Class _ Book_ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT % %mlc i^motp of Colonial %iU Life in the rLlGHTEENTH C^ENTURY By GEORGE GARY EGGLESTON Author of "OUR FIRST CENTURY" "A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS" "RUNNING THE RIVER," ETC. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK %. ^. 25aniCj^ 8s, Comjjanp 1905 {^wcr Qopiex rttNMive&t OCT 28 ll9Ui> Sooyrixni cjiM« COPY S. i; Copyright igo^ By a. S. BARNES & COMPANY All Kights Reserved Published October igoj INTRODUCTION THE social and political institutions of every country are the outgrowths of that country's life conditions, except in so far as institutions may be imposed upon a people by an authority outside of themselves. In our country outside authority has never been able thus to impress itself upon the minds and lives of the people. The development of American in- stitutions, American ideas, and American life, has been exclusively from within. Our system, from top to bottom, is the creation of the people who live under it. It is therefore peculiarly well adapted to their needs, and peculiarly an expression of their common thought and aspiration. [ The men and women who founded the English colonies in America, and the men and women who built those colonies up into great, self-governing commonwealths, were from the beginning men and women in revolt against the life conditions into which they were born. They were inspired by a vi INTRODUCTION determined purpose to better those life conditions, to organize society and the state in accordance with their own needs and in answer to their own aspira- tions of liberty and self government. ) In this volume and in the one preceding it, " Our First Century," an effort has been made to show how the colonists and the earlier native Americans did this work of social and political construction. It is a story which every American must know thoroughly if he would understand the institutions, the ideas, and the natural impulses of the Great Republic as they now are. Surely there could be no more enlightening story than that of our country's beginnings and early de- velopment ; for out of those beginnings and through that development there has come into being the greatest, richest, freest and most potent nation that has at any time existed on the face of the earth. It is at the same time the happiest, best fed, and most prosperous of nations. It is the only civilized land in which every man has an equal share with every other man in the government, the only land in which the conditions of life are such that the poor- est laborer may have meat on his table every day in the year, while his children, with education free, and with no barriers of caste to fix their status or to say INTRODUCTION vii nay to their ambitions, may freely and hopefully aspire to the very highest achievement. It has been the author's endeavor to tell the story of all this briefly, and with only so much of detail as is necessary to a just understanding of events, while showing forth what manner of men and women the builders of the nation were, what conditions surrounded them, how they lived, what clothes they wore, what sort of habitations they built, how they cooked and ate, what schools they had, and everything else that constituted their en- vironment, including their ignorance of sanitation, their lack of pavements, sewers and water supply in towns, the imperfection of their means of intercom- munication, their consequent isolation and the like. Attention has been given to their sports, their pun- ishments, their methods of farming and fighting, their commerce, their manufactures, their fisheries. Their deprivation of many things that in our time are accounted common necessaries of Hfe, is contrasted with their indulgence in luxuries of dress and living which we should now regard as foolish extravagance and ostentation. In the preceding volume — " Our First Century" — the period of Colony planting is dealt with. In the present volume the steady and resistless advance viii INTRODUCTION of the colonies toward National Independence is traced, as the most vital fact of American life during the first three quarters of the eighteenth century, and one which dominated and colored all other con- ditions of the life of that time. In this volume, as in the previous one, the author and publishers have availed themselves of the aid of many illustrations which show forth the condi- tions of life in aid of the written text. CONTENTS chapter. page Introduction ..... v i. when the eighteenth century dawned i ii. first half of the century . . 22 iii. the georgia colony . ' . , -32 iv. life in georgia and the carolinas . 39 v. further wars of the colonies . • $2 vl the first independent colonial war 6 1 vil the problem of the colonies brad- DOCK's BLUNDER .... 73 VIIL COLONIAL INDIVIDUALITY , . .84 IX. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FRENCH POWER IN AMERICA ..... 92 X. SOME COLONIAL GRIEVANCES . . . lO/ XL THE ATTEMPT TO ENFORCE OBNOXIOUS LAWS ; JAMES OTIS'S INSPIRING MAXIM II 3 XII. THE BEGINNINGS OF REVOLT . . 1 25 XIIL COLONIAL WEALTH AND LUXURY ">- .134 XIV. THE EVENT OF PATRICK HENRY . . 1 45 XV. THE ASSERTION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS . 1 56 XVI. DRIFTING TOWARD REVOLUTION . . I /I ix X CONTENTS CHAPTER. PAGE XVII. BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS . . I83 XVHI. THE APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION . 1 94 XIX. HEALTH CONDITIONS AND PECULIARITIES OF LIFE IN THE COLONIES , . . 209 XX, THE PROSPERITY OF THE COLONIES . 2l8 XXI. EDUCATION IN THE COLONIES — PECULIAR CUSTOMS . ... . . 224 ILLUSTRATIONS Page Colonial Mansion, residence of the late "William Bull Pringle, Charleston, S. C Frontispiece New York in 1697 (City Hall and Great Dock) .... 2 New York City Hall, Wall Street. Corner stone laid in 1699 . 4 An Old Maryland manor house ....... 7 Sawing boards 9 Hand mill ... 12 Map of the " Do Peyster Garden " in Wall Street, New York 1718 13 Old Iron Furnace near Warwick, N. Y. . . . . .16 Spinning flax .......... 18 Spinning wool .......... 20 Map illustrating the French and Indian "Wars .... 23 Queen Anne ........... 25 Acadia, Port Royal and Louisbourg and the route by sea between Boston and Quebec 26 ' Old Swedish Church, Wilmington, Del. ..... 27 An early printing press ........ 29 General James Oglethorpe ........ 33 Georgia and Florida as they were in Oglethorpe's time . . 35 A plantation gateway, entrance to the estate of William Byrd at Westover, Va. . . . . . . . . . .41 Carved doorway. Bull Pringle mansion, Charleston, S. C. . . 43 Indian moccasins .......... 48 Gateway at St. Augustine, Fla 53 A French regular 55 Old house at Deerfield 56 A French officer 58 A Canadian soldier .... , .... 62 Blockhouse . 63 George Washington 65 xi xii ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE A flintlock 68 Fort Duquesne .......... 69 Indian fur trader .......'.. 74 Line of Braddock's march ........ 77 The situation of Crown Point 81 The Postal service in 1700 85 Travelling on horseback . . . . • . . .86 In a Virginia home ......... 89 General Montcalm ......... 93 Lord Loudoun ........ . . 94 William Pitt 95 Uniform of 43rd Regiment of Foot, raised in America (1704) . 96 A Virginia mansion, Westover ...... 100 Negro quarters .......... loi Lord Howe 102 Ruins of Fort Ticonderoga . . . . . . . .103 General Amherst . . . . . . . . .104 General Wolfe 105 Old view of Quebec 106 Old Dutch house ... ..... . < 108 Notice of runaway slave, " Charleston Gazette," 1754 . . 109 Illustrated advertisement from the "Charleston Gazette," 1744 . no New York Colonial currency . . . . . . .114 James Otis . .116 Massachusetts three-penny bill . . . . . . .118 North Carolina paper money . ...... 121 A Virginia shilling . . . . . . . . .126 Virginia shilling (reverse) , . . . . . .127 Rosa Americana penny . . . . . . . .129 Rosa Americana penny (reverse) ...... 130 Nelson mansion . . . . . . . . . • ^35 Interior of Rosewell manor . . . . . . .137 Water mill 139 Costume of Thomas Hancock. Black velvet coat, waistcoat and breeches (about 1755) ........ 140 Costume of Thomas Boylston. White satin waistcoat, gold trim- ming (about 1720) ......... 141 From portrait or Mrs. Simon Stoddard (about 1725) . . 142 ILLUSTRATIONS xiii PAGE Quaker bonnet . . .143 Colonial tea set of gold, belonging to the Draytons of Drayton Hall, S. C. .......... 144 Rolling tobacco on the wharves . . . . . .147 Patrick Henry . 148 Advertisement from the " New York Weekly Gazette and Post- Boy" (1765) 149 Costume of Peter Faneuil. Velvet coat, cloth waistcoat, velvet ruffles (about 1740) . . . . . . . -151 Windsor chair. Facsimile of a cut in the "New York Weekly Ga- zette and Post-Boy" 1765 . . . . . . .152 From portrait of Mrs. Anna Gee (about 1745) .... 153 Samuel Adams . . . . . . . . . .154 An old New York mansion. Van Rensselaer manor house at Green- bush, N. Y. 158 Colonial fragments : Door trim from 55 Broadway, N. Y. ; George Washington's chair; clock at 57 Broadway .... 164 A spinning bee . 172 A Colonial tea party ........ .174 A hatter's shop in old times . . . . . . .176 A Conestoga wagon in the Bull's Head Yard, Philadelphia . 184 A pack horse 185 A wooden tray .......... 186 Skillets 187 Daniel Boone . . . . . . . . . .189 Old windmill .......... 190 A needlework sampler . .191 From portrait of Mrs. Mary Simibert (about 1735) . . . 192 Philipse Manor, Yonkers, N. Y. ; as it formerly appeared. . 195 The Peabody mansion, Danvers, Mass. Built about 1745 by "King" Hooper of Marblehead . . . , . .197 From portrait of Mrs. Thomas Boylston (about 1765) . . 198 Black silk bonnet . • . . . . . . .199 Musk-melon bonnet 200 Pewter chafing dish ......... 202 The Royal Exchange for merchants. Built in 1752 on Broad Street, N. Y., nearly on the line of Water Street . . . 204 Costume from an old portrait 206 xiv ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE A Colonial kitchen 214 Kitchen fireplace . . . . . . . . -215 Old whale ships .......... 222 King's College (now Columbia), Barclay Street and College Place, N. Y. ; corner stone laid in 1756 .... . . 225 A form of stocks ......... 226 Ducking stool 227 A scold, gagged 228 In a New England meetinghouse ..... . 235 Present territory of the United States, showing by whom it was claimed before 1763 ........ 239 The Beekman coach . . . . . . . .241 The author and publishers wish to achnowledge the courtesy of the Cen- tury Company and the Amei-ican Book Companij in granting permission to use several illustrations which appear in this book. LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CHAPTER I WHEN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY DAWNED AT the beginning of the eighteenth century the colonists, north and south, had learned in a considerable degree how to live in America. They had learned in each colony something of what crops the soil and the climate favored. They had learned in each of the colonies how to care for their domestic animals and fowls. In brief, they had learned fairly well how to live in their new homes, and how to produce there all that they needed for sustenance, together with a considerable surplus for export. They were no longer dependent upon the mother country for food, and if they were still dependent upon it for manufactured articles, at any rate their surplus food products, ship stores, fish, and the like, A 1 2 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY were amply sufficient to buy all that they needed of manufactures. The colonists were to a great degree dependent upon the mother country — which they were by that time strongly disposed to regard as a step- mother country — for all sorts of supplies that were New York in 1697. (City Hall and Great Dock.) the products of factories. Yet many of the colo- nists, both north and south, were rich enough to have all these things in plenty in their houses — brasses, rugs, mahogany furniture, leather, carpets, mirrors, chests of drawers, rich tapestries, porcelain, pewter utensils, tables of rosewood, tablecloths — DAWN OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 3 which they called carpets — and napkins of fine linen, clocks of artistic manufacture, combs of ivory, brushes of great value, and a multitude of other articles of luxurious use. In the " plantation book" of one old Virginia family I once found this entry under date of 1701 : " Bought sixteen towels tor the bath, rough in texture, but excellent in absorbing capacity, for four shillings apiece." The shilling in Virginia was i6f cents, but it represented a value greater than twenty-five cents does in our time, so that these sixteen ordinary bath towels cost my lady the equivalent of sixteen dollars or more of our money. In another plantation book there is this entry under date of 1720: "Sarah Jane return"^ from Madera by way of Eng'\ Wheat sold at good advtg. Brought me six casks Madera, one port and two Bordeau. Allso 2 pretty China tea setts and traits [trays], cost 12 pounds y 6*^." It was the custom even that early for a number of planters to club together, freight a little ship with wheat, send it to Madeira, and thence to England and home again with wines and other luxuries for home use. The " Sarah Jane," was doubtless a New England ship chartered for an expedition of this kind. 4 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY All these things meant luxury, and the-better-to- do colonists certainly lived in luxury when the seven- teenth century ended and the eighteenth century began. The conditions in New England were not widely different from those at the south, except as the cir- New York City Hall, Wall Street. Corner stone laid in 1699. cumstances, the climate and the temperament of the people made them so. A good many well-to-do men, and some wealthy men, had come into the New England, colonies, and they built fine houses and fared sumptuously. So, too, in Maryland, and DAWN OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 5 still more in the Carolinas, there had been a con- siderable immigration of wealthy gentry, who had established fine plantation " seats," there where they intended that their children after them should live in state. The Quakers of Pennsylvania made less display, but they were thrifty folk who prospered mightily in the new land, and they were minded to enjoy the fruits of their labor in their own fashion. Their clothing was of Quaker cut, but the cloths and silks of which it was made were of the best. Their houses were plain in structure but the life within them suffered no lack of any luxury that abundant money could buy. In order to understand the state of mind of the colonists at the beginning of this new century it is necessary to bear always in mind the fact that from the beginning, or almost from the beginning, all the acts of these people had been dominated by a spirit of discontent with things as they were, and by a fixed purpose to make them better. All these peo- ple — whether Puritans in New England or Cava- liers in Virginia, or Quakers in Pennsylvania, or Catholics in Maryland, or Huguenots in the Caro- linas, or Germans in Pennsylvania — had crossed the ocean in protest against conditions in their home lands. They had all come to this country in search 6 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY of liberty to live their own lives in their own way. The fundamental idea in the minds of all of them was the idea of the right of men and communities to govern themselves free from interference from with- out. If they were themselves sometimes intolerant, their intolerance was mainly self-defensive, and those who found conditions unsatisfactory in one colony, were free to remove to another. A vast, unoccupied continent lay before them where to choose. Thus when conditions in Massachusetts became unbear- able to such liberty-loving spirits as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson and their followers, those persecuted ones removed to Rhode Island. And when later a lesser discontent sprang up in Massa- chusetts, a large body of the people living there migrated to Connecticut, in search of a larger liberty. In the same way, when the Germans in New York felt themselves hardly used, they removed to Penn- sylvania. So, too, though later, the Scotch-Irish and others, in the Carolinas, crossed the mountains and made new settlements in the wilderness at cost of great hardship to themselves, and, having done so, threw off the yoke of the colonies from which they had come and set up little states of their own. Everywhere the dominating thought found ex- pression in revolt against all authority from without, DAWN OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 8 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY and the assertion of the principle of local self- government. Even within each of the colonies, this thought was crystallized into institutions such as the New England Town Meeting and the Virginia County Court — each a little sovereignty in itself, claiming and exercising the right of home rule. Tt is not too much to say that every one of the colonies had been planted in the spirit of revolt against conditions or institutions that had bred dis- content, and that the history of their growth and ex- tension had been a story of successive revolts and removals in obedience to the all-dominating doctrine that every community has a right to manage its own affairs in its own way. That thought continued to control the history of the colonies during the period from the dawn of the century to the outbreak of the Revolution. The history of the eighteenth century is a story of revolt in the name of liberty and independence. The seventeenth century had been a period of colony planting in America. That work of planting had been successfully done by brave and resolute men. By the time that the sixteen hundreds ended, and the seventeen hundreds began, the foundations of a great nation had been securely laid on these shores. DAWN OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 9 From Maine to South Carolina there were firmly fixed and thoroughly organized English colonies. These were no longer experimental settlements. They were colonies in which life had taken perma- nent fi^rm. Colonies in which institutions — politi- cal, social, religious and industrial — had taken root in the soil and become fixed for good or ill. The men and women who inhabited America when the year 1701 intro- duced a new century, had come hither to stay. ^ Many of them had been born here and knew no other country except by tradition. They had built up homes for themselves. Sawing boards. They had organized their political institutions with reference to their own political needs. They had ar- ranged their religious affairs in each colony in accordance with their several beliefs, but mainly with a larger tolerance for differences than had been permitted at first. They had organized society upon somewhat new lines, more democratic than those that prevailed in England, but still with marked distinctions between classes. In Virginia the first colonists had been succeeded 10 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY by a large immigration of well-to-do, middle-class Englishmen, including a few persons of noble blood. In that colony the dominating impulse had been to set up plantations which should become great " es- tates " in the English sense of the term. This impulse really determined the history of Virginia for generations afterwards, the great planters constituting a dominant and controlHng class, just as the clergy- men were in New England and the patroons in New York. At first the houses of the colonists had been hovels, or holes dug in the ground, or bush shelters, or bark huts. When New York consisted of thirty houses, twenty-nine of them were bark hovels. A little later the colonists built log cabins with earthen floors. A little later still the houses had been log cabins with " puncheon " or hewed timber floors, windows made of greased cambric, or greased paper, and chimneys built of sticks and daubed with mud. But as the quality of the immigrants im- proved, and as the wealth of the colonists increased, the houses became steadily better and better. After the policy of the private ow^nership of land was adopted in the colony, the young English gen- tlemen who settled in Virginia had an easy road open to them. They had only to secure a grant DAWN OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 11 of Virginia lands, a thing not difficult to do. Then, upon their arrival in the colony, they had only to select the land they desired and make it their own. Next they bought white servants or negro slaves to till the land they had secured by patent or grant. In the main they employed white servants, at least during the first three quarters of the seventeenth century. During that time, as we have seen in " Our First Century," there had been a very small importation of negro slaves into the colony. As late as 1671 there were only about two thousand negroes there, while the white servants in the same year numbered no less than six thousand. As soon as well-to-do Englishmen beo-an to come to the colony there was a very great improvement in the quality and character of the dwellings erected. Brick quickly came into use. At first bricks were used mainly in the construction of chimneys. These were often built in the middle of the house, with fire- places in the corners of four rooms on each floor of the house, so that one chimney served eight rooms. But these chimneys were built upon cellar foun- dations that employed brick enough to build two or three houses under modern methods of construction. There were a good many houses built entirely of brick both in Virginia and South Carolina. These 12 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY houses were usually very plain, box-like structures, with piazzas all around them, but they were in that time esteemed almost as palaces, while their owners, as dwellers in brick houses, were held to be some- thing akin to nabobs. \ Hand mill. A curious misapprehension has arisen out of this brick building. There were two kinds of bricks used — English bricks and Holland bricks. For a long time it was supposed by the descendants of these builders that English bricks had been imported from DAWN OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 13 «<( hzi Presbj-toriiin Church Lot S * 74 ft. S M A. Je Peyste 'S f SauiUL-1 B.lj-ard ^ ^ 74 ft. 2S — 5:.-. A T). P 25 ft. Kips St. 9r. n 3 •"■ri-t. a 2r. ft. > 2.'i"'ft. 4Rft. j^p A. de Peyster •* S T.-i ft. ll .0 ^ ;;; P Abruhiim do Peyster " »^ 122 ft. fj 10 ^ ;; ? Samuel Eivyard 1^ tl 122 ft. K y Z ? Samuel Bayard " " 122 ft. ^ f' Abraham de Peyster ':!l f Abraliam de Peyster •" 5 122 ft. ^ Samuel Bajard •" " 122 ft. Z, 0' Samuel Bayard ■" » 122 ft. ^ 0* Abraham do Peyster ^ ■- 122 ft. ^ I* Abraham de Peyster ^ =■• 122 ft. 2 Samuel Bayard f* ■"• 129 ft. f^ Abraiii de Peyoter ^^-Slift. > i 23.8 in 23.8 in. ^ J< Saumtl Bayard ^ " 75 ft. ^ Gabriel Tliumpbon ^ 76 I't. TAiJ Ao? sold it* Thumpaun Smith St. ianjnnksfjicr) in mi,M£iSQ 14 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY England, and Holland bricks from Holland. Even Washington Irving, with all the minuteness of his learning, has fallen into that error. But in fact all, or very nearly all, these bricks, whether English or Dutch, were made in America, as later scholarly research has conclusively proved. The only differ- [ence between English bricks and Dutch bricks was one of dimensions. The small bricks, molded upon a Dutch model, were known as Holland bricks. The much larger ones, molded upon an English model, were called English bricks. The very learned and scholarly historian of South Carolina, Mr. McCrady, has conclusively proved that the so-called Eng- lish bricks used in the construction of Carolina houses could not have been imported from England. By simple arithmetical calculation he has shown that all the ships landing in the Carolinas during the seventeenth century — even if all of them had been loaded exclusively with bricks — could not have brought in enough bricks to build one half or one fourth the "English brick" houses of that part of the country. And there was no need. In all the colonies there was clay fit for brickmaking and in all of them there were skilled brickmakers. In New York the brickmakers, being Dutchmen, naturally adopted DAWN OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 15 the model and dimensions of the Holland brick mold, and made Holland bricks along the Hud- son. In Virginia and the Carolinas, as the brick- makers were Englishmen, they very naturally made use of English dimensions in the manufacture of their bricks. So extensive was this industry indeed that the Virginians began exporting bricks early in the seventeenth century. But, in the main, colonial houses were built of wood. In all the colonies there was timber of the best sort and in limitless abundance. There were sawmills in America before there were any in Eng- land, and, even before the introduction of sawmills, the colonists found it cheaper and better to build of wood than to construct brick walls. They built substantially, however. They laid sills of heart pine twelve or fourteen inches square, upon brick or stone foundations. Into these they mortised — not the " two by fours " of flimsy modern construction — but solid, heart pine or white ash or oaken uprights eight inches square, and to these at the top they mortised great " wall plates," a foot or more in diameter, upon which they imposed a roof with rafters seven or eight inches thick, both ways. Many of those early colonial houses endure even unto this day, both in the south and in the north, 16 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY bearing eloquent witness to the honesty and the con- scientiousness of early colonial building. The laws made in England were mainly antago- nistic to colonial manufactures. It was intended that the colonies should be " feeders " of English pros- Old iron furnace near Warwick, N. Y. perity. It was hoped that they would send to Eng- land large supplies of raw materials, and largely buy the products of English manufacture, thus paying a double tribute to English interests. DAWN OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 17 It was hoped, soon after the beginning of the eighteenth century, that a considerable supply of crude iron might be smelted in the colonies and sent to England for manufacture there into articles of use. Coal had not yet come into general use as a fuel supply anywhere in the world, and the wood- lands of England were to a great extent exhausted. So it was thought that iron might be more cheaply smelted in the colonies, where there were limitless forests to furnish fuel, than in England. But the English manufacturers very jealously wanted the profit of converting the colony-smelted iron into utensils of every kind which could be sold back to the colonies. Accordingly, in 171 9, and later, the same English laws which encouraged the smelting of iron in the colonies, peremptorily forbade the colonial manufacture of such iron into instruments of use. The plan was to have the crude iron made on the American side of the ocean, shipped to Eng- land and there manufactured into articles of use which might be sent back to the colonies and there sold for a rich profit. In the same way, and in a like spirit, the English laws during the early part of the eighteenth century encouraged the manufacture of glass in Virginia, where fuel was cheap and plentiful, but forbade the B 18 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY coloniiil manufacture of beads and trinkets of such glass. Beads and trinkets were used as currency in trade with the Indians, and certain people in Lon- don enjoyed a monopoly of the Indian trade. So while the colonists were encouraged to make crude glass they were absolutely forbidden to make beads and bangles of it. That must be done in England. Spinning flax. Under a like impulse the English law encouraged, with tobacco bounties, the manufacture of linen on this side of the ocean, simply because there was no great interest in England in such manufacture. And in the same way England encouraged the pro- DAWN OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 19 duction here of ship stores, by Hberal bounties. But the EngHsh laws at the same time forbade the manufacture of woolen cloths here, on the ground that the colonists should buy such cloths from Eng- land. In brief, the English laws encouraged the col- onists to do the best they could for themselves so long as they did not compete with British interests. Beyond that line the English law said "Nay!" to colonial enterprise. All these are illustrative examples only. We have already seen, in " Our First Century," how res- olutely the colonists acted upon their own impulses, and in answer to their own needs. In spite of the laws, which for a long time were not rigorously en- forced, they converted their crude iron into such utensils as they needed. In spite of the foreign law they made woolen clothing for themselves. Even in the very earliest days of the Virginia colony a re- strictive law did not prevent the colonists from mak- ing glass beads and trading them to the Indians for corn. All these things tended to the ultimate establish- ment of American liberty and independence. These, and like things, were causes of friction, and out of that friction came revolt and revolution quite as a matter of course. The colonies had been planted 20 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY in America for the benefit of English companies and EngHsh Lords Proprietors and EngHsh manufac- turers and the English King. The colonists had conquered a wilderness and created an empire. Spinning wool. They very naturally desired to reap for themselves the harvest of the planting they had done at so great a cost of hardship, suffering, danger and limitless toil. There was in the future inevitable war between these two aims and aspirations, though that war was DAWN OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 21 long delayed in its coming. It is the purpose of this volume to tell how events slowly led up to the outbreak. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, there was no thought of other than local independence In the colonies. The colonists already had grievances, but the idea of final and resolute revolt had not yet been born in their minds. All that came later. In the meanwhile, as we shall see in later chapters of this volume, they were beset by difficulties and dan- gers sufficient to occupy their attention to the ut- most limit. CHAPTER II FIRST HALF OF THE CENTURY DURING the first half of the eighteenth cen- tury, two influences were at work that vitally afi^ected the character and history of the colo- nies. One of these was a succession of wars between the Englishmen in America, and the French and Spanish with their Indian allies. These wars, ot which the details are so fully given in all the school histories that they need not be repeated here except in barest outline, vexed the colonies and sorely afflicted the colonists. They cost many lives and much treasure ; thev involved the destruction of many outlying towns and the ravaging of many farms, whose men, women and children were butch- ered indiscriminately. But the wars served to strengthen the colonies, and especially to breed among the people a spirit of self-reliance and self- confidence which served them in good stead when the time came, later in the century, for the final struggle for independence. They taught the colo- 23 FIRST HALF OF THE CENTURY 23 nies that they could stand alone and take care of themselves. More important still, they accustomed the colonists to think of America, rather than of Map illustrating the French and Indian Wars. 24 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY England, as their own country. The subtle influ- ence of this changed habit of mind is clearly seen in the steady and continuous growth of the spirit of independence, which we shall trace as we go on with the story. The first of these French and Indian wars — known in history as King William's War — came to an end in 1697, just before the dawn of the eigh- teenth century. In the making of peace, unfortu- nately for the colonists, the English government gave up all that the Americans had won for themselves by their heroic endeavors and still more heroic sacrifices. The French were left in possession of all the terri- tory they had ever held in America, and they were free to continue their policv of pushing their trading posts into the great fertile region west of the moun- tains, a region which they already claimed as their own. It is true that the English colonists had not yet begun to go into that country to any considerable extent, and so, for the time being at least, the French advance into it gave the colonists no trouble. But statesmanship must even then have foreseen those later consequences which proved so hazardous to the growth of the English settlements. The peace made in 1697, lasted no more than five years. In 1702, upon Oueen Anne's accession FIRST HALF OF THE CENTURY 25 to the English throne, war broke out anew between England and France, and it involved the English and French colonies in America, as a matter of course. At the same time the Spanish assailed the Americans, thus doubly endangering the English colonies. The French lay north of New England, while the Spanish lay south of the Carolinas, and both were aided by savage Indian allies. The war lasted for eleven years, in- volving much of slaughter, especially '^j in the New England colonies which "^^'r^f were continually ravaged. It ended "^ L^ ^t last, however, with distinct advan- ^SZ'^'^ W ^^S^ ^° ^^^ English colonists. At the ^''' south a Spanish expedition against 1-' Charleston was beaten off, and the Carolinians under Colonel Moore conquered and permanently held all that part of what was then Florida, Queen Anne. i • i • r i which now constitutes most or the State of Georgia, At the north, the English colo- nists, with the assistance of English war ships, again conquered Acadia and when peace was made the English retained control of that region, restoring to it its old name of Nova Scotia, and changing the name of its capital from Port Royal to Annapolis Royal. 26 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY The peace made in 17 13 lasted until 1744, but only in a half peaceful way, so far as the French and English in America were concerned. So long as England and France were at peace on the other side of the ocean, their colonies in America were forbidden to make war upon each other. But the hostility Acadia, Port Royal and Louisboiirg and the route by sea between Boston and Quebec. between them remained in full force, and the French not only encouraged Indian incursions into the Eng- lish colonies, but furnished French leaders for such irruptions. The other influence to which reference has been FIRST HALF OF THE CENTURY 27 made as one vitally affecting the future of this country, was the large and varied immigration that poured into the colonies during the first half of the eighteenth century. That immigration not only in- creased the numerical strength of the colonists but it brought with it new ideas and new modes of liv- ing which had their influence upon life in America. During the earlier colonial period, including nearly the whole of the seventeenth century, nearly Old Swedish Church, Wilmington, Del. all the immigrants who had come to the English colonies, except the Dutch in New York and a small number of Swedes, were Englishmen. But near the end of the seventeenth century a new and important inflow began, which continued, in greater or less force, for more than forty years. 