate, homely, kindly human nature. He was not in advance of hisage, or superior to his training; he was the plain product of both, butfree from selfishness, malice, and unworthy ambitions. He was born in1602, and came to America a warrior from honorable wars, seamed andknotty, with a famous wooden leg which all New Yorkers, at any rate loveto hear stumping down the corridors of time. His administration, the lastof the Dutch regime, wiped out the stains inflicted by his predecessors, and resisted with equal energy encroachments from abroad and innovationsat home. He was a true Dutchman, with most of the limitations and all thevirtues of his race; fond of peace and of dwelling in his own "Bowery, "yet not afraid to fight when he deemed that his duty. His tenure of officelasted from 1647 till 1664, a period of seventeen active years; after theEnglish took possession of the town and called it New York, Peter wentback to Holland, unwilling to live in the presence of new things; but hefound that, at the age of sixty-three, he could not be happy away from thehome that he had made for himself in the new world; so he returned toManhattan Island, and completed the tale of his eighty years on the farmwhich is now the most populous and democratic of New York's thoroughfares. There he smoked his long-stemmed pipe and drank his schnapps, and thoughtover old times, and criticised the new. After two and a half centuries, the memory of him is undimmed; and it is to be wished that some fittingmemorial of him may be erected in the city which his presence honored. 

The very next year after his arrival, free trade was established in NewAmsterdam. There had been a strict monopoly till then; but in one way oranother it was continually evaded, and the New Amsterdam merchants foundthemselves so much handicapped by the restrictions, that their inabilityreacted upon the managers at home. There were not at that time any infantindustries in need of protection, and the colony was large and capaciousenough to take what the mother country sent it, and more also. But inorder to prevent loss, an export duty was enforced, which pressed lightlyon those who paid it, and comforted those to whom it was paid. Commercewas greatly stimulated, and the merchants of old Amsterdam sentcompliments and prophesies of future greatness to their brethren acrossthe sea. Every new-hatched settlement that springs up on the borders ofthe wilderness is liable to be "hailed" by its promoters as destined tobecome the Queen City of its region; the wish fathers the word, and theword is an advertisement. But the merchant princes of Amsterdam spoke bythe card; they perceived the almost unique advantages of geographicalposition and local facilities of their American namesake; with such a bayand water front, with such a river, with such a soil and such openings fortrade, what might it not become! Yes: but--"Sic vos noa vobisaedificatis!" The English reaped what the Dutch had sown, and New Yorkinherits the glory and power predicted for New Amsterdam. 

The soil of Manhattan Island being comparatively poor, the place wasdestined to be used as a residence merely, and the houses of prosperoustraders and burghers began to assemble and bear likeness to a town. Theprimeval forest still clothed the upper part of the island; but thevisible presence of a municipality in the southern extremity prompted theinhabitants to suggest a remodeling of the government somewhat after theNew England pattern, where patroons were unknown and impossible. It is notsurprising that suggestions to this effect from the humbler members of thecommunity were not cordially embraced by either the patroons or theircreators at home; in fact, it was still-born. That the people should rulethemselves was as good as to say that the horse should loll in thecarriage while his master toiled between the shafts. The thing wasimpossible, and should be unmentionable. The people, however, continued tomention it, and even to neglect paying the taxes which had been imposedwith no regard to their reasonable welfare. A deputation went to Hollandto tell the directors that they could neither farm nor trade with profitunless the burdens were lightened; the directors thought otherwise, andthe consequence was that devices were practiced to lighten them illicitly. This added to the interest of life, but subverted the welfare of thestate. Where political rights are not secured to all men by constitutionalright, those who are unable to get them by privilege, intrigue to stealwhat such rights would guarantee. At this rate, there would presently be aCouncil of Ten and an Inquisition in New Amsterdam. In 1653, the Governorwas constrained to admit the deputies from the various settlements to aninterview, in which they said their say, and he his. "We have come here atour own expense, " they observed, "from various countries of Europe, expecting to be given protection while earning our living; we have turnedyour wilderness into a fruitful garden for you, and you, in return, imposeon us laws which disable us from profiting by our labor. We ask you torepeal these laws, allow us to make laws to meet our needs, and appointnone to office who has not our approbation. " Thus, in substance, spoke thepeople; and we, at the end of the Nineteenth Century, may think they wereuttering the veriest axioms of political common sense. What sturdy PeterStuyvesant thought is perfectly expressed in what he replied. 

"The old laws will stand. Directors and council only shall be law-makers:never will they make themselves responsible to the people. As to officersof government, were their election left to the rabble, we should havethieves on horseback and honest men on foot. " And with that, we mayimagine, the Governor stamped his wooden toe. 

The people shrugged their shoulders. "We aim but at the general good, "said they. "All men have a natural right to constitute society, and toassemble to protect their liberties and property. "

"I declare this assembly dissolved, " Peter retorted. "Assemble again atyour peril! The authority which rules you is derived not from the whim ofa few ignorant malcontents. " Alas! the seed of the American Idea hadnever germinated in Peter's soldierly bosom; and when the West IndiaCompany learned of the dialogue, they spluttered with indignation. "Thepeople be d----d. " was the sense of their message. "Let them no longerdelude themselves with the fantasy that taxes require their assent. " Withthat, they dismissed the matter from their minds. Yet even then, theWriting was on the wall. The flouted people were ripe to welcome England;and England, in the shape of Charles II. , who had come at last to his own, meditated wiping the Dutch off the Atlantic seaboard. It availed not toplead rights: Lord Baltimore snapped his fingers. Lieutenant-governorBeekman, indeed, delayed the appropriation of Delaware; but Long Islandwas being swallowed up, and nobody except the government cared. The peoplemay be incompetent to frame laws: but what if they decline to fight foryou when called upon? If they cannot make taxes to please themselves, atall events they will not make war to please anybody else. If they are poorand ignorant, that is not their fault. The English fleet was impending;what was to be done? Could Stuyvesant but have multiplied himself into athousand Stuyvesants, he knew what he would do; but he was impotent. InAugust, 1664, here was the fleet actually anchored in Gravesend Bay, withNicolls in command. "What did they want?" the Governor inquired. "Immediate recognition of English sovereignty, " replied Nicolls curtly;and the gentler voice of Winthrop of Boston was heard, advising surrender. "Surrender would be reproved at home, " said poor Stuyvesant, refusing toknow when he was beaten. He was doing his best to defeat the army and navyof England single-handed. But the burgomasters went behind him, andcapitulated, and--Peter to the contrary for four days more notwithstanding--New Amsterdam became New York. 

The English courted favor by liberal treatment of their new dependants onthe western shore of the Hudson; whatever the Dutch had refused to do, they did. The Governor and Council were to be balanced by the people'srepresentatives; no more arbitrary taxation; citizens might think and prayas best pleased them; land tenure was made easy, and seventy-five acreswas the bounty for each emigrant imported, negroes included. By suchinducements the wilderness of New Jersey, assigned to Berkeley andCarteret, was peopled by Scots, New Englanders and Quakers. Settlementproceeded rapidly, and in 1668 a colonial legislature met in the townnamed after Elizabeth Carteret. There were so many Puritans in theassembly, and their arguments were so convincing, that New Jersey law borea strong family resemblance to that of New England. This had its effect, when, in 1670, the rent question came up for settlement. The Puritanscontended that the Indians held from Noah, and as they were lawful heirsof the Indians, they declined to pay rents to the English proprietors. There was no means of compelling them to do so, and they had their way. The Yankees were already going ahead. 

Manhattan did not get treated quite so well. The Governor had everythinghis own way, the council being his creatures, and the justices hisappointees. The people were permitted no voice in affairs, and might aswell have had Stuyvesant back again. After Nicolls had strutted his term, Lord Lovelace came, and outdid him. His idea of how to govern wasformulated in his instructions to an agent: "Lay such taxes, " said he, "asmay give them liberty for no thought but how to discharge them. " LordLovelace was an epigrammatist; but in the end he had to pay for his wit. He attempted to levy a tax for defense, and was met with refusal; thetowns of Long Island had not one cent either for tribute or defense; hislordship swore at them heartily, but they heeded him not; and he foundhimself in the shoes of the ousted Dutch Governor in an another sense thanhe desired. And then was poetical justice made complete; for who shouldappear before the helpless forts but Evertsen with a Dutch fleet! NewYork, New Jersey and Delaware surrendered to him almost with enthusiasm, and the work of England seemed to be all undone. 

But larger events were to control the lesser. France and England combinedin an iniquitous conspiracy to destroy the Dutch Republic, and swoopeddown upon the coast with two hundred thousand men. The story has oftenbeen told how the Dutch, tenfold outnumbered, desperately and gloriouslydefended themselves. They finally swept the English from the seas, andpatroled the Channel with a broom at the masthead. By the terms of thetreaty of peace which Charles was obliged by his own parliament to make, all conquests were mutually restored, and New York consequently revertedto England. West Jersey was bought by the Quakers; the eastern half of theprovince was restored to the rule of Carteret. The Atlantic coast, fromCanada down to Florida, continuously, was English ground, and so remaineduntil, a century later, the transplanted spirit of liberty, born inEngland, threw down the gauntlet to the spirit of English tyranny, andwon independence for the United States. 

When we remember that the Dutch maintained their government in the newworld for little more than fifty years, it is surprising how deep a markthey made there. It is partly because their story lends itself topicturesque and graphic treatment; it is so rich in character and color, and telling in incident. Then, too, it has a beginning, middle and end, which is what historians as well as romancers love. But most of all, perhaps, their brief chronicles as a distinct political phenomenonillustrate the profound problem of self-government in mankind. TheNetherlander had proved, before any of them came hither, with whatinflexible courage they could resent foreign tyranny; and themunicipalities, as well as the nation, had grasped the principles ofindependence. But it was not until they erected their little commonwealthamid the forests of the Hudson that they awakened to the conception thatevery man should bear his part in the government of all. To attain this, it was necessary to break through a crust of conservatism almost asstubborn as that of Spain. The authority of their upper classes had neverbeen questioned; the idea had never been entertained that a citizen inhumble life could claim any right to influence the conditions under whichhis life should be carried on. That innate and inalienable right of theindividual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which Jeffersonasserted, and which has become an axiom to every American school-boy, doesnot appear, upon investigation, to be either inalienable or innate. Thehistory of mankind shows that it has been constantly alienated from them;and if we pass in review the population of the world, from the oldest tocontemporary times, and from savages tribes to the most highly civilizednations, we find the plebeian bowing before the patrician, the poor manserving the wealthy. The conception of human equality before the law isnot a congenital endowment, but an accomplishment, arduously acquired andeasily forfeited. The first impulse of weakness in the presence ofstrength is to bow down before it; it is the impulse of the animal, and ofthe unspiritual, the unregenerate nature in man. The ability to recognizethe solidarity of man, and therefore the equality of spiritual manhood, involves an uplifting of the mind, an illumination of the soul, which canbe regarded as the result of nothing less than a revelation. It is notdeveloped from below--it is received from above; it is a divine whisper inthe ear of fallen man, transfiguring him, and opening before him the wayof life. It postulates no loss of humility; it does not disturb the truththat some must serve and some must direct; that some shall have chargeover many things, and some over but few. It does not supersede the outwardorder of society. But it affirms that to no man or body of men, no matterhow highly endowed by nature or circumstance with intellect, position orriches, shall be accorded the right to dispose arbitrarily of the livesand welfare of the masses. Not elsewhere than in the hands of the entirecommunity shall be lodged the reins of government. The administrationshall be with the chosen ones whose training and qualifications fit themfor that function; but the principles on which their administration isconducted shall be determined by the will and vote of all. 

This is not lightly to be believed or understood; Peter Stuyvesant voicedthe unenlightened thought when he said that, should the rabble rule, orderand honesty must be overthrown. This is the inevitable conclusion ofmaterialistic logic. Like produces like; evil, evil; ignorance, ignorance. Only by inspired faith will the experiment be tried of trusting theCreator to manifest His purposes, not by the conscious wisdom of any manor men, but through the unconscious, organic tendency, mental and moral, of universal man. We may call it "the tendency, not ourselves, which makesfor righteousness"; or we may analyze it into the resultant of innumerableforces, taking a direction independent of them all; or we may say simplythat it is the Divine method of leading us upward; it is all one. Universal suffrage is an act of faith; and, faithfully carried out, itbrings political and religious emancipation to the people. How far it hasbeen carried out in this country is a question we shall have to answerhereafter; we may say here that our forefathers realized its value, andgave to us in our Constitution the mechanism whereby to practice it. To itthey added the memory of their courage and their sacrifices in its behalf;and more than this was not theirs to give. 

The English Puritans received their revelation in one way; the Dutchtraders and farmers in another; but it was the same revelation. To neithercould it be imparted in Europe, but only in the virgin solitudes of anuntrodden continent. There man, already civilized, was enabled to perceivethe inefficiency and distortion of his civilization, and to grasp thecure. Hudson, an Englishman, but at the moment in Dutch service, openedthe gates to the Netherlanders, and thus enabled their emigrants toperfect the work of emancipation which had been brought to the higheststage it could reach at home. They were opposed by the directors inAmsterdam, by their own governors and patroons, and by the errors whichimmemorial usage had ingrained in them as individuals. They overcame theseforces, not by their own strength, nor by any violent act of revolution, but by the slow, irresistible energy of natural law, with which, as with agravitative force, they had placed themselves in harmony. Thus theyexemplified one of the several ways in which freedom comes to man, andtook their place as a component element in the limitless cosmopolitanismof our population. 

Their subsequent history shows that nothing truly valuable is lost indemocracy. The high behavior and dignified manners which belonged to theirpatroons may be observed among their descendants in contemporary New York;the men whose ancestors controlled a thousand tenants have not lost thepowers of handling large matters in a large spirit; but they exercise itnow for worthier ends than of old. Similarly, the Dutch stolidity whichamuses us in the chronicles, reappears to-day in the form of steadinessand judgment; the obstinacy of headstrong Peter, as self-confidence andperseverance; the physical grossness of the old burghers, asconstitutional vigor. Many of their customs too have come down to us;their heavy afternoon teas are recalled in our informal receptions; theirNew Year's Day sociability in our calls, their Christmas celebrations inour festival of Santa Claus. Much of our domestic architecture reflectstheir influence: the gabled fronts, the tiled fireplaces, the high"stoops, " and the custom of sitting on them in summer evenings. In generalit is seen that the effect of democratic institutions is to save the grainand reject the chaff, because criticism becomes more close and punctual, abuses and license are not chartered, and the individual is bereft ofartificial supports and disguises, and must appear more nearly as God madehim. 

[Illustration: Trepanning Men to be Sent to the Colonies]

CHAPTER FIFTH

LIBERTY, SLAVERY, AND TYRANNY

We left the colony at Jamestown emerging from thick darkness and muchtribulation toward the light. Some distance was still to be traversedbefore full light and easement were attained; but fortune, upon the whole, was kinder to Virginia than to most of the other settlements; and thoughclouds gathered darkly now and then, and storms threatened, and here andthere a bolt fell, yet deliverance came beyond expectation. SomethingVirginia suffered from Royal governors, something from the Indians, something too from the imprudence and wrong-headedness of her own people. But her story is full of stirring and instructive passages. It tells how acommunity chiefly of aristocratic constitution and sympathies, whoseloyalty to the English throne was deep and ardent, and whose type of lifewas patrician, nevertheless were won insensibly and inevitably to espousethe principles of democracy. It shows how, with honest men, a king may beloved, and the system which he stands for reverenced and defended, whileyet the lovers and apologists choose and maintain a wholly differentsystem for themselves. The House of Stuart had none but friends inVirginia; when the son of Charles the First was a fugitive, Virginiaoffered him a home; and the follies and frailties of his father, and thegrotesque chicaneries of his grandfather, could not alienate thecolonists' affection. Yet, from the moment their Great Charter was giventhem, they never ceased to defend the liberties which it bestowed againstevery kingly effort to curtail or destroy them; and on at least oneoccasion they fairly usurped the royal prerogative. They presented, inshort, the striking anomaly of a people acknowledging a monarch and at thesame time claiming the fullest measure of political liberty till thenenjoyed by any community in modern history. They themselves perceived noinconsistency in their attitude; but to us it is patent, and its meaningis that the sentiment of a tradition may be cherished and survive longafter intelligence and experience have caused the thing itself to beconsigned to the rubbish-heap of the past. 

So long as Sir Thomas Smythe occupied the president's chair of the LondonCompany, there could be no hope of substantial prosperity for theJamestown emigrants. He was a selfish and conceited satrap, incapable ofenlightened thought or beneficent action, who knew no other way to magnifyhis own importance than by suffocating the rights and insulting theself-respect of others. He had a protégé in Argall, a disorderly ruffianwho was made deputy-governor of the colony in 1617. His administrationwas that of a freebooter; but the feeble and dwindling colony had neitherpower nor spirit to do more than send a complaint to London. Lord Delawarehad in the meantime sailed for Virginia, but died on the trip; Argall was, however, dismissed, and Sir George Yeardley substituted for him--a man ofgracious manners and generous nature, but somewhat lacking in the forceand firmness that should build up a state. He had behind him the best menin the company if not in all England: Sir Edward Sandys, the Earl ofSouthampton, and Nicolas Ferrar. Smythe had had resignation forced uponhim, and with him the evil influences in the management retired to thebackground. Sandys was triumphantly elected governor and treasurer, withFerrar as corporation counsel; Southampton was a powerful supporter. Theywere all young men, all royalists, and all unselfishly devoted to thecause of human liberty and welfare. Virginia never had better or moreurgent friends. 

Yeardley, on his arrival, found distress and discouragement, and hardlyone man remaining in the place of twenty. The colonists had been robbedboth by process of law and without; they had been killed and had died ofdisease; they had deserted and been deported; they had been denied landsof their own, or the benefit of their own labor; and they had beenpermitted no part in the management of their own affairs. The rumor ofthese injuries and disabilities had got abroad, and no recruits for thecolony had been obtainable; the Indians were ill-disposed, and the housespoor and few. Women too were lamentably scanty, and the people had no rootin the country, and no thought but to leave it. Like the emigrants to theKlondike gold-fields in our own day, they had designed only to bettertheir fortunes and then depart. The former hope was gone; the latter wasall that was left. 

Yeardley's business, in the premises, was agreeable and congenial; he hada letter from the company providing for the abatement of past evils andabuses, and the establishment of justice, security and happiness. He sentmessengers far and wide, summoning a general meeting to hear his news andconfer together for the common weal. 

Hardly venturing to believe that any good thing could be in store forthem, the burgesses and others assembled, and crowded into the place ofmeeting. Twenty-two delegates from the eleven plantations were there, cladin their dingy and dilapidated raiment, and wide-brimmed hats; most ofthem with swords at their sides, and some with rusty muskets in theirhands. Their cheeks were lank and their faces sunburned; their bearing waslistless, yet marked with some touch of curiosity and expectation. Therewere among them some well-filled brows and strong features, announcing menof ability and thoughtfulness, though they had lacked the opportunity andthe cue for action. Their long days on the plantations, and their uneasynights in the summer heats, had given them abundant leisure to think overtheir grievances and misfortunes, and to dream of possible reforms andinnovations. But of what profit was it? Their governors had no thought butto fill their own pockets, the council was powerless or treacherous, andeverything was slipping away. 

It was in the depths of summer--the 30th of July, 1619. More than a yearwas yet to pass before the "Mayflower" would enter the wintry shelter ofPlymouth harbor. In the latitude of Jamestown the temperature was almosttropical at this season, and exhausting to body and spirit. The room inwhich they met, in the governor's house in Jamestown, was hardly spaciousenough for their accommodation: four unadorned walls, with a ceiling thatcould be touched by an upraised hand. It had none of the aspect of a hallof legislature, much less of one in which was to take place an event solarge and memorable as the birth of liberty in a new world. But thedelegates thronged in, and were greeted at their entrance by Yeardley, whostood at a table near the upper end of the room, with a secretary besidehim and a clergyman of the Church of England on his other hand. Thecolonists looked at his urbane and conciliating countenance, and glancedat the document he held in his hand, and wondered what would be the issue. Nothing of moment, doubtless; still, they could scarcely be much worse offthan they were; and the new governor certainly had the air of havingsomething important to communicate. They took their places, leaningagainst the walls, or standing with their hands clasped over the muzzlesof their muskets, or supporting one foot upon a bench; and the gaze of allwas concentrated on the governor. As he opened the paper, a silence fellupon the assembly. 

Such, we may imagine, were the surroundings and circumstances of thisfamous gathering, the transactions of which fill so bright a page in theannals of the early colonies. The governor asked the clergyman for ablessing, and when the prayer was done suggested the choosing of achairman, or speaker. The choice fell upon John Pory, a member of theformer council. Then the governor read his letter from the company inLondon. 

The letter, in few words, opened the door to every reform which couldmake the colony free, prosperous and happy, and declared all past wrongsat an end. It merely outlined the scope of the improvements, leaving it tothe colonists themselves to fill in the details. "Those cruel laws wereabrogated, and they were to be governed by those free laws under which hismajesty's subjects in England lived. " An annual grand assembly, consistingof the governor and council and two burgesses from each plantation, chosenby the people, was to be held; and at these assemblies they were to framewhatever laws they deemed proper for their welfare. These concessions wereof the more value and effect, because they were advocated in England bymen who had only the good of the colony at heart, and possessed power toenforce their will. 

It seemed almost too good to be true: it was like the sun rising afterthe long arctic night. Those sad faces flushed, and the moody eyeskindled. The burgesses straightened their backs and lifted their heads;they looked at one another, and felt that they were once more men. Therewas a murmur of joy and congratulation; and thanks were uttered to God, and to the Company, for what had been done. And forthwith they set to workwith life and energy, and with a judgment and foresight which were hardlyto have been looked for in legislators so untried, to construct theplatform of enactments upon which the commonwealth of Virginia washenceforth to stand. 

From the body of the delegates, two committees were selected to devisethe new laws and provisions, while the governor and the rest reviewed thelaws already in existence, to determine what part of them, if any, wassuitable for continuance. Among the articles agreed upon were regulationsrelating to distribution and tenure of land, which replaced all formerpatents and privileges, and set all holders on an equal footing: therecognition of the Church of England as governing the mode of worship inVirginia, with a good salary for clergymen and an injunction that all andsundry were to appear at church every Sunday, and bring their weapons withthem--thus insuring Heaven a fair hearing, while at the same time makingprovision against the insecurity of carnal things. The wives of theplanters as well as their husbands were capacitated to own land, because, in a new world, a woman might turn out to be as efficient as the man. Thissounds almost prophetic; but it was probably intended to operate on thecultivation of the silkworm. Plantations of the mulberry had been ordered, and culture of the cocoon was an industry fitting to the gentler sex, whowere the more likely to succeed in it on account of their known partialityfor the product. On the other hand, excess in apparel was kept withinbounds by a tax. The planting of vines was also ordered; but as a matterof fact the manufacture of neither wine nor silk was destined to succeedin the colony; tobacco and cotton were to be its staples, but the latterhad not at this epoch been attempted. Order and propriety among thecolonists were assured by penalties on gaming, drunkenness, and sloth; andthe better to guard against the proverbial wiles of Satan, a universitywas sketched out, and direction was given that such children of theheathen as showed indications of latent talent should be caught, tamed andinstructed, and employed as missionaries among their tribes. Finally, afixed price of three shillings for the best quality of tobacco, andeighteen pence for inferior brands, was appointed; thus giving the colonya currency which had the double merit of being a sound medium for traffic, and an agreeable consolation and incense when the labors of the day werepast. 

It was a good day's work; and the assembly dissolved with the convictionthat their time had never before been passed to such advantage. Yeardley, knowing the disposition of the managers in London, opposed no objection tothe immediate practical enforcement of the new enactments; and indeedSandys, when he had an opportunity of examining the digest, expressed theopinion that it had been "well and judiciously formed. " The colonists, fortheir part, dismissed all anxieties and shadows from their minds, and fellto putting in crops and putting up dwellings as men will who have a stakein their country, and feel that they can live in it. Their confidence wasnot misplaced; within a year from this time the number of the colonistshad been more than doubled, and all troubles seemed at an end. 

So long, however, as James I. Disgraced the throne of England, popularliberties could never be quite sure of immunity; and during the five orsix years that he still had to live, he did his best to disturb thefelicity of his Virginian subjects. He was unable to do anything veryserious, and what he did do, was in contravention of law. He got Sandysout of the presidency; but Southampton was immediately put in his place;he tried to get away the patent which he himself had issued, and finallydid so; but the colony kept its laws and its freedom, though the Thronethenceforward appointed the governors. He put a heavy tax on tobacco, which he professed to regard as an invention of the enemy; and hecountenanced an attempt by Lord Warwick, in behalf of Argall, to continuemartial law in the colony instead of allowing trial by Jury; but in thishe was defeated. He sent out two commissioners to Virginia to discoverpretexts for harassing it, and took the matter out of the hands ofParliament; but the Virginians maintained themselves until death steppedin and put a final stop to his majesty's industry, and Charles I. Came tothe throne. 

The climate of Virginia does not predispose to exertion; yet farminginvolves hard physical work; and, beyond anything else, the wealth ofVirginia was derived from farming. Manufactures had not come in view, andwere discouraged or forbidden by English decree. But, as we saw in theearly days of Jamestown, the settlers there were unused to work, andaverse from it; although, under the stimulus of Captain John Smith, theydid learn how to chop down trees. After the colony became popular, andpopulous, the emigrants continued to be in a large measure of a socialclass to whom manual labor is unattractive. A country in which laborersare indispensable, and which is inhabited by persons disinclined to labor, would seem to stand no good chance of achieving prosperity. How, then, isthe early prosperity of Virginia to be explained? The charter did not makemen work. 

It was due to the employment of slave labor. Slaves in the SeventeenthCentury were easily acquired, and were of several varieties. At one time, there were more white slaves than black. White captives were often soldinto slavery; and there was also a regular trade in indentured slaves, orservants, sent from England. These were to work out their freedom by acertain number of years of labor for their purchaser. Convicts from theprisons were also utilized as slaves. In the same year that the Virginiacharter bestowed political freedom upon the colonists, a Dutch ship landeda batch of slaves from the Guinea coast, where the Dutch had a footing. They were strong fellows, and the ardor of the climate suited them betterthan that of the regions further north. Negroes soon came to be in demandtherefore; they did not die in captivity as the Indians were apt to do, and a regular trade in them was presently established. A negro fetched inthe market more than twice as much as either a, red or a white man, andrepaid the investment. There was no general sentiment against traffic inhuman beings, and it was not settled that negroes were human, exactly. Slavery at all events had been the normal condition of Guinea negroes fromthe earliest times, and they undoubtedly were worse treated by theirAfrican than by their European and American owners. They were born slaves, or at least in slavery. There had of course been enlightened humanitariansas far back as the Greek and Roman eras, who had opined that the principleof slavery was wrong; and such men were talking still; but ordinary peopleregarded their deliverances as being in the nature of a counsel ofperfection, which was not intended to be observed in practice. There arefashions in humanitarianism, as in other matters, and multitudes whodenounced slavery in the first half of this Nineteenth Century, were in norespect better practical moralists than were the Virginians two hundredyears before. But the time had to come, in the course of human events, when negro slavery was to cease in America; and those whose businessinterests, or sentimental prejudices, were opposed to it, added the chorusof their disapproval to the inscrutable movements of a Power above allprejudices. Negro slavery, as an overt institution, is no more in theseStates; but he would be a bold or a blind man who should maintain thatslavery, both black and white, has no existence among us to-day. Meanwhilethe Seventeenth Century planters of Virginia bought and sold their humanchattels with an untroubled conscience; and the latter, comprehending evenless of the ethics of the question than their masters did, were reasonablyhappy. They were not aware that human nature was being insulted anddegraded in their persons: they were transported by no moral indignation. When they were flogged, they suffered, but when their bodies stoppedsmarting, no pain rankled in their minds. They were treated like animals, and became like them. They had no anxieties; they looked neither forwardnor backward; their physical necessities were provided for. White slaverygradually disappeared, but the feeling prevailed that slavery was whatnegroes were intended for. The planters, after a few generations, came tofeel a sort of affection for their bondsmen who had been born on theestates and handed down from father to son. Self-interest, as well asnatural kindliness, rendered deliberate cruelties rare. The negroes, onthe other hand, often loved their masters, and would grieve to leave them. The evils of slavery were not on the surface, but were subtle, latent, andfar more malignant than was even recently realized. The Abolitioniststhought the trouble was over when the Proclamation of Emancipation wassigned. "We can put on our coats and go home, now, " said Garrison; andWendell Phillips said, "I know of no man to-day who can fold his arms andlook forward to his future with more confidence than the negro. " We shallhave occasion to investigate the intelligence of these forecastsby-and-by. But there is something striking in the fact that that countrywhich claims to be the freest and most highly civilized in the worldshould be the last to give up "the peculiar institution. " How can devotionto liberty co-exist in the mind with advocacy of servitude? This, too, isa subject to which we must revert hereafter. At the period we are nowtreating, there were more white than black slaves, and the princelyestates of later times had not been thought of. Indeed, in spite oftheir marriage to liberty, the colonists did not yet feel truly at home. Marriage of a more concrete kind was needed for that. 

This defect was understood in England, and the Company took means toremedy it. A number of desirable and blameless young women were enlistedto go out to the colony and console the bachelors there. The plan wasdiscreetly carried out; the acquisition of the young ladies was not madetoo easy, so that neither was their self-respect wounded, nor were thebachelors allowed to feel that beauty and virtue in female form werecommonplace commodities. The romance and difficulty of the situation werefairly well preserved. There stood the possible bride; but she wasavailable only with her own consent and approval; and before entering thematrimonial estate, the bridegroom elect must pay all charges--so manypounds of tobacco. And how many pounds of tobacco was a good wife worth?From one point of view, more than was ever grown in Virginia; but thesentimental aspect of the transaction had to be left out of consideration, or the enterprise would have come to an untimely conclusion. From onehundred to one hundred and fifty pounds of the weed was the averagecommercial figure; it paid expenses and gave the agents a commission; forthe rest, the profit was all the colonist's. Many a happy home was foundedin this way, and, so far as we know, there were no divorces and noscandals. But it must not be forgotten that, although tobacco was paid forthe wife, there was still enough left to fill a quiet pipe by the conjugalfireside. They were the first Christian firesides where this soothinggoddess had presided: no wonder they were peaceful!

Charles I. Was a young man, with a large responsibility on his shoulders;and two leading convictions in his mind. The first was that he ought to bethe absolute head of the nation; Parliament might take counsel with him, but should not control him when it came to action. The same notion hadprevailed with James I. , and was to be the immediate occasion of thedownfall of James II. ; as for Charles II. , his long experience of hollowoak trees, and secret chambers in the houses of loyalists, had taught himthe limitations of the kingly prerogative before he began his reign; andthe severed head of his father clinched the lesson. But the Stuarts, as afamily, were disinclined to believe that the way to inherit the earth wasby meekness, and none of them believed it so little as the first Charles. 

The second conviction he entertained was that he must have revenues, andthat they should be large and promptly paid. His whole pathetic career--tragic seems too strong a word for it, though it ended in death--was amingled story of nobility, falsehood, gallantry and treachery, conditionedby his blind pursuit of these two objects, money and power. 

Upon general principles, then, it was to be expected that Charles wouldbe the enemy of Virginian liberties. But it happened that money was hismore pressing need at the time his attention first was turned on thecolony; he saw that revenues were to be gained from them; he knew that thecharter recently given to them had immensely increased theirproductiveness; and as to his prerogative, he had not as yet felt theresistance which his parliament had in store for him, and was thereforenot jealous of the political privileges of a remote settlement--one, too, which seemed to be in the hands of loyal gentlemen. "Their liberties harmme not, " was his thought, "and they appear to be favorable to the successof the tobacco crop; the tobacco monopoly can put money in my purse;therefore let the liberties remain. Should these planters ever presume togo too far, it will always be in my power to stop them. " Thus it cameabout that tobacco, after procuring the Virginians loving wives, was alsothe means of securing the favor of their king. But they, naturally, ascribed the sunshine of his smile to some innate merit in themselves, andtheir gratitude made them his enthusiastic supporters as long as he lived. They mourned his death, and opened their arms to all royalist refugeesfrom the power of Cromwell. When Cromwell sent over a man-of-war, however, they accepted the situation. Virginia had by that time grown to soconsiderable an importance that they could adopt a somewhat conservativeattitude toward the affairs even of the mother country. 

The ten years following Charles's accession were a period of peace andgrowth in the colony; of great increase in population and in production, and of a steady ripening of political liberties. But the conditions underwhich this development went on were different from those which existed inNew England and in New York. The Puritans were actuated by religiousideals, the Dutch by commercial projects chiefly; but the Virginiaplanters were neither religious enthusiasts nor tradesmen. Their tendencywas not to huddle together in towns and close communities, but to spreadout over the broad and fertile miles of their new country, and live eachin a little principality of his own, with his slaves and dependants aroundhim. They modeled their lives upon those of the landed gentry in England;and when their crops were gathered, they did not go down to the wharfs andhaggle over their disposal, but handed them over to agents, who took alltrouble off their hands, and after deducting commissions and charges madeover to them the net profits. This left the planters leisure to applythemselves to liberal pursuits; they maintained a dignified and generoushospitality, and studied the art of government. A race of gallantgentlemen grew up, well educated, and consciously superior to the rest ofthe population, who had very limited educational facilities, and butlittle of that spirit of equality and independence which characterized thenorthern colonies. Towns and cities came slowly; the plantation system wasmore natural and agreeable under the circumstances. Orthodoxy in religionwas the rule; and though at first there was a tendency to eschewnarrowness and bigotry, yet gradually the church became hostile todissenters, and Puritans and Quakers were as unwelcome in Virginia as werethe latter in Massachusetts, or Episcopalians anywhere in New England. Allthis seems incompatible with democracy; and probably it might in time havegrown into a liberal monarchical system. The slaves were not regarded ashaving any rights, political or personal; their masters exercised overthem the power of life and death, as well as all lesser powers. The bulkof the white population was not oppressed, and was able to get a living, for Virginia was "the best poor man's country in the world"; there waslittle or none of the discontent that embarrassed the New Amsterdampatroons; the charter gave them representation, and their manhood was notundermined. Had Virginia been an island, or otherwise isolated, and freefrom any external interference, we can imagine that the planters might atlast have found it expedient to choose a king from among their number, whowould have found a nobility and a proletariat ready made. But Virginia wasnot isolated. She was loyal to the Stuarts, because they did not bring tobear upon her the severities which they inflicted upon their Englishsubjects; but when she became a royal colony, and had to put up withcorrupt and despotic favorites of the monarch, who could do what theypleased, and were responsible to nobody but the monarch who had made themgovernor, loyalty began to cool. Moreover, men whose ability and advancedopinions made them distasteful to the English kings, fled to the colonies, and to Virginia among the rest, and sowed the seeds of revolt. Calamitymakes strange bedfellows: the planters liked outside oppression as littleas did the common people, and could not but make common cause with them. The distance between the two was diminished. Social equality there couldhardly be; but political and theoretic equality could be acknowledged. The English monarchy made the American republic; spurred its indolence, and united its parts. Man left to himself is lax and indifferent; fromfirst to last it is the pressure of wrong that molds him into the form ofright. George I. Gave the victory to the Americans in the Revolution asmuch as Washington did. And before George's time, the colonies had beenkeyed up to the struggle by years of injustice and outrage. And thisinjustice and outrage seemed the more intolerable because they had beenpreceded by a period of comparative liberality. It needs powerful pressureto transform English gentlemen with loyalist traditions, and sympathiesinto a democracy; but it can be done, and the English kings were the mento do it. 

Until the period of unequivocal tyranny arrived, the chief shadow uponthe colony was cast by its relations with the Indians. Powhatan, thefather of Pocahontas, and chief over tribes whose domains extended overthousands of square miles, kept friendship with the whites till his deathin 1618. His brother, Opechankano, professed to inherit the friendshipalong with the chieftainship; but the relations between the red men andthe colonists had never been too cordial, and the latter, measuring theirmuskets and breastplates against the stone arrows and deerskin shirts ofthe savages, fell into the error of despising them. The Indians, for theirpart, stood in some awe of firearms, which they had never held in theirown hands, and the penalty for selling which to them had been made capitalyears before. But they had their own methods of dealing with foes; andsince neither side had ever formally come to blows, they had received noobject lesson to warn them to keep hands off. Opechankano was intelligentand far-seeing; he perceived that the whites were increasing in numbers, and that if they were not checked betimes, they would finally overrun thecountry. But he did not see so far as his brother, who had known that thefinal domination of the English could not be prevented, and had thereforeadopted the policy of conciliating them as the best. Opechankano, therefore, quietly planned the extermination of the settlers; the familiarterms on which the white and red men stood played into his hands. Indianswere in the habit of visiting the white settlements, and mingling with thepeople. Orders for concerted action were secretly circulated among thesavages, who were to hold themselves ready for the signal. 

It might after all never have been given, but for an unlooked forincident. A noisy and troublesome Indian, who imagined that bullets couldnot kill him, fell into a quarrel with a settler, and slew him; and washimself shot while attempting to escape from arrest. "Sooner shall theheavens fall, " devoutly exclaimed Opechankano, when informed of thismishap, "than I will break the peace of Powhatan. " But the waiting tribesknew that the time had come. 

On the morning of March 22, 1622, the settlers arose as usual to thelabors of the day; some of them took their hoes and spades and went outinto the fields; others busied themselves about their houses. Numbers ofIndians were about, but this excited no remark or suspicion; they were notformidable; a dog could frighten them; a child could hold them in check. Indians strolled into the cabins, and sat at the breakfast-tables. No onegave them a second thought. No one looked over his shoulder when an Indianpassed behind him. 

But, miles up the country from Jamestown lived a settler who kept anIndian boy, whom he instructed, and who made himself useful about theplace; and of all the Indians in Virginia that day he was the only onewhose heart relented. His brother had lain with him the night before, andhad given him the word: he was to kill the settler and his family the nextmorning. The boy seemed to assent, and the other went on his way. The boylay till dawn, his savage mind divided between fear of the great chief andcompassion for the white man who had been kind to him and taught him. Inthe early morning he arose and stood beside his benefactor's bed. The manslept: one blow, and he would be dead. But the boy did not strike; hewakened him and told him of the horror that was about to befall. 

Pace--such was the settler's name--did not wait for confirmation of thetale; indeed, as he ran to the paddock to get his packhorse, he could seethe smoke of burning cabins rising in the still air, and could hear, faroff, the yells of the savages as they plied their work. 

He sprang on the horse's back, with his musket across the withers, andset off at a gallop toward Jamestown. Most of the colonists lived in thatneighborhood; if he could get there in time many lives might be saved. Ashe rode, he directed his course to the cabins, on the right hand and onthe left, that lay in his way, and gave the alarm. Many of the savages, who had not yet begun their work, at once took to flight; they would notface white men when on their guard. In other places, the warning came toolate. The missionary, who had devoted his life to teaching the heathenthat men should love one another, was inhumanly butchered. Pace arrived inseason to avert the danger from the bulk of the little population; but, ofthe four thousand scattered over the country-side, three hundred andforty-seven died that morning, with the circumstances of hideous atrocitywhich were the invariable accompaniments of Indian massacre. The colonistswere appalled; and for a time it seemed as if the purpose of Opechankanowould be realized. Two thousand settlers came in from the outlyingdistricts, panic-stricken, and after living for a while crowded togetherin unwholesome quarters in the vicinity of Jamestown, took ship andreturned to England. Hardly one in ten of the plantations was notdeserted. The bolder spirits, who remained, organized a war ofextermination, in which they were supported and re-enforced by thecompany, who sent over men and weapons as soon as the news was known inEngland. But the campaign resolved itself into long and harassing attacks, ambuscades and reprisals, extending over many years. There could be nopitched battles with Indians; they gave way, but only to circumvent andsurprise. The whites were resolved to make no peace, and to give noquarter to man, woman or child. The formerly peaceful settlement becameinured to blood and cruelty. But the red men could not be wholly drivenaway. Just twenty years after the first massacre the same implacablechief, now a decrepit old man, planned a second one; some hundreds weremurdered; but the colonists were readier and stronger now, and theygathered themselves up at once, and inflicted a crushing vengeance. Theancient chief was finally taken, and either died of wounds received infight, or was slain by a soldier after capture. After 1646, the bordersof Virginia were safe. There is no redeeming feature in this Indianwarfare, which fitfully survives, in remote parts of our country, evennow. It aided, perhaps, to train the race of pioneers and frontiersmen wholater became one of the most remarkable features of our early population. Contact with the savage races inoculated us, perhaps, with a touch oftheir stoicism and grimness. But in our conflicts with them there wasnothing noble or inspiring; and there could be no object in view on eitherside but extermination. Our Indian fighters became as savage and mercilessas the creatures they pursued. The Indian must be fought by the sametactics he adopts--cunning, stealth, surprise, and then unrelentingslaughter, with the sequel of the scalping knife. They compel us todescend to their level in war, and we have utterly failed to raise them toour own in peace. Some of them have possessed certain harshly masculinetraits which we can admire; some of them have showed broad and virileintelligence, the qualities of a general, a diplomatist, or even of astatesman. There have been, and are, so-called tame Indians; but such werenot worth taming. As a whole, the red tribes have resisted all attempts tolift them to the civilized level and keep them there. Roger Williams, andthe "apostle, " John Eliot, were their friends, and won their regard; butneither Williams' influence nor Eliot's Bible left any lasting trace uponthem. The Indian is irreclaimable; disappointment is the very mildestresult that awaits the effort to reclaim him. He is wild to the marrow; nobird or beast is so wild as he. He is a human embodiment of the untroddenwoods, the undiscovered rivers, the austere mountains, the pathlessprairies--of all those parts and aspects of nature which are never broughtwithin the smooth sway of civilization, because, as soon as civilizationappears, they are, so far as their essential quality is concerned, gone. To hear the yelp of the coyote, you must lie alone in the sage brush nearthe pool in the hollow of the low hills by moonlight; it will never reachyour ears through the bars of the menagerie cage. To know the mountain, you must confront the avalanche and the precipice uncompanioned, and standat last on the breathless and awful peak, which lifts itself and you intoa voiceless solitude remote from man and yet no nearer to God; but if youjourney with guides and jolly fellowship to some Mountain House, never soairily perched, you would as well visit a panorama. To comprehend theocean, you must meet it in its own inviolable domain, where it tossesheavenward its careless nakedness, and laughs with death; from the deck ofa steamboat you will never find it, though you sail as far as the FlyingDutchman. But the solitude which nature reveals, and which alone revealsher, does but prepare you for the inaproachableness that shines out at youfrom the Indian's eyes. Seas are shallow and continents but a spancompared with the breadths and depths which separate him from you. Thesphinx will yield her mystery, but he will not unveil his; you may touchthe poles of the planet, but you can never lay your hand on him. The sameGod that made you, made him also in His image; but if you try to bridgethe gulf between you, you will learn something of God's infinitude. 

Sir George Yeardley and Sir Francis Wyatt both held the office ofgovernor twice, and with good repute; in 1630, Sir John Harvey succeededthe former. He was the champion of monopolists; he would divide the landamong a few, and keep the rest in subjection. He fought with thelegislature from the first; he could not wring their rights from them, buthe distressed and irritated the colony, levying arbitrary fines, andbrowbeating all and sundry with the brutality of an ungoverned temper. Hischief patron was Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic, and thereforedisfavored by the Protestant colony, who would not suffer him to plant intheir domain. He bought a patent authorizing him to establish a colony inthe northern part of Virginia, which was afterward called Maryland, beingcut off from the older colony; and this diminution of their territory muchdispleased the Virginians. But Harvey supported him throughout; andpermitted mass to be said in Virginia. He likewise prevented the settlersfrom carrying on the border warfare with the Indians, lest it shoulddisturb his perquisites from the fur trade. Violent scenes took place inthe hall of assembly, and hard words were given and exchanged; theplanters were men of hot passions, and the conduct of the governor becameintolerable to them. Matters came to a head during the last week in Aprilof 1635. An unauthorized gathering in York complained of an unjust tax andof other malfeasances; whereupon Harvey cried mutiny, and had the leadersarrested. But the boot was on the other leg. Several members of council, with a company of musketeers at their back, came to his house; Matthews, with whom the governor had lately had a fierce quarrel, and the otherplanters, tramped into the broad hall of the dwelling, with swords intheir hands and threatening looks, and confronted him. John Utie broughtdown his hand with staggering force on his shoulder, exclaiming, "I arrestyou for treason!" "How, for treason?" queried the frightened governor. "You have betrayed our forts to our enemies of Maryland, " replied severalstern voices. Harvey glanced from one to another; in the background werethe musketeers; plainly this was no time for trifling. He offered to dowhatever they demanded. They required the release of prisoners, which wasimmediately done, and bade him prepare to answer before the assembly. Theywould listen to no arguments and no excuses; he was told by Matthews, witha menacing look, that the people would have none of him. "You intend noless than the subversion of Maryland, " protested Harvey; but he promisedto return to England, and John West, who had already acted as ad-interimgovernor while Harvey was on his way to Virginia, was at once elected inhis place. 

This incident showed of what stuff the Virginians were made. It was anearly breaking-out of the American spirit, which would never brooktyranny. In offering violence to the king's governor they imperiled theirown lives; but their blood was up, and they heeded no danger. When Harveypresented himself before Charles at the privy council, his majestyremarked that he must be sent back at all hazards, because the sending himto England had been an assumption on the colonists' part of regal power;and, tobacco or no tobacco, the line must be drawn there. If the chargesagainst him were sustained, he might stay but a day; if not, his termshould be extended beyond the original commission. A new commission wasgiven him, and back he went; but this shuttlecock experience seems to havequelled his spirit, and we hear no more of quarrels with the Virginiacouncil. Wyatt relieved him in 1639; and in 1642 came Sir WilliamBerkeley. This man, who was born about the beginning of the century, wastwice governor; his present term, lasting ten years, was followed by anine years' interval; reappointed again in 1660, he was in power when therebellion broke out which was led by Nathaniel Bacon. Little is known ofhim outside of his American record; in his first term, under Charles I. , he acted simply as the creature of that monarch, and aroused no specialanimosities on his own account: during the reign of Cromwell, hedisappeared; but when Charles II. Ascended the throne, Berkeley, thoughthen an old man, was thought to be fitted by his previous experience forthe Virginia post, and was returned thither. But years seemed to havesoured his disposition, and lessened his prudence, and, as we shall see, his bloodthirsty conduct after Bacon's death was the occasion of hisrecall in disgrace; and he died, like Andros more than half a centurylater, with the curse of a people on his grave. 

But his first appearance was auspicious; he brought instructions designedto increase the reign of law and order in the colony, without infringingupon its existing liberties. Allegiance to God and the king were enjoined, additional courts were provided for, traffic with the Indians wasregulated, annual assemblies, with a negative voice upon their acts by thegovernor, were commanded. The only discordant note in the instructionsreferred to the conditions of maritime trade, afterward known in historyas the Navigation Acts. The colony desired free trade, which, as it had nomanufactures, was obviously to its benefit. But it was as obviously to theinterest of the king that he alone should enjoy the right of controllingall imports into the colony, and absorbing all its exports; and hisrulings were framed to secure that end. But for the present the Acts werenot carried into effect; and, on the other hand, the prospect was held outthat there should be no taxation except what was voted by the peoplethemselves; and their contention that they, who knew the conditions andneeds of their colonial existence, were better able to regulate it thanthose at home, was allowed. By way of evincing their recognition of thiscourtesy, the assembly passed among other laws, one against toleration ofany other than the episcopalian form of worship; and when Charles wasbeheaded, in 1649, it voted to retain Berkeley in office. But when in thenext year, the fugitive son of the dead king undertook to issue acommission confirming him in his place, Parliament intervened. Virginiawas brought to her bearings; and the Navigation Acts were brought upagain. Cromwell, no less than Charles, appreciated the advantages of amonopoly. 

Restrictions on commerce, first imposed by Spain, were first resisted bythe Dutch, with the result of rendering them the leading maritime power. Cromwell wished to appropriate or share this advantage; but instead ofadopting the means employed for that purpose by the Dutch, he decreed thatnone but English ships should trade with the English colonies, and thatforeign ships should bring to England only the products of their owncountries. The restriction did little harm to Virginia, so long as Englandwas able to take all her products, and to supply all her needs; but itbrought on war with Holland, in which both the moral and the navaladvantage was on the side of the Dutch. But England acquired a foothold inthe West Indies, and her policy was maintained. Virginia asked that sheshould have representatives to act for her in England, and when a body ofcommissioners was appointed to examine colonial questions, among them wereRichard Bennett and William Clairborne, both of them colonists, and men offorce and ability. In the sequel, the liberties of the colony wereenlarged, and Bennett was made governor by vote of the assembly itself, which continued to elect governors during the ascendency of Parliament inEngland. When Richard Cromwell, who had succeeded the great Protector, resigned his office, the Virginia burgesses chose Sir William Berkeley torule over them, and he acknowledged their authority. Meanwhile theNavigation Acts were so little enforced that smuggling was hardly illegal;and, in 1658, the colonists actually invited foreign nations to deal withthem. This was the period of Virginia's greatest freedom before theRevolution. The suffrage was in the hands of all taxpayers; in religiousmatters, all restrictions except those against the Quakers were removed;loyalists and roundheads mingled amicably in planting and legislation, andthe differences which had arrayed them against one another in England wereforgotten. The population increased to thirty thousand, and theinhabitants developed among themselves an ardent patriotism. It is notsurprising. Their country was one of the richest and loveliest in theworld; everything which impairs the enjoyment of life was eliminated orminimized; hucksters, pettifoggers and bigots were scarce as Junesnowflakes; indentured servants, on their emancipation, were speedilygiven the suffrage; it might almost be said that a man might do whateverhe pleased, within the limits of criminal law. Assuredly, personal libertywas far greater at this epoch, in Virginia, than it is today in New YorkCity or Chicago. The instinct of the Virginians, in matters of governing, was so far as possible to let themselves alone; the planters, in theseclusion of their estates, were practically subject to no law but theirown pleasure. There was probably no place in the civilized world where somuch intelligent happiness was to be had as in Virginia during the yearsimmediately preceding the Restoration. 

What would have been the political result had the absence of allartificial pressure indefinitely continued? Two tendencies wereobservable, working, apparently, in opposite directions. On one side werethe planters, many of them aristocratic by origin as well as bycircumstance; who lived in affluence, were friendly to the establishedchurch, enjoyed a liberal education, and naturally assumed the reins ofpower. The law which gave fifty acres of land to the settler who importedan emigrant, while it made for the enlargement of estates, created also alarge number of tenants and dependants, who would be likely to supporttheir patrons and proprietors, who exercised so much control over theirwelfare. These dependants found the conditions of existence comfortable, and even after they had become their own masters, they would be likely toconsult the wishes of the men who had been the occasion of their goodfortune. Neither education nor religious instruction were so readilyobtainable as to threaten to render such a class discontented with theircondition by opening to them hitherto unknown gates of advantage; and thesuffrage, when by ownership of private property they had qualifiedthemselves to exercise it, would at once appease their independentinstincts, and at the same time make them willing, in using it, to followthe lead or suggestion of men so superior to them in intelligence and inpolitical sagacity. From this standpoint, then, it seemed probable that aself-governing community of the special kind existing in Virginia woulddrift toward an aristocratic form of rule. 

But the matter could be regarded in another way. Free suffrage is a powerhaving a principle of life within itself; it creates in the mind thatwhich did not before exist, and educates its possessor first by promptinghim to ask himself of what improvement his condition is susceptible, andthen by forcing him to review his desire by the light of its realization--by practical experience of its effects, in other words: a method whoseteachings are more thorough and convincing than any school or college isable to supply. The use of the ballot, in short, as a means of instructionin the problems of government, takes the place of anything else; it willof itself build up a people both capable of conducting their own affairs, and resolved to do so. The plebeians of Virginia, therefore, who began bybeing poor and ignorant emigrants, or indentured servants, to whom theplanters accorded such privileges because it had never occurred to themthat a plebeian can ever become anything else--these men, unconsciously tothemselves, perhaps, were on the road which leads to democracy. The timewould come when they would cease to follow the lead of the planters; whentheir interests and the planters' would clash. In that collision, theirnumbers would give them the victory. With a similar community planted inthe old world, such might not be the issue; the strong influence oftradition would combat it, and the surrounding pressure of settledcountries, which offered no escape or asylum for the man of radical ideas. But the boundaries of Virginia were the untrammeled wilderness; any manwho could not have his will in the colony had this limitless expanse athis disposal; there could be no finality for him in the decrees ofassemblies, if he possessed the courage of his convictions in sufficientmeasure to make him match himself against the red man, and be independentnot only of any special form of society, but of society itself. Theconsciousness of this would hearten him to entertain free thoughts, and tostrive for their embodiment. It was partly this, no doubt, which, in theSeventeenth Century, drove hundreds of Ishmaels into the interior, wherethey became the Daniel Boones and the Davy Crocketts of legend andromance. So, although Virginia was as little likely as any of the coloniesto breed a democracy, yet even there it was a more than possible outcomeof the situation, even with no outside stimulus. But the old world, because it desired the oppression of America, was to become the immediateagent of its emancipation. 

There was rejoicing in Virginia when Charles II. Acceded to power; on thepart of the planters, because they saw opportunity for politicaldistinction; on the part of the plebeians, as the expression of a loyaltyto kingship which centuries had made instinctive in them. Berkeley, putting himself in line with the predominant feeling, summoned theassembly in the name of the king, thus announcing without rebuke thetermination of the era of self-government. The members who were electedwere mostly royalists. They met in 1661. It was found that the NavigationActs, which had been a dead letter ever since their passage, were to berevived in full force; and the increase of the colony in the meanwhilemade them more than ever unwelcome. The exports were much larger thanbefore, and unless the colony could have a free market for them theprofits must be materially lessened. And again, since England was the onlycountry from which the Virginian could purchase supplies, her merchantscould charge him what they pleased. This was galling alike to royalistsand roundheads in Virginia, and quickly healed the breach, such as it was, between the parties. Charles's true policy would have been to widen thegulf between them; instead of that, he forced them into each other's arms. It was determined to send Berkeley to England to ask relief; he acceptedthe commission, but his sympathies were not with the colonists, and heobtained nothing. Evidently, there could be no relief but in independence, and it was still a hundred years too early for that. The exasperationwhich this state of things produced in the great landowners did more forthe cause of democracy than could decades of peaceful evolution. But thecolonists could no longer have things their own way. Liberal laws wererepealed, and intolerance and oppression took their place. Heretics werepersecuted; the power of the church in civil affairs was increased; andfines and taxes on the industry of the colony were wanton and excessive. The king of England directly ruled Virginia. The people were forced to payBerkeley a thousand pounds sterling as his salary, and he declared heought to get three times as much even as that. His true character wasbeginning to appear. The judges were appointed by the king, and thelicense thus given them resulted in a petty despotism; when an officialwanted money, he caused a tax to be levied for the amount. Appeals werevain, and ere long were prohibited. The assembly, partisans of the king, declared themselves permanent, so that all chance for the people to bebetter represented was gone, and as the members fixed their own pay, andfixed it at a preposterous figure, the colony began to groan in earnest. But worse was to come. The suffrage was restricted to freeholders andhouseholders, and at a stroke, all but a fraction of the colonists weredeprived of any voice in their own government. The spread of education, never adequate, was stopped altogether. "I thank God there are no freeschools nor printing, " Sir William Berkeley was able to say, "and I hopewe shall not have, these hundred years; for learning has broughtdisobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing hasdivulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us fromboth!" This was a succinct and full formulation of the spirit which hasever tended to make the earth a hell for its inhabitants. "The ministers, "added the governor, "should pray oftener, and preach less. " But he spakein all solemnity; there was not the ghost of a sense of humor in his wholeinsufferable carcass. 

The downward course was not to stop here. Charles, with thefreehandedness of a highwayman, presented two of his favorites, in 1673, for a term of one and thirty years, with the entire colony! This actstirred even the soddenness of the legislature. At the time of theirelection, a dozen years before, they had been royalists indeed, but men ofhonor, intending the good of the colony; and had tried, as we saw, to stopthe enforcement of the Navigation Acts. But when they discovered that theycould continue themselves in office indefinitely, with such salary as theychose to demand, they soon became indifferent about the Navigation Acts, or anything else which respected the welfare and happiness of theirfellows. Let the common folk do the work, and the better sort enjoy theproceeds: that was the true and only respectable arrangement. We may saythat it sounds like a return to the dark ages; but perhaps if we enterinto our closets and question ourselves closely, we shall find thatprecisely the same principles for which Berkeley and his assembly stood in1673, are both avowed and carried into effect in this same country, in thevery year of grace which is now passing over us. A nation, even inAmerica, takes a great deal of teaching. 

But the generosity of Charles startled the assembly out of their porcineindifference, for it threatened to bring to bear upon them the samepractices by which they had destroyed the happiness of the colony. If theking had given over to these two men all sovereignty in Virginia, what wasto prevent these gentlemen from dissolving the assembly, who had become, as it were, incorporate with their seats, and had hoped to die in them--and ruling the country and them without any legislative medium whatever?Accordingly, with gruntings of dismay, they chose three agents to sailforthwith to England, and expostulate with the merry monarch. Theexpostulation was couched in the most servile terms, as of men who love tobe kicked, but hope to live, if only to be kicked again. Might the colony, they concluded, be permitted to buy itself out of the hands of its newowners, at their own price? And might the people of Virginia be free fromany tax not approved by their assembly? That was the sum of their petition. 

