LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF .CALIFORNIA DAVIS

HISTORY

OF THE

WAR OF THE INDEPENDENCE

-

* •

OF

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

BY CHARLES BOTTA.

VOL. I.

TRANSLATED tfROM THE ITALIAN,

BY GEORGE ALEXANDER OTIS. ESQ.

SECOND EDITION. IN TWO VOLUMES, REVISED AND CORRECTED.

BOSTON :

PUBLISHED BY H^RISON GRAY.

William L. Lewis, Printer.

1826.

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit .

District Clerk's Office.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the sixth day of March, A.D. 1826, in the fiftieth year of the Independence of the United States of America, GEORGE ALEXANDER OTIS, ESQ. of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in -the words following, to wit :

' History of the War of the Independence of the United States of America. By Charles Botta. Vol. I. Translated from the Italian, by George Alexander Otis, Esq. Second edi- tion, in two volumes, revised and corrected.'

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, ' An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned,' and also to an act entitled, ' An act supplementary to an act entitled, an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and pro- prietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.

JNO. W. DAVIS,

Clerk of the District of Massachusetts

NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.

There will be found, in the course of this history, several discourses of a certain length. Those I have put in the mouth of the different speakers have really been pro- nounced by them, and upon those very occasions which are treated of in the work. I should, however, mention that I have sometimes made a single orator say what has been said in substance by others of the same party. Some- times, also, but rarely, using the liberty granted in all times to historians, I have ventured to add a small num- ber of phrases, which appeared to me to coincide perfectly with the sense of the orator, and proper to enforce his opinion ; this has happened especially in the two dis- courses pronounced before Congress, for and against independence, by Richard Henry Lee, and John Dickin- son.

It will not escape attentive readers, that in some of these discourses are found predictions which time has accomplished. I affirm that these remarkable passages belong entirely to the authors cited. In order that these might not resemble those of the poets, always made after the fact, I have been so scrupulous as to translate them, word for word, from the original language.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTICE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The translator of this history, in laying before his fel- low-citizens a second edition of it, would offer them his sincere acknowledgments for their favorable reception of the first ; a reception the more gratifying, as, notwithstand- ing his own high value of the work, it surpassed his most sanguine expectations. It evidently appeared that Botta, like all his great predecessors in the march of immortality, was greeted with the most enthusiasm and admiration by those who were, doubtless, the most conscious of being his fellow-travellers on the road to posterity. How warmly was he welcomed by the surviving patriots who had distin- guished themselves the most eminently in the great scenes he describes ! The venerable John Adams, on receiving the second volume of the translation, expressed himself in the words following ; ' I unite with many other gentlemen in the opinion that the work has great merit, has raised a monument to your name, and performed a valuable service to your country. If it should not have a rapid sale at first, it will be, in the language of book- sellers, good stock, and will be in demand as long as the American Revolution is an object of curiosity. It is indeed the most classical and methodical, the most particular and circumstantial, the most entertaining and interesting nar- ration of the American War, that I have seen.' In like manner, the hand that penned the Declaration of Ameri- can Independence, en receiving the first volume of the translation, having already for some years been possessed of the original, addressed the translator the words of encouragement which are here set down. * I am glad to

TO THE READER. V

find that the excellent history of Botta is at length trans- lated. The merit of this work has been too long unknown with us. He has had the faculty of sifting the truth of facts from our own histories with great judgment, of sup- pressing details which do not make a part of the general history, and of enlivening the whole with the constant glow of his holy enthusiasm for the liberty and independ- ence of nations. Neutral, as an historian should be, in the relation of facts, he is never neutral in his feelings, nor in the warm expression of them, on the triumphs and reverses of the conflicting parties, and of his honest sym- pathies with that engaged in the better cause. Another merit is in the accuracy of his narrative of those portions of the same war which passed in other quarters of the globe, and especially on the ocean. We must thank him, too, for having brought within the compass of three volumes every thing we wish to know of that war, and in a style so engaging, that we cannot lay the book down. He had been so kind as to send me a copy of his work, of which I shall manifest my acknowledgment by sending him your volumes, as they come out. My original being lent out, I have no means of collating it with the transla- tion ; but see no cause to doubt correctness.' On receipt of the second volume of the translation, Mr. Jefferson renews his eulogies of the history, in the expressions which follow ; ' I join Mr. Adams, heartily, in good wishes for the success of your labors, and hope they will bring you both profit and fame. You have certainly ren- dered a good service to your country; and when the superiority of the work over every other on the same sub- ject shall be more known, I think it will be the common manual of our Revolutionary History.' Mr. Madison is no less decisive in his approbation of the undertaking. He writes the translator on receiving his first volume ;

VI TO THE READER.