28 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY There were many little sects in Germany who, upon religious grounds, were averse to war and who therefore desired to escape from a country in which every man was expected to serve as a soldier. These sects were persecuted for their religion and addition- ally upon the ground that they refused to do the work of soldiers. There were still other Germans who for political reasons came to America. Atone time as many as thirteen thousand of them removed from the Palatinate of the lower Rhine to England and asked the government there to send them to Amer- ica. They were sent to many of the colonies and scattered through them. They gave an impulse of German ideas, and German civilization, and German ways of living, to the communities in which they settled. It is noteworthy that many years later, when the time came for real fighting to be done, for real principle, these Germans proved to be excellent soldiers in spite of the prejudice that many of them felt against war. In the early part of the eighteenth century a con- siderable number of Germans immigrated into New York. They became dissatisfied with conditions there and a little later they removed themselves to Pennsylvania, where they were well received and where the spirit of the government accorded with FIRST HALF OF THE CENTURY 29 their own. These Germans were the forefathers of the thrifty and sturdy Americans who were for long ignorantly called Pennsylvania Dutch. During this same period there began what after- ward became a very large immigration of men and women who were commonly known as Scotch-Irish. They were properly not Irishmen and Irishwomen in blood but Scotchmen and Scotchwomen. They were Presbyterians whose fore- fathers had removed them- selves from Scotland to the north of Ireland where they had engaged in the business of manufacturing linen. That industry was an un- certain one at that time, so that many of these so-called Scotch-Irish were often thrown out of work by reason of a depression in the linen industry. Many of them managed to emigrate to America where they introduced the linen industry and the cultivation of the potato. The so-called Irish potato is one of the note- worthy American contributions to the sustenance of man. But it was probably not found in a wild state An early printing press. 30 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY anywhere within the borders of what we now know as the United States. It was found growing wild in Central and South America and was taken thence to Ireland where its enormous fruitfulness made it a principal crop. The Scotch-Irish who came to the English colonies in America brought it with them and introduced its culture here. That is why we call it the Irish potato. These Scotch-Irish immigrants settled themselves in all the colonies, but particularly in Pennsylvania, where, as early as 1729, five thousand of them lo- cated themselves in Philadelphia. This immigration proved afterwards to be of the utmost advantage to the colonists. The Scotch-Irishmen were good fighters, as Scotchmen and Irishmen have always been throughout the world. They were an ener- getic race, eager to push into the wilderness and ready to accept any hardships or dangers they might be called upon to endure and to open up the new regions to settlement by virtue of their courage, their determination, and that which we call " pluck." Another valuable class of immigrants had come into this country about the end of the seventeenth century. These were the Huguenots, or French Protestants, who were driven out of France by the religious persecutions and civil wars of that time, FIRST HALF OF THE CENTURY 31 and who came in large numbers to the EngHsh colo- nies in America. They settled in all of the colonies but mainly in South Carolina, where they became the aristocrats and the wealthiest people of a later time in spite of the fact that they had come to America completely stripped of all their possesions and ut- terly impoverished. To this day, on the coast of South Carolina, the names of the great landholders and the great families are mainly Huguenot names. It will be observed that all these immigrants — Germans, Scotch-Irish and Huguenots^quitted their native lands and came to America, just as the Puritans, and the Cavaliers, and the Quakers, and the Catholics had done, because they were discontented with their lot, and mainly because of religious perse- cution. Thus practically all the American colonists were men in revolt against oppression, men whose all-controlling impulse and inspiration was a love of liberty and a fixed purpose to assert and maintain the right of men to govern themselves. Of such seed our country came. CHAPTER III THE GEORGIA COLONY NOTWITHSTANDING Colonel Moore's conquest of that part of the original Florida which at present constitutes almost all of the State of Georgia, the Spanish in Florida con- tinued to claim not only the whole of what we now call Georgia, but the whole of South Carolina as well, contending that it was Spanish territory. They were always ready to right for it when occasion offered. In view of this situation General James Ogle- thorpe — an English military man of distinction — concluded that it would be well to plant a military colony south of South Carolina, in that part of the country which Colonel Moore had conquered, in order to provide for the permanent military pro- tection of the Carolinas against Spanish invasion. He had other ideas in mind also. He was at once a military man and a philanthropist. As a military man he wanted to defend the Carolinas 32 THE GEORGIA COLONY 33 against Spanish aggression. As a philanthropist he wanted to do some other things. In 1732 he se- cured from King George II of England a grant, to General James Oglethorpe. himself and his associates, of that part of South Carolina which lay between the Savannah and the c 34 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Altamaha Rivers — substantially that region which now constitutes the State of Georgia by virtue of the fact that Oglethorpe gave it that name in honor of his king. Unlike all those others who had become proprie- tors in America, Oglethorpe and his associates had no thought of personal profit in securing this terri- -tory. It was his primary purpose to establish in that region a philanthropic colony — a colony in which poor men who had failed in England might begin life anew. As he himself declared, he and his associates purposed to hold the land " in trust for the poor." He lavishly expended his own wealth in satisfy- ing the creditors of prisoners for debt in England and in removing them to his colony where they might hope to build up fortunes for themselves. " Not for self but for others," is a literal translation of the Latin motto he adopted for his enterprise. This he put upon the seal of his colony, together with a device of silkworms engaged in spinning ; for it was a part of his purpose to make of Georgia a source of silk supply, so that England might not be further dependent upon Italy and the Orient for the raw materials of silk manufacture. Landing at Charleston, Oglethorpe began his THE GEORGIA COLONY 35 colonization at Savannah in 1733 with one hundred and sixteen persons as his followers. He had ar- ranged for other colonists to follow him in rapid succession and they did so. Among them was a regiment of Scotch Highlanders, upon whom he de- pended to defend the border and ^^vanLhi:;^ to give a military character to his colony from the, first. He also brought out twenty Jewish fami- lies, escaping from persecution, and a number of Protestants from Germany. His views were liberal if we measure them by the stan- dards of that time. He accepted Jews and men of every Protestant sect. But he placed a ban upon Roman Catholics and unbelievers, excluding them from his settle- ments. Oglethorpe was a domineering person of a mili- tary type who insisted upon having his own way in everything. The Indians liked him, partly because he treated them fairly, paying them a proper price for such lands of theirs as he wished to occupy, and partly because of his soldierly endurance of hard- ship. The Indians always admire courage and Georgia and Florida as they were in Ogle- thorpe's time. 30 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY " grit " wherever they see them and they found Oglethorpe a man to be admired. But Hke many others who planned colonies in America, Oglethorpe undertook to rule too much. He allowed his colonists no voice whatever in the government of the community in which they lived. He allowed no man to own any land in his own right. He assigned to each of them fifty acres of ground, a space which was utterly insufficient to provide for the needs of a family, if we reflect that a certain part of the land must be held in forest for the furnishing of fuel, a certain other part must be de- voted to the support of farm animals, only a small remainder being left for crop cultivation. Worse still, the fifty acres granted to each colonist were not granted in fee simple. The colonist could not sell an acre of it or even rent an acre. At his death he could not transmit his land equitably to his children. By Oglethorpe's decree, at the death of each landholder his land was given to his eldest son or, if he had no son, it reverted to the trustees of the colony, the wife and daughters losing every- thing. No man was permitted to control more than fifty acres unless he brought into the colony, at his own expense, enough white servants to culti- vate the surplus area. THE GEORGIA COLONY 37 As it was Oglethorpe's purpose to establish a military colony, and seemingly for that reason only, he decreed that no negro slaves should be held within its borders. His idea was that he wanted there only white men who could be depended upon to serve as soldiers and thus to maintain Georgia's military power as a defence against the Spanish. These restrictions operated detrimentally to the prosperity of the colony. As the people could not own their lands or hold more than fifty acres apiece, even as renters, they had no inducement to improve their property or to extend their estates. As their cultivation of the soil was in direct competition with that of the Carolinas and Virginia, where negro slaves were by that time held in considerable num- bers, the prohibition of slavery placed them at serious economic disadvantage. So seriously did this embarrass the progress of the colony indeed that in 1749 the rule against negro slavery was abrogated and Georgia became a colony with slavery as a recognized part of its institutions. Three years later the colony became a royal one and remained so until the Revolutionary War. That is to say, it passed out of Oglethorpe's control and into that of the King of England, who allowed the colonists 38 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY to own their land and transmit it to their children. Under this wiser rule the colony rapidly became prosperous and it served from beginning to end of the colonial period as a barrier against Spanish in- vasion of the Carolinas. CHAPTER IV LIFE IN GEORGIA AND CAROLINAS THERE were very marked differences between life in South Carolina and life in Oglethorpe's Georgia colony although they adjoined each other. Among the Carolina colonists there had been a large number of well-to-do Englishmen who came out with wealth enough to take up great areas of land, to establish vast plantations upon such land and to build there mansions for their occupation — some of brick and some of splendidly hewn timber — which should be as dear to them as the historic homes of England were to their owners. They had surrounded themselves with negro servants in considerable numbers and they had established them- selves in state as lords of the soil and gentlemen of consequence in the colony. These gentlemen lived in stately — almost lordly — fashion. Their plantations were immense in extent. Their house grounds were often so large as to admit of live oak avenues a mile long, leading from the 39 40 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY outer gates to the portals of the mansion. In the mansion itself the rooms were spacious and the halls immense. In the rooms and the halls alike there were great fireplaces which in cold weather blazed with logs of fat pine five or six feet long. The floors were made of the hard, resinous, long-leafed pine of that country, and were polished every morning by a rubbing down with pine needles. The furniture was of rosewood, or mahogany, or cedar, and it also was polished daily by negro servants with wax and great blocks of cork. These processes would be expensive in any modern community, but in that time, when labor was abundant and cost next to nothing, they were easily managed. The most productive plantations in South Caro- lina were those which lay either upon the sea islands or in the low country between the sea islands and the pine lands above. It had early been found that these low countries were so far malarious that white men could not safely live there between June and November and so almost every planter in those regions maintained a little summer place, up in the pines, where there were no black sands, no long gray moss, and no live oak trees, the absence of these things indicating also the absence of malaria. LIFE IN GEORGIA AND CAROLINAS 41 The live oak tree was the glory of the low coun- try plantations. Great avenues of those trees were festooned with gray moss, which hung often even A plantation gateway, entrance to the estate of William Byrd at Westover, Va, 42 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY to the ground. But in summer and autumn the planter found it necessary to remove the white por- tion of his family either to Charleston or to the pine lands. The shell cottages that served as sum- mer homes were often adorned with rich works of art brought over from England. Of course these rich planters were few in number. There were many poorer families in South Carolina who lived in much simpler ways than this, but it was the nabobs of that country who gave character to Its life. The sports of that region were such as had been imported from England — horse racing and hunting being chief among them. ■ The great plantations lay originally along the water courses with which that region is intricately interlaced. This was partly because the lands along these water courses were the most fruitful ones and partly because the water courses, all of which were navigable by sloops, afforded an easy means of com- munication with Charleston, which was at once the political and social capital of the colony and the market for all the products of the region round about. The settlers in Georgia were mainly of a different class. Oglethorpe had taken pains that they should LIFE IN GEORGIA AND CAROLINAS 43 be chiefly poor, hard working men fit for military- duty, and his system tended to keep them. poor. They hved far more simply than the Carolinians Carved doorway, Bull Pringle Mansion, Charleston, S. C. did and far less pretentiously. They were farmers rather than planters and even after the restriction of land ownership to fifty acres was set aside they were 44 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY still, in the main, small landholders toiling hard for their subsistence. Two things occurred during the seventeenth cen- tury which not only encouraged but rendered almost necessary the South Carolina method of planting and living. In the year 1696 some rice was planted by one Thomas Smith in a Charleston garden. The seed came from Madagascar, but it found a congenial home on the South Carolina coast. A little later the culture of that grain became general along the coast and was encouraged by many circumstances. The lands that lay between the sea islands and the higher ground on the west were so nearly flat that they lent themselves perfectly to rice culture. They were divided into vast fields, separated from each other by dams. It was easy to flood the field near- est the higher lands so long as it neecied to be flooded, and it was equally easy by opening a flood- gate to draw the water from that field into the next one, when its time of flooding should come. In brief, the conditions of rice culture on the coast of South Carolina were the most perfect that have ever been known in the world, and rice quickly became the staple crop of that region, attaining there a per- fection which has been known nowhere else in the LIFE IN GEORGIA AND CAROLINAS 45 world. This was the beginning of CaroHna's pros- perity. There were many fields of course that were not adapted to the cultivation of rice of a superior qual- ity, and the Carolinians were deeply concerned to find some other staple crop that should enable them to make the most of their possessions. The cotton gin, it will be remembered, had not yet been in- vented and for lack of it the cultivation of cotton was unprofitable because of the enormous labor cost of separating the seed from the lint. In 1739 a brilliant young woman, who afterwards became the mother of some of Carolina's greatest revolutionary men, solved this crop problem in a most interesting way. This young woman was Eliza Lucas, afterwards Eliza Pinckney. Her father was the English governor of a West Indian Island. He owned three great plantations on the Carolina coast not far from Charleston, and his daughter was sent to manage them. She was a young woman of culture — though she spelled abominably — and of limitless aspirations for culture. She studied music diligently, and sent all over the world for musical publications that might help her in that study. While busying herself with her music, her reading, and her social duties, which 46 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY were extensive, she managed her three plantations with a skill which has rarely been equaled. She not only directed the planting and the growing of the crops and superintended their sale, but she man- aged also the fleet of sloops and schooners belong- ing to her, by which she shipped the products of the plantations to Charleston for sale. She was in- deed a wonderful woman, as her letters, some of which have been preserved and published by her descendant, Mrs. Ravenel, abundantly attest. This energetic young woman made up her mind, about 1739, to introduce into South Carolina the culture of indigo on lands unfit for the growing of rice in its perfection. She secured the necessary seeds. She lost her first crop by frost and her second by worms, but she succeeded in bringing the third to a perfection of growth that entirely satisfied her ambition. But to grow the indigo plant is one thing and to make the indigo dye from it is another and much more difficult one. So Eliza Lucas sent to her father for an expert in that process to aid her in converting the fruitage of her fields into a market- able commodity. This man played her false. He knew how to prepare the dye from the plant, but he deliberately spoiled results in carrying on the process. Eliza LIFE IN GEORGIA AND CAROLINAS 47 Lucas always thought this was because he feared the competition of the CaroHnian indigo industry with the indigo industry of his own island in the West Indies. However that may be, he utterly spoiled the product. But Eliza Lucas was a determined young woman. Even through her agent's failure, she managed somehow to learn his art. Then she sent him "packing" back to his West India island and proceeded to convert her own crop into a supe- rior quality of indigo manufactured by herself. She worked over this problem for several years, and by the year 1745 she had fully introduced the culture and manufacture of indigo into South Caro- lina so that two years later no less than two hundred thousand pounds of the precious dyestufF were shipped to England, returning a great sum of money as its price. This industry was an enormous boon to South Carolina for nearly half a century afterward. It con- tinued until the invention of the cotton gin made cotton culture a more profitable thing in the hands of the very ignorant plantation laborers of that time. The cultivation of indigo did not entirely cease, indeed, until nearly the time of the beginning of our Civil War in 1861. Perhaps it would never have been abandoned at all except upon grounds of hu- 48 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY manity. It was found after awhile, by planters in the South, that the negroes who worked in indigo became specially subject to pulmonary consumption by inhaling the extremely fine dust of the dye, and in order to spare their lives one planter after another gave up the culture of that plant. From the time (1670), when the Westoes Indians so nearly destroyed the colony of Carolina, until 171 1, that colony was comparatively free from trouble with the Indians. But there was one warlike tribe, the Tuscaroras, in North Carolina, which looked jealously upon the rapid growth of the white men's plantations. This tribe, although far removed in distance, belonged in fact to the Iroquois, whose Five Nations oc- cupied northern New York. In 171 1 the Tuscaroras made fierce war upon the Indian mocca- North Carolina settlements. ^^"^• For nearly two years there was serious danger that the northern part of the Carolina colony would be completely destroyed. The Virginians and the Carolinians of the southern part of the colony, how- ever, came to the assistance of their brethren in what is now North Carolina and, with the aid of the Yemassee Indians, succeeded at last in completely routing the Tuscaroras. LIFE IN GEORGIA AND CAROLINAS 49 After the manner of that time many of the In- dians were captured and sold into West Indian slavery. But a large part of the tribe of Tuscaroras escaped and made its way to New York, where it became the Sixth nation of the Iroquois Confed- eracy. Two years later another Indian war occurred in which the Yemassees, who had aided the whites against the Tuscaroras, were the chief enemies of the whites. This war was brought about by Spanish influence from Florida and six or seven thousand Indian warriors were engaged in it. It brought upon South Carolina the most serious danger that that colony had ever encountered from the Indians. The Carolinians could bring against the six or seven thousand Indians no more than seventeen hundred men, two or three hundred of whom were negroes. For in that day and long afterwards ne- groes were freely employed as soldiers, and the law of South Carolina made it a penal offence for the owner of any negro slave to refuse his services to the country as a soldier. After a desperate struggle, which endured during three years, the Indians were at last beaten and from that time forward the colony remained at peace. At first the whole of Carolina was regarded as a D 50 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY single province and was owned by a single set of proprietors in England. Because of the great ex- tent of the province, however, the proprietors almost from the first governed the northern and southern portions separately, under different agents of their own. They governed very badly and from the be- ginning there was constant discontent with their rule among the South Carolina colonists. These were almost always engaged in a quarrel of some kind with the proprietors because of their arbitrary meas- ures^ most of which of course were inspired by the complete ignorance which prevailed in London as to the conditions and needs of the colony in Amer- ica. At last, in 1719, the South Carolina colonists became so angry with their foreign proprietary rulers that they went into something like rebellion. They appealed to the king in that year and asked him to take the government of the colony away from the English company and to assume control himself, making of South Carolina a royal province. After two years of controv^ersy with the proprietors the king bought out their interests and sent over a royal governor to take control of the colony in his name. This purchase afterward included the rights of the LIFE IN GEORGIA AND CAROLINAS 51 proprietors in both halves of the CaroHna province and the king divided them into two colonies, North and South Carolina, South Carolina became a royal province at once, and in 1729 North Carolina also was placed under a royal governor. CHAPTER V FURTHER WARS OF COLONISTS DURING the colonial period in America, Eng- land, France, and Spain were almost continu- ally at war one with the other. It was a period in which dissension was rife and there was always a » cause for war ready at hand when any monarch had a fancy for that sort of employment of his revenues and his people. The interests of trade had not yet as- serted themselves. Men had not yet learned the les- son they have learned in our later day, that war is al- ways a costly indulgence and that it always ends in loss for both the nations engaged in it. They had not yet learned that it is better for nations to trade with each other than to fight each other. They had not yet learned even the primer lessons of political economy. So in 1739 England and Spain went to war again. As we have seen, General Oglethorpe had established his military colony in Georgia with a primary pur- pose of fighting the Spaniards and defending the 52 FURTHER WARS OF COLONISTS 53 Gateway at St. Augustine, Fla. 54 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Carolinas against them. Accordingly he embraced this opportunity to send an expedition into Florida. His movement was successful for a time but after awhile he found himself overmatched and withdrew his forces. A few months later he led a second ex- pedition into Florida and hammered for awhile at the gates of St. Augustine. The Spaniards proved to be too strongly entrenched for him to conquer them and so at last he withdrew. In 1742 the Spaniards in their turn took the of- fensive and invaded Georgia with the purpose of re- conquering that region and making it again part of their Florida possessions. Their forces outnumbered Oglethorpe's and their resources were far greater than his. But Oglethorpe was a man of large ability and great skill in manoeuvering. He succeeded in am- bushing the Spaniards and routing them. His suc- cesses in this way practically ended the war, so far as the American possessions were concerned, and permanently secured Georgia to the English. Two years later, in 1744, there came a war be- tween France and England. This war is known in history as King George's War and it resulted in a good deal of trouble for the northern colonies in America. The first effort of the French in America was to FURTHER WARS OF COLONISTS 55 retake Annapolis Royal, which had formerly been called Port Royal, in Acadia. There was a resolute man at the head of the government of Massachusetts, at that time — Governor Shirley — and he determined from the first not only to defend Nova Scotia but to take the aggressive and, if possible, conquer the great French fortress on Cape Breton Is- land, called Louisburg. With the single exception of Quebec, Louisburg was the very strongest French fortress in America. The possession of that place by the French was a special menace to the New England colonies for the reason that French priva- teer ships in great numbers were sent out from the harbor of Louisburg to prey upon the commerce of the New England- ers. These privateers were little better than pirates. Their business was to cap- ture merchant ships and make spoil of a French them and of their cargoes. But at that ^^^^ ^^' time this modified species of piracy was still every- where recognized as a legitimate agency in war. The operations of these privateers seriously in- terfered not only with the fishing industries of New England but with the commerce of that region with other countries of the world. Wherever a Yankee 56 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ship was found at sea, and a French privateer could conquer and capture it, the ship and its cargo be- came a prize, and its officers and crew prisoners of war. Governor Shirley's idea was to defend New England by an offensive movement against Louis- burg. If he could capture the fortress there and break up this nest of quasi-p'irates he would thereby do more for the defence of New England against the French than could be done by any number of successes on land. Old house at Deerfield. The New England boys and young men, trained as they were to sea service, and full as they were of spirit, volunteered for this service as freely as their governor desired. After a httle Governor Shirley FURTHER WARS OF COLONISTS 57 got together a fleet of transports loaded with soldiers ready for action, together with another fleet of armed vessels whose duty it was to protect the transports. Thus equipped he sent his force, under command of Pepperell, to besiege Louisburg and after a six weeks' struggle they captured that stronghold on the 17th of June, 1745. The news of this victory was received everywhere in New England and equally in the southern colonies with rejoicing. It was clearly seen that this cap- ture of Louisburg practically made an end of the power of the French in Canada to harass the coasts or the shipping of the English colonies. It was clearly seen that with Louisburg in possession the Yankees were masters of the situation and of the sea. But three years later, when England and France concluded to m^ake a peace with each other, the in- terests of the colonists were utterly disregarded, as they had been many times before, and the English gave Louisburg back to the French, thus reestablish- ing north of the New England colonies a hornet's nest of aggression and depredation. If we would understand the history of that time we must constantly bear in mind that the wars be- tween England and France were undertaken solely 58 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY for purposes relating to European difficulties. We must remember that in England the American colonies were considered as outlying settlements of no consequence whatever, whose most vital interests might be freely sacrificed in an effort to secure good terms between France and England with regard to European matters. It is safe to say that if the English had not given up Louisburg after the colonists had conquered it, the colo- nists would have been spared the greatest and most dangerous war in which they were at any time engaged and would have had comparatively little difficulty in destroying the French power and establishing Eng- lish dominion west of the Alleghen- ies. It was inevitable that able men in the colonies should see and understand these conditions. And their seeing and understanding of such conditions in- evitably led their minds to question the wisdom and the value of English dominion in the colonies. In other words, the better minds among the men who had created an English nation in America were forced to ask themselves from time to time whether it might A French officer. FURTHER WARS OF COLONISTS 59 not be desirable to sever the relations that bound them to the parent country. They got little if anything of advantage from that relation. They got much of disadvantage from it, especially in such cases as this. By their energy and valor they had won possession of a fortress which constituted the key of the situation. They had made themselves in- deed masters of the problem that lay before them — the problem of English competition with French enterprise on this continent. It was not only a humiliation to them, but also a grievance of the most extreme kind that a power essentially foreign to themselves and indifferent to their interests should, for its own trading purposes, give up all that they had won by sacrifice and courage, and relegate them again to a position of helplessness and constant danger. But the thought of independence was not yet born among the people generally in America. The men who suffered this and other wrongs for nearly a generation afterward were too loyal to the crown to think as yet of the only remedy that was possible — namely, the remedy of independence. They were still disposed to " suffer and be strong" in their loyalty to England. But their wrongs were slowly driving them toward this thought of revolt, which 60 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY culminated at last in the American Revolution. It is interesting to trace the birth and growth of this sentiment as a natural human protest against injustice. That is what the American Revolution, when it came, was and meant. The colonies had been grievously oppressed for years before they went into revolt. They had en- dured all with a patience which is positively astonish- ing to us in this later time. But they remained loyal to the mother country till they were at last fairly driven into a revolution which they had strug- gled to avoid. CHAPTER VI THE FIRST INDEPENDENT COLONIAL WAR THUS far the English settlements lay almost entirely east of the Allegheny mountains. A rich territory lay beyond into which it was quite inevitable that the enterprising colonists should wish to push their way. In the very year (1748), in which King George's War ended, a company was formed in Virginia to make settlements beyond the mountains in what was then known as the Ohio country — namely, the re- gion lying along the upper waters of the Ohio and now included in Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Indiana. All that region was claimed by Vir- ginia as a part of her territory. It was Virginia, therefore, under authority of the king, which granted to the Ohio Company five hundred thousand acres of land on the Ohio River. It was stipulated in the grant that the company should settle not less than one hundred families upon its lands within seven years. Two years later (1750), one Christo- 61 02 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY pher Gist, a man expert in such matters, was sent out to explore the country and select localities for the settlements that were to be made. But all this country was claimed also by the French, and they were not disposed to permit emi- grants from the English colonies to settle there. Accordingly, in 1749, the French Governor of Canada sent an expedition into the Ohio Valley which consisted of soldiers and In- dians. The people composing this ex- pedition went from Canada to the Allegheny River and thence down the Ohio. They carried a number of leaden plates, on each of which was an inscription claiming all the region watered by the Ohio and its tributaries. These plates were buried in the earth at various points near the mouths of streams tributary to the Ohio. The last of them was buried near the present site of Cincinnati. All this, of course, was a ridiculous technicality, which the sturdy Virginians were not disposed to recognize as in any way binding upon themselves. They were resolute in. their determination to cross the mountains and settle in the Ohio country, which A Canadian soldier. FIRST INDEPENDENT COLONIAL WAR G3 they claimed, without the formahty of burying leaden plates anywhere. It was an age of technicalities and the French es- pecially were technical in their proceedings. La