The king let his lawyers talk over the matter, and, when they reportedfavorably, good-naturedly said, "So let it be, then!" and permitted acharter to be drawn up. But before the broad seal could be affixed to ithe altered his mind, for causes satisfactory to him, and the envoys weresent home, poorer than they came. But before relating what awaited themthere, we must advert briefly to the doings of George Calvert, LordBaltimore in the Irish peerage, in his new country of Maryland. 

CHAPTER SIXTH

CATHOLIC, PHILOSOPHER, AND REBEL

The first Lord Baltimore, whose family name was Calvert, was aYorkshireman, born at the town of Kipling in 1580. He entered Parliamentin his thirtieth year, and was James's Secretary of State ten years later. He was a man of large, tranquil nature, philosophic, charitable, lovingpeace; but these qualities were fused by a concrete tendency of thought, which made him a man of action, and determined that action in thedirection of practical schemes of benevolence. The contemporary interestin America as a possible arena of enterprise and Mecca of religious andpolitical dissenters, attracted his sympathetic attention; and when, in1625, being then five-and-forty years of age, he found in the RomanCatholic communion a refuge from the clamor of warring sects, and as animmediate consequence tendered his resignation as secretary to the head ofthe Church of England, he found himself with leisure to put his designs inexecution. He had, upon his conversion, been raised to the rank of BaronBaltimore in the peerage of Ireland; and his change of faith in no degreeforfeited him the favor of the king. When therefore he asked for a charterto found a colony in Avalon, in Newfoundland, it was at once granted, andthe colony was sent out; but his visits to it in 1627 and 1629 convincedhim that the climate was too inclement for his purposes, and he requestedthat it might be transferred to the northern parts of Virginia, which hehad visited on his way to England. This too was permitted; but before thenew charter had been sealed Lord Baltimore died. The patent thereuponpassed to his son Cecil, who was also a Catholic. He devoted his life tocarrying out his father's designs. The characters of the two men were, intheir larger elements, not dissimilar; and the sequel showed that colonialenterprise could be better achieved by one man of kindly and liberaldisposition, and persistent resolve, than by a corporation, some of whosemembers were sure to thwart the wishes of others. Conditions of widerscope than the settlement of Maryland obstructed and delayed itsproprietor's plans; conflicts and changes of government in England, andjealousy and violence on the part of Virginia, had their influence; butthis quiet, benign, resolute young man (who was but seven-and-twenty whenthe grant made him sovereign of a kingdom) never lost his temper orswerved from his aim: overcame, apparently without an effort, thedisabilities which might have been expected to hamper the professor of afaith as little consonant with the creed of the two Charleses as ofCromwell; was as well regarded, politically, by cavaliers as byroundheads; and finally established his ownership and control of hisheritage, and, after a beneficent rule of over forty years, died in peaceand honor with his people and the world. The story of colonial Marylandhas a flavor of its own, and throws still further light on the subject ofpopular self-government--the source and solution of American history. 

The idea of the Baltimores, as outlined in their charter, and followed intheir practice, was to try the experiment of a democratic monarchy. Theywould found a state the people of which should enjoy all the freedom ofaction and thought that sane and well-disposed persons can desire, withinthe boundaries of their personal concerns; they should not be meddledwith; each man's home should be his castle; they should say what taxesshould be collected, and what civil officers should attend to theircollective affairs. They should be like passengers on a ship, free tosleep or wake, sit or walk, speak or be mute, eat or fast, as theypleased: do anything in fact except scuttle the ship or cut the rigging--or ordain to what port she should steer, or what course the helmsmanshould lay. Matters of high policy, in other words, should be the care ofthe proprietor; everything less than that, broadly speaking, should beleft to the colonists themselves. The proprietor could not get as close totheir personal needs as they could: and they, preoccupied with privateinterests, could not see so far and wide as he could. If then it werearranged that they should be afforded every facility and encouragement tomake their wants known: and if it were guaranteed that he would adoptevery means that experience, wisdom and good-will suggested to gratifythose wants: what more could mortal man ask? There was nothing abnormal inthe idea. The principle is the same as that on which the Creator hasplaced man in nature: man is perfectly at liberty to do as he pleases;only, he must adapt himself to the law of gravitation, to the resistanceof matter, to hot and cold, wet and dry, and to the other impersonalnecessities by which the material universe is conditioned. The control ofthese natural laws, as they are called, could not advantageously be givenin charge to man; even had he the brains to manage them, he could notspare the time from his immediate concerns. He is well content, accordingly, to leave them to the Power that put him where he is; and hedoes not feel his independence infringed upon in so doing. When his littlebusiness goes wrong, however, he can petition his Creator to help him out:or, what amounts to the same thing, he can find out in what respect he hasfailed to conform to the laws of nature, and, by returning into harmonywith them, insure himself success. What the Creator was to mankind atlarge, Lord Baltimore proposed to be to his colony; and, following thissupreme example, and binding himself to place the welfare of his peoplebefore all other considerations, how could he make a mistake?

In arguments about the best ways of managing nations or communities, ithas been generally conceded that this scheme of an executive head on oneside, and a people freely communicating their wants to him on the other, is sound, provided, first, that he is as solicitous about their welfare asthey themselves are; and secondly, that means exist for continuous andunchecked intercommunication between them and him:--it being premised, ofcourse, that the ability of the head is commensurate with his willingness. And leaving basic principles for the moment aside, it is notorious thatone-man power is far prompter, weightier, and cleaner-cut than theconfused and incomplete compromises of a body of representatives are aptto be. 

All this may be conceded. And yet experience shows that the one-mansystem, even when the man is a Lord Baltimore, is unsatisfactory. LordBaltimore, indeed, finally achieved a technical success; his people lovedand honored him, his wishes were measurably realized, and, so far as hewas concerned, Maryland was the victim of fewer mistakes than were theother colonies. But the fact that Lord Baltimore's career closed in peaceand credit was due less to what he did and desired, than to the necessityhis career was under of sooner or later coming to a close. Had hepossessed a hundred times the ability and benevolence that were his, andhad been immortal into the bargain, the people would have cast him out;they were willing to tolerate him for a few years, more or less, but as afixture--No! "Tolerate" is too harsh a word; but another might be tooweak. The truth is, men do not care half so much what they get, as howthey get it. The wolf in Aesop's fable keenly wanted a share of the boneswhich made his friend the mastiff so sleek; but the hint that the bonesand the collar went together drove him hungry but free back to his desert. It is of no avail to give a man all he asks for; he resents having to askyou for it, and wants to know by what right you have it to give. A man canbe grateful for friendship, for a sympathetic look, for a brave wordspoken in his behalf against odds--he can be your debtor for such things, and keep his manhood uncompromised. But if you give him food, and ease, orpreferment, and condescension therewith, look for no thanks from him;esteem yourself fortunate if he do not hold you his enemy. The gifts ofthe soul are free; but material benefits are captivity. So the Marylandcolonists, recognizing that their proprietor meant well, forgave him hisgenerosity, and his activities in their behalf--but only because they knewthat his day would presently be past. Man is infinite as well as finite:infinite in his claims, finite in his power of giving. And for Baltimoreto presume to give the people all they claimed, was as much as to say thathis fullness could equal their want, or that his rights and capacitieswere more than theirs. He gave them all that a democracy can possess--except the one thing that constitutes democracy; that is, absoluteself-direction. It may well be that their little ship of state, steered bythemselves, would have encountered many mishaps from which his sagaciousguidance preserved it. But rather rocks with their pilotage than port withhis: and beyond forgiving him their magnanimity could not go. 

There is little more than this to be derived from study of the Marylandexperiment. Let a man manage himself, in big as well as in little things, and he will be happy on raw clams and plain water, with a snow-drift for apillow--as we saw him happy in Plymouth Bay: but give him roast ortolansand silken raiment, and manage him never so little, and you cannot relievehis discontent. And is it not well that it should be so? Verily it is--ifAmerica be not a dream, and immortality a delusion. 

Lord Baltimore would perhaps have liked to see all his colonistsCatholics; but his experience of religious intolerance had not inflamedhim against other creeds than his own, as would have been the case with aSpaniard; it seemed to awaken a desire to set tolerance an example. Anyone might join his community except felons and atheists; and as a matterof fact, his assortment of colonists soon became as motley as that ofWilliams in Providence. The landing of the first expedition on an islandin the Potomac was attended by the making and erecting by the Jesuitpriests of a rude cross, and the celebration of mass; but there were eventhen more Protestants than Catholics in the party; and though theleadership was Catholic for many years, it was not on account of thenumerical majority of persons of that faith. Episcopalians ejected fromNew England, Puritans fleeing from the old country, Quakers andAnabaptists who were unwelcome everywhere else, met with hospitality inMaryland. Let them but believe in Jesus Christ, and all else was forgiventhem. Nevertheless, Catholicism was the religion of the country. Itsinhabitants might be likened to promiscuous guests at an inn whoselandlord made no criticisms on their beliefs, further than to inscribe thePapal insignia on the signboard over his door. Thus liberty wasdiscriminated from license, and in the midst of tolerance there was order. 

The first settlement was made on a small creek entering the north side ofthe Potomac. Here an Indian village already existed; but its occupantswere on the point of deserting it, and were glad to accept payment fromthe colonists for the site which they had no further use for. On the otherhand, the colonists could avail themselves of the wigwams just as theystood, and had their maize fields ready cleared. Baltimore, meanwhile, through his agent (and brother) Leonard Calvert, furnished them with allthe equipment they needed; and so well was the way smoothed before them, that the colony made progress ten times as rapidly as Virginia had done. They called their new home St. Mary's; and the date of its occupation was1634. Their first popular assembly met for legislation in the second monthof the ensuing year. In that and subsequent meetings they asserted theirright of jurisdiction, their right to enact laws, the freedom of "holychurch": his lordship gently giving them their head. In 1642, perhaps todisburden themselves of some of their obligation to him, they voted him asubsidy. Almost the only definite privilege which he seems to haveretained was that of pre-emption of lands. At this period (1643) allEngland was by the ears, and Baltimore's hold upon his colony was relaxed. In Virginia and the other colonies, which had governors of their own, theneglect of the mother country gave them opportunity for progress; but thepeople of Maryland, no longer feeling the sway of their non-residentproprietor, and having no one else to look after them, became disorderly;which would not have happened, had they been empowered to elect a rulerfrom among themselves. Baltimore's enemies took advantage of thesedisturbances to petition for his removal from the proprietorship; but hewas equal to the occasion; and by confirming his colonists in all justliberties, with freedom of conscience in the foreground, he composed theirdissensions, and took away his enemies' ground of complaint. In 1649, thelegislature sat for the first time in two branches, so that one might be acheck upon the other. Upon this principle all American legislatures arestill formed. 

But the reign of Cromwell in England gave occasion for sophistries inMaryland. All other Englishmen, in the colonies or at home, were membersof a commonwealth; but Baltimore still claimed the Marylanders'allegiance. On what grounds?--for since the king from whom he derived hispower was done away with, so must be the derivative power. Baltimore stoodbetween them and republicanism. To give edge to the predicament, thecolony was menaced by covetous Virginia on one hand, and by fugitiveCharles II. , with a governor of his own manufacture, on the other. Calamity seemed at hand. 

In 1650, the year after Charles I. 's execution, the Parliament appointedcommissioners to bring royalist colonies into line; Maryland was to bereannexed to Virginia; Bennett, then governor of Virginia, and Clairborne, unseated Stone, Baltimore's lieutenant, appointed an executive council, and ordered that burgesses were to be elected by supporters of Cromwellonly. The question of reannexation was referred to Parliament. Baltimoreprotested that Maryland had been less royalist than Virginia; and beforethe Parliament could decide what to do, it was dissolved, carrying with itthe authority of Bennett and Clairborne. Stone now reappeared defiant; butthe Virginians attacked him, and he surrendered on compulsion. TheVirginian government decreed that no Roman Catholics could hereafter voteor be elected. 

Baltimore, taking his stand on his charter, declared these doingsmutinous; and Cromwell supported him. Stone once more asserted himself;but in the skirmish with the Virginians that followed, he was defeated, yielded (he seems to have had no granite in his composition), and, withhis supporters, was ordered to be shot. His life was spared, however; butCromwell, again appealed to, refused to act. The ownership of Maryland wastherefore still undetermined. It was not until 1667 that Baltimore andBennett agreed to compromise their dispute. The boundary between the twodomains was maintained, but settlers from Virginia were not to bedisturbed in their holdings. The second year after Cromwell's death, therepresentatives of Maryland met and voted themselves an independentassembly, making Fendall, Baltimore's appointee, subject to their will. Finally, being weary of turmoil, they made it felony to alter what theyhad done. The colony was then abreast of Virginia in political privileges, and had a population of about ten thousand, in spite of its vicissitudes. 

But the quiet, invincible Lord Baltimore was still to be reckoned with. At the Restoration, he sent his deputy to the colony, which submitted tohis authority, and Fendall was convicted of treason for having allowed theassembly to overrule him. A general amnesty was proclaimed, however, andthe kindliness of the government during the remainder of the proprietor'sundisputed sway attracted thousands of settlers from all the nations ofEurope. Between Baltimore and the people, a give-and-take policy wasestablished, one privilege being set against another, so that theirliberties were maintained, and his rights recognized. Though he stood inhis own person for all that was opposed to democracy, he presided over acommunity which was essentially democratic; and he had the breadth of mindto acknowledge that because he owned allegiance to kings and popes, was noreason why others should do so. Suum cuique. Could he but have gone a stepfurther, and denied himself the gratification of retaining his hard-earnedproprietorship, he would have been one of the really great men of history. 

The ripple of events which we have recorded may seem too insignificant;of still less import is the story of the efforts of Clairborne, from 1634:to 1647, to gain, or retain possession of Kent Island, in the Chesapeake, on which he had "squatted" before Baltimore got his charter. Yet, fromanother point of view, even slight matters may weigh when they are relatedto the stirring of the elements which are to crystallize into a nation. Maryland, like a bird half tamed, was ready to fly away when the cage doorwas left open, and yet was not averse to its easy confinement when thedoor was shut again. But, unlike the bird, time made it fonder of liberty, instead of leading it to forget it; and when the cage fell apart, it wasat home in the free air. 

The settlement of the Carolinas, during the twenty years or so from 1660to 1680, presented features of singular grotesqueness. There was, on oneside, a vast wilderness covering the region now occupied by North andSouth Carolina, and westward to the Pacific. It had been nibbled at, for ahundred years, by Spaniards, French and English, but no permanent hold hadbeen got upon it. Here were thousands upon thousands of square miles inwhich nature rioted unrestrained, with semi-tropic fervor; the topographyof which was unknown, and whose character in any respect was a matter ofpure conjecture. This wilderness was on one side; on the other were aworthless king, a handful of courtiers, and a couple of highly gifteddoctrinaires, Lord Shaftesbury and John Locke, the philosopher. We canpicture Charles II. Lolling in his chair, with a map of the Americasspread out on his knees, while the other gentlemen in big wigs and silkattire, and long rapiers dangling at their sides, are grouped about him. "I'll give you all south of Virginia, " says he, indicating the territorywith a sweep of his long fingers. "Ashley, you and your friend Locke candraw up a constitution, and stuff it full of your fine ideas; they soundwell: we'll see how they work. You shall be kings every man of you; andmay you like it no worse than I do! You'll have no France or Holland tothwart you--only bogs and briers and a few naked blacks. Your chartershall pass the seals to-morrow: and much good may it do you!"

So the theorists and the courtiers set out to subdue the untutoredsavageness of nature with a paper preamble and diagrams and rules andinhibitions, and orders of nobility and a college of heralds, andinstitutions of slavery and serfdom, and definitions of freeholders andlandgraves, caciques and palatines; and specifications of fifths forproprietors, fifths for the nobility, and the rest for the common herd, who were never to be permitted to be anything but the common herd, with nosuffrage, no privileges, and no souls. All contingencies were providedagainst, except the one contingency, not wholly unimportant, that none ofthe proposals of the Model Constitution could be carried into effect. Strange, that Ashley Cooper--as Lord Shaftesbury was then--one of the mostbrilliant men in Europe, and John Locke, should get together and drawsquares over a sheet of paper, each representing four hundred and eightythousand acres, with a cacique and landgraves and their appurtenances ineach--and that they should fail to perceive that corresponding areas wouldnever be marked out in the pathless forests, and that noblemen could notbe found nor created to take up their stand, like chessmen, each in hislonely and inaccessible morass or mountain or thicket, and exercise theprerogatives of the paper preamble over trees and panthers and birds ofthe air! How could men of such radiant intelligence as Locke andShaftesbury unquestionably were, show themselves so radically ignorant ofthe nature of their fellowmen, and of the elementary principles ofcolonization? The whole thing reads, to-day, like some stupendous jest;yet it was planned in grave earnest, and persons were found to go acrossthe Atlantic and try to make it work. 

Lord Shaftesbury was one of the Hampshire Coopers, and the first earl. Hewas a sort of English Voltaire: small and thin, nervous and fractious, with a great cold brain, no affections and no illusions; he had faith inorganizations, but none in man; was destitute of compunctions, careless ofconventions and appearances, cynical, penetrating, and frivolous. He was askeptic in religion, but a devotee of astrology; easily worried in safety, but cool and audacious in danger. He despised if he did not hate thepeople, and regarded kings as an unavoidable nuisance; the state, hethought, was the aristocracy, whose business it was to keep the peopledown and hold the king in check. His career--now supporting the royalists, now the roundheads, now neither--seems incoherent and unprincipled; but intruth he was one of the least variable men of his time; he held to hiscourse, and king and parliament did the tacking. He was an incorruptiblejudge, though he took bribes; and an unerring one, though he disregardedforms of law. He was tried for treason, and acquitted; joined the Monmouthconspiracy, and escaped to Holland, where he died at the age of sixty-two. What he lacked was human sympathies, which are the beginning of wisdom;and this deficiency it was, no doubt, that led him into the otherwiseincomprehensible folly of the Carolina scheme. 

Locke could plead the excuse of being totally unfamiliar with practicallife; he was a philosopher of abstractions, who made an ideal world to fithis theories about it. He could write an essay on the Understanding, butwas unversed in Common-sense. His nature was more calm and normal thanShaftesbury's, but in their intellectual conclusions they were notdissimilar. The views about the common people which Sir William Berkeleyexpressed with stupid brutality, they stated with punctual elegance. Theywere well mated for the purpose in hand, and they performed it with duedeliberation and sobriety. It was not until five years after the grant wasmade that the constitution was written and sealed. It achieved aninstantaneous success in England, much as a brilliant novel might, in ourtime; and the authors were enthusiastically belauded. The proprietors--Albemarle, Craven, Clarendon, Berkeley, Sir William Berkeley, Sir JohnColleton and Sir George Carteret, and Shaftesbury himself--began to lookabout for their serfs and caciques, and to think of their revenues. Meanwhile the primeval forest across three thousand miles of ocean laughedwith its innumerable leaves, and waved its boughs in the breath of thespirit of liberty. The laws of the study went forth to battle with thelaws of nature. 

Ignorant of these courtly and scholarly proceedings, a small knot ofbonafide settlers had built their huts on Albemarle Sound, and had forsome years been living there in the homeliest and most uneducated peaceand simplicity. Some had come from Virginia, some from New England, andothers from the island of Bermuda. They had their little assembly andtheir governor Stevens, their humble plantations, their modest trade, their beloved solitudes, and the plainest and least obtrusive lawsimaginable. They paddled up and down their placid bayous and rivers inbirch-bark canoes; they shot deer and 'possums for food and panthers forsafety, they loved their wives and begat their children, they wore shirtsand leggins of deerskin like the Indians, and they breathed the purewholesomeness of the warm southern air. When to these backwoods innocentswas borne from afar the marvelous rumors of the silk-stockinged andlace-ruffled glories, originated during an idle morning in the king'sdressing-room, which were to transfigure their forest into trim gardensand smug plantations, surrounding royal palaces and sumptuous huntingpavilions, perambulated by uniformed officials, cultivated by meek armiesof serfs, looking up from their labors only to doff their caps to lordlypalatines and lily-fingered ladies with high heels and low corsages: whenthey tried to picture to themselves their solemn glades and shadow-hauntedstreams and inviolate hills, their eyries of eagles and lairs of stag andpuma, the savage beauty of their perilous swamps, all the wildmagnificence of this pure home of theirs--metamorphosed by royal edictinto a magnified Versailles, in which lutes and mandolins should take theplace of the wolf's howl and the panther's scream, the keen scent of thepine balsam be replaced by the reek of musk and patchouli, the honestsanctity of their couches of fern give way to the embroidered corruptionof a fine lady's bedchamber, the simple vigor of their pioneer parliamentbewitch itself into a glittering senate chamber, where languid chancellorsfingered their golden chains and exchanged witty epigrams with big-wigged, snuff-taking cavaliers:--when they attempted to house these strange ideasin their unsophisticated brains, they must have stared at one another witha naive perplexity which slowly broadened their tanned and bearded visagesinto contagious grins. They looked at their hearty, clear-eyed wives, andwatched the gambols of their sturdy children, and shook their heads, andturned to their work once more. 

The first movements of the new dispensation took the form of trying todraw the colonists together into towns, of reviving the Navigation Acts, of levying taxes on their infant commerce, and in general of tying fettersof official red tape on the brawny limbs of a primitive and naturalcivilization. The colony was accused of being the refuge of outlaws andtraitors, rogues and heretics; and Sir William Berkeley, governor ofVirginia, one of the proprietors under the Model Constitution, was deputedto make as much mischief in the virgin settlement as he could. 

The colonists numbered about four thousand, spread over a largeterritory; they did not want to desert their palmetto thatched cabins andstrenuously-cleared acres; they disliked crowding into towns; they saw nojustice in paying to intangible and alien proprietors a penny tax on theirtobacco exports to New England--though they paid it nevertheless. Theyparticularly objected to the interference of Governor Berkeley, for theyknew him well. And when the free election of their assembly was attacked, they sent emissaries to England to remonstrate, and meanwhile, JohnCulpepper leading, and without waiting for the return of their emissaries, they arose and wiped out the things and persons that were objectionable, and then returned serenely to their business. They did not fly into apassion, and froth at the mouth, and massacre and torture; but quietly andinflexibly, with hardly a keener flash from their fearless eyes, they putthings to rights, and thought no more about it. 

Such treasonable proceedings, however, fluttered the council chambers inLondon sorely, and stout John Culpepper, who believed in popular libertyand was not afraid to say so, went to England to justify what had beendone. He was arrested and put on trial, though he demanded to be tried, ifat all, in the place where the offense was committed. The intent of hisadversaries was not to give him justice, but simply to hang him; and whygo to the trouble and expense of carrying him to Carolina to do that? Hewent near to becoming a martyr, did stout John; but, unexpectedly, Shaftesbury, who might believe in despotism, but who fretted to beholdinjustice, undertook his defense and brought him out clear. The rest ofthe "rebels" were amnestied the following year, 1681. But one Seth Sothel, who had bought out Lord Clarendon's proprietary rights, was sent out asgovernor; and after escaping from the Algerine pirates, who captured andkept him for a couple of years, he arrived at Albemarle, commissioned, asBancroft admirably puts it, to "Transform a log cabin into a baronialcastle, a negro slave into a herd of leet-men. " Sothel was not long inperceiving that this was beyond his powers, but he could steal: and so hedid for a few years, when the colonists, thinking he had enough, unseatedhim, tried him, and sentenced him to a year's exile and to nevermore beofficer of theirs. 

These planters of North Carolina were good Americans from the beginning, endowed with a courage and love of liberty which foretold the spirit ofWashington's army, --and a religious tolerance which did not prevent themfrom listening with sympathy and approval to the spiritual harangues ofFox, the Quaker, who sojourned among them with gratifying results. Theirprejudice against towns continued, and one must walk far to visit them, with only marks on the forest trees to guide. They were inveteratelycontented, and having emancipated themselves from the blight of the ModelConstitution, rapidly became prosperous. The only effect of Messrs. Lockeand Shaftesbury's scheme of an aristocratic Utopia was to make thesettlers conscious of their strength and devoted to their freedom. Indeed, the North Carolinians were in great part men who had not only fled fromthe oppressions of England, but had found even the mild restraints of theother colonies irksome. 

The fate of the Model in South Carolina was similar, though thepreliminary experiences were different. When Joseph West, agent for theproprietors, and William Sayle, experienced in colonizing, took threeshiploads of emigrants to the junction of the Ashley and Cooper rivers, about twenty miles south of latitude 33°, they had a copy of the Modelwith them. But the first thing they did after getting ashore was to votethat its provisions were impracticable, and to revise it to such a degreethat, when it was sent over to England for approval, its authors did notrecognize their work, and disowned it. But the settlers constituted theirassembly on the general lines which might now be called American, and putup their huts, in 1672, on the ground where now stands Charleston. Theclimate was too hot for white labor, and the timely arrival of negroslaves was welcome; in a few years they doubled the number of the whites. The staple crops of the southern plantations needed much more work thanthose of New England and the north, and this, as well as the preference ofthe negroes themselves for the warmer climates, determined thedistribution of black slavery on the Atlantic coast. 

Dutch settlers presently joined the English; a Scotch-Irish colony atPort Royal was set upon by the Spaniards, who, in accordance with thecharacteristic Spanish policy, massacred the inhabitants and burned thehouses. But later the revocation by Louis XIV. Of the amnesty to Huguenotscaused the latter to fly their country and disperse themselves over Europeand America; no higher or finer class of men and women ever joined theranks of exile, and they were everywhere welcomed. Colonies of themsettled all along the Atlantic seaboard; and around Charleston many fromLanguedoc found a congenial home, and became a valuable and distinguishedpart of the population. America could not have been complete without theleaven of the heroic French Protestants. 

Meanwhile the proprietors were gradually submitting, with no good grace, however, to the inevitable. Their Model remained a model--something neverto be put to practical use. On paper was it born, and on paper should itremain forever. The proprietors were kings, by grace of Charles II. , butthey had neither army nor navy, and their subjects declined to be serfs. They declined into the status of land speculators; the governors whom theysent out did nothing but fill their pockets and let the people have therest. At last, it was enough for the proprietors to suggest anything forthe people to negative it, whether it were good or bad. They not onlyavowed their natural right to do as they pleased, but deemed it due totheir self-respect not to do what was pleasing to their tinsel sovereignsin London. And finally, when Colleton, one of the sovereigns in question, tried to declare martial law in the colony, on the plea of danger fromIndians or Spanish, the indomitable freemen treated him as their brethrenat Albemarle had treated Sothel. The next year saw William and Mary on theEnglish throne; Shaftesbury had died seven years before; and the GreatModel subsided without a bubble into the vacuum of historical absurdities. 

We left Virginia awaiting the return of the envoys who had gone to askCharles for justice and protection against the tyranny of Berkeley. Charles, as we know, first promised the reforms, and then broke hispromise, as all Stuarts must. But before the envoys could return withtheir heavy news, there had been stirring things done and suffered inVirginia. 

The character of Berkeley is as detestable as any known in the annals ofthe American colonies. Many of his acts, and all the closing scenes of hiscareer, seem hardly compatible with moral sanity; in our day, when scienceis so prone to find the explanation of crime in insanity, he wouldundoubtedly have been adjudged to the nearest asylum. In his early years, he had been stupid and illiberal, but nothing worse; in his old age, heseemed to seek out opportunities of wickedness and outrage, and at last hegave way to transports which could only be likened to those of a fiendfrom the Pit, permitted for a season to afflict the earth. He was as baseas he was wicked; a thief, and perjured, as well as an insatiablemurderer. The only trait that seems to ally him with manhood is itselfanimal and repulsive. He had wholly abandoned any pretense ofself-control; and in some of the outbursts of his frenzy he seems to havebecome insensible even to the suggestions of physical fear. But this canhardly be accorded the name of courage; rather is it to be attributed tothe suffusion of blood to the brain which drives the Malay to run amuck. 

Virginia had been nurtured in liberty, and was ill prepared fordespotism. On the contrary, she was almost ready to doubt the wisdom orconvenience of any government whatever, except such as was spontaneouslyfurnished by the generous and magnanimous instincts of her people. Therewere no towns, and none of the vice and selfishness which crowdedpopulations engender. Roads, bridges, public works of any sort wereunknown; the population seldom met except at races or to witness courtproceedings. The great planters lived in comparative comfort, but theywere as much in love with freedom as were the common people. This state ofthings was the outcome of the growth of fifty years; and most of the eightthousand inhabitants of the colony were born on the soil, and loved it asthe only home they knew. 

The chief injury they had suffered was from the depredations of theIndians, who, on their side, could plead that they had received less thanjustice at the colonists' hands. Border raids and killings became more andmore frequent and alarming; the savages had learned the use of muskets, and were good marksmen. They built a fort on the Maryland border, and fora time resisted siege operations; and when at length some of the chiefscame out to parley, they were seized and shot. The rest of the Indiangarrison escaped by night, and slaughtered promiscuously all whom theycould surprise along the countryside. A force was raised to check them, and avenge the murders; but before it could come in contact with them, Berkeley sent out a peremptory summons that they should return. 

What was the explanation of this extraordinary step? Simply that theGovernor had the monopoly of the Indian trade, which was very valuable, and would not permit the Indians who traded with him to be driven away. Inorder to supply his already overloaded pockets with money, he was willingto see the red men murder with impunity, and with the brutalities oftorture and outrage, the men, women and children of his own race. But theIndians themselves seem admirable in contrast with the inhumanity of thisgray-haired, wine-bloated, sordid cavalier of seventy. 

The troops on which the safety of the colonists depended reluctantlyretired. Immediately the savages renewed their attacks; three hundredsettlers were killed. Still Berkeley refused to permit anything to bedone; forts might be erected on the borders, but these, besides being ofgreat expense to the people, were wholly useless for their defense, inasmuch as the savages could without difficulty slip by them under coverof the forest. The raids continued, and the plantations were abandoned, till not one in seven remained. The inhabitants were terror-stricken; noman's life was safe. At last permission was asked that the people mightraise and equip a force at their own expense, in the exercise of theuniversal right of self-protection; but even this was violently forbiddenby the Governor, who threatened punishment on any who should presume totake arms against them. All traffic with them had also been interdicted;but it was known that Berkeley himself continued his trading with thosewhose hands were red with the blood of the wives, fathers and children ofVirginia. 

Finally, in 1676, the report came that an army of Indians wereapproaching Jamestown. Unless resistance were at once made, there seemednothing to prevent the extinction of the colony. Berkeley, apparently forno better reason than that he would not recede from a position once taken, adhered to his order that nothing should be done. 

There was at that time in Virginia a young Englishman of about thirty, named Nathaniel Bacon. He was descended from good ancestors, and hadreceived a thorough education, including terms in the Inns of Court. Hewas intellectual, thoughtful, and self-contained, with a clear mind, agenerous nature, and the power of winning and controlling men. He hadarrived in the colony a little more than a year before, and had beenchosen to the council; he was wealthy and aristocratic, yet a known friendof the people. Born in 1642, he was familiar with revolutions, and hadformed his own opinions as to the rights of man. He had a plantation onthe site of the present city of Richmond; and during the late Indiantroubles, had lost his overseer. Coming down on his affairs to Jamestown, he fell into talk with some friends, who suggested crossing the river tosee some of the volunteers who had come together for defense. These menwere in a mood of excited exasperation at the sinister conduct of thegovernor, and ready to follow extreme counsels had they had a leader withthe boldness and ability to put himself at their head. 

The tall, slender figure and grave features of Bacon were well-known. Ashe advanced toward the troop of stalwart young fellows, who were sullenlydiscussing the situation, he was recognized; and something seems to havesuggested to them that he was come with a purpose. Conclusions are suddenat such times, and impulses contagious as fire. He was the leader whomthey sought. "A Bacon--a Bacon!" shouted some one; and instantly the crywas taken up. They thronged around him, welcoming him, cheering him, exclaiming that they would follow him, that with them at his back heshould save the country in spite of the governor! They were fiery andemotional, after the manner of the sons of the Old Dominion, and thewrongs of many kinds which had long been rankling in their hearts nowdemanded to be requited by some action--no matter how daring. Virginiansnever shrank from danger. 

Bacon had been wholly unprepared for this outburst; but he had a strong, calm soul, a ready brain, and the blood of youth. He knew what the colonyhad endured, and that it had nothing to hope from the present government. He had come to America after making the European tour, intending only avisit; but he had grown attached to Virginia, and now that chance had putthis opportunity to help her, he resolved to accept it. He would throw inhis lot with these spirited and fearless young patriots--the first men inAmerica who had the right to call the country their own. Standing beforethem, with his head bared, and in a voice that all could hear, he solemnlypledged himself to lead them against the Indians, and then aid them torecover the liberties which had been wrested from them. "And do you, " headded, "pledge yourselves to me!" His words were heard with tumultuousenthusiasm, and a round-robin was signed, binding all to stick to theircaptain and to one another. That is a document which history would fainhave preserved. 

With an army of three hundred Virginians, Bacon set forward against theIndians. Meanwhile Berkeley, enraged at this slight on his authority, called some troops together and despatched them to bring back "therebels. " Thus was seen the singular spectacle of a government forcemarching to apprehend men who were risking their lives freely to repel adanger imminent and common to all. 

But Berkeley was going too far. Bacon's act had the sympathy of allexcept such as were as corrupt as the governor, and the men of the lowercounties revolted, and demanded that the long scandal of the continuousassembly should cease forthwith. Berkeley was intimidated; he had notbelieved that any spirit was left in the colony; he recalled his men, andconsented to the assembly's dissolution. By the time Bacon and his threehundred got back from their successful campaign, the writs for a newelection were out; and he was unanimously chosen burgess from Henrico. Theassembly of which he thus became a member was for the most part insympathy with him; and though, for the benefit of the record, censure waspassed upon the irregularity of his campaign, and he was required toapologize for fighting without a commission, yet he was at the same timecaressed and praised on all sides, returned to the council, and dubbed thedarling of Virginia's hopes. The assembly then proceeded to undo all theevil and clean out all the rottenness that had disgraced the conduct oftheir predecessors. Taxes, church tyranny, restriction of the franchise, illegal assessments, fees, and liquor-dealing were done away with; twomagistrates were proved thieves and disfranchised, and trade with Indianswas for the present stopped. Bacon received a commission; but Berkeleyrefused to sign it; and when Bacon appealed to the country, and returnedwith five hundred men to demand his rights, the governor was besidehimself with fury. 

Private letters and other documents, made public only long after thisdate, are the authority for what occurred; but though certain facts aregiven, explanations are seldom available. Berkeley appears to have beenholding court when Bacon and his followers appeared; it is said that heran out and confronted them, tore his shirt open and declared that soonershould they shoot him than he would sign the commission of that rebel; andthe next moment, changing his tactics, he offered to settle the issuebetween Bacon and himself by a duel. All this does not sound like the actsof a man in his sober senses. It seems probable either that the oldreprobate was intoxicated, or that his mind was disordered by passion. Bacon, of course, declined to match his youthful vigor against hisdecrepit enemy, as the latter must have known he would: and told himtemperately that the commission he demanded was to enable him to repel thesavages who were murdering their fellow colonists unchecked. The governor, after some further parley, again altered his behavior, and now overpoweredBacon with maudlin professions of esteem for his patriotic energy; signedhis commission, and sent dispatches to England warmly commending him. Aformal amnesty, obliterating all past acts of the popular champion and hissupporters which could be construed as irregular, was drawn up andratified by the governor; and the clouds which so long had lowered overVirginia seemed to have been at last in the deep bosom of the oceanburied. To those whom coincidences interest it will be significant thatthis victory for the people was won on the 4th of July, 1676. 

Operations against the Indians were now vigorously resumed; but Berkeleyhad not yet completed the catalogue of his iniquities. Bacon's back wasscarcely turned, before he violated the amnesty which he had justratified, and tried to rouse public sentiment against the liberator. Inthis, however, he signally failed, as also in his attempt to raise a levyto arrest him; and frightened at the revelation of his weakness, he fledin a panic to Accomack, a peninsula on the eastern side of Chesapeake Bay. Word of his proceedings had in the meantime been conveyed to Bacon byDrummond, former governor of North Carolina, and Lawrence. "Shall he whocommissioned us to protect the country from the heathen, betray ourlives?" said Bacon. "I appeal to the king and parliament!" He establishedhimself in Williamsburg; at Drummond's suggestion Berkeley's flight wastaken to mean his withdrawal from the governorship--which, at any rate, had now passed its appointed limit--and a summons was sent out to thegentlemen of Virginia to meet for consultation as to the future conduct ofthe colony. It was at this juncture that the envoys returned from England, with the dark news that Charles had refused all relief. 

At the conference, after full discussion, it was voted that the colonytake the law into their own hands, and maintain themselves not onlyagainst the Indians and Berkeley, but if need were against Englandherself. "I fear England no more than a broken straw, " said SarahDrummond, snapping a stick in her hands as she spoke: the women ofVirginia were as resolved as the men. Pending these contingencies, Baconwith his little army again set out in pursuit of the Indians; hearingwhich, Berkeley, with a train of mercenaries which he had contrived tocollect, crossed from Accomack and landed at Jamestown, where he repeatedhis refrain of "rebels!" He promised freedom to whatever slaves of thecolony would enlist on his side, and fortified the little town. The crewsof some English ships in the harbor assisted him; and in the sequel thesetars were the only ones of his rabble that stayed by him. The neighborhoodwas alarmed, fearing any kind of enormity, and messengers rode through thewoods post haste, and swam the rivers, in the sultry September weather, tofind and recall their defenders, and summon them to resist a worse foethan the red man. Before they could reach the young leader, the Indianshad been routed, the army disbanded, and Bacon, with a handful offollowers, was on his way to his plantation. They were weary with thefatigues of the campaign, but on learning that the prime source of thetroubles was intrenched in Jamestown, and that "man, woman and child" werein peril of slavery, they turned their horses' heads southeastward, andgalloped to the rescue. They gathered recruits on their way--no one couldresist the eloquence of Bacon--and halting at such of the plantations aswere owned by royalist sympathizers, they compelled their wives to mountand accompany them as hostages. This indicates to what extremes theviolence of Berkeley was expected to go. It was evening when they came insight of the enemy. But the moon was already aloft, and as the westernlight faded, her mellow radiance flooded the scene, giving it thesemblance of peace. But the impatient Virginians wished to attack at once;and a lesser man than Bacon might have yielded to their urging. Knowing, however, that the country was with him, and feeling that the enemy mustsooner or later succumb, he would not win by a dashing, bloody exploitwhat time was sure to give him. He ordered an intrenchment to be dug, andprepared for a siege. But there was no lust for battle in the disorderlyand incoherent force which the frantic appeals and reckless promises ofthe governor had assembled; they were beaten already, and could not beinduced to make a sortie. Desertions began, and all the objurgations, supplications and melodramatic extravaganzas of Berkeley were impotent tostop them; the more shrilly he shrieked, the faster did his sorryaggregation melt away. When it became evident that there would soon benone left save himself and the sailors, he ceased his blustering, andscuttled off toward Gloucester and the Rappahannock. 

Bacon, Drummond, Lawrence and their men occupied the abandoned town, inwhich some of them owned houses, and burned it to the ground. The act wasdeliberate; the town records were first removed; and the men who had mostto lose by the conflagration were the first to set the torch. 

Jamestown at that time contained hardly twenty buildings all told; but itwas the first settlement of the Dominion, and sentiment would fain havepreserved it. A mossy ruin, draped in vines, is all that remains of itnow. The ascertainable causes of its destruction seem inadequate; yet thecircumstances show that it could not have been done in mere wantonness. Civilized warfare permits the destruction of the enemy's property; but theenemy had retreated, and the expectation was that he would never return. That Bacon had reasons, his previous record justifies us in believing; butwhat they were is matter of conjecture. As it is, the burning of Jamestownis the only passage in his brief and gallant career which can be construedas a blemish upon it. Unfortunately, it was, also, all but the final one. 

He pursued Berkeley, and the army of the latter, instead of fighting, marched over to him with a unanimity which left the governor almostwithout a companion in his chagrin. The whole of Virginia was now inBacon's hand; he had no foes; he was called Deliverer; he had never metreverse; he was a man of intellect, judgment and honor, and he was in theprime of his youth; in such a country, beloved, and supported by such apeople, what might he not have hoped to achieve? Men like him are rare; ina country just emerging into political consciousness, he was doublyprecious. There was no one to take his place; the return of Berkeley meantall that was imaginable of evil; and yet Bacon was to die, and Berkeleywas to return. 

In the trenches before Jamestown, Bacon had contracted the seeds of afever which now, in the hour of his triumph, overcame him. After a shortstruggle he succumbed; and his men, fearing, apparently, that the ghoulishrevenge of the old governor might subject his remains to insult, sunk hisbody in the river; and none know where lie the bones of the first Americanpatriot who died in arms against oppression. His worth is proved by theconfusion and disorganization which ensued upon his death. Cheeseman, Hansford, Wilford and Drummond could not make head against disaster. Onthe governor's side, Robert Beverly developed the qualities of a leader, and a series of small engagements left the patriots at his mercy. Berkeleywas re-established in his place; and then began the season of his revenge. 

His victims were the gentlemen of Virginia; the flower of the province. He had no mercy; his sole thought was to add insult to the bitterness ofdeath. He would not spare their lives; he would not shoot them; they mustperish on the gallows, not as soldiers, but as rebels. When a young wifepleaded for her gallant husband, declaring that it was she who persuadedhim to join the patriotic movement, Berkeley denied her prayer with coarsebrutality. When Drummond was brought before him, he assured him of hispleasure in their meeting: "You shall be hanged in half an hour. " One cansee that mean, flushed countenance, ravaged by time and intemperance, withbloodshot eyes, gloating over the despair of his foes, and searching formeans to torture their minds while destroying their bodies. Trial by jurywas not quick or sure enough for Berkeley; he condemned them bycourt-martial and the noose was round their necks at once. Their familieswere stripped of their property and sent adrift to subsist on charity. Inhis bloodthirstiness, he never forgot his pecuniary advantage, and histhievish fingers grasped all the valuables that his murderous instinctsbrought within his power. But the spectacle is too revolting forcontemplation. 

"He would have hanged half the country if we had let him alone, " was theremark of a member of the assembly. It was voted that the execution shouldcease; more than two-score men had already been strangled for defendingtheir homes and resisting oppression. Even Charles in London was annoyedwhen he heard of the wasteful malignity of "the old fool, " and sent wordof his disapproval and displeasure. A successor was sent over to supersedehim; but he at first refused to go at the king's command, though he hadever used the king's name as the warrant for his crimes. He had soldpowder and shot to the Indians to kill his own people with; he hadappropriated the substance of widows and orphans whom he had made such; hehad punished by public whipping all who were reported to have spokenagainst him; he forbade the printing-press; but all had been done "for theKing". And now he resisted the authority of the king himself. But Charles, for once, was determined, and Berkeley, under the disgrace of severereprimand, was forced to go. The joy bells clashed out the people'sdelight as the ship which carried him dropped down the harbor, and thefiring of guns was like an anticipation of our celebration of IndependenceDay. He stood on the poop, in the beauty of the morning, shaking outcurses from his trembling hands, in helpless hatred of the fair land andgallant people that he had done his utmost to make miserable. In England, the king would have none of him, and he met with nothing but rebuffs andcondemnation on all sides. The power which he had misused was forevergone; he was old, and shattered in constitution; he was disgraced, flouted, friendless and alone. He died soon after his arrival, ofmortification; he had lived only to do evil, and to withhold him from itwas to take his life away. 

It is not the function of the historian to condemn. Berkeley was by birthand training an aristocrat and a cavalier, and he was a creature of hisage and station. He had been taught to believe that the patrician is ofanother flesh and blood than the plebeian; that authority can be enforcedonly by tyranny; that the only right is that of birth, and of thestrongest. He was early placed in a position where every personalindulgence was made easy to him, where there was none to call in questionhis authority, and where there was temptation to assert authority byoppression, and by arrogating absolute license to act as the whimprompted, and to lay hands on whatever he coveted. Add to these conditionsa nature congenitally without generous instincts, a narrow brain, and asensual temperament, and we have gone far to account for the phenomenonwhich Berkeley finally, in his approaching senility, presented. He was thetype of the worst traits that caused England ultimately to forfeitAmerica; the concentration of whatever is opposite to popular liberties. His deeds must be execrated; but we cannot put him beyond the pale ofhuman nature, or deny that under different circumstances he would havebeen a better man. We may admit, too, that, in the wisdom of Providence, he was placed where, by doing so much mischief, he was involuntarily thecause of more good than he could ever willingly have accomplished. Hetaught the people how to hate despotism, and how to struggle against it. He wrought a mutual understanding and sympathy between the upper and lowerorders; he led them to define to their own minds what things areindispensable to the existence of true democracy. These are some of theuses which he, and such as he, in their own despite subserved. He and theyoung Bacon were mortal foes; but he, by opposing Bacon, and murdering hisfriends, aided the cause for which they laid down their lives. 

After his departure there ensued a period of ten years or more, duringwhich the pressure upon Virginia seemed rather to grow heavier than tolighten. The acts of Bacon's assembly were repealed; all the former abuseswere restored; the public purse was shamelessly robbed; the suffrage wasrestricted; the church was restored to power. In 1677 the Dominion becamethe property of one Culpepper, who had the title of governor for life; andthe restraints, such as they were, of its existence as a royal colony wereremoved. But Culpepper's course was so corrupt as to necessitate hisremoval, and in 1684 the king resumed his sway. James II. Reached theEnglish throne the following year, and his persecutions of his enemies inEngland gave good citizens to America. But the Virginians, who could bewronged and oppressed, but never crushed, protested against the arbitraryuse of the king's prerogative; they were punished for their temerity, butrose more determined from the struggle. No man could be sent to Virginiawho was strong enough to destroy its resolve for liberty. 

And now the English Revolution was at hand; and we are to inquire whatinfluence the new dispensation was to have on the awakening nationalspirit of the American colonies. 

CHAPTER SEVENTH

QUAKER, YANKEE, AND KING

The American principle, simple in that its perfection is human liberty, is of complex make. It is the sum of the ways in which a man maylegitimately be free. But neither Pilgrims, Puritans, New Amsterdamers, Virginians, Carolinians nor Marylanders were free in all ways. Even theProvidence people had their limitations. It is not meant, merely, that theold world still kept a grip on them: their several systems wereintrinsically incomplete. Some of them put religious liberty in the firstplace; others, political; but each had its inconsistency, or itsshortcoming. None had gone quite to the root of the matter. What was thatroot?--or, let us say, the mother lode, of which these were efferent veins?

The Pilgrims and Puritans, heretics in Episcopalian England, had escapedfrom their persecution, but had banished heretics in their turn. TranquilLord Baltimore having laid the burden of his doubts at the foot of God'svicegerent on earth, had sought no further, and was indifferent as to whatother poor mortals might choose to think they thought about the unknownthings. Roger Williams' charity, based on the dogma of free conscience, drew the line only at atheists. The other colonists, since their salientcontention was on the lower ground of civil emancipation andself-direction, are not presently considered. 

But, to the assembly of religious radicals, there enters a plain Man inLeather Breeches, and sees fetters on the limbs of all of them. "Does theecall it freedom, Friend Winthrop, " says he, "to fear contact with such asbelieve otherwise than thee does? Can truth fear aught? And fear, is itnot bondage? As for thee, George Calvert, thee has delivered up thineimmortal soul into the keeping of a man no different from what theethyself is, so to escape the anxious seat; but the dead also are free ofanxiety, and thy bondage is most like unto death. Thee calls thy colonyfolk free, because thee lets them believe what they list; but they do butfollow what their fathers taught them, who got it from theirs; which is tobe in bondage to the past. And here is friend Roger, who makes privateconscience free; but what is private conscience but the private reasoningswhereby a man convinceth himself? and how shall he call his conviction thetruth, since all truth is one, but the testimony of no man's privateconscience is the same as another's? Nay, how does thee know that theatheist, whom thee excludes, is further from the truth than thee thyselfis? Truly, I hear the clanking of the chains on ye all; but if ye willaccept the Inner Light, then indeed shall ye know what freedom is!"

This Man in Leather Breeches, who also wears his hat in the king'spresence, is otherwise known as George Fox, the Leicestershire weaver'sson, the Quaker. In his youth he was much troubled in spirit concerningmankind, their nature and destiny, and the purpose of God concerning them. He wandered in lonely places, and fasted, and was afflicted; he soughthelp and light from all, but there was none could enlighten him. But atlast light came to him, even out of the bosom of his own darkness; and hesaw that human learning is but vanity, since within a man's self, will hebut look for it, abides a great Inner Light, which changeth not, and isthe same in all; being, indeed, the presence of the Spirit of God in Hiscreature, a constant guide and revelation, withheld from none, uniting andequalizing all; for what, in comparison with God, are the distinctions ofrank and wealth, or of learning?--Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and Hisrighteousness, and these things shall be added unto you. In the lowest ofmen, not less than in such as are called greatest, burns this lamp ofDivine Truth, and it shall shine for the hind as brightly as for theprince. In its rays, the trappings of royalty are rags, jewels are dustand ashes, the lore of science, folly; the disputes of philosophers, thecrackling of thorns under the pot. By the Inner Light alone can men befree and equal, true sons of God, heirs of a liberty which can never betaken away, since bars confine not the spirit, nor do tortures or death ofthe body afflict it. So said George Fox and his followers; and their livesbore witness to their words. 

The Society of Friends took its rise not from a discovery--for Foxhimself held the Demon of Socrates, and similar traditional phenomena, tobe identical with the Inner Light, or voice of the Spirit--but rather inthe recognition of the universality of something which had heretofore beenregarded as exceptional and extraordinary. In the Seventeenth Centurythere was a general revolt of the oppressed against oppression, declaringitself in all phases of the outer and inner life; of these, there mustneeds be one interior to all the rest, and Quakerism seems to have beenit. It was a revolution within revolutions; it saw in the man's own selfthe only tyrant who could really enslave him; and by bringing him into thedirect presence of God, it showed him the way to the only realemancipation. Historically, it was the vital element in all otheremancipating movements; it was their logical antecedent: the hidden springfeeding all their rivers with the water of life. It enables us to analyzethem and gauge their values; it is their measure and plummet. And this, not because it is the final or the highest word justifying the ways of Godto man--for it has not proved to be so: but because it indicated, once forall, in what direction the real solution of the riddle of man was to besought: a riddle never to be fully solved, but forever approximatelyguessed. Quakerism has not maintained its relative position in religiousthought; but it was the finest perception of its day, and in the turmoilof the time it fulfilled its purpose. Probably its best effect was thedevelopment it gave to the humbler element of society--to the yeomen andlaborers; affording them the needed justification for the various demandsfor recognition that they were urging. Puritanism banished Quakers, andeven hanged them; but the Quaker was the Puritan's spiritual father, although he knew it not. And therefore the Quaker, who was among the lastto appear in America as a settler in virgin soil, had a right theretoprior to any one of the others. There must be a soul before there can be abody. 

On the other hand, a soul without a body is not adapted to life in thisworld; and an America peopled exclusively by Quakers would have beenunsatisfactory. It is a prevailing tendency of man, having hit upon atruth, to begin to theorize upon it, and, as the phrase is, run it intothe ground. Quakers would not fight, would not take an oath, would notbaptize, or wear mourning, or flatter the senses with pictures andstatues. A Quaker would resist evil and violence only by enlighteningthem. He would not be taxed for measures or objects which he did notapprove. He could see but one way of reforming the world, and thought thatGod was equally circumscribed in His methods. But though the leaven maymake bread wholesome, we cannot subsist on leaven alone. The essence ofAmericanism may be in a Quaker, but he is far from being a completeAmerican, and therefore he was fain to take his place only as a nobleingredient in that wonderful mixture. By degrees, the singularities whichdistinguished him were softened; his thee and thy yielded to the commonforms of speech; his drab suit altered its cut and hue; his hat came offoccasionally; his women abated the rigor of their poke bonnets; he wasable to say to the enemy of his country, "Friend, thee is standing justwhere I am going to shoot. " The disintegration of his individuality setfree the good that was in him to permeate surrounding society; his fellowflowers in the garden were more beautiful and fragrant for his sake. 

When persecution of Quakers was at its worst, they became almostdehumanized, attaching more value to their willingness to endure ill-usagethan to the spiritual principle for avouching which they were ill-used. Many persons--such is the oddity of human nature--were drawn to the sectfor love of the persecution; and gave way to extravagances such as Foxwould have been the first to denounce. But when toleration began, theseexcesses ceased, and they bethought themselves to make a home in thewilderness of their own. There was room enough. George Fox returned fromhis pilgrimage to the Atlantic colonies in 1674, with good accounts of theresources of the new country; and the owner of New Jersey sold half of itto John Fenwick for a thousand pounds; and the next year the latter wentthere with many Friends, and picked out a pleasant spot on the east bankof the Delaware for the first settlement, to which he gave the name ofSalem. It was at this juncture that William Penn became, with two others, assigns of the proprietor of the colony, and thus took the first steptoward assuming full responsibility for it. He did not, however, personally visit America till seven years later. 

Penn was the son of an English admiral: not the kind of timber, therefore, out of which one would have supposed a great apostle ofnon-resistance could be made. He was brought up to the use of amplewealth, and his training and education were aristocratic. After leavingOxford, he made the grand tour, and came home a finished young man of theworld, with the pleasures and rewards of life before him. He had goodbrains and solid qualities, and the old admiral had high hopes of him. Nodoubt he would have made a very good figure in the English world offashion; but destiny had another career marked out for him. 

The plain Man with the Leather Breeches got hold of him; and all theobjurgations, threats, and even the act of disinheritance of the admiralwere powerless to extricate him from that grasp. Penn had found somethingwhich seemed to him more precious than rubies, and he was quite asresolute as the old hero of the Navy. Penn could endure the beating andthe being turned into the streets, but he could not stop his ears and eyesto the voice and light of God in his soul. He did not care to conqueranother Jamaica, but he passionately desired to minister to the spiritualgood of his fellow creatures. He was of a sociable and cheerfuldisposition; he could disarm his adversary in a duel; he could take chargeof the family estates, and qualify himself for the law; the king was readyto smile upon him; but all worldly ambitions died away in him when heheard Thomas Lee testify of the faith that overcomes the world. Nothingless than that would satisfy Penn. In 1666, when he was two and twenty, hemade acquaintance with the inside of a jail on account of hisconscientious perversities; but the only effect of the experience was tomake him perceive that he had thereby become "his own freeman. " When hegot out, his friends cut him and society made game of him; finally, he waslodged in the Tower, which, he informed Charles II. , seemed to him "theworst argument in the world. " They let him out in less than a year, but inless than a year more he was again arrested and put on trial. The jury, after having been starved for two days and heartily cursed by the judge, brought him in not guilty; upon which the judge, with a fine sense ofhumor, fined them all heavily and sent him back to prison. But this wastoo much for the admiral, who paid his fines and got him out; and, beingthen on his death-bed, surrendered at discretion, restoring to him theinheritance, and observing, not without a pensive satisfaction, that heand his friends would end by "making an end of the priests. "

A six months' term in Newgate was still in store for Penn; but after thatthey gave up this method of reforming him. He spent the next years inexhorting Parliament and reproving princes all over Europe; and in themidst of these labors he met one of the best and most beautiful women inEngland; she had suitors by the score, but she loved William Penn, andthey were married. She was the wife of his mind and soul as well as of hisbed and board. He was now doubly fortified against the world, and doublybound to his career of human benevolence. His studies and meditations hadmade him a profound philosopher and an able statesman; and in all ways hewas prepared to begin the great work of his life. 

 * * * * *

Meanwhile, the Quakers in the new world were building up the framework oftheir state. They decreed to put the power in the people, and all thearticles of their constitution embody the utmost degree of freedom, withconstant opportunities for the electors to revise or renew theirjudgments. When the agent of the Duke of York levied customs on shipsgoing to New Jersey, the act drew from the colonists a remarkable protest, which was supported by the courts. They had planted in the wilderness, they said, in order, among other things, to escape arbitrary taxation; ifthey could not make their own laws in a land which they had bought, notfrom the Duke, but from the natives, they had lost instead of gainingliberty by leaving England. Taxes levied upon planting left them nothingto call their own, and foreshadowed a despotic government in England, whenthe Duke should come to the throne. The future James II. Gave up hisclaim, and in 1680 signed an indenture to that effect. Later, at theadvice of Penn, they so amended their constitution as to give them powerto elect their own governor. A charter was drawn up by Penn and confirmedin 1681, and he became proprietor. No man ever assumed such a trust withless of personal ambition or desire for gain than he. "You shall begoverned by laws of your own making, " said he; "I shall not usurp theright of any, or oppress his person. " He had already made inroads on hisestate by fighting the cause of his brethren in England in the courts; butwhen a speculator offered him six thousand pounds down and an annualincome for the monopoly of Indian trade, he declined it; the tradebelonged to his people. He was ardently desirous to benefit his colony byputting in operation among them the schemes which his wisdom had evolved;but he would not override their own wishes; they should be secured evenfrom his power to do them good; for, as liberty without obedience isconfusion, so is obedience without liberty slavery. Instead therefore ofimposing his designs upon them, he submitted them for their freeconsideration. Pennsylvania now occupied its present boundaries, with theaddition of Delaware; and western New Jersey ceased to be the nominal homeof the Friends in America. In 1682, Penn embarked for the Delaware. He hadfounded a free colony for all mankind, believing that God is in everyconscience; and he was now going to witness and superintend the working ofhis "holy experiment. "

On October 29th he was received at Newcastle by a crowd of mixednationality, and the Duke of York's agent formally delivered up theprovince to him. The journey up the Delaware was continued in an openboat, and the site of Philadelphia was reached in the first week ofNovember. There a meeting of delegates from the inhabitants was held andthe rules which were to govern them were reviewed and ratified. Amongthese it was stipulated that every Christian sect was eligible to office, that murder only was a capital crime, that marriage was a civil contract, that convict prisons should be workhouses, that all who paid duties shouldbe electors, and that there should be no poor rates or tithes. Then Pennproceeded to lay out the city of Philadelphia, where they "might improvean innocent course of life on a virgin Elysian shore. " It was here thatthe Declaration of Independence was signed ninety-three years afterward. 