< The literary reputation of this author, with the philosophic spirit and classic taste allowed to this historical work, justly recommended the task in which you are engaged, of placing a translation of it before American readers; to whom the subject must always be deeply interesting, and who cannot but feel a curiosity to see the picture of it as presented to Europe by so able a hand. The author seems to have the merit of adding to his other qualifications much industry and care in his researches into the best sources of information, and it may readily be supposed that he did not fail to make the most of his access to those in France, not yet generally laid open?' &c. Thus cotemporary witnesses, and the most prominent actors in some of the principal events recorded in these volumes, have authorised and sanctioned the unexpected indulgence with which they were received by the American people. Grateful for such high approbation, and content with having been the first to present his countrymen, at his own peril, with however imperfect a copy of so inimitable an original, the translator will always be happy to con- gratulate 'them on the appearance of a better.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

BOOK FIRST.

SUMMARY. — Opinions, manners, customs, and inclinations of the inhabitants of the English colonies in America. Mildness of the British government towards its colonists. Seeds of-discontent between the two people. Plan of colonial government proposed by the colonists. Other motives of discontent in America. Justification of ministers. Designs and instigations of the French. All the states of Europe desire to reduce the power of England. New subjects of complaint. Stamp duty projected by the ministers and pro- posed to parliament. The Americans are alarmed at it, and make remonstrances. Long and violent debates between the advocates of the stamp act and the opposition. The stamp act passes in parliament.

BOOK SECOND.

SUMMARY. — Troubles in America on account of the stamp duty. Violent tumult at Boston. Movements in other parts of America. League of citizens desirous of a new order of things. New doctrines relative to political authority. American associations against English commerce. Admirable constancy of the colonists. General Congress of New York and its operations. Effects produced in England by the news of the tumults in America. Change of ministers. The new ministry favorable to the Americans. They propose to parliament the repeal of the stamp act. Doctor Franklin is interrogated by th§ parliament. Discourse of George Grenville in favor of the tax. Answer of William Pitt. The stamp act is revoked. Joy manifested in England on this occasion. The news is transmitted with all despatch to America.

BOOK THIRD.

SUMMARY. — Extreme joy of the colonists on hearing of the repeal of the stamp act. Causes of new discontents. Deliberations of the government on the subject of the oppo- sition of the Americans. Change of ministry. The new ministers propose to parliament, and carry, a bill imposing a duty upon tea, paper, glass, and painters' colors. This duty is accompanied by other measures, which sow distrust in the colonies. New disturbances and new associations in America. The royal troops enter Boston. Tumult, with effu- sion of blood, in Boston. Admirable judicial decision in the midst of so great commo- tion. Condesccndence of the English government; it suppresses the taxes, with the ex- ception of that on tea. The Americans manifest no greater submission in consequence. The government adopts measures of rigor.i The Americans break out on their part ; they form leagues of resistance. The Bostonians throw tea overboard. The ministers adopt rigorous counsels. Violent agitations in America. Events which result from them. New confederations. All the provinces determine to hold a general Congress at Phila- delphia.

BOOK FOURTH.

SUMMARY. — Confidence of the Americans in the general Congress. Dispositions of minds in Europe, and particularly in France, towards the Americans. Deliberations of Congress. Approved by the provinces. Indifference of minds in England relative to the quarrel with America. Parliament convoked. The ministers will have the inhabitants of Massachusetts declared rebels. Oration of Wilkes against this proposition. Oration of Harvey in support of it. The ministers carry it. They send troops to America. They accompany the measures of rigor with a proposition of arrangement, and a promise of amnesty. Edmund Burke proposes to the parliament another plan of reconciliation ; which does not obtain. Principal reason why the ministers will hearken to no proposi- tion of accommodation. Fury of the Americans on learning that the inhabitants of Massachusetts have been declared rebels. Every thing, in America, takes the direction of war. Battle of Lexington. Siege of Boston. Unanimous resolution of the Americans to take arms and enter the field.