Salle, in 1682, had set up a monument at the mouth of the Mississippi River claiming, for the French king, dominion over all the region watered by that river and all its tributaries; and the French insisted upon the validity of that slenderly founded claim. The English colonists in Virginia and in the re- gion south of Virginia were far less disposed to re- spect technicalities of this kind. They held that by virtue of Cabot's discov- eries, the English owned all that region, from sea to sea, and that by virtue of kingly grants to the English colonies these colonies had a right to control ^, , , ^ Block house. and occupy the whole of it. The French governor of Canada, Duquesne, pres- ently recognized this disposition of the English and took more active means than the burying of plates, by way of securing French possession of the region in dispute. In 1753 he sent out an expedition and established military posts and built forts in the Ohio Valley and in the region between Canada and that valley. The men in charge of this expedition built a 64 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY fort where Erie in Pennsylvania now stands, and an- other on the present site of Waterford in Pennsyl- vania. Further west they seized upon the house of an English trader and converted it into a French fort. At that point, Governor Dinwiddle, of Virginia, decided to interfere with the proceedings of the French. He called to his assistance, and sent out as his representative, a very enterprising and daring young man, named George Washington, who was only twenty-one years of age, but who knew by long experience how to live in the woods and the wil- derness and how to conduct a perilous expedition to a successful conclusion. He gave young Washing- ton a letter of remonstrance which he charged him to deliver to the French commander in the Ohio country. It was November when Washington set out upon this journey of hardship and extreme danger. He had with him two Indians and four white hunt- ers who, like himself, knew how to live in the woods. There were no supplies to be had upon the journey, except such as the woodlands might furnish, and the party must therefore carry with it its own food and everything else that it needed. On the way, Washington encountered Indians FIRST INDEPENDENT COLONIAL WAR 65 George Washington. £ 66 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY who were hostile to the English by reason of French influence, but his tact was sufficient to allay their hostility and to induce their chief to go with him to Fort Le Boeuf, near Lake Erie, There he delivered to the French commandant the letter of remonstrance from Governor Dinwiddie and after a day or two of delay he received a letter in reply. This was a sim- ple declaration that the French commander claimed French possession of all the region west of the moun- tains and that he declined to recognize any English right of settlement there. With this reply in hand Washington set out in midwinter to return to Virginia. He soon found it impossible, by reason of the condition of the snow and the soil, to go farther on horseback. He therefore left his party behind him and with only one companion — the hardy frontiers- man Christopher Gist — he set out on foot to march all the way to Virginia without even the aid of pack horses, without any cooking utensils, and with only such food as these two young men could carry on their persons. They were beset by hostile Indians, tortured by cold, and continually threatened with starvation. Still they persisted in their purpose and hurrying for- ward under threat of Indian massacre, crossing rivers FIRST INDEPENDENT COLONIAL WAR 67 full of floating ice, upon rudely constructed rafts and often falling into the freezing water, they managed at last — after Gist's feet and hands were terribly frozen — to make their way back again to Virginia. Washington's personal reward for this splendid service was his appointment — mere boy that he was — to be Commander-in-chief of all the forces in Virginia which it was the Governor's purpose to send into the Ohio country to assert and maintain Vir- ginia's rights there. In all these colonial wars the Americans had only rudely undisciplined forces, while the French had for their service the best trained regular troops of a great military power. The American forces con- sisted in part of volunteers, brave fellows who fought well when they saw opportunity of winning, but who were subject to no discipline and who had never been trained in the art of war. They considered only immediate necessity, and when the foe was driven away from their own settlements they quitted the field and went home. The rest of the forces consisted of militiamen, called into service only un- der pressure of necessity. They too were disban- ded and sent home as soon as their local work of war was done. There was never any organized supply depart- LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ment. The forces depended for subsistence upon what they could gather in the region round about them. It was not until the time of the Revolution that the regular forces, known as " continentals," were organized. The arms in use by the militia and volunteers were clumsy, muzzle-loading, flintlock guns of short range and inaccurate fire. The few field cannon were little three or six pounders, which could do no effective execution. Washington had in the meantime acquired a mastery of the geographic and military situation which en- abled him to point out at once the true policy of Virginia in the war which was obviously impending. He saw clearly, as nobody else had seen, up to that time, that the key to the Ohio country was that point at which the junction of smaller rivers formed the Ohio — the point where Pittsburg now stands. He immediately urged upon Governor Dinwiddle the importance of sending an expedition thitherto build a fort there to defend that commanding po- sition. A flintlock. FIRST INDEPENDENT COLONIAL WAR 69 His advice was accepted and acted upon. An enterprising trader named William Trent was directed to raise a force of frontiersmen, to advance into the Ohio country, and to build a fort at the forks of the river. Trent promptly began the work, but two months later a French force, numbering about five hundred men, descended suddenly upon him and drove his little company of forty men away. The Fort Duquesne. French by this time had grasped Washington's idea and realized the strategic value of that position. They proceeded at once to build a very strong fort there which they called Fort Duquesne. In the meanwhile the young Commander-in-chief, George Washington, was sent out to assist Trent in building and defending the fort. Washington had with him a very small force, but while on his way 70 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY he learned that Trent had been defeated and driven away from the position he had been ordered to oc- cupy. Washington therefore gave up the immedi- ate purpose of his expedition and advanced to a point about forty miles east of Fort Duquesne where the Ohio Company had established a storehouse. It v.as his purpose to fortify himself there and hold the position until reinforcements could come to him, after which he hoped to drive the French out of F^ort Duquesne. It took him fully two weeks to make this march, inasmuch as he had to cut a road through a very dense forest in order to carry his artillery and his wagons vvith him. At the end of that time he ar- rived at a place called Great Meadows. There he learned that some French soldiers were lurking sus- piciously within striking distance of his camp. Tak- ing fortv men with him he set out to find these Frenchmen and learn what their purpose was. It must be borne in mind that there was at this time no war between England and France and, therefore, that the English and French on the American con- tinent were forbidden by their home governments, to make war upon each other. But when Washing- ton appeared in the presence of the French soldiers, they assailed him quite as if war had been on, and a FIRST INDEPENDENT COLONIAL WAR 71 sharp fight ensued. Ten of the Frenchmen were killed and twenty-two of them were captured. This was on the 28th day of May, 1754, and it was the beginning of what is known in history as the Great French and Indian War. Now that war was on, Washington saw that his little force was in serious danger of capture or de- struction. The French had forces enough within easy march of Great Meadows to overwhelm him completely. He set to work to defend himself as best he could by erecting a palisade and other de- fences and he sent couriers back to hurry up rein- forcements. He called his position Fort Necessity, for the reason that he was there only through neces- sity and not through choice. Unfortunately the reinforcements with which he had hoped to defend that position were lost to him by the death of their commander. Colonel Fry. They turned back and thus Washington was left with scarcely more than three hundred men, all told, with whose aid to defend himself against the much greater numbers of French and Indians who presently assailed him. In spite of the odds against him he fought for nine hours before surrendering, and when he surrendered he was still strong enough to exact good terms. It is to be noted that this was the only occasion in all 72 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY George Washington's life on which he made any surrender whatever, although he was often confronted with enormously superior forces in positions, the na- ture of which would have prompted any lesser man to make terms with the enemy. CHAPTER VII THE PROBLEM OF THE COLONIES BRADDOCK's BLUNDER NOW for the first time in their history the Eng- Hsh colonists were engaged in war on their own account against their French neighbors, without waiting for permission from the mother country. The EngHsh colonists vastly outnumbered the French in America. The French had enormously extended their posts, both of a military and of a trading sort, and had occupied an area of country many times greater than that held by the English, but their population on this continent was scarcely one tenth as great as that of the English colonists. If the English colonies had at that time been acting together as a unit their mastery of the situation would have been complete. They could have organized armies overwhelmingly superior to any that the French could bring to bear, and with their alliance with the Iroquois Six Nations they could have put more Indians into the field than the French could 73 74 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY possibly win to their service. But unhappily the colonies were in no way united. Each of them was as yet separated from all the rest and independent of all the rest. Each of them was looking out for its own interests and caring next to nothing for what might happen to sister colonies anywhere. In 1754, one of the wisest men in all America, Benjamin Franklin, clearly saw the danger of this sit- uation and made an earnest effort to meet it. He saw that the isolation of the colo- nies from each other left each of them in some degree helpless in the presence of any foe who might assail it, while if they had been united and acting together their de- fensive power would have been sufficient to enable them to defy any enemy that might threaten them. In the year mentioned a convention of represen- tatives from the several colonies was held at Albany in New York. The purpose of that convention was to make a treaty with the Iroquois Indians which Indian fur trader. PROBLEM OF THE COLONIES 75 should ally them not only with New York but with all the English colonies in America. Incidentally the delegates consulted a good deal with reference to a plan, which Franklin submitted, for a permanent union of the colonies. His idea was to make of them, so far as external affairs were concerned, and particularly so far as defence against enemies was concerned, a single unit acting together for the com- mon good. Franklin's proposal amounted to this, that the several colonies should form themselves into a union for defence, creating a general government with power to conduct all affairs that concerned the col- onies generally, and particularly all wars that might threaten any of them ; and which should have power also to raise by taxation the money necessary for this purpose. He proposed to leave each colony free to manage its own affairs in all local concerns, just as the states of the union are now left free, while their general government cares for all matters of common interest and particularly for all matters of external policy. In substance Franklin's plan was closely akin to that which many years later was adopted in the Con- stitution of the United States of America, But the time was not yet ripe. The colonies were still 76 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY jealous of each other and still jealous of their indi- vidual rights and interests. They continued to be so until long after the Revolutionary War was fought and won. Franklin's plan was approved by the convention and presented to the several colonies for acceptance, but the majority of them unwisely rejected it, as the English government also did. The colonies thought it gave too much of prerogative to the English king, while the English government held that it gave too much independence and democratic power to the colonists. As a consequence the colonies were left, each of them to fight out for itself this great French and Indian war which about that time fell upon them. As Virginia could not call upon the other colonies to assist her in her effort to conquer the Ohio country and to assert the right of the English to possession there. Governor Dinwiddie was forced to appeal to England for aid, in an enterprise which had in no way been authorized by the English government and which was undertaken in fact almost as a revolt against it. Yet the English government, in 1755, sent out General Braddock, a very capable officer, but a very arrogant and unteachable one, with a thousand men to help the Virginians. BRADDOCK'S BLUNDER 77 In one respect Braddock succeeded. He induced the colonies to act together in a war which threatened the destruction of all of them. He called a council of their governors and induced them to agree upon a united plan of campaign against the enemy. This plan was to assail the French at several dif- ferent points simultaneously. Governor Shirley of Line of Braddock's march. Massachusetts was charged with the duty of organ- izing expeditions, composed of New England and New York volunteers, against Acadia, Crown Point and Niagara. In the meanwhile General Braddock, with his thousand British regulars supported by a still greater number of Virginian volunteers, was to march against Fort Duquesne. 78 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Braddock had a very long and difficult march to make over mountains and through woodlands where there were no roads, and across streams that were bridgeless. At the outset he encountered as his chief difficulty the lack of horses and wagons. Ap- parently none could be had for love or money, but this was chiefly owing to the fact that Braddock did not know how to set to work to secure what he wanted from the colonists. Then Franklin came to his aid and issued a call upon the farmers everywhere, from Pennsylvania to Virginia, to send in their wagons and horses for the use of the army. He, himself, undertook to, see that the horses and wagons should be paid for at rates which he published. The response was prompt and Franklin spent a small fortune of his own money — because there was no money in the army chest — in purchasing the needed horses and wagons. It was an act on his part of great self- sacrifice in behalf of the country, but when, later, he presented to the British authorities his bill for this expenditure of his private means, the officer who had charge of the matter immediately proposed to cut the bill in two, paying Franklin only one half of his demand. Franklin dignifiedly told him that his demand included not one dollar more than he BRADDOCK'S BLUNDER 79 had expended in the pubHc behalf and that he thought it should be paid in full. With something like a wink the officer replied : "Oh, well, of course we know how these things are done. Of course you got something for your- self out of it." The result was that Franklin got back only about one half the money he had expended, but in his wonderful autobiography he manifests an amusement over the occurrence which perhaps compensated him almost as completely as the money would have done. Braddock profited also by George Washington's self-sacrifice in behalf of the public interest. He welcomed Washington's offer of service on his staff as an unpaid aid-de-camp. It is an interesting fact that from the beginning to the end of his career George Washington never accepted one dollar of pay or of subsequent reward for any service ren- dered to his country whether as a military officer, as president of the Convention that framed the Con- stitution, or as President of the United States for eight years. Washington did all he could to inform Braddock of the methods of Indian warfare — methods with which he was himself thoroughly familiar. He ex- 80 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY plained to Braddock how the Indians fought irregu- larly, shooting from behind trees and other natural defences, and how impossible it was for troops formed in solid lines to combat with them. Brad- dock would not hear. It was not for him, a thor- oughly instructed British officer, to accept advice or information from a mere colonial like Washing- ton. He insisted therefore upon advancing and fighting according to the rules of tactics accepted and acted upon in European warfare. Very natur- ally he brought disaster upon himself. When within a few miles of the fort that he meant to assail, Braddock was met (July 9, 1755) by a force of French and Indians concealed behind trees and fir- ing vigorously from their cover. He still insisted upon keeping his men in regular ranks where they were easy marks for the enemy's riflemen. One after another of them went down like grass before a scythe and presently they fell into a panic and refused to be rallied by the utmost efforts that their officers could make. The English regulars simply broke ranks and ran away. They would have been utterly destroyed but for the courage and sagacity of Wash- ington and his Virginians. He and his Virginians knew how to fight Indians and they had all of res- olution that was necessary to protect this retreat of 1 BRADDOCK'S BLUNDER 81 the British regulars. They betook themselves to trees as the Indians were accustomed to do, and fought desperately there until the retreat was ac- complished. More than half of General Braddock's regulars were killed or wounded and General Braddock himself was pierced with a bullet that was destined to end his life. During all this time Wash- ington exposed himself reck- lessly upon horseback and twice durinor the mcl6e his horse was killed under him. Four bullets pierced his clothing, but he es- caped unhurt and in the end succeeded in covering Brad- dock's retreat so as to save it from becoming a complete dis- The situation of Crown Point. aster. The expeditions against Crown Point, a French fort on Lake Champlain, and against Niagara, were com- plete failures. Sir William Johnson led the first but got no further toward Crown Point than the south- ern end of Lake George. There he was attacked by Baron Dieskau whom he repulsed. But he lacked either the force, or the courage, or the enterprise, to 82 LIFE IN THP: EIGHTEENTH CENTURY follow up his victory and so his expedition ended in nothing. Governor Shirley, in person, led an ex- pedition against Niagara but he also made a complete failure of the enterprise. Thus the campaign planned by Braddock in con- sultation with the governors of the colonies produced absolutely no results of value to the Eng- lish, except that it showed them the necessity of acting together in a common cause against a common enemy. But the war was still young and the English colonists were determined to win it. How their courage and their determination were rewarded later we shall see in another chapter. In the meanwhile one of the most picturesque in- cidents in American history had happened. As we remember, the v/hole French province of Acadia had been taken by the English and the colonists in 1 710, and made an English province. The Aca- dians were mainly peasants, living a simple life, which Longfellow has beautifully described in his poem, " Evangeline." But although they were now made British subjects they remained loyal in their Sir William Johnson. BRADDOCK'S BLUNDER ' 83 hearts to the French government, under whose aus- pices they had built up their httle homes and estab- hshed their very simple life in America. Almost all of them refused to take the oath of allegiance as British subjects when war came on again in the middle of the century. Their presence in Acadia was regarded by the English and the colonists as a danger, for the reason that they were always ready to take up arms if necessary against the English. A decree was therefore issued in 1755, that they should be removed from Acadia and scattered through the various English colonies where they could do no harm. There were about six thousand of these simple, ignorant peasant people and they were forcibly com- pelled to go on board English vessels and to be sent away from the homes that they had laboriously created in the American wilderness. CHAPTER VIII COLONIAL INDIVIDUALITY IN order to understand the difficulty that FrankHn found in inducing a union of the colonies it is necessary to remember the circumstances of their history. At the time of Franklin's effort — the middle of the eighteenth century — the prominent men of the several colonies were in tolerably free communication with each other. It is true that there were no trustworthy mails, no telegraphs, no cheap postage, and no newspapers of more than local circulation. But in spite of these facts the colonists north and south had by this time more or less of communication with each other. Coast- ing vessels did much to acquaint the people of each colony with what was going on in the others, and the personal traveler was always expected to carry a budget of letters whithersoever he went. The growth of the colonies had in fact brought them much nearer together than they had ever been before. Moreover, as their dangers thickened and 84 COLONIAL INDIVIDUALITY 85 their difficulties increased, the leading men in each colony more and more felt the necessity of con- sulting those of the other colonies. But it had not been so from the first. Each colony had been established independently of all the rest and for a long time each had remained practically without communica- tion with its neigh- bors. Travel had been difficult, dis- tances long, and communication very infrequent. Another thing that for a long time ten- ded to prevent any- thing like common action among the colonies was the fact that their conditions varied widely. Out of this circumstance grew the fact that each developed institutions for itself, adapted to its own conditions and in many ways totally un- like those which had been developed out of the con- ditions and circumstances of its neighbor colonies. In New England the farms were small and a The postal service in 1700. 86 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY large proportion of the people were engaged in fish- ing, or in commerce, or in the mechanic arts. In that region therefore the people lived mainly in villages, or near to them. There was much public work to be done in the way of making roads, buil- ding bridges, establishing schools, maintaining the Travelling on horseback. church, and in other ways, which was best done by local authority. It is a principle of sound political government that popular liberty exists in every country in the precise degree in which the functions of government COLONIAL INDIVIDUALITY 87 are minutely subdivided and distributed. The ideal of free government is that the individual shall de- termine for himself everything that pertains only to himself; that the local community — be it town or what not — shall decide for itself whatsoever pertains exclusively to its own interests and welfare, and that larger affairs affecting a larger area shall be governed and determined by some form of representative as- sembly acting for all the people of that larger area. This principle prevailed in the development of all the colonies, but varying conditions gave to it a dif- ferent application in one and another of them. In New England the system of town government nat- urally and perfectly answered the needs of the people — so perfectly indeed that Thomas Jefferson of Virginia fell in love with it and labored for years to introduce it into his own more southern colony. There, however, and in the colonies south of Virginia, conditions were such as to forbid this. The people of those colonies lived upon vast planta- tions far removed from each other and scarcely at all in villages or in the neighborhood of villages. Among them, both a larger and a smaller unit were necessary. The smaller unit, as the scholarly Mr. Bruce has pointed out, was the plantation, which was compelled to exist in practical independence of 88 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY all other plantations and of all other relations. It must provide for itself It must have its own com- missariat in order that the people, white and black, living upon it should be fed, and clothed, and housed. It must be governed by its master in- dependently of all other agencies of government. The larger civil unit in the south was the county. Tt was the function of the county court, acting not only judicially and legislatively, but administratively also, to provide for the maintenance of roads, the building of bridges, and all those other interests that belong to the community. In another important respect this difference made itself manifest. In New England, where the popula- tion was concentrated in and around villages, it was possible for the town to maintain schools, either public or private, as the case might be, for the educa- tion of all the children. In Virginia and the colo- nies south of that region this was difficult, for the simple reason that the population was too widely scattered. In very few places were there enough children within the radius of possible school atten- dance to form even a small school. The result of this condition was that the great planters who wished to educate their children were compelled to employ tutors and governesses of their own. Often a num- COLONIAL INDIVIDUALITY 89 ber of planters would combine their resources in this respect. One of them would employ the tutor, or the governess or both, and the rest would send their sons and daughters to him — not to " board " In a Virginia home. with him, for the southern planter intensely resented the idea of receiving pay from any of his friends for food and lodging — but to " live " with him, and at- tend the school. The only expense which they were permitted to share was that of employing the governess, or the tutor, or both. All the rest was 90 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CI£NTURY hospitality, pure and simple. Of common schools for all the people there were practically none. These differences of social and political life were fundamental. They were the outgrowths of con- ditions and circumstances and they were in many ways irreconcilable. Accordingly it was felt among the people of the various colonies that there was not a sufficient community of habit to justify a community of interest and activity. Each colony was very nat- urally jealous of its own institutions — institutions which it had built up to meet its own needs. In each colony there was a feeling that anything like a general government, authorized to control all of them, might endanger the integrity of their several systems. The Federal idea had not yet taken hold of men's minds and they had not yet become recon- ciled to it, simply because of their desire in each case to go on managing their own affairs in the way which they had found to be good. It is not at all to be wondered at, therefore, that the colonies rejected Franklin's plan, wise as it was, and refused to set up a general government whose authority might encroach upon their liberty of in- dividual action. This jealousy continued in greater or less degree, not only through the Revolution but for several years after it was finished. Even at the COLONIAL INDIVIDUALITY 91 time of greatest peril to all the colonies in conflict with England, it prevented the formation of a gen- eral government capable of levying taxes, raising money or effectively doing anything for the common defence. It was not until some years after indepen- dence was secured that consent was given to the creation of a general government of adequate power. CHAPTER IX THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FRENCH POWER IN AMERICA A GOOD deal of the trouble encountered in the management of the colonial wars was due to the inability of the English government to understand the conditions that prevailed in America. For lack of such understanding the English gov- ernment brought to bear upon American problems no practical intelligence whatever. It seems to have been the thought of the English statesmen of that time that almost anybody who had a title was competent to rule in the colonies and to conduct military operations there. The French on the contrary were steadily " put- ting their best foot foremost." They sent out their greatest soldier, the Marquis de Montcalm, to take charge of their interests in America. About the same time, in 1756, the English government sent out a most incapable person called the Earl of Lou- doun, making him Commander-in-chief of the Eng- 92 DESTRUCTION OF FRENCH POWER 93 lish and colonial armies in America, and at the same time Governor of Virginia. Behind this appointment was the conviction that the colonies ought to act together under a single government, and that conviction, as _ we have seen, was a wise one in its ^^"^ ^^>^ way. But in order to secure such acting together on the part of the colonies it was absolutely necessarv that the colonists themselves should bring it about or at least consent to 'l *' -TTT. 1 I'll General Montcalm. It. Without consultmg them, how- ever, Lord Loudoun was appointed Governor of Virginia, with authority to establish a military rule in America which should control all the colonies. Lord Loudoun blundered from the beginning. He saw the desirability of reconquering Louisburg which had, as we know, been conquered by the colonists before and foolishly given back by the English gov- ernment to the French as a club with which to break the back of the English power in America. But his method of attempting this conquest gave to the great French soldier, Montcalm, the oppor- tunity he wanted. Lord Loudoun, in order to as- sail Louisburg, stripped New York and the other northern colonies of the troops who were sorely 94 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY needed to protect the border against French inva- sion. In June, 1757, Loudoun's force set sail for Louisburg, leaving the border ahiiost helpless. He accomplished nothing. He went as far as Halifax and, after paltering for a time, turned back and sailed for New York. In the meanwhile Montcalm was quick to seize upon the opportunity given to him. When the troops that should have defended the northern border were withdrawn the French commander at once marched with his French forces and his Indian allies to seize upon Fort William Henry at the southern end of Lake Lord Loudoun. George, seventy miles north of Al- bany. He took the fort, and his Indian allies butch- ered the garrison. Fortunately a change of government in England came about this time. A wise man named William Pitt, afterwards the Earl of Chatham, took the place of the dunces who had preceded him in control of British foreign affairs. His first act, so far as the colonies were concerned, was to remove the incom- petent Lord Loudoun. His next was to make a sensible arrangement with the colonies, with regard to the expenses of the war. He proposed that the DESTRUCTION OF FRENCH POWER 95 colonists should furnish the troops necessary to carry it to a successful conclusion, and provide clothing and pay for their own soldiers, but not for any British troops that might be sent out to help them. In return for this, he, first of all English authori- ties, settled once for all the vexed question of rank between English and American officers. Previous to that time it had always been arrogantly held that any English regular officer, whatever his grade might be, should outrank in command a colonial officer even though that officer might hold a superior (^^"^ rank. Pitt arranged that the '',v«a,j. • " -^'^Sa^^ American officers should stand on a level with those sent out ^■^'^ • \ y rt • ^ 1 r William Pitt. with the British regulars, man tor man. This was an enormous concession to colonial pride and, in response, the colonies gladly voted to the English service all the troops that might be asked for. Under these conditions of justice and common sense, three expeditions were hopefully set on foot. One of them was to assail Louisburg ; one was to proceed to Fort Duquesne ; and the third was to as- sail the fortresses at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. 