In March, before the leaves had budded on the tall trees whose colonnadeswere as yet the only habitation for the emigrants, the latter set to workto settle their constitution. "Amend, alter or add as you please, " was therecommendation with which Penn submitted it to them--the work of hisripest wisdom and loving good-will. To the governor and council itassigned the suggestion of all laws; these suggestions were then to besubmitted by the assembly to the body of the people, who thus became thedirect law-makers. To Penn was given the power to negative the doings ofthe council, he being responsible for all legislation; but he couldoriginate and enforce nothing. He would accept no revenues; and, indeed, except in the way of helpfulness and counsel, never in any way imposedhimself upon his people. He was the proprietor; but in all practicalrespects, Pennsylvania was a representative democracy. That they should befree and happy was his sole desire. 

In its relations with the Indians, the colony was singularly fortunate;the doctrine of non-resistance succeeded best where least might have beenexpected from it. All lands were purchased, conferences being held anddeeds signed; and the red men were given thoroughly to understand thatnothing but mutual good was intended. They took to the new idea kindly;the law of retaliation had been the principle of their lives hitherto; butif a man did good to them, and dealt honestly by them, should not theyretaliate by manifesting the same integrity and good-will? At one time itwas reported that a band of Indians had assembled on the border with thedesign of avenging some grievance with a massacre. Six unarmed Quakersstarted at once for the scene of trouble, and the Indians subsided. It haslong been admitted that it takes two sides to make a fight; but this wasan indication that it needs resistance to make a massacre. Penn, who wasfond of visiting the Indians in their wigwams, and sharing theirhospitality, formed an excellent opinion of them. He discoursed to them oftheir rights as men, and of their privileges as immortal souls; and theyconceded to him his claim to peaceful possession of his province. Not lessremarkable was the fate of witchcraft in Pennsylvania. The Swedes andFinns believed in witches, upon the authority of their native traditions;and a woman of their race having acted in a violent and unaccountablemanner, they put her on her trial for witchcraft. Both Swedes and Quakerscomposed the jury; there were no hysterics; the matter was dispassionatelycanvassed; impressions and prejudices were not accepted as evidence; andin the end the verdict was that though she was guilty of being called awitch, a witch she nevertheless was not. The distinction was so well takenthat no more witch trials or panics occurred. This was in 1684, eightyears before the disasters in New England. But newspapers did not exist inthose days, and public opinion was undeveloped. 

The colony, receiving a world-wide advertisement by dint of theexcellence of its institutions and the singularity of its principles, became a magnet to draw to itself the "good and oppressed" of all Europe. There were a good many of them; and within a couple of years from the timewhen Philadelphia meant blaze-marks on trees and three or four cottages, it had grown to be a real town of six hundred houses. The colonyaltogether mustered eight thousand people. With justifiable confidence, therefore, that all was well, and would stay so, Penn, with many lovingwords for his people, returned to England to continue the defense of theafflicted there. A dispute as to the right boundaries of Delaware andMaryland was also to be determined; but it proved to be a lingeringnegotiation, chiefly noteworthy on account of its leading to the fixing ofthe line by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, which afterward became therecognized boundary between the States where slaves might be owned andthose where they might not. The line was surveyed, finally, in 1767. 

Penn being gone, the people applied themselves to experimenting withtheir constitution. A constitution which is devised to secure liberty tothe subject, including liberty to modify or change it, is as nearlyunchangeable as any mortal structure can be. The inhabitants ofPennsylvania had never known before what it was to be free, and theynaturally wished to test the new gift or quality in every way open tothem. Not having the trained brain and unselfish wisdom that belonged toPenn, of which the constitution was the offspring, they thought that theycould improve its provisions. But the more earnestly they labored to thisend, the more surely were they brought to the confession that he had knownhow to make them free better than they themselves did. When they resolvedagainst taxes, they found themselves without revenue; when they refused todiscipline a debtor, they found that credit was no longer to be had. Theyfussed and fretted to their hearts' content, and no great harm came of it, because the constitution was always awaiting them with forgiveness whenthey had tired themselves with abusing it. The only important matter thatcame to judgment was the slavery question; Penn himself had slaves, thoughhe came to doubt the righteousness of the practice, and liberated them inhis will--or would have done so, had the injunction been carried out byhis heirs. Slaves in Pennsylvania were to serve as such for fourteenyears, and then become adscripts of the soil--that is to say, they werepermitted to become the same thing under another name. Penn ultimatelyconceived the ambition to vindicate the presence of the Inner Light in thenegroes' souls; but he met with small success--even less than with theIndians. The problem of the negro was not to be solved in that way, or atthat time. No doubt, if a negro slave could be made to feel that the merecircumstance of external bondage was nothing, so long as his inner man wasuntrammeled, it would add greatly to the convenience both of himself andhis master. But the theory did not seem to carry weight so long as thepractice accompanied it; and the world, even of Pennsylvania, was notquite ready to abolish negro slavery in 1687. 

Of the thirteen colonies, twelve had now had their beginning, andGeorgia, the home of poor debtors, shed little or no fresh light upon theformation of the American principle. The Revolution of 1688, which putWilliam of Orange on the English throne, was now at hand; but beforeexamining its effect upon the American settlements we must cast a glanceat the transactions of the previous dozen years in the New Englanddivision. 

The theory of the English government regarding the American colonies hadalways been, that they were her property. The people who emigrated hadbeen English subjects, and--to adapt the Latin proverb--Coelum, non Regem, mutant, qui trans mare currunt. Moreover, the English, as was the customof the age, asserted jurisdiction over all land first seen and claimed bymariners flying their flag; and though Spain and France might claimAmerica with quite as much right as England, yet the latter would notacknowledge their pretensions. A country, then, occupied by Englishsubjects, and owned by England, could not reasonably assert its privateindependence. 

Such was England's position, from which she never fully receded untilcompelled to do so by force of arms. But the colonists looked at thematter from a different point of view. They held the right of ownership bydiscovery to be unsubstantial; it was a mere sentiment--a matter ofnational pride and prestige--not to be valued when it came in conflictwith the natural right conveyed by actual emigration and settlement. Theman who transferred himself, with his family and property, to a virgincountry. Intending to make his permanent home there, should not be subjectto arbitrary interference from any one; his vital interests and welfarewere involved; he should be ruled by authority appointed by himself;should pay only such taxes as he himself levied for the expenses of hisestablishment; and should enjoy the profits of whatever products he raisedand whatever commerce he carried on. He had withdrawn himself fromparticipation in the advantages of home civilization, and had voluntarilyfaced a life of struggle and peril in the wilderness, precisely because hehad counted these things as nothing in comparison with the gain ofcontrolling his own affairs; but if, nevertheless, the mother countryinsisted on managing them, or in any way controlling him, then allenterprise became vain, all his sacrifices had been fruitless, and he wasin all ways worse off than before he took steps to better himself. AnEnglishman living in England might rightly be taxed for the protection tolife and property and the enjoyment of privileges which she afforded him, and which he, through a representative parliament, created; but Englandgave no protection to her colonies, and the colonists were not representedin her parliament; neither had the English government been put to anyexpense or trouble in bringing those colonies into existence; to tax them, therefore, was an act of despotism; it deprived them of the right whichall Englishmen possessed to the fruits of their own labor; it robbed themof values for which no equivalent had been yielded; and thus, fromfreemen, made them slaves. Not less unjustifiable, for the same reasons, was interference with colonial governments, and with religious libertiesof all kinds. 

England could not categorically refute these arguments; but she couldreply that her granting of a charter to the colonies had implied some holdupon them, including a first lien upon commercial products; while so faras governmental jurisdiction was concerned, it might be considered an openquestion whether the colonies were capable of adequately governingthemselves, and she was therefore warranted, in the interests of order, inexercising that function herself. But the reply was a weak one; and whenthe colonists rejoined that the charter, if it had any practicalsignificance at all, merely gave expression to a friendly interest in theadventure, as a parent might give a son a letter hoping that he would dowell; and that the question of government was not an open one, inasmuch asthe orderliness and efficiency of their institutions were visible andundeniable:--it was left to England only to say that, once an Englishsubject, always an English subject, and that when she commanded thecolonies must comply. 

As a matter of fact, she avoided as much as possible putting thisultimatum in precise words; and the colonies were at least as reluctant tooppose a definite defiance. Diplomacy labors long before acknowledging afinality. There was on both sides a deeply-rooted determination toprevail; but an open rupture was shunned. Furthermore, a strong sentimentof loyalty existed in the colonies, which sentimentally and sometimespractically injured the logic of their attitude. They acknowledged theEnglish king to be theirs; they addressed him in deferential andsubmissive terms; they wished, in some sense, to keep hold of theirmother's hand, and yet they protested against the maternal prerogative. Their status was anomalous; and it is easy to say that they should havedeclared their purpose, from the first, to be an independent nation in thefull sense of the world. But the logical and the natural are often atvariance. Liberty is not necessarily attainable only through politicalindependence. The colonists, if they wished to be another England inminiature, had not contemplated becoming a people foreign to England, inthe sense that France or Spain was. They loved the English flag, in spiteof the cross which Endicott disowned; they were proud of the Englishhistory which was also theirs. Why should they sever themselves fromthese? It was not until English injustice and selfishness, long endured, became at last unendurable, that the resolve to live truly independent, orto die, fired the muskets of Lexington and Concord. 

The most galling of the measures which weighed upon New England was thatcalled the Navigation Acts. These were passed in the interests of theEnglish trading class, and by their influence. In their original form, in1661, they had involved no serious injury to the colonies, and had, moreover, been so slackly enforced that they were almost a dead letter. But after Charles II. Came to the throne, they assumed a more virulentaspect. They forbade the importation into the colonies of any merchandise, except in English bottoms, captained by Englishmen, thus excluding fromAmerican ports every cargo not owned by British merchants. On the otherhand, they decreed that no American produce should find its way into otherthan English hands, except such things as the English did not want, orcould buy to better advantage elsewhere; and even these could be disposedof at no ports nearer England than the Mediterranean. Next, by anextension of the Acts, the inhabitants of one colony were forbidden todeal with those of another except on payment of duties intended to beprohibitory. And finally, the colonists were enjoined not to manufactureeven for their private consumption, much less for export, any goods whichEnglish manufacturers produced. They could do nothing but grow crops, andthe only reason that anything whatever was permitted to go from thecolonies to foreign ports, was in order that the former might thus getmoney with which to pay for the forced importations from England. Theresult of such a policy was, of course, that money was put into thepockets of English shopkeepers, but all other Englishmen gained nothing, and the colonists lost the amount of the shopkeepers' profit, as well asthe incidental and incalculable advantages of free enterprise. 

[Illustration: A Quaker in the Stocks]

These laws pressed most severely on Massachusetts, because her shippingexceeded that of all the other colonies, and the smuggling which theirgeographical peculiarities made easy to them was impossible for her. Besides, manufacturing was never followed by the southern colonies, andtheir chief products, tobacco and cotton, not being grown elsewhere, couldbe sold at almost as good a profit in England as anywhere else. 

But if Massachusetts was the chief object of these oppressive measures, she was also more inflexible than the other colonies in insisting upon herrights. The motto of the Rattlesnake flag carried at the beginning of theRevolution--"Don't tread on Me"--expressed the temper of her people froman early period in her history. We shall shortly see how resolutely andcourageously she fought her battle against hopeless odds. Meanwhile, wemay inquire how and why the other colonies of the New Englandconfederation fared better at the hands of the mother country. 

One of the most agreeable figures in our colonial history is the son ofthat John Winthrop who brought the first colonists to Massachusetts Bay, on June 22, 1630. He had been born at Groton, in England, in 1606, and wastherefore fifty-six years old when he returned to that country as agentfor Connecticut, and obtained its charter from Charles. He had beeneducated at Dublin, and before emigrating to the colonies had been asoldier in the French wars, and had traveled, on the Continent. Afterlanding at Boston, he had helped his father in his duties, and had thenfounded the town of Ipswich in Massachusetts. None was more ardent than hein the work of preparing a home for the exiles in the wilderness; he addedhis own fortune to that of his father, and thought no effort too great. Inhim the elements were so kindly mixed that his heart was as warm and hismind as liberal as his energy was tireless; it was as if a Roger Williamshad been mingled with an elder Winthrop; enthusiasm and charity weretempered with judgment and discretion. The love of creating means ofhappiness for others was his ruling motive, and he was gifted with theability to carry it out; he felt that New England was his true home, because there he had fullest opportunity for his self-appointed work. Itis almost an effort for men of this age to conceive of a nature so pure asthis, and a character so blameless; we search the records for someweakness or deformity. But all witnesses testify of him with one voice;and it may be borne in mind that the spirit of Puritanism at that epochwas mighty in the individual as in the community, purging the soul of manyself-indulgent vices which the laxity and skepticism of our timeencourage; and when, in addition, there is a nation to be made onprinciples so lofty as those which Puritanism contemplated, one canimagine that there would be little space for the development of the lowerinstincts, or the unworthier ambitions. When all is said, however, Winthrop the Younger still remains a surprising and rare type; and it isan added pleasure to know that in all that he undertook he was successful(he never undertook anything for himself), and that he was most happy in aloving wife and in his children. It was a rounded life, such as a romancerhardly dares to draw; yet there may be many not less lovely, only lessconspicuously placed. 

When there was need for a man to go to England and plead before the kingfor Connecticut--of which, for fourteen consecutive years thereafter, hewas annually elected governor--who but Winthrop could be selected? He wentwith all the prayers of the colony for his good fortune; and it was ofgood omen that he met there, in the council for the colonies appointed bythe king, Edward Hyde, first Earl of Clarendon and Lord Chancellor, thenin the prime of his career, and two years younger than Winthrop; andWilliam Fiennes, Viscount Saye and Sele, who was in the eightieth andfinal year of his useful and honorable career, and who, in 1632, hadobtained a patent for land on the Connecticut river. Through his influencethe interest of the Lord Chamberlain was secured, and Clarendon himselfwas cordial for the charter. With such support, the way was easy, and thedocument was executed in April of 1662. It gave the colonists all thepowers of an independent government. There was no reservation whatever;their acts were not subject even to royal inspection. Nevertheless, Charles, by effecting the amalgamation of New Haven with Hartford, notaltogether with the consent of the former, arbitrarily set aside theprovision of the federation compact which forbade union between any of itsmembers except with the consent of all; and thereby he asserted hisjurisdiction (if he chose to exercise it) over all the colonies. He couldgive gracious gifts, but on the understanding that they were of grace, notobligation. In the oppression of Massachusetts, this served as anunfortunate precedent. 

Nor must it be forgotten that the happiness of Connecticut was in partdue to the fact that, as a matter of high policy, it was desired toconciliate her at Massachusetts's expense. Massachusetts was much thestrongest of the colonies; her tendency to disaffection was known inEngland; and it seemed expedient to place her in a position isolated fromher sisters. Were all of them equally wronged, their union against theoppressor was inevitable. Connecticut and Rhode Island could be of smallpresent value to England from the commercial standpoint, and theirheartfelt loyalty seemed cheaply purchased by suffering that value toaccumulate. Charles could be lavish and reckless, and he wasconstitutionally "good-humored"--that is, he liked to have things gosmoothly, and if anybody suffered, wished the fact to be kept out of hissight. But he was incapable of generosity, in the sense of voluntarilysacrificing any selfish interest for a noble end; and if he pattedConnecticut on the back, it was only in order that she might view withtoleration his highway robbery of her sister. 

All this, however, need not dash our satisfaction at the advantages whichConnecticut enjoyed, and the good they did her. The climate and physicalnature of the country required an active and wholesome life in theinhabitants, while yet the conditions were not so severe as to discouragethem. They were of a rustic, hardy, industrious temper, of virtuous andgodly life, and animated by the consciousness of being well treated. Theylived and labored on their farms, and there were not so many of them thatthe farms crowded upon one another, though the population increasedrapidly. Each of them delighted in the cultivation of his private"conscience"; and, in the absence of wars and oppressions, they argued onewith another on points of theology, fate, freewill, foreknowledgeabsolute. They were far from indifferent to learning, but they likednothing quite so well as manhood and integrity. The Connecticut Yankeeimpressed his character on American history, and wherever in our countrythere has been evidence of pluck, enterprise and native intelligence, ithas generally been found that a son of Connecticut was not far off. Theywere not averse from journeying over the earth, and many of them had thepioneer spirit, and left their place of birth to establish a miniatureConnecticut elsewhere; their descendants will be found as far west asOregon, and their whalers knew the paths of the Pacific as well as theydid the channels of Long Island Sound. Tolerant, sturdy, pious, shrewd, prudent and brave, they formed the best known type of the characteristicNew Englander, as represented by the national figure of Uncle Sam. Theywere sociable and inquisitive, yet they knew how to keep their owncounsel; and the latch-string hung out all over the colony, in testimonyat once of their honesty and their hospitality. Few things came to themfrom the outer world, and few went out from them; they were industriallyas well as politically independent. They were economical in both theirprivate and their public habits; no money was to be made in politics, partly because every one was from his youth up trained in politicalprocedure; every town was a republic in little. The town meeting was opento all citizens, and each could have his say in it, and many an acutesuggestion and shrewd criticism came from humble lips. It is in such townmeetings that the legislators were trained who then, and ever since, havebecome leading figures in the statesmanship of the country. In England, ahereditary aristocracy were educated to govern the nation; in thecolonies, a nation was educated to govern itself. Our system was thesounder and the safer of the two. But the professional politician was thenunthought of; he came as the result of several conditions incident to ournational development; he has perhaps already touched his apogee, and isbeginning to disappear. The nation has awakened to a realization that itsinterests are not safe in his hands. 

Calvinism prevailed in the colony, as in Massachusetts; but there weremany of the colonists who did not attend at the meeting-house on theSabbath, not because they were irreligious or vicious, but either becausethey lived far from the rendezvous, or because they did not find it amatter of private conscience with them to sit in a pew and listen to asermon. Moreover, it was the rule among Calvinists that no one could joinin the Communion service who had not "experienced religion"; and manyexcellent persons might entertain conscientious doubts whether thismysterious subjective phenomenon had taken place in them. Pendingenlightenment on that point, they would naturally prefer not to sit besidetheir more favored brethren during the long period of prayer anddiscourse, only to be obliged to walk out when the vital stage of theproceedings was reached. But it was also the law that only children ofcommunicants should receive baptism; and since not to be baptized was inthe religious opinion of the day to court eternal destruction, it willeasily be understood that non-communicating parents were rendered veryuneasy. What could they do? One cannot get religion by an act of will; butnot to get it was to imperil not only their own spiritual welfare, butthat of their innocent offspring as well; they were damned to allposterity. The matter came up before the general court of Connecticut, andin 1657 a synod composed of ministers of that colony and of Massachusetts--New Haven and Plymouth declining to participate--sat upon the question, and softened the hard fate of the petitioners so far as to permit thebaptism of the children of unbaptized persons who engaged to rear them inthe fear of the Lord. This "half-way covenant, " as it came to be termed, did not suit the scruples of Calvinists of the stricter sort; but it gavecomfort to a great many deserving folk, and probably did harm to no humansoul, here or hereafter. 

Short are the annals of a happy people; until the Revolutionary daysbegan, there is little to tell of Connecticut. The collegiate school whichhalf a generation later grew into the college taking its name from itschief benefactor, Elihu Yale, had its early days in the village at themouth of the Connecticut river, named, after Lord Saye and Sele, Saybrook. The institution of learning called after the pious and erudite son of theEnglish butcher of Southwark, founded on the banks of the river Charlesnear Boston, had come into existence more than sixty years before; butYale followed less than forty years after the granting of the Connecticutcharter. New England people never lost any time about securing the meansof education. 

The boundaries of Rhode Island were the occasion of some trouble; thoughone might have supposed that since the area which they inclosed was sosmall, no one would have been at the pains to dispute them. But in theend, Roger Williams obtained the little he had asked for in this regard, while as to liberties, his charter made his community at least as well offas was Connecticut. Their aspiration to be allowed to prove that the bestcivil results may be coincident with complete religious freedom, wasrealized. Charles gave them everything; liberty for a people who thoughtmore of God than of their breakfasts, and whose habitation was too smallfor its representation on the map to be seen without a magnifying glass, could not be a dangerous gift. The charter was delivered in 1663 to JohnClarke, agent in England for the colony, and was taken to Rhode Island bythe admirable Baxter in November of that year. All the two thousand ormore inhabitants of the colony met together to receive the precious gift;Baxter, placed on high, read it out to them with his best voice anddelivery, and then held it up so that all might behold the handsomelyengrossed parchment, and the sacred seal of his dread majesty KingCharles. What a picture of democratic and childlike simplicity! With howdevout and earnest an exultation did the people murmur their thanks andapplause! The crowd in their conical hats and dark cloaks, the chillNovember sky, the gray ripples of Narragansett Bay, the background offorest trees, of which only the oaks and walnuts still retained the redand yellow remnants of their autumn splendor; the quaint little ship atanchor, with its bearded crew agape along the rail; and Baxter the centerof all eyes, holding up the charter with a sort of holy enthusiasm! Such ascene could be but once; and time has brought about his revenges. Withwhat demeanor would the throng at the fashionable watering place greet amessenger from the English sovereign to-day! John Clarke, the Bedfordshiredoctor, to whose fidelity and persistent care the colony owed much, fullyparticipated in the contagion of goodness which marked the New Englandemigrants of the period. He served his fellow colonists all his life, andat his death left them all he had; and it seems strange that he shouldhave been one of the founders of aristocratic Newport, and its earliestpastor. But it is not the only instance of the unexpected use to which wesometimes put the bequests of our ancestors. 

The early vicissitudes of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are hardly ofimportance enough to warrant a detailed examination. Vermont was notsettled till well into the Eighteenth Century. Maine had been fingered bythe French, and used as a base of operations by fishermen, long before itsconnection with Massachusetts; the persistency of Gorges complicated itsposition for more than forty years. After his death, and in theirresponsiveness of his heirs, the few inhabitants of the region wereconstrained to shift for themselves; in 1652 the jurisdiction was found toextend three miles north of the source of the Merrimack, and Massachusettsoffering its protection in enabling a government to be formed, and actingupon the priority of its grant, annexed the whole specified region. Butmore than twenty years afterward, in 1677, the English committee of theprivy council examined the charter, and found that Massachusetts had nojurisdiction over Maine and New Hampshire (the separate existence of whichlast had scarcely been defined). The direct object of this decision of thecommittee was to provide the bastard son of Charles, Monmouth, with akingdom of his own; no one knew anything about the resources orpossibilities of the domain, and, omne ignotum pro magnifico, it wassurmised that it would yield abundant revenues. But Massachusetts did notwant the Duke for a neighbor; and while Charles was considering terms ofpurchase, she bought up the Gorges claim for some twelve hundred pounds. The Maine of that epoch was not, of course, the same as that of to-day;the French claimed down to the Kennebec, and the Duke of York, not contentwith New York, asserted his ownership from the Kennebec to the Penobscot;so that for Massachusetts was left only what intervened between theKennebec and the Piscataqua. Being proprietor of this, she made it aprovince with a governor and council whom she appointed, and a legislaturederived from the people; the province not relishing its subordination, butbeing forced to submit. Two years later, in 1679, New Hampshire was cutoff from Massachusetts and made the first royal province of New England. The people of the province were ill-disposed to surrender any of theliberties which they saw their neighbors in the enjoyment of; anddisregarding the feelings of the king's appointee, its representativesdeclared that only laws made by the assembly and approved by the peopleshould be valid. Robert Mason, who had a patent to part of the region, finding himself opposed by the colonists, got permission from England toappoint an adventurer, Edward Cranfield, governor; Cranfield went forthwith hopes of much plunder; but they would not admit his legitimacy, andhe took the unprecedented step of dissolving the assembly; the farmersrevolted, and their ringleader, Gove, was condemned for treason, and spentfour years in the Tower of London. It was another attempt to convince thespirit of liberty by "the worst argument in the world"; but it wasridiculous as well as bad in Gove's case; he was but a hard-fisteduneducated countryman, whose belief that the patch of land he had clearedand planted among the New England mountains was his, and not another's, was not to be dissipated by dungeons. The disputed land-titles got intothe law courts, where judges and juries were fixed; but no matter whichway the decisions went, the people kept their own. Cranfield sent analarmist report of affairs to London, declaring that "factions" wouldbring about a separation of the colony unless a frigate were sent toBoston to enforce loyalty. Nothing was done. Cranfield tried to raisemoney through the assembly by a tale about an invasion, which existednowhere save in his own imagination; the assembly refused to be stampeded. The clergy were against him, and he attempted to overcome them byrestrictive orders; but they defied him; he imprisoned one of them, Moody;and succeeded in disturbing church service; but the people would rathernot go to meeting than obey Cranfield. His last effort was to try to levytaxes under pretense of an Indian war; but the people thwacked the taxcollectors with staves, and the women threatened them with hot water. Acall for troops to quell the disturbances was utterly disregarded. How wasa governor to govern people who refused to be governed?

Cranfield gave it up. He had been struggling three years, and hadaccomplished nothing. He wrote home that he "should esteem it the greatesthappiness to be allowed to remove from these unreasonable people"; andthis happiness was accorded to him; it was the only happiness which hisappointment had afforded. New Hampshire was in bad odor with the Englishgovernment; but the farmers could endure that with equanimity. They haddemonstrated that the granite of their mountains had somehow got intotheir own composition; and they were let alone for the present, the rathersince Massachusetts was enough to occupy the king's council at that time. 

The fight between Massachusetts and Charles began with the latter'saccession in 1660, and continued till his death, when it was continued byJames II. The charter of the colony was adjudged to be forfeited in 1684, twenty-four years after the struggle opened. While it was at its height, the Indian war broke out to which the name of the Pokanoket chief, KingPhilip, has been attached. Thus both the diplomacy and the arms of thecolony were tested to the utmost, at one and the same time; the Americansoldiers were victorious, though at a serious cost of life and treasure;the diplomatists were defeated; but Massachusetts had learned her strengthin both directions, and suffered less, in the end, by her defeat than byher victory. The issue between England and her colony had become clearlydefined; the people learned by practice what they already knew in theory--the hatefulness of despotism; and their resolve to throw it off when theopportunity should arrive was not discouraged, but confirmed. From theIndian war they gained less than a wise peace would have given them, andthey lost women and children as well as men. Such conflicts, once begun, must be pushed to the extremity; but it cannot but be wished that thepeople of Massachusetts might have found a means of living with the redmen, as their brethren in Pennsylvania did, in peace and amity. Theconduct of Indians in war can never be approved by the white race, but, onthe other hand, the provocations which set them on the warpath always canbe traced to some act of injustice, real or fancied, wanton or accidental, on our part. King Philip was fighting for precisely the same object thatwas actuating the colonists in their battle with King Charles. Doubtlessthe rights of a few thousand savages are insignificant compared with thehigher principles of human liberty for which we contended; but Philipcould not be expected to acknowledge this, and we should extend to himprecisely the same sympathy that we feel for ourselves. 

A great deal of pains had been taken to convert and civilize these NewEngland tribes. John Eliot translated the Bible for them; and it was hewho made the first attempt to determine the grammar of their speech. Butthough many Indians professed the Christian faith, and some evinced acertain aptitude in letters, no new life was awakened in any of them, andno permanent good results were attained. Meanwhile, the Pokanokets, withPhilip at their head, refused to accept the white man's God, or hislearning; and they watched with anxiety his growing numbers and power. They had sold mile after mile of land to the English, not realizing thatthe aggregate of these transactions was literally taking the ground fromunder their feet; but the purchasers had the future as well as the presentin view, and contrived so to distribute their holdings as gradually topush the Indians into the necks of land whence the only outlet was thesea. It was the old story of encroachment, with always a deed to justifyit, signed with the mark of the savage, good in law, but to his mind adevice to ensnare him to his hurt. In 1674, Philip was compelled to appearbefore a court and be examined, whereat his indignation was aroused, and, either with or without his privity, the informer who had procured hisarrest was murdered. The murderers were apprehended and sentenced to behanged by a jury, half white and half Indian. The tribe retaliated and warwas begun. 

Philip, or Metaconet the son of Massasoit, may at this time have beenabout forty years old; he had been "King" for twelve years. The portraitsof him show a face and head that one can hardly accept as veracious; anenormous forehead impending over a small face, with an almost delicatemouth. But he was obviously a man of ability, and his courage was hardenedby desperation. His aim was to unite all the tribes in an effort toexterminate the entire English population, though this has been estimatedto number in New England, at that time, more than fifty thousand persons. The odds were all upon the colonists' side; but they had not yet learnedthe Indian method of warfare, and the woods, hills and swamps, and theunprotected state of many of the settlements, gave the Indiansopportunities to prolong the struggle which they amply improved. Had theybeen united, and adequately armed, the issue might have been different. 

Captain Benjamin Church, a hardy pioneer of six and thirty, who hadwatched the ways of the Indians, and learned their strategy, soon becameprominent in the war, and ended as its most conspicuous and triumphantfigure. At first the colonists were successful, and Philip was driven off;but this did but enable him to spread the outbreak among other tribes. From July of 1675 till August of the next year, the life of no one on theborders was safe. The settlers went to the meeting-house armed, and turnedout at the first alarm. They were killed at their plowing; they wereambuscaded and cut off, tortured, slain, and their dissevered bodies hungupon the trees. At the brook thereafter called Bloody Run, near Deerfield, over seventy young men were surprised and killed. Women and children werenot spared; it was hardly sparing them to carry them into captivity, aswas often done. The villages which were attacked were set on fire afterthe tomahawking and scalping were done. Horrible struggles would takeplace in the confined rooms of the little cabins; blood and mangledcorpses desecrated the familiar hearths, and throughout sounded the wildyell of the savages, and the flames crackled and licked through thecrevices of the logs. 

In December, Church commanded, or accompanied, the little army whichplowed through night and snow to attack the palisaded fort and village, strongly situated on an island of high ground in the midst of a swamp, inthe township of New Kingston. The Narragansetts were surprised; thesoldiers burst their way through the palisades, and the red and the whitemen met hand to hand in a desperate conflict. Then the tomahawk measureditself against the sword, and before it faltered more than two hundred ofthe New Englanders had been killed or wounded, and the village was onfire. The pools of blood which the frost had congealed, bubbled in theheat of the flames. None could escape; infants, old women, all must die. It was as ghastly a fight as was ever fought. The victors remained in thecharred shambles till evening, resting and caring for their wounded; andthen, as the snow began to fall, went back to Wickford, carrying thewounded with them. It is said that a thousand Indian warriors fell on thatday. 

At Hadfield had occurred the striking episode of the congregation, surprised at their little church, and about to be overcome, being rescuedby a mysterious gray champion, who appeared none knew whence, ralliedthem, and led them to victory. It was believed to be Goffe, one of the menwho sentenced Charles I. To be beheaded, who had escaped to New England atthe time of the Restoration, and had dwelt in retirement there till theperil of his fellow exiles called him forth. The war was full of harrowingscenes and strange deliverances. Annie Brackett, a prisoner in an Indianparty, crossed Casco Bay in a birch-bark canoe with her husband and infantand was rescued by a vessel which happened to enter the harbor at thecritical moment. 

Church hunted the Indians with more than their own cunning andpersistency; and at last it was he who led the party which effectedPhilip's death. The royal Indian was hemmed in in a swamp and finallykilled by a traitor from his own side. The savages could fight no more;they had caused the death of six hundred men, had burned a dozen towns, and compelled the expenditure of half a million dollars. Scattered alarmsand tragedies still occurred in the East, and along the borders; but thewar was over. In 1678 peace was signed. And then Massachusetts turned oncemore to her deadlier enemy, King Charles. 

CHAPTER EIGHTH

THE STUARTS AND THE CHARTER

The cutting off of Charles I. 's head was a deed which few persons inMassachusetts would have advocated; Cromwell himself had remarked that itwas a choice between the king's head and his own. History has upon thewhole accepted the choice he made as salutary. Achilles, forgetting hisheel, deemed himself invulnerable, and his conduct became in consequenceintolerable; Charles, convinced that his anointed royalty was sacred, wasled on to commit such fantastic tricks before high heaven as made thegodly weep. Achilles was disillusioned by the arrow of Paris, and Charlesby the ax of Cromwell. Death is a wholesome argument at times. 

But though a later age could recognize the high expediency of Charles'staking off, it was too bold and novel to meet with general approbation atthe time, even from men who hated kingly rule. Prejudice has a longer rootthan it itself believes. And the Puritans of New England, having beenremoved from the immediate pressure of the king's eccentricities, were theless likely to exult over his end. Many of them were shocked at it; moreregretted it; perhaps the majority accepted it with a sober equanimity. They were not bloodthirsty, but they were stern. 

Neither were they demonstrative; so that they took the Parliament and theProtector calmly, if cordially, and did not use the opportunity of theirpredominance to cast gibes upon their predecessor. So that, when theRestoration was an established fact, they had little to retract. Theyaddressed Charles II. Gravely, as one who by experience knew the hearts ofexiles, and told him that, as true men, they feared God and the king. Theyentreated him to consider their sacrifices and worthy purposes, and toconfirm them in the enjoyment of their liberties. Of the execution, and ofthe ensuing "confusions, " they prudently forbore to speak. It was betterto say nothing than either to offend their consciences, or to utter whatCharles would dislike to hear. Their case, as they well knew, was criticalenough at best. Every foe of New England and of liberty would not fail towhisper malice in the king's ear. They sent over an envoy to make the bestterms he could, and in particular to ask for the suspension of theNavigation Acts. But the committee had small faith in the loyalty of thecolony, and even believed, or professed to do so, that it might invite theaid of Catholic and barbarous Spain against its own blood: they judged ofothers' profligacy by their own. The king, to gain time, sent over apolite message, which meant nothing, or rather less; for the next news wasthat the Acts were to be enforced. 

Massachusetts thereupon proceeded to define her position. A committeecomposed of her ablest men caused a paper to be published by the generalcourt affirming their right to do certain things which England, they knew, would be indisposed to permit. In brief, they claimed religious and civilindependence, the latter in all but name, and left the king to be afigurehead without perquisites or power. They followed this intrepidstatement by solemnly proclaiming Charles in Boston, and threw a sop toCerberus in the shape of a letter couched in conciliating terms, feigningto believe that their attitude would win his approbation. Altogether, itwas a thrust under the fifth rib, with a bow and a smile on the recover. Probably the thrust represented the will of the majority; the bow andsmile, the prudence of the timid sort. Simon Bradstreet and John Nortonwere dispatched to London to receive the king's answer. They went inJanuary of 1662, and after waiting through the spring and summer, notwithout courteous treatment, returned in the fall with Charles's reply, which, after confirming the charter and pardoning political infidelitiesunder the Protectorate, went on to refuse all the special points which thecolony had urged. 

Already at this stage of the contest it had become evident that thequestion was less of conforming with any particular demand or command onthe king's part, than of admitting his right to exercise his will at allin the premises. If the colony conceded his sovereignty, they could notafterward draw the line at which its power was to cease. And yet theycould not venture to declare absolute independence, partly because, if itcame to a struggle in arms, they could not hope to prevail; and partlybecause absolute independence was less desired than autonomy under theEnglish flag. England was as far from granting autonomy to Massachusettsas independence, but was willing, if possible, to constrain her by fairmeans rather than by foul. Meanwhile, the tongue of rumor fomenteddiscord. It was said in the colony that England designed the establishmentof the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts; whereupon the laws againsttoleration of "heretics, " which had been falling into disuse, werestringently revived. In London the story went that the escaped regicideshad united the four chief colonies and were about to lead them in arms torevolt. Clarendon, to relieve anxiety, sent a reassuring message toBoston; but its good effect was spoiled by a report that commissionerswere coming to regulate their affairs. The patent of the colony was placedin hiding, the trained bands were drilled, the defenses of the harbor werelooked to, and a fast day was named with the double purpose of asking thefavor of God, and of informing the colony as to what was in the wind. Assuredly there must have been stout souls in Boston in those days. A fewthousand exiles were actually preparing to resist England!

The warning had not been groundless. The fleet which had been fitted outto drive the Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, from Manhattan, stopped atBoston on its way; and we may imagine that its entrance into the harbor onthat July day was observed with keen interest by the great-grandfathers ofthe men of Bunker Hill. It was not exactly known what the instructions ofthe English officers required; but it was surmised that they meanttyranny. The commission could not have come for nothing. They had no righton New England soil. The fleet, for the present, proceeded on its way, andMassachusetts voluntarily contributed a force of two hundred men; but theywere well aware that the trouble was only postponed; and depending ontheir charter, which contained no provision for a royal commission, theywere determined to thwart its proceedings to the utmost of their power. How far that might be, they would know when the time came. Anything wasbetter than surrender to the prerogative. When, in reply to Willoughby, aroyalist declared that prerogative is as necessary as the law, MajorWilliam Hawthorne, who was afterward to distinguish himself against theIndians, answered him, "Prerogative is not above law!" It was not, indeed. 

Accordingly, while the fleet with its commissioners was overawing the NewNetherlanders, the Puritans of Boston Bay wrote and put forth a documentwhich well deserves reproduction, both for the terse dignity of the style, which often recalls the compositions of Lord Verulam, and still more forthe courageous, courteous, and yet almost aggressive logic with which thelife principles of the Massachusetts colonists are laid down. It is aremarkable State paper, and so vividly sincere that, as one reads, one cansee the traditional Puritan standing out from the words--the steeplecrowned hat, the severe brow, the steady eyes, the pointed beard, the darkcloak and sad-hued garments. The paper is also singular in that itremonstrates against a principle, without waiting for the provocation ofovert deeds. This excited the astonishment of Clarendon and others inEngland; but their perplexity only showed that the men they criticised sawfurther and straighter than they did. It was for principles, and againstthem, that the Puritans always fought, since principles are the parents ofall acts and control them. The royal commission was, potentially, the sumof all the wrongs from which New England suffered during the next hundredyears, and though it had as yet done nothing, it implied everything. 

Whose hand it was that penned the document we know not; it was probablythe expression of the combined views of such men as Mather, Norton, Hawthorne, Endicott and Bellingham; it may have been revised by Davenport, at that time nearly threescore and ten years of age, the type of theCalvinist minister of the period, austere, inflexible, high-minded, faithful. Be that as it may, it certainly voiced the feeling of thepeople, as the sequel demonstrated. It is dated October the Twenty-fifth, 1664, and is addressed to the king. 

"DREAD SOVEREIGN:--The first undertakers of this Plantation did obtain aPatent, wherein is granted full and absolute power of governing all thepeople of this place, by men chosen from among themselves, and accordingto such laws as they should see meet to establish. A royal donation, underthe Great Seal, is the greatest security that may be had in human affairs. Under the encouragement and security of the Royal Charter this People did, at their own charges, transport themselves, their wives and families, overthe ocean, purchase the land of the Natives, and plant this Colony, withgreat labor, hazards, cost, and difficulties; for a long time wrestlingwith the wants of a Wilderness and the burdens of a new Plantation; havingnow also above thirty years enjoyed the privilege of Government withinthemselves, as their undoubted right in the sight of God and Man. To begoverned by rulers of our own choosing and laws of our own, is thefundamental privilege of our Patent. 

"A Commission under the Great Seal, wherein four persons (one of them ourprofessed Enemy) are impowered to receive and determine all complaints andappeals according to their discretion, subjects us to the arbitrary powerof Strangers, and will end in the subversion of us all. 

"If these things go on, your Subjects will either be forced to seek newdwellings, or sink under intolerable burdens. The vigor of all newEndeavours will be enfeebled; the King himself will be a loser of thewonted benefit by customs, exported and imported from hence to England, and this hopeful Plantation will in the issue be ruined. 

"If the aim should be to gratify some particular Gentlemen by Livings andRevenues here, that will also fail, for the poverty of the People. If allthe charges of the whole Government by the year were put together, andthen doubled or trebled, it would not be counted for one of theseGentlemen a considerable Accommodation. To a coalition in this course thePeople will never come; and it will be hard to find another people thatwill stand under any considerable burden in this Country, seeing it is nota country where men can subsist without hard labor and great frugality. 

"God knows our greatest Ambition is to live a quiet Life, in a corner ofthe World. We came not into this Wilderness to seek great things toourselves; and if any come after us to seek them here, they will bedisappointed. We keep ourselves within our Line; a just dependence upon, and subjection to, your Majesty, according to our Charter, it is far fromour Hearts to disacknowledge. We would gladly do anything in our power topurchase the continuance of your favorable Aspect. But it is a greatUnhappiness to have no testimony of our loyalty offered but this, to yieldup our Liberties, which are far dearer to us than our Lives, and which wehave willingly ventured our Lives and passed through many Deaths, toobtain. 

"It was Job's excellency, when he sat as King among his People, that hewas a Father to the Poor. A poor People, destitute of outward Favor, Wealth, and Power, now cry unto their lord the King. May your Majestyregard their Cause, and maintain their Right; it will stand among themarks of lasting Honor to after Generations. "

Throughout these sentences sounds the masculine earnestness of men whosee that for which they have striven valiantly and holily in danger ofbeing treacherously ravished from them, and who are resolute to withstandthe ravisher to the last. It is no wonder that documents of this tone andcaliber amazed and alarmed the council in London, and made them ask oneanother what manner of men these might be. It would have been well forEngland had they given more attentive ear to their misgivings; but theirhearts, like Pharaoh's, were hardened, and they would not let the peoplego--until the time was ripe, and the people went, and carried the spoilswith them. 

The secret purpose of the commission was to pave the way for the gradualsubjection of the colony, and to begin by inducing them to let thegovernor become a royal nominee, and to put the militia under the king'sorders. Of the four commissioners, Nicolls remained in New York, as wehave seen; the three others landed in Boston early in 1665. Their firstorder was that every male inhabitant of Boston should assemble and listento the reading of the message from King Charles. These three gentlemen--Maverick, Carr and Cartwright--were courtiers and men of fashion andblood, and were accustomed to regard the king's wish as law, no matterwhat might be on the other side; but it was now just thirty years sincethe Puritans left England; they had endured much during that time, and hadtasted how sweet liberty was; and half of them were young Americans, bornon the soil, who knew what kings were by report only. Young and old, speaking through the assembly, which was in complete accord with them, informed the commissioners that they would not comply with their demand. What were the commissioners, that they should venture to call a publicmeeting in the town of a free people? The free people went about theiraffairs, and left the three gentlemen from the Court to stare in oneanother's scandalized faces. 

They were the more scandalized, because their reception in Connecticutand Rhode Island had been different. But different, also, had been theerrand on which they went there. Those two colonies were the king's pets, and were to have liberty and all else they wanted; Connecticut they hadprotected from the rapacity of Lord Hamilton, and Rhode Island had neverbeen other than loving and loyal to the king. They had, to be sure, beenpolitely bowed out by little Plymouth, the yeomen Independents, who stillpreferred, if his majesty pleased, to conduct their own household affairsin their own way. But to be positively and explicitly rebuffed to theirfaces, yet glowing with the sunshine of the royal favor, was a newexperience; and Cartwright, when he caught his breath, exclaimed, "He thatwill not attend to the request is a traitor!"

The Massachusetts assembly declined to accept the characterization. Sincethe king's own patent expressly relieved them from his jurisdiction, itwas impossible that their refusal to meet three of his gentlemen-in-waiting could rightly be construed as treason. The commissioners finallywanted to know, yes or no, whether the colonists meant to question thevalidity of the royal commission? But the assembly would not thus bedislodged from the coign of vantage; they stuck to their patent, andpointed out that nothing was therein said about a commission? So far asthey were concerned, the commission, as a commission, could have noexistence. They recognized nothing but three somewhat arrogant persons, in huge wigs, long embroidered waistcoats under their velvet coats, andplumes waving from their hats. They presented a glittering and haughtyaspect, to be sure, but they had no rights in Boston. 

At length, on the twenty-third of May, matters came to a crisis. Thecommissioners had given out that on that day they were going to hold acourt to try a case in which the colony was to defend an action against aplaintiff. This, of course, would serve to indicate that the commissionershad power--whether the assembly conceded it or not--to control theinternal economy of the settlement. Betimes in this morning, the ratherthat it was a very pleasant one--the trees on the Common being dressed intheir first green leaves since last year, while a pleasant westerly breezesent the white clouds drifting seaward over the blue sky--a great crowdbegan to make its way toward the court house, whose portals frowned uponthe narrow street, as if the stern spirit of justice that presided withinhad cast a shadow beneath them. The doors were closed, and the massivelock which secured them gleamed in the single ray of spring sunshine thatslanted along the facade of the edifice. 

It was a somber looking throng, as was ever the case in Puritan Boston, where the hats, cloaks and doublets of the people were made of dark, coarse materials, not designed to flatter the lust of the eye. The visagessuited the garments, wearing a sedate or severe expression, whether thecast of the features above the broad white collars were broad and ruddy, or pale and hollow-cheeked. There was a touch of the fanatic in many ofthese countenances, as of men to whom God was a living presence in alltheir affairs and thoughts, who feared His displeasure more than theking's, who believed that they were His chosen ones, and who knew that Hisarm was mighty to defend. They were of kin to the men who stood sostubbornly and smote so sore at Marston Moor and Naseby, and afterward hadnot feared to drag the father of the present Charles to the block. Fibermore unbending than theirs was never wrought into the substance of ourhuman nature; and oppression seemed but to harden it. 

They conversed one with another in subdued tones, among which soundedoccasionally the lighter accents of women's voices; but they were not avoluble race, and the forms of their speech still followed in greatmeasure the semi-scriptural idioms which had been so prevalent amongCromwell's soldiers years before. They were undemonstrative; but thisvery immobility conveyed an impression of power in reserve which was moreeffective than noisy vehemence. 

At length, from the extremity of the street, was heard the tramp ofhorses' hoofs, and the commissioners, bravely attired, with cavalierboots, and swords dangling at their sides, were seen riding forward, followed by a little knot of officers. The crowd parted before them asthey came, not sullenly, perhaps, but certainly with no alacrity orsuppleness of deference. There was no love lost on either side; butCartwright, who wore the most arrogant front of the three, really fearedthe Puritans more than either of his colleagues; and when, seven yearsafterward, he was called before his majesty's council to tell what mannerof men they were, his account of them was so formidable that the councilgave up the consideration of the menacing message they had been about tosend, and instead agreed upon a letter of amnesty, as likely to succeedbetter with a people of so "peevish and touchy" a humor. 

The cavalcade drew up before the door, and the officials, dismounting, ascended the steps. Finding it locked, Cartwright lifted the hilt of hissword and dealt a blow upon the massive panel. 

"Who shuts the door against his majesty's commissioners?" cried heangrily. "Where is the rascal with the keys, I say!"

"I marvel what his majesty's commissioners should seek in the house ofJustice, " said a voice in the crowd; "since it is known that, when they goin by one door, she must needs go out by the other. "

At this sally, the crowd smiled grimly, and the commissioners frowned andbit their lips. Just then there was a movement in the throng, and a tall, dignified man with a white beard and an aspect of grave authority was seenpressing his way toward the court house door. 

"Here is the worshipful Governor Bellingham himself, " said one man to hisneighbor. "Now shall we see the upshot of this matter. "

"And God save Massachusetts!" added the other, devoutly. 

[Illustration: An Incident of King Philip's War]

The chief magistrate of the colony advanced into the little open space atthe foot of the steps, and saluted the commissioners with formal courtesy. "I am sorry ye should be disappointed, sirs, " said he; "but I must tellyou that it is the decision of the worshipful council that ye do not passthese doors, or order any business of the court, in this commonwealth. Provision is made by our laws for the proper conduct of all matters ofjustice within our borders, and it is not permitted that any strangershould interfere therewith. "

"Truly, Mr. Bellingham, " said Maverick, resting one hand on his sword, and settling his plumed hat on his wig with the other, "you take a hightone; but the king is the king, here as in England, and we bear hiscommission. Massachusetts can frame no laws to override his pleasure; andso we mean to teach you. I call upon all persons here present, underpenalty of indictment for treason, to aid us, his majesty's commissioners, to open this court, or to break it open. " His voice rang out angrily overthe crowd, but no one stirred in answer. 

"You forget yourself, sir, " said the governor, composedly. "We here areloyal to the king, and too much his friends to believe that he would wronghimself by controverting the charter which bears the broad seal affixed byhis own royal father. Your claim doth abuse him more than our refusal. Butsince you will not hear comfortable words, I must summon one who willspeak more bluntly. "

He turned, and made a signal with his hand. "Let the herald stand forth, "said he; and at the word, a broad-shouldered, deep-chested personage, witha trumpet in one hand and a pike in the other, stepped into the circle andstood in the military attitude of attention. 

"Hast thou the proclamation there in thy doublet, Simon?" demanded hisworship. 

"Aye, verily, that have I, " answered Simon, in a voice like a fog horn, "and in my head and my heart, too!"

"Send it forth, then, and God's blessing go with it!" rejoined the chiefmagistrate, forcibly, but with something like a smile stirring under hisbeard. 

Upon this Simon the herald filled his vast lungs with a mighty volume ofNew England air, set the long brazen trumpet to his lips, and blew such ablast that the led horses of the commissioners started and threw up theirheads, and the windows of the court house shook with the stridentvibration. Then, taking the paper on which the proclamation was written, and holding it up before him, he proceeded to bellow forth its contents insuch stentorian wise that the commissioners might have heard it, had theybeen on Boston wharf preparing to embark for England, instead of beingwithin three or four paces. That proclamation, indeed, was heard over thelength and breadth of New England, and even across the Atlantic in thegilded chamber of the king of Britain. "These fellows, " muttered hismajesty, with a vexed air, "have the hardihood to affirm that we have nojurisdiction over them. What shall be done. Clarendon?" "I have everthought well of them, " the chancellor said, rubbing his brow; "they are asturdy race, and it were not well to wantonly provoke them; yet it isamazing that they should show themselves so forward, without so much ascharging the commissioners with the least matter of crimes orexorbitances. " Clarendon, indeed, was too lenient to suit the royal party, and this was one of the causes leading up to his impeachment a year or twolater. 

But the herald was not troubled, nor was his voice subdued, by thoughtsof either royalty or royal commissioners; though, as a matter of form, hebegan with "In the name of King Charles, " he coupled with it "by authorityof the Charter"; and went on to declare that the general court ofMassachusetts, in observance of their duty to God, to the king, and totheir constituents, could not suffer any one to abet his majesty'shonorable commissioners in their designs. There was no mistaking thedefiance, and neither the people nor the commissioners affected to do so. The latter petulantly declared that "since you will misconceive ourendeavors, we shall not lose more of our labors upon you"; and theydeparted to Maine, where they met with a less mortifying reception. Thepeople were much pleased, and made sport of the king's gentlemen, and attheir public meetings they were addressed in the same "seditious" vein bymagistrates and ministers. "The commission is but a trial of our courage:the Lord will be with His people while they are with Him, " said old Mr. Davenport. Endicott, on the edge of the grave, was stanch as ever for thepopular liberties. Besides, "There hath been one revolution against theking in England, " it was remarked; "perchance there will be another erelong; and this new war with the Netherlands may bring more changes thansome think for. " On the other hand, resistance was stimulated by tales ofwhat the gold-laced freebooters of the court would do, if they were letloose upon New England. Diplomacy, however, was combined with the boldercounsels; there was hope in delays, and correspondence was carried on withEngland to that end. Charles's expressed displeasure with their conductwas met with such replies as "A just dependence upon and allegiance untoyour majesty, according to the charter, we have, and do profess andpractice, and have by our oaths of allegiance to your majesty confirmed;but to be placed upon the sandy foundations of a blind obedience unto thatarbitrary, absolute, and unlimited power which these gentlemen wouldimpose upon us--who in their actings have carried it not as indifferentpersons toward us--this, as it is contrary to your majesty's graciousexpressions and the liberties of Englishmen, so we can see no reason tosubmit thereto. "

The commissioners were recalled; but Charles commanded Bellingham, Hawthorne, and a few others to appear before him in London and answer forthe conduct of the colony. The general court met for prayer and debate;Bradstreet thought they ought to comply; but Willoughby and others said, No. A decision was finally handed down declining to obey the king'smandate. 

"We have already furnished our views in writing, " the court held, "sothat the ablest persons among us could not declare our case more fully. "

Under other circumstances this fresh defiance might have borne prompt andserious consequences; but Louis XIV. Conveniently selected the moment todeclare war on England; and Boston commended herself to the homegovernment by arming privateers to prey upon the Canadian commerce, and bya timely gift of a cargo of masts for the English navy. Charles became somuch interested in the ladies of his court that he had less leisure forthe affairs of empire. Yet he still kept New England in mind; he believedMassachusetts to be rich and powerful, and from time to time revolvedschemes for her reduction; and finally, when the colonists were exhaustedby the Indian war, the privy council came to the conclusion that, if theywere not to lose their hold upon the colony altogether, "this was theconjuncture to do something effectual for the better regulation of thatgovernment. " They selected, as their agent, the best hated man who everset foot on Massachusetts soil--Edward Randolph. His mission was toprepare the way for the revocation of its charter, and to undo all theworks of liberty and happiness which the labor and heroism of near fiftyyears had achieved. He was also intrusted by Robert Mason with themanagement of his New Hampshire claims. The second round in the battlebetween king and people had begun. 

Randolph was a remorseless, subtle, superserviceable villain, who lied tothe king, and robbed the colonists, and was active and indefatigable inevery form of rascality. During nine years he went to and fro betweenLondon and Massachusetts, weaving a web of mischief that grew constantlystronger and more restrictive, until at length the iniquitous object wasachieved. His first visit to Boston was in 1676; he stayed but a fewweeks, and accomplished nothing, but his stories about the wealth andpopulation of the colonies stimulated the greed of his employers. Envoyswere ordered to come to London, and this time they were sent, but withpowers so limited as to prevent any further result than the cession of thejurisdiction of Massachusetts over Maine and New Hampshire--which, as wehave seen, was bought back the next year. The enforcement of theNavigation Acts was for the moment postponed. The colonists would payduties to the king within the plantation if he would let them importdirectly from the other countries of Europe. But Charles wished tostrengthen his grasp of colonial power, although, if possible, with theassembly's consent. In 1678, the crown lawyers gave an opinion that thecolony's disregard of the Navigation Acts invalidated their charter. Randolph was appointed customs collector in New England, and it wasdetermined to replace the laws of Massachusetts by such as were not"repugnant to the laws of England. " And the view was expressed that thesettlement should be made a royal colony. Manifestly, the preciousliberties of the Puritans were in deadly peril. 

A synod of the churches and a meeting of the general court were held todevise defense. To obviate a repeal of their laws, these were in a measureremodeled so as to bring them nearer to what it was supposed the kingwould require. Almost anything would be preferable to giving up the rightto legislate for themselves. It was first affirmed that English laws didnot operate in America, and that the Navigation Acts were despotic becausethere was no colonial representation in the English parliament. And then, to prove once more how far above all else they prized principle, theypassed a Navigation Act of their own, which met all the king'sstipulations. They would submit to the drain on their resources and thehampering of their enterprise, but only if they themselves might inflictthem. Meanwhile, they cultivated to the utmost the policy of delay. Randolph, came over with his patent as collector in 1679, but though thepatent was acknowledged, he was able to make no arrangements forconducting the business. Orders were sent for the dispatch of agents toLondon with unlimited powers; but Massachusetts would not do it. Parliament would not abet the king in his despotic plans beyond a certainpoint; but he was at length able to dissolve it, and follow what counselshe pleased. His first act was to renew the demand for plenipotentiaryenvoys, or else he would immediately take steps legally to evict and avoidtheir charter. 

Two agents, Dudley and Richards, were finally appointed to go to the kingand make the best terms possible. If he were willing to compound on apecuniary basis, which should spare the charter, let it be done, providedthe colony had the means for it; but, whatever happened, the charterprivileges of the commonwealth were not to be surrendered. The agents hadnot, therefore, unlimited powers; and when Charles discovered this, hedirected them to obtain such powers, or a judicial process would beadopted. This alternative was presented to Massachusetts in the winter of1682, and the question whether or not to yield was made the subject ofgeneral prayer, as well as of discussion. There seemed no possible hope inresistance. Might it not then be wiser to yield? They might thus securemore lenient treatment. If they held out to the bitter end, the penaltywould surely be heavier. The question ultimately came up before thegeneral court for decision. 

It is probable that no other representative body in the world would haveadopted the course taken by that of Massachusetts. Certainly since oldRoman times, we might seek in vain for a verdict which so disregardedexpediency--everything in the shape of what would now be termed "practicalpolitics"--and based itself firmly and unequivocally on the sternestgrounds of conscience and right. It was passed after thorough debate, andwith clear prevision of what the result must be; but the magistrates haddetermined that to suffer murder was better than to commit suicide; andthis is the manner in which they set forth their belief. 