Viii TABLE OF CONTENTS.

BOOK FIFTH.

SUMMARY. — Situation of Boston. State of the two armies. The provinces make prepa- rations for war. Taking of Ticonderoga. Siege of Boston. Battle of Breed's Hill. New Congress in Philadelphia. George Washington elected captain-general. Repairs to the camp of Boston. The Congress make new regulations for the army. Eulogy of doctor Warren. The Congress take up the subject of finances. Endeavor to secure the Indians. Their manifesto. Religious solemnities to move the people. Address of the Congress to the British nation. Another to the king. Another to the Irish people. Letter to the Canadians. Events in Canada. Resolutions of Congress relative to the conciliatory proposition of lord North. Articles of union between the provinces proposed by the Congress. The royal governors oppose the designs of the popular governors. Serious altercations which result from it. Massachusetts begins to labor for independ- ence. The other provinces discover repugnance to imitate the example. Military ope- rations near Boston. Painful embarrassments in which Washington finds himself. Gene- ral Gage succeeded by sir William Howe, in the chief command of the English troops. Boldness of the Americans upon the sea. Difficulties experienced by Howe. Invasion of Canada. Magnanimity of Montgomery. Montreal taken. Surprising enterprise executed by Arnold. Assault of Quebec. Death of Montgomery.

BOOK SIXTH.

SUMMARY — State of parties in England. Discontent of the people. The ministers take Germans into the pay of England. Parliament convoked. Designs of France. King's speech at the opening of parliament. Occasions violent debates. The ministers carry their Address. Commissioners appointed with power of pardon. Siege of Boston. The English are forced to evacuate it. New disturbances in North Carolina. Success of the American marine. War of Canada. Praises of Montgomery. Designs of the English against South Carolina. They furiously attack fort Moultrie. Strange situation of the American colonies. Independence every day gains new partisans ; and wherefore. The Congress propose to declare Independence. Speech of Richard Henry Lee in favor of the proposition. Speech of John Dickinson on the other side. The Congress proclaim Independence. Exultation of the people.

BOOK SEVENTH.

SUMMARY. — Immense preparations of the British for the reduction of America. Con- ferences for an arrangement. The Americans lose the battle of Brooklyn. New con- ferences. The troops of the king take possession of New York. Forts Washington and Lee fall into their power. The English victoriously overrun New Jersey. Danger of Philadelphia. The royal army pause at the Delaware. General Lee is made prisoner. War with the Indians. Campaign of Canada. Firmness of Washington and of Congress in adverse fortune ; a.nd their deliberations to reestablish it. Dictatorial power granted to Washington ; in what manner he uses it. Overtures of Congress to the court of France. Franklin sent thither. His character. The fortune of America regains at Trenton. Pru- dence and intrepidity of Washington. Howe, after various movements, abandons New Jersey. Embarks at New York to carry the war into another part.

HISTORY

OF

THE AMERICAN WAR

BOOK FIRST.

AMERICA, and especially some parts of it, having been discover- ed by the genius and intrepidity of Italians, received, at various times, as into a place of asylum, the men whom political or religious disturbances had driven from their own countries in Europe. . The security which these distant and desert regions presented to their minds, appeared to them preferable even to the endearments of coun- try and of their natal air.

Here they exerted themselves with admirable industry and forti- tude, according to the custom of thos$ whom the fervor of opinion agitates and stimulates, in subduing the wild beasts, dispersing or destroying pernicious or importunate animals, repressing or subject- ing the barbarous and savage nations that inhabited this New World, draining the marshes, controlling the course of rivers, clearing the forests, furrowing a virgin soil, and committing to its bosom new and unaccustomed seeds ; and thus prepared themselves a climate less rude and hostile to human nature, more secure and more commo- dious habitations, more salubrious food, and a part of the conve- niences and enjoyments proper to civilised life.

This multitude of emigrants, departing principally from England, in the time of the last Stuarts, landed in that part of North America which extends from the thirty-second to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude ; and there founded the colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, which took the general name of New England. To these colonies were afterwards joined those of Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, the two Carolinas, and Georgia. Nor must it be under- stood, that in departing from the land in which they were born, to seek in foreign regions a better condition of life, they abandoned their country on terms of enmity, dissolving every tie of early attachment.