96 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY These three expeditions constituted the chief features of the proposed campaign, but they were not quite all of it. Other and minor operations were under- taken in aid of them. The operation against Louis- burg was made by sea and land and lasted for nearly two months, under the entirely capable com- mand of General Amherst. At the end of that time, on July 27th, 1758, Louisburg was conquered. A little more than a month later, General Bradstreet made a conquest of Fort Frontenac, which commanded Lake Ontario, and destroyed the entire French fleet on that lake. The result of these operations was to cut off Fort Duquesne, where Pittsburg now stands, from all its sources of sup- ply, to render it helpless, and in Uniform of 43d Regi- ^ ^ ment of Foot, raised in the end to Compel its abandon- America(i74o). n\^nt. Thus, at last, intelligence instead of stupidity had taken control of the war. General Forbes, a thoroughly capable commander. DESTRUCTION OF FRENCH POWER 97 and a man of great resolution, had been placed in charge of the expedition against Fort Duquesne. He was a regularly trained British officer, but he had none of the arrogance of Braddock. Unlike that commander he consulted Washington as to methods of warfare in the woods and accepted his advice. He went further even than this. As he approached the French fortress, he threw Washing- ton with his Virginians to the front, and trusted the great colonial commander to make the assault in an effective way. Forbes himself was mortally ill and was carried during the march on a litter. He ought to have gone to a hospital but, with a resolute mind, he determined to remain with his column until its work should be done. He was wise enough to make the young colonial officer, George Washington, second only to himself in com- mand. And when he himself fell ill he trusted practically everything to the sagacity of this young man, born in Virginia, and bred in the woods. He had sense enough to see that Washington was fitter to command than any other officer he had with him, and, on grounds of fitness alone, he left the direction of affairs largely to him — mere boy that he was. On the 26th of November, 1758, Washington, in command of the expedition, reached Fort Duquesne G 9S LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY only to find that the French had abandoned it and burned all of its buildings on the day before. Wash- ington was thus at last permitted to take possession of that position which he had for so long a time in- sisted was the key to the Ohio country. Forbes gave him authority to build there a strong and per- manently defensible English fortress, to which he gave the name of Fort Pitt, at the same time naming the spot itself Pittsburg — both in honor of the only English minister who had intelligently directed colo- nial affairs. By this time Washington, young as he was, had begun to be a man of superior mark in Virginia and even in the colonies other than Virginia which were engaged in this loosely organized struggle. He was not only recognized as the ablest m,ilitary comman- der in the colonies, and one capable even of instruct- ing British officers in the arts of American cam- paigning, but he had begun to be recognized also as a man of supreme common sense whose counsels were needed in the conduct of the social and political affairs of the colony. During this expedition against Fort Duquesne, George Washington was nominated for a seat in that House of Burgesses which gave law to Virginia and directed all public affairs of that colony. So DESTRUCTION OF FRENCH POWER 99 great was his popularity that in his absence he was elected by an overwhelming majority over three competitors. When the struggle for Fort Duquesne was over and its conquest had been made a permanent fact of the military situation by his engineering skill in fortifying there, he returned to his home at Mount Vernon to enjoy a little honeymoon with his newly wedded wife. He had in the meantime resigned his military commission and determined to lead thenceforward that planter life which he always preferred to any other, and from which he was 'drawn throughout al- most all his life solely by a sense of obligation to render public service. He had hardly settled himself at Mount Vernon, however, before he was summoned to take his place in the House of Burgesses at Williamsburg and do his part there as a Virginian chosen by his fellow- citizens for a service of peace. Then occurred one of the most picturesque and gratifying incidents of this great man's life. He was only twenty-six years of age and was wholly unknown in the political life of his native state. The House of Burgesses included among its mem- bers the most distinguished statesmen that Virginia 100 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY could boast even in that golden time. Many of them were old enough to be Washington's father or grandfather and wise enough to be his mentor. Yet in anticipation of his coming this House of Bur- gesses, composed of Virginia's most distinguished men, had by unanimous vote instructed its speaker to welcome him in the most conspicuous and honor- able way that could be devised. Ignorant of the honors planned for him, young 3 ^fl fe^^ ^^^s [ -^•^:i;Trt V- M ' ■ 'r--" .-K i^-'^i^iji'^ H '>ij,:^,;'^! «iiiiiiiiitii|iiii mm. - '■ f iigwli^^ ^^mm^mf^mm-'W m nilWnitlMSIiKMtBII ? 'HHHH A Virginia mansion, Westover. Washington modestly entered the hall of the House of Burgesses and took his seat. As he did so, the speaker of the house arose and, in a speech glowing with eloquence, presented to him the thanks of the House, and the colony that it represented, for his brilliant and untiring military service. That speaker DESTRUCTION OF FRENCH POWER 101 was possessed of the eloquence which has been characteristic of so many Virginians throughout their history and he pronounced a eulogy upon this young man which fairly stunned and staggered him. At the end of it young Washington arose and made almost the only failure of his life in an at- tempt to reply. He was so overcome that he almost lost the power of utterance. He stammered so helplessly that one who was present on that occasion has left it upon record that the young man " could not give distinct utterance to a single syllable." This brave and brilliant youth, who had never IScUiW MU^U. shrunk from danger, had never shirked his duty, had never quailed before a foe, and had never failed ^o acquit himself well in the presence of any condi- tion, fairly broke down. 102 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY His breakdown was quite as honorable to him as any of his successes had been and the speaker of the house, uttering the thought and expressing the feeling of every man within its walls, came to his relief. He arose and interrupted Washington with the command: "Sit down, Mr. Washington ! Your modesty equals your valor and that surpasses the power of any language I possess." The expedition against Crown Point and Ticon- deroga was far less fortunate than that against Fort Duquesne, chiefly because of stupidity in its manage- ment. That expedition had been placed, nominally at least, under the ^^ command of General Abercromby, who, by reason of his rank, had a Lord Howe. claim to superiority over his assis- tant, Lord Howe. But Lord Howe was a capable soldier, as Abercromby was not, and it was intended by Pitt that Lord Howe rather than General Aber- cromby, should direct operations as the actual leader and commander of the expedition. Unfortunately Lord Howe was killed in a skir- mish a little while before the attack upon Ticonderoga was made. Thereupon Abercromby became, in fact as well as in name, the commander of the expedition DESTRUCTION OF FRENCH POWER 103 with full license to blunder to the utmost extent of his ignorance of military affairs. He attacked the fort in front — that is to say, on its very strongest side — where there was no hope of accomplishing anything against it except by the use of artillery, which he had not. He ordered that the fort should be taken by a charge of bayonets. The men made the effort very gallantly but with no possibil- ity of success. They were beaten back and pres- ently retreated in panic. But this disaster at Ticon- deroga was destined to have no import- ant influence upon ^"'^'"^ °^ ^'^'^ Ticonderoga. the completion of the work of war. The French power in America was already crumbling to its fall. The capture of Fort Frontenac and Fort Du- quesne had practically severed all communication between the French in Canada and their friends in Louisiana, near the mouth of the Mississippi. It had given to the English secure possession of the Ohio valley and of all the region west of the Alle- gheny mountains. It had destroyed the very bases of the French fur trade and worse still, so far as the 104 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY French were concerned, it had convinced the In- dians, who had hitherto been loyal to the French, that the power of their allies was nearing its end. After that the Indians quickly cast off their alle- giance to the French. Further still, the final fall of Louisburg — the great French fortress which had so long stood in the way — opened a water route by which a British fleet might approach Quebec itself. It opened the way to the crowning campaign of the war. Under the orders of Pitt — who might have been a great soldier if his genius had not been devoted more exclusively to great statesmanship — General Amherst, now Commander-in-chief of all the British forces in America, advanced into Canada by way of Lake George and Lake Champlain, conquering the Forts at Ti- conderoga and Crown Point on his way. This was in 1759, and during the same year, almost at the same time, a brilliant young officer, General James Wolfe, who had distinguished himself at Louisburg, was directed to lead an expedition up the St. Law- rence against Quebec, the last of the great French strongholds in America. Quebec lay upon a great plain, at the top of a DESTRUCTION OF FRENCH POWER 105 high and well nigh inaccessible bluff. The place was heavily fortified and defended by French regu- lars under Montcalm, a great general. After a month or so of futile endeavor Wolfe at last found a path by which he scaled the bluff and placed his army in rear of the city and the forts, shutting them off from supplies. Montcalm was forced to come out and give battle '(J^^ on the open field, where Wolfe de- ^jm~^ feated him in a fierce battle in which I^F^sa. both he and Montcalm were killed. ^'^"^''^^ ^^'°'f^- Quebec was taken and all of Canada was surrendered finally to the British. When peace was at last con- cluded between England and France in 1763, the French gave up to the British all of their American possessions east of the Mississippi River, except a little district around New Orleans. Except for the hostility of the Indians, therefore, the English colonies on the Atlantic coast were now free to push their settlements westward into the great fertile region that lies between the Alleghen- ies and the Mississippi. A new empire of vast extent and boundless resources was thrown open to the men who had already, in effect, created a great English-speaking nation in America. 106 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Old view of Quebec. CHAPTER X SOME COLONIAL GRIEVANCES WHEN the great French and Indian war ended, in 1763, there had been EngHsh col- onies in America for more than a hundred and fifty years. The English settlements had not only taken root but had grown vigorously. A large proportion of the people in the colonies were by that time native Americans. They knew no other country as their own but this. In a sentimen- tal way they were still loyal to the mother land and to its king, but they had never been in England and they had by this time accepted new ideas of their own. New impulses of liberty had been born in them. Living in conditions totally different from those that existed in England they had built up for themselves systems of government which were in- deed founded upon the broad principles of English liberty, but which differed in radical ways from the system of government that prevailed in the mother country. 107 108 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Still more markedly they had developed new so- cial systems of their own. In the South a certain conservatism of mind had preserved the old English traditions in a verv great degree, though these were modified considerably by the differing conditions of colonial life. But this very preservation of the in- herited ideas of a century and a half before made the lives of the colonists radically different from the lives of Englishmen in England. A hundred and fifty years is a very long period, and during that time vast changes had occurred in England, many of which were not reflected in the life of the colonists. In Pennsylvania the Quaker influ- ence and the great influx of Germans and Scotch- Irishmen which had taken place during that time, had brought about a system of living altogether different from that which then prevailed in England. In New York the influence of Dutch ideas had not yet expended itself, and life there still bore distinct marks of the Dutch origin of that colony. old Dutch house. SOME COLONIAL GRIEVANCES 109 In New England peculiar conditions had tended from the first to lead the people into new ways of living and thinking, quite other than those which the original colonists had brought with them from England. When we add to these things the fact that the re- lations between the colonies and the mother country had involved much of friction, and, in the view of the colonists, much of injustice and even of oppres- sion at times, it is not at all wonderful that after the middle of the eighteenth century, the spirit of dis- content and antagonism which had long existed, be- came acute among the Englishmen in America. HUN awayy on the ^d Cay of May Jaft, a ycaog Negro Boy, named Joe, xhu Country boroi formerly be lorgcd to Capr. Hugh Hut. Whocrcr brirgi ihc laid Soy the Sabfcribcr at Edifla, or to ihc Work Hcafc in Ctarlej ^ouv, ihall have 5 / reward. On thcconrrar)' who- ever harbouri the faid Boy, may defend upon being fcvercly prorccurcd, by Thomas CHJbam. Notice of runaway slave. " Charleston Gazette," 1754. For one thing England had forced upon the un- willing colonists the acceptance of African slavery. no LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY There were many people in the colonies, who, for reasons of personal convenience and benefit, desired a large importation of African slaves. But there were a much larger number who dreaded an increase of slave population lest it result in black insurrections, and the better people of the southern colonies ob- jected to the system on moral and humane and other TO BE SOLD by William Yeomanf, (fa Charlit ^i*WB Mercbani^') < patcdofgeed «<^_ ^ime Cre- ]PUstiatim f^w ^ju^ *^^*> Suuri- ^ Java. Em ' ^^KjBj^tH^ ^Jf 1* b* g*' cturagencttf OHD^n^L, ^'* '^ ''^7*'*' mUbt f^l' ^g^STl^yO ^^^ Alert's Rke in Pay- M tWR ^« /«''> "^^y meni, fr any WamnWuB good ^rttp- hg f4(idki find Fumittfre^ choice Barbados avd Bo-f? en jR«m, alfa Corcthl JVaUrt and Limfjs4}ce, as vjeJI at a p4fcel cf extretf- diaary h((i4» trading Gtsdi, and maty tf o* iht? forn ftsrtabk far lb* ^^eafen. Illustrated advertisement from the "Charleston Gazette," 1744. ethical grounds. Virginia, South Carolina and other colonies sought to prevent the influx of negro slaves by many laws of their own. Some of these laws absolutely prohibited the further importation of negro slaves. Some of them placed upon such SOME COLONIAL GRIEVANCES 111 importation a head tax so heavy as to discourage the traffic and make an end of it. In one way or another those colonies into which this tide of negro slave immigration was coming made every effort in their power to dam it up and stop it. They feared it. They were well-nigh appalled by the dangers that it threatened. It was felt to be an evil in the present and a terrible menace for the future. But every law that any colony made against this nefarious traffic was vetoed by the authority of the English government. This was done because the traffic in slaves from the west coast of Africa was an enor- mously ■ profitable one to those who were engaged in it, and because not only the courtiers and the statesmen of England but the king himself, had money invested in it. But for this British interference the number of negro slaves in this country would have remained so small that their ultimate emancipation would have been a problem easy to solve, and the people of this nation would have been spared all the evils and dis- turbances which the presence of a great slave popu- lation ultimately brought upon the country, including a terrible civil war. The unjust trade laws, as we have seen in an earlier chapter, very seriously impaired the prosperity 112 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY of the colonists. The original Navigation Act, while somewhat encouraging New England shipbuilding and commerce, had vainly sought to compel the colo- nists to trade only with England and her outlying pos- sessions. In 1733 another law, known in history as the. Sugar and Molasses Act, was enacted. The pur- pose of it was to compel the colonists, under heavy penalty, to import all their sugar, molasses and rum, from the British West Indies. Under this law a heavy import duty was imposed upon such goods when brought into the colonies from any country except Great Britain itself or the British West Indies. If this law had been enforced it would have de- livered a staggering blow to the commerce and pros- perity of the colonies especially of New England, for by that time the bold Yankee sailor boys had built up an extremely profitable trade with those West India islands which belonged to the French and Spanish. None of these laws could be en- forced, however. Public sentiment in the colonies justified shipmasters and merchants in evading them, and they did so in a hundred ingenious ways. CHAPTER XI THE ATTEMPT TO ENFORCE OBNOXIOUS LAWS: JAMES OTIS'S INSPIRING MAXIM. IN 1760, George III came to the throne in Eng- land. He was an obstinate person of dull mind, and of an overweening sense of his own impor- tance and his own authority. His rule was alto- gether arbitrary and reactionary. In 1 76 1, William Pitt, the elder, whose wise di- rection of affairs had brought the English arms to victory in America, in Europe, and on the seas, was forced out of office, and a new and very illiberal policy was adopted by the English government in its relations with America. Among other things, George III and his minister Grenville, decided to enforce in the rigidest possible way, the trade laws which for half a century and more the colonists had been evading and defying with impunity. In order to evade these laws merchants and ship- masters were accustomed to bribe the customs officers and thus induce them to wink at evasions. H 113 114 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Ships would land at a dock, unload the greater part of their cargoes and, only after doing so, re- port their arrival to the customs officers. These officers in collusion with the shipmasters would then go on board and assess duties only upon such small part of the cargo as remained in the ship's hold. The rest of the goods had been landed ^ D'V* a.Law of the Colony of ■ Neiv-Tork, THIS Bill shall pafs current -^fLp ToVi F I f^ E POUNDS. |y| ■ New.York, the Second Day of April, One Thoufand Seven Hundred and fifty :2^^^ [lOO/." i t^5"'Tis Death TO counierJeit this BILL. New York colonial currency. without paying any duty at all. This of course was an illegal practice and an immoral one. But even the most religious people of that time sanctioned it as an act of just and rightful resistance to an unjust and oppressive law, enacted by foreign authority. OBNOXIOUS LAWS 115 Under George III it was decided to follow up the goods thus illegally landed, to find, and to confis- cate them as smuggled merchandise even after they had been sold ashore. To that end a British com- missioner of customs was sent out to Boston who appealed to the courts of Massachusetts for what were called " Writs of Assistance," These were in effect general search warrants, good for an indefinite period, not returnable into any court, which author- ized the customs of^cer to search all houses and warehouses at will for dutiable goods supposed to be concealed therein. They were in effect blanket search warrants, violative of a fundamental principle of the liberty of the citizen, and capable of enormous abuse in the hands of an officer disposed to mis- chief. When, the merchants of Boston appealed to the courts contending that these Writs of Assistance were illegal in form and oppressive in effect and that they should not be issued, it became the official duty of James Otis, at that time Advocate General for the colony, to argue the case in favor of the king and the commissioner. But James Otis was a pa- triot in full sympathy with the colonial antagonism to this injustice and to the oppression of the trade laws themselves. Rather than appear as Advocate 116 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY General in behalf of the issue of these writs James Otis resigned his very lucrative and honorable office and took the other side. He went into the court and spoke with extraordinary eloquence for more than five hours, arguing against the writs, and for the first time putting forth the war cry of the Revo- lution that " Taxation without Representation is 1 yranny. These trade laws against which the colonists were in revolt were enacted by the British Parliament in which the colonies and their people had no representation whatsoever. It was a part of the fun- damental principle of English liberty that taxation could be legally imposed only by a parliament representing the people who were to be taxed. As the Americans were not represented in the British Par- liament they promptly accepted Otis's dictum as ap- plicable to their case not only with reference to the Trade Laws but with reference also to every other law which might be made by the Parliament of Eng- land to impose a tax upon the people of this country. They had always been ready and willing, through their representative bodies, to tax themselves as freely as might be necessary for any public purpose, but OTIS'S MAXIM 117 they felt keenly that any attempt to tax them under a law made by a parliament in which they had no representative was in the nature of an unjust oppres- sion. They realized also that this effort of the new king was in fact an attempt to reduce them to abject and helpless subjection to a government which was foreign to themselves. It would not have done for them to contend openly for the right to smuggle goods. But in Otis's splendid phrase that " taxation without representation is tyranny " they had a win- ning war cry, and from that hour forth they made the most of it. It must be borne in mind that England was not a free, self-governing land at that time in the sense in which we understand those terms in our day. There was no such thing as " government of the people, by the people, for the people," even in England. There was a parliament, to be sure, and theoretically, the House of Commons, representing the people, was supreme in all affairs of government by virtue of its control of all revenues and expendi- tures. But the House of Commons did not represent the people. In the first place large numbers of the people were not permitted to vote at all. In the second place, repregentatign wa§ grossly and 118 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY even grotesquely unequal. The populations of the greatest manufacturing and trading cities of the land were represented scarcely at all — or absolutely not at all, while each of the great aristocratic universities was permitted to elect members of Parliament. Worse still there were " rotten boroughs " and " pocket boroughs " all over England, each author- ized to elect legislators without any reference what- ever to its population. A " rotten borough " was one in which there was _f^., no longer any pop- ulation, or one in which the popula- tion had dwindled to a mere handful. Some of the rotten boroughs had in fact sunk into the sea and no longer existed even terri- Massachusetts three-penny bill. toriallv. Yet for each of them some lord of the manor was entitled by law to elect a member of the House of Commons, while the people of the great manufacturing and commercial cities were left unrepresented or inade- quately represented. OTIS'S MAXIM 119 The " pocket boroughs " were those in which only a few people resided, the few people being the tenants and dependents of some great landlord. The landlord could determine for himself what tools of his own should be sent to Parliament from the pocket boroughs he controlled, and his de- pendents, voting without secrecy or a ballot, of course elected his candidates. There were still other ways in which the British government at that time was not representative of the British people ; but the facts cited are sufficient for illustration. All these anomalies of unequal representation grew out of the dominant idea of that time, and were logical enough as corollaries from it. That dominant idea was, not that all the people should equally participate in government, but that for the sake of all alike the best and safest classes should rule. The great families that owned the land and represented property, the universities, representing education and the church, and the aristocrats, who controlled rotten boroughs and pocket boroughs, who represented England's ruling class, were thought to be safer custodians of political power than the great, penniless and often ignorant masses could be. And so as the masses might at any time 120 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY outnumber the more safely selected classes, voting and representation in Parliament were carefully so restricted as to give the ruling class secure control no matter what the majority of the people might desire. The same principle prevailed in America under varying conditions. In most of the colonies there were severe restrictions upon voting and office hold- ing, as we know. In the Puritan colonies in particu- lar, church membership was a requisite. In nearly all the colonies a belief in Christianity was imperatively demanded as a qualification for the suffrage. In many there were property qualifications also insisted upon. This endured indeed in some of the states until the middle of the nineteenth century. In Virginia, until 1850 every man who owned land in more than one county was entitled to vote in every county in which he had a holding. So jealously was this idea guarded that the voting at each elec- tion was continued for three days in order that every landowner might ride from one county seat to another and cast all his votes. In brief, the principle of class representation rather than representation by mere numbers was very generally accepted in the eighteenth century as a necessary safeguard against anarchy and misrule. But th^ Americans had another and a deeper OTIS'S MAXIM 121 iTi itf tntmamiiiuiini imtn tS'^.'^K \\ ' ' ''t"i' l1 ,'' t'- s !i "" i",„'iS 1 ■1., ''1 111,, ''1, ,'iii 1 il!!''i yx ( iiili"' 'mill' ,jil iJC'"i ' ''''ii' ""'' fc^- '\\\ T'T 'll'lli ll „, |||l, ,,il ,: .iiii|;;; '<';:,! \f'. ill'' -HliDWil'" S||llliiiiill||i|| "■,j|liii:ni;i||l' 1 ''"ii!l)iaiiiinif', « 'iiiiiiiiiiili''^ iiiillillllll iniiiiiiiiiil '''\!ii'''i'"i't"''i 'f\ ii 'X fvf" •■ ■■; iiiici if "<::i ^'S'' ':,"||»iii*iii|iiiiifu.^ 'i, ' ^ ^ \ }K.';' 'Kf^ !■' ''Hli|iiliiilllK' '«'' "'p'"' , -''■ V' i.i|[ V in _ : 'iiiijiii.'iii'' ';jii'"iii!iili,;iiiiii!i''" ^^('"'^■''i^C'^i' ' ■'' l*:aigaw» " ^■'--^'='iiliii!v-ill(!iiii I" M'"'"""'"»ii>innniiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiniiiiJuin 122 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY grievance. The millions of Englishmen in America were not represented at all in that English Parlia- ment which made laws for their governance, and as- sumed to tax them, to regulate their commerce, to restrict their manufactures and in every other way subject them to a government which they regarded as completely foreign and in many ways as inimical to themselves. Neither Massachusetts, which had become in effect a great state, nor Virginia, which had also be- come a powerful commonwealth, nor Pennsylvania, nor New York, nor Carolina, nor any other of the great, populous, and powerful American colonies was permitted to send a single representative to Parliament. Not any of them — not all of them put together had in the British Parliament even so much as the voice of a rotten borough or a pocket borough. Is it any wonder that the Americans, while still remaining true to their traditional allegiance to the mother country, went into revolt against so unjust a government as this? Is it anv wonder that they refused to pay the taxes levied upon them by a foreign power ? Would they not have proved themselves unworthy of their claim to be English- men if they had tamely submitted to such oppres- sion as this ? OTIS'S MAXIM 123 The courts issued the Writs of Assistance simply because the law required them to do so, but the paper mandates did not accomplish their purpose. At the door of every house, which the writs au- thorized the customs officers to search, there stood a resolute man with a gun in his hand, defending his home as his " castle." And the customs of- ficers, caring far less for the British revenue than for the safety of their own persons, did not under- take to force their way past those alert and very belligerent human barriers — the armed Yankees. The Writs of Assistance had been sought by the king and his ministers not chiefly as a means of collecting revenue but mainly as a method of forcing upon the colonies and their people the acceptance of the theory that they were subject, absolutely and unquestioningly, to every decree that the British king might issue and every act that the British Parliament might adopt. Against this assertion of arbitrary authority the colonists protested with vigorous insistence from the beginning. They held themselves to be Eng- lishmen entitled to all those rights which English- men had claimed and enjoyed ever since the barons at Runnymede, more than five centuries before, namely, on the 15th day of June, 1215, had com- 124 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY pelled King John to grant the great charter of EngHshmen's rights and hberties — that Magna Charta which was by decree of the will of the English people to endure for all time. The rights of the colonists were both threatened and invaded by the policy of the new king in Eng- land. Their resistance to the invasion was instant, universal and determined. Their resentment of the threat was as quick as is the response of gun- powder to the spark that ignites it. There were other arrows, however in the quiver of the reactionary British ministers of that time and they essayed to use them against the Americans. CHAPTER XII THE BEGINNINGS OF REVOLT THE colonists were still sentimentally loyal to their home government and to their king while practically they were almost continually in revolt against the wrongs done them by that govern- ment and that king. They had not yet begun to think of independence or to realize the fact that they had built up here thirteen colonies with more than two and a half millions of people in them, who had no need of any government from without them- selves. They still clung to the old traditions of king and country. They still regarded themselves as colonists, though in fact they had built up pros- perous states abundantly capable of governing and caring for themselves. Such assistance as they had received from the mother country in the French and Indian wars was more than offset by the jaunty indifference with which the mother country, at a critical time and for its own advantage, had given up to their enemies all that they had won in behalf 125 126 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY of their own defence, by their prowess, their heroism, and their endurance. They had at last reached that stage in their his- tory in which any attempt of a government, foreign to themselves, to interfere with their interests or to determine their affairs was met with quick resent- ment. Loyalty to king and country was well enough in a sentimental way, but the spirit of the colonists — most of whom had been born and bred in this country and had never dwelt in England — was one of independence and self-assertion. Loy- alty to the king in England was regarded as the duty of every man, but at the same time every man felt that the king was under a re- ciprocal obligation to behave him- self, that he must keep his hands A Vngini I sliilliiic; re i • i rr • 't-'i orr colonial aiiairs. 1 he senti- ment of self-government had grown by what it had fed upon until it was now the dominant sentiment in every colony north and south. In a general way the interests of the colonies were not at all identical. New England, New York and Pennsylvania were largely engaged in commerce. The southern colonies were almost wholly engaged in agriculture. Between these two parts of the BEGINNINGS OF REVOLT 127 country there was little In common except that Pennsylvania also had developed large agricultural interests, and it seems possible, as we review the history of that time, that if the English government had been wise in its generation the colo- nies north and south might never have become united in their in- terests and in their determination to resist English oppression. Virginia shilling The grievances in New England (reverse). were no grievances at all in the Carolinas and in Virginia, until a stupid blunder on the part of the British minister made them such. This blunder began with the determination of the British minister to send ten thousand soldiers to America. These troops were to be quartered upon the people after the first year of their service In this country, and to be paid and supported out of money raised by taxes levied upon the colonies, this under authority of the British Parliament In which the colonies were not represented. The pretence upon which these soldiers were to be sent out was that of defending the colonies against their enemies. But the colonies had no enemies at that time. The French power had been completely broken and the 128 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Spanish in the tar south were no longer belligerent or in any way dangerous. There remained only the Indians, with whom the colonists felt themselves entirely competent to deal. There was absolutely no defensive need for the sending out of these ten thousand British regulars and the colonists were not deceived by the pretence. They understood from the beginning that these soldiers were sent out to overawe the colonists themselves, and to hold them in subjection — to enforce taxes and laws made by a parliament in which they had no voice or vote. By way of compelling the colonists to pay for the support of these troops who were sent out to op- press them, the English Parliament enacted a stamp act. That act required that all notes, deeds, con- veyances, bills of sale, and a-11 other legal documents of every kind should be written upon stamped paper on which a tax had been paid. It decreed that any note, bill of sale, conveyance, or other legal docu- ment not written upon such stamped paper should be void and of no effect. It decreed also that all newspapers printed in the colonies should be printed upon stamped paper, each sheet thus paying a tax to Great Britain. The American people have twice demonstrated the fact that they have no rooted objection to the BEGINNINGS OF REVOLT 129 payment of stamp taxes for the purpose of raising revenue, when such taxes are levied by a Congress consisting of their own representatives. Twice, in order to meet war expenses, they have wilhngly paid stamp taxes, not only upon deeds, conveyances and legal documents but upon express receipts, receipts for money, telegraph messages and everything else of the kind. There is this radical difference, how- ever, between the two cases. When their own Con- gress, representing themselves and acting in their name and by their authority has determined upon a system of stamp taxation by way of meeting the needed expenses of the government, the American people have raised no protest and made no com- plaint whatever. They have felt that they were merely paying their own ex- penses; but in that earlier time when a foreign government seek- ing to oppress them sent out a standing army to accomplish this purpose and undertook to make them pay for the maintenance Rosa Americana penny. of that army by stamp taxes, levied under a law which was enacted by a parliament in which they had absolutely no representation whatsoever, they went immediately into revolt. J 130 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Some historians have pointed out that a year before the Stamp Act was passed, the British min- ister, Grenville, invited the colonists to suggest any other means of raising the money which might be more agreeable to themselves. But their objection was not to the particular form of the tax but to the tax itself. They saw no good reason why they should be taxed by any method for the purpose of keeping troops in America to oppress and over- awe themselves. It was the Stamp Act that quickly brought the North and Rosa Americana penny Soutll into a COmpaCt for reSO- (reverse). j^^^^ union in resistance to British aggression. The injustice of that act was felt in all parts of the country and it was instantly resented everywhere. Reduced to its lowest terms the situation was this : The British government required the Ameri- can people to pay and support an army of ten thou- sand men sent out to this country, as they firmly believed, solely for the purpose of keeping the peo- ple of this country in subjection to British authority and of enforcing navigation and other laws which were obnoxious to them. This the American peo- BEGINNINGS OF REVOLT 131 pie, North and South, and in all the middle colonies as well, resolutely refused to do. The soldiers might come, of course, but the colonists absolutely and unanimously refused to contribute one cent for their support as an overawing force in America. Even the proposal of this Stamp Act in Parlia- ment, before it had been enacted, created a very great excitement all over America. The Americans sent protests and humble petitions to the king in which they called his attention to the fact that they were Englishmen possessed of all the traditional rights of Englishmen and with respectful intimations that they were disposed to insist upon those rights. No heed was paid to these protests, however. The English administration of that time had made up its mind to enforce this measure and it proceeded without regard to the sentiment or the sense of the American people. In March, 1765, the Stamp Act became a law. It was doubly offensive to the Americans. It not only provided for the collection of what they held to be an unjust tax for what they regarded as an unjust and oppressive purpose, but it went fur- ther and enacted that Americans who should violate the terms of the law might be tried in a court with- out a jury if the prosecuting officer so desired. 