"Ought the government of Massachusetts to submit to the pleasure of thecourt as to alteration of their charter? Submission would be an offenseagainst the majesty of heaven; the religion of the people of New Englandand the court's pleasure cannot consist together. By submissionMassachusetts will gain nothing. The court design an essential alteration, destructive to the vitals of the charter. The corporations in England thathave made an entire resignation have no advantage over those that havestood a suit in law; but, if we maintain a suit, though we should becondemned, we may bring the matter to chancery or to parliament, and intime recover all again. We ought not to act contrary to that way in whichGod hath owned our worthy predecessors, who in 1638, when there was a quowarranto against the charter, durst not submit. In 1664, they did notsubmit to the commissioners. We, their successors, should walk in theirsteps, and so trust in the God of our fathers that we shall see Hissalvation. Submission would gratify our adversaries and grieve ourfriends. Our enemies know it will sound ill in the world for them to takeaway the liberties of a poor people of God in the wilderness. Aresignation will bring slavery upon us sooner than otherwise it would be;and it will grieve our friends in other colonies, whose eyes are now uponNew England, expecting that the people there will not, through fear, givea pernicious example unto others. 

"Blind obedience to the pleasure of the court cannot be without greatsin, and incurring the high displeasure of the King of kings. Submissionwould be contrary unto that which hath been the unanimous advice of theministers, given after a solemn day of prayer. The ministers of God in NewEngland have more of the spirit of John the Baptist in them, than now, when a storm hath overtaken them, to be reeds shaken with the wind. Thepriests were to be the first that set their foot in the waters, and thereto stand till all danger be past. Of all men, they should be an example tothe Lord's people of faith, courage, and constancy. Unquestionably, if theblessed Cotton, Hooker, Davenport, Mather, Shepherd, Mitchell, were nowliving, they would, as is evident from their printed books, say, Do notsin in giving away the inheritance of your fathers. 

"Nor ought we to submit without the consent of the body of the people. But the freemen and church members throughout New England will neverconsent hereunto. Therefore, the government may not do it. 

"The civil liberties of New England are part of the inheritance of theirfathers; and shall we give that inheritance away? Is it objected that weshall be exposed to great sufferings? Better suffer than sin. It is betterto trust the God of our fathers than to put confidence in princes. If wesuffer because we dare not comply with the wills of men against the willof God, we suffer in a good cause, and shall be accounted martyrs in thenext generation, and at the Great Day. "

The promulgation of this paper was the prelude to much calamity in NewEngland for many years; but how well it has justified itself! Such wordsare a living power, surviving the lapse of many generations, and flamingup fresh and vigorous above the decay of centuries. The patriotism whichthey express is of more avail than the victories of armies and of navies, for these may be won in an ill cause; but the dauntless utterances of menwho would rather perish than fail to keep faith with God and with theirforefathers is a victory for mankind, and is everlasting. How poor andvain in comparison with this stern and sincere eloquence seem the suppletime-service and euphemism of vulgar politicians of whose cunning andfruitless spiderwebs the latter years have been so prolific. It is worthwhile to do right from high motives, and to care for no gain that is notgained worthily. The men of Massachusetts who lived a hundred years beforeJefferson were Americans of a type as lofty as any that have lived since;the work that was given them to do was so done that time can take awaynothing from it, nor add anything. The soul of liberty is in it. It iseasy to "believe in" our country now, when it extends from ocean to ocean, and is the home of seventy-five million human beings who lead the world inintelligence, wealth, and the sources of power. But our country twohundred years ago was a strip of sea-coast with Indians on one side andtyrants on the other, inhabited by a handful of exiles, who owned littlebut their faith in God and their love for the freedom of man. No lessermen than they could have believed in their country then; and theyvindicated their belief by resisting to the last the mighty and despoticpower of England. 

On November 30, 1683, the decision was made known: "The deputies consentnot, but adhere to their former bills. " A year afterward the Englishcourt, obstinate in the face of all remonstrances, adjudged the royalcharter of Massachusetts to be forfeited. It had been in existence all buthalf a century. It was no more; but it had done its work. It had madeMassachusetts. The people were there--the men, the women and the children--who would hand on the tradition of faith and honor through the hundredyears of darkness and tribulation till the evil spell was broken by theguns of Bunker Hill. Royal governors might come and go; but the peoplewere growing day by day, and though governors and governments are thingsof an hour, the people are immortal, and the time of their emancipationwill come. By means of the charter, the seed of liberty was sown infavorable soil; it must lie hid awhile; but it would gather in obscurityand seeming death the elements of new and more ample life, and the geniusof endless expansion, Great men and nations come to their strength throughgreat trials, so that they may remember, and not lightly surrender whatwas so hardly won. 

The king's privy council, now that Massachusetts lay naked and helplessbefore them, debated whether she should be ruled by English laws, orwhether the king should appoint governors and councils over her, whoshould have license to work their wills upon her irresponsibly, except inso far as the king's private instructions might direct them. A minority, represented by Lord Halifax, who carried a wise head on young shoulders, advised the former plan; but the majority preferred to flatter Charles'smanifest predilection, and said--not to seem embarrassingly explicit--thatin their opinion the best way to govern a colony on the other side of anocean three thousand miles broad, was to govern it--as the king thoughtbest!

So now, after so prolonged and annoying a delay, the royal libertine hadhis Puritan victim gagged and bound, and could proceed to enjoy her at hisleisure. But it so fell out that the judgment against the charter wasreceived in Boston on the second of July, 1685, whereas Charles II. Diedin London on February 6th of the same year; so that he did not get hisreward after all: not, at least, the kind of reward he was looking for. But, so far as Massachusetts was concerned, it made little difference;since James II. Was as much the foe of liberty as was his predecessor, andhad none of his animal amiability. The last act of the Massachusettsassembly under the old order was the appointing of a day of fasting andprayer, to beseech the Lord to have mercy upon his people. 

The reign of James II. Was a black season for the northern Americancolonies; we can say no better of it than that it did not equal the bloodyhorrors which were perpetrated in Scotland between 1680 and 1687. Massacres did not take place in Massachusetts; but otherwise, tyranny didits perfect work. The most conspicuous and infamous figures of the timeare Sir Edmund Andros and Edward Randolph. 

Andros, born in 1637, was thirty-seven years of age when he came to thecolonies as governor of New York on behalf of the Duke of York. He was alawyer, and a man of energy and ability; and his career was on the wholesuccessful, from the point of view of his employers and himself; histenure of office in New York was eight years; he was governor of NewEngland from 1686 to 1689, when he was seized and thrown in jail by thepeople, on the outbreak of the Revolution in England; and he afterwardgoverned Virginia for seven years (1692-1698), which finished his colonialcareer. But from 1704 to 1706 the island of Jersey, in the EnglishChannel, was intrusted to his rule; and he died in London, where he wasborn, in 1714, being then seventy-seven years old, not one day of whichlong life, so far as records inform us, was marked by any act or thoughton his part which was reconcilable with generosity, humanity or honor. Hewas a tyrant and the instrument of tyranny, hating human freedom for itsown sake, greedy to handle unrighteous spoils, mocking the sufferings hewrought, triumphing in the injustice he perpetrated; foul in his privatelife as he was wicked in his public career. A far more intelligent manthan Berkeley, of Virginia, he can, therefore, plead less excuse than hefor the evil and misery of which he was the immediate cause. But noearthly punishment overtook him; for kings find such men useful, and Godgives power to kings in this world, that mankind may learn the evil whichis in itself, and gain courage and nobility at last to cast it out, andtrample it under foot. 

James II. Was that most dangerous kind of despot--a stupid, cold man;even his libertinism, as it was without shame, so was it without passion. In his public acts he plodded sluggishly from detail to detail, with eyesturned downward, never comprehending the larger scope and relations ofthings. He was incapable of perceiving the vileness, cruelty, or folly ofwhat he did; the almost incredible murders in Scotland never for a momentdisturbed his clammy self-complacency. Perhaps no baser or more squalidsoul ever wore a crown; yet no doubt ever crept into his mind that he wasGod's chosen and anointed. His pale eyes, staring dully from his paleface, saw in the royal prerogative the only visible witness of God's willin the domain of England; the atmosphere of him was corruption and death. But from 1685 to 1688 this man was absolute master of England and hercolonies; and the disease which he bred in English vitals was hardly curedeven by the sharp medicine of the Boyne. 

By the time Andros came to New England, he had learned his business. Theyear after his appointment to New York, he attempted to assert hissovereignty up to the Connecticut River; but he was opposed by deputygovernor Leet, a chip of the old roundhead block, who disowned the patentof Andros and practically kicked him out of the colony. Connecticut paidfor her temerity when the owner of Andros became king. In the meanwhile hereturned to New York, where he was not wanted, but was tolerated; thesettlers there were a comfortable people, and prosperous in the homely andsimple style natural to them: they demanded civil rights in good, clearterms, and cannot be said to have been unduly oppressed at this time. NewYork for awhile included the Delaware settlements, and Andros claimed botheast and west Jersey. The claim was contested by Carteret and by theQuakers. When the Jersey commerce began to be valuable, Andros demandedtribute from the ships, and shook the Duke's patent in the people's faces. They replied, rather feebly, with talk of Magna Charta. In 1682, thewestern part came by purchase into Quaker ownership, and, three yearsafterward, the eastern part followed by patent from the Duke. To trace thevicissitudes of this region to their end, it was surrendered to England in1702, and united to New York; and in 1788, in compliance with the desireof the inhabitants, it became its own master. The settlers were ofcomposite stock: Quakers, Puritans, and others; and at the time of theScotch persecutions, large numbers of fugitive Covenanters establishedthemselves on the eastern slopes. The principle on which land wasdistributed, in comparatively small parcels, made the Jerseys a favoritecolony for honest and industrious persons of small means; and, upon thewhole, life went well and pleasantly with them. 

At the time of the return of Andros to England, in 1682, the assemblydecreed free trade, and Dongan, the new Roman Catholic governor, permittedthem to enact a liberal charter. In the midst of the happiness consequentupon this, the Duke became king and lost no time in breaking everycontract that he had, in his unanointed state, entered into. Taxesarbitrarily levied, titles vacated in order to obtain renewal fees, andall the familiar machinery of official robbery were put in operation. ButDongan, a kindly Kildare Irishman--he was afterward Earl of Limerick--would not make oppression bitter; and the New Yorkers were not sopunctilious about abstract principles as were the New England men. Favorable treaties were made with the Indians; and the despot's heel wasnot shod with iron, nor was it stamped down too hard. The Dongan charter, as it was called, remained in the colony's possession for over fortyyears. The rule of Dongan himself continued till 1688. 

Andros, after an absence from the colonies of five years, during whichtime a native but unworthy New Englander, Joseph Dudley, had acted aspresident, came back to his prey with freshened appetite in 1686. He wasroyal governor of all New England. Randolph, an active subordinate underDudley, had already destroyed the freedom of the press. Andros's power waspractically absolute; he was to sustain his authority by force, elect hisown creatures to office, make such laws as pleased him, and introduceepiscopacy. He forbade any one to leave the colony without leave fromhimself; he seized a meeting house and made it into an Episcopal church, in spite of the protests of the Puritans, and the bell was rung forhigh-church service in spite of the recalcitrant Needham. Duties wereincreased; a tax of a penny in the pound and a poll tax of twenty pencewere levied; and those who refused payment were told that they had noprivilege, except "not to be sold as slaves. " Magna Charta was noprotection against the abolition of the right of Habeas Corpus: "Do notthink the laws of England follow you to the ends of the earth!" Jurieswere packed, and Dudley, to avoid all mistakes, told them what verdicts torender. Randolph issued new grants for properties, and extorted grievousfees, declaring all deeds under the charter void, and those from Indians, or "from Adam, " worthless. West, the secretary, increased probate dutiestwenty-fold. When Danforth complained that the condition of the colonistswas little short of slavery, and Increase Mather added that no man couldcall anything his own, they got for answer that "it is not for hismajesty's interest that you should thrive. " In the history ofMassachusetts, there is no darker day than this. 

The great New England romancer, writing of this period a hundred andseventy years later, draws a vivid and memorable picture of the people andtheir oppressors. "The roll of the drum, " he says, "had been approachingthrough Cornhill, louder and deeper, till with reverberations from houseto house, and the regular tramp of martial footsteps, it burst into thestreet. A double rank of soldiers made their appearance, occupying thewhole breadth of the passage, with shouldered matchlocks, and matchesburning, so as to present a row of fires in the dusk. Their steady marchwas like the progress of a machine, that would roll irresistibly overeverything in its way. Next, moving slowly, with a confused clatter ofhoofs on the pavement, rode a party of mounted gentlemen, the centralfigure being Sir Edmund Andros, elderly, but erect and soldier-like. Thosearound him were his favorite councilors, and the bitterest foes of NewEngland. At his right rode Edward Randolph, our arch-enemy, that 'blastedwretch, ' as Mather calls him, who achieved the downfall of our ancientgovernment, and was followed with a sensible curse, through life and tohis grave. On the other side was Bullivant, scattering jests and mockeryas he rode along. Dudley came behind, with a downcast look, dreading, aswell he might, to meet the indignant gaze of the people, who beheld him, their only countryman by birth, among the oppressors of his native land. The captain of a frigate in the harbor, and two or three civil officersunder the Crown, were also there. But the figure that most attracted thepublic eye, and stirred up the deepest feeling, was the Episcopalclergyman of King's Chapel, riding haughtily among the magistrates in hispriestly vestments, the fitting representative of prelacy and persecution, the union of church and state, and all those abominations which had driventhe Puritans to the wilderness. Another guard of soldiers, in double rank, brought up the rear. The whole scene was a picture of the condition of NewEngland, and its moral, the deformity of any government that does not growout of the nature of things and the character of the people. On one sidethe religious multitude, with their sad visages and dark attire, and, onthe other, the group of despotic rulers, with the high churchman in themidst, and here and there a crucifix at their bosoms, all magnificentlyclad, flushed with wine, proud of unjust authority, and scoffing at theuniversal groan. And the mercenary soldiers, waiting but the word todeluge the street with blood, showed the only means by which obediencecould be secured. "

Education was temporarily paralyzed, and the right of franchise wasrendered nugatory by the order that oaths must be taken with the hand onthe Bible--a "popish" ceremony which the Puritans would not undergo. Thetown meetings, which were the essence of New Englandism, were forbiddenexcept for the election of local officers, and ballot voting was stopped:"There is no such thing as a town in the whole country, " Andros declared. Verily, it was "a time when New England groaned under the actual pressureof heavier wrongs than those threatened ones which brought on theRevolution. " Yet the spirit of the people was not crushed; their leadersdid not desert them; in private meetings they kept their faith and hopealive; the ministers told them that "God would yet be exalted among theheathen"; and one at least among them, Willard, significantly bade themtake note that they "had not yet resisted unto blood, warring against sin!"

Boston was Andros's headquarters, and in 1688 was made the capital of thewhole region along the coast from the French possessions in the north toMaryland in the south. But Andros had not yet received the submission ofRhode Island and Connecticut. Walter Clarke was the governor of the formercolony in 1687, when, in the dead of winter, Andros appeared there andordered the charter to be given up. Roger Williams had died three yearsbefore. Clarke tried to temporize, and asked that the surrender bepostponed till a fitter season. But Andros dissolved the governmentsummarily, and broke its seal; and it is not on record that the RhodeIslanders offered any visible resistance to the outrage. From Rhode IslandAndros, with his retinue and soldiers, proceeded to Hartford, which hadlost its Winthrop longer ago than the former its Williams. Governor Donganof New York had warned Connecticut of what was to come, and had counseledthem to submit. Three writs of quo warranto were issued, one upon another, and the colony finally petitioned the king to be permitted to retain itsliberties; but in any case to be merged rather in Massachusetts than inNew York. It was on the last day of October, 1687; Andros entered theassembly hall, where the assembly was then in session, with Governor Treatpresiding. The scene which followed has entered into the domain of legend;but there is nothing miraculous in it; a deed which depended for itssuccess upon the secrecy with which it was accomplished would naturally belacking in documentary confirmation. Upon Andros's entrance, hungry forthe charter, Treat opposed him, and entered upon a defense of the right ofthe colony to retain the ancient and honorable document, hallowed as itwas by associations which endeared it to its possessors, aside from itspolitical value. Andros, of course, would not yield; the only thing thatsuch men ever yield to is superior force; but force being on his side, heentertained no thought of departing from his purpose. The dispute wasmaintained until so late in the afternoon that candles must be lighted;some were fixed in sconces round the walls, and there were others on thetable, where also lay the charter, with its engrossed text, and its broadseal. The assemblymen, as the debate seemed to approach its climax, lefttheir seats and crowded round the table, where stood on one side the royalgovernor, in his scarlet coat laced with gold, his heavy butsharp-featured countenance flushed with irritation, one hand on the hiltof his sword, the other stretched out toward the coveted document:--on theother, the governor chosen by the people, in plain black, with a plainwhite collar turned down over his doublet, his eyes dark with emotion, hisvoice vibrating hoarsely as he pleaded with the licensed highwayman ofEngland. Around, is the ring of strong visages, rustic but brainy, frowning, agitated, eager, angry; and the flame of the candles flickeringin their heavily-drawn breath. 

Suddenly and simultaneously, by a preconcerted signal, the lights areout, and the black darkness has swallowed up the scene. In the momentarysilence of astonishment, Andros feels himself violently shoved aside; thehand with which he would draw his sword is in an iron grasp, as heavy asthat which he has laid upon colonial freedom. There is a surging of unseenmen about him, the shuffling of feet, vague outcries: he knows not what isto come: death, perhaps. Is Sir Edmund afraid? We have no information asto the physical courage of the man, further than that in 1675 he had beenfrightened into submission by the farmers and fishermen at Fort Saybrook. But he need not have been a coward to feel the blood rush to his heartduring those few blind moments. Men of such lives as his are always readyto suspect assassination. 

But assassination is not an American method of righting wrong. Anon thesteel had struck the flint, and the spark had caught the tinder, and oneafter another the candles were alight once more. All stared at oneanother: what had happened? Andros, his face mottled with pallor, waspulling himself together, and striving to resume the arrogant insolence ofhis customary bearing. He opens his mouth to speak, but only a huskymurmur replaces the harsh stridency of his usual utterance. "What devilishfoolery is this--" But ere he can get further, some bucolic statesmanbrings his massive palm down on the table with a bang that makes the oakenplank crack, and thunders out--"The charter! Where's our charter?"

Where, indeed? That is one of those historic secrets which will probablynever be decided one way or the other. "There is no contemporary record ofthis event. " No: but, somehow or other, one hears of Yankee Captain JoeWadsworth, with the imaginative audacity and promptness of resource of hisrace, snatching the parchment from the table in the midst of the gropingpanic, and slipping out through the crowd: he has passed the door and isinhaling with grateful lungs the fresh coolness of the cloudy Octobernight. Has any one seen him go? Did any one know what he did?--None whowill reveal it. He is astride his mare, and they are off toward the oldfarm, where his boyhood was spent, and where stands the great hollow oakwhich, thirty years ago, Captain Joe used to canvass for woodpeckers'nests and squirrel hordes. He had thought, in those boyish days, what agood hiding-place the old tree would make; and the thought had flashedback into his mind while he listened to that fight for the charter to-day. It did not take him long to lay his plot, and to agree with his fewfellow-conspirators. Sir Edmund can snatch the government, and scrawlFinis at the foot of the Connecticut records; but that charter he shallnever have, nor shall any man again behold it, until years have passedaway, and Andros has vanished forever from New England. 

Meanwhile, he returned to Boston, there, for a season, to make "thewicked walk on every side, and the vilest to be exalted. " Then came thatfamous April day of 1689; and, following, event after event, one stormingupon another's heels, as the people rose from their long bondage, andhurled their oppressors down. The bearer of the news that William ofOrange had landed in England, was imprisoned, but it was too late. Androsordered his soldiers under arms; but the commander of the frigate had beentaken prisoner by the Boston ship-carpenters; the sheriff was arrested;hundreds of determined men surrounded the regimental headquarters; themajor resisted in vain; the colors and drums were theirs; a vast throng atthe town house greeted the venerable Bradstreet; the insurrection wasproclaimed, and Andros and his wretched followers, flying to the frigate, were seized and cast into prison. "Down with Andros and Randolph!" was thecry; and "The old charter once more!" It was a hundred years to a daybefore that shot fired at Concord and heard round the world. 

CHAPTER NINTH

THE NEW LEAF, AND THE BLOT ON IT

Popular liberty is one thing; political independence is another. Thelatter cannot be securely and lastingly established until the former hasfitted the nation to use it intelligently. When the component individualshave thrown off the bondage of superstition and of formulas, their nextstep must be, as an organization, to abrogate external subordination toothers, and, like a son come of age, to begin life on a basis and with anaim of their own. 

But such movements are organic, and chronologically slow; so that we donot comprehend them until historical perspective shows them to us in theirmass and tendency. They are thus protected against their enemies, who, ifthey knew the significance of the helpless seed, would destroy it beforeit could become the invincible and abounding tree. Great human revolutionsmake themselves felt, at first, as a trifling and unreasonable annoyance:a crumpling in the roseleaf bed of the orthodox and usual. They arebrushed petulantly aside and the sleeper composes himself to rest oncemore. But inasmuch as there was vital truth as the predisposing cause ofthe annoyance it cannot thus be disposed of; it spreads and multiplies. Had its opponents understood its meaning, they would have humored it intoinoffensiveness; but the means they adopt to extirpate it are the sure wayto develop it. Truth can no more be smothered by intolerance, than a sownfield can be rendered unproductive by covering it with manure. 

When Christ came, the common people had no recognized existence except asa common basis on which aristocratic institutions might rest. That theycould have rights was as little conceived as that inanimate sticks andstones could have them; to enfranchise them--to surrender to them thereins of government--such an idea the veriest madness would have startedfrom. Philosophy was blind to it; religion was abhorrent to it; the commonpeople themselves were as far from entertaining it as cattle in the fieldsare to-day. Christ's sayings--Love one another--Do as ye would be done by--struck at the root of all arbitrary power, and furnished the clew to allpossible emancipations; but their infinite meaning has even yet beengrasped but partially. A thousand years are but as yesterday in thecounsels of the Lord. The early Christians were indeed a democracy; butthey were common people to begin with, and the law of love suggested tothem no thought of altering their condition in that respect. The onlyliberty they dreamed of claiming was liberty to die for their faith; andthat was accorded to them in full measure. Indeed, an apprenticeship, theyears of which were centuries, must be served before they could bequalified to realize even that they could become the trustees of power. 

Their simple priesthood, beginning by sheltering them from physicalviolence, ended by subjecting them to a yet more enslaving spiritualtyranny. Philosophers could frame imaginative theories of human liberty;but the people could be helped only from within themselves. Wiclif, givingthem the Bible in a living language, and intimating that force was notnecessarily right, began their education; and Luther, in his dogma ofjustification by faith alone, forged a tremendous weapon in their behalf. Beggars could have faith; princes and prelates might lack it; of whatavail was it to gain the whole world if the soul must be lost at last? Thereasonings and discussions to which his dogma gave rise called intoexistence two world-covering armies to fight for and against it. Peace hasnot been declared between them yet; but there has long ceased to be anyquestion as to who shall have the victory. 

When the battle began, however, the other side had the strongerbattalions, and there would have been little chance for liberty, but forthe timely revelation of the western continent. And, inevitably, it wasthe people who went, and the aristocrats who stayed behind; because thenew idea favored the former and menaced the latter. Inevitably, too, itwas the man who had the future in him that was the exile, and the man ofthe past who drove him forth. And whenever we find a man of thearistocratic order emigrating to the colonies, we find in him the samelove of liberty which animates his plebeian companion, graced by a motiveeven higher, because opposed to his inherited interests and advantages. Thus the refuge of the oppressed became by the nature of things thecitadel of the purest and soundest civilization. 

Luther, Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards were in the line of succession onefrom the other; each defined the truth more nearly than his predecessor, but left it still in the rough. The whole truth is never revealed at onetime, but so much only as may forge a sword for the immediate combat. Faith alone was a good blade for the first downright strokes of thebattle; predestination had a finer edge; and Edwards's dialecticalsubtleties on the freedom of the will sharpen logic to so fine a pointthat we begin to perceive that not logic but love is the true weapon ofthe Christian: the mystery of God is not revealed in syllogisms. But eachfresh discrimination was useful in its place and time, and had to exist inorder to prepare the way for its successor. The Puritans would have beenless stubborn without their background of spiritual damnation. That awfulconscience of theirs would have faltered without its lake of fire andbrimstone to keep out of; and if it had faltered, the American nationwould have been strangled in its cradle. 

America, then, having no permanent attractions as a residence for any ofthe upper classes of European society, became the home of the commonpeople, in whom alone the doctrine of liberty could find a safe anchorage, because in them alone did the need for it abide. The philosophy, thereligion, the tolerance, the civil forms, which are broad enough to suitthe common people, must be nearly as broad as truth itself, and thereforeas unconquerable. But the broader they appear, the more must they beoffensive to the orthodox and conventional, who by the instinct ofself-preservation will be impelled to attack them. There was never a moreobvious chain of cause and effect than that which is revealed in thehistory of the United States; and having shown the conditions which led tothe planting in the wilderness of the elements which constitute ourpresent commonwealth, we shall now proceed to trace the manner in whichthey came to be wrought into a united whole. They were as yet mainlyunconscious of one another; the opportunity for mutual knowledge had notyet been presented, nor had the causes conducive to crystallization beenintroduced. Oppression had awakened the colonists to the value of theirreligious and civic principles; something more than oppression wasrequisite to mold them into independent and homogeneous form. This wasafforded, during the next eighty years, by their increase in numbers, wealth, familiarity with their country, and in the facilities forintercommunication; and also, coincidently, by the French and Indian wars, which apprised them of their strength, trained them in arms, created thecomradeship which arises from common dangers and aims, and developed vasttracts of land which had otherwise been unknown. A country which has beenfought for, on whose soil blood has been shed, becomes dear to itsinhabitants; and the heroism of the Revolution gathered heart andperseverance from the traditions and the graves of the soldiers of theIntercolonial wars. 

The English Revolution benefited the colonies, though to a less extentthan might have been expected. William of Orange was the logicalconsequence, by reaction, of James II. The latter had so corrupted andconfused the kingdom, that William, whose connection with England arosefrom his marriage with Mary, James's daughter, was invited to usurp thethrone by Tories, Whigs and Presbyterians--each party from a motive of itsown. The people were not appealed to, but they acquiesced. The RomanCatholics were discriminated against, and the nonconformists were notrequited for their services; but out of many minor injustices and wrongs, a condition better than anything which had preceded it was soondiscernible. The principle was established that royal power was notabsolute, nor self-continuing; it could be created only by therepresentatives of the people, who could take it away again if its trusteewere guilty of breach of contract. The dynastic theory was disallowed;kings were to come by election, not succession. The nobility wererecognized as the medium between the king and the people, but not beforethey had conceded to the commons the right to elect a king for life; andpresently there came into existence a new power--that of the commercialclasses, the moneyed interest, which, in return for loans to government, received political consideration. Ownership of land ceased to be the solecondition on which a candidate could appeal to the electors; and merchantswere raised to a position where they could control national policies. Merchants might not be wiser or less selfish than the aristocracy; but atall events they were of the people, and the more widely power is diffused, the less likely is any class to be oppressed. It was no longer possiblefor freemen to be ruled otherwise than by governments of their own making, and subject to their approval. Freedom of the press, which means libertyto criticise all state and social procedure, was established, and publicopinion, instead of being crushed, was consulted. The aristocracy couldretain its ascendency only by permitting more weight to the middle class, whose influence was therefore bound gradually to increase. Popularlegislatures were the final arbiters; and the advantages which the Englishhad obtained would naturally be imparted to the colonies, which, inaddition, were unhampered by the relics of decaying systems which stillimpeded the old country. 

[Illustration: Arresting a Woman Charged with Witchcraft]

William cared little for England, nor were the English in love with him;but he was the most far-seeing statesman of his day, and his effect wasliberalizing and beneficial. He kept Louis XIV. From working the mischiefthat he desired, and prevented the disturbance of political equilibriumwhich was threatened by the proposed successor to the extinct Hapsburgdynasty on the Spanish throne. William was outwardly cold and dry, butthere was fire within him, if you would apply friction enough. He wasunder no illusions; he perfectly understood why he was wanted in England;and for his part, he accepted the throne in order to be able to checkLouis in his designs upon the liberties of Holland. In defending hiscountrymen he defended all others in Europe, whose freedom was endangered. 

But if William's designs were large, they were also, and partly for thatreason, unjust in particulars. He was at war with France; France heldpossessions in America; and it was necessary to carry on war against herthere as well as in Europe. The colonists, then, should be made to assistin the operations; they must furnish men, forts, and, to some extent atleast, supplies. It was easy to reach this determination, but difficult toenforce it under the circumstances. The various colonies lacked thehomogeneity which was desirable to secure co-operative action from them;some of them were royal provinces, some proprietary, some were in ananomalous state, or practically without any recognizable form ofgovernment whatever. Each had its separate interests to regard, and couldnot be brought to perceive that what was the concern of one must in theend be the concern of all. But the greatest difficulty was to secureobedience of orders after they had been promulgated; the coloniallegislatures pleaded all manner of rights and privileges, under MagnaCharta and other charters; they claimed the privileges of Englishmen, andthey stood upon their "natural" rights as discoverers and inhabitants of anew country. They were spread over a vast extent of territory, so that inmany cases a journey of weeks would be required, through pathless forests, across unbridged rivers, over difficult mountains, by swamps and morasses--in order to carry information of the commands of the government to nomore than a score or a hundred of persons. And then these persons wouldlook around at the miles of unconquerable nature stretching out on everyside; and they would reflect upon the thousands of leagues of salt waterthat parted them from the king who was the source of these unwelcomeorders; and, finally, they would glance at the travel-stained and wearyenvoy with a pitying smile, and offer him food and drink and a bed--butnot obedience. The colonists had imagination, when they cared to exerciseit; but not imagination of the kind to bring vividly home to them thewaving of a royal scepter across the broad Atlantic. 

Another cause of embarrassment to the king was the reluctance ofParliament to pass laws inhibiting the reasonable liberties of thecolonies. The influence of the Lords somewhat preponderated, because theycontrolled many of the elections to the Commons; but neither branch wasdisposed to increase the power of the king, and they were, besides, splitby internal factions. It was not until the mercantile interest got intothe saddle that Parliament saw the expediency of restricting theproductive and commercial freedom of the colonies, and the necessity, inorder to secure these ends, of diminishing their legislative license. Meanwhile, William tried more than one device of his own. First, by dintof the prerogative, he ordered that each colony north of Carolina shouldappoint a fixed quota of men and money for the defense of New York againstthe common enemy; this order it was found impossible to carry out. Next, he caused a board of trade to be appointed in 1696 to inquire into thecondition of the colonies, and as to what should be done about them; andafter a year, this board reported that in their opinion what was wantedwas a captain-general to exercise a sort of military dictatorship over allthe North American provinces. But the ministry held this plan to beimprudent, and it fell through. At the same time, William Penn worked outa scheme truly statesmanlike, proposing an annual congress of twodelegates from each province to devise ways and means, which they couldmore intelligently do than could any council or board in England. The planwas advocated by Charles Davenant, a writer on political economy, whoobserved that the stronger the colonies became, the more profitable toEngland would they be; only despotism could drive them to rebellion; andinnovations in their charters would be prejudicial to the king's power. But this also was rejected; and finally the conduct of necessary measureswas given to "royal instructions, " that is, to the king; but to the kingsubject to the usual parliamentary restraint. And none of the better classof Englishmen wished to tyrannize over their fellow Englishmen across thesea. 

Under this arrangement, the appointment of judges was taken from thepeople; Habeas Corpus was refused, or permitted as a favor; censorship ofthe press was revived; license to preach except as granted by a bishop wasdenied; charters were withheld from dissenters; slavery was encouraged;and the colonies not as yet under royal control were told that the commonweal demanded that they should be placed in the same condition ofdependency as those who were. But William died in 1702, before thisarrangement could be carried out. Queen Anne, however, listened toalarmist reports of the unruly and disaffected condition of the colonies, and allowed a bill for their "better regulation" to be introduced. It wasnow that the mercantile interest began to show its power. 

The old argument, that every nation may claim the services of its ownsubjects, wherever they are, was revived; and that England ought to be thesole buyer and seller of American trade. All the oppressive and irritatingcommercial regulations were put in force, and all colonial laws opposingthem were abrogated. Complaints under these regulations were taken out ofthe hands of colonial judges and juries, on the plea that they were oftenthe offenders. Woolen manufactures, as interfering with English industry, were so rigorously forbidden, that a sailor in an American port could notbuy himself a flannel shirt, and the Virginians were put to it to clothethemselves at all. Naturally, the people resisted so far as they could, and that was not a little; England could not spare a sufficient force toinsure obedience to laws of such a kind. "We have a right to the sameliberties as Englishmen, " was the burden of all remonstrances, and it wassupported by councilors on the bench and ministers in the pulpit. Therevenues were so small as hardly to repay the cost of management. It ishard to coerce a nation and get a profit over expenses; and the colonieswere a nation--they numbered nearly three hundred thousand in Anne's reign--without the advantage of being coherent; they were a baker's dozen ofdisputatious and recalcitrant incoherencies. The only arbitrary measure oftaxation that was amiably accepted was the post-office tax, which was seento be productive of a useful service at a reasonable cost; and an act tosecure suitable trees for masts for the navy was tolerated because therewere so many trees. The coinage system was no system at all, and led tomuch confusion and loss; and the severe laws against piracy, which hadgrown to be common, and in the profits of which persons high in thecommunity were often suspected and sometimes proved to have beenparticipants, were less effective than they certainly ought to have been;but they, and the bloody and desperate objects of them, added apicturesque page to the annals of the time. 

Concerning the condition of the several colonies during the yearsfollowing the Revolution of 1688, it may be said, in general, that it wasmuch better in fact than it was in theory. There were narrow and unjustand short-sighted laws and regulations, and there were men of acorresponding stamp to execute them; but the success such persons met withwas sporadic, uncertain, and partial. The people were grown too big, andtoo well aware of their bigness, to be ground down and kept in subjection, even had the will so to afflict them been steady and virulent--which itcannot be said to have been. The people knew that, be the law what itmight, it could, on the whole, be evaded or disregarded, unless or untilthe mother country undertook to enforce it by landing an army andregularly making war; and England had too many troubles of her own, andalso contained too many liberal-minded men, to attempt such a thing forthe present. The proof that the colonies were not seriously orconsistently oppressed is evident from the fact that they all increasedrapidly in population and wealth, notwithstanding their "troubles"; and itwas not until England had settled down under her Georges, and thatProvidence had inspired the third of that name with the pig-headednessthat cost his adopted subjects so dear, that the Revolution became apossibility. Yet even now there was no lack of talk of such aneventuality; the remark was common that in process of time the colonieswould declare their independence. But perhaps it was made rather withintent to spur England to adopt preventative measures in season, than froma real conviction that the event would actually take place. 

New York, at the time of William's accession, had been under the controlof Andros, who at that epoch commanded a domain two or three times aslarge as Britain. Nicholson was his lieutenant; and on the news of theRevolution Jacob Leisler, a German, who had come over in 1660 as a soldierof the Dutch West India Company, and had made a fortune, unseatedNicholson and proclaimed William and Mary. Supported by the mass of theDutch inhabitants, but without other warrant, he assumed the functions ofroyal lieutenant-governor, pending the arrival of the new king'sappointee. In the interests of order, it was the best thing to do. But hemade active enemies among the other elements of the cosmopolitanpopulation of New York, and they awaited an opportunity to be avenged onhim. This came with the arrival of Henry Sloughter in 1691, with theking's commission. Sloughter can only be described as a drunkenprofligate. At the earliest moment, Leisler sent to know his commands, andoffered to surrender the fort. Sloughter answered by arresting him andMilborne, his son-in-law, on the charge of high treason--an absurdity; butthey were arraigned before a partisan court and condemned to be hanged--they refusing to plead and appealing to the king. It is said thatSloughter did not intend to carry the sentence into effect; but the localenemies of Leisler made the governor drunk that night, and secured hissignature to the decree. This was on May 14, 1691; on the 15th, the housedisapproved the sentence, but on the 16th it was carried out, the victimsmeeting their fate with dignity and courage. In 1695, the attainder wasreversed by act of parliament; but it remains the most disgraceful episodeof William's government of the colonies. 

Meanwhile, Sloughter was recalled, and Fletcher sent out. He was not asodden imbecile, but he was ill-chosen for his office. He described theNew Yorkers of that day as "divided, contentious and impoverished" andimmediately began a conflict with them. His attitude may be judged from apassage in his remarks to the assembly soon afterward: "There never was anamendment desired by the council board but what was rejected. It is a signof a stubborn ill-temper. .. . While I stay in this government I will takecare that neither heresy, schism, nor rebellion be preached among you, norvice and profanity be encouraged. You seem to take the power into your ownhands and set up for everything. " This last observation was probably notdevoid of truth; nor was a subsequent one, "There are none of you but whatare big with the privileges of Englishmen and Magna Charta. " That welldescribes the colonist of the period, whether in New York or elsewhere. Ithad been said of New Yorkers, however, that they were a conquered people, who had no rights that a king was bound to respect; and the grain of truthin the saying may have made the New Yorkers more than commonly anxious tokeep out the small end of the wedge. Bellomont's incumbency was mild, andchiefly memorable by reason of his having commissioned a certain WilliamKidd to suppress piracy; but Kidd--if tradition is to be believed:--certainly his most unfair and prejudiced trial in London afforded noevidence of it--found more pleasure in the observance than in the breach, and became the most famous pirate of them all. There is gold enough of hisgetting buried along the coasts to buy a modern ironclad fleet, accordingto the belief of the credulous. A little later, Steed Bonnet, RichardWorley, and Edward Teach, nicknamed Blackbeard, had similar fame and fate. Their business, like others of great profit, incurred great risks. 

Of Lord Cornbury, the next governor, Bancroft remarks, with unwontedenergy, that "He joined the worst form of arrogance to intellectualimbecility, " and that "happily for New York, he had every vice ofcharacter necessary to discipline a colony into self-reliance andresistance. " He began by stealing $1, 500 appropriated to fortify theNarrows; it was the last money he got from the various assemblies that hecalled and dissolved, and the assemblies became steadily more independentand embarrassing. In 1707, the Quaker speaker read out in meeting a paperaccusing him of bribe taking. Cornbury disappears from American historythe next year; and completed his career, in England, as the third Earl ofClarendon. 

Under Lovelace, the assembly refused supplies and assumed executivepowers; when Hunter came, he found a fertile and wealthy country, butnothing in it for him: "Sancho Panza was but a type of me. " He was a manof humor and sagacity, and perceived that "the colonists are infants attheir mother's breasts, but will wean themselves when they come of age. "Before he got through with the New Yorkers, he had reason to suspect thatthe weaning time had all but arrived. 

New Jersey passed through many trivial vicissitudes, changes ofownership, vexed land-titles, and royal encroachments. For several yearsthe people had no visible government at all. They did not hold themselvesso well in hand as did New York, and were less audacious and aggressive inresistance; but in one way or another, they fairly held their own, prospered and multiplied. Pennsylvania enjoyed from the first moreundisturbed independence and self-direction than the others; at one timeit seemed to be their ambition to discover something which Penn would notgrant them, and then to ask for it. But the great Quaker was equal to theoccasion; no selfishness, crankiness, or whimsicality on their part couldwear out his patience and benevolence. In the intervals of hisimprisonments in England he labored for their welfare. The queencontemplated making Pennsylvania a royal province, but Penn, though poor, would not let it go except on condition it might retain its democraticliberties. The people, in short, kept everything in their own hands, andtheir difficulties arose chiefly from their disputes as to what to do withso much freedom. It was a colony where everybody was equal, without anestablished church, where any one was welcome to enter and dwell, whichwas destitute of arms or defense or even police, which yet grew in allgood things more rapidly than any of its sister colonies. The people waxedfat and kicked, but they did no evil in the sight of the Lord, whateverEngland may have thought of them; and after the contentious littleappendage of Delaware had finally been cut off from its big foster sister(though they shared the same governors until the Revolution) there islittle more to be said of either of them. 

The Roman Catholic owners of Maryland fared ill after William came intopower; he made the colony a royal province in 1691, and for thirty yearsor more there were no more Baltimores in the government. Under Copley, thefirst royal governor, the Church of England was declared to beestablished; but dissenters were afterward protected; only the Catholicswere treated with intolerance in the garden themselves had made. Thepeople soon settled down and became contented, and slowly their numbersaugmented. But the Baltimores were persistent, and the fourth lord, in1715, took advantage of his infancy to compass a blameless reconciliationwith the Church of England, thereby securing his installation in theproprietary rights of his forefathers, from which the family was notevicted until the Revolution of the colonies in 1775 opened a new chapterin the history of the world. 

Virginia recovered rapidly from Berkeley, and suffered little fromAndros, who was governor in 1692, but with his fangs drawn, and anexperience to remember. The people still eschewed towns, and lived eachfamily in its own solitude, hospitable to all, but content with their owncompany. The love of independence grew alike in the descendants of thecavaliers and in the common people, and the wide application of thesuffrage equalized power, and even enabled the lower sort to keep thegentry, when the fancy took them, out of the places of authority andtrust. Democracy was in the woods and streams and the blue sky, and allbreathed it in and absorbed it into their blood and bone. They earlypetitioned William for home rule in all its purity; he permitted landgrants to be confirmed, but would not let their assembly supplant theEnglish parliament as a governing power. He sought, unsuccessfully, toincrease the authority of the church; for though the bishop might licenseand the governor recommend, the parish would not present. It was aleisurely, good-natured, careless, but spirited people, indifferent tocommerce, content to harvest their fields and rule their slaves, and letthe world go by. A more enviable existence than theirs it would be hard toimagine. All their financial transactions were done in tobacco, even tothe clergyman's stipend and the judge's fee. No enemy menaced them;politics were rather an amusement than a serious duty; yet in thesefertile regions were made the brains and characters which afterward, forso many years, ruled the councils of the United States, or led her armiesin war. They lay fallow for seventy-five years, and then gave the best ofaccounts of themselves. England did not quite know what to make of theVirginians; to judge by the reports of the governors, they were changeableas a pretty woman. But they were simply capricious humorists, full of lifeand intelligence, who did what they pleased and did not take themselvestoo seriously. They indulged themselves with the novel toy, thepost-office; and founded William and Mary College in 1693. This venerableinstitution passed its second centennial with one hundred and sixtystudents on its roll; but, soon after, it "ceased upon the midnight, without pain. " Anybody may have a college in these days. 

The Carolinas, no longer pestered by Grand Models, became another rusticparadise. Their suns were warm, their forests vast, their peopledelighting in a sort of wild civilization. When James II. Went down, theCarolinians needed no care-taker, and declined to avail themselves of themartial law suggested by the anxious proprietors. But in 1690 they allowedSeth Sothel to occupy the gubernatorial seat, and sent up a legislature. The southern section was subjected to some superficial annoyance by theproprietors, who wished to make an income from the country, but wereunwilling to put their hands in their pockets in the first place; theyinsisted upon their authority, and the colonists did not say them nay, butmaintained freedom of action in all their concerns nevertheless. A seriesof proprietary governors were sent out to them--Ludwell first, then Smith;both failed, and retired. Then came Archdale, the Quaker, who struck apopular note in his remark that dissenters could cut wood and hoe crops aswell as the highest churchmen; his policy was to concede, to conciliateand to harmonize, and he was welcome and useful. The Indians, and even theSpaniards, were brought into friendly relations. Liberty of conscience wasaccorded to all but "papists, " who were certainly hardly used in thesetimes. An attempt to base political power on possession of land wasdefeated in 1702. The Church of England was accepted in 1704, and thoughdissenters were tolerated, it remained the official dispenser of religionuntil the Revolution. All these things were on the surface; the colony, inside, was free, happy and prosperous; it had adopted rice culture, witha great supply of negro slaves, and it brought furs from far in theinterior. The Huguenots had been enfranchised as soon as it was known thatEngland had turned her back on Catholicism and James. None of the colonieshad before them a future more peaceful and profitable than South Carolina. The slaves were her only burden; but at that period they seemed not aburden, but the assurance of her prosperity. 

North Carolina was as happy and as peaceful as her southern sister, butthe conditions of life there were different. The proprietors attempted tocontrol the people, but were worsted in almost every encounter. Laws werepassed only to be disregarded. Here, as elsewhere, the Quakers becameconspicuous in inculcating liberal notions, and were paid the complimentof being hated and feared by the emissaries of England. What was to bedone with a population made up of fugitives of all kinds, not from Europeonly, but from the other colonies, who held all creeds, or none at all;who lived by hunting and tree-cutting; who were as averse from towns asVirginia, and many of whom could not be said to have any fixed abode atall? If restraints were proposed, they ignored them; if they were pressed, they resisted them, sometimes boisterously, but never with bloodshed. Robert Daniel, deputy governor in 1704, tried to establish the Church ofEngland; a building was erected, but in all the province there was but oneclergyman, with an absentee congregation scattered over hundreds of milesof mountain and forest. In the following year there were two governorselected by opposite factions, each with his own legislature; and in 1711Edward Hyde, going out to restore order, confounded the confusion. Hecalled in Spotswood from Virginia to help him; but there were too manyQuakers; and the old soldier, after landing a party of marines to indicatehis disapproval of anarchy, retired. Meantime, fresh emigrants keptarriving, including many Palatinates from Germany. It was not a profitablecountry to its reputed owners, who, in 1714, received a hundred dollarsapiece from it. But it supported its inhabitants all the better; and itwas eight years more before they supplied themselves with a court house, and forty, before they felt the need of a printing press. 

In New England, Connecticut and Rhode Island, which had sufferedcomparatively little from the despotism of James, readily recovered suchminor rights as they had been deprived of. There was a dispute betweenFitz-John Winthrop and Fletcher as to the command of the local militia, the former, with his fellow colonists, demanding that the control be keptby the colony; Winthrop went to England and got confirmation of his plea;and from the people, on his return, the governorship. There were a scoreand a half of flourishing towns in Connecticut, each with its meetinghouse and school. Little Rhode Island recovered its charter, whether theoriginal or a duplicate. An act was pending in England to abrogate allcolonial charters, and was backed by the strong mercantile influence; butthe French war caused it to go over. Lord Cornbury, and Joseph Dudley, theMassachusetts-born traitor, did their best to get a royal governor forthese colonies, but they failed; though Dudley, at the instance of CottonMather, was afterward made governor of Massachusetts. 

But no son of Massachusetts has so well deserved the condemnation ofhistory as Cotton Mather himself. Such political sins as his advocacy ofDudley, and his opposition to the revival of the old charter, aretrifling; they might have been the result of ordinary blindness orselfishness merely; but his part in the witchcraft delusion cannot be soaccounted for. In his persecution of the accused persons he was actuatedby a spirit of inflamed vanity and malignity truly diabolic; and if therecan be a crime which Heaven cannot forgive, assuredly Cotton Mathersteeped himself in it. He was a singular being; yet he represented theevil tendencies of Puritanism; they drained into him, so to say, until hebecame their sensible incarnation. In his person, at last, the Puritans ofMassachusetts beheld united every devilish trait to which the tenets oftheir belief could incline them; and the hideousness of the spectacle soimpressed them that, from that time forward, any further Cotton Mathersbecame impossible. There is no feature in Mather's case that can be heldto palliate his conduct. He had the best education of the time, coming, ashe did, from a line of scholars, and out-Heroding them in the variety andcuriousness of his accomplishments, and in the number of his published"works"--three hundred and eighty-three. Nothing that he produced has anyoriginal value; but his erudition was enormous. Of "Magnalia, " his chiefand representative work, it has been said that "it is a heterogeneous andpolyglot compilation of information useful and useless, of unbridledpedantry, of religious adjuration, biographical anecdotes, politicalmaxims, and theories of education. .. . Indeed, it contains everythingexcept order, accuracy, sobriety, proportion, development, and upshot. "This man, born in 1663, was not yet thirty years of age when his campaignagainst the witches began; indeed, he had given a hint of his directionsome years earlier. In his multifarious reading he had become acquaintedwith all existing traditions and speculations concerning witchcraft, andhis profession as minister in the Calvinist communion predisposed him toinvestigate all accessible details concerning the devil. He waspassionately hungry for notoriety and conspicuousness: Tydides meliorpatre was the ambition he proposed to himself. 

A huge memory, stored with the promiscuous rubbish of libraries, and withfacts which were transformed into rubbish by his treatment of them, wascombined in him with a diseased imagination, and a personal vanity almostsurpassing belief. His mental shallowness and consequent restlessnessrendered anything like original thought impossible to him; and the facultyof intellectual digestion was not less beyond him. It is probable thatcuriosity was the motive which originally drew him to the study ofwitchcraft; a vague credence of such things was common at the time; and inFrance and England many executions for the supposed crime had taken place. Mather had no convictions on the subject; he was incapable of convictionsof any kind; and the revelation of his private diary shows that at thevery time he was wallowing in murders, and shrieking out for ever morevictims, he was in secret doubting the truth of all religion, andcoquetting with atheism. But men of no religious faith are prone tosuperstitions; the man who denies God is the first to seek for guidancefrom the stars. Suppose there should be a devil?--was Mather's thought. Itis not to be wondered at that such a man should be fascinated by thenotion; and we may perhaps concede to Mather that, if at any time in hiscareer he approached belief in anything, the devil was the subject of hisbelief. Had his character been genuine and vigorous, such a belief wouldhave led him to plunge into witchcraft, not as a persecutor, but as aperformer; he would have aimed to be chief at the witches' Sabbath, and tohave rioted in the terrible powers with which Satan's children werecredited. But he was far from owning this bold and trenchant fiber: thoughhe could not believe in God, he dared not defy Him; and still he could notrefrain from dabbling in the forbidden mysteries. Moreover, there was anobscure and questionable faculty inherent in certain persons, unaccountable on any recognized natural grounds, which gave support to thewitchcraft theory. We call this faculty hypnotism now; and physiologyseeks to connect it with the nervous affections of hysteria and epilepsy. At all times, and in all quarters of the earth, manifestations of it havenot been wanting; and in Africa it has for centuries existed as aso-called religious cult, to which in this country the name of Hoodooismor Voodooism has been applied. It is a savage form of devil worship, including snake-charming, and the lore of fetiches and charms; and itsprofessors are able to produce abnormal effects, within certain limits, upon the nerves and imaginations of their clients or victims. Among thenegro slaves in Massachusetts in 1692, and the negro-Indian mongrels, there were persons able to exercise this power. They attracted theattention of Cotton Mather. 

Gradually, we may suppose, the idea took form in his mind that if hecould not be a witch himself, he might gain the notoriety he craved bybecoming the denouncer of witchcraft in others. Ministers in that daystill had great influence in New England, and had grasped at temporal aswell as spiritual sway, maintaining that the former should rightly involvethe latter. What a minister said, had weight; what so well-known aminister as Cotton Mather said, would carry conviction to many. If Mathercould procure the execution of a witch or two, it could not fail to addgreatly to his spiritual glory and ascendency. It is, of course, not to beimagined that he had any conception, beforehand, of the extent to whichthe agitation he was about to begin would be carried. But when evil isonce let loose, it multiplies itself and gains impetus, and rages like afire. The only thing for Mather to do was to keep abreast of the mischiefwhich he had created. If he faltered or relented, he would be himselfdestroyed. He was whirled along with the foul storm by a mingling ofterror, malice, vanity, triumph and fascination: as repulsive anddastardly a figure as has ever stained the records of our country. He wasready to sacrifice the population of Massachusetts rather than confessthat the deeds for which he was responsible were based on what, in hissecret soul, he unquestionably felt was a delusion. For though he may havehalf-believed in witchcraft while it presented itself to him as a theory, yet as soon as he had reached the stage of actual examinations and courttestimony, he could not fail to perceive that the theory was utterlydevoid of reasonable foundation; that convictions could not be had exceptby aid of open perjury, suppression and intimidation. Yet Cotton Matherscrupled not to put in operation these and other devices; to hound on themagistrates, to browbeat and sophisticate the juries, and to screamthreats, warnings and self-glorifications from the pulpit. Needs must, when the devil drives. Had he paused, had he even held his peace, thatnoose, slimy with the death-sweat of a score of innocent victims, wouldhave settled greedily round his own guilty neck, and strangled his life. But Cotton Mather was too nimble, too voluble, too false and too cowardlyfor the gallows; he lived to a good age, and died in the odor of sanctity. 

Immediately after the news of William's accession was known in NewEngland, Mather opposed the restoration of the ancient charter, because itwould have interfered with the plans of his personal political ambition. He caused the presentation of an address to the king, purporting torepresent the desire of the majority of reputable citizens of Boston, placing themselves at the royal disposal, without suggesting that thecharter rights be revived. Cotton Mather's father, Increase, was theactual agent to England; but it was the views of Cotton Mather rather thanhis own that he submitted to his majesty. The blatant hypocrite haddominated his father. The king gave Massachusetts a new charter which wasentirely satisfactory to the petitioners, for it took away the right ofthe people to elect their own officers and manage their own affairs, andmade the king the fountain of power and honor. It was identical with allcharters of royal colonies, except that the council was elected jointly bythe people and by its own members. Sir William Phips, at Increase Mather'ssuggestion, was made governor, and William Stoughton lieutenant-governor. The members of the council were "every man of them a friend to theinterests of the churches, " and of Cotton Mather. He did not conceal hisdelight. "The time for favor is come, yea, the set time is come! Insteadof my being made a sacrifice to wicked rulers, my father-in-law, withseveral related to me, and several brethren of my own church, are amongthe council. The governor is not my enemy, but one whom I baptized, andone of my own flock, and one of my dearest friends. --I obtained of theLord that He would use me to be a herald of His kingdom now approaching. "Such was the attitude of Cotton Mather regarding the political outlook. Obviously the field was prepared for him to achieve his crowningdistinction as champion of God against the devil in Massachusetts. InFebruary of the next year he found his first opportunity. 

There was in Salem a certain Reverend Samuel Parris who had a daughter, aniece, and a negro-Indian servant called Tituba. The children were abouttwelve years of age, and much in Tituba's society. Parris was anEnglishman born, and was at this time forty-one years old; he had leftHarvard College without a degree, had been in trade in Boston, and hadentered the ministry and obtained the pastorship of the Congregationalchurch at Danvers, then a part of Salem, three or four years before. Hehad not lived at peace with his people; he had quarreled bitterly withsome of them, and the scandal had been noised abroad. He was a man ofbrutal temper, and without moral integrity. These were the dramatispersonae employed by Cotton Mather in the first scene of his hideous farce. 

The children, at the critical age between childhood and puberty, were ina condition to be readily worked upon; it is the age when the nervoussystem is disorganized, the moral sense unformed, and the imaginationignorant and unbridled. Many children are liars and deceivers, andself-deceivers, then, who afterward develop into sanity and goodness. Butthese unhappy little creatures were under the fascination of theilliterate and abnormal mongrel, and she secretly ravished and fascinatedthem with her inexplicable powers and obscure devices. Their anticsaroused suspicions in the coarse and perhaps superstitious mind of Parris;he catechised them; the woman's husband told what he knew; and Parris beather till she consented to say she was a witch. Such phenomena could onlybe due to witchcraft. The cunning and seeming malignity of the childrenwould tax belief, were it not so familiar a fact in children; and notablealso was their histrionic ability. They were excited by the sensation theyaroused, and vain of it; they were willing to do what they could toprolong it. But they hardly needed to invent anything; more than wasnecessary was suggested to them by questions and comments. They were quickto take hints, and improve upon them. Sarah Good, Martha Cory, RebeccaNourse, and all the rest, must be their victims; but God will forgive thechildren, for they know not what they do. Presently, the contagion spread;though, upon strict examination of the evidence, not nearly so far as wassupposed. Hundreds were bewildered and terrified, as well they might be;the magistrates--Stoughton, Sewall, John Hathorne, poor OctogenarianBradstreet, Sir William Phips--these and others to whom it fell toinvestigate and pronounce sentence--let us hope that some, if not all ofthem, truly believed that their sentences were just. "God will give youblood to drink!" was what Sarah Good said to Noyes, as she stood on thescaffold. But why may they not have believed they were in the right? Therewas Cotton Mather, the holy man, the champion against the Evil One, thesaint who walked with God, and daily lifted up his voice in prayer anddefiance and thanksgiving--he was ever at hand, to cross-question, toinsinuate, to surmise, to bluster, to interpret, to terrify, to perplex, to vociferate: surely, this paragon of learning and virtue must know moreabout the devil than any mere layman could pretend to know; and they mustaccept his assurance and guidance. "I stake my reputation, " he shouted, "upon the truth of these accusations. " And he pointedly prayed that thetrial might "have a good issue. " When Deliverance Hobbs was underexamination, she did but cast a glance toward the meeting house, "and, "cries the Reverend gentleman, in an ecstasy of indignation, "immediately ademon, invisibly entering the house, tore down a part of it!" No wonder aman so gifted as he, was conscious of a certain gratification amid all thehorrors of the diabolic visitation, for how could he regard it otherwisethan as--in his own words--"a particular defiance unto myself!" Such wasthe pose which he adopted before his countrymen: that of a semi-divine, orquite Divine man, standing between his fellow creatures and the assaultsof hell. And then Cotton Mather would go home to his secret chamber, andwrite in his diary that God and religion were perhaps, after all, but anold wives' tale. 