VOL. T. 2

10 THE AMERICAN WAR. BOOK I.

Far from this, besides the customs, the habits, the usages and man- ners of their common country, they took with them privileges, granted by the royal authority, whereby their laws were constituted upon the model of those of England, and more or less conformed to a free government, or to a more absolute system, according to the charac- ter or authority of the prince from whom they emanated. They were also modified by the influence which the people, by means of their organ, the parliament, were found to possess. For, it then being the epoch of those civil and religious dissensions which caused English blood to flow in torrents, the changes were extreme and rapid. Each province, each colony, had an elective assembly, which, under certain limitations, was invested with the authority of parlia- ment ; and a governor, who, representing the king to the eyes of the colonists, exercised also a certain portioji of his power. To this was added the trial, which is called by jury, not only in criminal matters, but also in civil causes; an institution highly important, and corresponding entirely with the judicial system of England.

But, in point of religion, the colonists enjoyed even greater latitude than in their parent country itself: they had not preserved that ecclesiastical hierarchy, against which they had combated so strenu- ously, and which they did not cease to abhor, as the primary cause of the long and perilous expatriation to which they had been con- strained to resort.

It can, therefore, excite no surprise, if this generation of men not only had their minds imbued with the principles that form the basis of the English constitution, but even if they aspired to a mode of government less rigid, and a liberty more entire ; in a word, if they were, inflamed with the fervor which is naturally kindled in the hearts of men by obstacles which oppose their religious and political opi- nions, and still increased by the privations and persecutions they have suffered on their account. And how should this ardor, this excite- ment of exasperated minds, have been appeased in the vast solitudes of America, where the amusements of Europe were unknown, where assiduity in manual toils must have hardened their bodies, and in- creased the asperity of their characters ? If in England ibey had shown themselves averse to the prerogative of the crown, how, as to this, should their opinions have been changed in America, where scarcely a vestige was seen of the royal authority and splendor ? where the same occupation being common to all, that of cultivating the earth, must have created in all the opinion and the love of a general equality ? They had encountered exile, at the epoch when the war raged most fiercely in their native country, between the king and the people ; at the epoch when the armed subjects contended for the right of resisting the will of the prince, when he usurps their liberty ; and even, if the public good require it, of transferring the crown from one head to another. The colonists had supported these

BOOK I. THE AMERICAN WAR. 11

principles ; and how should they have renounced them f They who, out of the reach of royal authority, and, though still in the infancy of a scarcely yet organised society, enjoyed already, in their new country, a peaceful and happy life ?' The laws observed, justice administered, the magistrates respected, offences rare or unknown ; persons, property and honor, protected from all violation ?

They believed it the unalienable right of every English subject, whether freeman or freeholder, not to give his property without his own consent ; that the house of commons only, as the representative of the English people, had the right to grant its money to the crown ; that taxes are free gifts of the people to those who govern ; and that princes are bound to exercise their authority, and employ the public treasure, for the sole benefit and use of the community. ' These privileges,' said the colonists, ' we have brought with us'; distance, or change of climate, cannot have deprived us of English preroga- tives ; we departed from the kingdom with the consent and under the guarantee of the sovereign authority ; the right not to contribute with our money without our own consent, has been solemnly recog- nised by the government in the charters it has granted to many of the colonies. It is for this purpose that assemblies or courts have been established in each colony, and that they have been invested with authority to investigate and superintend the employment of the public money.' And how, in fact, should the colonists have relin- quished such a right ; they who derived their subsistence from the American soil, not given or granted by others, but acquired and possessed by themselves ; which they had first occupied, and which their toils had rendered productive? Every thing, on the contrary, in English America, tended to favor and develop civil liberty; every thing appeared to lead towards national independence.

