Formation of the Union, 1750-1829 Part 4

19. THE COLONIES DURING THE WAR (1754-1763).

[Sidenote: Internal quarrels.]

Seven years of war from 1754 to 1760, and two years more of military excitement, had brought about significant changes in the older colonies.

It was a period of great expenditure of men and money. Thirty thousand lives had been lost. The more vigorous and more exposed colonies had laid heavy taxes and incurred burdensome debts. The constant pressure of the governors for money had aggravated the old quarrels with the a.s.semblies.

The important towns were all on tide water, and not one was taken or even threatened; hence the sufferings of the frontiersmen were not always appreciated by the colonial governments. In Pennsylvania the Indians were permitted to harry the frontier while the governor and the a.s.sembly were in a deadlock over the question of taxes on proprietary lands. Braddock's expedition in 1755 was intended to a.s.sert the claim of the English to territory in the limits of Pennsylvania; but it had no aid from the province thus concerned. Twice the peaceful Franklin stepped forward as the organizer of military resistance.

[Sidenote: English control.]

In the early part of the war Ma.s.sachusetts took the lead, inasmuch as her governor, s.h.i.+rley, was made commander-in-chief. Military and civil control over the colonies was, during the war, divided in an unaccustomed fas.h.i.+on.

The English commanders, and even Governor Dinwiddie, showed their opinion of the Provincials by rating all their commissions lower than those of the lowest rank of regular British officers. The consequence was that George Was.h.i.+ngton for a time resigned from the service. In 1757 there was a serious dissension between Loudoun and the Ma.s.sachusetts a.s.sembly, because he insisted on quartering his troops in Boston. At first the colonies were called on to furnish contingents at their own expense: Pitt's more liberal policy was to ask the colonies to furnish troops, who were paid from the British military chest. New England, as a populous region near the seat of hostilities, made great efforts; in the last three campaigns Ma.s.sachusetts kept up every year five to seven thousand troops, and expended altogether 500,000. The other colonies, particularly Connecticut, made similar sacrifices, and the little colony of New York came out with a debt of $1,000,000.

[Sidenote: Colonial trade.]

As often happens during a war, some parts of the country prospered, notwithstanding the constant loss. New England fisheries and trade were little affected except when, in 1758, Loudoun shut up the ports by a brief embargo. As soon as Fort Duquesne was captured, settlers began to pa.s.s across the mountains into western Pennsylvania, and what is now Kentucky and eastern Tennessee. The Virginia troops received ample bounty lands; Was.h.i.+ngton was shrewd enough to buy up claims, and located about seventy thousand acres. The period of 1760 to 1763 was favorable to the colonies.

Their trade with the West Indies was large. For their food products they got sugar and mola.s.ses; from the mola.s.ses they made rum; with the rum they bought slaves in Africa, and brought them to the West Indies and to the continent. The New Englanders fitted out and provisioned the British fleets. They supplied the British armies in America. They did not hesitate to trade with the enemy's colonies, or with the enemy direct, if the opportunity offered. The conclusion of peace checked this brisk trade and commercial activity. When the war was ended the agreeable irregularities stood more clearly revealed.

20. POLITICAL EFFECTS OF THE WAR (1763).

[Sidenote: Free from border wars.]

[Sidenote: Pontiac's conspiracy.]

In government as well as in trade a new era came to the colonies in 1763.

Nine years had brought about many changes in the social and political conditions of the people. In the first place, they no longer had any civilized enemies. The Canadians, to be sure, were still mistrusted as papists; but though the colonists had no love for them, they had no fear of them; and twelve years later, at the outbreak of the Revolution, they tried to establish political brotherhood with them. The colonies were now free to expand westward, or would have been free, except for the resistance of the Western Indians gathered about the Upper Lakes. In 1763 Pontiac organized them in the most formidable Indian movement of American history. He had courage; he had statesmans.h.i.+p; he had large numbers. By this time the British had learned the border warfare, and Pontiac was with difficulty beaten. From that time until well into the Revolution Indian warfare meant only the resistance of scattered tribes to the steady westward advance of the English.

[Sidenote: Military experience.]