Parris, as soon as he comprehended Mather's drift, ably seconded him. Hehad his own grudges against his neighbors to work off, and nothing couldbe easier. All that was needed was for one of the children, or any oneelse, to affirm that they were afflicted, and perhaps to foam at themouth, or be contorted as in a fit, and to accuse whatever person theychose as being the cause of their trouble. Accusation was equivalent tocondemnation; for to deny it, was to be subjected to torture untilconfession was extorted; if the accused did not confess, he or she was, according to Cotton Mather, supported by the evil one, and being a witch, must die. If they did confess, they were spared or executed according tocircumstances. If any one expressed any doubt as to the justice of thesentence, or as to the existence of witchcraft, it was proof that thatperson was a witch. The only security was to join the ranks of theafflicted. In the course of a few months a reign of terror wasestablished, and hundreds of people, some of them citizens of distinction, were in jail or under suspicion. Twenty were hanged on Witches' Hill, westof the town of Salem, while Cotton Mather sate comfortably by on hishorse, and assured the people that all was well, and that the devil couldsometimes assume the appearance of an angel of light--as, indeed, he mighthave good cause to believe. But the mass of the people were averse frombloodshed, and none too sure that these executions were other thanmurders; and when the wife of Governor Phips was accused, the frenzy hadpassed its height. It was perceived that the community, or a part of it, had been stampeded by a panic or infatuation. They had done andcountenanced things which now seemed impossible even to themselves. Howcould they have condemned the Reverend George Burroughs on the ground thathe had exhibited remarkable physical strength, and that the witnessesagainst him had pretended dumbness? "Why is the devil so loth to havetestimony borne against you?" Judge Stoughton had asked; and Cotton Matherhad said "Enough!" But was it enough, indeed? If a witness simply byholding his peace can hang a minister of blameless life, who may escapehanging by a witness who will talk? It was remembered that Parris had beenBurroughs's rival, and instrumental in his conviction; and now that thefrenzy was past it was easy to point out the relation between the twofacts. There, too, was the venerable Giles Cory, who had been pressed todeath, not for pleading guilty, nor yet for pleading not guilty, but fordeclining to plead at all. There, once more, was John Willard, to whom theduty of arresting accused witches had been assigned; he, as a person ofcommon sense and honesty, had intimated his disbelief in the reality ofwitchcraft by refusing to arrest; and for this, and no other crime, had hebeen hanged. Had it really come to this, then--that one must die forhaving it inferred, from some act of his, that he held an opinion on thesubject of witchcraft different from that announced by Mather and themagistrates?--It had come to precisely that, in a community who wereexiles in order to secure liberty to have what opinions they liked. Then, it was time that the witchcraft persecutions came to an end; and they did, as abruptly as they had begun. Mather, indeed, and a few more, frightenedlest the people, in their recovered sanity, should turn upon them for anaccounting, strove their best to keep up the horror; but it was not to be. No more convictions could be obtained. In February of 1693, Parris wasbanished from Salem; others, except Stoughton, who remained obdurate, madepublic confession of error. But Cotton Mather, the soul of the wholeiniquity, shrouded himself in a cuttle-fish cloud of turgid rhetoric, andescaped scot-free. So great was the power of theological prestige in NewEngland two hundred years ago. 

There is little doubt that the sincere believers in the witchcraftdelusion were very scanty. The vast majority of the people were simplyvictims of moral and physical cowardice. They feared to exchange viewswith one another frankly, lest their interlocutor turn out an informer. They repeated, parrot-like, the conventional utterances--the shibboleths--of the hour, and thus hid from one another the real thoughts which wouldhave scotched the mania at the outset. Once plant mutual suspicion anddread among a people, and, for a time, you may drive them whither youwill. It was by that means that the Council of Ten ruled in Venice, theInquisition in Spain, and the Vehmgericht in Germany; and it was by thatmeans that Cotton Mather enslaved Salem. The episode is a stain on thefair page of our history; but Cotton Mather was the origin and agent ofit; Parris may have voluntarily assisted him, and some or all of themagistrates and others concerned may have been his dupes; but beyond thishandful, the support was never more than perfunctory. The instant theweight of dread was lightened everybody discovered that everybody else hadbelieved all along that the whole thing was either a delusion or a fraud. Until then, they had none of them had the courage to say so--that was all. And let us not be scornful: the kind of courage that _would_ say sois the very rarest and highest courage in the world. 

But though Cotton Mather is almost or entirely chargeable with the guiltof the twenty murders on Witches' Hill, not to mention the incalculableagony of soul and domestic misery incidentally occasioned, yet it must notbe forgotten that he was of Puritan stock and training, and that false anddetestable though his individual nature doubtless was, his crimes, but forPuritanism, could not have taken the form they did. Puritanism was proneto brood over predestination, over the flames of hell, and him who keptthem burning; it was severe in repressing natural expressions of gayety;it was intolerant of unlicensed opinions, and it crushed spontaneity andinnocent frivolity. It aimed, in a word, to deform human nature, and makeof it somewhat rigid and artificial. These were some of the faults ofPuritanism, and it was these which made possible such a monstrosity asCotton Mather. He was, in a measure, a creature of his time and place, andin this degree we must consider Puritanism as amenable, with him, at thebar of history. It is for this reason solely that the witchcraft episodeassumes historical importance, instead of being a side-scene of ghastlypicturesqueness. For the Puritans took it to heart; they never forgot it;it modified their character, and gave a favorable turn to their future. Gradually the evil of their system was purged out of it, while the goodremained; they became less harsh, but not less strong; they werehigh-minded, still, but they abjured narrowness. They would not go so faras to deny that the devil might afflict mankind, but they declaredthemselves unqualified to prove it. There began in them, in short, thedawn of human sympathies, and the growth of spiritual humility. CottonMather, with all that he represented, sinks into the mire; but the truePuritan arises, and goes forward with lightened heart to the mightydestiny that awaits him. 

As for bluff Sir William Phips, he is better remembered for his youthfulexploits of hoisting treasure from the fifty-year-old wreck of a Spanishgalleon, in the reign of King James, and of building with some of theproceeds his "fair brick house, in the Green Lane of Boston, " than for hisadministration of government during his term of office. He was anuneducated, rough-handed, rough-natured man, a ship-carpenter by trade, and a mariner of experience; statesmanship and diplomacy were not hisproper business. A wise head as well as a strong hand was needed at thehelm of Massachusetts just at that juncture. But he did not prevent thelegislature from passing some good laws, and from renewing the life of NewEngland towns, which had been suppressed by Andros. The new charter hadgreatly enlarged the Massachusetts domain, which now extended over thenorthern and eastern regions that included Maine; but, as we shallpresently see, the obligation to defend this territory against the Frenchand Indians cost the colony much more than could be recompensed by anybenefit they got from it. Phips captured Port Royal, but failed to takeQuebec. The legislature, advised by the public-spirited Elisha Cooke, keptthe royal officials in hand by refusing to vote them permanent salaries orregular revenues. Bellomont succeeded Phips, and Dudley, in 1702, followedBellomont, upon the solicitation of Cotton Mather; who long ere this, inhis "Book of Memorable Providences, " had shifted all blame for the latetragic occurrences from his own shoulders to those of the Almighty. Dudleyretained the governorship till 1715. The weight of what authority he hadwas on the side of restricting charter privileges; but he could produce nomeasurable effect in retarding the mighty growth of liberty. We shall notmeet him again. 

New Hampshire fully maintained her reputation for intractability; and thegeneral drift of colonial affairs toward freedom was so marked as tobecome a common subject of remark in Europe. Some of the best heads therebegan to suggest that such a consummation might not be inexpedient. Butbefore England and her Colonies were to try their strength against oneanother, there were to occur the four colonial wars, by which thecolonists were unwittingly trained to meet their most formidable and theirfinal adversary. 

CHAPTER TENTH

FIFTY YEARS OF FOOLS AND HEROES

When thieves fall out, honest men come by their own. The first clause ofthis sentence may serve to describe the Colonial Wars in America; thesecond, to point the moral of the American Revolution. 

Columbus, and the other great mariners of the Fifteenth and SixteenthCenturies, might claim for their motives an admixture, at least, ofthoughts higher than mere material gain: the desire to enlarge knowledge, to win glory, to solve problems. But the patrons and proprietors of theadventurers had an eye single to profit. To make money was their aim. Inoverland trading there was small profit and scanty business; but theopening of the sea as a path to foreign countries, and a revelation oftheir existence--and of the fortuitous fact that they were inhabited bysavages who could not defend themselves--completely transformed thesituation. 

Ships could bring in months more, a hundred-fold more, merchandise thancaravans could transport in years; and the expenses of carriage wereminimized. Goods thus placed in the market could be sold at a vast profit. This was the first obvious fact. Secondly, this profit could be made toinure exclusively to that country whose ships made the discovery, by thesimple device of claiming, as integral parts of the kingdom, whatever newlands they discovered; the ships of all other nations could then beforbidden to trade there. Thirdly, colonists could be sent out, who wouldserve a double use:--they would develop and export the products of the newcountry; and they would constitute an ever-increasing market for theexports of the home country. 

Such was the ideal. To realize it, three things were necessary: first, that the natives--the "heathen"--should be dominated, and either convertedor exterminated; next, that the fiat of exclusion against other nationsshould be made good; and finally (most vital of all, though the last to beconsidered), that the colonists themselves should forfeit all but afraction of their personal interests in favor of the monopolists at home. 

Now, as to the heathen, some of them, like the Caribbeans, could be--andby Spanish methods, they were--exterminated. Others, such as the Mexicanand Central and South American tribes, could be in part killed off, inpart "converted" as it was called. Others again, like the Indians of NorthAmerica, could neither be converted nor exterminated; but they could be ina measure conciliated, and they could always be fought. The general resultwas that the natives co-operated to a certain extent in providing articlesfor export (chiefly furs), and on the other hand, delayed colonization byoccasionally massacring the first small groups of colonists. In the longrun however most of them disappeared, so far as power either for use orfor offense was concerned. 

The attempt of the several colonizing powers to make their rivals keepout of their preserves was not successful. Piracy, smuggling, privateering, and open war were the answers of the nations to oneanother's inhibitions, though, all the while, none of them questioned thecorrectness of the excluding principle. Each of them practiced itthemselves, though trying to defeat its practice by others. Portugal, thefirst of the foreign-trading and monopolizing nations, was early forcedout of the business by more powerful rivals; Holland was the first to callthe principle itself in question, and to fight in the cause of freecommerce; though even she had her little private treasure-box in Java. Spain's commerce was, during the next centuries, seriously impaired by thegrowing might of England. France was the next to suffer; and finallyEngland, after meeting with much opposition from her own colonies, wascalled upon to confront a European coalition; and while she was puttingforth her strength to overcome that, her colonies revolted, and achievedtheir independence. Such was the history and fate of the colonial system;though Spain still retained much of her American possessions (owing topeculiar conditions) for years afterward. 

But England might have retained her settlements too, so far as Europe wasconcerned; the real cause of her discomfiture lay in the fact that hercolonists were mainly people of her own blood, all of them with aninextinguishable love of liberty, which was fostered and confirmed bytheir marriage with the wilderness; and many of whom were also actuated byconsiderations of religion and conscience, the value of which they placedabove everything else. They wished to be "loyal, " but they would notsurrender what they termed innate rights; they would not be taxed withoutrepresentation, nor be debarred from manufacturing; nor consent to makeEngland their sole depot and source of supplies. They would not surrendertheir privilege to be governed by representatives elected by themselves. England, as we have seen, contended against this spirit by all manner ofmore or less successful enactments and acts of despotism; until at last, near the opening of the Eighteenth Century, it became evident to a fewfar-seeing persons on both sides that the matter could only be settled byopen force. But this method of arbitrament was postponed for half acentury by the Colonial Wars, which made of the colonists a united people, and educated them, from farmers and traders, into a military nation. Thenthe war came, and the United States was its consequence. 

The Colonial Wars were between England on one side, and Spain and Franceon the other. Spain was not a serious foe, or obstacle; England had nospecial hankering after Florida and Mexico, and she knew nothing about thegreat Californian region. But France harried her on the north, and pushedher back on the west, the first collisions in this direction occurring atthe Alleghanies and along the Ohio River. France had discovered, claimed, and in a certain sense occupied, a huge wedge of the present UnitedStates: an area which (apart from Canada) extended from Maine to Oregon, and down in converging lines to the Gulf of Mexico. They called itLouisiana. The story of the men who explored it is a story of heroism, devotion, energy and sublime courage perhaps unequaled in the history ofthe world. But France failed to follow up these men with substantialcolonies. Colonies could not help the fur trade at the north, and theclimate there was anything but attractive; and mishaps of various kindsprevented the colonizing of the great Mississippi valley. There was alittle French settlement near the mouths of that river, the descendants ofwhich still give character to New Orleans; but the rest of the enormoustriangle was occupied chiefly by missionaries and trappers, and, duringthe wars, with the operating military forces. France would have made a farless effective resistance than she did, had she not observed, from thefirst, the policy of allying herself with the Indian tribes, and evenincorporating them with herself. All converted Indians were Frenchcitizens by law; the French soldiers and settlers intermarried to a largeextent with the red men, and the half-breed became almost a race ofitself. The savages took much more kindly to the picturesque and emotionalChurch of Rome than to the gloomy severities of the Puritan Calvinists;the "praying Indians" were numerous; and the Cross became a real linkbetween the red men and the white. This fact was of immense value in thewars with the English; and had it not been for the neutrality or activefriendliness of a group of tribes whom the Jesuit missionaries had failedto win, the English colonies might have been quite obliterated. The policyof employing savages in warfare between civilized states was denouncedthen and afterward; it led to the perpetration of sickening barbarities;but it was France's only chance, and, speaking practically, it was hardlyavoidable. Besides, the English did not hesitate to enlist Indians ontheir side, when they could. Had the savages fought after the manner ofthe white men, it would have been well enough; but on the contrary, theyimposed their methods upon the whites; and most of the conflicts had moreof the character of massacres than of battles. Women and children weremercilessly slain, or carried into captivity. But it must be rememberedthat the American continent, at that time, did not admit of such tacticsas were employed in Europe--as Braddock found to his cost; operations mustbe chiefly by ambuscade and surprise; when the town or the fort wascaptured, it was not easy to restrain the wild men; and if they plied thetomahawk without regard to sex or age, the white soldiers, little lesssavage, readily learned to follow their example. After all, the wars werenecessarily for extermination, and there is no better way to exterminate apeople--as Spain has uniformly shown from the beginning to the end of herhistory--than by murdering their women and children. They are "innocent, "no doubt, so far as active hostilities are concerned; but they breed, orbecome, men and thereby threaten the future. Moreover, not a few of thewomen did deeds of warlike valor themselves. It was a savage time, and warhas its hideous side always, and in this period seemed to have hardly anyother. 

The pioneering on this continent of the Spanish and the French, though initself a captivating story, cannot properly be dwelt on in a history ofthe growth of the American principle. Ponce de Leon traversed Florida inthe first quarter of the Sixteenth Century, hunting for the Fountain ofImmortality, and finding death. Hernando de Soto wandered over the area ofseveral of our present Southern States, and discovered the lower reachesof the Mississippi; he was a man of blood, and his blood was shed. Somescore of years later Spaniards massacred the Huguenot colony at St. Augustine, and built that oldest of American cities. Beyond this, on theAtlantic slope, they never proceeded, having enough to do further south. But they lay claim, even in these closing years of the Nineteenth Century, to the entire American continent--"if they had their rights. "

The French began their American career with an Italian employé, Verrazano, who spied out the coast from Florida to Newfoundland in 1524. Then Cartier peered into the wide mouth of the St. Lawrence, and tried toget to India by that route, but got no further than the present Montreal. In the next century, Champlain, one of the great explorers and the firstgovernor of Canada, laid the corner-stone of Quebec; it became at once thecenter of Canadian trade which it has ever since remained. This was in1608. In respect of enterprise as explorers, the French easily surpassedthe farm-loving, home-building, multiplying colonists of England. ButEngland took advantage of French discoveries, and stayed, and prevailed. God makes men help each other in their own despite. 

Richelieu said in 1627 that the name, New France, designated the wholecontinent of America from the North Pole down to Florida. The Jesuits, whoarose as a counteracting force to Luther and the Reformation, supplantedthe Franciscans as missionaries among the heathen, and performed what canonly be called prodigies of self-sacrifice and intrepidity. Loyola was aworthy antagonist of Calvin, and the first achievements of his followerswere the more striking. But the magnificent exploits of these men were notthe preliminary of commensurate colonization. The spirit of Calvininspired large bodies of men and women to establish themselves in thewilderness in order to cultivate his doctrines without interference; thespirit of Loyola embodied no new religious principle; it simply kindledindividuals to fresh exertions to promulgate the unchanging dogmas of theRoman Church. The Jesuits were leaders without followers; their missionwas to bring the Church to the heathen, and the heathen into the Church;and the impressiveness of their activity was due to the daring and faithwhich pitted units against thousands, and refused to accept defeat. Theywere the knight-errantry of religion. The fame of their deeds inspiredenthusiasm in France, so that noble women gave up their luxurious lives, for the sake of planting faith in the inhospitable immensities of theCanadian forests; but the mass of the common people were not stimulated orattracted; the profits of the fur-trade employed but a handful; and theblood of the Jesuit martyrs--none more genuine ever died--was poured outalmost without practical results. Our estimate of human nature is exalted;but there are no happy communities to-day which owe their existence to theJesuit pioneers. The priests themselves were wifeless and childless, andthe family hearthstone could not be planted on the sites of theirimmolations and triumphs. Nor were the disciples of Loyola aided, as werethe Calvinists, by persecution at home. All alike were good Catholics. Buthad the Jesuits advocated but a single principle of human freedom, Francemight have been mistress of America to-day. 

So, under the One Hundred Assistants, as the French colonizing Company ofthe early Seventeenth Century was called, missions were dotted throughoutthe loneliness and terror of the wilderness; Breboeuf and Daniel did theirwork and met their fate; Raymbault carried the cross to Lake Superior;Gabriel Dreuilettes came down the Kennebec; Jogues was tortured by theMohawks; Lallemand shed his blood serenely; Chaumont and Dablon builttheir chapel where now stands Syracuse; and after all, there stood theprimeval forests, pathless as before, and the red men were but partiallyand transiently affected. The Hundred Assistants were dissolved, and a newcolonial organization was operating in 1664; soldiers were sent over, andthe Jesuits, still unweariedly in the van, pushed westward to Michigan, and Marquette and Joliet, two young men of thirty-six and twenty-seven, discovered the Mississippi, and descended it as far as Des Moines; butstill, all the inhabitants of New France could easily have mustered in aten-acre field. Then, in 1666 came Robert Cavelier La Salle, a cadet of agood family, educated in a Jesuit seminary, but destined to incur theenmity of the order, and at last to perish, not indeed at their hands, butin consequence of conditions largely due to them. The towering genius ofthis young man--he was but just past his majority when he came toMontreal, and he was murdered by his treacherous traveling companion, Duhaut, on a branch of Trinity River in Texas, before he had reached theage of five and forty--his indomitable courage, his tact and firmness indealing with all kinds of men, from the Grand Monarch to the humblestsavage, his great thoughts and his wonderful exploits, his brilliantfortune and his appalling calamities, both of which he met with an equalmind:--these qualities and the events which displayed them make La Sallethe peer, at least, of any of his countrymen of that age. What must be thetemper of a man who, after encountering and overcoming incredibleopposition, after being the victim of unrelenting misfortune, includingloss of means, friends, and credit, of deadly fevers, of shipwreck, --couldrise to his feet amid the destruction of all that he had labored fortwenty years to build up, and confidently and cheerfully undertake theenterprise of traveling on foot from Galveston in Texas to Montreal inCanada, to ask for help to re-establish his colony? It is a formidablejourney to-day, with all the appliances of steam and the luxury of foodand accommodation that science and ingenuity can frame; it would be aportentous trip for the most accomplished modern pedestrian, assistedthough he would be by roads, friendly wayside inns and farms, maps of theroute, and hobnailed walking boots. La Salle undertook it with thousandsof miles of uncharted wilderness before him, through tribes assumed to behostile till they proved themselves otherwise, with doubtful andquarreling companions, and shod with moccasins of green hide. Even of theFrenchmen whom he might meet after reaching Illinois, the majority, beingunder Jesuit influence, would be hostile. But he had faced and conquereddifficulties as great as these, and he had no fear. At the time thescoundrel Duhaut shot him from ambush, he was making hopeful progress. Butit was decreed that France was not to stay in America. La Salle discoveredthe Ohio and the Illinois, built Fort Crevecoeur, and started a colony onthe coast of Texas; he received a patent of nobility, and lost his fortuneand his life. The pathos of such a death lies in the consideration thathis plans died with him. It was the year before the accession of Williamof Orange; and the first war with France began two years later. 

France, after all drawbacks, was far from being a foe to be slighted. TheEnglish colonists outnumbered hers, but hers were all soldiers; they hadtrained the Indians to the use of firearms, had taught them how to buildforts, and by treating them as equals, had won the confidence andfriendship of many of them. The English colonies, on the other hand, hadas yet no idea of co-operation; each had its own ideas and ways ofexistence; they had never met and formed acquaintance with one anotherthrough a common congress of representatives. They were planters, farmersand merchants, with no further knowledge of war than was to be gained byrepelling the attacks of savages, and retaliating in kind. They had thefriendship of the Five Nations, and they received help from Englishregiments. But the latter had no experience of forest fighting, and madeseveral times the fatal mistake of undervaluing their enemy, as well asclinging to impracticable formations and tactics. The English officers didnot conceal their contempt for the "provincial" troops, who were not, indeed, comely to look at from the conventional military standpoint, butwho bore the brunt of the fighting, won most of the successes, and wereentirely capable of resenting the slights to which they were unjustlysubjected. What was quite as important, bearing in mind what was to happenin 1775, they learned to gauge the British fighting capacity, and did notfear, when the time came, to match themselves against it. 

King William's War lasted from 1689 to 1697. Louis XIV. Had refused torecognize William as a legitimate king of England, and undertook tochampion the cause of the dethroned James. The conduct of the war inEurope does not belong to our inquiry. The proper course for the French tohave adopted in America would have been to encourage the English coloniesto revolt against the king; but the statesmanship of that age had notconceived the idea of colonial independence. Besides, the colonies wouldnot at that epoch have fallen in with the scheme; they might have beeninfluenced to rise against a Stuart, but not against a William. There wasno general plan of campaign on either side. There was no question as yetabout the western borders. There was but one point of contact of NewFrance and the English colonies--the northern boundaries of New Englandand New York. The position of the English, strung along a thousand milesof the Atlantic coast, did not favor concentration against the enemy, andstill less was it possible for the latter, with their small force, tomarch south and overrun the country. What could be done then? Obviously, nothing but to make incursions across the line, after the style of theEnglish and Scottish border warfare. Nothing could be gained, except themaking of each other miserable. But that was enough, since two kings, neither of whom any of the combatants had seen, were angry with each otherthree thousand miles away. Louis does not admit the right of William, doesn't he?--says the Massachusetts farmer to the Canadian coureur desbois; and without more ado they fly at each others' throats. 

The successes, such as they were, were chiefly on the side of the French. Small parties of Indians, or of French and Indians combined, would stealdown upon the New York and New England farms and villages, suddenly leapout upon the man and his sons working in their clearings, upon the womanand her children in the hut: a whoop, a popping of musket shots andwhistling of arrows, then the vicious swish and crash of the murderoustomahawk, followed by the dexterous twist of the scalping-knife, and thesnatching of the tuft of hair from the bleeding skull. That is all--but, no: there still remains a baby or two who must be caught up by the leg, and have its brains dashed out on the door-jamb; and if any able-bodiedpersons survive, they are to be loaded with their own household goods, anddriven hundreds of miles over snows, or through heats, to Canada, asslaves. Should they drop by the way, as Mrs. Williams did, down comes thetomahawk again. Or perhaps a Mrs. Dustin learns how to use the weapon soas to kill at a blow, and that night puts her knowledge to the proof onthe skulls of ten sleeping savages, and so escapes. Occasionally there isa more important massacre, like that at Schenectady, or Deerfield. Butthese Indian surprises are not only revolting, but monotonous toweariness, and, as they accomplished nothing but a given number ofmurders, there is nothing to be learned from them. They are meaningless;and we can hardly imagine even the Grand Monarch, or William of Orange, being elated or depressed by their details. 

There were no French farms or small villages to be attacked in requital, so it was necessary for the English to proceed against Port Royal orQuebec. The aged but bloodthirsty Frontenac was governor of Canada at thistime, and proved himself able (aided by the imbecility of the attack) todefend it. In March of 1690 a sort of congress had met at Albany, whichsent word to the several colonial governors to dispatch commissioners toRhode Island for a general conference for adopting measures of defense andoffense. 

The delegates met in May or the last of April, at New York, and decidedto conquer Canada by a two-headed campaign; one army to go by way of LakeChamplain to Montreal, while a fleet should proceed against Quebec. SirWilliam Phips of Massachusetts was off to Port Royal within four weeks, and took it without an effort, there being hardly any one to defend it. But Leisler of New York and Winthrop of Connecticut quarreled at LakeChamplain, and that part of the plan came to a disgraceful end forthwith. A month or so later, Phips was blundering pilotless into the St. Lawrence, with two thousand Massachusetts men on thirty-four vessels. Their cominghad been prepared for, and when they demanded the surrender of theimpregnable fortress, with a garrison more numerous than themselves, theywere answered with jeers; and it is painful to add that they turned roundand set out for home again without striking a blow. A storm completedtheir discomfiture; and when Phips at last brought what was left of hisfleet into harbor, he found the treasury empty, and was forced to issuepaper money to pay his bills. 

No further talk of "On to Quebec" was heard for some time. Port Royal wasretaken by a French vessel. Parties of Indians, encouraged by the Jesuits, again stole over the border and did the familiar work. Schuyler, on theEnglish side, succeeded in making a successful foray in 1691; and a fortwas built at Pemaquid--to be taken, five years afterward, by Iberville andCastin. In 1693 an English fleet, which had been beaten at Martinique, came to Boston with orders to conquer Canada; but as it was manned bywarriors half of whom were dying of malignant yellow fever, Canada wasspared once more. The only really formidable enemies that Frontenac coulddiscover were the Five Nations, whom he tried in vain to frighten or toconciliate. He himself, at the age of seventy-four, headed the lastexpedition against them, in the summer of 1696. It returned without havingaccomplished anything except the burning of villages and the laying wasteof lands. The following year peace was signed at Ryswick, a village inSouth Holland. France had done well in the field and by negotiations; butEngland had sustained no serious reverses, and having borrowed money froma group of private capitalists, whom it chartered as the Bank of Englandin 1694, was financially stronger than ever. Louis accepted the results ofthe English Revolution, but kept his American holdings; and the boundariesbetween these and the English colonies were not settled. The Five Nationswere not pacified till 1700. The French continued their occupation of theMississippi basin, and in 1699 Lemoine Iberville sailed for theMississippi, and built a fort on the bay of Biloxi. Communication was nowestablished between the Gulf of Mexico and Quebec. The English, throughthe agency of a New Jerseyman named Coxe, and a forged journal ofexploration by Hennepin, tried to get a foothold on the great river, butthe attempt was fruitless. Fruitless, likewise, were French efforts tofind gold, or, indeed, to establish a substantial colony themselves in thefeverish Louisiana region. Iberville caught the yellow plague and neverfully recovered; and the desert-girded fort at Mobile seemed a smallresult for so much exertion. 

In truth, on both sides of the Atlantic, peace existed nowhere except onthe paper signed at Ryswick; and in 1702 William saw that he must eitherfight again, or submit to a union between France and Spain, Louis XIV. Becoming, by the death without issue of the Spanish king, sovereign ofboth countries, to the upsetting of the European balance of power. Spainhad become a nonentity; she had no money, no navy, no commerce, nomanufactures, and a population reduced by emigration, and by the expulsionof Jews and Moors, to about seven millions: nothing remained to her butthat "pride" of which she was always so solicitous, based as it was uponher achievements as a robber, a murderer, a despot and a bigot. She nowhad no king, which was the least of her losses, but gave her the power ofdisturbing Europe by lapsing to the French Bourbons. 

William himself was close to death, and died before the opening year ofthe war was over. Louis was alive, and was to remain alive for thirteenyears longer; but he was sixty-four, was becoming weary and discouraged, and had lost his ministers and generals. On the English side wasMarlborough; and the battle of Blenheim, not to speak of the Europeancombination against France, showed how the game was going. But the peaceof Utrecht in 1713, though it lasted thirty years, was not based onjustice, and could not stand. Spain was deprived of her possessions in theNetherlands, but was allowed to keep her colonies, and the loss ofGibraltar confirmed her hatred of England. Belgium, Antwerp and Austriawere wronged, and France was insulted by the destruction of Dunkirkharbor. England embarked with her whole heart in the African slave trade, securing the monopoly of importing negroes into the West Indies for thirtyyears, and being the exclusive dealer in the same commodity along theAtlantic coast. Half the stock in the business was owned by the Englishpeople, and the other half was divided equally between Queen Anne andPhilip of Spain. The profits were enormous. Meanwhile the treaty betweenSpain and England allowed and legitimatized the smuggling operations ofthe latter in the West Indies, a measure which was sure to involve ourcolonies sooner or later in the irrepressible conflict. England, again, got Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, but not the Mississippivalley, from France. Boundary lines were not accurately determined; andcould not be until the wars between 1744 and 1763 finally decided theseand other matters in England's favor. The most commendable clause in thetreaty was the one inserted by Bolingbroke that defined contraband, andthe rights of blockade, and laid down the rule that free ships should givefreedom to goods carried in them. 

Anne, a daughter of James II. , but a partisan of William, succeeded himin 1702 at the age of thirty-seven; she was herself governed by theMarlboroughs and Mrs. Mashamam--an intelligent woman of humble birth, whobecame keeper of her majesty's privy purse. The war which the queeninherited, and which was called by her name, lasted till the final year ofher reign. Only New England on the north and Carolina on the south wereparticipants in the fray on this side, and no great glory or advantageaccrued to either. New York was sheltered by the neutrality of the FiveNations, and Pennsylvania, Virginia and the rest were beyond the reach ofFrench operations. 

The force raised by South Carolina to capture St. Augustine had expectedto receive cannon for the siege from Jamaica; but the cannon failed them, and they retreated with nothing to show but a debt which they liquidatedin paper. They had better luck with an expedition to sever the Spanishline of communication with Louisiana; the Spanish and Indians were beatenin December, 1705, and the neighboring inhabitants along the Gulfemigrated to South Carolina. Then the French set out to take Charleston;but the Huguenots were mindful of St. Bartholomew and of the revocation ofthe Edict of Nantes, and they set upon the invaders when they landed, andslew three out of every eight of them. The South Carolinians were letalone thereafter. 

In the north, the French secured the neutrality of the Senecas, but theEnglish failed to do the like with the Abenakis, and the massacring seasonset in with marked severity on the Maine border in the summer of 1703. Itwas in the ensuing winter that the Deerfield affair took place; thecrusted snow was so deep that it not only gave the French and Indian warparty good walking down from Canada, but enabled them to mount up thedrifts against the palisades of the town and leap down inside. Thesentinels were not on guard that morning, though, warned by the Mohawks, the people had been looking for the attack all winter long. What is to besaid of these tragedies? When we have realized the awful pang in amother's heart, wakened from sleep by that shrill, triumphant yell of theIndian, and knowing that in a moment she will see her children's facescovered with the blood and brains from their crushed skulls, we shall havenothing more to learn from Indian warfare. How many mothers felt that pangin the pale dawn of that frosty morning in Deerfield? After the war partyhad done the work, and departed exulting with their captives, how manymotionless corpses, in what ghastly attitudes, lay huddled in the darksomerooms of the little houses, or were tossed upon the trodden snow without, the looks of mortal agony frozen on their features? But you will hear thehowl of the wolves by-and-by; and the black bear will come shuffling andsniffing through the broken doors; and when the frightful feast is over, there will be, in place of these poses of death, only disordered heaps ofgnawed bones, and shreds of garments rent asunder, and the grin ofhalf-eaten skulls. Nothing else remains of a happy and innocent community. Why were they killed? Had they harmed their killers? Was any militaryadvantage gained by their death?--They had harmed no one, and nothing wasgained, or pretended to be gained, by their murder: nothing except toestablish the principle that, since two countries in Europe were at war, those emigrants of theirs who had voyaged hither in quest of peace andhappiness should lie in wait to destroy one another. Human sympathieshave, sometimes, strange ways of avouching themselves. 

People become accustomed even to massacre. But the children born in theseyears, who were themselves to be the fathers and mothers of the generationof the Revolution, must have sucked in stern and fierce qualities with themilk from their mothers' breasts. No one, even in the midst ofMassachusetts, was safe during that first decade of the EighteenthCentury. A single Indian, in search of glory, would spend weeks increeping southward from the far border; he would await his chance long andpatiently; he would leap out, and strike, and vanish again, leaving thatsilent horror behind him. Such deeds, and the constant possibility ofthem, left their mark upon the whole population. They grew up familiarwith violent death in its most terrible forms. The effect of Indianwarfare upon the natures of those who engage in it, or are subjected toits perils, is different from that of what we must call civilizedfighting. The end as well as the aim of the Indian's battle is death--ascalp. Murder for the mere pleasure of murdering has an influence upon acommunity far more sinister than that of death by war waged forrecognizable causes. The Puritans of the Eighteenth Century were anotherpeople than those of the Seventeenth. There had been reason in the earlyIndian struggles, when the savages might have hoped to exterminate thesettlers and leave their wilderness a wilderness once more; but therecould be no such hope now. The desire for revenge was awakened andfostered as it had never been before. Many other circumstances combined tomodify the character of the people of New England during this century; butperhaps this new capacity for revenge was not the least potent of theinfluences that made the seven years of the Revolution possible. 

Peter Schuyler protested in vain against the "savage and boundlessbutchery" into which the conflict between "Christian princes, bound to theexactest laws of honor and generosity, " was degenerating; but the only wayto stop it appeared to be to extirpate the perpetrators; and to that end afifth part of the population were constantly in arms. The musket becamemore familiar to their hands than the plow and spade; and theirmarksmanship was near perfection. They gradually developed a system oftactics of their own, foreign to the manuals. The first thing you wereaware of in the provincial soldier was the puff of smoke from the muzzleof his weapon; almost simultaneously came the thud of his bullet in yourbreast, or crashing through your brain. He loaded his gun lying on hisback beneath the ferns and shrubbery; he advanced or retreated invisibly, from tree to tree. Your only means of estimating his numbers was from yourown losses. It was thus that the American troops afterward gained theirreputation of being almost invincible behind an intrenchment; it gave itscharacter to the engagements at Concord and along the Boston Road, andsent hundreds of redcoats to death on the slopes of Bunker Hill. It wasnot magnificent--to look at; but it was war; combined with the Europeantactics acquired later on, it survived reverses that would have drivenother troops from the field, and, with Washington at the head, won ourindependence at last. 

The least revolting feature of the Indian warfare was the habit theyacquired, through French suggestion doubtless, of taking large numbers ofpersons captive, and carrying them north. If they weakened on the journey, they were of course tomahawked out of the way at once; but if theysurvived, they were either sold as slaves to the Canadians, or were keptby the Indians, who adopted them into their tribes, having no system ofslavery. Many a woman and little girl from New England became the motherof Indian children; and when the captives were young enough at thebeginning, they generally grew to love the wild life too well to leave it. Indeed, they were generally treated well by both the Canadians and theIndians after they got to their destination. On the other hand, there werethe fathers and mothers and relatives of the lost planning theirredemption or rescue, and raising money to buy them back. Many a thrillingtale could be told of these episodes. But we must imagine beautiful youngwomen, who had been taken away in childhood, found after years ofheart-breaking search and asked to return to their homes. What was theirhome? They had forgotten New England, and those who loved them and hadsorrowed for them there. The eyes of these young women, clear and bright, had a wildness in their look that is never seen in the children ofcivilization; their faces were tanned by sun and breeze, their figureslithe and athletic, their dress of deerskin and wampum, their light feetclad in moccasins; their tongues and ears were strange to the language oftheir childhood homes. No: they would not return. Sometimes, curiosity, ora vague expectation, would induce them to revisit those who yearned forthem; but, having arrived, they received the embraces of their own fleshand blood shyly and coldly; they were stifled and hampered by the houses, the customs, the ordered ways of white people's existence. A night mustcome when they would arise silently, resume with a deep in-breathing ofdelight the deerskin raiment, and be gone without one last loving look atthe faces of those who had given them life, but from whom their souls wereforever parted. There is a harrowing mystery in these estrangements: howstrong, and yet how helpless is the human heart; all the world cannotbreak the bonds it ties, nor can all the world tie them again, once theheart itself has dissolved them. 

Thus, in more ways than one, the blood of the English colonists becamewedded to the soil of the wilderness, if wilderness the settlements couldnow be called. And they became like the captives we have just beenimagining, who cared no longer for the land and the people that had beentheir home. Not more because they were estranged by England's behaviorthan because they had formed new attachments beside which the old onesseemed pale, were they now able to contemplate with composure the idea ofa final separation. America was no longer England's daughter. She hadacquired a life of her own, and could look forward to a destiny which theolder country could never share. The ways of the two had parted more fullythan either, as yet, quite realized; and if they were ever to meetagain hereafter, it must be the older, and not the younger, who mustchange. 

Apart from the Indian episodes, little was done until 1710, when a largefleet left Boston and again captured Port Royal, to which the name ofAnnapolis was given as a compliment to the snuffy little woman who sat onthe English throne. This success was made the basis of a proposition toput an end to the development of the French settlements west of theAlleghanies. It was represented to the English government that the entireIndian population in the west was being amalgamated with the French; theJesuits ensnaring them on the spiritual side, and the intermarrying systemon the other. The English Secretary of State was Bolingbroke--orSaint-John as he was then--a man of three and thirty, brilliant, graceful, gifted, versatile; but without principle or constancy, who neveremancipated his superb intellect from his restless and sensuous nature. After hearing what the American envoys had to say, and thinking the matterover, Saint-John made up his mind that it could do no harm, as abeginning, to capture Quebec; and that being safe in English hands, therest of the programme could be finished at leisure. Seven regiments ofMarlborough's veterans, the best soldiers in the world at that time, abattalion of marines, and fifteen men-of-war, were intrusted to theutterly incompetent and preposterous Hovenden Walker, with the not lessabsurd Jack Hill, brother of Mrs. Masham, as second in command. In short, the expedition was what would now be called a "job" for the favorites andhangers-on of the Court; the taking of the Canadian fortress was deemed soeasy a feat that even fools and Merry-Andrews could accomplish it. TheAmericans had meantime made their preparations to co-operate with thisimposing armada; an army of colonists and Iroquois were at Albany, readyfor a dash on Montreal. But week after week passed away, and the fleet, having got to Boston, seemed unable to get away from it. No doubtHovenden, Hill and the rest of the rabble were enjoying themselves in thePuritan capital. The Boston of stern-visaged, sad-garmented, scripture-quoting men and women, of unpaved streets and mean houses, wasgone; Boston in the first quarter of the Eighteenth Century was a city--aplace of gayety, fashion and almost luxury. The scarlet coats of theBritish officers made the narrow but briskly-moving streets brilliant; buteven without them, the embroidered coats, silken small clothes and clockedstockings, powdered wigs and cocked hats of the fine gentlemen, and thewide hoops and imposing head-dresses of the women, made a handsome show. People of many nationalities mingled in the throng, for commerce hadbrought the world in all its various forms to the home of the prayers ofWinthrop and Higginson; the royal governors maintained a fitting state, and traveled Americans, then as now, brought back with them from Europethe freshest ideas of modishness and style. There were folk of qualitythere, personages of importance and dignity, forming an inner aristocraticcircle who conversed of London and the Court, and whose august society itwas the dear ambition of the lesser lights to ape, if they could not joinit. Democratic manners were at a discount in these little hotbeds ofamateur cockneyism; the gloomy severities of the old-fashioned religionwere put aside; there was an increasing gap between the higher and thelower orders of the population. This appearance was no doubt superficial;and the beau-monde is never so numerous as its conspicuousness leads oneto imagine. When the rumblings of the Revolutionary earthquake began tomake themselves heard in earnest, the gingerbread aristocracy cametumbling down in a hurry, and the old, invincible spirit, temporarilyscreened by the waving of scented handkerchiefs, the flutter of fans, andthe swish of hoop-skirts, made itself once more manifest and dominant. Butthat epoch was still far off; for the present court was paid to Hovendenand his officers; and the British coffee-house in King Street was a noblesight. 

What bottles of wine those warriors drank, what snuff they took, whatlong pipes they smoked, how they swore and ruffled, and what tales theytold of Marlborough and the wars! The British army swore frightfully inFlanders, and in King Street, too. There, also, they read the news in thenewspapers of the day, and discussed matters of high policy and strategy, while the civilians listened with respectful admiration. And see how thatdapper young officer seated in the window arches his handsome eyebrows andsmirks as two pretty Boston girls go by! Yes, it is no wonder that theBritish fleet needed a long time to refit in Boston harbor, before goingup to annihilate those French jumping-jacks on the banks of the St. Lawrence. "La, Captain, I hope you won't get hurt!" says pretty MissBetty, with her white wig and her beauty spots; and that heroic younggentleman lifts her hand to his lips, and swears deeply that, for a glancefrom her bright eyes, he would go forth and capture Quebec single-handed. 

While these dalliances were in progress, the French jumping-jacks wereputting things in order to receive their expected guests in a becomingmanner. They held a great pow-wow of representatives of Indian tribes fromall parts of the seat of the projected war, and bound them by compacts totheir assistance. Everybody, even the women, worked on the fortifications, or on anything that might aid in the common defense. Before the end ofAugust, at which time the outlookers reported signs of a fleet of near ahundred sail, flying the British flag, all was ready for them in theFrench strongholds. So now let the mighty combat begin. 

But it was not to come this time: the era of William Pitt and GeneralWolfe was nearly half a century distant. The latter would not be born forsixteen years, and the former was a pap-eating babe of three. Meanwhilethe redoubtable Hovenden was snoring in bed, while his fleet wasstruggling in a dense fog at night, being driven on the shoals of the EggIslands near the mouth of the St. Lawrence. "For the Lord's sake, come ondeck!" roars Captain Goddard, thrusting his head into the cabin for thesecond time, "or we shall all be lost!" Thus adjured, the old imbecilehuddles on his dressing gown and slippers, and finds himself, sure enough, close on a lee shore. He made shift to get his own vessel out of harm'sway, but eight others went down, and near nine hundred men were drowned. "Impossible to go on, " was the vote of the council of war the nextmorning; and "It's all for the best, " added this remarkable admiral; "forhad we got to Quebec, ten or twelve thousand of us must have perished ofcold and hunger; Providence took eight hundred to save the rest!"

So back they went, with their tails between their legs, without havinghad a glimpse of the citadel which they were to have captured without aneffort; and of course the army waiting at Albany for the word to advancegot news of a different color, and Montreal was as safe as Quebec. In thewest, the Foxes, having planned an attack on Detroit, did really lay siegeto it; but Du Buisson, who defended it, summoned a swarm of Indian alliesto his aid, and the Foxes found that the boot was on the other leg; theywere all either slain or carried into slavery. Down in the Carolinas, aparty of Tuscaroras attacked a settlement of Palatines near Pamlico Sound, and wiped them out; and some Huguenots at Bath fared little better. Disputes between the governor and the burgesses prevented aid fromVirginia; but Barnwell of South Carolina succeeded in making terms withthe enemy. A desultory and exhausting warfare continued however, complicated with an outbreak of yellow fever, and it was not until 1713that the Tuscaroras were driven finally out of the country, and wereincorporated with the Iroquois in the north. The war in Europe had by thattime come also to an end, and the treaty of Utrecht brought about anambiguous peace for a generation. 

George I. Now became king of England; because he was the son of Sophia, granddaughter of James I. , and professed the Protestant religion. He was aHanoverian German, and did not understand the English language; he wasstupid and disreputable, and better fitted to administer a Germanbierstube than a great kingdom. But the Act of Settlement of 1701 hadstipulated that if William or Anne died childless, the Protestant issue ofSophia should succeed. That such a man should prove an acceptablesovereign both to Great Britain and her American colonies, showed that theindividuality on the throne had become secondary to the principles whichhe stood for; besides, George profited by the easy, sagacious, good-humored leadership of that unprincipled but common-sensibleman-of-the-world, Sir Robert Walpole, who was prime minister from 1715 to1741, with an interval of only a couple of years. Walpole's aim was toavoid wars and develop commerce and manufactures; and while he lived, thecolonies enjoyed immunity from conflicts with the French and Spanish. 

They were not to forget the use of arms, however; for the Indians wereinevitably encroached upon by the expanding white population, and resentedit in the usual way. In 1715 the Yemasses began a massacre on the Carolinaborders; they were driven off by Charles Craven, after the colonists hadlost four hundred men. The proprietors had given no help in the war, andafter it was over, the colony renounced allegiance to them, and theEnglish government supported their revolt, regarding it in the light of anact of loyalty to George. Francis Nicholson, a governor by profession, andof great experience in that calling, was appointed royal governor, andmade peace with the tribes; and in 1729 the crown bought out the claims ofthe proprietors. North Carolina, without a revolt, enjoyed the benefitsobtained by their southern brethren. The Cherokees became a buffer againstthe encroachments of the French from the west. 

In the north, meanwhile, the Abenakis, in sympathy with the French, claimed the region between the Kennebec and the St. Croix, and applied tothe French for assistance. Sebastian Rasles, a saintly Jesuit priest andIndian missionary, had made his abode at Norridgwock on the Kennebec; hewas regarded by Massachusetts as an instigator of the enemy. They seizedhis post, he escaping for the time; the Indians burned Brunswick; but in1723 Westbrooke with a company of hardy provincials, who knew more ofIndian warfare than the Indians themselves, attacked an Indian fort nearthe present Bangor and destroyed it; the next year Norridgwock wassurprised, and Rasles slain. He met his death with the sublimecheerfulness and courage which were the badge of his order. Frenchinfluence in northeastern Massachusetts was at an end, and John Lovewell, before he lost his life by an ambush of Saco Indians at Battle Brook, hadmade it necessary for the Indians to sue for peace. Commerce took theplace of religion as a subjugating force, and an era of prosperity beganfor the northeastern settlements. 

There was no settled boundary between northern New York and the Frenchregions. Each party used diplomatic devices to gain advantage. Both builttrading stations on doubtful territory, which developed into forts. Burnetof New York founded Oswego in 1727, and gained a strip of land from theIroquois; France built a fort on Lake Champlain in 1731. Six years beforethat, they had established, by the agency of the sagacious traderJoncaire, a not less important fort at Niagara. Upon the whole, the Frenchgained the better of their rivals in these negotiations. 

Louisiana, as the French possessions, or claims, south of Canada werecalled, was meanwhile bidding fair to cover most of the continent west ofthe Alleghanies and north of the indeterminate Spanish region whichoverspread the present Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Mexico. No boundary lines could be run in those enormous western expanses; and itmade little practical difference whether a given claim lay a thousandmiles this way or that. But on the east it was another matter. The Frenchpursued their settled policy of conciliating the Indians wherever theyhoped to establish themselves; but though this was well, it was notenough. Narrow though the English strip of territory was, the inhabitantsgreatly outnumbered the French, and were correspondingly more wealthy. Spotswood of Virginia, in 1710, was for pushing out beyond the mountains, and Logan of Pennsylvania also called Walpole's attention to the troublesahead; but the prime minister would take no action. On the other hand, thewhite population of Louisiana was ridiculously small, and their tradenothing worth mentioning; but when Anthony Crozar resigned the charter hehad received for the district, it was taken up by the famous John Law, theEnglish goldsmith's son, who had become chief financial adviser of theRegent of France; and immediately the face of things underwent a changelike the magic transformations of a pantomime. 

The Regent inherited from Louis XIV. A debt which there was not moneyenough in all France to pay. Law had a plan to pay it by the issue ofpaper. Louisiana offered itself as just the thing for purposes ofinvestment, and a pretext for the issue of unlimited "shares. " Not tospeak of the gold and silver, there was unlimited wealth in the unknowncountry, and Law assumed that it could be produced at once. Companies wereformed, and thousands of settlers rushed to the promised paradise. But wehave to do with the Mississippi Bubble only as it affected America. TheBubble burst, but the settlers remained, and were able to prosper, inmoderation, like other settlers in a fertile country. A great area of landwas occupied. Local tribes of Indians joined in a massacre of thecolonists in 1729. They in turn were nearly exterminated by the Frenchforces during the next two years, but the war aroused a new hostilityamong the red tribes against the French, which redounded to the Englishadvantage. In 1740, Bienville was more than willing to make a peace, whichleft to France no more than nominal control of the tract of countrydrained by the southern twelve hundred miles of the Mississippi. Thepopulation, after all the expense and efforts of half a century, numberedabout five thousand white persons, with upward of two thousand slaves. Thehorse is his who rides it. The French had not proved themselves as goodhorsemen as the English. The English colonies had at the same time apopulation of about half a million; their import and export tradeaggregated nearly four million dollars; they had a wide and profitabletrade; and the only thing they could complain of was the worthless orinfamous character of the majority of the officials which the shamelesscorruption of the Walpole administration sent out to govern--in otherwords, to prey upon--them. But if this was the only subject of complaint, it could not be termed a small subject. It meant the enforcement of theNavigation Acts in their worst form, and the restriction of all manner ofmanufactures. Manufactures would tend to make the colonies set up forthemselves, and therefore they must be forbidden:--such was theundisguised argument. It was a case of the goose laying golden eggs. America had in fact become so enormously valuable that England wanted itto become profit and nothing else--and all the profit to be England's. They still failed to realize that it was inhabited by human beings, andthat those human beings were of English blood. And because the northerncolonies, though the more industrious, produced things which mightinterfere with British goods, therefore they were held down more than thesouthern colonies, which grew only tobacco, sugar, rice and indigo, whichcould in no degree interfere with the sacred shopkeepers and mill-ownersof England. An insanity of blindness and perversity seized upon theEnglish government, and upon most of the people; they actually wereincapable of seeing justice, or even their own best interests. It seemsstrange to us now; but it was a mania, like that of witchcraft, though itlasted thrice as many years as that did months. 

The will of England in respect of the colonies became as despotic asunder the Stuarts; but though it delayed progress, it could not break downthe resistance of the assemblies; and Walpole would consent to nosuggestion looking toward enforcing it by arms. Stamp duties were spokenof, but not enacted. The governors raged and complained, but theassemblies held the purse-strings. Would-be tyrants like Shute of Bostonmight denounce woe, and Crosby of New York bellow treason, but they werefain to succumb. Paper money wrought huge mischief, but nothing couldprevent the growing power and wealth of the colonies, fed, also, by thetroubles in Europe. In 1727 the Irish, always friends of liberty, began toarrive in large numbers. But what was of better augury than all else wasthe birth of two men, one in Virginia, the other in Boston. The latter wasnamed Benjamin Franklin: the former, George Washington. 

CHAPTER ELEVENTH

QUEM JUPITER VULT PERDERE

There are times when, upon nations as upon individuals, there comes awave of evil tendency, which seems to them not evil, but good. Under itsinfluence they do and think things which afterward amaze them in theretrospect. But such ill seasons are always balanced by the presence andopposition of those who desire good, whether from selfish or altruisticmotives. And since good alone has a root, connecting it with the eternalsprings of life, therefore in the end it prevails, and the movement of therace is on the whole, and in the lapse of time, toward better conditions. 

England, during the Eighteenth Century, came under the influence of aselfish spirit which could not but lead her toward disaster, though at thetime it seemed as if it promoted only prosperity and power. She thoughtshe could strengthen her own life by restricting the natural enterpriseand development of her colonies: that she could subsist by sucking humanblood. She believed that by compelling the produce of America to flowtoward herself alone, and by making America the sole recipient of her ownmanufactures, she must be immeasurably and continually benefited; notperceiving that the colonies could never reach the full limit of theirproductiveness unless freedom were conceded to all the impulses of theirenergy, or that the greater the number of those nations who were allowedfreely to supply colonial wants, the greater those wants would become. Moreover, selfishness is never consistent, because it does not respect theselfishness of others; and England, at the same time that she wasmaintaining her own trade monopolies, was illicitly undermining thesimilar monopolies of other nations. She promoted smuggling in the SpanishWest Indies, and made might right in all her dealings with foreignpeoples. The assiento--the treaty giving her exclusive right to supply theWest Indian islands with African slaves--was actively carried out, and theslave-trade reached enormous proportions; it is estimated that from threeto nine millions of Africans were imported into the American and Spanishcolonies during the first half of the Eighteenth Century, yielding arevenue for their importation alone of at least four hundred milliondollars. But the profit did not end there; for their labor on theplantations in the southern colonies (where alone they could be used inappreciable numbers) multiplied the production and diminished the cost ofthe articles of commerce which those colonies raised. There wereindividuals, almost from the beginning, who objected to slavery on groundsof abstract morality; and others who held that a converted African shouldcease to be a slave. But these opinions did not impress the bulk of thepeople; and laws were passed classing negroes with merchandise. "The tradeis very beneficial to the country" was the stereotyped reply to allhumanitarian arguments. The cruelties of transportation in small vesselswere regarded as an unavoidable, if disagreeable, necessity; it waspointed out that the masters of slaves would be prompted by self-interestto treat them well after they were landed; and it was obvious thatnegroes, after a generation of captivity, were less remote fromcivilization than when fresh from Africa. 

The good to balance this ill was supplied by the American colonies. Theirresistance to English selfishness may have been in part animated byselfishness of their own; but it none the less had justice and rightbehind it. In any argument on fundamental principles, the colonists alwayshad the better of it. Their rights as free men and as charteredcommunities were indefeasible, were always asserted, and never given up. They did not hesitate to disregard the more unjust of England's exactionsand restrictions; it was only by such defiance that they maintained theirlife. And against the importation of slaves there was a general feeling, even among the Southern planters; because, not to speak of otherconsiderations, they multiplied there to an alarming extent, and the factthat they cheapened production and lowered prices was manifestly asunwelcome to the planters as it was favorable to English traders. 

But in order to be effective, the protest of a people--theirenlightenment, their virtue and patriotism, their courage and philosophy, their firmness and self-reliance, their hatred of shams, dishonesty andtyranny--must be embodied and summed up in certain individuals among them, who may thus be recognized by the community as their representatives inthe fullest sense, and therefore as their natural champions and leaders. America has never lacked such men, adapted to her need; and at this periodthey were coming to maturity as Franklin and Washington. They will be withus during the critical hours of our formative history, and we shall haveopportunity to measure their characters. Meanwhile there is another goodman deserving of passing attention; not born on our soil, but meriting tobe called, in the best sense, an American. In the midst of a corrupt andself-seeking age, he was unselfish and pure; and while many uttered prettysentiments of philanthropy, and devised fanciful Utopias for thetransfiguration of the human race, he went to work with his hands andpurse as well as with his heart and head, and created a home and happinessfor unhappy and unfortunate people in one of the loveliest and mostfertile spots in the western world. If he was not as wise as Penn, he wasas kind; and if his colony did not succeed precisely as he had planned itshould, at any rate it became a happy and prosperous settlement, whichwould not have existed but for him. He had not fully fathomed the truththat in order to bestow upon man the best chance for earthly felicity, wemust, after having provided him with the environment and the means for it, let him alone to work it out in his own way. But he had such magnanimitythat when he found that his carefully-arranged and detailed schemes wereinefficient, he showed no resentment, and did not try to enforce what hadseemed to him expedient, against the wishes of his beneficiaries; butretired amiably and with dignity, and thus merited the purest gratitudethat men may properly accord to a man. 

James Edward Oglethorpe was already five years old when the EighteenthCentury began. He was a Londoner by birth, and had a fortune which he didnot misuse. He was a valiant soldier against the Turks; he was presentwith Prince Eugene at the capitulation of Belgrade; and he sat for morethan thirty years in Parliament. He died at the age of ninety; thoughthere is a portrait of him extant said to have been taken when he was onehundred and two. If long life be the reward of virtue, he deserved tosurvive at least a century. 

The speculative fever in England had brought about much poverty; anddebtors were lodged in jail in order, one might suppose, to prevent themfrom taking any measures to liquidate their debts. Besides these unhappypersons, there were many Protestants on the Continent who were persecutedfor their faith's sake. England compassionated these persons, havinglearned by experience what persecution is; and did not offer any objectionto a scheme for improving the lot of debtors in her own land, if anyfeasible one could be devised. 

General Oglethorpe had devised one. He was then, according to ourreckoning, a mature man of about seven-and-thirty; he had visited theprisons, and convinced himself that there was neither political economynor humanity in this method of preserving the impecunious class. Why nottake them to America? Why not found a new colony there where men mightdwell in peace and comfort, with the aim not of amassing wealth, but ofliving sober and useful lives? On the southern side of South Carolinathere was a region fitted for such an enterprise, which, owing to itsproximity to the Spanish colony at St. Augustine, had been vexed by borderquarrels; but Oglethorpe, with his military experience, would be able tokeep the Spaniards in their place with one hand, while he was plantinggardens for his proteges with the other. Thus his colony would be usefulon grounds of high policy, as well as for its own ends. And in orderadditionally to conciliate the good will of the home government, controlled as it was by mercantile interests chiefly, the silk-worm shouldbe cultivated there, and England thus saved the duties on the Italianfabrics. Should there be slaves in the new Eden?--On all accounts, No:first because slavery was intrinsically wrong, and secondly because itwould lead to idleness, if not to wealth, among the colonists. For thesame reason, land could only pass to the eldest son, or failing maleissue, back to the state; if permission were given to divide it, or tosell it, there would soon be great landed properties and an aristocracy. Nor should the importation of rum be permitted, for if men have rum, theyare prone to drink it, and drunkenness was incompatible with the kind ofexistence which the good General wished his colonists to lead. In a word, by removing temptations to vice and avarice, he thought he could make hispeople forget that such evils had ever belonged to human nature. Butexperiments founded upon the innate impeccability of man have furnishedmany comedies and not a few tragedies since the world began. 