The Americans, for the most part, were not only Protestants, but Protestants against Protestantism itself, and sided with those who in England are called Dissenters ; for, besides, as Protestants, not acknowledging any authority in the affair of religion, whose decision, without other examination, is a rule of faith, claiming to be of themselves, by the light of natural reason alone, sufficient judges of religious dogmas, they had rejected the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and abolished even the names of its dignities ; they had, in short, divested themselves of all that deference which man, by his nature, has for the opinions of those who are constituted in eminent stations ; and whose dignities, wealth and magnificence, seem to command respect The intellects of the Americans being therefore perfectly free upon this topic, they exercised the same liberty of thought upon other subjects unconnected with religion, and especially upon the affairs of government, which had been the habitual theme of their conversation, during their residence in the mother country. The colonies, more than any other country, abounded in lawyers, who, accustomed to

12 THE AMERICAN WAR. BOOK I.

the most subtle and the most captious arguments, are commonly, in a country governed by an absolute prince, the most zealous advocates of his power, and in a free country the most ardent defenders of liberty. Thus had arisen, among the Americans, an almost universal familiarity with those sophistical discussions which appertain to the professions of theology and of law, the effect of which is often to generate obstinacy and presumption in the human mind ; accordingly, however long their disquisitions upon political and civil liberty, they never seemed to think they had sifted these matters sufficiently. The study of polite literature and the liberal arts having already madt a remarkable progress in America, these discussions were adorned with the graces of a florid elocution ; the charms of eloquence fascinated and flattered on the one hand the defenders of bold opinions, as on the other, they imparted to their discourses greater attraction, and imprinted them more indelibly on the minds of their auditors.

The republican maxims became a common doctrine : and the memory of the Puritans, and of those who in the sanguinary con- tentions of England had supported the party of the people and pe- rished for its cause, was immortalised. These were their apostles, these their martyrs: their names, their virtues, their achievements, their unhappy, but to the eyes of the colonists so honorable, death, formed the continual subject of the conversations of children with the authors of their days.

If, before the revolution, the portrait of the king was usually seen in every house, it was not rare to observe near it the images of those who, in the time of Charles T. sacrificed their lives in defence of what they termed English liberties. It is impossible to express with what exultation they had received the news of the victories of the republicans in England ; with what grief they heard of the resto- ration of the monarchy, in the person of Charles II. Thus their incli- nations and principles were equally contrary to the government, and to the church, which prevailed in Great Britain. Though naturally reserved and circumspect, yet expressions frequently escaped them which manifested a violent hatred for the political and religious establishments of the mother country. Whoever courted popular favor, gratified both himself and his hearers, by inveighing against them ; the public hatred, on the contrary, was the portion of the feeble party of the hierarchists, and such as favored England. All things, particularly in New England, conspired to cherish the germs of these propensities and opinions. The colonists had few books ; but the greater part of those, which were in the hands of all, only treated of political affairs, or transmitted the history of the persecu- tions sustained by the Puritans, their ancestors. They found in these narratives, tfiat, tormented in their ancient country on account of their political and religious opinions, their ancestors had taken the intrepid resolution of abandoning it, of traversing an immense ocean,

BOOK I. THE AMERICAN WAR. 13

of flying to the most distant, the most inhospitable regions, in order to preserve the liberty of professing openly these cherished principles ; and that, to accomplish so generous a design, they had sacrificed all the accommodations and delights of the happy country where they had received birth and education. And what toils, what fatigues, what perils, had they not encountered, upon these unknown and savage shores ? All had opposed them ; their bodies had not been accustomed to the extremes of cold in winter, and of heat in sum- mer, both intolerable in the climate of America ; the land chiefly covered with forests, and little of it habitable, the soil reluctant, the air pestilential; an untimely death had carried off most of the first founders of the colony : those who had resisted the climate, and survived the famine, to secure their infant establishment, had been forced to combat the natives, a ferocious race, and become still more ferocious at seeing a foreign people, even whose existence they had never heard of, come to appropriate the country of which they had so long been the sole occupants and masters. The colonists, by their fortitude, and courage, had gradually surmounted all these obstacles ; which result, if on the one hand it secured them greater tranquillity, and improved their condition, on the other it gave them a better opinion of themselves, and inspired them with an elevation of senti- ments, not often paralleled.

As the prosperous or adverse events which men have shared to- gether, and the recollections which attend them, have a singular tendency to unite their minds, their affections and their sympathies ; the Americans were united not only by the ties which reciprocally attach individuals of the same nation, from the identity of language, of laws, of climate, and of customs, but also by those which result from a common participation in all the vicissitudes to which a people is liable. They offered to the world an image of those congregations of men, subject not only to the general laws of the society of which they are members, but also to particular statutes and regulations, to which they have voluntarily subscribed, and which usually produce, besides an uniformity of opinions, a common zeal and enthusiasm.