132 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Here was a direct and exceedingly offensive viola- tion of the rights of Englishmen secured under English traditions. Here, too, was a new ground for American resistance to British authority, a new occasion for revolt, a new basis of revolution. Throughout the land James Otis's cry went up that " Taxation without representation is tyranny " and throughout the land the determination to resist and defeat this Stamp Act was universal and reso- lute. Here and there the act was resisted violently by mobs of angry citizens. A mob in New York burned the royal governor's coach and tore down the theater which was regarded as the pleasure house of the wealthy who sympathized with British pre- tensions. In Boston the resistance took even more violent forms. There the people assailed the revenue offi- cers themselves and obliged them to take refuge on board the war vessels in the harbor. At Charles- ton in South Carolina the stamped paper sent out for use was stored in Fort Johnson. The people promptly assailed Fort Johnson, captured it, took the stamped paper, packed it into bundles and sent it back to England. By reason of this resistance not one single stamp and not one single sheet of stamped paper was sold BEGINNINGS OF REVOLT 133 in all America except in the case of a few ship clear- ances at Savannah. Not one deed or document was written upon such paper. And no court in all the country from that time forward consented to treat any document as void by reason of its lack of the British stamp. In effect, of course, this was revolution and war, but the time had not yet come when Revolution and War should put on their uniforms, shoulder their guns, and take the field. By sheer force of obstinate resistance the Americans had beaten the British government in its most carefully planned schemes for reducing them to subjection, and all the expenses of that army of ten thousand men sent out to overawe the colonists and to enforce obnox- ious laws, were paid for by the taxpayers in England and not by the Americans. CHAPTER XIII COLONIAL WEALTH AND LUXURY BY this time a good deal of wealth had been accumulated in the colonies. A part of this wealth had been brought out from England but by far the greater part of it had been created in the colonies themselves. In the more southern of them and in Pennsylvania the fields had been richly fruitful from the first and their products had made of their possessors rich men, or men at least well- to-do according to the standards of that time. In the southern colonies this wealth was mainly represented by the ownership of vast plantations each independent of all the rest and each providing for itself as if it had been a sovereign domain. In the middle colonies and in New England the conditions were very difi^erent. In Pennsylvania and in New Jersey the fields were fruitful, while in New England, where the majority were still farmers in spite of the sterility of the soil, the fisheries and commerce yielded a great return to those enterpris- 134 COLONIAL WEALTH AND LUXURY 135 Nelson mansion. 136 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ing men who lived in that part of the country. But in New England agriculture was only meagerly prof- itable, and, as we have seen, the people of that region lived more and more in towns and villages, drawing their revenues from the sea by means of the fisheries and also by means of that great com- merce which they had built up with ships that sailed to all parts of the earth. In the South there were almost no cities of con- sequence. The principal southern city was Charles- ton and that was scarcely greater in population than any one of hundreds of villages is in our time. It was a seat of social distinction of course. Those planters who were able to indulge themselves were apt to have town houses in Charleston, where they sumptuously entertained their friends and where a very graceful and gracious social life prevailed. But their energies were chiefly expended in the conduct of their plantations and the great plantation houses were, after all, the chief centers of social inter- course. There were no large cities in the South simply because there was no need of large cities. A little city like Charleston furnished room enough for the merchants of that time to act as factors for the planters, receiving their products, shipping them to COLONIAL WEALTH AND LUXURY 137 various markets and in return furnishing the planters with whatsoever they needed for the support of both i '^-^ & Mr L-r. 1 **^ '/s'/Mik .1^ Interior of Rosewell Manor. 138 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY the blacks and the whites upon their plantations. For the rest the plantation house was a great center of hospitality and enjoyment. In the North the conditions were so far different that there was even thus early a strong tendency to the concentration of population in cities and towns. Salem in Massachusetts was a prosperous, although not a large city. Boston, New York and Phila- delphia, by reason of their commerce, rapidly grew into consequence as commercial cities. Other towns, like Gloucester, grew rich upon the fishing and whaling industries. Baltimore — in the middle region — became an important port and a seat of elaborate social life. Philadelphia soon became the leading city in the union, so far as population was concerned. Boston became the leading city in commerce and in wealth, with New York as a close rival. There was some manufacturing in all the colonies, but Massachusetts and her dependencies quickly outrivaled all the rest in this department of industry. The waterfalls there furnished power that cost noth- ing, except a trifle in its adaptation to use by the construction of water wheels, dams and sluiceways. There were sawmills in Massachusetts and in some of the other colonies long before the first sawmill COLONIAL WEALTH AND LUXURY 139 was set up in England. These cheapened the cost of lumber and with it the cost of building. It must be borne in mind that trees of very large size grew in unlimited abundance in all the colonies and that they stood distinctly in the way Water mill. of the development of agriculture. To get rid of them was the first problem and this was often solved simply by cutting them down, chopping them up into logs, rolling the logs together and burning them. But the shrewd intelligence of the colonists, after the introduction of saw-mills, led to a 140 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY better use for the timber that must be destroyed in in order to open fields. The saw-mills were kept busy converting into boards and planks and tim- bers the trees that must otherwise have been de- stroyed by fire in order to make way for the corn, and wheat, and everything else that fields in Amer- ica might produce. The water power was also turned to other manu- facturing uses, for in spite of all Brit- ish laws to the contrary, the colonists were quick to appreciate their oppor- tunities and alert in making for them- selves all things of use that they could make more cheaply than they could import them. They set up tanner- Costumeof. ^ , . ,.,. Thomas Hancock, ^^s for the convcrsion of skms mto Black velvet coat, leather. They manufactured cloths waistcoatand ^ ii'i i ii ii breeches (about of such kmds as they could and they 1755)- even established paper mills to meet the needs of the printing presses which had been set up in different parts of the country. In brief, the colonists were little by little making themselves j industrially independent of Great Britain long before the thought of political independence entered their minds. The colonists were learning more and more rapidly COLONIAL WEALTH AND LUXURY 141 the lesson of living within themselves and upon their own resources. They were growing more and more by natural processes into an independent nationality of thought and feeling which could only mean, in the end, independent nationality in fact. But with the rapid increase of wealth and the col- lection of men and women into cities, which for their time were deemed large, but which would be scarcely more than vil- lages in our time, there naturally developed a tendency to fashion and luxury. Balls and routs and dances were given, at which colonial dames arrayed themselves as gor- geously as the fashionable women of London might have done. Costume of Thomas „,, Boylston. White 1 heaters were opened and even ^^^■,,, ^.aistcoat, gold the art instincts of the people were trimming (about gratmed by importations or paint- ings and statuary from the Old World. It was a period of fine dressing both in England and in this country, and the affectation of finery was seen among men who had the means with which to in- dulge it quite as much as it appeared among women. Men of that time, who were able to afford it, dressed in rich garments, faced with white satin and trimmed 142 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY with lace or gold embroidery. Men with smaller, but sufficient means, dressed less expensively but still in the same fashions. Blue cloths, velvet coats, satin vests, brass buttons, cocked hats and lace frilled shirt-fronts and wrist-bands were the ordinary dress of the well-to-do even in a country whose people had been engaged for three or four generations in conquering a wilderness and whose religious teach- ings had been those of asceticism. The dress of the wealthier colonial dames at that time was not only as rich as that of their English cousins, but was in fact identical with it. There /^'3:^'^;j^_r^ were no fashion plates, to be sure, ^ to teach the colonists how their clothes should be designed, for the From portrait of , , Mrs. Simon Stoddard ^^ason that cheap picture-makmg (about 1725). was not then known. But every year the colonial modistes — particularly those of Boston — imported London dolls, completely dressed in the latest fashions, and the well-to-do women of the colonial cities flocked to see and study these il- lustrations of the fashion, in many cases paying for the privilege. The plainer people everywhere still dressed sim- ply and mainly in homespun. The men wore COLONIAL WEALTH AND LUXURY 143 leather breeches still, finding them cheaper and more serviceable than cloth, even of domestic manufacture. And luxury did not stop at costly dressing. In some of the wealthier families, both north and south, there were solid gold tea services, with much solid silver and costly china dinner tableware. Fine linen — at that time very costly — abounded. But extravagance in dress was some- what mitigated by the fact that fine clothes could be and were worn by Quaker bonnet. one generation after another till they were worn out. In all wills of that time we find bequests o^ costly garments occupying a prominent place. This chapter is written in order to give a glimpse of the conditions of life and the attitude of mind which prevailed among the colonists at the time when they began to feel themselves slowly approach- ing a great and difficult struggle for their liberties. They were brave men and true and mightily strong, but they did not lack the vanities which are com- monly regarded as fit only for courtiers. A simpler conception of life and manners came later after the discipline of war and the hardships of a struggle for independence had taught the Ameri- cans a new code of conduct. 144 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY u CHAPTER XIV THE ADVENT OF PATRICK HENRY SO far as material interests were concerned there was little in common between the northern, the middle and the southern colonies. New Eng- land was engaged largely in commerce, fishing, whal- ing and in some degree in manufacturing, with only a limited attention to farming for profit. The mid- dle colonies, especially Pennsylvania, had some in- terest in commerce but a much larger one in agri- culture. The South was almost exclusively agri- cultural. If they had been let alone these various colonies would have had no sufficient interest in common to bind them together into anything that might even threaten a united resistance to British authority. But they were not let alone. The British authorities nagged all of them, and the nagging resulted in drawing them together in a common spirit of resistance to oppression. Two years before the Stamp Act was passed an event occurred in Virginia which stirred the populace J 145 146 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY of that colony as deeply as all the colonies were stirred a little later by the injustice of the Stamp Act. In Virginia the English church was established by law and its parsons were paid by taxes levied upon the people, whether the people attended that church or some other. For a long time, as we know, tobacco had been the customary currency of Virginia in lieu of money. But by this time actual money had in some degree found its way into the colony and was in more or less use there. It had been customary, before that time, to reckon the value of tobacco at twopence a pound and at that rate the parsons' salaries had been paid in that commodity. In 1758 there had been a very short crop of tobacco and its price in the market was enormously enhanced for several years afterward by this scarcity. The people therefore demanded the privilege of paying the parsons in money instead of tobacco, reckoning each twopence as the equivalent of one pound of the tobacco which they had before paid. This the parsons resisted as in effect a measure of repudiation. They demanded their full measure of tobacco notwithstanding its enormously enhanced price. In view of these cir- cumstances the House of Burgesses had passed an act, in 1758, by which the people were authorized ADVENT OF PATRICK HENRY 147 to pay the salaries of their clergy in money at the traditional rate of twopence for each pound of to- bacco due them. At this point the British government interfered. On petition of the parsons the king vetoed the act, leaving the clergy free to demand their pay in tobacco of full weight notwithstanding the scarcity and the Rolling tobacco to the wharves. high price of that commodity. The Virginians felt themselves offended and affronted by British inter- ference, precisely as Massachusetts had been in other cases. The Virginians, like the men of Massachusetts, resented and resisted the interference. Notwithstanding the king's veto, the House of Burgesses insisted upon it that the parsons should take their pay in money at the traditional price of tobacco and should not be privileged to demand the actual tobacco in a time of scarcity. One of the parsons brought suit to recover, in lieu of his money salary, sixteen thousand pounds 148 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY of tobacco, which was worth many times more than the salary had ever before amounted to. The people of his parish employed in their behalf a young lawyer named Patrick Henry, who had not as yet come into prominence but who was presently destined to become one of the great figures of the rapidly approaching revo- lution. This "Parsons' Cause," as it was called, gave him his opportunity. In a burst of elo- quence such as had never before been heard in Virginia he argued Tatiick Henry. his causc upon high interna- tional grounds, and upon high grounds of natural and inherent human right. He contended that the king's interference with the right of the colonists to regulate their own affairs in their own way was a gross usurpation of power and an infringement of the rights of the colonists as Englishmen. He said in the course of his argument that " A king, by disallowing acts of a salutary nature, from being the father of his people degenerates into a tyrant and forfeits all rights to his subjects' obedience." This was a daring utterance, but it met with popular ap- proval and applause. ADVENT OF PATRICK HENRY 149 The law was clearly with the parsons and ob- viously the court was bound to rule in their favor. But so greatly had Henry's eloquence impressed both the judge and the jurors that the verdict ren- dered, while it recognized the legal right of the clergymen, awarded them only one penny as dam- ages for the violation of that right. This was the tocsin of Revolution in Virginia. Here was an open assertion of the superiority of colo- nial right over kingly rule. Here, as clearly as in James Otis's war-cry, that " Taxa- tion without representation is tyranny," the sentiment of the American people was expressed in phrases Suffici- Advertisement from the ently plain, and sufficiently "^ew York Weekly Gazette , . . and Post-Boy" (1765). clear as to their meaning, to give them popular currency, and to inflame the popular mind. This victory for colonial rights was in itself im- portant as a part of the events which constituted the progress of that time ; but it was even more impor- tant in another way. It directed attention to Patrick Henry and brought him upon the stage of public af- 150 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY fairs, where his eloquence, his abounding common sense and his extraordinary courage were destined to make him presently one of the most influential hu- man forces that were at that time acting together to bring on the American Revolution with all its las- ting consequences of human liberty. No one can study the history of that time with- out seeing clearly that the victory in the " Parsons' Cause " was in itself a matter of utter insignificance as compared with the great work for liberty which it gave Patrick Henry opportunity, a little later, to do. In view ofthe position he had won in the Par- sons' Cause, Patrick Henry was presently elected to the House of Burgesses. At the time of his elec- tion it was clearly understood that the people chose him for their representative in full conviction that he, better than any other, would express their grow- ing sentiment of hostility to British aggression. He met this expectation fully and completely. At that time the Stamp Act was the chief subject of American antagonism and Henry assumed that in one way or another a discussion of it would be precipitated in the House of Burgesses. In this he was disappointed. Nobody brought the matter to the front, and so Henry, young man and new ADVENT OF PATRICK HENRY 151 member that he was, decided to do this pubHc duty himself. He arose in his place one day and offered a set of six resolutions which he asked the House of Burgesses to adopt. These resolutions were couched in the boldest, simplest, and most effective language. They asserted without equivocation the right of the people of Vir- ginia to govern themselves. They asserted that no power on earth could lawfully levy a tax upon the people of Virginia without their own consent. In brief, these resolutions constituted a sort of Declaration of Independence. Their meaning was the same as that which Jefferson at another time expressed when he said that the Parliament of Great Ti • • 1 1 • 1 . , 1 Costume of Peter Britain had no more right to make „ •, ^r i . . & i aneuil. Velvet coat, laws for the government of Virginia cloth waistcoat, velvet , ITT r rt • luffles (about 1740). than the House or Burgesses in Virginia had to make laws for the government of England. They declared that the General As- sembly of the Colony alone had " the right and power to lay taxes and imposts upon the inhabi- tants ! " The introduction of these resolutions by this young man, newly elected to the House and only 152 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY twenty-nine years of age, shocked and startled the conservatives of that body into a half frightened opposition. If the matter had been put to a vote without debate the probability seems to be that Henry's resolutions would have been voted down as something like flat treason. But Henry, having Introduced his resolutions, made a speech in behalf of them, which, Thomas Jefferson declared, sur- passed anything he had ever heard in the way of eloquence. It was in the course of this speech that Henry openly-gave warning of danger to the British king, pronouncing the famous words " Ca?sar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third " Windsor chair. Facsimile of a cut . in the "New York Weekly Gazette at that pOint the prc- and Postboy," 1765. siding officer inter- rupted the orator with the cry of " treason ! " and that cry was echoed by many others in the House. It did not daunt the bold young orator and patriot. He waited until the tumult subsided and then fin- ADVENT OF PATRICK HENRY 153 ished his sentence with the words " may profit by their example," adding, " if this be treason make the most of it." At last the American sentiment had found a lea- der bold enough and able enough to give expression to it in words that breathed and burned. Here at last was a man who was brave enough to tell the truth even to a king. Here at last was a man in Virginia as daring and as capable as James Otis and Samuel Adams were in Massachusetts — a man who knew the hidden thought of the people around him and who dared speak it out loud. In spite of the instinctive and conservative opposi- tion which the introduction of the resolutions had stirred up, Henry's 1 r • n J ^L T T From portrait of speech so tar mnuenced the House ,, . ^, r Mrs. Anna Gee, of Burgesses that five of his resolu- (about 1745). tions, which had been denounced as treasonable, were adopted, although one of them was carried by the slender majority of a single vote. " And the people said Amen." When the reso- lutions — all six of them — were published, the popu- lar response was quick, excited, angry. Those reso- lutions fully expressed the popular thought and reflected the popular determination. From that 154 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY hour resistance to the stamp tax was open, deter- mined, inflexible. The enforcement of that law in Virginia became at once as hopelessly impossible as it had become in Massachusetts ; and the other col- onies were accustomed at that time to follow the lead of the two dominant ones. We must bear in mind that when Patrick Henry thus, by his eloquence, inflamed the public mind of Virginia and the other colonies against the funda- mental principle of English aggression, and in be- half of the doctrine that the colonies had an abso- lute right to govern themselves, these thoughts were new to most men, all over the world. All this occurred as early as 1765 — full eleven years before the Declaration of Independence was written. These events were educative. One after another of them — the speech of James Otis in Boston, the speeches of Patrick Henry in Virginia, and a little later the eloquence of Samuel Adams in Massachusetts, not only reflected public sentiment, but guided, aroused and stimulated it. Little by little these men and these events were educating the pub- lic mind in America to the thought of resistance and Samuel Adams. ADVENT OF PATRICK HENRY 155 to that other thought of still greater consequence — the thought of independence. These men, and such as they, were the creators of the American Revolution — the founders of the republic we so greauy love and honor. CHAPTER XV THE ASSERTION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS ONE excellent result followed from the Stamp Act. Its enactment did more than anything else had done to draw the colonies together and to induce them to organize for a united resistance to British oppression. The feeling was growing in the colonies that however diverse their interests and their industries might be, they had in this matter a common cause. And it was beginning now to be felt among them that if that cause was to be won they must in some form act together for its accomplishment. Accordingly a Congress was called to consider means of resistance to the Stamp Act and to all other such legislation. That Congress met in New York on the 7th of October, 1765. Nine of the colo- nies sent delegates to it and all of them were in strong sympathy with its purposes. Among the delegates were many of the most eminent men in America. By this time public sentiment had been so far 156 ASSERTION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS 157 aroused in behalf of the American right of self- government that the Congress adopted a Declara- tion of Rights and Grievances, which was almost as emphatic as if Patrick Henry or James Otis had written it. It distinctly declared that the right to tax the American people existed nowhere on earth except in legislative bodies elected by the American people and commissioned by them to determine what taxes should be paid. This was a direct chal- lenge to the British king and Parliament and it was meant to be such. The Congress added another challenge. British laws and decrees concerning Stamp Act enforcements prescribed that offenders of certain classes in Amer- ica should be tried in courts that had no juries — courts representing only the king and the British government. This Congress distinctly asserted the right of every Englishman in America, when ac- cused of crime, to be tried by a jury of his neigh- bors in accordance with the traditions of English liberty which had existed since the days of Magna Charta. There was still among the Americans, however, a strong sentiment of loyalty to the king and to the mother country. These people were demanding their rights, not as Americans, but as Englishmen in ]5S LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY America, the rights that all Englishmen in England enjoyed. They were not seeking separation from the mother country, nor were they asking anything An old New York mansion. Van Rensselaer manor house at Green- bush, N. Y. which would not have belonged to them had they remained in England. Accordingly they added to ASSERTION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS 159 these bold challenges a very humble expression of loyalty and affection for the king and expressed both the desire and the purpose to remain his obedient subjects. These prayers and petitions and protes- tations of loyalty were unheeded by the king and Parliament. They fell upon deaf ears and dumb intelligences, though perhaps they had some influ- ence in inducing the repeal of the Stamp Act. But it was the utter failure of British officers of every kind to enforce the Stamp Act in any degree that led to the repeal of that act in 1766, There was attached to the repealing act a clause declaring "that Parliament has power to legislate for the colo- nists in all cases whatsoever." This was a challenge in return. It was a direct and flatfooted contradiction of the fundamental con- tention of the colonists. It claimed for the British Parliament precisely that right and power which the colonists denied and against which they were in re- volt. But when one's adversary surrenders, the victor is apt rather to laugh at than to resent the mutterings of the vanquished ; and so the colonists, having defeated the Stamp Act and all its purposes, paid little attention to this paper declaration of the right of the British Parliament to legislate for them at will. That claim of right to enact legislation for 160 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY the colonies was never for a moment abandoned by the king or ParHament. Behind that declaration of the British Parliament there was a fixed purpose to reduce the colonists to subjection in one way or another. The Stamp Act had been an internal impost, and, in resisting it, its character as such had been strongly emphasized, both by the colonial objectors and by William Pitt and their other friends in England. The special contention had been that the English Parliament had no right to levy any internal tax in the colonies. By implication, at least, the colonists and their friends recognized the right of Parliament to levy external taxes — import duties and the like. By way of asserting this right Parliament, during the next year, passed a series of acts, known as the Townshend Acts, from the name of the minister who framed them. These acts levied no internal taxes whatever. But they imposed import duties upon tea, paint, lead and paper brought into the colonies from any country. In order to collect these duties a board of officers was sent over to Boston to supervise the traffic. The colonists resisted these imposts precisely as they had resisted the Stamp Act, and with no less of determination. They simply would not pay the ASSERTION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS 161 duties thus levied by a Parliament which in their view had no right to tax them at all. The Board of Customs at Boston had no means of executing the laws by physical force, while the colonial im- porters were amply strong enough to defy them in the absence of such physical force. Accordingly the British government sent out two regiments of soldiers to help the customs officers and to overawe the importers. The people of Bos- ton were required to receive these soldiers into their houses, feed and lodge them without pay, and thus to bear the expense of their own oppression. Very naturally the people of Boston — high spirited and already excited as they were — resented this ac- tion and regarded it as a threat, and the people of the other colonies heartily joined with them in acts of resistance. Massachusetts and Virginia formally protested against the oppression, and agreements were made throughout the colonies not to import articles on which the English government thus assumed the right to levy taxes. Soon all the Townshend acts were repealed, except that a small duty on tea was still retained. The duty thus retained was so small, indeed, that in itself it was not worthy of considera- tion or worth resisting. But its retention was, and K 162 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY was meant to be, a renewed assertion of the right of the home government to tax the colonies without their consent. It was on principle that the colonists resisted, resented, and refused to pay this insignificant tax. The struggle over this matter lasted for three years with continual friction and with frequent con- flict between the troops and the people. Riot after riot occurred. The people became more and more violent as time went on until, at last, on the 5th of March, 1770, a mob assailed some of the troops with such determination that the soldiers, acting in self-defense, as they claimed, fired upon the populace, killing and wounding some of them. This was the first direct act of war against the colonists by armed forces and it drove the people into a frenzy of angry excitement. The event is known in history as " The Boston Massacre." Im- mediately the people of Boston were called together in a town meeting numbering three thousand able- bodied men, all of them angry, all of them de- termined, and all of them ready to risk everything for their rights. Regardless of consequences they as- serted their will that all the British soldiers should be removed from Boston at once. They were de- termined that no troops should longer be quartered in the city, whether upon the people or at the ex- ASSERTION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS 163 pense of the British government. T his was mihtary rule and they would have none of it. The town meeting appointed Samuel Adams to present their demand to the Royal Governor and his counsel, and there to insist upon it in the name of the people and by virtue of their authority. Adams was a relentless patriot. He neither of- fered nor suggested compromises of any kind or apologies or promises. In the name of the people of Boston and of Massachusetts, he simply de- ynanded that every British soldier in Boston should be removed from the city and that at once. When the Governor and Council hesitated and seemed disposed to dicker for terms, Samuel Adams, with that eloquence which always flowed from his lips when he had the cause of the people to plead, an- swered, " There are three thousand men in yonder town meeting ; the country is rising ; the night is falling, and we must have our answer." This was a challenge which admitted of no argu- ment, no discussion, no delay. It meant in efi'ect, " Mr. Governor, you can order the removal of your troops now, or you can leave it to the three thousand men in that town meeting to expel them by force." That is not what Samuel Adams said in words, but it is what his eloquent sentences meant, and the 164 IJFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY -■■•^'^^iJ; l- ■ ■ a- A V Loionial fiagiuents : Door trim from 55 Broadway, N. Y. ; George Washington's chair; clock at 57 Broadwr.y. ASSERTION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS 165 Governor clearly understood the fact. Accordingly the order was instantly issued that all the troops should be removed at once from Boston and sent to an island in the harbor. All these events were but details in a struggle whose scope was too broad and too vital to be af- fected by the settlement of any one or any half dozen incidents. Between the British assertion of a right to govern and control the colonists, to make laws for them, and to tax them at will, and the op- posing assertion on the part of the colonists of their own exclusive right to govern themselves, to tax themselves and to make all laws that affected them- selves, there