The Oglethorpe idea, however, appealed to the public, and became a sortof fashionable fad. It was commended, and after Parliament had voted tenthousand pounds toward it, it was everywhere accepted as the correctthing. The charter was given in June, 1732, and a suitable design was notwanting for the corporation seal--silkworms, with the motto, Non Sibi, sedAliis. This might refer either to the colonists or to the patrons, sincethe latter were to receive no emoluments for their services, and theformer were to work for the sake, in part at least, of vindicating thenobility of labor. It is true that the silkworm is an involuntary andunconscious altruist; but we must allow some latitude in symbols; andbesides, all executive and legislative power was given to the trustees, orsuch council as they might choose to appoint. 

In November the general conducted his hundred or more human derelicts toPort Royal, and, going up the stream, chose the site for his city ofSavannah, and laid it out in liberal parallelograms. While it was buildinghe tented beneath a quartette of primeval pines, and exchanged friendlygreetings and promises with the various Indian tribes who sent deputies tohim. A year from that time, the German Protestant refugees began toarrive, and started a town of their own further inland. A party ofMoravians followed; and the two Wesleys aided to introduce an exaltedreligious sentiment which might have recalled the days of the Pilgrims. For the present, all went harmoniously; the debtors were thankful to beout of prison; the religious folk were happy so long as they might wreakthemselves on their religion; and the silk-culture paid a revenue so longas England paid bounties on it. But the time must come when the colonistswould demand to do what they liked with their own land, and other things;when they would import rum by stealth and hardly blush to be found out;when some of the less democratically-minded decided that there wereadvantages in slaves after all; and when some of the more independentdeclared they could not endure oppression, and migrated to other colonies. After struggling a score of years against the inevitable, the trusteessurrendered their trusteeship, and the colony came under the management ofthe Second George. Oglethorpe had long ere this retired to England, afterhaving kept his promise of reducing the Spaniards to order; and at hishome at Cranham Hall in Essex he continued to be the friend of man untilafter the close of the American Revolution. 

The war with Spain, of which Oglethorpe's unsuccessful attack upon St. Augustine and triumphant defense of his own place was but a very minorfeature, raged for a while in the West Indies with no very markedadvantage to either contestant, and then drew the other nations of Europeinto the fray. Nothing creditable was being fought for on either side. England, to be sure, had declared war with the object of expunging Spainfrom America; but it had been only in order that she herself might replaceSpain there as a monopolist. France came in to prevent England fromenjoying this monopoly. The death of the Austrian king and a consequentdispute as to the succession added that power to the melee. Russiareceived an invitation to join, and this finally led to the Peace of AixLa Chapelle in 1748, which replaced all things in dispute just where theywere before innumerable lives and enormous treasure had been expended. Butthe Eighteenth was a fighting Century, for it was the transition periodfrom the old to the new order of civilized life. 

The part borne by the American colonies in this struggle was quitesubordinate and sympathetic; but it was not the less interesting to theAmericans. In 1744 the Six Nations (as the Five had been called since theaccession of the Tuscaroras) made a treaty of alliance with the Englishwhereby the Ohio valley was secured to the latter as against the French--so far, that is, as the Indians could secure it. But the Pennsylvaniansunderstood that more than Indian treaties would be needed against France, and as their country was likely to be among the first involved, theydetermined to raise money and men for the campaign. There were, of course, men in Pennsylvania who were not of the Quaker way of thinking; but eventhe Quakers forbore to oppose the measure, and many of them gave itexplicit approval. The incident gains its chief interest however from thefact that the man most active and efficient in getting both the funds andthe soldiers was Benjamin Franklin, the Boston boy, in whose veins flowedthe blood of both Quaker and Calvinist, but who was himself of far toooriginal a character to be either. He was at this epoch just past forty, and had been a resident of Philadelphia for some twenty years, and afamous printer, writer, and man of mark. He hit upon the scheme--which, like so many of his, was more practical than orthodox--of persuadingdollars out of men's pockets by means of a lottery. He knew that, whatevera fastidious morality might protest, lotteries are friendly to humannature; and if there be any part of human nature with which Franklin wasunacquainted, it has not yet been announced. Having got the money, hisnext care was for the men; and his plans resulted in assembling anorganized force of ten or twelve thousand militiamen. But the energy andingenuity of this incomparable Franklin of ours could be equaled only byhis modesty; he would not accept a colonelcy, but shouldered his musketalong with the rank and file; and doubtless the company to which hebelonged forgot the labors of war in their enjoyment of his wit, humor, anecdotes, parables, and resources of all kinds. 

After so much waste and folly as had marked the conduct of the war inEurope, it is good to hear the tale of the capture of Louisburg. It was anadventure which gave the colonists merited confidence in themselves, andthe character of the little army, and the management of the campaign, werean excellent and suggestive dress rehearsal of the great drama of thirtyyears later. The army was a combination of Yankees with arms in theirhands to effect an object eminently conducive to the common welfare. ForLouisburg was the key to the St. Lawrence, it commanded the fisheries, andit threatened Acadia, or rather Nova Scotia, which was inhabited chieflyby Bretons, liable to afford succor to their belligerent brethren. Thefort had been built, after the close of the former war, by those who hadpreferred not to live under the government of the House of Hanover, on theeastern extremity of the island called Cape Breton, itself lying northeastof the Nova Scotian promontory. The site was good for defense, and thefortifications, scientifically designed, were held to be impregnable. HadLouisburg rested content with being strong, it might have been allowed toremain at peace; but at the beginning of the war, and before the frontierpeople in Nova Scotia had heard of it, a French party swooped down fromLouisburg on the settlement at Canso (the gut between Cape Breton and NovaScotia), destroyed all that was destructible, and carried eighty men asprisoners of war to their stronghold. After keeping them there during thesummer, these men were paroled and went to Boston. This was a mistake onthe Louisburgers' part; for the men had made themselves well acquaintedwith the fortifications and the topography of the neighborhood, and placedthis useful information at the disposal of William Shirley, a lawyer ofability, who was afterward governor of the colony, and a warrior of somenote. It was Shirley's opinion that Louisburg must be taken, and the ideaimmediately became popular. It was the main topic of discussion in Boston, and all over New England, during the autumn and winter; Massachusettsdecided that it could be done, and that she could do it, though the helpof other colonies would be gladly accepted. Yet the feeling was notunanimous, if the vote of the legislature be a criterion; the bill passedthere by a majority of one. Be that as it may, once resolved upon, theenterprise was pushed with ardor, not unmingled with prayer--the oldPuritan leaven reappearing as soon as deeds of real moment were in thewind. In every village and hamlet there was excitement and preparation--the warm courage of men glad to have a chance at the hated fortress, andthe pale bravery of women keeping down the heavy throbbing of their heartsso that their sons and husbands might feel no weakness for their sakes. The fishermen of Marblehead, used to face the storms and fogs of theNewfoundland Banks; the farmers and mechanics, who could hit a Bayshilling (if one could be found in that era of paper money) at fiftypaces; and the hunters, who knew the craft of the Indians and were inuredto every fatigue and hardship--finer material for an army was never gottogether before: independent, bold, cunning, handy, inventive, full ofresource; but utterly ignorant of drill, and indifferent to it. Theirofficers were chosen by themselves, of the same rank and character asthey; their only uniforms were their flintlocks and hangers. They marchedand camped as nature prompted, but they had common-sense developed to theutmost by the exigencies of their daily lives, and they created, simply bybeing together, a discipline and tactics of their own; they even learnedenough of the arts of fortification and intrenchment, during the siege, toserve all their requirements. They had the American instinct to breakloose from tradition and solve problems from an original point of view;they laughed at the jargon and technicalities of conventional war, butthey had their own passwords, and they understood one another in and out. The carpenters and other mechanics among them carried their skill along, and were ever ready to put it in practice for the general behoof. Most ofthem left wives and children at home; but "Suffer no anxious thoughts torest in your mind about me, " writes his wife to Seth Pomeroy, who had sentword to her that he was "willing to stay till God's time comes to deliverthe city into our hands":--"I leave you in the hands of God, " added she;and subjoined, by way of village gossip, that "the whole town is muchengaged with concern for the expedition, how Providence will order theaffair, for which religious meetings every week are maintained. " We canimagine those meetings, held in the village meeting-house, with an infirmold veteran of King William's War to lead in prayer, and the benchesoccupied by the women, devout but spirited, with the little children bytheir sides. What hearty prayers: what sighs irrepressibly heaving thosebrave, tender bosoms; what secret tears, denied by smiles when the facewas lifted from the clasping hands! Righteous prayers, which werefulfilled. 

Over three thousand men went from Massachusetts alone; New Hampshireadded five hundred, and more than that number arrived from Connecticut, after the rest had gone into camp at Canso. The three hundred from littleRhode Island came too late. Other colonies sent rations and money. But thefour thousand were enough, with Pepperel of Kittery for commander, and agood cause. They set out alone while the Cape Breton ice still filled theharbors; for Commodore Warren of the English fleet at Antigua would not goexcept by order from England--which, however, came soon afterward, so thathe and his ships joined them after all before hostilities began. Theexpedition first set eyes on their objective point on the day before Mayday, 1745. 

The fortress bristled with guns of all sizes, and the walls were ofenormous thickness, so that no cannon belonging to the besiegers couldhope to make a breach in them. But the hearts of the garrison were lessstout than their defenses; and when four hundred cheering volunteersapproached a battery on shore, the Frenchmen spiked their guns and ranaway. 

The siege lasted six weeks, with unusually fine weather. In the intervalsof attacks upon the island battery, which resisted them, the men hunted, fished, played rough outdoor games, and kept up their spirits; and theypounded Louisburg gates with their guns; but no advantage was gained; anda night-attack, in the Indian style, was discovered prematurely, andnearly two hundred men were killed or captured. Finally, there seemed tobe nothing for it but to escalade the walls, Warren--who had done nothingthus far except prevent relief from approaching by sea--bombarding thecity meanwhile. It hardly seems possible the attempt could have succeeded;at best, the losses would have been enormous. But at the critical moment, depressed, perhaps, by having witnessed the taking of an incautious Frenchfrigate which had tried to run the blockade, what should the Frenchcommander do but hang out a white flag! Yes, the place had capitulated!The gates that could not be hammered in with cannon-balls were thrownopen, and in crowded the Yankee army, laughing, staring, and thanking theLord of Hosts for His mercies. Truly, it was like David overcomingGoliath, without his sling. It was a great day for New England; and on thesame day thirty years later the British redcoats fell beneath the volleyson Bunker Hill. 

The French tried to recapture the place next year, but storms, pestilenceand other disasters prevented; and the only other notable incident of thewar was the affair of Commander Knowles at Boston in 1747. He was anchoredoff Nantasket with a squadron, when some of his tars deserted, as was notsurprising, considering the sort of commander he was, and the charms ofthe famous town. Knowles, ignorant of the spirit of a Boston mob, impressed a number of wharfmen and seamen from vessels in the harbor; hehad done the same thing before in England, and why not here? But the mobwas on fire at once, and after the timid governor had declined to seizesuch of the British naval officers as were in the town, the crowd, terrible in its anger, came thundering down King Street and played thesheriff for itself. The hair of His Majesty's haughty commanders andlieutenants must have crisped under their wigs when they looked out of thewindows of the coffee-house and saw them. In walks the citizens'deputation, with scant ceremony: protests are unavailing: off to jail HisMajesty's officers must straightway march, leaving their bottles of winehalf emptied, and their chairs upset on the sawdusted floor; and in jailmust they abide, until those impressed Bostonians have been liberated. Itwas a wholesome lesson; and among the children who ran and shouted besidethe procession to the prison were those who, when they were men grown, threw the tea into Boston Harbor. 

In 1748 the Peace was made, and the Duke of Newcastle, a flighty, trivialand faithless creature, gave place to the strict, honest, and narrow Dukeof Bedford as Secretary of the Colonies. The colonies had been under thecharge of the Board of Commissioners, who could issue what orders theychose, but had no power to enforce them; and as the colonial assembliesslighted their commands except when it pleased them to do otherwise, muchexasperation ensued on the Commissioners' part. The difficulties wouldhave been minimized had it not been the habit of Newcastle to send out ascolonial officials the offscourings of the British aristocracy: and when aBritish aristocrat is worthless, nothing can be more worthless than he. The upshot of the situation was that the colonists did what they pleased, regardless of orders from home; while yet the promulgation of thoseorders, aiming to defend injustices and iniquities, kept up a chronic andgrowing disaffection toward England. So it had been under Newcastle, whohad uniformly avoided personal annoyance by omitting to read the constantcomplaints of the Commissioners; but Bedford was a man of another stamp, fond of business, granite in his decisions, and resolved to be master inhis department. It was easy to surmise that his appointment would hastenthe drift of things toward a crisis. England would not tamely relinquishher claim to absolute jurisdiction over her colonies. But the bulwarks ofpopular liberty were rising in America, and every year saw themstrengthened and more ably manned. English legislative opposition onlydefined and solidified the colonial resistance. What was to be the result?There would be no lack of English statesmen competent to consider it; menlike Pitt, Murray and Townshend were already above the horizon of history. But it was not by statesmanship that the issue was to be decided. Man isproud of his intellect; but it is generally observable that it is thearmed hand that settles the political problems of the world. 

There were in the colonies men of ability, and of consideration, who weretraitors to the cause of freedom. Such were Thomas Hutchinson, a plausiblehypocrite, not devoid of good qualities, but intent upon filling hispockets from the public purse; Oliver, a man of less ability but equalavarice; and William Shirley, the scheming lawyer from England, who hadmade America his home in order to squeeze a living out of it. These menwent to England to promote the passage of a law insuring a regular revenuefor the civil list from the colonists, independent of the latter'sapproval; the immediate pretext being that money was needed to protect thecolonies against French encroachments. The several assemblies refused toconsent to such a tax; and the question was then raised whether Parliamenthad not the right to override the colonists' will. Lord Halifax, the FirstCommissioner, was urgent in favor of the proposition; he was an ignorant, arbitrary man, who laid out a plan for the subjugation of the colonies aslightly and willfully as he might have directed the ditch-digging andfence-building on his estates. Murray, afterward Lord Mansfield, held thatParliament had the requisite power; but in the face of the united protestof the colonies, that body laid the measure aside for the present. Meanwhile the conditions of future trouble were preparing in the OhioValley, where French and English were making conflicting claims andplanting rival stations; and in Nova Scotia, where the town of Halifax wasfounded in an uninviting fir forest, and the project was mooted oftransporting the French Acadians to some place or places where they wouldcease to constitute a peril by serving as a stage for French machinationsagainst the English rule. 

Another and final war with France was already appearing inevitable; thecolonists must bear a hand in it, but they also were at odds with Englandherself on questions vital to their prosperity and happiness. In thewelter of events of the next few years we find a mingling of conditionsdeliberately created (with a view, on England's part, of checking theindependent tendencies of the Americans and of forcing tribute from them)and of unforeseen occurrences due to fortuitous causes beyond thecalculation and control of persons in power. Finally, the declaration ofwar against France in 1756--though it had unofficially existed at leasttwo years before--and its able management by the great Pitt, enabledEngland to dictate a peace in 1763 giving her all she asked for in Europeand the East, and the whole of the French possessions in America, besidesislands in the West Indies. Her triumph was great; but she did not foresee(though a few acute observers did) that this great conquest would within afew years fall into the hands of the colonists, making them potentiallythe greatest of nations. At the era of the Revolution, the whiteinhabitants in the colonies numbered about two millions, and the blackabout half a million. 

In 1754, the French had upward of sixty posts west of the Alleghanies, and were sending expeditions to drive out whatever Englishmen could befound. The Indian tribes who believed themselves to own the land werearoused, and appealed to the Americans to assist them; which the latterwere willing to do, though not for the Indians' sake. Virginia wasespecially concerned, because she claimed beyond the western mountains, and had definite designs in that direction. In order to find out just whatthe disposition of the French might be, Robert Dinwiddie, a Scot, governorof Virginia, selected a trustworthy envoy to proceed to the Frenchcommanders in the disputed districts and ask their purposes. His choicefell upon George Washington, a young man of blameless character, steady, courageous and observant, wise in judgment and of mature mind, though hewas but one and twenty years of age. He was the son of a Virginia planter, had had such schooling as his neighborhood afforded until he was sixteen, and had then begun life as a surveyor--a good calling in a country whoseinhabitants were daily increasing and whose lands were practicallylimitless. Life in the open air, and the custom of the woods and hills, had developed a frame originally powerful into that of a tall and hardenedathlete, able to run, wrestle, swim, leap, ride, as well as to use themusket and the sword. His intellect was not brilliant, but it was clear, and his habit of thought methodical; he was of great modesty, yet one ofthose who rise to the emergency, and are kindled into greater and greaterpower by responsibilities or difficulties which would overwhelm feebler orless constant natures. None would have been less likely than Washingtonhimself to foretell his own greatness; but when others believed in him hewas compelled by his religious and conscientious nature to act up to theirbelief. The marvelous selflessness of the man, while it concealed from himwhat he was, immeasurably increased his power to act; to do his duty wasall that he ever proposed to himself, and therefore he was able toconcentrate his every faculty on that alone. The lessons of experiencewere never thrown away upon him, and his faith in an overruling Providencerendered him calm at all times, except on the rare occasions when somesubordinate's incompetence or negligence at a critical moment caused toburst forth in him that terrific wrath which was more appalling to itsobject than the guns of a battery. There was always great personal dignityin Washington, insomuch that nothing like comradeship, in the familiarsense, was ever possible to any one with him; he was totally devoid of thesense of humor, and was therefore debarred from one whole region of humansympathies which Franklin loved to dwell in. It is one of the marvels ofhistory that a man with a mind of such moderate compass as Washington'sshould have gained the reputation, which he amply deserved, of being theforemost American of his age, and one of the leading figures in humanannals. But, in truth, we attach far too much weight to intellect in ourestimates of human worth. Washington, was competent for the work that wasgiven him to do, and that work was one of the most important that everfell to the lot of a man. Faith, firmness, integrity, grasp, simplicity, and the exceptional physical endowment which enabled him to support thetremendous fatigues and trials of his campaigns, and of the opposition heencountered from selfish and shortsighted politicians in Congress--thesequalities were almost sufficient to account for Washington. Almost, butperhaps not quite; there must have been in addition an inestimablepersonal equation which fused all into a harmonious individuality thatisolates him in our regard: a wholeness, which can be felt, but which ishardly to be set down in phrases. 

Washington's instructions required him to proceed to Venango andWaterford, a distance of more than four hundred miles, through forests andover mountains, with rivers to cross and hostile Indians to beware of; andit was the middle of November when he set out, with the most inclementseason of the year before him. Kit Gist, a hunter and trapper of the NattyBumppo order, was his guide; they laid their course through the dense butnaked forests as a mariner over a sullen sea. Four or five attendants, including an interpreter, made up the party. Day after day they rode, sleeping at night round a fire, with the snow or the freezing rain fallingon their blankets, and the immense silence of the winter woods aroundthem. On the 23d of the month they came to the point of junction betweentwo great rivers--the Monongahela and the Alleghany. A wild and solitaryspot it was, hardly visited till then by white men; the land on the forkwas level and broad, with mighty trees thronging upon it; opposite weresteep bluffs. The Alleghany hurried downward at the rate a man would walk;the Monongahela loitered, deep and glassy. Washington had acted asadjutant of a body of Virginia troops for the past two or three years, andhe examined the place with the eyes of a soldier as well as of a surveyor. It seemed to him that a fort and a town could be well placed there; but inthe pure frosty air of that ancient forest, untenanted save by wildbeasts, there was no foreshadowing of the grimy smoke and roar, theflaring smelting-works, the crowded and eager population of the Pittsburghthat was to be. Having fixed the scene in his memory, Washington rode hishorse down the river bank, and plunging into the icy current, swam across. On the northwest shore a fire was built, where the party dried theirgarments, and slept the sleep of frontiersmen. 

Conducted now by the Delawares, they crossed low-lying, fertile lands toLogstown, where they got news of a junction between French troops fromLouisiana and from Erie. Arriving in due season at Venango, Washingtonfound the French officer in command there very positive that the Ohio wastheirs, and that they would keep it; they admitted that the Englishoutnumbered them; but "they are too dilatory, " said the Frenchman, staringup with an affectation of superciliousness at the tall, blue-eyed youngVirginian. The latter thanked the testy Gaul, with his customary gravecourtesy, and continued his journey to Fort Le Boeuf. It was a structurecharacteristic of the place and period; a rude but effective redoubt oflogs and clay, with the muzzles of cannon pouting from the embrasures, andmore than two hundred boats and canoes for the trip down the river. "Ishall seize every Englishman in the valley, " was the polite assurance ofthe commander; but, being a man of pith himself, he knew another when hesaw him, and offered Washington the hospitalities of the post. But theserious young soldier had no taste for hobnobbing, and returned at once toVenango, where he found his horses unavailable, and continued southward onfoot, meeting bad weather and deep snow. He borrowed a deerskin shirt andleggins from the tallest of the Indians, dismissed his attendants, leftthe Indian trail, and struck out for the Forks by compass, with Gist ashis companion. A misguided red man, hoping for glory from the whitechief's scalp, prepared an ambush, and as Washington passed within a fewpaces, pulled the trigger on him. He did not know that the destiny of halfthe world hung upon his aim; but indeed the bullet was never molded thatcould draw blood from Washington. The red man missed; and the next momentGist had him helpless, with a knife at his throat. But no: the man whocould pour out the lives of his country's enemies, and of his ownsoldiers, without stint, when duty demanded it, and could hang a gallantand gently nurtured youth as a spy, was averse from bloodshed when onlyhis insignificant self was concerned. Gist must sulkily put up his knife, and the would-be assassin was suffered to depart in peace. But in order toavoid the possible consequences of this magnanimity, the envoy and hiscompanion traveled without pausing for more than sixty miles. And then, here was the Alleghany to cross again, and no horse to help one. Swimmingwas out of the question, even for the iron Washington, for the river washurtling with jagged cakes of ice. 

A day's hacking with a little hatchet cut down trees enough--not appletrees--to make a raft, on which they adventured; but in mid-streamWashington's pole upset him, and he was fain to get ashore on an island. There must they pass the night; and so cold was it, that the next morningthey were able to reach the mainland dry shod, on the ice. What wascrossing the Delaware (almost exactly twenty-three years afterward)compared to this? Washington was destined to do much of his work amid snowand ice; but for aught anybody could say, the poles or the equator wereall one to him. 

In consequence of his report a fort was begun on the site of Pittsburgh, and he was appointed lieutenant-colonel to take charge of it, with ahundred and fifty men, and orders to destroy whomsoever presumed to stayhim. Two hundred square miles of fertile Ohio lands were to be theirreward. An invitation to other colonies to join in the assertion ofEnglish ownership met with scanty response, or none at all. The idea of aunion was in the air, but it was complicated with that old bugbear of aregular revenue to be exacted by act of Parliament, which Shirley and theothers still continued to press with hungry zeal; while the assemblieswere not less set upon making all grants annual, with specifications as toperson and object. While the matter hung in the wind, the Virginians wereexposed to superior forces; but in the spring of 1754 Washington, withforty men, surprised a party under Jumonville, defeated them, killedJumonville, and took the survivors prisoners. Washington was exposed tothe thickest showers of the bullets; they whistled to him familiarly, and"believe me, " he assured a correspondent, "there is something charming inthe sound. " His life was to be sweetened by a great deal of that kind ofcharm. 

But the French were gathering like hornets, and the Lieutenant-colonelmust needs take refuge in a stockaded post named Fort Necessity, where hissmall force was besieged by seven hundred French and Indians who, in anine hours' attack, killed thirty of his men, but used up most of theirown ammunition. A parley resulted in Washington's marching out with allhis survivors and their baggage and retiring from the Ohio valley. The warwas begun; and it is worth noting that Washington's command to "Fire!" onJumonville's party was the word that began it. But still the othercolonists held off. The Six Nations began to murmur: "The French are men, "said they; "you are like women. " In June, 1754, a convocation or congressof deputies from all colonies north of the Potomac came together atAlbany. Franklin was among them, with the draught of a plan of union inhis ample pocket, and dauntless and deep thoughts in his broad mind. Hewas always far in advance of his time; one of the most "modern" men ofthat century; but he had the final excellence of wisdom which consists innever forcing his contemporaries to bite off more than there wasreasonable prospect of their being able to chew. He lifted them gently upstep after step of the ascent toward the stars. 

Philadelphia is a central spot (this was the gist of his proposal), solet it be the seat of our federal government. Let us have a triennialgrand council to originate bills, allowing King George to appoint thegovernor-general who may have a negative voice, and who shall choose themilitary officers, as against the civil appointees of the council. All warmeasures, external land purchases and organization, general laws and taxesshould be the province of the federal government, but each colony shouldkeep its private constitution, and money should issue only by commonconsent. Once a year should the council meet, to sit not more than sixweeks, under a speaker of their own choosing. --In the debate, the schemewas closely criticised, but the suave wielder of the lightning gentlydisarmed all opponents, and won a substantial victory--"not altogether tomy mind"; but he insisted upon no counsel of perfection. England, and someof the colonies themselves, were somewhat uneasy after thinking it over;mutual sympathy is not created by reason. England doubted on othergrounds; a united country might be more easy to govern than thirteen whoeach demanded special treatment; but then, what if the federation declineto be governed at all? Meanwhile, there was the federation; and Franklin, looking westward, foresaw the Nineteenth Century. 

[Illustration: Death of General Braddock]

Doubtless, however, outside pressure would be necessary to re-enforce thesomewhat lukewarm sentiment among the colonies in favor of union. A reviewof their several conditions at this time would show general prosperity andenjoyment of liberty, but great unlikenesses in manners and customs andprivate prejudices. Virginia, most important of the southern group, showedthe apparent contradiction of a people with republican ideas living afterthe style of aristocrats; breeding great gentlemen like Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Patrick Henry, who were to be leaders in the workof founding and defending the first great democracy of the world. Marylandwas a picturesque principality under the rule of a dissolute young prince, who enjoyed a great private revenue from his possessions, and yetinterfered but little with the individual freedom of his subjects. Pennsylvania was administering itself on a basis of sheer civic equality, and was absorbing from Franklin the principles of liberal thought andeducation. New York was so largely tinged with Dutchmanship that itresented more than the others the authority of alien England, and foughtits royal governors to the finish. New England was an aggregation ofindependent towns, each a little democracy, full of religious andeducational vigor. In Delaware, John Woolman the tailor was denouncingslavery with all the zeal and arguments of the Garrisons of a centurylater. These were incongruous elements to be bound into a fagot; but therewas a policy being consolidated in England which would presently give themgood reason for standing together to secure rights which were moreprecious than private pet traditions and peculiarities. Newcastle becamehead of the English government; he appointed the absurd Duke ofCumberland, captain-general of the English army, to the direction ofAmerican military affairs; and he picked out an obstinate, ruffianly, stupid martinet of a Perthshire Scotchman, sixty years old and of ruinedfortunes, to lead the English forces against the French in America. Braddock went over armed with the new and despotic mutiny bill, and withdirections to divest all colonial army officers of their rank while in hisservice. He was also to exact a revenue by royal prerogative, and thegovernors were to collect a fund to be expended for colonial militaryoperations. This was Newcastle's notion of what was suitable for theoccasion. In the meantime Shirley, persistently malevolent, advocatedparliamentary taxation of the colonies and a congress of royal governors;and to the arguments of Franklin against the plan, suggested colonialrepresentation in Parliament: which Franklin disapproved unless allcolonial disabilities be removed, and they become in all politicalrespects an integral portion of England. During the discussion, thecolonies themselves were resisting the royal prerogative with embarrassingunanimity. Braddock, on landing and finding no money ready, was exceedingwroth; but the helpless governors told him that nothing short of an act ofParliament would suffice; possibly not even that. Taxation was the one cryof every royal office-holder in America. What sort of a tax should it be?--Well, a stamp-tax seemed the easiest method: a stamp, like a mosquito, sucks but little blood at a time, but mosquitoes in the aggregate draw agreat deal. But the stamp act was to be delayed eleven years more, andthen its authors were to receive an unpleasant surprise. 

There was a strong profession of reluctance on both the French andEnglish side to come formally to blows; both sent large bodies of troopsto the Ohio valley, "but only for defense. " Braddock was ready to advancein April, if only he had "horses and carriages"; which by Franklin'sexertions were supplied. The bits of dialogue and comment in which thisgrizzled nincompoop was an interlocutor, or of which he was the theme, areas amusing as a page from a comedy of Shakespeare. Braddock has beencalled brave; but the term is inappropriate; he could fly into a rage whenhis brutal or tyrannical instincts were questioned or thwarted, and becomeinsensible, for a time, even to physical danger. Ignorance, folly andself-conceit not seldom make a man seem fearless who is a poltroon atheart. Braddock's death was a better one than he deserved; he raged aboutthe field like a dazed bull; fly he could not; he was incapable ofadopting any intelligent measures to save his troops; on the contrary hekept reiterating conventional orders in a manner that showed his wits weregone. The bullet that dropped him did him good service; but his honor wasso little sensitive that he felt no gratitude at being thus saved theconsequences of one of the most disgraceful and willfully incurred defeatsthat ever befell an English general. The English troops upon whom, according to Braddock, "it was impossible that the savages should make anyimpression, " huddled together, and shot down their own officers in theirblundering volleys. In the narrow wood path they could not see the enemy, who fired from behind trees at their leisure. Half of the men, andsixty-three out of the eighty-six officers, were killed or wounded. Inthat hell of explosions, smoke, yells and carnage, Washington wasclear-headed and alert, and passed to and fro amid the rain of bullets asif his body were no more mortal than his soul. The contingent of Virginiatroops--the "raw American militia, " as Braddock had called them, "who havelittle courage or good will, from whom I expect almost no militaryservice, though I have employed the best officers to drill them":--thesemen did almost the only fighting that was done on the English side, butthey were too few to avert the disaster. 

The expedition had set out from Turtle Creek on the Monongahela on theninth of July--twelve hundred men. The objective point was Fort Duquesne, "which can hardly detain me above three or four days, " remarked the dullcurmudgeon. No scouts were thrown out: they walked straight into theambuscade which some two hundred French and six hundred Indians hadprepared for them. The slaughter lasted two hours; there was nomaneuvering. Thirty men of the three Virginia companies were left alive;they stood their ground to the last, while the British regulars "ran assheep before hounds, " leaving everything to the enemy. Washington didwhatever was possible to prevent the retreat from becoming a blind panic. When the rout reached the camp, Dunbar, the officer in charge there, destroyed everything, to the value of half a million dollars, and ran withthe rest. Reviewing the affair, Franklin remarks with a demure arching ofthe eyebrow that it "gave us Americans the first suspicion that ourexalted ideas of the prowess of British regular troops had not been wellfounded. "

It was indeed an awakening for the colonists. For all their boldresistance to oppression, they had never ceased to believe that an Englishsoldier was the supreme and final expression of trained and disciplinedforce; and now, before their almost incredulous eyes, the flower of theBritish army had been beaten, and the bloody remnant stampeded into ashameful flight by a few hundred painted savages and Frenchmen. They allhad been watching Braddock's march; and they never forgot the lesson ofhis defeat. From that time, the British regular was to them only a"lobster-back, " more likely, when it came to equal conflict withthemselves, to run away than to stand his ground. 

Instead of throwing themselves into the arms of France, however, thecolonists loyally addressed themselves to helping King George out of hisscrape; and though they would not let him tax them, they hesitated not totax themselves. 

Pennsylvania raised fifty thousand pounds, and Massachusetts sent neareight thousand men to aid in driving the French from the northern border. Acadia's time had come. Though the descendants of the Breton peasants, whodated their settlement from 1604, had since the Peace of Utrecht nominallybelonged to England, yet their sentiments and mode of life had beenunaltered; Port Royal had been little changed by calling it Annapolis, andthe simple, old-fashioned Catholics loved their homes with all thetenacity of six unbroken generations. Their feet were familiar in thepaths of a hundred and fifty quiet and industrious years; their housesnestled in their lowly places like natural features of the landscape;their fields and herds and the graves of their forefathers sweetened andconsecrated the land. They were a chaste, industrious, homely, pious, butnot an intellectual people; and to such the instinct of home is farstronger than in more highly cultivated races. They had prospered in theirmodest degree, and multiplied; so that now they numbered sixteen thousandmen, women and children. During the past few years, however, they had beensubjected to the unrestrained brutality of English administration in itsworst form; they had no redress at law, their property could be taken fromthem without payment or recourse; if they did not keep their tyrant'sfires burning, "the soldiers shall absolutely take their houses for fuel. "Estate-titles, records, all that could identify and guarantee theirownership in the means and conditions of livelihood, were taken; eventheir boats and their antiquated firearms were sequestrated. And orderswere actually given to the soldiers to punish any misbehavior summarilyupon the first Acadian who came to hand, whether or not he were guilty of, or aware of, the offense, and with absolutely no concern for the formalityof arrest or trial. In all the annals of Spanish brutality, there isnothing more disgraceful to humanity than the systematic and enjoinedtreatment of these innocent Bretons by the English, even before theconsummating outrage which made the whole civilized world stare inindignant amazement. 

It is a matter for keen regret that men born on our soil should have beeneven involuntarily associated with this episode. The design was kept asecret from all until the last moment; but one could wish that someAmerican had then committed an act of insubordination, though at the costof his life, by way of indicating the detestation which all civilized andhumane minds must feel for such an act. The colonists knew the value ofliberty; they had made sacrifices for it; they had felt the shadow ofoppression; and they might see, in the treatment of the Acadians, whatwould have been their fate had they yielded to the despotic instincts ofEngland. The best and the worst that can be said of them is that theyobeyed orders, and looked on while the iniquity was being perpetrated. 

The force of provincials and regulars landed without molestation, andcaptured the feeble forts with the loss of but twenty killed. The Acadiansagreed to take the oath of fidelity, but stipulated not to be forced tobear arms against their own countrymen. General Charles Lawrence, thelieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, replied to their plea that they beallowed to have their boats and guns, that it was "highly arrogant, insidious and insulting"; and Halifax, another of the companions ininfamy, added that they wanted their boats for "carrying provisions to theenemy"--there being no enemy nearer than Quebec. As for the guns, "AllRoman Catholics are restrained from having arms, and are subject topenalties if arms are found in their houses. "--"Not the want of arms, butour consciences, would engage us not to revolt, " pleaded the unhappy men. --"What excuse can you make, " bellows Halifax, "for treating thisgovernment with such indignity as to expound to them the nature offidelity?" The Acadians agreed to take the oath unconditionally: "ByBritish statute, " they were thereupon informed, "having once refused, youcannot after take the oath, but are popish recusants. " Chief-justiceBelcher, a third of these British moguls, declared they obstructed theprogress of the settlement, and that all of them should be deported fromthe province. Proclamation was then made, ordering them to assemble attheir respective posts; and in the morning they obeyed, leaving theirhomes, to which, though they knew it not, they were never to return. "Yourlands and tenements, cattle of all kinds, and livestock of all sorts, areforfeited to the crown, " they were told, "and you yourselves are to beremoved from this province. " They were kept prisoners, without food, tillthe ships should be ready. Not only were they torn from their homes, butfamilies were separated, sons from their mothers, husbands from theirwives, daughters from their parents, and, as Longfellow has pictured tous, lovers from one another. Those who tried to escape were hunted by thesoldiers like wild beasts, and "if they can find a pretext to kill them, they will, " said a British officer. They were scattered, helpless, friendless and destitute, all up and down the Atlantic coast, and theirvillages were laid waste. Lord Loudoun, British commander-in-chief inAmerica, on receiving a petition from some of them written in French, wasso enraged not only at their petitioning, but that they should presume todo so in their own language, that he had five of their leading menarrested, consigned to England, and sent as common seamen on Englishmen-of-war. No detail was wanting, from first to last, to make the crimeof the Acadian deportation perfect; and only an Irishman, Edmund Burke, lifted his voice to say that the deed was inhuman, and done "uponpretenses that, in the eye of an honest man, are not worth a farthing. "But Burke was not in Parliament until eleven years after the Acadians werescattered. 

The incident, from an external point of view, does not belong to thehistory of the United States. Yet is it pertinent thereto, as showing ofwhat enormities the English of that age were capable. Their entire conductduring this French war was dishonorable, and often atrocious. Forgettingthe facts of history, we often smile at the grumblings of the Continentalnations anent "Perfidious Albion" and "British gold. " But the actscommitted by the English government during these years fully justify everycharge of corruption, treachery and political profligacy that has everbeen brought against them. It was a strange age, in which a great andnoble people were mysteriously hurried into sins, follies and disgracesseemingly foreign to their character. It was because the people hadsurrendered their government into alien and shameless hands. They deservedtheir punishment; for it is nothing less than a crime, having knownliberty, either to deny it to others, or for the sake of earthly advantageto consent to any compromise of it in ourselves. 

CHAPTER TWELFTH

THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM AND THE STAMP ACT

The gathering of soldiers from France, England and the colonies, and therousing of the Indians on one side and the other, made the great forestwhich stretched across northern New York and New England populous withtroops and resonant with the sounds of war. Those solemn woodland aislesand quiet glades were desecrated by marchings and campings, and in theravines and recesses lay the corpses of men in uniforms, the grim remainsof peasants who had been born three thousand miles away. Passing throughthe depths of the wilderness, apparently remote from all human habitation, suddenly one would come upon a fortress, frowning with heavy guns, andsurrounded by the log-built barracks of the soldiery, who, in theintervals of siege and combat, passed their days impatiently, thinking ofthe distant homes from which they came, and muttering their discontent atinaction and uncertainty. The region round the junction of Lake George andLake Champlain, where stood the strongholds of Fort Edward and FortWilliam Henry, of Crown Point and Ticonderoga, was the scene of manydesperate conflicts, between 1758 and 1780; and the wolves of the forest, and the bears of the Vermont mountains, were disturbed in their lairs bythe tumults and the restless evolutions, and wandered eastward until theycame among the startled hamlets and frontier farms of the settlements. Thesavagery of man, surpassing theirs, drove them to seek shelter amid theabodes of man himself; but there was no safety for them there, as many abloody head and paws, trophies of rustic marksmanship, attested. Thedominion of the wilderness was approaching its end in America. Everywhereyou might hear the roll of the drum, and there was no family but had itssoldier, and few that did not have their dead. There were a score ofthousand British troops in the northern provinces, and every week broughtrumors and alarms, and portents of victory or defeat. The haggardpost-rider came galloping in with news from north and west, which thethrong of anxious village folks gather to hear. There have beenskirmishes, successes, retreats, surprises, massacres, retaliations; thereis news from Niagara and Oswego on far away Lake Ontario, and echoes ofthe guns at Ticonderoga. There are proclamations for enlistment, andrequisitions for ammunition; and the tailors in the towns are busy cuttingout scarlet uniforms and decorating them with gold braid. Markets for thesupply of troops are established in the woods, far from any settledhabitations, where shrewd farmers bargain with the hungry soldiery forcarcasses of pigs and beeves, and for disheveled hens from distantfarmyards; the butcher's shop is kept under the spreading brandies of thetrees, from whose low limbs dangle the tempting wares, and a stump servesas a chopping-block. Under the shrubbery, where the sun cannot penetrate, are stored home-made firkins full of yellow butter, and great cheeses, andheaps of substantial home-baked bread. Kegs of hard cider and spruce beerand perhaps more potent brews are abroach, and behind the haggling andjesting and bustle you may catch the sound of muskets or the whoop of theIndians from afar. Meanwhile, in the settlements, all manner of industrieswere stimulated, and a great number of women throughout the country, leftto take care of their children and themselves by the absence of theirmen-folk, went into business of all kinds, and drove a thriving trade. Lotteries were also popular, the promoters retaining a good share of theprofits after the nominal object of the transaction had been attained. Itwas well that the war operations were carried on far from the populousregions, so that only the fighters themselves were involved in theimmediate consequences. The battle was for the homes of posterity, whereas yet the woodman's ax had never been heard, except to provide defensesagainst death, instead of habitations for life. Those who could not go tothe war sat round the broad country hearthstones at night, with the fireof logs leaping up the great cavern of the chimney, telling stories ofpast exploits, speculating as to the present, praying perhaps for thefuture, and pausing now and then to listen to strange noises abroad in thenight-ridden sky--strains of ghostly music playing a march or a charge, orthe thunder of phantom guns. 

Governor Shirley, who while in France in 1749 had married a French wifeand brought her home with him, and who for a while had the chief commandof the king's forces in America, was in disfavor with the people, whosuspected his wife of sending treasonable news to the enemy; and havingalso proved inefficient as a soldier, he was recalled to England in 1756, and vanished thenceforth as a factor in American affairs, in which hisinfluence had always been selfish and illiberal, if not worse. ThomasPownall succeeded him and held his position for three years, when he wastransferred to South Carolina. He was a man of fashion, and of littleweight. From the shuffle of men who appeared and disappeared during theearly years of the war, a few stand out in permanent distinctness. Washington's reputation steadily increased; Amherst, Wolfe and Lymanachieved distinction on the English side, and Montcalm and Dieskau on theFrench. In 1757, General Loudoun, one of the agents of the despoiling ofAcadia, made a professed attempt to capture Louisburg, which had beengiven back to the French at the last peace; but after wasting a summer invain drilling of his forces, retired in dismay on learning that the Frenchfleet outnumbered his own by one vessel. The place was bombarded and takenthe next year by Amherst and Wolfe, but Halifax was the Englishheadquarters in that region. Before this however, in the summer of 1755, immediately after the defeat of Braddock, an army of New Englandersassembled at Albany to capture Crown Point, where the French had calledtogether every able-bodied man available. William Johnson was commander, and associated with him was Phinehas Lyman, a natural-born soldier. Theymarched to the southern shore of what the French called the Lake of theHoly Sacrament, but which Johnson thought would better be named LakeGeorge. The army, with its Indian allies, numbered about thirty-fourhundred; a camping ground was cleared, but no intrenchments were thrownup; no enemy seemed to be within reach. Dieskau, informed of the advance, turned from his design against Oswego in the west, and marched for FortEdward, in the rear of Johnson's troops. By a mistake of the guide hefound himself approaching the open camp. Johnson sent a Massachusetts man, Ephraim Williams, with a thousand troops, to save Fort Edward. They nearlyfell into an ambush; as it was, their party was overpowered by the enemy;Williams was killed, but Whiting of Connecticut guarded the retreat. During the action, a redoubt of logs had been constructed in the camp, andwas strengthened with baggage and wagons. The Americans, with theirfowling-pieces, defended this place for five hours against two hundredregular French troops, six hundred Canadians, and as many Indians. Johnsonreceived a scratch early in the engagement, and made it an excuse toretire; and Lyman assumed direction. Dieskau bravely led the Frenchregulars, nearly all of whom were killed; he was four times wounded; theCanadians were intimidated. At length, about half past four in theafternoon, the French retreated, though the American losses equaledtheirs; a body of them were pursued by Macginnes of New Hampshire and lefttheir baggage behind them in their haste; but the body of Macginnes alsoremained on the field. The credit for this battle, won by Lyman, was givenby the English government to Johnson, who received a baronetcy and a "tip"of five thousand pounds. It would have been the first step in a series ofsuccesses had not Johnson, instead of following up his victory, timidlyremained in camp, building Fort William Henry; and when winter approached, he disbanded the New Englanders and retired. The French had takenadvantage of their opportunity to intrench themselves in Ticonderoga, which was destined to become a name of awe for the colonists. At the sametime that Braddock marched on Fort Duquesne, Shirley had set out with twothousand men to capture the fort at Niagara, garrisoned by but thirtyill-armed men; the intention being to form a junction there with theall-conquering Braddock. The latter's annihilation took all the heart outof the superserviceable Shirley; he got no further than Oswego, where hefrittered the summer away, and then retreated under a cloud of pretexts. He and the other royal officials were all this while pleading for ageneral fund to be created by Parliament, or in any other manner, so thata fund there be; and asserting that the frontiers would otherwise be, andin fact were, defenseless. In the face of such tales the colonies were oftheir own motion providing all the necessary supplies for war, andFranklin had taken personal charge of the northwest border. But theEnglish ministry saw in these measures only increasing peril from popularpower, and pushed forward a scheme for a military dictatorship. In May, 1756, war was formally declared, and England arbitrarily forbade othernations to carry French merchandise in their ships. Abercrombie was chosengeneral for the prosecution of the campaign in America, and arrived atAlbany, after much dilatoriness, in June. Bradstreet reported that he hadput stores into Oswego for five thousand men; and that the place wasalready threatened by the enemy. Still the English delayed. Montcalmarrived at Quebec to lead the French army, and immediately planned thecapture of Oswego. In August he took an outlying redoubt, and the garrisonof Oswego surrendered just as he was about to open fire upon it. Sixteenhundred prisoners, over a hundred cannon, stores, boats and money were theprize; and Montcalm destroyed the fort and returned in triumph. Loudounand Abercrombie, with an army of thousands of men, which could have takenCanada with ease, thought only of keeping out of Montcalm's way, pleadingin excuse that they feared to trust the "provincials"--who had thus fardone all the fighting that had been done, and won all the successes. Inspite of the remonstrances of the civic authorities, the British troopsand officers were billeted upon New York and Philadelphia. Two morefrightened generals were never seen; and the provinces were left open tothe enemy's attack. But the Americans took the war into their own hands. John Armstrong of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, crossed the Alleghaniesin September and in a desperate fight destroyed an Indian tribe that hadbeen massacring along the border, burned their town and blew up theirpowder. In January of 1757, Stark, a daring ranger, with seventy men, madea dash on Lake George, and engaged a party of two hundred and fiftyFrench. About the same time, at Philadelphia and Boston it was voted toraise men for the service; a hundred thousand pounds was also voted, butthe proprietors refused to pay their quota, and represented in Englandthat the Pennsylvanians were obstructing the measures for defense. Franklin, sent to England to remonstrate, was told that the king was thelegislator of the colonies. All action was paralyzed by the corruption andcowardice of the royal officials. The pusillanimity of Loudoun, with histen thousand men and powerful fleet in Nova Scotia, has been alreadymentioned. In July Montcalm, with a mixed force of more than seventhousand, advanced upon Fort William Henry. Webb, who should have opposedhim, retreated, leaving Monro with five hundred men to hold the fort. Herefused Montcalm's summons to surrender; Webb, who might still have savedhim, refused to do so; he fought until his ammunition was gone and halfhis guns burst, and then surrendered upon Montcalm's promise of the honorsof war and an escort out of the country. But the Indians had got rum fromthe English stores and passed the night in drunken revelry; in the morningthey set upon the unarmed English as they left the fort, and began toplunder and tomahawk them. Montcalm and his officers did their utmost tostop the treacherous outrage; but thirty men were murdered. Montcalm hasbeen treated leniently by history; he was indeed a brilliant and heroicsoldier, and he had the crowning honor of dying bravely at Quebec; but hecannot be held blameless in this affair. He had taught the Indians that hewas as one of themselves, had omitted no means of securing their amity;had danced and sung with them and smiled approvingly on their butcheringsand scalpings; and he had no right to imagine that they would believe himsincere in his promise to spare the prisoners. It was too late for him tocry "Kill me, but spare them!" after the massacre had commenced. It washis duty to have taken measures to render such a thing impossiblebeforehand. He had touched pitch, and was denied. 

Disgrace and panic reigned among all the English commanders. Webbwhimpered to be allowed to fall back on the Hudson with his six thousandmen; Loudoun cowered in New York with his large army, and could think ofno better way of defending the northwest frontier than by intrenchinghimself on Long Island. There was not an Englishman in the Ohio or the St. Lawrence Basins. Everywhere beyond the narrow strip of the colonies theFrench were paramount. In Europe, England's position was almost ascontemptible. Such was the result of the attempt of the aristocracy torule England. There was only one man who could save England, and he was anold man, poor, a commoner, and sick almost to death. But in 1757 WilliamPitt was called to the English helm, accepted the responsibility, andsteered the country from her darkest to her most brilliant hour. Thecampaigns which drove the soldiers of Louis XV. Out of America were thefirst chapter of the movement which ended in the expulsion of the Britishfrom the territory of the United States. Catholicism and Protestantismwere arrayed against each other for the last time. Pitt was the man of thepeople; his ambition, though generous, was as great as his abilities; thecolonies knew him as their friend. "I can save this country, and nobodyelse can, " he said; and bent his final energies to making England theforemost nation in the world, and the most respected. The faith of Romeallied France with Austria; and Prussia, with Frederic the Great, standingas the sole bulwark of Protestantism on the Continent, was inevitablydrawn toward England. 

With one movement of his all-powerful hand, Pitt reversed the oppressiveand suicidal policy of the colonial administration. Loudoun was recalled;his excuses were vain. Amherst and Wolfe were sent out. The colonies weretold that no compulsion should be put upon them; they were expected tolevy, clothe and pay their men, but the government would repay theiroutlay. Instantly they responded, and their contributions exceeded allanticipation. Massachusetts taxed herself thirteen and fourpence in thepound. Provincial officers not above colonel ranked with the British, anda new spirit animated all. On the other hand, Canada suffered from famine, and Montcalm foresaw eventual defeat. Amherst and Wolfe, with ten thousandmen, captured Louisburg and destroyed the fortifications. At the sametime, a great army was collected against Ticonderoga. Nine thousandprovincials, with Stark, Israel Putnam, and six hundred New Englandrangers, camped side by side with over six thousand troops of the Britishregulars under Abercrombie and Lord Howe. The French under Montcalm haderected Fort Carillon on the outlet from Lake George to Champlain, approachable only from the northwest. It was here that he planned hisdefense. The English disembarked on the west side of the lake, protectedby Point Howe. In marching round the bend they came upon a French party ofthree hundred and defeated them, Howe falling in the first attack. Montcalm was behind intrenchments with thirty-six hundred men; Abercrombierashly gave orders to carry the works by storm without waiting for cannon, but was careful to remain far in the rear during the action. The attackwas most gallantly and persistently delivered; nearly two thousand men, mostly regulars, were killed; and, at the end of the murderous day, Montcalm remained master of the field. Abercrombie still had four times asmany men as Montcalm, and with his artillery could easily have carried theworks and captured Ticonderoga; but he was by this time "distilled almostto a jelly by the act of fear" and fled headlong at once. Montcalm had notyet met his match. 

Bradstreet, however, with seven hundred Massachusetts men and elevenhundred New Yorkers, crossed Lake Ontario and took Port Frontenac, thegarrison fleeing at their approach. Amherst, on hearing of Abercrombie'scowardice, embarked for Boston with over four thousand men, marched thenceto Albany and on to the camp; Abercrombie was sent to England, and Amhersttook his place as chief. The capture of Fort Duquesne was the first thingplanned. Over forty-five hundred men were raised in South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia; Joseph Forbes commanded them asbrigadier-general; Washington led the Virginians; John Armstrong and theboy, Anthony Wayne, were with the Pennsylvanians. Washington, who had cladpart of his men in Indian deerskins, wanted to follow Braddock's line ofmarch; but Forbes, who had not long to live, though his brain remainedclear, preferred to build a road by which ready communication withPhiladelphia could be kept up. Washington got news that the Fort had buteight hundred defenders, and a strong reconnaissance was sent forward, without his knowledge, under Major Grant, who, thinking he had the Frenchat advantage, exposed himself and was defeated with a loss of threehundred. The remaining five hundred reached camp in good order, thanks tothe discipline which had been given them by Washington. Forbes had decidedto advance no further that season--it was then November; but Washingtonhad information which caused him to gain permission to advance withtwenty-five hundred provincials, and he occupied intrenchments nearDuquesne. Nine days later the rest of the army arrived; and the garrisonof the Fort set fire to it at night and fled. The place was entered by thetroops, Armstrong raised the British flag, and at Forbes' suggestion itwas rechristened Pittsburgh. And there, above the confluence of the tworivers, the city named after the Great Commoner stands to-day. A vast andfertile country was thenceforward opened to the east. After burying thebleaching bones of the men killed under Braddock, a garrison was left onthe spot, and the rest of the army returned. 

Washington, who had seen five years' arduous service, resigned hiscommission, and after receiving cordial honors from his fellow officersand the Virginia legislature, married the widow, Martha Custis, andsettled down as a planter in Mount Vernon. He was a delegate to theVirginia House of Burgesses and to the Continental Congresses of 1774 and1775; but it was not until the latter year that he reappeared as asoldier, accepting the command of the Continental forces on the 15th ofJune, not against the French, but against the English. 

In 1759 the genius and spirit of Pitt began to be fully felt. The Englishwere triumphant in Europe, and a comprehensive plan for the conquest ofCanada was intrusted for the first time to men capable of carrying it out. Thousands of men were enlisted and paid for by the colonies north ofMaryland. Stanwix, Amherst, Prideaux and Wolfe were the chiefs in command. Fifty thousand English and provincial troops were opposed by not more thanan eighth as many half-starved Frenchmen and Canadians. Montcalm had noillusions; he told the French Minister of War that, barring extraordinaryaccidents, Canada's hour had come; but he "was resolved to find his graveunder the ruins of the colony. " And young General Wolfe had said, on beinggiven the department of the St. Lawrence, "I feel called upon to justifythe notice taken of me by such exertions and exposure of myself as willprobably lead to my fall. " The premonitions of both these valiant soldierswere fulfilled. Wolfe was at this time thirty-two years of age, and hadspent half his life in the army. The Marquis de Montcalm was forty-sevenwhen he fell on the Plains of Abraham. Neither general had been defeatedup to the moment they faced each other; neither could succumb to any lessworthy adversary. 

But the first objective point was not Quebec, but Fort Niagara, which, standing between Erie and Ontario, commanded the fur trade of the countryto the west. Prideaux, with an adequate force of English, Americans andIndians, invested the place in July, D'Aubry, the French commander, bringing up twelve hundred men to relieve it. Just before the action, Prideaux was killed by the bursting of a mountain howitzer, but SirWilliam Johnson was at hand to take his place. On the 24th the battle tookplace; the French were flanked by the English Indians, and charged by theEnglish; they broke and fled, and the Fort surrendered next day. Stanwixhad meanwhile taken possession of all the French posts between Pittsburghand Erie. The English had got their enemy on the run all along the line. Gage was the only English officer to disgrace himself in this campaign; hesquirmed out of compliance with Amherst's order to occupy the passes ofOgdensburgh. Amherst, with artillery and eleven thousand men, advanced onthe hitherto invincible Ticonderoga. The French knew they were beaten, andtherefore, instead of fighting, abandoned the famous stronghold and CrownPoint, and retreated down to Isle aux Nois, whither Amherst should havefollowed them. Instead of doing so, he took to building and repairingfortifications--the last infirmity of military minds of a certain order--and finally went into winter quarters with nothing further done. Amherst, at the end of the war, received the routine rewards of awell-meaning and not defeated commander-in-chief; but it was Wolfe who wonimmortality. 

He collected his force of eight thousand men, including two battalions of"Royal Americans, " at Louisburg; among his ship captains was Cook theexplorer; Lieutenant-colonel Howe commanded a body of light infantry. Before the end of June the army stepped ashore on the island that fillsthe channel of the St. Lawrence below Quebec, called the Isle of Orleans. Montcalm's camp was between them and the tall acclivity on which stood thefamous fortress, which had defied capture for a hundred and thirty years. The French outnumbered the English, but neither the physical condition northe morale of their troops was good. That beetling cliff was the ally onwhich Montcalm most depended. All the landing-places up stream for ninemiles had been fortified: the small river St. Charles covered with itssedgy marshes the approach on the north and east, while on the westanother stream, the Montmorenci, rising nearly at the same place as theSt. Charles, falls in cataracts into the St. Lawrence nine miles above thecitadel. All these natural features had been improved by military art. High up, north and west of the city, spread the broad Plains of Abraham. 

Wolfe's fleet commanded the river and the south shore. Point Levi, onthis shore, opposite Quebec, was fortified by the English, and siege gunswere mounted there, the channel being but a mile wide; the lower towncould be reached by the red-hot balls, but not the lofty citadel. Afterpersonally examining the region during the greater part of July, Wolfedecided on a double attack; one party to ford the Montmorenci, which waspracticable at a certain hour of the tide, and the other to cross over inboats from Point Levi. But the boats grounded on some rocks in thechannel; and Wolfe was repulsed at the Montmorenci. Four hundred men werelost. An expedition was now sent up stream to open communication withAmherst; but though it was learned that Niagara, Crown Point andTiconderoga had fallen, Amherst did not appear. Wolfe must do his workalone; the entire population of the country was against him, and thestrongest natural fortification in the world. His eager anxiety threw himinto a fever. "My constitution is entirely ruined, without the consolationof having done any considerable service to the state, and without anyprospect of it, " was what he wrote to the English government. Four daysafterward he was dying victorious on the Plains of Abraham. 