It should not be omitted, that even the, composition of society in the English colonies, rendered the inhabitants averse to every spe- cies of superiority, and inclined them to liberty. Here was but one class of men ; the mediocrity of their condition tempted not the rich and the powerful of Europe, to visit their shores ; opulence, and hereditary honors, were unknown amongst them ; whence no vestige remained of feudal servitude. From these causes resulted a general opinion that all men are by nature equal ; and the inhabitants of America would have found it difficult to persuade themselves that they owed their lands and their civil rights to the munificence of princes. Few among them, had heard mention of Magna Charta ; and those who were not ignorant of the history of that important

14 THE AMERICAN WAR. • BOOK I.

period of the English revolution, in which this compact was con- firmed, considered it rather a solemn recognition, by the king of England, of the rights of the people, than any concession. As they referred to heaven the protection which had conducted them through so many perils, to a land, where at length they had found that repose which in their ancient country they had sought in vain ; and as they owed to its beneficence the harvests of their exuberant fields, the only and the genuine so'urce of their riches; so not from the concessions of the king of Great Britain, but from the bounty and infinite clemency of the King of the universe, did they derive every right ; these opinions, in the minds of a religious and thoughtful peo- plej were likely to have deep and tenacious roots.

From the vast extent of the provinces occupied, and the abundance of vacant lands, every colonist was, or easily might have become, at the same time, a proprietor, farmer, and laborer.

Finding all his enjoyments in rural life, he saw spring up, grow, prosper, and arrive at maturity, under his own eyes, and often by the labor of his own hands, all things necessary to the life of man ; he felt himself free from all subjection, from all dependence ; and individual liberty is a powerful incentive to civil independence. Each might hunt, fowl and fish, at his pleasure, without fear of possible injury to others ; poachers were consequently unknown in America. Their parks and reservoirs were boundless forests, vast and numerous lakes, immense rivers, and a sea unrestricted, inex- haustable in fish of every species. As they lived dispersed in the country, mutual affection was increased between the members of the same family, and finding happiness in the domestic circle, they had no temptation to seek diversion in the resorts of idleness, where men too often contract the vices which terminate in dependence and habits of servility.

The greater part of the colonists, being proprietors and cultivators of land, lived continually upon their farms; merchants, artificers, and mechanics,, composed scarcely a fifth part of the total population. Cultivators of the earth depend only on Providence and their own industry, while the artisan, pn the contrary, to render himself agree- able to the consumers, is obliged to pay a certain deference to their caprices. It resulted, from the great superiority of the first class, that the colonies abounded in men of independent minds, who, know- ing no insurmountable obstacles but those presented by the very nature of things, could not fail to resent with animation, and oppose with indignant energy, every curb which human authority might attempt to impose.

The inhabitants of the colonies were exempt, and almost out of danger, from ministerial seductions, the seat of government being at such a distance, that far from having proved, they had never even heard of, its secret baits.

BOOK I. THE AMERICAN WAR. 15

It was not therefore customary among them to corrupt, and be corrupted : the offices were few, and so little lucrative, that they were far from supplying the means of corruption to those who were invested with them.

The love of the sovereign, and their ancient country, which the first colonists might have retained in their new establishment, gra- dually diminished in the hearts of their descendants, as successive generations removed them further from their original stock ; and when the revolution commenced, of which we purpose to write the history, the inhabitants of the English colonies were, in general, but the third, fourth, and even the fifth generation from the original colonists, who had left England to establish themselves in the new regions of America. At such a distance, the affections of consan- guinity became feeble, or extinct ; and the remembrance of their ancestors lived more in their memories, than in their hearts.

Commerce, which has power to unite and conciliate a sort of friendship between the inhabitants of the most dista-nt countries, was not, in the early periods of the colonies, so active as to produce these effects between the inhabitants of England and America. The greater part of the colonists had heard nothing of Great Britain, ex- cepting that it was a distant kingdom, from which their ancestors had been barbarously expelled, or hunted away, as they had been forced to take refuge in the deserts and forests of wild America, in- habited only by savage men, and prowling beasts, or venomous and horrible serpents.