For the first time in their history the colonists had partic.i.p.ated in large military operations. Abercrombie and Amherst each had commanded from twelve to fifteen thousand men. The colonists were expert in fortification. Many Provincials had seen fighting in line and in the woods. Israel Putnam had been captured, and the fires lighted to burn him; and Was.h.i.+ngton had learned in the hard school of frontier warfare both to fight, and to hold fast without fighting.

[Sidenote: United action.]

The war had further served to sharpen the political sense of the people.

Year after year the a.s.semblies had engaged in matters of serious moment They laid heavy taxes and collected them; they discussed foreign policy and their own defence; they protested against acts of the British government which affected them. Although no union had been formed at Albany in 1754, the colonies had frequently acted together and fought together. New York had been in great part a community of Dutch people under English rule during the war; now, as most exposed to French attack, it became the central colony. Military men and civilians from the different colonies learned to know each other at Fort William Henry and at Crown Point.

[Sidenote: Scheme of British control.]

[Sidenote: Theory of co-operation.]

[Sidenote: Proposed taxes.]

[Sidenote: Navigation Acts.]

This unwonted sense of power and of common interest was increased by the pressure of the British government. Just before the war broke out, plans had been set on foot in England to curb the colonies; legislation was to be more carefully revised; governors were to be instructed to hold out against their a.s.semblies; the Navigation Acts were to be enforced. The scheme was dropped when the war began, because the aid of the colonies in troops and supplies was essential. Then arose two rival theories as to the nature of the war. The British took the ground that they were sending troops to protect the colonies from French invasion, and that all their expeditions were benefactions to the colonies. The colonists felt that they were co-operating with England in breaking down a national enemy, and that all their grants were bounties. The natural corollary of the first theory was that the colonies ought at least to support the troops thus generously sent them; and various suggestions looking to this end were made by royal governors. Thus s.h.i.+rley in 1756 devised a general system of taxation, including import duties, an excise, and a poll-tax; delinquents to be brought to terms by "warrants of distress and imprisonment of persons." When, in 1762, Governor Bernard of Ma.s.sachusetts promised 400 in bounties on the faith of the colony, James Otis protested that he had "involved their most darling privilege, the right of originating taxes."

On the other hand, the colonies systematically broke the Navigation Acts, of which they had never denied the legality. To organize the control over the colonies more carefully, to provide a colonial revenue for general colonial purposes, to execute the Navigation Acts, and thus to confine the colonial trade to the mother-country,--these were the elements of the English colonial policy from 1763 to 1775. Before these ends were accomplished the colonies had revolted.

CHAPTER III.

CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION (1763-1765.)

21. REFERENCES.

BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--Justin Winsor, _Handbook of the Revolution_, 1-25, and _Narrative and Critical History_, VI. 62-112; W. E. Foster, _Monthly Reference Lists_, No. 79; Channing and Hart, _Guide_, ---- 134-136.

HISTORICAL MAPS.--No. 2, this volume (Epoch Maps, No. 5); Labberton, _Historical Atlas_, lxiv.; Gardiner, _School Atlas_, No. 46; Francis Parkman, _Pontiac_, frontispiece; Putzger, _Atlas_, No. 21; B. A.

Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_, I. 68 (reprinted from MacCoun, _Historical Geography_).

GENERAL ACCOUNTS.--R. Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, 158-401; E.

Channing, _United States_, 1765-1865, ch. ii.; Geo. Bancroft, _United States_ (original ed.) V., VII, chs. i-xxvi. (last revision III., IV. chs.

i-viii.); W. E. H. Lecky, _England in the Eighteenth Century_, III. ch.

xii.; R. Hildreth, _United States_, II. 514-577; III. 25-56; G. T. Curtis, _Const.i.tutional History_, I. i.; J. M. Ludlow, _War of Independence_, ch.

iii.; Abiel Holmes, _Annals of America_, II. 124-198; Bryant and Gay, _United States_, III. 329-376; Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, VI. ch. i.; T. Pitkin, _United States_, I. 155-281; H, C. Lodge, _Colonies_, ch. xxiii.; J. R. Green, _English People_, IV., 218-234; W. M.