The early Canadian winter would soon be at hand. The impossible must bedone, and at once. Wolfe, after several desperate proposals of his hadbeen rejected by the council of war, made a feint in force up the river, in the hope of getting Montcalm where he could fight him. He scrutinizedthe precipitous north shore as with a magnifying glass. At last, on the11th of September, the hope that had so long been burning within him wasgratified. But what a hope! A headlong goat-track cleft its zigzag way upthe awful steep, and emerged at last upon the dizzy and breathless heightabove. Two men could scarce climb abreast in it; and even this wasdefended by fortifications, and at the summit, against the sky, tentscould be seen. Yet this was the only way to victory: only by thisheartbreaking path could England drive France from the western continent, and give a mighty nation to the world. Wolfe saw, and was content; whereone man could go, thousands might follow. And he perceived that the verydifficulty of the enterprise was the best assurance of its success. Theplace was defended indeed, but not strongly. Montcalm knew what daringcould accomplish, but even he had not dreamed of daring such as this. Wolfe, with a great soul kindled into flame by the resolve to achieve afeat almost beyond mortal limitations, dared it, and prevailed. 

Till the hour of action, he kept his troops far up the stream. By the13th, all preparations were made. Night came on, calm, like the heart ofthe hero who knows that the culminating moment of his destiny has arrived. At such a crisis, the mortal part of the man is transfigured by thetowering spirit, and his eyes pierce through the veils of things. His lifelies beneath him, and he contemplates its vicissitudes with the hightranquillity of an immortal freedom. What is death to him who has alreadytriumphed over the fetters of the flesh, and tasted the drink ofimmortality? He is the trustee of the purpose of God; and the guerdon hisdeed deserves can be nothing less noble than to die. 

It was at one in the morning that the adventure was begun. Silently theboats moved down the stream, the dark ships following in silence. Thousands of brave hearts beat with heroic resolve beneath the eternalstars. The shadowy cove was gained; Wolfe's foot has touched the shore; asthe armed figures follow and gather at the foot of the ascent, no wordsare spoken, but what an eloquence in those faces! Upward they climb, afirewith zeal; Howe has won a battery; upward! the picket on the height, toolate aroused from sleep by the stern miracle, is overpowered. With pantinglungs man after man tops the ascent and sees the darkling plain and formsin line with his comrades, while still the stream winds up endlessly fromthe depths below. The earth is giving birth to an army. Coiling upward, deploying, ranging out, rank after rank they are extended along the frontof the forest, with Quebec before them. No drum has beat; no bugle hasspoken; but Wolfe is there, his spirit is in five thousand breasts, andthere needs no trumpet for the battle. 

As the last of the army formed upon the rugged field, dawn broke upon theeast, and soon the early sunshine sparkled on their weapons and glowedalong the ranks of English red. Meanwhile Montcalm had been apprised; hisfirst instinct of incredulity had been swept away by the inevitable truth, and he manned himself for the struggle. Often had he conquered againstodds; but now his spirit must bow before a spirit stronger than his, asAntony's before Augustus. And what had he to oppose against the seasonedveterans of the English army, thrice armed in the consciousness of theirunparalleled achievement?--Five weak and astounded battalions, and a hordeof inchoate peasants. But Montcalm did not falter; by ten he had taken uphis position, and by eleven, after some ineffectual cannonading, to allowtime for the arrival of re-enforcements which came not, he led the charge. The attack was disordered by the uneven ground, the fences and theravines; and it was broken by the granite front of the English(three-fourths of them Americans) and their long-reserved and witheringfire. The undisciplined Canadians flinched from that certain death; andWolfe, advancing on them with his grenadiers, saw them melt away beforethe cold steel could reach them. The two leaders faced each other, bothequally undaunted and alert; it was like a duel between them; no openingwas missed, no chance neglected. The smoke hung in the still air ofmorning; the long lines of men swayed and undulated beneath it obscurely, and the roar of musketry dinned terribly in the ear, here slackening for amoment, there breaking forth in volleying thunders; and men were droppingeverywhere; there were shoutings from the captains, the fierce crash ofcheers, yells of triumph or agony, and the faint groans of the woundedunto death. Wolfe was hit, but he did not heed it; Montcalm has received amusket ball, but he cannot yet die. The English battle does not yield; itadvances, the light of victory is upon it. Backward stagger the French;Montcalm strives to check the fatal movement, but the flying death hastorn its way through his body, and he can no more. Wolfe, even as the daywas won, got his death wound in the breast, but "Support me--don't let mybrave fellows see me drop, " he gasped out. His thoughts were with hisarmy; let the retreat of the enemy be cut off; and he died with a happywill, and with God's name on his lips. Montcalm lingered, suggesting meansby which to retrieve the day; but the power of France died with him. Quebec was lost and won; and human history was turned into a new channel, and no longer flowing through the caverns of mediaeval error, rolled itscurrent toward the sunlight of liberty and progress. "The more a man isversed in business, the more he finds the hand of Providence everywhere, "was the reply of William Pitt, when Parliament congratulated him on thevictory. He had wrought his plans with wisdom and zeal; but "except theLord build the city, they labor in vain who build it. " There have beengreat statesmen and brave soldiers, before Pitt and Wolfe, and since; butthere could be only one fall of Quebec, with all which that implied. 

The following spring and summer were overshadowed by an unrighteous waragainst the Cherokees, precipitated by the royalist governor of Virginia, Lyttleton. An attempt by the French under Levi to recapture Quebec failed, in spite of the folly of the English commander, Murray; Pitt had foreseenthe effort, and destroyed it with an English fleet. Amherst, in his owntortoise-like way, advanced and took possession of Montreal; and bypermission of the Indian, Pontiac, who regarded himself as lord of thecountry, the English flag was carried to the outposts. Canada hadsurrendered; in the terms imposed, property and the religious faith of thepeople were respected; but nothing was promised them in the way of civilliberty. In discussing the European peace that was now looked for, question was raised whether to restore Canada, or the West Indian islandof Guadaloupe, to France. Some, who feared that the retention of Canadawould too much incline the colonies to independence, favored its return. But Franklin said that Canada would be a source of strength to England. The expense of defending that vast frontier would be saved; the rapidlyincreasing population would absorb English manufactures without limit, andtheir necessary devotion to farming would diminish their competition asmanufacturers. He pointed out that their differences in governments andmutual jealousies made their united action against England unthinkable, "unless you grossly abuse them. "--"Very true: that, I see, will happen, "returned the English lawyer Pratt, afterward Lord Cam den, theattorney-general. But Pitt would not listen to Canada's being given up;he was for England, not for any English clique. On the other hand, oneof those cliques was preparing to carry out the long meditated taxation ofthe colonies; and the sudden death of George II. , bringing his son to thethrone, favored their purpose; for the Third George had character andenergy, and not a little intelligence for a king; and he was soon seen tointend the re-establishment of the royal prerogative in all its integrity. As a preliminary step to this end, he accepted Pitt's resignation inOctober, 1761. 

Much to the displeasure of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, alreadyJudge of Probate, was by Governor Bernard appointed to the ChiefJusticeship of the colony; the royalist direction of his sympathies wasknown. In February, 1761, he heard argument in court as to whether revenueofficers had power to call in executive assistance to enforce the acts oftrade. The crown lawyer argued that to refuse it was to deny thesovereignty of the English Parliament in the colonies. Then James Otisarose, and made a protest which tingled through the whole colony, and wasthe first direct blow aimed against English domination. Power such as wasasked for, he said, had already cost one king of England his head andanother his throne. Writs of assistance were open to intolerable abuse;were the instrument of arbitrary power and destructive of the fundamentalprinciples of law. Reason and the constitution were against them. "No actof Parliament can establish such a writ: an act of Parliament against theconstitution is void!" These words were the seed of revolution. Hutchinsonwas frightened, but succeeded in persuading his colleagues to postponedecision until he had written to England. The English instruction was toenforce the law, and the judges acted accordingly; but the people repliedby electing Otis to the assembly; and Hutchinson was more distrusted thanever. At the same time, in Virginia, Richard Henry Lee denounced the slavetrade; the legislature indorsed his plea, but England denied it. SouthCarolina was alienated by the same decree, and also by an unpopular waragainst the Cherokees. In New York, the appointment of a judge "during theking's pleasure" roused the assembly; but the result of their remonstrancewas that all colonial governors were instructed from England to grant nojudicial commissions but during the king's pleasure. This was to make theBench the instrument of the Prerogative. A judge acted on questions ofproperty, without a jury, on information furnished by crown officers, andderived emoluments from his own award of forfeitures; and the governorwould favor large seizures because he got one-third of the spoils. All theassemblies could do, for the present, was to reduce salaries; but that didnot make the offenders any less avaricious. Moreover, the king began thepractice of paying them in spite of the assemblies, and reproved thelatter for "not being animated by a sense of their duty to their king andcountry. "

James Otis continued to be the voice of the colonies. "Kings were madefor the good of the people, not the people for them. By the laws of Godand nature, government must not raise taxes on the property of the peoplewithout the consent of the people. To tax without the assembly's consentwas the same in principle as for the king and the House of Lords to usurplegislative authority in England. " For the utterance of these sentimentshe was honored by the hearty support of the people, and still more by thedenunciations of men of the Hutchinson sort. The ministers were not silenton the popular side. "May Heaven blast the designs, though not the soul, "said Mayhew, with Christian discrimination, "of whoever he be among us whoshall have the hardiness to attack the people's rights!" King George'sanswer, as soon as he had concluded the peace with France and Spain, in1763, was to take measures to terrorize the colonists by sending out anarmy of twenty battalions to be kept permanently in America, the expensesof which the colonists were to pay. But by enforcing the acts of trade, England had now made herself the enemy of the whole civilized world, andthe American colonies would not be without allies in the struggle that wasdrawing near. 

While these matters were in agitation among the white people, the Indiansin the north were discovering grievances of their own. Pontiac, an Ottawachief, and by his personal abilities the natural leader of many tribes, was the instigator and center of the revolt. The English masters of Canadahad showed themselves less congenial to the red men than the French haddone; they could not understand that savages had any rights which theywere bound to respect; while Pontiac conceived that no white man couldlive in the wilderness without his permission. Upon this issue, troublewas inevitable; and Pontiac planned a general movement of all the Indiansin the north against the colonists. The success of the scheme could ofcourse be only momentary; that it attained the dignity of a "war" was dueto the influence and energy of the Indian general. His design was of broadscope, embracing a simultaneous attack on all the English frontier forts;a wide coalition of tribes was effected; and though their tactics were notessentially different from those heretofore employed by savages, yet theirpossession of arms, their skill in their use, and their numbers, madetheir onslaughts formidable. On several occasions they effected theirentry into the forts by stratagem: a tale of misery told by a squaw; aball in a game struck toward the door of the stronghold; professedlyamicable conferences suddenly becoming massacres; such were the naive yetsuccessful ruses employed. Many lives were lost, and the border lands werelaid waste and panicstricken; but it was impossible for the Indians tohold together, and their victories hastened their undoing. No generalengagement, of course, was fought, but Pontiac's authority graduallyabated, and he was finally compelled to go into retirement. His Conspiracyhas its picturesque side, but it is not organically related to ourhistory; it was merely a fresh expression of the familiar fact that therecould be no sincere friendship between the white and the red. The formercould live with the latter if they would live like them; but no attempt toreverse the case could succeed. The solemnity with which the practice ofsigning treaties of peace with the Indians has uniformly been kept up isone of the curious features of our colonial annals, and indeed of latertimes. Indians will keep the peace without treaties, if they are kindlyused and given liberty to do as they please; but no engagement is bindingon them after they deem themselves wronged. They are pleased by theformalities, the speeches, and the gifts that accompany such conferences;they like to exchange compliments, and to play with belts of wampum; andit is possible that when they make their promises, they think they willkeep them. They can understand the advantages of trade, and will make somesacrifice of their pride or convenience to secure them. But the mind isnever dominant in them; the tides of passion flood it, and their wildnature carries them away. It may be surmised that we should have had fewerIndian troubles, had we never entered into any treaty with them. Butthousands of treaties have been made, and broken, sometimes by one side, sometimes by the other, but always by one of the two. And then, punishments must be administered; but if punishment is for improvement, ithas been as ineffective as the treaties. The only rational thing to dowith an Indian is to kill him; and yet it may fairly be doubted whethercomplete moral justification could be shown for the killing of any Indiansince Columbus landed at San Salvador. --As for Pontiac, a keg of liquorwas inducement sufficient to one of his own race to murder him, five yearsafter the failure of his revolt. 

Toward the end of September, Jenkinson, Secretary of the Treasury inEngland, presented the draft for an American stamp-tax--the trueauthorship of which was never disclosed. This tax was the result of theargument of exclusion applied to the problem, How to raise a permanent andsufficient revenue from the colonies. Foreign and internal commerce taxeswould not serve, because such commerce was forbidden by the NavigationActs. A poll-tax would be inequitable to the slaveholders. Land-taxescould not be collected. Exchequer-bills were against an act of Parliament. Nothing but a stamp-tax remained, and all persons concerned were in favorof it, the colonists only excepted. Their opinion was that taxationwithout representation was an iniquity. But they did not perhaps considerthat England owed a debt of seven hundred million dollars which must beprovided for somehow; and that the interests of the empire demanded, inthe opinion of those who were at its head, that the colonies be ruled witha stronger hand than heretofore. George Grenville accepted theresponsibility of the act. 

The king gave his consent to the employment of the entire official forceof the colonies to prevent infringements of the Navigation Acts, and thearmy and navy were to assist them. There were large emoluments forseizures, and the right of search was unrestricted, afloat or ashore. Inorder to diminish the danger of union between the colonies, a newdistribution, or alteration of boundaries, was adopted, with a view toincreasing their number. But the country between the Alleghanies and theMississippi was to be closed to colonization, lest it should proveimpossible to control settlers at such a distance. It proved, of course, still less possible to prevent emigration thither. But all seemed goingwell, and the Grenville ministry was so firmly established that nothingseemed able to shake it. The fact that a young Virginia lawyer, PatrickHenry by name, had said in the course of an argument against the claim ofa clergyman for the value of some tobacco, that a king who annuls salutarylaws is a tyrant, and forfeits all right to obedience; and that ifministers fail to fulfill the uses for which they were ordained, thecommunity may justly strip them of their appointments--this circumstanceprobably did not come to the ears of the British ministry; but it had itseffect in Virginia. Grenville, however, was induced by the appeals of someinfluential Americans in London to postpone his tax for a year, so thatthe assemblies might have an opportunity to consent to it. By way oftempting them to do this, he sought for special inducements; he revivedthe hemp and flax bounties; he permitted rice to be carried south ofCarolina and Georgia on payment of half subsidy; and he removed therestrictions on the New England whale fishery. He then informed Parliamentof his purpose of applying the stamp-tax to America, and asked if anymember wished to question the right of Parliament to impose such a tax. Ina full house, not a single person rose to object. The king gave it his"hearty" approval. It only remained for America humbly and gratefully toaccept it. 

First came comments. "If taxes are laid upon us in any shape, without ourhaving a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced fromthe character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributaryslaves?" asked Samuel Adams of Boston. "These duties are only thebeginning of evils, " said Livingston of New York. "Acts of Parliamentagainst natural equity are void, " Otis affirmed; and in a lucid and cogentanalysis of the principles and ends of government he pointed out that thebest good of the people could be secured only by a supreme legislative andexecutive ultimately in the people; but a universal congress beingimpracticable, representation was substituted: "but to bring the powers ofall into the hands of one or some few, and to make them hereditary, is theinterested work of the weak and wicked. Nothing but life and liberty areactually hereditable. .. . British colonists do not hold their liberties ortheir lands by so slippery a tenure as the will of princes; the colonistsare common children of the same Creator with their brethren in GreatBritain. .. . A time may come when Parliament shall declare every Americancharter void; but the natural, inherent rights of the colonists as men andcitizens can never be abolished. The colonists know the blood and treasureindependence would cost. They will never think of it till driven to it asthe last fatal resort against ministerial oppression: but human naturemust and will be rescued from the general slavery that has so longtriumphed over the species. " The immediate practical result was, that thecolonists pledged themselves to use nothing of English manufacture, evento going without lamb to save wool. And even Hutchinson remarked that ifEngland had paid as much for the support of the wars as had beenvoluntarily paid by the colonists, there would have been no great increasein the national debt. 

All this made no impression in England. The dregs of the Canadianpopulation were a handful of disreputable Protestant ex-officers, tradersand publicans--"the most immoral collection of men I ever knew, " as Murraysaid--but judges and juries were selected from these gentry, and theCatholics were disfranchised. In New England, boundaries were rearranged, and colonists had to buy new titles. New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, protested before Parliament against the taxation scheme; Philadelphia atfirst petitioned to be delivered from the selfishness of its proprietorseven at the cost of becoming a royal colony; but later, Franklin advisedthat they grant supplies to the crown only when required of them "in theusual constitutional manner. " George Wythe, speaking for Virginia, remonstrated against measures "fitter for exiles driven from their countryafter ignominiously forfeiting its favor and protection, than for theposterity of loyal Britons. " Yet there were many royalist Americans whowere urgent that English rule should be strengthened; and the EnglishBoard of Trade declared that the protests of the colonies showed "a mostindecent disrespect to the legislature of Great Britain. " The king decreedthat in all military matters in America the orders of thecommander-in-chief there, and under him of the brigadiers, should besupreme; and only in the absence of these officers might the governorsgive the word. This became important on the occasion of the "BostonMassacre" a few years later. In Parliament, Grenville said that he wouldnever lend a hand toward forging chains for America, "lest in so doing Iforge them for myself"; but he shuffled out of the American demand not tobe taxed without representation by declaring that Parliament was "thecommon council of the whole empire, " and added that America was to allintents and purposes as much represented in Parliament as many Englishmen. This assertion brought to his feet Barré, the companion of Wolfe atQuebec. He denied that America was virtually represented, and said thatthe House was ignorant of American affairs. Charles Townshend, who posedas an infallible authority on America, replied that the last war had costthe colonies little though they had profited much by it; and now these"American children, planted by our care, nourished up to strength andopulence by our indulgence, and protected by our arms, grudge tocontribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy burden under which welie. "

Barré could not restrain his indignation. In the course of a fieryrejoinder he uttered truths that made him the most loved Englishman inAmerica, when his words were published there. "Your oppressions plantedthem in America, " he thundered. "They met with pleasure all hardshipscompared with those they suffered in their own country. They grew by yourneglect of them: as soon as you began to care for them, deputies ofmembers of this house were sent to spy out their liberties, tomisrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them; men whose behaviorcaused the blood of those Sons of Liberty to recoil within them: men whowere often glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought tothe bar of justice in their own. They 'protected by your arms'?--Theyhave, amid their constant and laborious industry, nobly taken up arms forthe defense of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood, while itsinterior parts yielded all its little savings to your emolument. Andbelieve me--remember--the same spirit of freedom which actuated thatpeople at first will accompany them still. They are as truly loyal as anysubjects the king has; but a people jealous of their liberties, and whowill vindicate them, if ever they should be violated. " But Grenville hadgone too far to retreat; the case went against America by two hundred andforty-five to forty-nine; and only Beckford and Conway were on record asdenying the power of Parliament to enact the tax. All petitions from thecolonies were refused. "We have power to tax them, and we will tax them, "said one of the ministers. In the House of Lords the bill was agreed towithout debate or dissent. The king, at the time of signing the bill, wassuffering from one of his periodic attacks of insanity; but theratification was accepted as valid nevertheless. Neither Franklin nor anyof the other American agents imagined the act would be forcibly resistedin America. Even Otis had said, "We must submit. " But they reckonedwithout their host. The stamp act was a two-edged sword; in aiming to cutdown the liberties of America, it severed the bonds that tied her to themother country. 

The prospect before the colonies was truly intolerable. No product oftheir industry could be exported save to England; none but English shipsmight enter their ports; no wool might be moved from one part of thecountry to another; no Bible might be printed anywhere; all hats must comefrom England; no ore might be mined or worked; duties were imposed onalmost every imported article of use or luxury. No marriage, promissorynote, or other transaction requiring documentary record was valid exceptwith the government stamp. In a word, convicts in a jail could hardly beshackled more severely than were these two millions of the mostfreedom-loving and intelligent people on the globe. "If this system wereto prevail, " remarked Thacher of Boston, "it would extinguish the flame ofliberty all over the world. "

But it was not to prevail. Patrick Henry had been elected to thelegislature of Virginia. His first act was to maintain, in committee ofthe whole, that the colony had never given up its right to be governed byits own laws respecting taxation, and that it had been constantlyrecognized by England; and that any attempt to vest such power in otherpersons tended to destroy British as well as American freedom. In apassionate peroration he warned George III. To remember the fate of othertyrants who had trampled on popular liberties. Otis in Massachusettssuggested the novel idea of summoning a congress from all the colonies todeliberate on the situation. In New York a writer declared that whilethere was no disposition among the colonies to break with England as longas they were permitted their full rights, yet they would be "satisfiedwith no less. "--"The Gospel promises liberty and permits resistance, " saidMayhew. Finally, the dauntless and faithful Christopher Gadsden of SouthCarolina, after considering Massachusett's suggestion of a union, pronounced, as head of the committee, in its favor. 

In England, meanwhile, the cause of the colonies had been somewhatfavored by the willfulness of the king, who, in order to bring his courtfavorites into power, dismissed the Grenville ministry. There were nopersons of ability in the new cabinet, and vacant feebleness was accountedbetter for America than resolute will to oppress. The king himself, however, never wavered in his resolve that the colonies should be taxed. On the other hand, the colonies were at this time disposed to think thatthe king was friendly to their liberties. But whatever misapprehensionsexisted on either side were soon to be finally dispelled. 

In August, 1765, the names of the stamp distributers (who were to becitizens of the colonies) were published in America; and the packages ofstamped paper were dispatched from England. There was an old elm-tree inBoston, standing near the corner of Essex Street, opposite BoylstonMarket. On the morning of the 14th of August, two figures were descried byearly pedestrians hanging from the lower branches of the tree. "They weredressed in square-skirted coats and small-clothes, and as their wigs hungdown over their faces, they looked like real men. One was intended torepresent the Earl of Bute, who was supposed to have advised the king totax America; the other was meant for the effigy of Andrew Oliver, agentleman belonging to one of the most respectable families inMassachusetts, whom the king had appointed to be the distributer ofstamps. " It was in vain that Hutchinson ordered the removal of theeffigies; the people had the matter in their own hands. In the evening agreat and orderly crowd marched behind a bier bearing the figures, gavethree cheers for "Liberty, Property and no stamps, " before the StateHouse, where the governor and Hutchinson were in session, and thence wentto the house which Oliver had intended for his stamp office, tore it down, and burned his image in the fire they kindled with it, in front of his ownresidence. "Death to the man who offers stamped paper to sell!" theyshouted. "Beat an alarm!" quavered Hutchinson to the militia colonel. --"Mydrummers are in the mob, " was the reply; and when Hutchinson attempted todisperse the crowd, they forced him to run the gantlet, in the Indianfashion which was too familiar to New Englanders, and caught him severalraps as he ran. "If Oliver had been there he'd have been murdered, " saidGovernor Bernard, with conviction; "if he doesn't resign--!" But Oliver, much as he loved the perquisites of the office, loved his life more, andhe resigned before the mob could threaten him. Bernard, with chatteringteeth, was ensconced in the safest room in the castle. There remainedHutchinson, in his handsome house in Garden Court Street, near the NorthSquare. Late at night the mob came surging and roaring in that direction. As they turned into Garden Court Street, the sound of them was as if awild beast had broken loose and was howling for its prey. From the window, the terrified chief-justice beheld "an immense concourse of people, rolling onward like a tempestuous flood that had swelled beyond its boundsand would sweep everything before it. He felt, at that moment, that thewrath of the people was a thousand-fold more terrible than the wrath of aking. That was a moment when an aristocrat and a loyalist might havelearned how powerless are kings, nobles, and great men, when the low andhumble range themselves against them. Had Hutchinson understood andremembered this lesson he need not in after years have been an exile fromhis native country, nor finally have laid his bones in a distant land. "

The mob broke into the house, destroyed the valuable furniture, picturesand library, and completely gutted it. The act was denounced andrepudiated by the better class of patriots, like Adams and Mayhew; but itserved a good purpose. The voice of the infuriated mob is sometimes theonly one that tyranny can hear. One after another all the colonies refusedto accept the stamp act, and every stamp officer was obliged to resign. Meanwhile the leaders discussed the people's rights openly. The law was togo into effect on November 1st. "Will you violate the law of Parliament?"was asked. "The stamp act is against Magna Charta, and Lord Coke says anact of Parliament against Magna Charta is for that reason void, " was thereply. "Rulers are attorneys, agents and trustees of the people, " saidAdams, "and if the trust is betrayed or wantonly trifled away, the peoplehave a right to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute abler and better agents. We have an indisputable rightto demand our privileges against all the power and authority on earth. "Never had there been such unanimity throughout the colonies; but in NewYork, General Gage, who had betrayed lack of courage under Amherst a fewyears before, but who was now commander-in-chief, declared he would putdown disaffection with a strong hand. There were ships of war in theharbor, and the fort in the town mounted heavy guns. Major James of theartillery was intrusted with the preparations. "I'll cram the stamps downtheir throats with the end of my sword: if they attempt to rise I'll drivethem out of town for a pack of rascals, with four and twenty men!" It waseasy to pass a stamp act, and to bring stamped paper into the colonies;but it would take more than Major James, and Governor Golden, and GeneralGage himself to make the people swallow them. The day of the "Sons ofLiberty" was dawning. 

CHAPTER THIRTEENTH

THE PASSING OF THE RUBICON

Issue was now joined between America and England. They faced each other--the great, historic figure, and the stripling of a century--and knewthat the limit had been reached. The next move might be irrevocable. 

"You must submit to the tax. "--"I will not submit. "

Englishmen, with some few eminent exceptions, believed that England wasin the right. If the word of Parliament was not law, what was? If the lawit made could be disregarded, what could stand? A colony was a child:children must be kept in subjection. Colonies were planted for the benefitand extension of commerce; if they were permitted to conduct theircommerce without regard to the mother country, their reason for existencewas gone. The protection of a colony was expensive: why should not theprotected one bear a part at least of the expense? If the mother countryallowed the colony to fix the amount it should pay, what guarantee couldshe have that it would pay anything? Could mighty England assume towardlittle America the attitude of a tradesman, humbly standing at the doorwith a bill, asking whether it would be convenient to pay something onaccount? If there were to be condescension, it should not come fromAmerica. She clamored for justice; England would be just: but she mustfirst be obeyed. England might forgive the debt, but must insist uponacknowledgment that the debt was due, and upon the right to collect it atpleasure. As for the plea that taxation should postulate representation, it would not bear examination. It might be true that Parliament was atheoretically representative body; but, in fact, it was a gathering of themen in England best qualified to govern, who were rather selected thanelected. Many of the commons held their seats by favor of the nobility;the suffrage, as practiced, was a recognition that the people might have avoice in the government of the country; but that voice was not to be adeciding one. It was exercised only by a part of the people, and eventhen, largely under advice or influence. Many important towns anddistricts had no representatives. Americans were as well off as theseEnglishmen; on what ground could they demand to be better off? They musttrust to the will of England to secure their advantage in securing herown; to her wisdom, equity, and benevolence. Why should they complain ofthe Navigation Acts? What more did they want than a market?--and that, England afforded. Why should they feel aggrieved at the restriction ontheir manufactures? England could manufacture articles better than theycould, and it was necessary to the well-being of her manufacturing classesthat they should be free from American competition. Did they object to themeasures England took to prevent smuggling and illicit dealing?--They hadonly themselves to blame: was it not notorious that evasions and openviolations of the law had for years existed? Did they object to royalgovernors?--What better expedient was there to keep the two countries intouch with each other--to maintain that "representation" in England whichthey craved?--whereas, were they to choose governors from amongthemselves, they would soon drift away from sympathy with andunderstanding of England. And why all this uproar about the stamp tax?What easier, more equitable way could be devised to get the financialtribute required without pressing hard on any one? If Americans wouldobject to that, they would object to anything; and they must either beabandoned entirely to their own devices--which of course was out of thequestion--or they must be compelled, if they would not do it voluntarily, to accede to it. Compulsion meant force; force meant a resident Englisharmy; and that army must be supported and accommodated by those for whoseregulation it was established. 

Such was the attitude of men like Lord Chief-justice Mansfield, who spokeon the subject in the House of Lords. He refused to recognize anyessential distinction between external and internal taxes; though, as Pittpointed out, the former was designed for the regulation of trade, andwhatever profit arose from it was incidental; while the latter was imposedto raise revenue for the home government, and was, in effect, arbitrarilyappropriating the property of subjects without their consent asked orobtained. Pitt disposed of the argument of virtual representation bydenying it point-blank; Americans were not in the same position with thoseEnglishmen who were not directly represented in Parliament; because thelatter were inhabitants of the kingdom, and could be, and were indirectlyrepresented in a hundred ways. But while opposing the right of Parliamentto rob America, he asserted in the strongest terms its right to governher. "The will of Parliament, properly signified, must forever keep thecolonies dependent upon the sovereign kingdom of Great Britain. If anyidea of renouncing allegiance has existed, it was but a momentary frenzy. In a good cause, the force of this country can crush America to atoms. Buton this ground of the stamp act, I am one who will lift up my handsagainst it. I rejoice that America has resisted. In such a cause, yoursuccess would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would embrace the pillarof the state, and pull down the constitution along with her. "

The Lords passed the bill against a minority of five. In the Commons, where Burke ardently spoke in favor of the tax, the majority was evengreater. "It was decided that irresponsible taxation was not a tyranny buta vested right; that Parliament held legislative power, not as arepresentative body but in absolute trust: that it was not and had neverbeen responsible to the people. " This was the new Toryism, which was tocreate a new opposition. The debate aroused a discussion of popular rightsin England itself, and the press began to advocate genuine representation. Meanwhile, it looked ill for the colonies. But a law which is onlyengrossed on parchment, and is not also founded in natural truth andjustice, has no binding power, even though it be supported by the army andnavy of England. Humanity was on the side of America, and made her smallnumbers and physical weakness as strong as all that is good and right inthe world. All appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, there isnothing real but right. Had America fought only for herself, she wouldhave failed. 

The instances of mob violence in the colonies at this period were not tobe classed with lawless outbreaks in countries which have a government oftheir own. The colonies were subjected to a government which they did notelect or approve; and the management of their affairs consequentlyreverted inevitably and rightly to the body of the people themselves. Theyhad no officers and no organization, but they knew what they wanted; andhaving in view the slowness of inter-communication, and the differences inthe ideas and customs of the several colonies, the unanimity of theiraction in the present juncture is surprising. When their congress met inNew York on the 7th of October, 1765, their debate was less as toprinciples than as to the manner of their declaration and enforcement. Thewatchword, "Join or die, " had been started in September, and was taken upall over the country. Union was strength, and on union all were resolved. The mob had put a stop to the execution of the law; it now rested with thecongress to settle in what way and on what grounds the repeal of the lawshould be demanded. Against the people and the congress were arrayed theroyal governors and other officials, and the troops. The former delugedthe home government with exhortations to be firm; the latter waited theword to act, not without misgivings; for here were two millioninhabitants, a third or fourth part of whom might bear arms. 

Should the congress base its liberties on charter rights, or on naturaljustice and universal reason?--On the latter, said Gadsden of SouthCarolina; and the rest acceded. "I wish, " Gadsden had said, "that thecharters may not ensnare us at last by drawing different colonies to actdifferently in this great cause. There ought to be no New England man, noNew Yorker, known on the continent, but all Americans. " It was a greattruth to be enunciated at that time. There were statesmen less wise inthis country a hundred years later. The Duke of Choiseul, premier ofFrance, and one of the acutest ministers that ever lived, foresaw theindependence of America, and even so early began to take measures havingin view the attitude of France in that contingency. --In the congress, Otisadvocated repeal, not of the stamp act alone, but of all acts laying aduty on trade; and it was finally agreed to mention the latter asgrievances. Trial by jury was stipulated for instead of admiraltyjurisdiction; taxes should be imposed only by colonial legislatures, representation in Parliament being impracticable. One or two of thedelegates feared to sign the document embodying these views and demands;whereupon Dyer of Connecticut observed that since disunion in thesematters was fatal, the remaining delegates ought to sign them; and thiswas done, only Ruggles and Ogden, of Massachusetts and of New Jerseyrespectively, declining. By this act the colonies became "a bundle ofsticks which could neither be bent nor broken. " At the same time, SamuelAdams addressed a letter to Governor Bernard of Massachusetts. "To supposea right in Parliament to tax subjects without their consent includes theidea of a despotic power, " said he. "The stamp act cancels the veryconditions upon which our ancestors, with toil and blood and at their soleexpense, settled this country. It tends to destroy that mutual confidenceand affection, as well as that equality, which ought to subsist among allhis majesty's subjects: and what is worst of all evils, if his majesty'ssubjects are not to be governed according to the known and stated rules ofthe constitution, their minds may in time become disaffected. "

On the 1st of November, the day when the act was to go into effect, Colden, governor of New York, "resolved to have the stamps distributed. "The army and navy professed themselves ready to support him. But thepopulation rose up in a body against it, with Isaac Sears as leader. "Ifyou fire on us, we'll hang you, " they told Colden. Torchlight processions, with the governor's effigy burned in a bonfire composed of his owncarriages, right under the guns of the fort in which he had taken refuge, followed. Colden capitulated, and even gave up the stamps into the custodyof the people. Similar scenes were enacted in the other colonies. Theprinciple of "union and liberty" became daily more deeply rooted. IfEngland refused to repeal the act, "we will repeal it ourselves, " declaredthe colonists. John Adams said that the colonies were already dischargedfrom allegiance, because they were "out of the king's protection"--protection and allegiance being reciprocal. The Sons of Liberty became arecognized organization. The press printed an admonition to George III. , brief but pithy: GREAT SIR, RETREAT, OR YOU ARE RUINED. Otis maintainedthat the king, by mismanaging colonial affairs, had practically abdicated, so far as they were concerned. Israel Putnam, being of an active turn, rode through Connecticut to count noses, and reported that he could raisea force of ten thousand men. Meanwhile the routine business of the countrywent on with but slight modification, though according to the stamp actnothing that was done without a stamp was good in law. But it appeared, upon experiment, that if the law was in the people it could be dispensedwith on paper. And wherever you went, you found a population smilinglyclad in homespun. 

Would England repeal the act? The House of Lords voted in favor ofenforcing it, February, 1766. In the Commons, General Howard declared thatif it were passed, rather than imbrue his hands in the blood of hiscountrymen, he would sheathe his sword in his own body. The House dividedtwo to one against the repeal. The king said he was willing to modify, butnot to repeal it. On the 13th Franklin was summoned to the bar. He showedwhy the colonies could not and would not pay the tax, and that, unless itwere repealed, their affection for England, and the commerce dependingthereon, would be lost. Would America pay a modified stamp duty?--he wasasked; and bravely replied, "No: never: they will never submit to it. " Butcould not a military force carry the act into effect?--"They cannot forcea man to take stamps who chooses to do without them, " was the answer. Headded that the colonists thought it hard that a body in which they werenot represented should make a merit of giving what was not its own buttheirs. He affirmed a difference between internal and external taxation, because the former could not be evaded, whereas articles of consumption, on which the duty formed part of the price, could be dispensed with atwill. "But what if necessaries of life should be taxed?" asked Grenville, thinking he had Franklin on the hip. But the American sage crushinglyreplied, "I do not know a single article imported into the colonies butwhat they can either do without it, or make it for themselves. "

In the final debates, Pitt, called on to say whether, should total repealbe granted, in compliance with American menaces of resistance, theconsequence would not be the overthrow of British authority in America, gave his voice for repeal as a right. Grenville, on the other hand, thought that America should learn that "prayers are not to be brought toCaesar through riot and sedition. " The vote for repeal, and againstmodified enforcement, was two hundred and seventy-five to one hundred andsixty-seven. The dissenting members of the Lords signed a protest, because, should they assent to the repeal merely because it had passed thelower house, "we in effect vote ourselves useless. " This suggests the "Jene vois pas la nécessité" of the French epigrammatist. The Lords tookthemselves too seriously. Meanwhile, Bow bells were rung, Pitt wascheered, and flags flew; the news was sent to America in fast packets, andthe rejoicing in the colonies was great. Prisoners for debt were set free, there were illuminations and bonfires, and honor was paid to Pitt, Camden, Barre, and to the king, who was eating his heart with vexation fit havingbeen compelled to assent to what he called "the fatal repeal. "

The British government, while repealing the law, had yet affirmed itssovereign authority over the colonies. The colonies, on the other hand, were inclined to confirm their present advantage and take a step stillfurther in advance. They would not be taxed without representation; whyshould they submit to any legislation whatever without representation?What right had England to enforce the Navigation Acts? The more thegeneral situation was contemplated and discussed, the plainer to all didit appear that union was indispensable. The governors of most of thecolonies were directing a treacherous attack against the charters; butbold students of the drift of things were foreseeing a time when chartersmight be superseded by independence. Patriots everywhere were keenly onthe watch for any symptoms of a design on Parliament's part to raise arevenue from America. The presence and quartering of English soldiers inthe colonies was regarded as not only a burden, but an insinuation. It wasmoreover a constant occasion of disturbance; for there was no love lostbetween the people and the soldiers. But, that there was no disposition onthe people's part to pick quarrels or to borrow trouble, was evident fromtheir voluntarily passing resolutions for the reimbursement of persons, like Hutchinson, who had suffered loss from the riots. If England wouldtreat them like reasonable creatures, they were more than willing to meether half way. It is probable that but for the royal governors, England andAmerica might have arrived at an amicable understanding; yet, in theultimate interests of both countries, it was better that the evilcounselors of the day should prevail. 

Townshend, an able, eloquent, but entirely untrustworthy man, devoted toaffairs, and of insatiable though unprincipled ambition, proposed inParliament to formulate a plan to derive a permanent revenue from America. This Parliament has been described by historians, and is convicted by itsrecord, as the most corrupt, profligate and unscrupulous in Englishannals. William Pitt, who had accepted the title of Lord Chatham, andentered the House of Lords, was nominally the leader, but his health andfailing faculties left him no real power. Shelburne, Secretary of State, was moderate and liberal, but no match for Townshend's brilliancy. Thelatter's proposal was to suspend the legislature of New York, as apunishment for the insubordination of the colony and a warning to others;to support a resident army, and to pay salaries to governors, judges andother crown officers, out of the revenue from America; to establishcommissioners of the customs in the country; to legalize general writs ofassistance; to permit no native-born American to hold office under thecrown; and to make the revenue derivable from specified taxes on imports. The tax on tea was among those particularly mentioned. This was the schemewhich was to be substituted for the repealed stamp tax; the colonies hadobjected to that as internal; this was external, and, though Townshend hadrefused to admit any difference between the two, he now employed it as ameans of bringing the colonies to terms. The measure was received withacclaim by Parliament, though it was contrary to the real sentiment of theEnglish nation. The king was charmed with it. Townshend died soon after itwas passed, at the age of forty-one; and the king called on Lord North totake his place; a man of infirm will, but able, well-informed andclear-minded, with a settled predisposition against the cause of thepeople. He was as good an enemy of America as Grenville himself, though aless ill-natured one. 

But, viewing this period broadly, it is manifest that the finest brainsand best hearts, both in England and America, were friends to the cause ofliberty. America, certainly, at this critical epoch in her career, produced a remarkable band of statesmen and patriots, perfectly fitted tothe parts they had to play. The two Adamses, Gadsden, Franklin, Otis, Patrick Henry, Livingstone of New York, John Hancock, the wealthy andsplendid Boston merchant, Hawley of Connecticut, and Washington, meditating upon the liberties of his country in the retirement of MountVernon, and unconsciously preparing himself to lead her armies through theRevolution--there has never been a company of better men active at onetime in any country. Just at this juncture, too, there arose in Delaware aprophet by the name of John Dickinson, who wrote under the title of TheFarmer, and who formulated an argument against the new revenue law whichcaught the attention of all the colonies. England, he pointed out, prohibits American manufactures; she now lays duties on importations, forthe purpose of revenue only. Americans were taking steps to establish aleague to abstain from purchasing any articles brought from England, intending thus to defeat the operation of the act without breaking thelaw. This might answer in the case of luxuries, or of things which couldbe made at home. But what if England were to meet this move by laying aduty on some necessary of life, and then forbid Americans to manufactureit at home? Obviously, they would then be constrained to buy it, payingthe duty, and thus surrendering their freedom. From this point of view itwould not be enough to evade the tax; it must be repealed, or resisted;and resistance meant war. 

Unless, however, some action of an official character were taken, bindingthe colonies to co-operation, it was evident that the law would graduallygo into effect. The Massachusetts assembly, early in 1768, sent to itsLondon agent a letter, composed by Samuel Adams, embodying their formalprotest to the articles of the revenue act and its corollaries. At thesame time, they sent copies of the statement to the other colonialassemblies in the country, accompanied with the suggestion that all unitein discontinuing the use of British imported manufactures and otherarticles. The crown officers, for their part, renewed their appeal toEngland for naval and military forces to compel obedience and secure order. 

The king and the government inclined to think that force was the remedyin this case. It was in vain that the more magnanimous called attention tothe fact that an army and navy could not compel a man to buy a blackbroadcloth coat, if he liked a homespun one better. Inflammatory reportsfrom America represented it as being practically in a state ofinsurrection. A Boston newspaper, which had published a severe arraignmentof Governor Bernard, was tried for libel, and the jury, though informed byHutchinson that if they did not convict of high treason they "might dependon being damned, " brought in a verdict of acquittal. The Adams letter waslaid before the English ministry and pronounced to be "of a most dangerousand factious tendency, " and an injunction was dispatched to the severalcolonial governors to bid their assemblies to treat it with contempt, andif they declined, to dissolve them. Gage was ordered to enforcetranquillity. But the colonial resistance had thus far been passive only. The assemblies now declared that they had exclusive right to tax thepeople; Virginia not only agreed to the Adams letter, but indited one evenmore uncompromising; Pennsylvania and New York fell into line. A Bostoncommittee presented an address to Bernard asking him to mediate betweenthe people and England; he promised to do so, but at the same time sentout secret requests to have regiments sent to Boston. Divining hisduplicity, John Adams, at the next town meeting, formulated the people'sresolve to vindicate their rights "at the utmost hazard of their lives andfortunes, " declaring that whosoever should solicit the importation oftroops was "an enemy to this town and province. " The determination not torescind the principles stated in the Samuel Adams letter of January wasunanimous. Lord Mansfield thereupon declared that the Americans must bereduced to entire obedience before their alleged grievances could beconsidered. Camden confessed that he did not know what to do; the law mustbe executed: but how? "If any province is to be chastised, it should beBoston. " Finally, two regiments and a squadron were ordered to Boston fromHalifax. Samuel Adams felt that the time was now at hand either forindependence or annihilation, and he affirmed publicly that the colonistswould be justified in "destroying every British soldier whose foot shouldtouch the shore. " In the country round Boston, thirty thousand men wereready to fight. A meeting was called in Faneuil Hall, and it resolved that"the inhabitants of the Town of Boston will at the utmost peril of theirlives and fortunes maintain and defend their rights, liberties, privilegesand immunities. "--"And, " said Otis, pointing to four hundred muskets whichhad been collected, "there are your arms; when an attempt is made againstyour liberties, they will be delivered. " Bernard, who was pale with alarm, had to announce that the regiments were coming, and would be quartered, one in Castle William, the other on the town. The council replied thatthere was room enough in the Castle for both, and that, according to thelaw, any officer attempting to use private houses would be cashiered. Inthe midst of the dispute, the regiments arrived. The convention had, fromthe first, law on their side; and in order to preserve this advantage weredetermined to offer only a passive resistance to the revenue law, and toabstain from violence until it was offered to them. No charge of hightreason would stand against any one. The anchoring of the squadron offCastle William, with guns trained on the State House, had no effect. Onthe first of October, in compliance with an order from Gage, and in theabsence of Bernard, who had fled to the country in a panic, the regimentswere landed at Long Wharf. With military music playing, fixed bayonets andloaded guns, they marched to the Common, which was whitened by theirtents. An artillery train was also brought ashore. An attempt to browbeatthe people into providing quarters failed, and the officers dared notseize them. At length they were obliged to rent rooms, and some of the menwere lodged in the State House, as the weather became too cold for outdoorencampment; not a few of them deserted, and escaped into the country. ButBoston was under military rule, though there was nothing for the soldiersto do. Sentinels were posted about the town, and citizens were challengedas they walked their streets. On the Sabbath Day, drums and buglesdisturbed the worshipers in the churches. Officers of the custom house andarmy officers met at the British coffee house in King Street. On the southside of the State House was a court of guard, defended by two brasscannon, and a large number of soldiers were kept there; in front of thecustom house, further down the street, a sentinel paced his beat. Bostonwas indignant, but restricted itself to ceasing all purchases ofimportations, trusting thus to wear out their oppressors. Some of theyounger men, however, were becoming restive under the implied or overtinsults of the officers and soldiery, and there were occasional quarrelswhich might develop into something more serious. It was at this time thatthe French inhabitants of New Orleans rose and drove out the Spanishgovernor, Ulloa; and Du Chatelet remarked that it was "a good example forthe English colonies. " But Boston needed no example; she afforded one inherself. All the other colonies had indorsed her attitude; but theanimosity of England was concentrated against her. The whole kingdom wasembattled against the one small town; two more regiments had been sentthere, but no rebellion could be found. Was it the purpose to provoke one?Soldiers, from time to time, were arrested for misdemeanors, and broughtbefore the civil magistrates, but were pardoned, when convicted, by thehigher courts. Samuel Adams and others, on the other hand, continued to bethreatened with prosecution for treason, but did not recede from theirposition. Bernard, Hutchinson, Oliver, and the attorney-general acted assecret informers and purveyors of evidence against the patriots. Allpetitions from the colonies addressed to the English government wererefused so much as a hearing. And yet there was a strong division ofopinion in Parliament as to the course England was taking; and there weremany who wished that the question of taxation had never been raised. In1769, it was conceded that the duties on most specified articles should beabolished; nevertheless, Hillsborough, Secretary for the Colonies, saidthat he would "grant nothing to Americans except what they might ask witha halter round their necks"; and the great Samuel Johnson did not scrupleto add that "they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful foranything we allow them short of hanging. " Against such intemperatevaporings are to be set the noble resolutions of the Virginia assembly, ofwhich Jefferson, Patrick Henry and Washington were members, extending itssympathy and support to Massachusetts, warning King George againstcarrying Americans beyond seas for trial, and advocating colonial union. This was the more admirable, because England had treated Virginia withespecial tenderness and consideration. Similar resolutions in othercolonies followed, and a regular correspondence between the assemblies wasagreed to. The folly of English oppression had already created a unitedAmerica. 

At length the English government, weakened by the opposition, and by thebadness of their cause, agreed to abolish all duties except that on tea, which was now bought cheaper in Boston than in London; and to withdraw twoat least of the regiments. But Boston was contending for a principle, notfor a few hundred pounds, and refused to accept the tea as a compromise. Much more conducive to good feeling was the recall of Governor Bernard, just as he was making himself comfortable for a long tenure of officeunder the protection of British soldiers. This man's character is ascontemptible as any in colonial history. It was not merely or chiefly thathe was an abject miser and a foe to liberty. He was a convicted liar, aspy, and a double-dealer; and his cowardice made him despised even by theBritish. He scrupled not to swindle the British government, by connivingat smuggling, while assuring them of his zeal in putting it down. Whilesmiling in men's faces, he was covertly laying plots for theirdestruction. His last thought, after receiving the crushing news of hisrecall, was to try to beguile the assembly into voting him his salary forthe coming year. The attempt failed, and he retreated in disgrace, withjoy-bells ringing in his ears. His only consolation was that he leftHutchinson in his place, as ill-disposed toward liberty and honor ashimself, and his superior in intelligence. His recall had been due to thedesire of London merchants, who believed that his presence was destructiveof their commercial interests. The ministers for whom he had incurred somuch ignominy would do nothing for him; for the dishonorable are alwaysready to sacrifice their instruments. 

Hutchinson immediately began the system of secret conspiracy against thelives and liberties of the chief citizens of Boston which marked hisadministration; flattering them in their presence, while writing lettersof false accusations to the English ministry, which he begged them neverto disclose. But his cowardice was equal to Bernard's; so that when thepeople detected an informer, and tarred and feathered him, he dared notorder the English regiments to interfere, and no one else was qualified togive the word. But the hatred between the soldiers and the citizens wasinflamed. A British officer told his men, if they were "touched" by acitizen, to "run him through the body. " Many young men went armed withoaken cudgels. 

Two sons of Hutchinson, worthy of their sire, were guilty of felony inbreaking a lock to get at a consignment of tea, which had been locked upby the committee of merchants. The merchants called Hutchinson to account;he promised to deposit the price of what tea had been sold and to returnthe rest. Dalrymple, the commander, issued twelve rounds of ammunition, with which the soldiers ostentatiously paraded the streets. But inasmuchas no one but the governor was authorized to bid them fire, and thecitizens knew Hutchinson's timidity too well to imagine that he would dosuch a thing, this only led to taunts and revilings; and such epithets as"lobster-backs" and "damned rebels" were freely bandied between themilitary and the young men. The officers made common cause with their men, and the custom house people fomented the bitterness. A vague plan seems tohave been formed to provoke the citizens into attacking the military, whowere then to fire, and plead self-defense. 

On Friday, March 2, 1770, some soldiers came to blows with men employedon a rope-walk. The affair was talked over in the barracks, and nothingwas done to restrain the desire of the soldiers for revenge, or to keepthem off the streets at night. On the 5th, squads of them were forgingabout, armed with bludgeons, bayonets and cutlasses, boasting of their"valor, " challenging the people they met, and even striking them. Theirofficers openly encouraged them. Their regiments were the Fourteenth andthe Twenty-ninth, notorious for their dissoluteness and disorderliness. The night was cold, and a few inches of snow fell. Other groups ofsoldiers came out, with their flintlocks in their hands: a boy was struckon the head; several times the guns were leveled, and the threat was madeto fire. One youth was knocked down with a cutlass. Knots of angry youngmen began to range hither and thither with staves:--"Where are they?--Cowards!--Fire if you dare!--Lobster-scoundrels!" The soldiers, on theother hand, were giving way to fury, striking persons in the doors oftheir houses, calling out that they would kill everybody, and shouting"Fire--fire!" as if it were a watchword. But as yet no irrevocable act hadbeen done. 

Soon after nine o'clock, however, the alarm bell at the top of KingStreet was rung hurriedly. Many persons thought it was for fire; and asBoston had been nearly destroyed by a great fire ten years before, a largecrowd rapidly poured out into the streets. But the frosty air carried noscent of smoke, and as the bell soon stopped its clangor, a numberreturned to their homes; but the younger and more hot-headed smelledmischief, if not smoke, and drew from various directions toward thebarracks. A party of them came down King Street toward the custom house. They were halted by the gruff "Who goes there?" of the sentry, and hisbayonet at their breasts. 

There were words of defiance: a sudden scuffle: and out of the barrackgate came pouring the guard, with guns in their hands. Almost in the samemoment a great multitude of citizens came surging in from all sides, andthronged in front of the custom house, where the fight seemed to be goingon. Those behind pushed against those in front, and all became wedged in amass, trying to see what was going forward, swaying this way and that, uttering broken shouts, threatening, warning, asking, replying; and hot atheart with that fierce craving to measure strength against strength whichis the characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon when his blood is up. Thesoldiers were wholly in the wrong: they had no right to be where theywere; they had no right to wantonly annoy and provoke citizens in theirown town; their presence in the colony, for the purpose of constraining apeaceful population, was a crime; but consciousness of this fact did notlessen their animosity. As for the Boston people, they felt, as they facedthe emissaries of their oppressors on that wintry night, the accumulatedexasperation of generations of injustice, and perhaps a stern thrill ofjoy that now, at last, the final, unforgivable outrage was to beperpetrated. 

The great majority of citizens had not even sticks in their hands; noneof them carried guns or cutlasses. Some snowballs were thrown at thesoldiers, who faced the crowd with savage faces, and leveled bayonets. Then there was a fresh crowding and uproar, for Captain Preston and asquad of eight men had issued from the guard house and were forcing theirway to their comrades with the point of the cold steel. Their red coatsand black shakos and the glint of the moonlight on their weapons made themconspicuous in the struggling mass, and the sinister intent which wasmanifest in their look and bearing sent a strange thrill through themultitude. 

A tall man in a black cloak, who five years later was a general ofartillery in the American army, laid his hand on Preston's shoulderforcibly. "For God's sake, sir, get back to your barracks; if you fire, you must die for it!" exclaimed he, in a deep voice. Preston stared athim, hardly seeming to see him, and quivering with agitation. "Stand aside--I know what I'm about, " he replied huskily. As the soldiers reached thesentinel's post and faced about in a semicircle, the crowd fell back, andthere were voices calling "Home--home!" The soldiers began to load, pouring the powder and ball into the muzzles of their guns, and rammingthe charge home sharply with their ramrods. At this, a dozen men, withcudgels, advanced upon the soldiers, cheering, and passed in front ofthem, striking the barrels of their muskets with their sticks. "Cowardlyrascals!--drop your guns, and we're ready for you, " said some betweentheir gritted teeth. "Fire, lobsters!--you daren't fire!" cried others. "Down with 'em! drive the cowards to their barracks!" shouted some. "Areyour men loaded?" demanded a citizen, stepping up to Preston; and when thelatter nodded--"Will they fire upon the inhabitants?"--"Not without myorders, " the captain seemed to say. "Come on, you rascals--fire if youdare--you daren't fire!" yelled the fiercer spirits, now beside themselveswith passion; and one struck a soldier's piece. He leveled it and fired, at the same moment that Preston waved his sword and gave the word. A manfell at the shot: the people gave back; the other soldiers fireddeliberately and viciously, not in a volley, but one after another, takingaim. Some of them started forward to use the bayonet. It is said that afigure was seen to come out on the balcony of the custom house, his faceconcealed by a veil hanging down over it, and fire into the retreatingthrong. The open space in front of the soldiers was overhung with smoke, which slowly dissolved away, and revealed eleven New Englanders stretchedalong the trodden snow of their native town. Some tried to rise; otherslay still. Blood flowed from their wounds, smoking in the icy air, andtinging the white snow red. The deed had been done. 

A sullen muttering of horror, swelling by degrees into a roar of rage, burst from hundreds of throats as that spectacle was seen; and in amoment, as it seemed, the town drums had beat to arms, the bells wereclanging, and all Boston was pressing tumultuously into King Street. TheTwenty-ninth regiment was hurriedly marshaled under arms; it appeared atfirst as if the populace, thousands strong, and not without weapons, wouldrush upon them and tear them in pieces. But by this time the saner andstronger men had reached the scene, and set themselves resolutely towithhold the people. "You shall have justice, " they told them, "but let itbe by due course of law. " And there was Hutchinson, promising everythingin his dismay, hurrying between the soldiers and the crowd, his feetmaking blood-stained marks in the snow as he went. To no man more than tohim was due the guilt of that night's work. 

Prompt and clean measures were taken: a town-meeting was held, and theimmediate withdrawal of all troops from Boston was required. The wretchedHutchinson tried to temporize: he denied that he had power to move thesoldiers; then he consented to send one regiment away, letting the otherremain; the people would accept no compromise; Dalrymple said that hewould do as the governor directed. Samuel Adams and Hutchinson finallyfaced each other in Faneuil Hall. "If you have power to remove oneregiment, you have power to remove both, " said Adams, in a low butdistinct voice, pointing his finger at the other. "Here are three thousandpeople: they are becoming very impatient: the country is in generalmotion: night is approaching: an immediate answer is expected: it is atyour peril if you refuse. " And describing the scene afterward, Adams said, "at the appearance of the determined citizens, peremptorily demandingredress of grievances, I saw his knees tremble and his face grow pale: andI enjoyed the sight!" Truly, it was a subject for a great artist toimmortalize. The troops must go: and they went, choking with humiliation. 

The news of this affair in England shocked the more reasonable people, and led to criticism of the ministers; but Lord North, supported by theking, would not consent to remove the tax on tea. He made it "a test ofauthority, " and a punishment for "American insolence. " It was an expensivepunishment for England; the cost of keeping an army in the colonies, andother incidental expenses, footed up about half a million dollars, againsta revenue from duties of four hundred dollars only. Americans got theirtea from the Dutch by smuggling and by corrupt connivance of the Englishcustoms officers; and the loss of the English East India Company wasestimated at two and a half million dollars at least. There was greatuneasiness at this absurd showing; and Burke declared that "the idea of amilitary establishment in America is all wrong. " Lord Chatham, reading theletters from Boston patriots, and resolutions of assemblies, remarked, "These worthy New Englanders ever feel as Old Englanders ought to feel. "The colonists, however, zealous as they were for their liberties, wereready to meet half way any effort toward conciliation on England's part. The agreement to accept no British imports was but slackly kept, in spiteof protests from South Carolina and elsewhere. The people were wearied ofstrife and would have welcomed any honorable means of peace. In thisjuncture, two things only kept alive the spirit of independence; neitherwould have sufficed apart from the other. The first was the pig-headednessof the English government, with the king at the head of it, and men likeThurlow, an irreconcilable foe to America, assisting; together with theconspiracy against the colonies of the royal governors and officials, whosent home false and exaggerated reports, all aiming to show that martiallaw was the only thing that could insure order--or, in other words, securethem their salaries and perquisites. These persons, by continuallyirritating the raw place, prevented the colonists from forgetting theirinjuries. In South Carolina, Governor Tryon, a bloody-minded Irishman, went further; he took the field against the "Regulators"--a body ofcitizens who had organized to counteract the lawlessness of the internalconduct of the colony--and after a skirmish took a number of themprisoners and hanged them out of hand; most of the rest, to save theirlives, took to the woods and, journeying westward, came upon the lovelyvales of Tennessee, which was thus settled. Daniel Boone had already madehimself at home in Kentucky. In Virginia, where the people were disposedto loyalty, the agitation to do away with slavery, both on practical andmoral grounds, was harshly opposed by England, and the other colonies, sympathizing with her action, were snubbed along with her. In short, thepompous and hide-bound Hillsborough followed everywhere the policy ofalienation, under the impression that he was maintaining English dignity. 