The distance of government diminishes its force ; either because, in the absence of the splendor and magnificence of fhe throne, men yield obedience only to its power, unsupported by the influence of illusion and respect ; or, because the agents of authority in distant countries, exercising a larger discretion in the execution of the laws, inspire the people governed with greater hope of being able to es- cape their restraints.

What idea must we then form of the force which the British go- vernment could exercise in the new world, when it is considered, that the two countries being separated by an ocean three thousand miles in breadth, entire months sometimes transpired, between the date of an order, and its execution ?

Let it be added, also, that except in cases of war, standing armies, this powerful engine of coercion, were very feeble in England, and much more feeble still in America ; their existence even was contrary to law.

It follows, of necessity, that, as the means of constraint became almost illusory in the hands of the government, there must have arisen, and gradually increased, in the minds of the Americans, the hope, and with it the desire, to shake off the yoke of English supe- riority.

16 THE AMERICAN WAR. BOOK I.

All these considerations apply, especially, to the condition of the eastern provinces of English America. As to the provinces of the south, the land being there more fertile, and the colonists conse- quently enjoying greater affluence, they could pretend to a more ample liberty, and discover less deference for opinions which differed from their own. Nor should it be imagined, that the happy fate they enjoyed, had enervated their minds, or impaired their courage. Living continually on their plantations, far from the luxury and se- ductions of cities, frugal and moderate in all their desires, it is cer- tain, on the contrary, that the great abundance of things necessary to life rendered *their bodies more vigorous, and their minds more impatient of all subjection.

In these provinces also, the slavery of the blacks, which was in use, seemed, however strange the assertion may appear, to have in- creased the love of liberty among the white population. Having continually before their eyes, the living picture of the miserable con- dition of man reduced to slavery, they could better appreciate the liberty they enjoyed. This liberty they considered not merely as a right, but as a franchise and privilege. As it is usual for men, when their own interests and passions are concerned, to judge partially and inconsiderately, the colonists supported impatiently the superiority of the British government. They considered its pretensions as tending to reduce them to a state little different from that of their own slaves ; thus detesting, for themselves, what they found convenient to exer- cise upon others.

The inhabitants of the colonies, especially those of New England, enjoyed not only the shadow,' but the substance itself, of the English constitution ; for in this respect, little was wanting to their entire independence. They elected their own magistrates ; they paid them ; and decided all affairs relative to internal administration. The sole evidence of their dependence on the mother country, con- sisted in this : that they could not enact laws or statutes, contrary to the letter or spirit of the English laws ; that the king had the pre- rogative to annul the deliberations of their assemblies; and that they were subject to such regulations and restrictions of commerce, as the parliament should judge necessary and conducive to the general good of the British empire. This dependence, however, was rather nominal than actual, for the king very rarely refused his sanction ; and as to commercial restrictions, they knew how to elude them dexterously, by a contraband traffic.

The provincial assemblies were perfectly free, and more perhaps than the parliament of England itself; the ministers not being there, to diffuse corruption daily. The democratic ardor was under no restraint, or little less than none ; for the governors who intervened, in the name of the king, had too little credit to control it, as they received their salaries, not from the crown, but from the province

BOOK I. THE AMERICAN WAR. 17

itself; and in some, they were elected by the suffrages of the inha- bitants. The religious zeal, or rather enthusiasm, which prevailed among the colonists, and chiefly among the inhabitants of New Eng- land, maintained the purity of their manners. Frugality, tempe- rance, and chastity, were virtues peculiar to this people. There" were no examples, among them, of wives devoted to luxury, hus- bands to debauch, and children to the haunts of pleasure. The ministers of a severe religion were respected and revered ; for they gave themselves the example of the virtues they preached. Their time was divided between rural occupations, domestic parties, pray- ers, and thanksgivings, addressed to that God by whose bounty the seasons were made propitious, and the earth to smile on their labors with beauty and abundance, and who showered upon them so many blessings and so many treasures. If we add, further, that the inha- bitants of New England, having surmounted the first obstacles, found themselves in a productive and healthful country, it will cease to as- tonish, that, in the course of a century, the population of the Ame- rican colonies should have so increased, that from a few destitute families, thrown by misfortune upon this distant shore, should have sprung a great and powerful nation.