was a " great gulf fixed." An " irre- pressible conflict " had arisen in America and that conflict if not settled by the submission of one or the other party to it must clearly end in war. All this was very evident to the wiser of the statesmen of England — to such men as Edmund Burke and the Earl of Chatham, to Fox and to Walpole, and to all of their liberal kind. But un- fortunately for England and for its king, such men as these were no longer dominant in the English government. Lord North became premier in 1770. He was a cultivated man, a witty one, and a per- son of exceedingly good manners ; but he was weak 166 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY in the extreme and so subservient to the king that Horace Walpole characterized him as the " osten- sible " minister, meaning that the king in fact ex- ercised all the authority of the premier. That king was George III, a man obstinate, con- ceited, brutal, and incipiently insane. He was deaf to all contentions except those that pleased himself. His attitude as a ruler was that his will was law and must be obeyed, always and everywhere. He had made up his mind that the Americans should be gov- erned by his decrees and he had sufficient influence over Parliament to secure the aid of that body in his attempt to carry out this programme of oppression. Accordingly, although the authority of Parliament had been successfully defeated by the Americans in their resistance to the Stamp Act, again in their resis- tance to the quartering of troops in Boston, and inci- dentally in their resistance to the Townshend Acts, George III devised other ways of nagging the Ameri- cans. It was a peculiarly stupid thing to do. To a man of larger intelligence than he possessed it would have been obvious that the Americans were on the verge of a revolt and were strong enough, by reason of their numbers, of their geographical remoteness, and of their resources to make that revolt a dangerous one to the British power. To a mind less dull and ob- ASSERTION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS 167 stinate than his it would have been clear that the time had come for a policy of careful conciliation. But to George III none of these considerations ap- pealed in the least. His attitude of mind was sim- ply that his will was law by the Grace of God, and that it must be enforced with all the power that Great Britain could bring to bear. In their resistance to the Trade Laws the colonists were still carrying on trade without paying the duties which the English Parliament had decreed that they should pay. In other words, Yankee ships were smuggling goods into the colonies as freely as they could under the circumstances, and with so little of disguise as not to arouse the smallest moral senti- ment against the practice. The people held that the Navigation and Trade Laws v/ere unjust and that they proceeded from an authority which had no right whatever to enact them. They therefore gave all the moral sanction that public opinion could give to the evasion of those laws by shipmasters and even to their open violation and defiance. On the other hand, George III was determined to enforce such laws whether the people of the colo- nies liked them or not. A British warship, called the Gaspee, was sent out to Narragansett Bay, which at that time was the favorite route for the smuggling 168 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY vessels. Her officers were ordered to seize all such vessels, and their cargoes, and to proceed against them for purposes of condemnation. For a time the Yankee sailor boys were content to outsail the Gaspee, slip by her, and land their cargoes unmo- lested. This they were generally able to do by reason of their superior seamanship, the superior speed of their New England built vessels, and their superior knowledge of the bays and inlets that Liced the country around Narragansett Bay. Nevertheless the Gaspee succeeded in making some prizes. In every such case public sentiment in America felt that a grievous wrong had been done to an innocent shipmaster. For by this time every patriot in America held that the laws which these shipmasters were evading, or violating, were no laws at all, but were enactments of a power that had no right to enact them. They were held to be uncon- stitutional and absolutely void. Therefore there was nowhere among the American patriots the smallest thought that the smuggling shipmasters were guilty of any offence against a valid law, while there was everywhere among the Americans a feel- ing that the enforcement of that law was an outrage and a wrong. Finally, in 1772, the British warship Gaspee lost ASSERTION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS 169 her way one day and went aground. Thereupon a mob of reputable citizens of Providence, led by one of the most prominent merchants of that town, went out to her, seized her, set fire to her and burned her to the water's edge. When news of this reached England the government sent out a commission to inquire into the matter. This commission had au- thority to arrest all men accused of having been engaged in the affair and to send them out of the colony for trial in a court where there was no jury. Here was another and a flagrant invasion of those rights which the Americans claimed by virtue of their English citizenship. They were entitled to a trial by a jury of their neighbors. Fortunately the Chief Justice, Stephen Hopkins, although in a sense he officially represented the crown, took the view of the colonists and issued a decree that none of those men should be taken out of the colony for trial or be tried elsewhere than in a court where their case could be heard by "a jury of the vicinage." Thus one thing after another drove the Ameri- cans further and further toward thoughts of resis- tance and toward that thought of absolute inde- pendence which had been born in the minds of such men as Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, James 170 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Otis and Thomas Jefferson, but which was not yet present in the minds of the people generally. They wanted to remain Englishmen in America. They were still loyal to the traditions of their race and to the mother country ; but they simply would not submit to injustice even at the hands of the mother country that they so loyally loved. Even to the minds of some of their great leaders the thought of independence was still exceedingly repulsive. As late as July 23, 1775, John Adams, writing to his wife, spoke apprehensively of the possibility that the colonies might be " driven to the disagreeable necessity of assuming a total in- dependency." However "disagreeable" that necessity might seem to conservative men like John Adams, every event of the time strongly tended to force it upon them and every such event tended to reconcile American thought to the prospect of separation from Great Britain. CHAPTER XVI DRIFTING TOWARD REVOLUTION AT this time, and indeed long after the Revolu- tion, Virginia and Massachusetts were rec- ognized throughout the country as leaders in every public movement. In March, 1773, the Virginia House of Burgesses, at the instigation of Patrick Henry, George Mason and Thomas Jeffer- son, took a step of far-reaching consequence. It was indeed the first decisive step towards a union of the colonies for defence against British aggression. The Virginia House of Burgesses appointed what was called a " Committee of Correspondence," whose duty it should be to maintain close and fre- quent communication with the authorities and the leading men in the other colonies and thus to secure concert of action between them with a view to united and determined resistance. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and South Carolina, accepted Virgin- ia's suggestion gladly, and each of those colonies 171 172 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY promptly appointed a committee of correspondence, thus organizing resistance in a way that was cal- culated to make it formidable. The excitement of the public mind was by this time so intense that it A spinning bee. I only needed consultation and free correspondence between the leaders in the different prov'inces to crystallize it into something resembling revolution. The Townshend Acts had been repealed, indeed, I DRIFTING TOWARD REVOLUTION 173 simply because it became obvious to the British au- thorities that they could not be enforced against the obstinate resistance ot the Americans. But, in repealing them, Parliament had made the same mistake that it had made in repealing the Stamp Act. It still insisted upon the right of the British Legislature, in which the Americans were not repre- sented, to tax the Americans at will. The Act of Repeal abrogated all the customs duties imposed by the Townshend Acts, except that it retained a small duty on tea. This duty was so small indeed as to be insignif- icant. It promised no revenue of consequence to the British government, and it involved no serious hardship to the colonists. That tax was retained for no other purpose than that of asserting the right of the British Parliament to tax the Americans. It was hoped in London that the utter insignificance of the tax would induce the Americans to submit to it and thus to surrender their contention. But the Americans had by this time planted themselves firmly upon a principle, a determination, a dogma. That principle, that determination, that dogma, was that the British Parliament had no right whatsoever to tax the Americans at all. As one of the great Americans of that time expressed it in an eloquent 174 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ff ! Speech, "the right to take a penny impHes the right to take a pound." The Americans by this time were in a mood to dispute the right to take the penny as obstinately as they might have disputed the right to take the pound. They made up their minds that they would pay no duty whatever upon tea or anything else so long as that duty was not levied by acts of their own legisla- tures. They were ready to tax them- selves and to pay their taxes for any public purpose and to any extent that might be necessary. But they were determined to establish and maintain the principle that nobody else on earth could tax them or make laws of any other kind for their governance. In other words, the American people. i lI rlTl^fii^.^C^S* '™_iJ»^t* lift! DRIFTING TOWARD REVOLUTION 175 almost without knowing It, had already declared their independence although, with the traditions strong upon them, they still shrank from any open act of separation from the mother country. Their resistance to this petty tea tax, which amounted to nothing in itself, was determined and and even violent. It took many forms. In every patriotic household it was decided that no more tea- drinking should be done until the drinking of tea should no longer imply submission to a tyranny. In many households there were family conclaves which solemnly affixed seals to all the tea caddies, with the determination that those seals should never be broken until such time as tea-drinking should no longer involve the payment of any tax to a foreign power. Many of these sealed tea caddies were preserved for a hundred years afterwards as precious me- mentoes of the patriotism of the men and women who had caused their sealing and from whom the owners of the farms and plantations concerned had been descended. But the tax was resisted in more violent ways than this. Every ship that bore tea into the har- bors of New York or Philadelphia was turned back and denied permission to land its cargo. In Charles- 176 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ton, South Carolina, the tea was allowed to be unloaded but not to be sold or otherwise disposed of. It w^as carefully placed in damp storehouses where it remained untouched for several years, after which, during the Revolutionary War, all of it that had not rotted, was seized and sold, and the money received for it was expended for ammu- nition with which to fight the British. In Boston an attempt was made to prevent the landing of tea cargoes, but the royal governor of Massachusetts, acting for the king, refused to allow the tea ships to quit the harbor and re- turn to England. He ordered that their car- A hatter's sliop in old times. i IJ U„ 1„., J^J ' goes snouJQ be landea. The men of Massachusetts decreed otherwise. A company of them was formed and assembled, in the disguise of Indians, near the Old South Meet- ing House in Boston on December i6, 1773. Suddenly a preconcerted war whoop was raised and DRIFTING TOWARD REVOLUTION 177 this company of Bostonians boarded the ships and emptied ninety thousand dollars' worth of tea into the salt waters of the bay. This event is known in history as the "Boston Tea Party." When news of these acts of resistance reached England the government and the majority party in Parliament grew very angry and passed several laws which the Americans called the "Intolerable Acts." One of these was the "Boston Port Bill." It was an act intended forever to destroy Boston as a commercial city. It ordered that no ships should enter the harbor of Boston or sail from that har- bor. Here was an act which it was not easy to resist, for the reason that a shipmaster violating such a law became, legally at least, a pirate, subject to all the pains and penalties of piracy in any part of the world to which he might sail. The act there- fore instantly destroyed the business of the Boston merchants, except in so far as they might do busi- ness through Salem, which city offered them the use of its ports, docks and warehouses. Another of the "Intolerable Acts" provided that in certain cases, persons accused of murder by reason of homicides committed in connection with the enforcement of the English laws, might be sent for trial either to England or to " some other of L 178 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY his Majesty's colonies." The most careful of the modern historical investigators agree that this en- actment was designed, primarily at least, for the pro- tection of British officers who might commit hom- icide in the execution of their functions against local prejudice — that it was in the nature of a change of venue. Even if so interpreted it was held by the colonists to give a certain license of murder to their oppressors by excusing them from trial by a jury of the neighborhood, and removing the trial to so great a distance that the witnesses to the murder could not be heard upon the trial. On the other hand, it was held, if the homicide had been committed by a colonist in resistance to the enforcement of the law, this act deprived the offender of his right as an Englishman, to be tried by a jury of the vicinage. Still another of the " Intolerable Acts " was called the " Massachusetts Bill." That bill abrogated im- portant provisions of the charter of Massachusetts and in effect set up a military government in that colony with practically unlimited authority. Under this act the people of Massachusetts were left with no liberties at all. They were, so far as English law could determine, reduced to the condi- tion of a people subject to the will of an arbitrary military governor who might decree whatsoever he DRIFTING TOWARD REVOLUTION 179 pleased as regarded them and whose decrees could be enforced by military power. The men of Massa- chusetts were not disposed to submit to any such rule as this and they never did submit to it as we shall see in the sequel. Still another of the " Intolerable Acts " was called the " Quebec Act." The province of Que- bec, which at that time included practically all of Canada, was governed by absolute autocratic author- ity. The Quebec Act prescribed that all the terri- tory south of that province from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River, including the western possessions of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Vir- ginia, should be included in the province of Que- bec and governed by its arbitrary rulers. Massachu- setts, New York and Virginia by virtue of their early grants claimed vast territories in the west which this act was intended to take away from them. There were certain saving clauses in the act, and some historians in our time hold that these were meant to protect the grants to Massachusetts, Con- necticut and Pennsylvania. But the colonists do not appear to have understood the matter in that way. One good thing that the " Intolerable Acts " did was to cement the union between the several Ameri- ISO LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY can colonies and intensity their opposition to British tyranny. When Boston was practically closed as a seaport and its merchants were ruined, every colony was prompt to send help thither and, with the help, to send sympathy that meant far more than the material aid could mean. Even from South Caro- lina, half a thousand miles away, and from Georgia, still farther distant, there came gifts of money and help from those who did not know and could not know how soon the fate of Boston might fall upon their own ports of entry. These acts of oppression aroused the colonies from the far north to the far south to angry and in- dignant resistance. They served to unite the whole American people — with the exception of a small per- centage of Tories and toadies — in a spirit of deter- mined resistance. Everywhere the Americans were aroused to fury and presently by way of self-de- fence, and on motion of the Massachusetts Legisla- ture, they called a Congress to meet in Philadel- phia on the 5th of September, 1774. Twelve of the thirteen colonies sent delegates to this Congress and the 13th, Georgia, was in full sympathy with its purposes. This Congress adopted one extreme measure of resistance. That measure was suggested by the DRIFTING TOWARD REVOLUTION 181 voluntary agreements which had been made by Americans in different parts of the country not to import any British goods so long as the British pre- tension of a right to levy taxes upon imports should be maintained. The Congress of 1774 enacted this into general law. It was forbidden throughout the English colonies in America to import British goods of any kind until such time as the British govern- ment should recognize America's rights. This enactment struck at the root of the whole difficulty. The British government had established and maintained these colonies as a source of revenue to itself and to its merchants and manufacturers. When the Americans decided that they would buy no more English goods, both the revenues of the British government and the profits of the British merchants and manufacturers were completely cut off. The time had now come when the Americans could adopt a policy of this kind for the reason that they had learned to make for themselves every arti- cle that they really needed. Their resources were amply sufficient for their own support. They could make cloths, which were inferior perhaps to those made in England, but which were sufficient unto their needs. They were smelting iron and they 182 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY knew how to convert it into such utensils as they had need to use. They were growing hemp, and flax, and wool, and they knew how to weave and to spin them. They had glass works of their own. They had tanneries and they knew how to convert hides into leather, and leather into shoes and har- ness, without any aid whatsoever from the outside. They had ceased to drink tea, but they had sassafras in abundance and they were content with that. They had also in the south the yaupon and other shrubs closely akin to tea. If worse came to worst they could do without tea altogether. In brief, the American people had begun to real- ize that they w^re in fact independent of Great Britain, except in political ways, and the realization of that truth very strongly tempted them to that declaration of political independence which was in- evitable and which was presently to come. CHAPTER XVII BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS WHEN the great French and Indian War ended, in 1763, in the destruction of the French power in America, a new impetus was given to the migratory habits of the Americans. These were men and women whose fathers and mothers had come out across three thousand miles of sea and braved the hardships of the wilderness, and the terrors of Indian war, in order to better their condition and the condition of their sons and daughters after them. These men and women had therefore inherited the migratory habit, and they were constantly upon the lookout for opportunities to better themselves by changes of residence. The destruction of the French power had opened to them all that magnificently fruitful region which lay between the AUeghenies and the Mississippi, and they were prompt to avail themselves of the opportunity thus offered for their betterment. As a consequence there was a prompt secondary migra- 183 184 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY tion westward and southward between 1760 and the outbreak of the Revolution. This migration took many courses and resulted in much of consequence. The Germans who had so largely settled in Penn- sylvania, moved southward in numbers along the fruitful valley that lies between the Blue Ridge and A Conestoga wagon in the Bull's Head Yard, Philadelphia. the Alleghenies. They established ■ farmsteads, opened fields and planted orchards throughout all that rich region, the poorer among them even settling far up on the mountain sides where land was cheapest. They built there homes of their own. These people are even now ignorantly called BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 185 "Pennsylvania Dutch." They were in fact Ger- mans, or the children of Germans. Wherever they went they built substantially. In the main their houses were of stone. They were plain but they were spacious and comfortable. Even their barns and their corncribs were in many cases built of the stones that lay ready to their hands, and their prosperity was as substantial as their buildings. They lived much within themselves. Each farmstead pro- vided abundantly for all its own wants, and gave little attention to markets in which to buy or to sell. This tide of migration poured on down through Maryland, Virginia, and on into the Carolinas. These " Pennsylvania Dutch " were a sturdy race, self-reliant, resolute, and thoroughly capable of making the most of their opportunities and their surroundings. They planted fruits of every kind, they opened fields and they cultivated them faith- fully. They set up their cider presses. They made applebutter, They grew great herds of swine and A pack horse. 186 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY sheep and cattle. In short they became a pecu- liarly and very comfortably independent people, with a purpose as resolute as that of their English fellow- colonists to insist upon being let alone. The so-called "Scotch-Irish" also were much given to this secondary migration. They were a daring and courageous people who did not flinch from hardship on the one hand, or from Indian war on the other, and they had a keen sense of the " main chance." They too moved down the valley of Virginia and established themselves there and in the mountains to the South, with resolute intent to make there their homes and to defend them against all comers. As Mrs. Margaret J. Preston has said in a noble poem, they were men " with blood in their veins and iron in their blood." Their service to the American cause A wooden tray. during the Revolu- tion was very great. In the meanwhile they were building up by their industry a prosperity for them- selves the result of which endures even to our time. It was from sources such as these, and others of like kind, that the regions west of the mountains were presently populated. Now that the great West BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 187 belonged to the Americans these people and a mul- titude of Virginians and Carolinians, pushed rapidly over the mountains and settled there in order to take advantage of the fruitful soil and favorable climate for the upbuilding of prosperity for them- selves and their families. They went into the Ohio country under the grant that had been given to the first Ohio Company. These emi- grants settled mainly along the Ohio River and its tributaries, a region fruitful in the extreme, where the forests furnished all the materials they needed for building, and where the fields needed only to be " tickled with a hoe that they might laugh with a harvest." The people in the Ohio country and to the south of it were as yet without a market for the products of their farms and there was at that time no prospect of such a market. But at least they produced upon their farms everything that they needed, and they could live, as it were, within themselves. This they did. They had fields teeming with wheat and corn, other fields blue with flax and still others white with cotton. They had flocks and Skillets. 188 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY herds in abundance, that ted fat upon the sponta- neous growth of grasses in that country. If they wished to build, there were stones and timber im- mediately at hand. The springs and wells of that region furnished them all that they wanted of water. The waterfalls turned the wheels of the mills they needed for the grinding of their grains. Their sheep wandered upon the hillsides, closely cropped the grass, and grew fat upon it. Their cattle waded knee deep in the green lusciousness of the lowlands. Their flocks of geese furnished them with all the material they needed for comfortable beds. Their turkeys and chickens fed fat upon the waste of their granaries. Their rivers and creeks yielded them fish in abundance and wild fowl at certain seasons. They were a happy people, absolutely independent of all the rest of the world, so far as the supplying of their wants was concerned, and they knew no other needs. But the Ohio country was not the only one occu- pied at that time by enterprising emigrants from the colonies further east. About i 769 a considerable migration set in towarci the peculiarly fertile and fascinating region which now constitutes the states of Tennessee and Kentucky. These men were mainly hunters^ adventurers ^nd explorers who went BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 189 in advance of civilization to " spy out the land." The Indians called them the " Long Knives." They went usually each man by himself, each tak- ing his life in his hand, risking Indian massacre, and without comrades to depend upon, plunged into the wilderness, there to maintain himself by his own exertions and his own sagacity. There were some great men among these. Fa m o u s among them were James Robertson, John Sevier, Daniel Boone, Isaac Shelby and Simon Kenton. Some of them went out merely as hunt- ers in search of game. Some of them were surveyors. Some of them, like Daniel Boone, were restless pioneers, hunting for a home so remote from all other men's habitations that no sound of other men's activities might reach them. It is related of Daniel Boone, for instance, that on one occasion he abandoned the home he had made for himself and moved farther west because a neighbor had settled Daniel Boone 190 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY within a dozen miles of him and he thought the country was becoming too crowded to hold him comfortably. Some of these men, however, were settlers, bent upon building up little colonies west of the moun- tains. Among these were James Robertson and John Sevier who, about 1772, with a company of their friends settled on the creek or little river known as the Watauga in what is now the State of Tennessee. All that region belonged at that time to North Caro- lina, but Sevier and Robertson and their comrades did not Old windmill like the arbitrary rule of the royal governor of North Carolina and so, after the manner of men in the wil- derness, they set up a government for themselves. During the next six years Watauga governed itself as an independent state. In fact this might be called the first absolutely sovereign and independent State ever established in America. It was located in the BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 191 wilderness, but its people knew how to take care of themselves. After a while the settlers established in Ken- tucky — which was then a part of Virginia — became so numerous that the Indians made war upon them A needle work sampler. and undertook to drive them back over the moun- tains. But Virginia was a province strongly dis- posed to take care of its people wherever they might go and still more strongly disposed to assert its authority over all regions that belonged to it. So when the savages went to war, Virginia organized a 192 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY little army and sent it out to overcome them, \n 1774 this Virginia army encountered the Indians at Point Pleasant and so completely defeated them that a permanent peace was made. After that Virginians and Carolinians in increasing numbers removed to the western wilderness. The favorite region of settlement at that time was that which lay between the Kentucky River, which enters the Ohio be- tween Cincinnati and Louisville, and the Cumberland River, which de- bouches into the Ohio hundreds of miles further west — the region since From portrait of , rr 1 1 1 >> Mrs. Mary Sinibert ^Hown as the blue grass country, (about 1735)- This region was at that time called Transylvania, Settlers slowly went into that domain and in the absence of government of any kind from the outside they presently set up a little state of their own. They were beset by Indian enemies, but they knew how to deal with their foes. They organized a little army of their own, under the leadership of a young Virginian named George Rogers Clark, who was destined a little later to accomplish one of the great campaigns of the Revolution, In the mean- while he successfully defended the little Transylvania region against its Indian enemies and built up there BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 193 a state of no mean consequence. In 1776 he went back to Virginia and induced the legislature of that state to organize the Transylvania country into a Virginia county to be called the County of Ken- tucky. Thus the region west of the mountains was settled, before the Revolution began, by a sturdy, hard-fisted, straight-shooting and daring race of men who were destined to play an important part in the struggle of the American colonies for inde- pendence. It is to be borne in mind that all these men, whether in the colonies of the east or in the settle- ments of the west, had ceased to be mere colonists and had become Americans with an American im- pulse and inspiration. They were the men who were destined presently to combat English preten- sion with arms, and to assert once for all the ab- solute and unconditioned right of the American people to govern themselves. Thus was preparation made, by circumstances and by the character of the people concerned, for that vital struggle which is known in history as the American Revolution. M CHAPTER XVIII THE APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION IN this volume, and the one preceding it, we have sketched the history of the colonies from the foundation of the first permanent settlement at Jamestown in Virginia (1607), to the time (1775) when the stupidity and injustice of English dealings with the colonies forced upon the Americans a war for independence. It is a curious fact that that war for independence was never formally declared and was never recognized by the British government as existing, until its end came in British defeat. The Treaty of Peace which closed it with a recog- nition of American independence was absolutely the first formal act of the British government that recog- nized the legitimate existence of such a war. The colonies had been declared to be " in rebellion," and in 1775 Parliament passed an act forbidding "trade and intercourse " with them on the ground that " they have set themselves in open rebellion and defiance to the just and legal authority of King and 194 APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION 195 Parliament." But until the very end of the war its status as war was in nowise recognized by British authority. And even after that treaty of peace was signed, and diplomatic relations were opened be- tween Great Britain and the new republic in Amer- ica, English statesmanship continued to regard both the war and its consequences as temporary incidents Phi] ipse Manor, Yonkeis, N. Y., as it formerly appeared. in colonial government and not at all the revolution that they were. The war of 1 8 12-18 15, has been sometimes called the second war for independence. This is in recognition of the fact that until that second war was fought out, English statesmanship did not regard 196 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY the independence of the United States as a perma- nent fact, or as anything more than a temporary and passing circumstance. Having thus traced the history of Hfe in the colonies from their beginning until that point at which they asserted and prepared themselves to make good their independence of the mother coun- try, it seems desirable to summarize the conditions that had marked their progress and that ultimately led them into revolt and revolution. The first colony at Jamestown, as we know, was founded with little discretion. The first colonists were a peculiarly unfit company to undertake such work as they were commissioned to do. Their sur- roundings and conditions still further rendered their problem difficult. Without women or children among them, without families, without any private ownership of land, and without the smallest capacity to avail themselves of the resources that the country in which they had settled offered in great abundance, their success in establishing a permanent colony at that time is an event that must always be regarded as almost miraculous. A little later better men came to them together with some worse ones ; but little by little the colony learned how to live in America and how to prosper APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION 197 ,, ._iiii.