But all this would not have sufficed to keep the colonies on their coursetoward independence, had it not been for the ceaseless vigilance andforesight of Samuel Adams in Boston, Benjamin Franklin in London, and thesmall but eminent band of patriots whom they worked with. Adams, profoundly meditating on the signs of the times and the qualities of humannature, perceived that England would continue to oppress, and that thelonger the colonies abstained from open resistance, the more difficultwould the inevitable revolt become. He did not hesitate, therefore, tospeak in ever plainer and bolder terms as the peril augmented. Reason wason his side, and his command of logic and of terse and telling languageenabled him to set his cause in the most effective light. By drawing adistinction between the king and his ministers, he opened the way toarraign the latter for their "wickedness" in sending an "impudent mandate"to one assembly to rescind the lawful resolution of another. The too eagerHutchinson fell into the trap, and pointed out that it was the king, rather than the ministry, who must be charged with impudence. But this wasnot to disprove the impudence; it was simply to make the king instead ofthe ministry obnoxious to the charge, and to enlighten the people as towho their real enemy was. "The king, " said Adams, "has placed us in aposition where we must either pay no tax at all, or pay it in accordancewith his good pleasure"--against the charter and the constitution. "Theliberties of our country, " he went on, "are worth defending at allhazards. Every step has been taken but one: and the last appeal requiresprudence, fortitude and unanimity. America must herself, under God, workout her own salvation. " He set resolutely to work to put into executionhis plan of a committee of correspondence, to elicit and stimulate thepatriotic views of the various colonies. "The people must instruct theirrepresentatives to send a remonstrance to the king, and assure him, unlesstheir liberties are immediately restored whole and entire, they will forman independent commonwealth, and offer a free trade to all nations. "--"Itis more than time, " Adams wrote to Warren, "to be rid of both tyrants andtyranny. " He prepared a statement of rights, among which was the right tochange allegiance in case oppression became intolerable, and to rescue andpreserve their liberties sword in hand. A detailed statement of grievanceswas also drawn up, to be submitted to the king; its specifications were nodoubt familiar to Jefferson, when he wrote the "Declaration" four yearslater. This document was circulated throughout the colony, and wasindorsed with unexpected enthusiasm by scores of towns; many of them, withrustic bluntness, telling their thoughts in language even stronger thanthat of their model. The fishermen of Marblehead (of whom history says notmuch, but whatever is said, is memorable) affirmed that they were"incensed at the unconstitutional, unrighteous proceedings of theministers, detested the name of Hillsborough, and were ready to unite forthe recovery of their violated rights. " In Plymouth, "ninety to one werefor fighting Great Britain. " The village of Pembroke, inhabited bydescendants of the Pilgrims, said that the oppressions which existed mustand would issue in the total dissolution of the union between the mothercountry and the colonies. "Death is more eligible than slavery, " saidMarlborough; and Lenox refused to "crouch, Issachar-like between the twoburdens of poverty and slavery. " There was no doubt about the sentiment ofthe country; and the hands of Adams and his colleagues were immenselystrengthened by the revelation. 

In the spring of 1773 the next step was taken by Virginia. Young DabneyCarr rose in the assembly and moved a system of correspondence between allthe colonies similar to that which had been established in Massachusetts. In other words, the intercommunication of councils in all the colonies wasorganized, and when these councils should meet, the Continental Congresswould exist. The response was earnest and cordial from Georgia to Maine. Things were rapidly shaping themselves for the end. If anything more wereneeded to consolidate England's offspring against her, it was not wanting. Hutchinson, the veteran plotter and self-seeker, who never did a generousor magnanimous act, who stabbed men in the back, and who valued money morethan country or honor, was exposed to the contempt of all men both inAmerica and England, and was forced to resign his governorship in disgraceand to fly to England, where he died a few years later. Franklin was theimmediate means of his downfall. A member of Parliament had remarked tohim in conversation that the alleged grievances of which the colonistscomplained had not been inflicted by any English initiative, but were theresult of solicitation from the most respectable of the coloniststhemselves, who had affirmed these measures to be essential to the welfareof the country. Franklin lifted his eyebrows; upon which his interlocutorproduced a number of Hutchinson's secret letters to Hillsborough. Theyproved a conspiracy, on the part of Hutchinson, Oliver and others, tocrush American liberty and introduce military rule: they were treasonablein the worst sense. Franklin remarked, after reading them, that hisresentment against England's arbitrary conduct was much abated; since itwas now evident that the oppression had been suggested and urged byAmericans whom England must have supposed represented the better class ofthe colonists. He sent the letters to Boston; and "as to the writers, " hewrote, "when I find them bartering away the liberties of their nativecountry for posts, negotiating for salaries and pensions extorted from thepeople, and, conscious of the odium these might be attended with, callingfor troops to protect and secure them in the enjoyment of them;--when Isee them exciting jealousies in the crown, and provoking it to wrathagainst so great a part of its most faithful subjects; creating enmitiesbetween the different countries of which the empire consists; occasioninga great expense to the old country for suppressing or preventing imaginaryrebellions in the new, and to the new country for the payment of needlessgratifications to useless officers and enemies--I cannot but doubt theirsincerity even in the political principles they profess, and deem themmere time-servers, seeking their own private emoluments through anyquantity of public mischief; betrayers of the interest not of their nativecountry only, but of the government they pretend to serve, and of thewhole English empire. "

The letters were read in the assembly in secret session. But in themeanwhile Hutchinson had been led into another mistake. He had denied, inhis speech to the legislature, that any line could be drawn between thesupreme authority of Parliament and the total independence of thecolonies. Either yield, then (he said), or convince me of error. Theterrible Adams asked nothing better. Accepting Hutchinson's alternative, he answered, "If there be no such line between Parliament's supremeauthority and our total independence, then are we either vassals ofParliament or independent. But since the parties to the compact cannothave intended that one of them should be vassals, it follows that ourindependence was intended. If, as you contend, two independentlegislatures cannot coexist in one and the same state, then have ourcharters made us distinct states from England. "--Thus had the governorunwittingly pointed his opponent's spear, and, instead of driving him toattack Parliament, been placed in the position of implicitly questioningits authority himself. 

But this was nothing compared with the revelation of his treacherousletters. His first instinct, of course, was falsehood. "I never wrote anyletter tending to subvert the constitution, " he asseverated. Beingconfronted with his own sign-manual, "Their design, " he cried, "is not tosubvert but to protect. " But he knew he was ruined, and sent word to hiscorrespondents in England to burn the letters they held. The letters werepublished, and distributed all over the colonies. Not a man or woman inthe country but knew Hutchinson for the dastardly traitor he was. Apetition to remove him and Oliver was sent to the king, but he hastened tosubmit his resignation, with a whining entreaty that he be not "leftdestitute, to be insulted and triumphed over. " And bringing false chargesagainst Franklin, he begged to receive the latter's office of deputypostmaster-general. 

Before this matter could be settled, affairs in Boston had come to acrisis. The East India Company had large consignments of tea ready forshipment to the principal towns along the American coast. The latterwarned them of loss, but Lord North said "The king means to try thisquestion with America. " It was seen that the connection between Englandand her colonies could be continued only on a basis of equal liberties, and "Resist all shipments of tea!" was the word. New York and Philadelphiasettled the matter by commanding all consignees to resign, which they did;but this was not to be the solution in Boston. When, on November 28th, the"Dartmouth, " Captain Rotch, arrived with one hundred and fourteen cases oftea, the representatives of the people ordered him not to enter tillTuesday, the 30th. Four weeks before a meeting at Liberty Tree had beensummoned, and the consignees directed to attend and resign. The meetingwas held, but Clarke and the other consignees had refused to recognize itsauthority. They now temporized, and were granted a day to consider;meanwhile a guard was kept on the ship. The next day the consigneesproposed to suspend action until they could write to the exporters foradvice; but this was seen to be a subterfuge and was indignantly refused. Rotch agreed to take the tea back; but the custom house refused him aclearance. For if the ship remained in port, with her cargo undischarged, twenty days, the authorities could seize and land it by law. If then thepeople were to prevail, they must do so within that time. It seemed as ifthey must be defeated; for if the consignees would not resign, and theship could not get a clearance, nothing but a direct violation of the lawcould prevent the tea from being landed. To make assurance surer, twofrigates kept guard at the mouth of the harbor, and the guns of the Castlewere loaded. The governor and the officers were already chuckling overtheir anticipated victory. 

Adams and the committee of correspondence met, in secret session, andwhat they determined never has transpired and can be surmised by inferenceonly. On Thursday, December 16th, a great meeting was called in the OldSouth Church. Thousands of people from surrounding towns were inattendance; the willingness and eagerness of them all to resist at thecost of their lives and fortunes had been abundantly expressed. Had therebeen an armed force with which they could have fought, the way would havebeen easy; but there was nothing palpable here: only that intangible Law, which they had never yet broken, and their uniform loyalty to which, intheir disputes with England, had given them strength and advantage. Mustthey defy it now, in the cause of liberty, and engage in a scuffle withthe king's officers, in which the latter would be technically at least inthe right? No doubt they might prevail: but would not the moral defeatcounterbalance the gain?

"Throw it overboard!" Young had exclaimed, at a meeting two weeks before. The suggestion had seemed to pass unheeded; but this was a crisis whenevery proposition must be considered. Josiah Quincy and other speakers setclearly before the multitude the dilemma in which they stood. Rotch hadbeen dispatched to Milton, where the governor had taken refuge, to ask fora pass out of the harbor, this being the last resort after the refusal ofclearance papers. The short winter day drew to a close; darkness fell, andthe church, filled with that great throng of resolute New Englanders, waslighted only by a few wax candles, whose dim flare flickered on the sternand anxious countenances that packed the pews and crowded the aisles, andupon Adams, Young, Quincy, Hancock, and the other leaders, grouped roundthe pulpit. They were in the house of God: would He provide help for Hispeople? A few hours more, and the cargo in yonder ship would lapse intothe hands of the British admiral. The meeting had given its final, unanimous vote that the cargo never should be landed; but what measureswere to be taken to prevent it, was known to but few. 

It was near six when a commotion at the door resolved itself into theushering-in of Rotch, panting from his ten-mile ride in the frosty air; hemade his way up the aisle, and delivered his report: the governor hadrefused the pass. No other reply had been looked for; but at the news asilence fell upon the grim assembly, which felt that it was now face toface with the sinister power of the king. Then of a sudden, loud shoutscame from the lower part of the church, near the open door; and even asAdams rose to his feet and throwing up his arm, called out, "This meetingcan do nothing more to save the country"--there was heard from without theshrill, reduplicating yell of the Indian war whoop; and dusky figures wereseen to pass, their faces grisly with streaks of black and red, featherstossing in their hair, and blankets gathered round their shoulders; each, as he passed through the dim light-ray, swung his hatchet, uttered hiswar-cry, and was swallowed up in darkness again. Out poured the multitudefrom the church, startled, excited, mystified, obscurely feeling that somedecisive act was about to be done: and here are Adams and Hancock amongthem, cheering on that strange procession which passed down toward thewharfs swiftly, two by two, and seeming to increase in numbers as theypassed. After them streamed the people, murmuring and questioning, throughthe winter gloom of the narrow street, until the high-shouldered housesfell away, and there were the wide reaches of the harbor, with the shipslying at Griffin's Wharf amid the cakes of ice that swung up and down withthe movement of the tide. As they came there, a strange silence fell uponall, amid which the Indians--were they Indians?--swung themselves lightlyaboard the vessels, and went swiftly and silently to work. Up from thehold came case after case of tea, which were seized and broken open by thehatchets, the sound of their breaking being clearly audible in the tensestillness; and the black contents were showered into the waters. Minuteafter minute, hour after hour went by, and still the wild figures worked, and still the multitude looked on, forgetful of the cold, their heartsbeating higher and fuller with exultation as they saw the hated cargodisappear. It was all but ten of the clock before the last hatchet-strokethat smote the king's fetters from Massachusetts had been delivered; andthen the feathered and painted figures leaped ashore, drawing theirblankets round their faces, and melted silently into the crowd, and werelost, never again to reappear. Who were they?--Never was secret betterkept; after six score years we know as little as did King George'sofficers on that night. They seemed to have sprung into existence solelyto do that one bold deed, and then to vanish like a dream. But the deedwas no dream; nor its sequel. No blood was shed on the night of the 16thof December, 1773: but Massachusetts, and through her the other colonies, then and there gave notice to King George that he had passed the limitswhich they had appointed for his tyranny; and the next argument must beheld at the musket's mouth. 

CHAPTER FOURTEENTH

THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD

Franklin was sixty-seven years of age at this time; no man was then alivemore worthy than he of honor and veneration. For twenty years he hadguarded the interests of America in England; and while he had beenunswerving in his wise solicitude for the colonies, he had ever beenheedful to avoid all needless offense to England. The best men there werethe men who held Franklin in highest esteem as a politician, aphilosopher, and a man; and in France he was regarded as a superior being. No other man could have filled his place as agent of the colonies: noother had his sagacity, his experience, his wisdom, his address. He wasnot of that class of diplomatists who surround every subject they handlewith a tissue of illusion or falsehood; Franklin was always honest andundisguised in his transactions; so that what was long afterward said of alesser man was true of him: "Whatever record spring to light, he neverwill be shamed. " No service rendered by him to his country was more usefulthan the exposure of Hutchinson; none was more incumbent on him, asprotector of colonial affairs. But in the rage which possessed the Englishministry upon learning how Massachusetts had parried the attack made uponher liberties, some immediate victim was indispensable; and as Franklinwas there present, they fell upon him. A fluent and foul-mouthed youngbarrister, Alexander Wedderburn by name, had by corrupt influence securedthe post of solicitor-general; and he made use of the occasion ofFranklin's submitting the petition for the removal of Hutchinson andOliver, to make a personal attack upon him, which was half falsehood andhalf ribaldry. He pretended that the Hutchinson letters had beendishonorably acquired, and that their publication was an outrage onprivate ownership. Incidentally, he painted Hutchinson as a true patriotand savior of his country; and called Franklin an incendiary, a traitor, ahypocrite, who should find a fitting termination of his career on thegallows. This billingsgate was heaped upon him before an unusually fullmeeting of the lords of the privy council, the highest court of appeal;and they laughed and cheered, while the venerable envoy of the coloniesstood "conspicuously erect, " facing them with a steady countenance. Such, and of such temper, were the aristocratic rulers of England and of America(if she would be ruled) at this epoch. 

America's friends in England were still stanch; but the ministry found nodifficulty in giving events a color which irritated the English people atlarge against the colonies, and against Boston in particular; and they hadlittle trouble in securing the passage of the Boston Port Bill, the effectof which was to close the largest and busiest port in the colonies againstall commerce whatsoever. Fuller said that it could not be put in executionbut by a military force; to which Lord North answered, "I shall nothesitate to enforce a due obedience to the laws of this country. " Anotheradded, "You will never meet with proper obedience until you have destroyedthat nest of locusts. " Lord George Germain, speaking of revoking theMassachusetts charter, said, "Whoever wishes to preserve such charters, Iwish him no worse than to govern such subjects. " The act passed bothhouses without a division, and Gage was appointed military governor, inplace of Hutchinson, who was recalled; and four regiments were quarteredin Boston. The wharfs were empty and deserted; the streets were dull, theshops were closed; but the British Coffee House in King Street was gayonce more; and King George in London, felt that he was having his revenge, though he was paying a round price for it. But Boston, having shown thatshe could do without tea, and without commerce, was now about to show thatshe could also do without George. 

Nobody but Americans could govern America. The people were toointelligent, too active, too various-minded, too full of native qualityand genius to be ruled from abroad. If they were to fall under foreignsubjection, they would become a dead weight in the world, instead of asource of life; as Adams said, every increase in population would be butan increase of slaves. And that they preferred death to slavery was everyday becoming increasingly manifest. They felt that the future was in them, and that they must have space and freedom to bring it forth; and it is oneof the paradoxes of history that England, to whom they stood inblood-relationship, from whom they derived the instinct for liberty, should have attempted to reduce them to the most absolute bondage anywhereknown, except in the colonies of Spain. She was actuated partly by thepride of authority, centered in George III. , and from him percolating intohis creatures in the ministry and Parliament; and partly by the horde ofoffice-seekers and holders whose aim was sheer pecuniary gain at any costof honor and principle. The mercantile class had borne their share inoppression at first; but when it became evident that tyranny applied toAmerica would kill her productiveness, the merchants were no longer on theside of the tyrants. It was then too late to change the policy of thecountry, however; George would have his way to the bitter end; the blindlust to thrash the colonies into abject submission had the upper hand inEngland; reason could not get a hearing; and such criticisms as theopposition could offer served only to make still more rigid and medievalthe determination of the king. 

It was the policy of the English government to regard Boston as thehead-center of revolt, and to concentrate all severities against her. Itwas thought that in this way she could be isolated from the othercolonies, who would say to themselves that her troubles were none oftheir affair, and that so long as they were treated with decency theywould not antagonize all-powerful England. Arguing from the averageselfishness of human nature, this policy did not seem unwise; but the factwas that in this case human nature manifested an exceptional generosityand enlightenment. Although the colonies, being on the coast, must dependlargely for their prosperity on commerce, and commerce is notoriouslyself-seeking, nevertheless all the American settlements without exceptionmade the cause of Boston their own, sent her supplies to tide over herevil days, and passed resolutions looking to union and common actionagainst oppression. South Carolina had every selfish ground for sidingwith England; her internal affairs were in a prosperous condition, and hertraffic with England was profitable, and not likely to be interfered with;yet none of the colonies was more outspoken and thoroughgoing than she indenouncing England's action and befriending Boston. The great commonwealthof Virginia was not less altruistic in her conduct, and did more than anyof her sister provinces to enforce the doctrine of union and independence. New York, a colony in which aristocracy held a dominant place, owing tothe tenure of large estates by the patroons, and which necessarily was acommercial center, yet spoke with no uncertain voice, in spite of the factthat there were there two parties, representing the lower and the uppersocial class, whose differences were marked, and later led to theformation of two political parties throughout the colonies. InPennsylvania, the combination of non-fighting Quakers and careful tradersdeadened energy in the cause, and the preachings of Dickinson, thevenerable "Farmer, " were interpreted as favoring a policy of conciliation;but this hesitation was only temporary. The new-made city of Baltimore wasconspicuous in patriotism; and the lesser colonies, and manyout-of-the-way hamlets and villages, were magnificent in their devotionand liberality. The demand for a congress was general, and Boston was madeto feel that her sacrifices were understood and appreciated. She had butto pay for the tea which had been thrown overboard, and her port wouldhave been reopened and her business restored; but she staked her existenceupon a principle and did not weaken. There were, in all parts of thecolonies, a strong minority of loyalists, as they called themselves, traitors, as they were termed by extremists on the other side, or tories, as they came to be known later on, who did and said what they could toinduce submission to England, with all which that implied. But thepractical assistance they were able to give to England was neverconsiderable, and, on the other hand, they sharpened the senses of thepatriots and kept them from slackening their efforts or modifying theirviews. 

Gage, a weak and irresolute man, as well as a stupid one, was making agreat bluster in Boston. His powers were despotic. Soldiers and frigateswere his in abundance; he talked about arresting the patriots for treason, to be tried in England; and Parliament had passed an act relieving him andhis men from all responsibility for killings or other outrages done uponthe colonists. He transferred the legislature from Boston to Salem; andurged in season and out of season the doctrine that resistance to Englandwas hopeless. Upon the whole, his threats were more terrible than hisdeeds, though these were bad enough. Meanwhile Hutchinson in England hadbeen encouraging and at the same time misleading the king, by assurancesthat the colonies would not unite, and that Boston must succumb. At thesame time, Washington was declaring that nothing was to be expected frompetitioning, and that he was ready to raise a thousand men and subsistthem at his own expense, and march at their head for the relief of Boston;Thomson Mason was saying that he did not wish to survive the liberties ofhis country a single moment; Prescott of New Hampshire was affirming that"a glorious death in defense of our liberties is better than a short andinfamous life"; Israel Putnam of Connecticut announced himself ready totreat the army and navy of England as enemies; and thousands of citizensin Massachusetts were compelling royal councilors to resign their places, and answering those who threatened them with the charge of treason anddeath with--"No consequences are so dreadful to a free people as that ofbeing made slaves. " Jay's suggestion to form a union under the auspices ofthe king was disapproved: "We must stand undisguised on one side or theother. " Gage's orders were ignored; judges appointed by royal decree wereforced to retire; and "if British troops should march to Worcester, theywould be opposed by at least twenty thousand men from Hampshire County andConnecticut. " Gage, finding himself confronted by a population, couldthink of no remedy but more troops. He wrote to England that "the peopleare numerous, waked up to a fury, and not a Boston rabble, but thefreeholders of the county. A check would be fatal, and the first strokewill decide a great deal. We should therefore be strong before anythingdecisive is urged. " He had, on the 1st of September, 1774, captured twohundred and fifty half-barrels of provincial powder, stored at QuarryHill, near Medford. Forty thousand militia, from various parts of thecountry, took up arms and prepared to march on Boston; and though word wassent to them that the time had not yet come, their rising was an objectlesson to those who had been asserting that the colonies would submit. Gage had ten regiments at his disposal, but was trying to raise a force ofCanadians and Indians in addition, and was asking for still morere-enforcements from England. The employment of Indians was a new thing inEnglish policy, and was a needless barbarism which can never be excused orpalliated. Gage fortified Boston Neck, thus putting all within the linesat the mercy of his army; yet the starving carpenters of the town refusedto erect barracks for the British troops. Outside of Boston, the townsthrew off the English yoke. Hawley said he would resist the whole power ofEngland with the forces of the four New England colonies alone; and everyman between sixteen and seventy years of age was enrolled under the nameof "minute-men, " ready to march and fight at a minute's warning. 

On the 5th of September, the first American Congress met in Philadelphia. Almost all the eminent men of the country were present--Gadsden of SouthCarolina, Washington, Dickinson, Patrick Henry, Lee, the Adamses, and manymore. They agreed to vote by colonies. Their business was to consider aconstitution, to protest against the regulating act in force at Boston, which left no liberty to the citizens; to frame a declaration of rights, and to make a statement to the king of their attitude and demands. Thesession was long, for the delegates had to make one another'sacquaintance, and to discover a middle course between what was desired byseparate colonies and what was agreeable to all. Great differences ofopinion and policy were developed, and there were not wanting men likeGalloway, the Speaker, who aimed at paralyzing all resistance to England. But the longer they debated and voted, the more clearly and unanimouslydid they oppose the tyrannous acts of Parliament and the extension of theroyal prerogative, and the more firmly did they demand liberty andequality. Separation they did not demand, but a free union with the mothercountry, to the mutual enrichment and advantage of both. By a concession, they admitted the right of Parliament to lay external duties and toregulate trade; but they strongly indorsed the resistance ofMassachusetts, and declared that if her oppression were persisted in, itwould be the duty of all America to come to her aid. With the hope ofinfluencing the merchants of England to reflect upon the injustice of thepresent trade restrictions, they voted to cease all imports into England, and to refuse all exports therefrom, though the loss and inconvenience tothemselves from this resolve must be immeasurably greater than to theolder country, which had other sources of supply and markets for goods. Inall that they did, they were ruled by the consideration that theypossessed no power of enforcing their decrees upon their ownfellow-countrymen, and must therefore so frame them that the naturalinstinct for right and justice should induce to obedience to them. Theirmoderation, their desire for conciliation, was marked throughout; and whena message was received from Boston, reciting the iniquitous proceedings ofGage, and proposing, if the Congress agreed, that the citizens of thewealthiest community in the new world should abandon their homes andpossessions and retire to a life of log huts and cornfields in thewilderness--when this heroic suggestion was made, the Congress resistedthe fiery counsel of Gadsden to march forthwith on Boston and drive Gageand his army into the sea; and bade the people of Boston to be patient yeta while, and await the issue of the message to England. But although theywere conscientious in adopting every measure that could honorably beemployed to induce England to reconsider her behavior, they had littlehope of a favorable issue. "After all, we must fight, " said Hawley; andWashington, when he heard it, raised his hand, and called God to witnessas he cried out, "I am of that man's mind!"

Their final utterance to England was noble and full of dignity. "To yourjustice we appeal. You have been told that we are impatient of governmentand desirous of independence. These are calumnies. Permit us to be as freeas yourselves, and we shall ever esteem a union with you to be ourgreatest glory and our greatest happiness. But if you are determined thatyour ministers shall wantonly sport with the rights of mankind: if neitherthe voice of justice, the dictates of law, the principles of theconstitution, or the suggestions of humanity, can restrain your hands fromshedding human blood in such an impious cause, we must then tell you thatwe will never submit to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for anyministry or nation in the world. "

In order to cripple America, the new province of Quebec was enlarged, soas to cut off the western extension of several of the older colonies. Atthe same time discrimination against the Catholics was relaxed, and theCanadians were given to understand that they would be treated with favor. The Americans, however, were not blind to the value of Canadianfriendship, and sent emissaries among them to secure their good will. "Ifyou throw in your lot with us, " they were told, "you will have beenconquered into liberty. " In Virginia, Lord Dunmore had been appointedgovernor, and in order to gratify his passion for wealth, he broke theinjunction of the king, and allowed the extension of the provincewestward; but this was the result of his personal greed, and did notprevent his hostility to all plans for colonial liberty. Nevertheless, hisconduct gained him temporary popularity in Virginia; and still more didhis management of the war against the Shawnees, brought on by theirattacks upon the frontiersmen who had pushed their little settlements asfar as the Mississippi. These backwoodsmen were always on the borders ofperil, and aided in hastening the spread of population westward. 

The proceedings of the American Congress produced a sensation in England;they were more moderate in tone and able in quality than had beenanticipated. They could not divert the king from his purpose, but theyaroused sympathy in England among the People, and from Lord Chatham theremark that the annals of Greece and Rome yielded nothing so lofty andjust in sentiment as their remonstrance. The non-representative characterof Parliament at this juncture is illustrated by the fact thatthree-fourths of the English population were estimated to be opposed tothe war with America. It was also pointed out that it would be difficultto find men to fill the regiments, inasmuch as all the ablebodied men inEngland were needed to carry on the industries of the country; there wereno general officers of reputation, and many of those holding commissionswere mere boys, or incompetent for service. There were three millionpeople in America, and they would be fighting for their own homes, andamid them, with the whole vastness of the continent to retire into. On theother hand, it was asserted that the Americans were all cowards, andincapable of discipline; that five thousand English soldiers were morethan a match for fifty thousand provincials. They had no navy, no army, noforts, no organization. They would collapse at the first real threat offorce. The English ministry and their followers vied with one another inheaping contempt and abuse upon the colonists. It was in reply to themthat Burke made one of his greatest speeches. Burke was an artist insentiments, and cannot be regarded as a statesman of settled and profoundconvictions; his voice regarding America had not been consistent or wise;but ever and anon he threw forth some worthy and noble thought. "I do notknow the method, " he said in his speech, "of drawing up an indictmentagainst a whole people. " Franklin, in March, after listening to one ofLord Sandwich's shallow and frothy vilifications of America, "turned onhis heel" and left England. With him vanished the last hope ofreconciliation. "Had I been in power, " exclaimed Hutchinson, "I would nothave suffered him to embark. "

The colonists everywhere were collecting arms and ammunition, storingpowder, and diligently drilling. Whatever the leaders might say, orrefrain from saying, the mass of the people believed in the immediateprobability of war with England. In every village you could see thefarmers shouldering arms and marching to and fro on the green, while anold man played the fife and a boy beat the drum. They did not concernthemselves about "regimentals" or any of the pomp and glory of battle; butthey knew how to cast bullets, and how to shoot them into the bull's-eye. In their homespun small-clothes, home-knit stockings, home-made shirts andcowhide shoes, they could march to the cannon's mouth as well as in thefinest scarlet broadcloth and gold epaulets. Their intelligence, theirgood cause, their sore extremity, made them learn to be soldiers morequickly than seemed possible to English officers who knew the sturdystupidity of the English peasant of whom the British regiments werecomposed. And while the Yankees (as they began to be called) were learninghow to march and countermarch, and do whatever else the system of theBritish regulars called for, they also knew, by inheritance, if not byactual experience, the tactics of the Indians; they could make a fortressof a rock or a tree or a rail fence, and could shoot and vanish, or fall, as it seemed, from the empty air into the midst of the unsuspecting foe. They were effective not only in bodies, but individually; and in the heartof each, as he faced the foe, would be not only the resolve to conquer, but the holy thought of wife and children, and of liberty. They were asfit to be led by Washington as was he to lead them. Professing to despisethem, Gage nevertheless protested against taking the field with less thantwenty thousand men; upon which David Hume scornfully observed, "If fiftythousand men and twenty millions of money were intrusted to such alukewarm coward, they never could produce any effect. " It was resolved tosupersede him. 

The men of Portsmouth had seized a quantity of powder and arms, whichbelonged to them, but had been sequestered in the fort. The British, as aset-off, marched to Salem to capture some stores there; they did not findthem, and proceeded toward Danvers. A river, spanned by a drawbridge, intervened, and when they arrived, the draw was up. There stood ColonelTimothy Pickering, with forty provincials, asking what Captain Leslie withhis two hundred red-coated regulars wanted. The captain blustered andthreatened; but the draw remained up, and the provincials all had guns intheir hands, and looked able and willing to use them, if occasiondemanded. But the captain did not think it best to give the signal forcombat, and meanwhile time was passing, and no soothsayer was needed toreveal that the stores were being removed to a place of safety. After anhour or so, Colonel Pickering relented so far as to permit the captain andhis regulars to cross the bridge and advance thirty yards beyond it; afterwhich he must face about and return to Boston. This he did; and thus endedthe first collision between the colonies and England. Nobody was hurt; butin less than two months blood was to be shed on both sides. "The twocharacteristics of this people, religion and humanity, are strongly markedin all their proceedings, " John Adams had said. "Resistance by armsagainst usurpation and lawless violence is not rebellion by the law of Godor the land. If there is no possible medium between absolute independenceand subjection to the authority of Parliament, all North America areconvinced of their independence, and determined to defend it at allhazards. " The British answer to utterances like these was to seize afarmer from the country, who had come to town to buy a firelock, tar andfeather him, stick a placard on his back, "American liberty, or a specimenof democracy, " and conduct him through the streets amid a mob of soldiersand officers, to the strains of "Yankee Doodle. "

As the last moments before the irrevocable outbreak passed away, therewas both a strong yearning for peace, and a stern perception that peacemust be impossible. "If Americans would be free, they must fight, " saidPatrick Henry in Virginia. One after another, with singular unanimity, thecolonies fell in with this view. New York was regarded by the British asmost likely to be loyal; New England, and especially Massachusetts, wereexpected to be the scene of the first hostilities. Sir William Howe, brother of the Howe who died bravely in the Old French War, was appointedcommander-in-chief in place of Gage. The latter was directed to adopt themost rigorous and summary measures toward the Boston people, whosecongress was pronounced by Thurlow and Wedderburn to be a treasonablebody, deserving of condign punishment. Orders were given to raiseregiments of French Papists in Canada; and the signal that should letloose the red men for their work of tomahawking women and children was insuspense. It was now the middle of April. 

The winter season had been exceptionally mild. In the country neighboringBoston the leaves were budding a month earlier than usual, and the grasswas deep and green as in English meadows. The delicate and fragrantblossoms of the mayflower made the wooded hillsides sweet, and birds weresinging and building their nests in the mild breezes, under thecloud-flecked sky. The farmers were sowing their fields and caring fortheir cattle; their wives were feeding their poultry and milking theircows; New England seemed to have put off her sternness, and to be wearingher most inviting and peaceful aspect. Innocence and love breathed in theair and murmured in the woods, and warbled in the liquid flowing of thebrooks. In such a time and place, Adam and Eve might have begun the lifeof humanity on earth, and found in the loveliness and beauty of the worlda fitting image of the tranquillity and tenderness that overflowed theirguileless hearts. 

But Eden was far away from New England in the spring of 1775. Committeesof Safety had been formed in all the towns, whose duty it was to providefor defense against what might happen; and two eminent leaders, SamuelAdams and John Hancock, had been to Lexington and Concord to oversee thedispositions, and to consult with the fathers of the colony who had met inthe latter town. A small quantity of powder and some guns and muskets hadbeen stored in both these places; for if trouble should occur with theBritish, it was most likely to begin in Boston, and the minute-men of theprovince would rendezvous most conveniently at these outlying settlements, which lay along the high road at distances of fourteen and twenty milesfrom the city. No offensive operations, of course, were contemplated, norwas it known what form British aggression would assume. Defense of theirhomes and liberties was all that the New England farmers and mechanicsintended. They had no plan of campaign, and no military leaders who knewanything of the art of war. They could be killed by invaders, and perhapskill some of them; they were sure of the holiness of their cause; but theywere too simple and homely-minded to realize that God had intrusted tothem the first irrevocable step in a movement which should change thedestinies of the world. 

In Boston, during the 18th of April, there had been bustle and mysteriousconferences among the British officers, and movements among the troops;which might mean anything or nothing. But there were patriots on thewatch, and it was surmised that some hostile act might be meditated; andplans were made to give warning inland, should this prove to be the case. At the British Coffee House, that afternoon, the group of officers wasgayer than usual, and there was much laughter and many toasts. "Here's tothe Yankee minute-men!" said one: "the men who'll run the minute they seethe enemy!" General Gage stalked about, solemn, important andmonosyllabic. Lieutenant-colonel Smith was very busy, and held himselfunusually erect; and Major Pitcairn, of the marines, was often seen in hiscompany, as if the two had some secret in common. The plain citizens whowalked the streets fancied that they were shouldered aside even morearrogantly than usual by the haughty redcoats; and that the insolent starewith which they afflicted the handsome wives and pretty maidens of Bostonwas grosser and more significant than common. But the evening fell withmatters much as ordinary, to all appearance; and as the town was undermartial law, most of the population was off the streets by nine o'clock. 

But soon after ten that night, a man was riding at a hand-gallop pastMedford, heading west. He had been rowed across Charles River just at thebeginning of flood tide, and had landed on the Charlestown shore a fewminutes before the order to let none pass had reached the sentry. Turning, with one foot in the stirrup, he had seen two lights from the North Churchtower, and a moment afterward had been on his way. Half a mile beyondCharlestown Neck he had almost galloped into the arms of two Britishofficers, but had avoided them by turning suddenly to the right. Now theold Boston road was smooth before him, and he threw off his three-corneredhat, bent forward in his saddle and spoke in his horse's ear. His was agood horse, and carried an important message. A house near the roadsideshowed up dark and silent against the starlit sky; the horseman rode tothe door and struck the panels with his whip. A window was thrown openabove: "Who's there?"--"Paul Revere: the British march to-night toLexington and Concord: Warren, of the Committee of Safety, bids you holdyour men in readiness. "--"Right!"--The horseman turns, and is off alongthe road again before the captain of the Medford minute-men has shut thewindow. 

It is but a short fourteen miles to Lexington; but there are a dozen ortwenty farmhouses along the way, and at each of them the horseman mustpause and deliver his message; so that it is just midnight as he comes insight of the outskirts of the humble village. There is a dim light burningin the window of yonder hip-roofed cottage beside the green; Adams andHancock must be anticipating news; Adams, indeed, has the name of being aman who sleeps little and thinks much. The night-rider's summons isresponded to at once; and then, at the open door, there is a briefconference, terse and to the point; the pale face of a woman looks fromthe window; a message has brought Dawes and Sam Prescott, ready mounted, to accompany Revere on his further journey. Young Jonas Parker, the bestwrestler in Lexington, has drawn a bucket of water at the well-sweep andis holding it under the nose of Revere's horse. "Well, my lad, " says Paul, "are you ready to fight to-morrow?"--"I won't run--I promise you that, "replies the youth, with a smile. He was dead five hours later, with abullet through his vigorous young body, and a British bayonet wound in hisbreast, having kept his word. 

Meanwhile the three horsemen are off, bearing now toward the left, forLincoln; but there, as luck would have it, they encountered half a dozenEnglish officers, who arrested Dawes and Revere and took them back toLexington. Prescott, however, was too quick for them; in the flurry anddarkness he had leaped his horse over the low stone wall, and was offacross the meadows which he had known from a boy, to Concord. It was thenbetween one and two o'clock; and the latter hour had hardly struck whenthe ride was over, and the bells of the meeting-house were pealing fromthe steeple. Two-o'clock-in-the-morning courage is the test of a man, asNapoleon said some years later; be that as it may, here are the Concordminute-men, Hosmer, Buttrick, Parson Emerson, Brown, Blanchard, and therest; they are running toward the green, musket in hand, bullet-pouch onthigh, ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred and more; and there comes Barrett, their captain, with his sword; the men range out in a double rank, in thecool night air, and answer to their names; if the time has indeed come foraction, they are ready to make good the bold words spoken at many a townmeeting and private chat for weeks past. They have been comrades all theirlives, and know each other; and yet now, perhaps, they gaze at one anothercuriously, conscious of an indefinable change that has come over them, nowthat death may be marching a few miles to the eastward. 

And in truth, while they were discussing what might happen, death wasalready at work at Lexington. Eight hundred grenadiers and light infantry, the best soldiers in America, had marched into the village shortly beforedawn. For an hour or more, as they marched, they had heard the sound ofbells and of muskets, now near, now far, telling that their movement hadbeen discovered; and they hastened their steps; not as apprehendingresistance from the Yankee cowards, but lest the stores they were aftershould be hidden before they could get at them. And now, here they were, advancing with the regular tramp of disciplined troops, muskets on theirshoulders, bayonets fixed, and a slight dust rising from their serriedfootsteps. They looked as if they might march through a stone wall. Butcould it really be true that these men meant to kill American farmers insight of their own homes? Were English soldiers really enemies of theirown flesh and blood? As they approached the common--an irregular triangleof ground, with a meeting-house at the further end--the alarm-drum wasbeating, and muskets firing; and yonder are the minute-men sure enough, running together in the morning dusk, and marshaling themselves in scantyranks under the orders of Captain Parker. Young men and old are there, intheir well-worn shirts and breeches, cut and stitched by the faithfulhands of their wives and daughters, and each with his loaded flint-lock inhis hands. There are but fifty or sixty in all, against sixteen times asmany of the flower of the British army. The vanguard of the latter hashalted, and has received the order from Pitcairn to load; and you may hearthe ring of the ramrods in unison, and then the click of the locks. Andyonder comes the rest of the host, at double-quick, the hoarse commands oftheir officers sounding out of the gloom. What can less than threescoreminute-men do against them? At all events, they can die; and history willnever forget them, standing there in front of the little church where theyhad so often prayed; and their country will always honor their names andlove them. They stood there, silent and motionless, protesting with theirlives against the march of tyranny. How few they were--and what countlessmillions they represented!

Out rides Pitcairn in front of the grenadiers. You can see the red of histunic now in the gathering light, the sparkle of his accouterments, andthe gleam of his sword as he swings it with a commanding gesture. "Disperse, ye villains!" he calls out in a harsh, peremptory voice: "Yerebels--why don't you lay down your arms and disperse?"

Would they obey?--No: for they were neither villains nor rebels; they hadcome there as a sacrifice, and they would not go thence until the crimehad been committed, and their country had definitely learned, from them, whether oppression would proceed to the last extremity, or not. It wasonly a few harmless, heroic lives to lose; but so much must needs be done. It was not an easy thing to do; there was no one to teach them how to doit scenically and splendidly. They must simply stand there, in their ownawkward way, shoulder to shoulder, motionless, gazing at the gallant majorand the heavy masses of uniformed men beyond, waiting for what might come. The Lord of Hosts was on their side; but, as with our Saviour in theGarden of Gethsemane, He seemed remotest when most near. Their wives andchildren are there, looking on, straining their eyes through theobscurity, with what throbbings of agony in their hearts, with whatprayers choking in their throats!

The major snatches a pistol from his holster, levels and discharges it;and "Fire!" he shouts at the same moment, at the top of his lungs. He hadomitted the "Ready--present!" and the soldiers did not all fire at once;first there were a few dropping shots; but then came the volley. Theregulars shot to kill. Down came Jonas Parker to his knee, to be stabbedto death before he could reload; there fell old Munroe, the veteran ofLouisburg; and Harrington, killed at his doorstep, and Muzzey, Hadley, andBrown. In all, before the stars had faded in the light of dawn, sixteenNew Englanders lay dead or wounded on the village green. And the Britishtroops had reformed, and huzzaed thrice, and marched on with drum andfife, before the sun of the 19th of April had looked upon their work. TheRevolution had begun. 

It was seven o'clock when, with the sun on their backs, the Britishinvaders came along the base of the low hill, crowned with pine and birch, that lies like a sleeping serpent to the east on the way to Concord. Theywere a trifle jaded now from their all-night march, and their gaiters anduniforms were a little dusty; but the barrels of their guns shone asbright as ever, and their spirits were good, after their glorious exploitsix miles back. Glorious, of course: yet a trifle dull, all the same;there would be more fun shooting these bumpkins, if only they could summonheart to put up a bit of a fight in return. "Maybe we'll get a betterchance at 'em out here, colonel--eh?" the major of marines might havesaid, with his Scotch brogue, turning his horse to ride beside hissuperior officer for a mile or so. "I don't think it, sir, " that greatsoldier would reply, puffing out his cheeks, and wiping his brow with hisembroidered handkerchief. "The sight of his majesty's uniform, MajorPitcairn, is alone enough to put to flight every scurvy rebel inMassachusetts. If you want to get within range of 'em, sir, you must wearmufti. "

During the early morning hours, the minute-men standing under the libertypole in front of Concord meeting-house had been gradually re-enforced byparties hastening in from Lincoln, Acton, and other outlying hamlets, until they numbered about two hundred men. But as the British drew near, eight hundred strong, the Americans withdrew down a meadow road northward, until they reached a hospitable edifice with a broad roof, pierced bygables, standing at the upper end of an avenue, and with its back towardthe sluggish Muskataquid, or Concord River. A few rods to the left of thesite of this manse was a wooden bridge, spanning the stream, known as theNorth Bridge. The manse was occupied by the Reverend William Emerson, theminister of the town, and from its western windows was an excellent viewof the bridge. One of these windows was open, and the pastor himself, withhis arms resting on the sill, was looking from this coign of vantage whenthe minute-men came up, crossed the bridge, and stationed themselves onthe rising ground just beyond. He remained there, a deeply interestedspectator, during the events which followed. 

The British, finding Concord deserted, divided into three parts, onegoing to a bridge to the south of the town, one remaining in the townitself, and the third marching north, where it again divided, one party ofa hundred guarding the approach to the north bridge, on the further sideof which the Americans were embattled, the other proceeding along the roadto the house of Captain Barrett in search of arms. A couple of hourspassed by, and nothing seemed likely to happen; but it was noticed thatthere was the smoke of a fire in Concord, a mile to the south and east. Smith and Pitcairn were there, with the main body of the troops, and theyhad been making bonfires of the liberty pole and some gun carriages: thecourt house was also in a blaze. But to the Concord men, waiting at thebridge, it looked as if the British were setting their homes afire. Thewomen and children had been sent into the woods out of harm's way, beforethe regiments arrived; but some of them might have ventured back again. Vague rumors of the bloodshed at Lexington had been passed from mouth tomouth, losing nothing, probably, on the way. The men began to ask oneanother whether it was not incumbent on them to march to the rescue oftheir town?

By accessions from Carlisle, Bedford, Woburn, Westford, Littleton andChelmsford they had now grown to a strength of four hundred; the forceimmediately opposing them was less than half as numerous. They evidentlydid not expect an attack; they had not even removed the planks from thebridge. They despised the Yankees too much to take that easy precaution. 

But though the British at this point were few, they were regulars; theystood for the English army in America: and for more than that--they stoodfor all England, for Parliament, for the king, for loyalty; for thatenormous moral force, so much more potent even than the physical, whichtends to prevail because it always has prevailed. These farmers did notfear to risk their lives; their fathers, and some of themselves, hadfought Indians and Frenchmen, and thought little of it. But to fight menwhose limbs were made in England--in the old home which the colonistsstill regarded as theirs, and had not ceased to love and honor, for allthis quarrel about duties and laws of trade--that was another matter: itwas almost like turning their weapons against themselves. And yet, ifthere were any value in human liberty, if the words which they hadlistened to from the lips of Adams and Warren and Hancock meant anything--now was the time to testify to their belief in them. They were men: thiswas their land: yonder were burning their dwellings: they had a right todefend them, and their families. What said Captain Barrett--and IsaacDavis of Acton, and Buttrick? And here was Colonel Robinson of Westfordtoo, a volunteer to-day: but what was his opinion?

The officers drew together, conferred a moment, and then Barrett, who wasin command, and the only man on horseback, gave the word: "Advance acrossthe bridge: don't fire unless they fire at you. " The companies marchedpast him, led by Buttrick, Davis and Robinson, with their swords drawn. The men were in double file. 

Seeing them actually advancing on the bridge, the British condescended tobestir themselves, and some of them began to raise the planks. Upon this, the Americans, who meant to cross, broke into a trot. Mr. Emerson, leaningout of his window, with the light of battle in his eyes, saw three or fourpuffs of smoke come from the British, and two Americans fell. Immediatelyafter there was a volley from the regulars, and now Isaac Davis was down, and moved no more; and Abner Hosmer fell dead near him. The Americans wereadvancing, but they had not fired. "Father in Heaven!" ejaculated the goodparson, between his set teeth, "aren't they going to shoot?"

Even as he spoke, he saw Buttrick leap upward, and heard his shout:"Fire, fellow soldiers!--for God's sake, fire!"

The men repeated the word to one another; up came their guns to theirshoulders, and the sharp detonations followed. 

They reached the ears of the minister, and he gave a sigh of relief. Theyechoed across the river, and rolled away toward the village, and into thedistance. Nor did they stop there--those echoes: the Atlantic is wide, butthey crossed it; they made Lord North, Thurlow, and Wedderburn start intheir chairs, and mutter a curse: they penetrated to the king in hiscabinet, and he flushed and bit his lip. More than a hundred years havepassed; and yet the vibrations of that shot across Concord Bridge have notdied away. Whenever tyranny and oppression raise their evil hands, thatsound comes reverberating out of the past, and they hesitate and turnpale. Whenever a monarch meditates injustice against his subjects, thenoise of the muskets of the Concord yeomen, fired that men might be free, falls upon his ear, and he pauses and counts the cost. Yes, and there havebeen those among ourselves, citizens of the land for which those yeomenfought and died, who also might take warning from those ominous echoes:for the battle waged by selfishness and corruption against human rightshas not ceased to be waged on these shores, though the British left them acentury ago. It seems, at times, as if victory inclined toward the evilrather than the good. But let us not be misled. The blood of the farmerswho drove England out of America flows in our veins still; we are patientand tolerant to a fault, but not forever. The onlooker, gazing from afar, fears that we will never shoot; but presently he shall be reassured; andonce our advance is begun, there will be no relenting till the lastinvader be driven into the sea. 

There is a deeper lesson yet to be learned from Concord fight. It is thatthe noblest deeds may be done by the humblest instruments; and that asChrist chose His apostles from among the fishermen of Galilee, so was theimmortal honor of beginning the battle for the liberation of mankindintrusted to a handful of lowly husbandmen and artisans, who knew littlemore than that right was right, and wrong, wrong. There were nophilosophers or statesmen among them; they comprehended nothing ofdiplomacy; they only felt that a duty had been laid upon them, andinspired by that conviction, they went forward and did it. The judgment ofthe world has ratified their act, and has admitted that perhaps moresubtle reasoners than they, balancing one consideration against another, taking counsel of far-reaching prudence, flinching from responsibility, might have put off action until the golden moment had forever passed. Butwhat the hands of these men found to do, they did with their might; andtherefore established the truth that the spirit of God finds its fittinghome in the bosoms of the poor and simple; and that the destinies ofmankind are safe in their protection. 

Two English soldiers were killed or mortally wounded by the fire of theAmericans and several others were hit. A panic seized upon the rest, andbefore the farmers had crossed the bridge, they were retreating indisorder upon the main body in Concord. Barrett's men were surprised bythis sudden collapse of the enemy, and did not pursue them at that time, nor intercept the small force further up the road, all of whom mighteasily have been killed or captured. Perhaps they even felt sorry for whatthey had done; at all events, they betrayed no bloodthirstiness as yet. But when Smith and Pitcairn, after much agitation and irresolution, ordered a retreat of the whole force down the Boston road, firing as theywent upon all who showed themselves, and robbing and destroying dwellingsalong the route: when the winners of Concord bridge, and their fellowminute-men, who now began to be numbered by thousands rather than byhundreds, saw and comprehended this, the true spirit of war was kindledwithin them, and they began that running fight of twenty miles which endedin the hurling of the British into the defenses of Boston, broken, exhausted, utterly demoralized and beaten, with a loss of two hundred andseventy-three men and officers, Smith himself receiving a severe wound. Ten miles more would have witnessed their complete annihilation. No troopsever ran with better diligence than did these English regulars before thedespised Yankee minute-men; they lost the day, and honor likewise. It wasin vain that they threw out flanking parties, in an effort to clear thewoods of the American sharpshooters; the latter knew the war of the forestbetter than they, and the flanking parties withered away, and staggeredhelpless from exhaustion. It was in vain that Lord Percy, with twelvehundred men, met the flying horde at Lexington, where their officers weretrying to reform them under threats of death; his cannon could delay, butnot reverse the fortunes of the day. Lord Percy soon became as frightenedas the rest, and realized that speed of foot was his sole hope of safety. Gasping for breath, reeling from fatigue, with terror and despair in theirhearts, foul with dust and dripping with blood, a third part of theBritish army in New England were hunted back to their fortifications asthe sun of the 19th of April, whose first beams had fallen upon the deadat Lexington, went down in the west. Less than fifty Americans had beenkilled, less than forty were wounded. Some of these, however, werehelpless persons, who were wantonly murdered in their houses by Englishsoldiers, their brains dashed out, and their bodies hacked and stabbed. Women in childbirth were not exempt from the brutal fury of the flower ofthe British army; and an idiot boy was deliberately shot as he sat on afence, vacantly staring at the passing rout. All, or most of the towns inthe neighborhood of Boston contributed their able-bodied men to theAmerican force during the day; but there was never more than a few hundredtogether at one time, fresh relays taking the place of those whoseammunition had been used up. Some of these squads performed prodigies ofendurance; one of them arrived at the scene of action after a march offifty-five miles. No man under seventy or over sixteen would stay at home;and Josiah Haynes of Sudbury was marching and fighting from earliest dawntill past noon, when he was killed by a grenadier's musket-ball. He wasborn five years before the Eighteenth Century began. 

At West Cambridge the Americans were met by Joseph Warren and GeneralHeath, who organized the heretofore irregular pursuit, and made it moredisastrous to the enemy than ever. Warren, in the front of danger, wasgrazed by a bullet; but his time had not yet come. Fortunately for theBritish, Charlestown Neck was near, and once across that they were for thepresent safe. In fourteen hours they had learned more about America thanthey could ever forget. The Americans, for their part, had not failed togather profit and confidence from the experiences of the day. Theparalysis of respect and loyalty to England was at an end. The antagonistshad met and measured their strength, and the undisciplined countrymen hadproved the stronger. At any given point of the retreat, the English hadalways been the more numerous; but they showed neither heart nor abilityfor the contest. The British Coffee House in King Street that nightpresented a scene in marked contrast with that of the night before. 

The rumors of the battle, and messages of information and appeal from theleaders, were disseminated without delay, and in a space of timewonderfully short had penetrated to the remotest of the colonies. Everywhere they met with the same reception; all were eager to join in thework so hopefully begun. Within a day or two, the force beleagueringBoston numbered several thousand; but as many of these came and wentbetween the camp and their homes, no precise estimate can be made. Theywere without artillery for bombardment, without a commissariat, and almostwithout organization; and no leader had yet appeared capable of bringingorder out of the confusion. But not a few men afterward to bedistinguished were present there: the veteran John Stark, Benedict Arnoldfrom Connecticut, Israel Putnam, who rode a hundred miles on one horse tojoin the provincial army; and Joseph Warren, were on the ground, andothers were to come. Boston was effectually surrounded; Gage and hisofficers were afraid to order a sortie; and after a few days allowed thenon-loyalist inhabitants to leave the city, on their promise not to takepart in the siege. The chief deficiency of the Americans, or that at leastwhich most obviously pressed upon them, was the want of money:Massachusetts had hitherto avoided paper; but it was no longer possible tostand on scruples, and a bill to issue a hundred thousand pounds waspassed, and a quarter as much in bills of small denominations, to pay thesoldiers. The other colonies adopted similar measures. In New York, eightythousand pounds' worth of stores and supplies for Gage was seized by thepeople, and no ships were allowed to leave the harbor for the succor ofthe enemy. In Virginia, Patrick Henry and the young Madison, just out ofPrinceton, were prominent in opposing Governor Dunmore's efforts toestablish "order. " In Pennsylvania, men were raised and drilled, andpatriotic resolves adopted; and Franklin arrived from England in time tobe elected deputy to the second American Congress. The men of SouthCarolina announced themselves ready to give "the half, or the whole" oftheir estates for the security of their liberties, and voted to raisethree regiments. Georgia, with only three thousand militia, and underthreat of an Indian war on her frontier, fearlessly gave in her adhesionto the general movement. In North Carolina, the news from Lexingtonstampeded the governor, and left the people free to work their will. Butthe next notable achievement, after the Concord fight and the runningbattle, was the capture of Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen. 

The design was formed in Connecticut, less than ten days after Lexington. Ethan Allen was a Connecticut boy; but had early emigrated with hisbrothers to the New Hampshire Grants, as Vermont was then called. Thesegrants, given by the governor of New Hampshire, were called in question byNew York, and officers from that colony tried to oust the settlers; intheir resistance, Allen was the leader, and attained local celebrity. Parsons of Connecticut conferred with Benedict Arnold on the scheme ofcapturing the old fortress; and communication was had with Allen, who, being familiar with the Lake George region, and at the same time ofConnecticut stock, was esteemed the best man to associate with theenterprise. Parsons and a few others raised money on their personalsecurity, and set out for the north, gathering companions as they went. Ethan Allen met them at Bennington, with his company of Green MountainBoys, and was chosen leader of the adventure, Arnold, who had a commissionfrom Massachusetts, being ignored. On the 9th of May, the party, numberingabout eighty men, exclusive of the rear guard, which was left behind bythe exigencies of the occasion, landed on the shore near the fortress. Ticonderoga was a strong place, even for a force provided with cannon; butAllen had nothing but muskets, and everything depended upon a surprise. Itwas just sunrise on the 10th when Allen addressed his men with "We mustthis morning either quit our pretensions to valor, or possess ourselves ofthis fortress; and inasmuch as it is a desperate attempt, I do not urgeit, contrary to your will. You that will undertake voluntarily, poise yourfirelocks!" The response was unanimous. The wicket of the stronghold wasfound open; the sentry snapped his gun at Allen, missed him, and wasoverpowered with a rush, together with the other guards. On the paradewithin, a hollow square was formed, facing the four barracks; a woundedsentry volunteered to conduct Allen to the commander, Delaplace. "Comeforth instantly, or I will sacrifice the whole garrison, " thundered Allen, at the door; and poor Delaplace, half awake, started up with his breechesin his hand and wanted to know what was the matter. --"Deliver to me thisfort instantly!"--"By what authority?" inquired the stupefied commander. The Vermonter was never at a loss either for a word or a blow. --"In thename of the great Jehovah, and the Continental Congress!" and presentingthe point of his sword, he cut short further parley and received thesurrender. Fifty prisoners, with guns and stores, went with the fortress, for which the British had sacrificed forty million dollars and severalcampaigns; and not a drop of American blood was spilled. Ethan Allen is apicturesque character, and the capture of Ticonderoga is one of thepicturesque episodes of the Revolutionary War, and a valuable exploit fromthe military point of view; but it lacks inevitably the moral weight anddignity of the Concord fight. Indeed, the significance of the entirestruggle between Britain and her colonies was summed up and typified inthat initial act of unsupported courage. What followed was but a corollaryand expansion of it. 

On the same day that Allen overcame Delaplace, the second Congress met inPhiladelphia. It was a very conservative body, anxious that the war mightproceed no further, and hopeful that England might recognize the justiceof America's wish to be free while retaining the name of subjects of theking. But affairs had now got beyond the control of congresses; the peoplethemselves were in command, and the legislature could do little more thanascertain and register their will. The present Congress, indeed, had nolegislative powers, nor legal status of any kind; it was but the sobermind of the several colonies thinking over the situation, and offeringadvice here, warning there. It could not dispose of means to execute itsideas, while yet it would be open to as much criticism as if it possessedactive powers. Naturally, therefore, its tendency was to be timid andcircumspect. It is memorable nevertheless for at least two resolutions ofhigh importance; it voted an army of twenty thousand men, and it namedGeorge Washington as commander-in-chief. And when he declined tocountenance the proffered petition to King George, the ultimate prospectof reconciliation with England vanished.