Another consideration presents itself here. The fathers of families, in America, were totally exempt from that anxiety, which in Europe torments them incessantly, concerning the subsistence and future es- tablishment of their offspring. In the new world, the increase of families, however restricted their means, was not deemed a mis- fortune : on the contrary, it was not only for the father, but for all about him, that the birth of a son was a joyful event. In this im- mensity of uncultivated lands, the infant, when arrived at the age of labor, was assured of finding a resource for himself, and even the means of aiding his parents ; thus, the more numerous were the chil- dren, the greater competence and ease were secured to the household.

It is therefore evident, that in America, the climate, the soil, the civil and religious institutions, even the interest of families, all con- curred to people it with robust and virtuous fathers, with swarms of vigorous and spirited sons.

Industry, a spirit of enterprise, and an extreme love of gain, are characteristic qualities of those who are separated from other men, and can expect no support but from themselves ; and the colonists being descended from a nation distinguished for its boldness and ac- tivity in the prosecution of traffic, it is easily conceived that the in- crease of commerce was in proportion to that of population. Po- sitive facts confirm this assertion. In 1704, the sum total of the commercial exports of Great Britain, inclusive of the merchandise destined for her colonies, had been six millions five hundred and nine thousand pounds sterling ; but from this year to 1772, these colonies had so increased in population and prosperity, that at this epoch VOL. i. 3

18 THE AMERICAN WAR. BOOK I,

they of themselves imported from England to the value of six mil- lions twenty-two thousand one hundred and thirty-two pounds ster- ling ; that is to say, that in the year 1772, the colonies alone furnish- ed the mother country with a market for a quantity of merchandise almost equal to that which, sixty-eight years before, sufficed for her commerce with all parts of the world.

Such was the state of the English colonies in America, such the opinions and dispositions of those who inhabited them, about the middle of the eighteenth century. Powerful in numbers and in force, abounding in riches of every kind, already far advanced in the career of useful arts and of liberal studies, engaged in commerce with all parts of the globe, it was impossible that they should have remained ignorant of what they were capable, and that the progressive deve- lopment of national pride should not have rendered the British yoke more intolerable.

But this tendency towards a new order of things did not as yet menace a general combustion ; and, without particular irritation, would still have kept within the bounds which had already so long sufficed to.restrain it. During a century, the British government had prudently avoided to exasperate the minds of the colonists : with parental solicitude, it had protected and encouraged them, when in a state of infancy ; regulating, afterwards, by judicious laws, their commerce with the mother country and with foreign nations, it had conducted them to their present prosperous atid flourishing condi- tion. In effect, in times immediately following the foundation of the colonies, England, as a tender mother, who defends her own children, had lent them the succour of her troops and her ships, against the attacks of the savage tribes, and against the encroachments of other powers; she granted immunities and privileges to Europeans who were disposed to establish themselves in these new countries ; she supplied her colonists, at the most moderate prices, with cloths, stuffs, linens, and all necessary instruments as well for their defence against enemies as for the exercise of useful professions in time of peace, and especially such as were required for clearing the lands, and the labors of agriculture. The English merchants also assist- ed them with their rich capitals, in order to enable them to engage in enterprises of great importance, such as the construction of ships, the draining of marshes, the diking of rivers, the cutting of forests, the establishing of new plantations, and other similar works..

In exchange for so many advantages, and rather as a* necessary consequence of the act of navigation, than as a fiscal restriction, and peculiar to commerce, England only required the colonists to furnish her with the things she*wanted, on condition of receiving in return those in which she abounded, and of which they had need. The Americans were therefore obliged to carry to the English all the commodities and productions which their lands abundantly supplied,

BOOK I. THE AMERICAN WAR. 19

and, besides, the fleeces of their flocks for the use of her manufac- turers. It was also prohibited the colonists to purchase the manufac- tures of any other part of the world except England, and to buy the productions of lands appertaining to any European people whatever, unless these productions had been first introduced into the English ports. Such had been the constant scope and object of a great num- ber of -acts of parliament, from 1660 down to 1764 ; in effect, esta- blishing a real commercial monopoly, at the expense of the colonies, and