Sloane, _French War and Revolution_, chs. x.-xiv.; Adolphus, _England_, II. 134-332 _pa.s.sim_; Grahame, _United States_, IV. book xi. Biographies of John Adams, Samuel Adams, Otis, d.i.c.kinson, Hutchinson, Franklin, and Was.h.i.+ngton.

SPECIAL HISTORIES.--W. B. Weeden, _Economic and Special History of New England_, II. chs. xviii., xix.; Wm. Tudor, _Life of James Otis_; J. K.

Hosmer, _Samuel Adams_, 21-312; J. T. Morse, _Benjamin Franklin_, 99-201; M. C. Tyler, _Literature of the Revolution_, I., and _Patrick Henry_, 32-147; H. C. Lodge, _George Was.h.i.+ngton_, I. ch. iv.

CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--Works of Was.h.i.+ngton, Franklin, Patrick Henry, and John Adams; James Otis, _Rights of the British Colonies a.s.serted and proved_: Examination of Franklin (Franklin, _Works_, IV. 161-195); W. B.

Donne, _Correspondence of George III. with Lord North_ [1768-1783]; John d.i.c.kinson, _Farmer's Letters_; Jonathan Trumbull, McFingal (epic poem); Mercy Warren, _History of the American Revolution_; Thomas Hutchinson, _History of Ma.s.sachusetts_, III., and _Diary and Letters_; Joseph Galloway, _Candid Examination_; Stephen Hopkins, _Rights of the Colonies Examined_.--Reprints in _Library of American Literature_, III.; _Old South Leaflets_; _American History told by Contemporaries_, II.

22. THE CONDITION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE (1763).

[Sidenote: England's greatness.]

In 1763 the English were the most powerful nation in the world. The British islands, with a population of but 8,000,000 were the administrative centre of a vast colonial empire. Besides their American possessions, the English had a foothold in Africa through the possession of the former Dutch Cape Colony, and had laid the foundation of the present Indian Empire; small islands scattered through many seas furnished naval stations and points of defence. The situation of England bears a striking resemblance to the situation of Athens at the close of the Persian wars: a trading nation, a naval power, a governing race, a successful military people; the English completed the parallel by tightening the reins upon their colonies till they revolted. Of the other European powers, Portugal and Spain still preserved colonial empires in the West; but Spain was decaying. Great Britain had not only gained territory and prestige from the war, she had risen rich and prosperous, and a national debt of one hundred and forty million pounds was borne without serious difficulty.

[Sidenote: English government.]

It was a time of vigorous intellectual life, the period of Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, and Dr. Johnson. It was also a period of political development. The conditions seemed favorable for internal peace and for easy relations with the colonies. The long Jacobite movement had come to an end; George the Third was accepted by all cla.s.ses and all parties as the legitimate sovereign. The system of government worked out in the preceding fifty years seemed well established; the ministers still governed through their control of Parliament; but the great Tory families, which for two generations had been excluded from the administration, were now coming forward. A new element in the government of England was the determination of George the Third to be an active political force. From his accession, in 1760, he had striven to build up a faction of personal adherents, popularly known as the "king's friends;" and he had broken down every combination of ministers which showed itself opposed to him.

Although the nation was not yet conscious of it, the forces were at work which eventually were to create a party advocating the king's prerogative, and another party representing the right of the English people to govern themselves.

[Sidenote: Effect on the colonies.]

This change in political conditions could not but affect the English colonial policy. The king's imperious tone was reflected in all departments, and was especially positive when the colonies began to resist. It cannot be said that English parties divided on the question of governing the colonies, but when the struggle was once begun, the king's bitterest opponents fiercely criticised his policy, and made the cause of the colonists their own. The great struggle with the colonies thus became a part of the struggle between popular and autocratic principles of government in England.

23. NEW SCHEMES OF COLONIAL CONTROL (1763).

[Sidenote: Grenville's colonial policy.]

Allusion has already been made (-- 19) to vague schemes of colonial control suggested during the war. More serious measures were impending. When George Grenville became the head of the cabinet, in April, 1763, he took up and elaborated three distinctly new lines of policy, which grew to be the direct causes of the American Revolution. The first was the rigid execution of the Acts of Trade; the second was the taxation of the colonies for the partial support of British garrisons; the third was the permanent establishment of British troops in America. What was the purpose of each of these groups of measures?