^#^-vt5^^ m 198 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY here. Then came a still better immigration and with it a still greater prosperity. The men and women who landed at Plymouth were a good deal better qualified than the earlier Virginians had been for the work they had to do, and the men and women who later founded Massa- chusetts Bay colony were still better equipped with ability and character. After these three colonies were permanently es- tablished it was inevitable that men of capacity of every kind. From portrait of Mrs. r ^ „ • j ^ ^, V, , , , men or enterprise, determina- 1 nomas Boylston (about '■ 1765). tion, helpfulness and courage, should continually come out to join them and help them accomplish the great things that had been marked out for them to do. The other colonies followed naturally upon the success of these, and quite inevitably. Three kinds of government prevailed in the colo- nies : The first was the proprietary government in which an Englishman, or an English company, owned the whole enterprise and directed it at pleasure. The second was the royal government under which the king of England appointed a royal governor for the colony at his own good pleasure. In the royal APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION 199 governor was vested the right to veto the laws made by the colonial legislature and in other ways to in- terfere with popular self-government. Finally, there were charter governments, under which the people of each colony were granted certain rights of self- government by free grace of the king. Attempts have been made to classify colonial governments more scientifically than this, but without such refinements, the old classification here adopted answers all purposes of a brief history like this, and it was the one accepted by the colonists themselves. Black silk bonnet. Most, though not all of the colonies passed through two or all three of these stages. Virginia and the Carolinas were originally owned by corporate proprietors in England, but they early threw off the intolerable burden of government by Lords Proprietors or by English corporations, and accepted in its stead the scarcely less oppressive system of government known as royal. They were constantly more or less in revolt against that govern- ment after it had been established, but at least they found it better than the proprietary system which had preceded it. Much the same history had been that of the other colonies, and when the resistance 200 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY of the Americans to English oppression crystalHzed itself into war in 1775, Virginia, New Jersey, Georgia, the two Carolinas and New Hampshire were all under royal governments. Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland alone remained proprietary colonies. The rule of the proprietors in those three colonies had been so mild and so reasonable that their people had never been driven to ask for royal authority in its stead, though in Pennsylvania a party, of whom Franklin was one, earnestly sought the substitution of royal for proprietary rule. Connecticut and Rhode Island were charter colonies to the end of that period and even after the end. They had had the good fortune to receive charters at an early time which guaranteed to their people so much of liberty and self-government that those two colo- nies were in fact almost independent republics on a small scale. They governed themselves as they pleased and were successful, as we have before seen, in resisting the attempts made by royal author- ity to take their charters away from them, and bring them under the rule of a foreign power. Massachusetts also was possessed of a charter, but its governor was a man appointed by the king APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION 201 and was usually in antagonism to the will of the people. Indeed, toward the end of the period of which we are now treating, Massachusetts had in fact two governments, independent of each other, and distinctly antagonistic. The royal authority was dominant in Boston, but outside of that city the people of the colony had set up for themselves a government of their own and to it alone they yielded allegiance. It was out of this situation indeed that the first armed conflict of the Revolution arose. Connecticut and Rhode Island were intensely democratic, and so were New Jersey and Pennsyl- vania. In the social and political life of those colo- nies there was only here and there a trace of anything resembling aristocracy. In Massachusetts the spirit of democracy was dom- inant, but there were great men and great families there, whose influence, politically and socially, was es- sentially aristocratic. In New York the old patroon system of the Dutch, with the large landholdings that it had involved, had created a race of patricians whose claim to aristocracy of birth and wealth has not ceased even unto this day, though the wealth has in many cases passed away. In Virginia and the Carolinas both government 202 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY and society were aristocratic almost from the begin- ning. The influx of expatriated cavahers into Vir- ginia, and their success in establishing themselves as great plantation owners, had tended to give to them an influence altogether out of proportion to their numbers. In the Carolinas the original constitution of the colony had attempted to create an aristocracy, and later circumstances had in fact set up an aristocracy of land ownership, the force of which has not even yet expended itself. Yet in Virginia and the Carolinas the spirit of de- mocracy was felt at every point. Patrick Henry, " the Voice of the Revolution," was of plebeian origin and plebeian associations. Yet it was he who stirred the aristocratic Virginians to revolt, and the influence of that relentless lover of liberty was mighty in its pleadings for the poor, the commonplace, the common. In South Carolina it was the aristocrats themselves who selected John Rutledge to be first, the president of their colony, and afterwards their wonderfully Pewter chafing dish. APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION 203 successful war governor, during the " storm and stress " period of the Revolution. John Rutledge did not belong by right of birth to any of the pa- trician families of the Carolinas, but by virtue of his activity and success, his character, his genius, and his self-sacrificing patriotism, he made a patrician of him- self and founded a family that is to this day one of the foremost in that part of the country so far as popular recognition of its right to pride in its past is concerned. Georgia was thoroughly democratic from begin- ning to end by reason of the circumstances of its founding, and the character of the people whom Oglethorpe had settled there. Another thing that aided in making that colony democratic was the fact that for many years after its establishment slavery was not permitted there and neither was large land- holding. It was chiefly upon the possession of broad acres and the ownership of many slaves that the aristocracy of the south was built. These two conditions being absent from the Georgia system during the formative period of that colony, it was natural that no aristocratic class should grow up there. We have already seen how diverse conditions ex- isting in the several colonies, while they remained remote from each other, led to differences of a radi- 204 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY cal kind in their systems of local self-government. But these were the natural outgrowths of circum- stances. They were political garments fitted exactly to the communities that must wear them. They involved nothing of difference in fundamental prin- The Royal Exchange for merchants. Jiuilt m 1752 on IJroad Street, N. v., nearly on the line of Water Street. ciple, though much of difference in the application of principle to practice. The dominating principle in all the colonies was that the people had a right to rule themselves in their own fashion, and to regulate their own affairs as they pleased. The differences related only to the methods by which this self- government should be carried on. The democratic APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION 205 town meeting ruled in New England, the aristocratic county court, in Virginia. But the one and the other ruled by virtue of the people's will that it should do so. The difference was solely one of method, not at all one of principle. In both cases the people were ruled by agencies of their own choosing and their own creation. The larger colonial govern- ments were from beginning to end much alike. It must be borne in mind that while the colonies were at first as remote from each other, so far as inter- communication was concerned, as if they had been planted upon different continents, their growth in population, wealth, commerce and independence, and still more the growth of a common cause among them had tended steadily to bring them more and more into communication with each other. Little by little they interchanged ideas with each other and little by lit- tle they had come to be more and more alike, both in their political institutions and in their social life. By the time that the Revolution approached they were practically one people with a common thought, a common purpose, a similar system of government and common ideals of human rights. This last idea indeed was a great bond of union among the colonists. From Massachusetts to Georgia it was everywhere held by the Americans 206 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY that they, as Englishmen in America, had a right — unaHenable and absolute — to govern themselves without interference from the outside. It was in assertion of that right that they had resisted one after another of the British encroachments upon their liberties. It was in assertion of that right that they were now prepared to make revolution and war. It was in assertion of that right that the Pinckneys and Rutledges of Carolina, the Henrys and JefFersons and Washingtons of Virginia, the Carrolls of Maryland, the Adamses Costume from ^nd Otises of Massachusetts, and the an old portrait. , ,. • n i i • r leadmg men in all other colonies, found themselves banded together with a common purpose and for the achievement of a common end. There were wide differences of view among them of course. Wealth, which is always and everywhere conservative, clung to the colonial relation as some- thing the disturbance of which might produce chaos and invoke black night. Thus not only as the Revolution approached, but throughout its progress there were in all the colonies, a number of people of estimable character among those who were called the " King's friends." These people were what the patriots of that time called tories. Not all of them APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION 207 were disloyal to the American cause during the Revolution. Many of them were men who simply held out as long as they could, in the hope that some basis of compromise, concession, and conciliation might be found by which the colonies in America should continue to be English possessions and the colonists should remain English subjects. When the issue of war finally came the greater number of these accepted the Declaration of Independence and went into the war with a determination to win it in behalf of American liberty. As an illustration of what is here meant it is an interesting fact that even Benjamin Franklin — in- grained democrat that he was, and fierce patriot that he proved himself to be, from beginning to end of the controversy — was so far imbued with the idea of conservatism that even after the " Boston Tea Party " had so emphatically expressed American ideas by its act, he urged compromise, and deliber- ately advised that the colony of Massachusetts should pay for the ninety thousand dollars worth of tea destroyed by the Bostonians, as perhaps it ought to have done. Some of the tories upon principle and conviction continued to be such after the war of the Revolution was on. They were conscientious men who sin- 208 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY cerely believed the colonists to be wrong in their contentions and who regarded revolution as wrong, unnecessary and impolitic. But when war was on there developed also another kind of tory — a tory who sided with the British for the sake of personal advantage, or because of cowardice, or for some other unworthy motive — a butcherer of his neigh- bors, a conspirator against his fellow-men, a self- seeker of the basest kind, who hesitated at no act of vandalism in pursuit of his purposes. CHAPTER XIX HEALTH CONDITIONS AND PECULIARITIES OF LIFE IN THE COLONIES IT must not be supposed that the Americans of that time were living in anything hke the con- ditions in which Americans Hve to-day. Even in the largest cities there was nowhere any such thing as a paved street except a little space in Phil- adelphia, which Franklin had induced the city to cover with cobblestones. The streetways were mere dirt roads. There was no arrangement in most of the towns for the removal of dust, ashes, garbage or litter of any kind. These things were dumped into alleys, or into vacant lots, or some- times into the streets, to fester there and breed dis- ease. Nothing was known in that age of what we now regard as hygienic commonplaces. Only the Dutch in New York attended somewhat to street cleaning, chiefly as a matter of neatness. It was understood indeed that decaying meat, vegetables and the like, trampled into the mud of N 209 210 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY the streets, might be a menace to health, and so in many of the cities and towns, the authorities per- mitted herds of hogs to be turned loose in the streets to serve as scavengers. This practice con- tinued in some of the cities till the middle of the nineteenth century. In the more southern cities, and particularly in Charleston, S. C, great flocks of carrion crows were depended upon to do the work of scavengers. The streets, especially about the market places, were thronged with these repulsive birds, and their protection by law from interference, bred an insolent tameness and self-assertive disposi- tion on their part which was picturesque even in its ofFensiveness. It must be borne in mind that in colonial times no city in all the land had any proper water supply. The people got their water from wells dug within the city itself. These wells were necessarily con- taminated by drainage from the reeking streets and from other and still fouler sources, for there were no sewers to carry off drainage, no plumbing in houses, nothing indeed in the way of municipal sani- tation, except the maintenance of the corporation hogs to eat what they might of the filth of the streets and still further to foul them. It is no won- der that the death rate in American cities in the I HEALTH CONDITIONS 211 colonial period appears to have been appalling, com- pensated for only by the tendency to large families. Unfortunately we have no precise statistics concern- ing the death rate, but enough is shown by the records to justify us in regarding it as enormous. Smallpox was always prevalent, so much so that a person whose face showed no pittings was deemed almost a curiosity. Vaccination was not discovered by Jenner in England until near the end of the eighteenth century, but during the colonial period it was the general practice to inoculate persons with smallpox itself, after careful preparation, in order that they might have the disease under favorable circumstances, and thus escape the risk of having it later in unfavorable conditions. It was the custom for a number of friends to organize themselves into a smallpox party, take quarters together in the house of an inoculator, and there go through the experience in each other's company. It appears to have been thought that the pittings of the smallpox were rather ornamental than disfig- uring, when few in number and properly located upon the face. There remains to us the advertise- ment of one quack, who, professing a special skill acquired in the Orient, boasted his ability to minis- ter to feminine beauty by limiting the number of 212 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY pits as desired and locating them wherever on the face the patient might think most becoming. So far as we can gather from the records that survive to us from that time, smallpox was far more prevalent in the northern than in the southern colo- nies. For this, two reasons at once suggest them- selves. In the first place this malady is a winter disease, prevailing chiefly in cold climates, and sec- ondly, like all other communicable diseases, it pre- vails in cities and towns far more generally than in the open country. As life at the North was largely in cities and towns, while at the South the people lived for the most part on plantations, remote from each other, it was to be expected that such a malady would find its most fivorable field of malignant ac- tivity at the North. Apart from the general municipal neglect of san- itation, there w^re other unhygienic conditions prev- alent in the daily life of the people. The ventilation of sleeping rooms by night was re- garded as dangerous. Windows were tightly closed, beds were closely curtained, and there was everywhere a terrible fear of breathing what was then called " the damp night air." Benjamin Franklin on one oc- casion made a journey across country in company with John Adams. Stopping overnight at a rural HEALTH CONDITIONS 213 inn the two were put to sleep in a single bed, after the tavern custom of that time. Franklin desired to open a window, but John Adams objected on the ground that it was dangerous to breath the "damp night air." Franklin as a scientist knew better, and assured his companion that the night air was in fact no damper than the air of the daytime, but Adams could not reconcile himself to the belief that it was safe to sleep in a room with an open window. So Franklin humored him until he went to sleep. Then the great practical philosopher slipped out of bed, and without making any noise opened the win- dow to its full extent. The next morning Adams declared that he had rarely slept so well or so com- fortably, whereupon Franklin called his attention to the fact that he had slept in the midst of fresh air which had come through the surreptitiously opened window. Adams regarded the discovery as so im- portant that he wrote a letter about it. It is to be remembered, however, that while the people of that time did not open their windows at night for the sake of air, they always, in cold weather, had a fire burning in an open chimney with a vast throat, and that the burning of the fire caused a con- siderable ventilation. The air-tight box stove, which is at present used 214 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY almost universally in New England, New York and other northern farmhouses for the sake of the heat that it yields, had not then been invented. There was nowhere a stove of any kind existing in all the A colonial kitchen. colonies. The first apparatus of that kind that was introduced was Franklin's stove, which he offered to the community " for the better heating of rooms." This was simply an open fireplace made of iron and PECULIARITIES OF LIFE 215 set in the middle of the room instead of being in- cased in a chimney. It very greatly economized heat and without doubt added considerably to the comfort of the people of that time. But it bore no relation to the box stove which later came into ex- istence. It served the same purpose that the open fireplace did in compelling the ventilation of rooms. Franklin might have made a fortune out of this invention if he had taken out a patent upon it but he refused to do so. His explanation of his refusal was that as we profit by the thoughts of other people we should let other people profit by our thoughts. In the South, of course, there v/as no need for stoves of any kind. The climate there was mild and when it was cold enough to require a fire the open wood fireplace, abundantly supplied with hickory or fat pine logs, answered all the purposes of the people. Many other things which we nowadays regard as essential to comfort in living were utterly lacking in colonial times, but they were not seriously missed by people who had n^ver been accustomed to them. 216 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY In all the land, at the time when the Revolution was approaching, there was probably not a single bathroom in any house. No city had a water supply running through pipes into people's houses. Gas had not yet been introduced. The. electric light was not to be thought of until about a century later. Even coal oil was utterly unknown. People lighted their houses with candles and torches whenever they felt the need of any greater light than that which a fire of blazing logs supplied. These candles were all made at home, each family having candle molds and manufacturing its supplies from tallow rendered out of the fats of such beeves as they had occasion to kill. As these beeves were killed at long and ir- regular intervals, candle light was an expensive luxury and no candles were burned in most of the houses except under pressure of necessity. In the houses of the very well-to-do, there were lamps burning sperm oil and lard oil. But these lamps were lighted only upon special occasions because of the cost of the oil. An insistent Sabbatarianism existed in all the colonies, but particularly in New England. This strictness of Sunday observance manifested itself in many interesting ways. Nearly a hundred years later it was still a matter of serious controversy PECULIARITIES OF LIFE 217 whether or not it was permissible for one to write letters to his friends on Sunday. In many houses almost a hundred years later all Sunday meals con- sisted of cold victuals, cooked on the day before, and those people who took the liberty of adding a cup of hot coffee or tea to the Sunday dinner were regarded as lax in their Sunday observances. In the greater number of colonial houses among the ordinarily well-to-do it was absolutely forbidden to light fires for purposes of cooking even of the smallest sort on the Lord's Day. CHAPTER XX THE PROSPERITY OF THE COLONIES DURING the colonial period the great majority of people everywhere thought it no wrong to hold negroes in slavery. As a consequence there were negro slaves in all the colonies. But as the value of their labor was very small at the North and very large at the South most of the negro slaves were held in the southern colonies. There was nowhere any law enacted directly to authorize any white man to hold any negro in slavery. All that was taken for granted, and was the common law of the time. Laws with respect to the treatment both of negro slaves and of white indentured serv- ants were common, but there w^as nowhere a spe- cific statute authorizing negro slavery. It is also true that the greater part of the white bondsmen sent out from England and sold into temporary servitude were purchased in the South. This was because of the great plantations there, 218 PROSPERITY OF THE COLONIES 219 where farm labor, and such other labor as unskilled persons could perform, was in greater demand than in the northern colonies. In Virginia, as the Revolution approached, fully one half of the total population were negro slaves. There were also a great number of white bonds- men, so that in Virginia greatly more than one half of the population consisted of men bound in one way or another to service, and who had no part in the government of the community. This was not democratic, of course, and still less democratic was the provision of Virginian law that only those free white men who owned land in pre- scribed amounts should be permitted to share in the government as voters. In South Carolina — owing to the introduction of indigo culture, and owing also to the pestilential na- ture of the rice fields, in which negroes could live and be healthy at all seasons of the year, while white men could not live in them at all during the summer and autumn months — the negro slaves by this time very greatly outnumbered the total white population. An estimate, fairly trustworthy, reckons the population of South Carolina in 1773 ^^ sixty- five thousand whites and one hundred and ten thousand blacks. 220 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH C5:NTURY These conditions in Virginia and the Carolinas went far to encourage and develop the aristocratic system that prevailed in those colonies. On the other hand, the sharp distinction between negroes and white men in those colonies led to the fullest possible political recognition of a white skin as nec- essary to entitle its owner to his share in the gov- ernment and even the man with the white skin was disfranchised unless he owned a specific amount of property. There was no such thing as equal man- hood suffrage in most of the colonies even among white men. Property and religious qualifications were insisted upon even after the Revolution. The colonies had by this time become populous in a degree which we now scarcely realize. As early as 1760 there were five hundred thousand people in Virginia and by 1775 this population had been increased by fifteen or twenty per cent. In Massachusetts there were three hundred thousand people in 1760, and the population there increased even more rapidly between that time and the outbreak of the Revolution than that of Vir- ginia had done. The New England colonies, taken together as a single group, had a population of more than six hun- dred thousand people. The population of the mid- PROSPERITY OF THE COLONIES 221 die" colonies numbered no less than four hundred thousand men, women and children. In brief, a nation had been established and built up in America and it needed only the nagging in- terference of British aggression to induce this great population to assert its nationality and its right to self-government. In the southern and middle colonies a vast agri- cultural prosperity had been built up. These col- onies were producing wheat, and corn, and indigo, and rice, to say nothing of minor products, in such abundance that they were able to ship them to all parts of the world on board the New England built schooners and square-riggers, which were plough- ing every sea on the face of the earth, in search of profit for a people whose land was infertile and whose climate was inhospitable, but whose people were hardy, shrewd and enterprising. So great had this New England commerce become that at the time of the outbreak of the American Revolution it is estimated that New England alone had one ship at sea for every one hundred inhabitants within its borders. The method of this commerce is a matter of in- teresting study. A great many of the ships were built and owned not by great corporations or rich 222 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY merchants but by the phiin people of the ports from which they sailed. Every one of the men who sailed in them, from captain to cabin boy, had an interest in the ship and in the profits of its cruising. The people of a little town would get together, decide upon building and sailing a ship and invest their little savings in what was called " the adventure." They ~were all hardy sailors and skilled ones, trained to the service of the sea from their earliest boyhood, daring, resolute, shrewd, in- g e n i o u s. Often there was not a man on board over twenty years of age Old whale ships. f^^^ ^^^ captain to the scullion. The crew was a company of partners, every man of whom was interested in the success of whatever ventures the ship might undertake. It was usually the people of the town from which the ship sailed who furnished her with her outgoing cargo and it was through them that sale was made of any cargo that she might bring back. It is easy to see that a commerce of this kind was profitable in the extreme, and very easy to conduct. i PROSPERITY OF THE COLONIES 223 The men knew how to sail a ship and they were not mere hirehngs whose interest in the voyage ended with the payment of their wages at its end. They were themselves joint owners of the ship and its cargo, and were to be at the end of the voyage sharers in whatever profits the voyage might yield. The enterprising ones among them looked forward confidently to the time when they should own and sail ships on their own account. Referring to this wonderful commerce built up in so short a time by a colonial people, Edmund Burke said this : " No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. No climate that is not witness of their toils. Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the ac- tivity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this resolute people — a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood." CHAPTER XXI EDUCATION IN THE COLONIES PECULIAR CUSTOMS A PEOPLE SO busy as the Americans of that time were, both North and South, and so far more dependent upon physical exertion than upon intellectual resources for their prosperity, very naturally gave less attention to popular education than they might otherwise have done. Yet educa- tion was not neglected among them. Documents written in that time, and even such books anci news- papers as were printed then, show a laxity of spell- ing which in our days would be regarded as indicative of ignorance. It was the custom even of educated men to spell the verb be, " Bee " with a capital letter at the beginning of it and to spell other words in an equally eccentric manner. It should be borne in mind, however, that at that time the spelling of English words was not fully de- termined and fixed, even among the best scholars in England. It might almost be said that everybody, in the colonies at least, spelled words in Sam 224 EDUCATION IN THE COLONIES 225 Weller's way, according to his own " taste and fancy." Correctness of spelling was therefore not at that time a test of education and culture as it is in our day. As to the use of capital letters at the beginning of words, the practice at that time differed radically King's College (nov; Columbia), Barclay Street and College Place, N. Y.; corner stone laid in 1756. from that of our own day. It was after the end of the Revolutionary War that Benjamin Franklin, who as a printer and a scholar was a special student of such matters, wrote a letter defending the older usage of beginning all the nouns^ verbs and other principal words in every sentence with capital letters. Arithmetic in the colonial period was taught upon o 226 LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY plans that would now be deemed preposterous. The multiplication of three or more figures by three or more other figures was accomplished by a process so ingeniously complicated that any school boy or girl of our time would look upon it as a veritable Chinese puzzle. Geography and history were not taught at all in the schools, but in New England the returning A form of stocks. sailors were unconscious missionaries of practical geographical learning. The more highly educated colonists were, of course, diligent readers of history for the sake of political instruction. Even the art of reading had no adequate aid from school books. Until long after the middle of the eight- eenth century there was no school " Reader " in existence anywhere. Indeed up to that time educa- EDUCATION IN THE COLONIES 227 tion rested almost exclusively upon Latinity and in England as well as in this country the schoolmasters who set out to educate a boy — it was not thought necessary to educate girls — proceeded from begin- ning to end upon the theory that education con- sisted of a knowledge of Latin. A scholarly knowl- edge of the English language was regarded as a matter of no consequence whatever. At last, many years later, near the end of the century indeed, Lindley Murray put forth the first English grammar. Its conjugations were simply transla- tions of the Latin verb forms. It was in fact not an Eng- lish grammar at all, but an attempt to Ducking stool. present the English language in Latin harness. " I might, could, would or should have been loved " was set down as an inflection of the verb " to love," and other forms of speech equally far from being inflections of the verb were given as such. Thus the stream of English grammar was poisoned at its fountain head, and even unto this day it has not been fully disinfected although intelligent school- 223. Washington's mission to the French, 1753. APPENDIX 247 ENGLAND. ENGLISH COLONIES. FRENCH-SPANISH COLONIES. War with France, 1755-63, (Seven Years' War.) Newcastle-Pitt Ministry, 1757-1761. Battle of Quiberon Bay, 1759. George III, 1700-1820. Pitt resigns, 1701. Act regulating naturali- zation in the Colonies, 1761. War declared against Spain, January, 1762. Treaty of Paris, 1763. Ministry of George Gren- ville, 1763-65. John Wilkes and No. 45, "North Briton," 1763. Parliament asserts right to tax Colonies, March, 1704. Sugar Act, April, 1764. Stamp Act, March, 1765. Quartering Act, April, 1705. Rockingham's Ministry, 1765-00. Examination of Franklin by House of Commons. Repeal of Stamp Act, March, 1766. Colonial Congress at Al- bany, 1754. Plan of union. French and Indian War, 1754-176:3. Braddock's defeat, 1755. Colonial governors pro- pose a stamp tax, etc., 1755. Massacre at Ft. William Henry, 1757. English capture Ft. Du- quesne, 1758. Renamed Ft. Pitt. English capture Niagara and Ticonderoga, 1759. Argument on Writs of As sistance in Massachu- setts, by Otis, 1761. Pontiac's conspiracy, 1763 Proclamation Line estab October, 1763. English Colonies of East and West Florida estab. The Parson's Case in Vir- ginia, 1763. Otis on The Rights of the Colonies, 1764. Henry's Resolution adopt- ed by Virginia Asseni bly. May, 1765. Massachusetts calls a Co- lonial Congress, June, 1765. Stamp Act Congress, Oc- tober, 1765. Washington's expedition against the Fort, 1754. English capture Louis- burg, 1758. Capture of Quebec, 1759. Surrender of Montreal and all Canada, 1760. Capture of French West Indies, 1762. Capture of Havana from Spanish, 1762. Cession of Louisiana to Spain, 1762. French lose all possession on continent, 1763. Spain exchanges Florida for Havana, 1763. 248 APPENDIX ENGLAND. ENGLISH COLONIES. Grafton Ministry, 1 767-1 770. Act suspending New York Assem- bly, June, 1767. Townshend Acts, June-July, 1767. Act estab. Customs Com. Revenue Act. Tea Act. "Wilkes' election and expulsion from Parliament, 1768-1769. Lord North's Ministry, 1 770-1 7S2. Repeal of the Revenue Act (ex- cept tea), 1770. The Intolerable Acts, 1774. Boston Port Act, March. Mass. Govt. Act, May. Adm. of Justice Act, May. Quebec Act, May. Quartering Act, June. Dickinson's " Farmers' Letters," 1767. " Sons of Liberty " organized, 1767- 68. Massachusetts Circular Letter, Feb- ruary, 1768. Massachusetts Assembly dissolved, 1768. Arrival of British troops in Boston, October, 1768. Treaty of P^t. Stanwix, 1768. Early settlements in Tennessee, 1769. Virginia Resolutions, May, 1769. The Boston Massacre, 1770. The " Regulators ' North Carolina, " Insurrection in 1771. Destruction of the "Gaspee," 1772. Local Committees of Correspon- dence in Massachusetts, 1772. Watauga Association (Tenn.), 1772. Resolutions of Virginia. Colonial Committees of Corre- spondence, 1773. Resistance to the landing of the tea, 1773. Boston Tea Party, December, 1773. Lord Dunmore's Indian War, 1774. Massachusetts Legislature calls a Continental Congress, June 17, 1774- Continental Congress in Philadel- phia, September-October, 1774. Massachusetts Provincial Congress, October, 1774. APPENDIX 249 ENGLAND. ENGLISH COLONIES. Attempted repeal of the Intolerable Acts, 1775. Lord North Conciliatory Resolu- tions, February, 1775. New England Restraining Act, March, 1775. King's Proclamation of Rebellion, August 22, 1775. Act prohibiting trade with Ameri- ca, December 22, 1775. Battles of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775. Settlements in Kentucky, 1775. Second Continental Congress as- sembles. May, 1775. Washington's appointment as com- mander of army, June, 1775. Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775- Declaration of causes for taking up arms, July 6, 1775. Petition to the King, July 8, 1775. Rejection of North's Conciliatory Resolution, July 31, 1775. Siege of Boston, July, 1775-March, 1776. Congress recommends New Hamp- shire and South Carolina to or- ganize governments, November, 1775- Expedition against Quebec, 1775- 76. INDEX A BERCROMBY, General, 102, 103. Academies, 229. Acadia, conquered by the English, 25 > 77 i 82 ; people of dispersed, 83. Acts, Molasses and Sugar, 112; Navigation, 112, 167; Stamp Act, 130, 131 ; Act of Repeal, 173 ; Intolerable Acts, 177-180 ; Boston Port Bill, 177; Quebec Act, 177. Adams, John, 170, 206, 212, 213, 231. Adams, Samuel, 153, 154, 163, 169, 206, 229, 23T. "Adventure," the, 222. Advocate General, 115. Aristocracy, colonial, 201, 202, 205 ; and ownership of slaves, 203 ; in Va., 220. Affairs, public, 149, 150 ; right to regulate, 204. Agriculture, in the South, 126, 134. 145' 221 ;in Penn., 127, 134; in New England, 136; regulation of, 237. Albany, convention at, 74. Alleghenies, region west of, 58, 103; chapter on, 183 et seq. Amherst, General, 94, 104. Amusements, and religious senti- ment, 239 ; of the New England people, 240, 241, 242. Annapolis Royal, 25, 55. 251 Antagonism, spirit of, 109, 115; see Revolt, Revolution. Arithmetic, 225, 226. Arms, 68. Art, worksof, 42; imported, 141. Assembly, representative, 87 House of Burgesses, 98, 146 willingness of, to levy tax, 116 town meeting, in Boston, 162 . see Burgesses, Congress, Town Meeting. Assertion of rights, chap, on, 156 et seq.; British, to govern, 165 ; Colonial, 154, 204. Assistance, writs of, 115, 116, 123. Authority, spirit of revolt from, 6 ; local, in New England, 86; resistance to British, 1 14 ; British, in Boston, 201. B Baltimore, 138. " Blue grass country," 192. Blunder, British, 127, 128. Books, text, 226, 228. Boone, Daniel, 189. Boroughs, rotten and pocket, 1 18, 119. Boston, 115, 132, 138, 154, 160, 161; "Massacre," 162 ; town meeting, 162; "Tea Party," 176, 177, 207; "Port Bill," 177; sup- ported by the colonies, 180; royal authority in, 201 ; curfew in, 240. 252 INDEX Braddock, character of, 76, 97 ; sent to America, 76 ; marched against Fort Duquesne, 77-81 ; campaign of, a failure, 82. Bradstreet, General, 96. Bricks, ii ; made in America, 14; Dutch and English models, 15. Bridges, 88. British, foreign affairs, 94 ; blunder, 127, 128; aggression of, 130, 150, 154; right to govern, 165 ; see Parliament, Trade laws. Brown University, 230. Bruce, 87. Burke, Edmund, 165 ; on colonial commerce, 203. Burge.sses, House of, 98, 99, 100, 146, J47, 151 ; resolutions of, 153; appointed a " Committee of Cor- respondence," 171. C Carroll, 206. Canada, French in, 103, 104 ; Que- bec, 104 ; surrender of, 105; gov- ernment of, 179. Candles, 216, 240. Carolina, North, 190. Carolina, South, Huguenot im- migration, 31 ; culture of indigo in, 47-49 ; against influx of slaves, 1 10; negro slaves in, 219; stamped paper in, 132 ; committee of cor- respondence in, 171 ; tea in, 176; aided Boston, 180; John Rut- ledge, 202 ; population of, 219. Carollnas, gentry in, 5; Hugue- nots in, 5; Scotch-Irish left, 6 ; brick houses in, 14 ; life in, chap, on, 39 et seq.; nearly destroyed, 48; Indian war, 49; grievances, 127; migration to, 185; people of, settled in the West, 192; pro- prietary government, 199; under royal control, 200 ; aristocracy and democracy in, 202, 220. Catholics, 5, 35. Cause, common, 180, 205, 206. Cavaliers, 5, 31, 201. Challenge, to king and Parlia- ment, 157 ; to governor and coun- cil, 163. Charms, behef in, 233. Champlain, Lake, 104. Charleston, 42, 44, 136, 176, 210. Charter, Mass., 178. Chatham, Earl of, 94, 165. Churches, 236, Cincinnati, 62. Cities, in the South, 136, streets in, 210; growth of, 143; largest, life in, 209. Civil, unit in the South, 87, 88. Claims, territorial, 239. Clakk, George Rogers, 192, 193. Classes, in the colonies, 10; negro slaves, white servants, 1 1 ; friction among, 119, 120 ; see Servants, Slavery. Clei;gy, supported by the people, 146; salary paid in tobacco, 146 ; petition to British go\ernment, 147 ; act of the House of Bur- gesses, 147; learning of, 232; re- ception of, by the people, 236. Coaches, 242. Colleges, 230. Colonial, period, characteristics of, 52 et stq. ; first independent war, chap, on, 61 et seq.; repre- sentatives at Albany, 74 ; individ- ually, chap, on, 84 et seq. ; expe- dition.s, 95 ; grievances, chap, on, 107 et seq.; resistance, 114, 149 ; antagonism, 115; revolt against trade laws, 116; opposition to British policy, 124, 149; wealth and luxury, chap, on, 134 et seq.; challenge to king and Parliament, 157 ; riots, 162, 169 ; demand sent to governor and council, 163 ; smuggling, 167 ; affairs and the Revolution, 195; government, proprietary, royal, 198, charter, 199; aristocracy and democracy, 201, 202; water supply, 210; popu- lation, in V^. *ncl Mass,, 229, INDEX 253 in the middle colonies, 221 ; pros- perity, chap, on, 218 et seq. ; products, 221 ; commerce, 221- 223, Burke on, 223; education, chap, on, 224 et seq. ; lawyers, 231, 232; doctors, 232, 234; rec- ords, 212, 236, 237, 23S ; nation- building, 243. Colonies, spirit of revolt, S ; organ- ized by the English, 9 ; classes in, 10; "feeders" of English pros- perity, 16, 20, 181 ; influences at work in, 22, 203; vexed by wars, 22 (see Wars); made war upon the French, 25 (see French); at- tacked by the Spanish, 25 (see Spanish) ; troubled by the In- dians, 26 (see Indians) ; problems of, chap, on, 73 et seq., 1 1 1 ; not united, 74; jealousy in, 76, 90; Franklin's plan of union for, 75 ; communication between, 84 (see Commerce) ; centralization of, 84, 85, 205 (see Union) ; institutions in, 85 ; local self-government, 87 (see Government) ; voted troops, 95 (see Troops) ; social systems in, 107 ; relation to England, 109 (see England); public sentiment in, 112; Puritan, 120, 125, 126; wealth and lu.xury, chap, on, 134 et seq. ; middle, 134, 145 (see New Jersey, New York, I'ennsyl- vania); asserted the right to govern, 154; common cause of, 156; called a Congress, 156 (see Congress) ; policy of, 1 59 ; united resistance of, 161 (see Resis- tance) ; troops sent to overawe, 161 (see Troops) ; non-importa- tion agreement, 161, conciliation, time for, 167, hoped for, 207 ; drifting toward revolution, chap, on, 171 et seq. (see Revolution); committees of correspondence, 171 ; aided Boston, 180 (see Bo.s- ton) ; service of " Scotch-Irish " to, 1 86 (see "Scotch-Irish"); declared "in rebellion," 194; pro- prietary, royal, 19S ; charter, 199; remoteness of, 203 ; unification of, 205 ; health conditions in, chap, on, 209 et seq. ; smallpox in, 211, 212; prosperity of, chap, on, 218 et seq.; negro slavery in, 11, 109, no. III, 203, 218, 219 (see Slav- ery); population, 11, 22, 125, 136, 138, 220; education in, chap, on, 224 et seq. (see Education) ; ex- cesses in, 241, 242; vehicles in, 242. Colonists, dependent upon Eng- land, 1,2; enjoyed fruits of Eng- lish manufactures, 2 ; organized trade, 3 ; in New England, 4, 85- 87 (see New England) ; in Mary- land, 4, 5 ; spirit of protest, 5, 131 ; spirit of revolt, 6 (see Re- volt, Revolution) ; fundamental idea, 6 ; work of xvii. century, 8, 9; manufactures of, 17-20 (see Trade Laws) ; afflicted by wars, 22 ( see Wars) ; at close of King William's War, 24; prob- lems of, 59, chapter on, 73 et seq.. Ill; in the Carolinas, 39 (see Carolina, Carolinas ) ; based claims on the Cabot discoveries, 63 ; Englishmen in America, 73, 74, 122, 123, 125; Englishmen in Eng- land, loS ; Albany Convention, 74 ; rejected plan of union, 76, 90 (see Franklin) ; united under Braddock, 77 (see Braddock) ; Braddock's defeat a lesson, 82 ; life of, in the middle of the xviii, century, 84 (see life) ; in the South, 87-90 (see South) ; social and political differences of, 84-90 ; jealousy among, go ; secured the Ohio valley, 103 ; Navigation Act, 112; Sugar and Molasses Act, 112; evasions of, 1 13, 1 14 ; accept Otis's dictum, 116 (see Otis); in- difference of Eng. to, 125 ; troops, quartered upon, 1 27, to overawe, 128; real objection of, to the " Stamp Act," 130, 131 ; defended 254 INDEX by Henry, 148 (see Henry); re- sisted imposts, 160 ; " the iJoston Massacre," 162; asserted right to govern, 165; resistance of, 169, 173, 174 (see Resistance) ; inde- pendence repulsive to, 170, real- ized, 182 (see Independence), tax on tea, 173^ 174; willingness to levy tax, 174; non-importation policy, 181; resources of, 181, 182; migrated, 183 (see Migration) ; and the " Penn. Dutch," 185, 186 (see Penn.) ; became Americans, - 193 ; declared " in rebellion,'' 194 ; at Jamestown, 196, 197 ; at Plym- outh, 1 98; Mass. Bay, 198; self-government of, 199 (see Gov- ernment); unification of, 205; religious devotion of, 236 (see Religion) ; amusements of, 239, 241. Colony, planting, xvii. century, 8, Carolina, 48, 122; at Jamestown 194, 196; Plymouth, 198; Mass, Bay, 1 98. Columbia College, 230. Commerce, in New England, 112, 126, 136, 2^1, 222, blow to, 112; "Boston Port Bill," 177; growth of cities, 138. Commons, House of, 117 ; see Par- liament. Communication, between the col- onies, 84 ; Canada and the ]\Iis- sissippi valley, 103. Conciliation, time for, 167 ; hoped for, 207. Congress, representative assembly, 129; called by the colonies, 156; challenge to king and Parlia- ment, 157; held in Phila., 180; non-importation policy, 181. Conflict, inevitable, 20; "irre- pressible," 163. Connecticut, immigrants to, 6, 171, 179; under charter govern- ment, 200; democracy in, 201; Vale, founded in, 230. Conservatism, 108. " Continentals," 68. Constitution, and Franklin's plan of union, 75, 76. Co-operation, sought for, 93. Corn, 221, 237. Correspondence, committees of, 171. Crown Point, 77, 81,95, 102, 104. Courts, county, functions of, 88; issued writs, 1 23, and stamped pa- per, 133; " Parson's Cause," 149; aristocratic, 205. Cotton, 45. County, unit, 88 ; court, 88. Curfew, 240. Currency, tobacco, 146; actual, 146. Customs, commissioner of, 114; officers resisted, 123; Boston, 160, 161. D Darmouth College, 230. Death Rate, 210, 211. Declaration, of Independence, 154 ; accepted by the tories, 207 ; of political independence, 182. Declaration of Rights and Griev- ances, 157. Delaware, 200. Democracy, colonial, 201 ; versus aristocracy, 201, 202; in Geor- gia, 203. DiESKAU, Baron, 81. DiNWiDDiE, governor, 64, 66, 76. Discontent, in the colonies, 5, 109. Dolls, fashion models, 142. Drainage, 210. Dress, 141-143. Drugs, 233, 234. Duquesne, 63. DuQUESNE, Fort, 69, 77, 95-98, 103. Di TCii, Penn., 29, 185; in N. Y., loS, 209. Duties, 167; see Trade Laws. INDEX 255 Education, in the South, 88, 229, 231 ; in the colonies, chap, on, 224 at seq.; spelling, 224, 225; capitalization, 225 ; arithmetic, 225, 226; multiplication, geogra- phy and history, reading, 226 ; teaching of English, 227, 228 ; schools in New England, 226, 229 ; text books, 226 ; primary and sec- ondary, 229 ; " old field schools," 229 ; higher, 230. Edwards, Jonathan, 232. Eighteenth Century, opening of, 9 ; medical science in, 232 ; use of wheeled vehicles, 242. Eloquence, of Samuel Adams, 163 (see Henry). Emancipation, early problem of, III. England, encouraged production of iron, 17; war with Spain, 52; with France, 54 ; attitude of, to- ward America, 58, 92, 109, 113, 125, 181 ; appeal of Dinwiddle to, 76 ; payment of Franklin's bill, 78, 79 ; encouraged the slave trade, 1 10 (see Slavery) ; govern- ment in, 117 ; dominated by the tories, 165. English Settlements, 24 ; armies ■ in, 93; growth of, 107. Federal Idea, 90. Fee Simple, 36. Fisheries, 134, 136. Florida, 25, 49, 54. Forbes, General, 96, 97, 98. P'ox, 165. Franklin, Benjamin, in the Al- bany Convention, 74 ; plan of union, 75, 76, 84, 90 ; call of, to the farmers, 78 ; favored royal government, 200 ; urged compro- mise, 207 ; favored the building of good streets, 209; journey with John Adams, 212, 213; invented a stove, 214, 215. French, 24-26 ; at war with the English, 54-57 ; French and In- dian War, 63-71, 107, 183; claimed the Allegheny region, 66 ; forces, 67 ; drove back Trent, 69; defeated Washington, 71 ; expeditions against, 77 ; power destroyed, chap, on 92 et. seq., 96, 103; surrendered Quebec, 105; West India Islands, 112; power broken, 127. Frontenac, Fort, 96, 103. Fry, Colonel, 71. P'unerals, 241, 242. Gaspee, 167, 168. Georgia, colony of, chapter on, 32 et seq.; country conquered by Colonel Moore, 25 ; proprietary government under Oglethorpe, 34 et seq.; life in, chapter on, 39 et seq. ; character of settlers, 42- 44 ; invaded by the Spaniards, 54 ; aided Boston, 180 ; sympathy of, with Congress, 180; under royal government, 200 ; democracy in, 203 ; no slavery in, 203. George, Lake, 94, 104. George II., land grant to Ogle- thorpe, 33, 34. George III., character of, 113, 114, 166, 167 ; enforced the trade laws, 167. Geography and history, 226. Germans, came to America for re- ligious and political reasons, 28 ; influence of, 28 ; immigrated to N. York, then to Pennsylvania, 28 ; in Georgia, 35 ; in Penn., 28, 108 ; migrated southward, 184, called " Penn. Dutch," 185. Girls, education of, 227. Gist, Christopher, 62, 66, 67. Gloucester, 138. Government, in Georgia, under 256 INDEX Oglethorpe, 36 ; in the Caiohiias, 50, 199; general, in F"ranklin's plan, 75 ; liberty and functions of, 86, 87 ; ideal of free, 87 ; town, 87 ; plantation, 88; country, 88 ; gen- eral, attitude toward, 90, 91 ; new systems of, 107; in Eng., 117, 120; proprietary, 198, 200; royal, 198, 200 ; chapter, 199, 200 ; of Va., 199; of Mass., 200, 201 ; popular, in Mass., 201 ; free right of, 206 ; in New Eng., 236-239 ; ofificers of, 238. Governor, royal and council, 163, 165, 198, 199; in Mass., 200. Grant, of land, in Va., 10; by George II. to Oglethorpe, 33, 34 ; by Virginia,to the Ohio Company, 61 ; to Mass., N. Y.,and Va., 179. Grenville, 113, 130. Grievances, colonial, chap, on, 107 et seq. H Harvard Coli.ege, 230. Health, conditions of, in the colo- nies, chap, on, 209 et seq. Heating, 236 (see Stoves"). Henry, Patrick, chap, on, 145 et seq.; "Parsons' Cause," 14S ; in- fluence of, 150, 169 ; in House of Burgesses, 150, resolutions of, 151; "the voice of the Revolu- tion," 202 ; spirit of, 169, 206 ; the English of, 229 ; an American lawyer, 231. History and Geography, 226. Hopkins, Stephen, 169. Hostility, between the colonies and England, 21; between the French and English colonies, 26 (see Revolt, Revolution). House of Burgesses, (see Bur- gesses). Houses, ii, 15 (see Life). Howe, Lord, 102. Huguenots, 5, 31. Hutchinson, Anne, 6. Idea, federal, 90; dominant, 119, interchange of, 205 (see Resis- tance, Revolt, Revolution). Immigration, in Virginia, 9, 10, general influence of, 10; during first half of the eighteenth cen- tury, 27 ; German, 28 ; of Scotch- Irish, 29, 30 ; of Huguenots, or French Protestants, 30; slave, no; into Jamestown, 196, 197. Imposts, i 12, 160 ; resisted, 160 (see Stamp Act). Independence, idea of, 59, 91, 125, 155, 169, 170, 1S2 ; local, 21, 75, 90 ; in early times, 85 ; of the plan- tations, 87, 134; industrial, 151; political, 182 ; declared, 175 ; in Ohio country, 187, 188; of Wa- tauga, 190 ; conditions that led to, I94et seq. ; in the charter colonies, 200; Second War of Indepen- dence, 195. Indiana, 61. Indians, currency used among, 18; King William's War, 24 ; incur- sions of, encouraged by the French, 26 ; liked Oglethorpe, 35 ; Westoes, 48 ; Tuscaroras, 48, 49 ; Iroquois, 48, 49, 73, 74 ; Yemassee, 48, 49 ; sold into slavery, 49 ; Great French and Indian War, 62,71, 107, 183; joined French, in expedition into the Ohio Val- ley, 62 ; encountered ly Washing- ton, 64 ; warfare of, understood by Washington, 79, 80 ; French and Indians under Montcalm, 94; lost confidence in the French, 104; colonists competent to meet, 128 ; made war on Kentucky settlers, 191 ; defeated at Point Pleasant, 192; attacked state in Tran.syl- vania, 192; contribution to New England agriculture, 237 (see Col- onists, French, Wars). Indigo, culture of, 46, 47, 48, 219; fully introduced, 47, 221, INDEX 257 Influences, affecting the colonies, 22. Individuality, colonial, chap, on, 84 et seq. ; versus govt., 87 ; strong feeling of, 90. Injustice, of the Stamp Act, 130; of the Navigation Act, 167 ; grew intolerable, see Trade Laws 170; caused the Revolution, 194. Inoculation, 211. Institutions, New England Town Meeting, 8 ; Virginia County Court, 88 ; in the seventeenth century, 9 ; development of, 85. Interference, of British govern- ment, 147, 221 ; speech of Henry on, 148. "Intolerable Acts," 177-180. Iroquois, 48, 49, 73, 74 ; see In- dians. Jamestown, 194, 196, 242. Jealousy, 91. Jefferson, Thomas, 87, 151, 152, 170, 206, 229, 231, Jenner, 211. Jews, in Georgia, 35. Johnson, Fort, 132. Johnson, Sir William, 81. K Kenton, Simon, 189. Kentucky, 61, 188; attacked by the Indians, 191 ; defended by Clark, 192; organized, 193. King's College, (Columbia), 230. King George's War, 54 et seq. King William's War, 24. Labor, unskilled, 219. La Salle, 63. Latin, study of, 227, 229. Law, slave trade, 218; Virginian, 219 ; study of, 231, 232, attracted the best men, 231 ; regulated " lectures," 240 ; feasting and ex- cesses, 241, 242. Laws, see Trade Laws. Le Bceuf, Fort, 66. " Lectures," 240. Liberty, spirit of, in the colonies, 6 ; influence of English laws upon spirit of, 19; revolt in name of, during eighteenth century, 8 ; pop- ular, 86, 87 ; fear of encroach- ment upon, 90 ; new ideas of, 107; English, 107, 116; endan- gered, 115; English, 116; de- stroyed in Mass., 178 ; guaranteed in the charter colonies, 200 ; Hen- ry pleaded for, 202 ; tories fought in the behalf of, 207. Life, in the eighteenth century, chapter on, i et seq. ; among the well-to-do, 2, 3 ; in New England, 85, 87, regulation of, 109, 238; amusements, 239, 246 ; in Mary- land and the Carolinas, 4, 5 ; in . Pennsylvania, 5, 185, 186; houses I of the early colonists, 10; use of I brick in building, 1 1 ; influence ' of immigration, 27 ; in Georgia and the Carolinas, chapter on, 39 et seq. ; in middle of eighteenth century, 84 ; development of in- stitutions, 85 ; in the South, 87- 90, 136 ; school, in the South, 88- 90; conditionsof, 108; homes de- fended as a " castle," 123 ; colonial wealth and luxury, chap, on, 1 34 et seq. ; in the plantation house 136, 138; dress, 141-143 ; of com- mon people, 143 ; among the "Penn. Dutch," 185, 186; "Scotch- Irish," 186; in the Ohio country, 187, 188; among the Pioneers, 189, 193; in Transylvania, 193; in early colony at Jamestown, 196 ; Mass. and N. Y., 201 ; people brought together, 205 ; health conditions and peculiarities of, chap, on, 209 et seq. ; in the largest cities, 209 ; in southern cities, 210. 258 INDEX Lighting, facilities for, 216. Local, authority in New England, 86, 87 ; see Government. Longfellow, " Evangeline," 82. "Long Knives," 189. LouisBURG, 55, 104; fall of, and return to France, 57 ; menace to New England, 57, 58 ; attack upon, 93, 96. Loudoun, Earl of, 92-94. Loyalty, to England, 59, 60, 107, 125, 126, 157, 170. Lucas, Eliza, introduced indigo, 45-47- XuxuRY, colonial, chap, on, 134 et seq. ; in dress, 141, 143; in house- hold furnishings, 143. M Magna Charta, 124. Manufactures, colonists bought English, I, 2; colonial, 138, 140; prior to the Revolution, 181 ; see Trade Laws. Marshall, John, 230, 231. Maryland, gentry in, Catholi- cism, 5 ; migration into, 185; un- der proprietary govt., 200. Massacre, in Boston, 162. Massachusetts, 122, 138, 171,179; lack of toleration in, 6; manu- facturing in, 138; stamp tax in, 154 ; protest of, 161 ; with Vir- ginia, acted as a leader, 171; "Massachusetts Bill," 178, 179; legislature, call of, 180 ; charter, 200; govt, in, 201 ; democracy in, 201 ; Franklin's advice to, 207; population of, 220; schools in, 229; funerals in, 241, 242 ; see Boston. Mason, George, 231. Medicine, study of, 232, 233. Middle colonies, 134, 145; popu- lation of, 221 ; agriculture in, 221 ; academies in, 229 ; see Maryland, N. J., N. v., Penn. Migration, of the *' Penn. Dutch," 184-186; of the "Scotch-Irish," 186; toward the Kentucky and Tennessee region, 188-193. Military, colony, in Georgia, 37 ; forces, compared with those of the French, 67 ; no funds for, 78 ; English, 93 ; rule, 93, 95, 103, 162, 178. Mississippi River, 63 ; region, chap, on, 1S3 et seq. Mob, Boston, 162; Providence, 169. Molasses and Sugar Act, 112. Money, tobacco used as, 146; ac- tual, 146. Montcalm, Marquis de, 92, 93, victory of, 94 ; protected Quebec; 105 ; surrendered to Wolfe, 105. Moore, Colonel, 25. Mountains, beyond the, chap, on, I S3 et seq. Multiplication, teaching of, 226. Murray, Lindley, 227. N Navigation Act, 112, 167. Nationality, independent, 141. Necessity, Fort, 71. Negro, soldiers, 49 ; see Slavery. New England, conditions in, 4, 108; Town Meeting, 8, 162,205; clergymen formed class in, 10 ; P'rench a menace, 55 ; plan to de- stroy privateers. 56 ; Louisburg a center of depredation, 57 ; life in, 85-S7 ; government in, 87, 236- 239 ; contrasts to, in the South, 87 et seq. ; Navigation Act, 112, 167; commerce and prosperity of, 112, 126, 127, 134, 168, 221- 223; agriculture in, 136, 237; in- terests of, T45 ; population of, 220; schools in, 226, 229; educated men in, 231, 232; churches in, 236; religious sentiment, 239. New Hampshire, 171 ; under royal govt., 200 ; Dartmouth College, 230. INDEX 259 New Jersey, 134; under royal govt., 200; democracy in, 201; Rutgers College, 230. New York, 122, 126, 13S, 179; Germans in, 6, 28; patroons in, 10, 201; character of early houses, 10 ; convention at Albany, 74 ; stripped by the British, 93 ; Dutch in, 108; mob in, 132; col- onial Congress in, 1 56 ; refused to land tea, 175; street cleaning in, 209; King's College (Colum- bia), 230. Niagara, 77, 81. Non-importation, poUcy of, 161, 181. North, Lord, 165,166. Nova Scotia, 25, 55. O Oglethorpe, General James, planted the Georgia colony, 32 ; character of, 32, 33, 35 ; as a pro- prietor, 34 ; in Florida, 53, 203. Ohio, Company, 61 ; country, 98 ; securedby the Eng., 103, "Scotch- Irish " in, 187. Opinion, pubUc, 153, 154. Oppression, 115, 122; resistance to, 156, 180 ; protest against, 161 ; crystallized into war, 200. Otis, James, 113, 115, 116, 153, 154, 170, 206, 229, 231 ; argued against writs of assistance, 116. Ownership, private, 10; of plan- tations, 134, 202; land, 202, 219; of slaves, 203. Paper, stamped, 132; see Stamp Act. Palatinate, people from, 28. Parliament, British, 1 16, 117, 167; representation in, 1 18-120 ; as- sumed to rule Englishmen in America, 122; right of, to gov- ern colonies, 123, 159, 161, 173; Q tax of, for support of troops, 127; troops to enforce the laws of, 1 28 ; Stamp Act, 128, opposition of, to, 131 ; challenge of colonies to, 157; right of tax, 161, 173; and Geo. III., 166 ; declared colonies "in rebellion, " 194; see British, Trade Laws. " Parsons' Cause," 148, 149. Patriotism, growth of, 16S, 175, 203 ; see Henry. Patroons, in N. Y., 10; system of, 201. Peace, at the close of King Wil- liam's War, 24; made in 17 13, 26; between France and Eng- land, 57, 105 ; at the close of the Revolution, 194, 195. Pens, 228. Pennsylvania, 122, 126,127,134; Quakers in, 5 ; Germans from N. Y., immigrate to, 6, 28, 184; Dutch, 29; " Penn. Dutch," 185; " Scotch-Irish " in, 30 ; call upon farmers of, 78 ; influence of im- migrants, 108; interest of, 145; protection of, 179; under propri- etary government, 200 ; democ- racy in, 200; University of, 230. People, English, representation of, II 7-1 20; rights guaranteed to, 134 ; supported troops in Ameri- ca, 133. Pepperell, 57. Philadelphia, Congress in, 180; streets in, 209 ; College of (now Univ. of Penn.), 230. Pickney, 206. Pickney, Eliza, 45-47. Pioneers, 1S8-193. Piracy, 55, 56. Pitt, Fort, 98. Pitt, William, 94, 95, 102, 104, 113, 160. Pittsburg, 68,96, 98. Plantation Book, 3. Plantations, in the Carolinas, 40, 42 ; life on, 87 ; units of govern- ment, 87 ; in the South, 134 ; so- 260 INDEX cial centers, 136 ; owned by Cava- liers, 202 ; white bondsmen on, 218; see Life, Slavery, Soutii. Planters, 136; education of, 230. Plymouth, 198. "Pocket Boroughs," 118, 119. Point Pleasant, 192. Policy, British, provoked resis- tance, 124; united the interests of the colonies, 127, 130, 157; repeal of the Stamp Act, 131 ; see Trade Laws, 159. Political, recognition, 220. Population, 125, 220; in the South, 136; in the North, 138; negro and white, 219. Port Royal, 25, 55. Potato, Irish, 29, 30. Power, political, in Eng., 119; Br. threatened, 166. Preston, Mrs. Margaret J., 186. Principle, of local self-govern- ment, 8, 204; assertion of, 173; dominating, 204 ; Tory, 207, 208. Privateers, 55, 56. Products, 44, 45, 187, 219, 221, 237- Property, in Georgia, 36, 37 ; qualification, for suffrage, 120, 220. Proprietary, government, under Oglethorpe, 34 et seq.; in the Carolinas, 50, 199; general form of, 198; in Va., 199; in Penn., 200. Prosperity, of the Carolinas, 45; of the colonies, chap, on, 218 et seq. ; 224. Protests, of Mass. and Va., 161. Providence, 169, 230. Quakers, 31, 108. Quebec, 55 ; Wolfe's expedition against, 104, 105 ; fall of, 105. " Quebec Act," 179, Queen Anne, 25. R Raven EL, Mrs., 46. Reading, 226. liEBELLION, 50, 162, 169, 194. Refrigeration, 235. Regulars, British, defeated, 80, 81 ; compared with American troops, 95 ; quartered on the col- onies, 127 ; no need of, 128 ; sup- ported by Enghsh taxpayers, 133. Religion, Christianity, belief in, a qualification for suffrage, 120; teaching of asceticism, 142 ; Eng- lish church, in Virginia, 146; churches, in New England, 236, 238 ; sentiment and public amuse- ments, 239. Repeal, Act of, 173. Representation, 116; and taxa- tion of the colonies in Parliament, 116; of the English people, 117, 118 ; class, 120. Resistance, to British aggression, 130; determined upon, 132; in N. Y. and Boston, 132 ; defeated British government, 1 23 ; growth of spirit of, 145, 154; to British oppression, 156, 161 ; first active, 162; colonists driven to, 169; to tea tax, 173-175, 177 ; to oppres- sion, 180; extreme measure of, 180, 181. Resources, 181,182. Revenue, attempt to collect, 123; from Stamp Act, 1 28 ; officers, 132. Revolt, from authority, 6 ; spirit of 8, 58^0 ; against English trade laws, 19 ; idea of, beginning of the eighteenth century, 21, 122, 124; beginning of chap, on, 125 et seq.; stamp tax, 128, 129; new occasion for, 132; Ameri- cans on verge of, 166 ; Henry fired spirit of, 202. Revolution, American, 61 ; jeal- ousy of colonists, during, 90 ; war cry of, 116, 117 ; Stamp Act, 127 INDEX 261 et seq. ; condition of life, prior to, 134 et seq. ; tocsin of, in Vir- ginia, 149 ; influence of Henry, 150, 202 ; "irrepressible conflict," 165 ; drifting toward, chapter on, 171 et seq. ; seizure of tea, 176; migration westward, before, 183; Geo. Rogers Clark, 192 ; West, settled before, 195 ; preparations for, I S3 et seq. ; the approach of, chapter on, 194 et seq. ; no formal declaration of war, 194; colonies declared " in rebellion," 194; a phase of colonial govern- ment, 195 ; armed conflict, reason for, 201; contribution of aristoc- racy to, 202, 203 ; " storm and stress " period of, 203; colonists at the outbreak of, 205 ; right to govern asserted, 206 ; tories in, 206 ; New England commerce, before, 221 ; influence of scholarly men in, 230. Rhode Island, 6 ; 171 ; under charter government, 200 ; democ- racy in, 201. Rice, planted in Charleston, 44 ; in S. Car., 219, 221. Rights, colonists insist upon, 131 ; violation of, 132 ; assertion of, chapter on, 156 et seq., 174, 204; trial by jury, 157, 169; constant struggle for, 231. Roads, maintenance, 8S ; dirt, 209 ; opening of, 242. Robertson, James, 189, 190. "Rotten Boroughs," 118. Royal, colony, Georgia, 37 ; S. Carolina, 50; in N. Carolina, 51. Rutgers College, 230. Rutledge, John, 202, 203-206. Sabbatarianism, 216, 217. Sailors, 222, 223. Salem, 138, 177. Sanitation, lack of, 209 et seq. Savannah, colonized, 35, 133. Sawmills, 15, 138. Schools, colonial, 88, 90; in New England, 226 ; "old field schools," 229. " Scotch-irish," 29 ; settled in the wilderness, 6 ; in Penn., 30, 108; character of, as immigrants, 30; West India islands, 112; power not dangerous, 1 28 ; migrated southward, 1S6; service of, to America, 1S6; in the Ohio coun- try 1 87. Self-government, 126; local, prin- ciple of, 8 ; differences of, 204 ; assertion of right of, 157; inter- fered with, 199 ; rights of, in char- ter colonies, 199, 200. Sentiment, public, 112; Henry, a leader of, 153 ; reflection of, 154. Separation, 158-175. Servants, white, 11, 36, 218, 219; see Negro. Settlers, at Jamestown, 194, 196; at Plymouth, 198; in Mass. Bay Colony, 198; see Pioneers. Seventeenth century, 8. Sevier, John, 189, 190. Shipping, 112, 167, 168, 221. Shirley, Governor, 55, 56, 77, 82. Shelby, Isaac, 1S9. Slavery, Indian, 49. Slavery, Negro, 109, 11 1, 203, 218 ; law against, in Georgia, 37 ; British interference, in; in Va. and S. Car., 219. Smallpox, 211, 212, 234. Smuggling, colonial, 167, 168. Smith, Thomas, 44. Spain, at war with England, 52. Spanish, assailed the Americans, 25 ; claimed Georgia territory, 32 ; Georgia warded off, 32 ; brought about an Indian war, 49 ; invaded Georgia, 54. Social, systems, 108 ; Hfe in the South, 136; intercourse in New England, and "lectures," 240. Sovereignty, 8, 190. South, life in, 87-90 ; units of gov- 1 eminent, 8-^, 88 ; schools in, 88, 262 INDEX 229; conservatism in, )o8; agri- culture in, 126, 134, 145, 221 ; plan- tations in, 134; cities in, 136; con- ditions of streets in, 210; migration of " Scotch-Irish,'" into, 86 ; owner- ship of slaves in, 203 ; climate of, 214 ; white bondmen in, 218, 219 ; political recognition in, 220 ; planters in, 230, 231 ; education in, 231. Spelling, 224, 225. Stamp Act, 128, 131, 154; drew _ colonies together, 156; repeal, 159- Staples, 221. State, first independent, 190. Statesmanship, English, 195, 196. Stoves, 213, 214, 215, 235. Streets, 209, 210. Stupidity, British, 96; caused the Revolution, 194. Subjection, i 17, 160. Steerage, in Puritan colonies, 120; in Va., 219 ; manhood, 220. Sugar and Molasses Act, 112. Surgery, 233, 234. Taxation, 75, 91 ; of slaves, no; without representation, 116; Eng- lish idea of, 116; for support of British troops, 127 ; of clergymen, 146; internal and external, 160; external, 160 ; British right of, 161, 162, 165. Tea, duty on, 161, 173, 174. Tennessee, and Kentucky region, 188 ; settlement in, 190. Theaters, 141. Theology, 232. Ticonderoga, 95, 102, 103, 104. Timber, 139, 140. Tobacco, bounties of, 18 ; currency, 146, 24 I ; " Parsons' Cause," 148, '49- Town, Government, in N. E., 8, 87 ; meeting, 162, 205, 236, 239. Townshend Acts, 160, 161, 172. Trade, organized by the colonists, 3- Trade Laws, antagonistic to colo- nial manufactures, 16 ; encouraged the smelting of iron in the colo- nies, 17 ; encouraged manufacture of glass, linen, 17, 18; ship stores, 19; forbade manufacture of woolen cloths, 19; not rigorously enforced, 19; attempt to enforce, chap, on, 1 13 et seq. ; evasions of, 114; oppression of, 115; revolt against, 1 16; resistance to, 167. Traditions, English, 108; clung to Transylvania, 192, 193. Trent, William, 69. Trial, by jury, 157 ; right of, in- vaded, 166 ; " Intolerable Acts," 177, 180. Troops, quartered upon the people, 127 ; in Boston, 161 ; attacked by mob, 162; "Boston Massacre," 162; withdrawal demanded, 162, 163; removed from Boston, 165; Frankhn urged their payment, 207. U Union, Franklin's plan of, 75; of the North and the South, 130; cemented by the "Quebec Act," 179, 180; through oppression, iSo ; bond of, 205. V Vaccination, 211. Vehicles, 242. Ventilation, of sleeping rooms, 212. Virginia, value of a shilling in, 3 ; Cavaliers in, 5 ; county court in, 8, 205 ; early immigration, 10 ; at- tracted English gentlemen, 10; houses in, 12 ; came to assistance of the CaroUna colony, 48 ; com- pany formed in, to settle the Ohio INDEX 263 country, 6i ; Dinwiddie, governor of, 64 ; defended her men in the Ohio valley, 67 ; unable to con- quer Ohio country, 76 ; troops of, under Kraddock, 76; under Wash- ington, 80, 97 ; Thomas Jefferson in, 87, 151, 152, 206, 229, 231; schools in, 88, 229 ; Earl of Lou- doun, 93 ; House of Burgesses, 98, 99, 100, 146, 147; on slave ques- tion, no; property qualification for suffrage, 120, 219; English church established in, 146; re- sisted British interference, 147 ; Patrick Henry, chapter on, 145 et seq., 202 ; tocsin of Revolution in, 149 ; asserted right to govern her- self, 151 ; General Assembly of the Colony, 151 ; stamp tax in, 154; protest of, 161; and Mass. leaders, 171 ; migration into, of " Penn. Dutch," 1S5 ; of the "Scotch-Irish," 1S6; Kentucky a part of, 191 ; defeated Indians, at Point Pleasant, 192 ; people of, settled in the West, 192 ; army under Clark of, 192, 193; legisla- ture of, 193; County of Kentucky, 193; early colonists in, 196, 198; owned by corporate proprietors, 199 ; under royal government, 199, 200; aristocracy and democracy in, 201 ; Cavaliers in, 202 ; aristocratic county courts, 205 ; negro slavery in, 219; suffrage in, 219; aristoc- racy in, 201,205, 220; population in, 220 ; " old field schools," 229 ; College of William and Mary, 230 ; funerals in, drinking at, 241. W Walpole, Horace, 165, 166. Wars, colonists fought against the Spanish, French and Indians, 22, 23 ; King William's War, 24 ; between English and French colonies, 25; Indian, 49; of the colonists, chapter on, 52 et seq. ; England and Spain, 52 et seq. ; France and England, known as King George's War, 54 et seq. ; the first independent colonial war, chapter on, 64 et seq.; Great French and Indian War, 62, 71, 107, 183 ; against French, without permission of England, 73 et seq.; trouble in management of colo- nial, 92 et seq. ; expenses of, 94 ; destruction of French power, chapter on, 92 et seq. ; Second War for Independence, 195 ; see French, Indians, Revolution, Spanish. Washington, George, the repre- sentative of Gov. Dinwiddie, 64 ; return trip, 66 ; reward, 67 ; saw the key to the Ohio country, 68 ; sent to assist Trent, 69 ; moved against Fort Duquesne, 70 ; de- feated, by the French, 72 ; aid-de- camp, 79 ; accepted no pay or re- ward for services rendered, 79 ; saved British troops, 80 ; covered Braddock's retreat, 81 ; and Gen. Forbes, 97 ; in command of expe- dition against Fort Duquesne, 97 ; took Duquesne, 98 ; recognized as an able commander and organ- izer, 98 ; elected to the House of Burgesses, 98 ; at Mt. Vernon, 99 ; took his seat in the Virginia as- sembly, 100; his first and only breakdown, loi ; spirit of, 206, Waterford, 64. Water Supply, colonial, 216. Watauga, first independent state, 190. Wealth, colonial, chapter on, 134 et seq. ; against disturbance, 206 ; indications of, 242. Wells, 210. West, opening up of, 105 ; migra- tion to, chap, on, 183 et seq. ; people in, 187, 192 ; settlements in, before the Revolution, 189, 193- West Indies, 112, 264 INDEX West Virginia, 6i. "Wheat, 221. William Henry, Fort, 94. William and Mary, College of, 230. Williams, Roger, 6. Wolfe, Gen. James, 104, 105. Yankees, 57, 112, 123, 167, 168 " Writs of Assistance," i 15, 1 16, 123. Yale College, 230. LIVES OF 'GREAT WRITERS /;/ 77/£ DATS OF CHAUCER. The Story of His Life and Times. By Tudor fcnks. With Introduction hf Hamilton Wright Mabie. 1 2mo. Cloth. Illustrated. With Bibliog- raphies and Comments. 5'-oo net. '•An initial volume in a new series of books projected along vital lines and to be wri;ten in a vital spirit. Fresh, informal, taking. Not only the story of Chaucer's life, but a picture of the England of his time." — The Outbok. IN THE DATS OF SHJKESPEARE. By Tudor Jenks. I2mo. Cloth. Illustrated. With Bibliographies. $i.oonet, •♦ Mr. Jenks has succeeded in the very difficult task of being at once scholarly and popular. Should be in every schooi library. " — Springfield Republican. 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