Franklin's return to America-Meeting of Congress at Philadelphia-Washington elected Commander-in-Chief-Events at Boston-Battle of Bunker's Hill-Washington blockades Boston-Public opinion in England-Petition from Congress to the King-Mr. Penn, the bearer of the petition, examined in the House of Lords-Lord North's Prohibitory Bill-Invasion of Canada-Silas Deane sent to Paris-Declaration of Independence adopted by Congress.-Note: The Declaration.

At the end of March, 1775, that remarkable man, Benjamin Franklin, who, fifty years before, had been working in London as a journeyman printer, turned his back upon that England where he had received all honour as a philosopher, to become one of her most strenuous opponents in the struggle of his native country for independence. He left England-as we learn from a letter written a short time before his departure-with a firm conviction that her system of government was conducting her to ruin and disgrace. He deprecated any further attempt to restore united interests between the mother-country and her colonies: "When I consider," he writes, "the extreme corruption prevalent among all orders of men in the old rotten state, and the glorious public virtue so predominant in our rising country, I cannot but apprehend more mischief than benefit from a closer union. . . . Here, numberless and needless places, enormous salaries, pensions, perquisites, bribes, groundless quarrels, foolish expeditions, false accounts or no accounts, contracts and jobs, devour all revenue, and produce continual necessity in the

VOL. VI.

BB

354

MEETING OF CONGRESS AT PHILADELPHIA.

[1775.

midst of natural plenty."* Making every allowance for one whose endeavours to promote peace had been met with neglect and insult, much of this severe description is undoubtedly true. But Franklin still shrunk from war. “I would try anything, and bear anything that can be borne with safety to our just liberties, rather than engage in a war with such relations, unless compelled to it by dire necessity in our own defence." On the 5th of May he arrived in Philadelphia. On the 6th he was elected by the Assembly of Pennsylvania one of the deputies to the Continental Congress appointed to meet on the 10th. In a few days came the news of the first fatal contest at Lexington; and then Franklin writes to Priestley in England: "All America is exasperated. The breach between the two countries is grown wider, and in danger of becoming irreparable."+

The Congress assembled at Philadelphia, composed of deputies from thirteen States, held at first a common agreement only upon one principle,— the determination to resist the claim of the British government to tax the American colonies without their consent. But the mode of resistance, and the probable consequences of resistance, involved great differences of opinion. The provincial Assemblies which had elected these deputies were composed of members who, in their aggregate character, represented various interests,the agricultural and the commercial; who had varieties of national origin, Dutch, German, Swedish, as well as English; who professed various forms of religion. In the State where the Congress assembled, the majority were Quakers, who would cleave, as long as possible, to peaceful councils. The deputies from Massachusetts, on the contrary, irritated in their continual struggle with the authority of England, deprived of their charter, ruined in their commerce, would see no solution of their difficulties but in open war. There were several weeks of indecision; but, gradually, the more timid councils yielded to the bolder. The moderate-who clung to union with England, from the thought of a common ancestry, from respect to the state which had given them the model of free institutions, from commercial interests were alienated by the obstinate refusal of the British legislature to adopt reasonable measures of conciliation. The local Assemblies were using more determined language, and were organizing their provincial forces, as if there were to be a foreign enemy to be resisted. At Boston, the military authority of the Crown, and the armed resistance of the colonists, stood face to face; and no one could doubt that a more deadly trial of strength than that of the 19th of April, would speedily be the result. On the news of that day, numerous bodies of militia-men were on the march towards Boston, under bold leaders, who left their ordinary occupations to place themselves at the head of their neighbours. Such was Israel Putnam, a farmer and tavern-keeper, who became one of the generals of the revolutionary war. For a month, the British troops, who had exclusive possession of Boston, were harassed by the incessant activity of partisans. who cut off supplies from the interior. General Gage was blockaded in his stronghold, having only communication by sea. Many of the inhabitants had been permitted to leave the city with their effects. Others remained, not

"Franklin's Works," by Sparks, vol. viii. p. 146-Letter to Galloway, February 25, 1775. Ibid., p. 154,

1775.]

WASHINGTON ELECTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

355

being allowed to consider their merchandise as effects. On the 25th of May, reinforcements arrived from England, under the command of generals Burgoyne, Howe, and Clinton; and the force under general Gage now reached ten thousand men. Such an army, it might well be imagined, would be powerful to crush the irregular troops which were surrounding Boston. Martial law was proclaimed by the British commander, and a pardon offered to all who would lay down their arms, except John Hancock and Samuel Adams. The two proscribed men were naturally the boldest advocates for warlike measures in the Congress at Philadelphia. That body had resolved to petition the king; still clinging to hopes of pacification. But the course of events rendered such a policy hopeless. The olive branch had been sent to England; the sword had been drawn in America. The Congress passed

from a deliberative assembly into an executive power. The deputies had agreed upon articles of confederation and perpetual union, under the name of "The United Colonies of North America;" with authority to determine on war and peace, and on reconciliation with Great Britain; to raise troops; to appoint all officers civil and military. They resolved to provide for munitions of war by the issue of a paper currency. They appointed a commander-inchief of the confederate forces now to be called the Continental Army. That commander was George Washington.

*

The early military career of Washington has been briefly traced in a former chapter. Twenty years before he was thus selected for the greatest trust that could be reposed in a man, he was fighting in the British ranks against the French on the Ohio. He had no subsequent military experience. Possessing ample means, he resided upon his estate in Virginia, called Mount Vernon, a plain country gentleman, managing his property with a skilful economy;

* Ante, p. 207.

356

EVENTS AT BOSTON.

[1775. engaging in those field sports which were agreeable to his vigorous constitution; reading and meditating upon the past and the present with intelligent curiosity; giving a month or two of the year to his public duties as a member of the House of Burgesses. He was neither learned nor eloquent; he was modest and retiring. But by the undeviating exercise of his sound judgment and his rigid integrity, he had acquired a reputation in his own colony which had extended to other States. His strongest recommendations as Commanderin-Chief came from Massachusetts. The consistent force of his character procured for him a confidence that the noisy demagogue or the dashing partisan could not obtain. On the 16th of June his appointment was officially announced to him when he took his seat in the Congress. He would enter, he said, upon the momentous duty, although he did not think himself equal to the command he was honoured with. He added, that as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted him to accept this arduous employment at the expense of his domestic ease and happiness, he had no desire to make a profit by it. He would take no pay. He would keep an exact account of his expenses, and those he doubted not would be discharged. To his wife he wrote that it was utterly out of his power to refuse the appointment, although he had used every endeavour to avoid it. "But as it has been a kind of destiny that has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my undertaking it is designed to answer some good purpose."

The Congress, upon the acceptance by Washington of his appointment, resolved that it was necessary that he should immediately proceed to Boston to take upon himself the command of the army round that town. That army has been described as a mixed multitude, under very little discipline or order. They wanted many of the necessaries of war, especially ammunition. The men were brave-far braver than some of the insolent dependents upon the British ministry were willing to believe. "It was romantic to think they would fight," said Rigby, one of the parliamentary jobbers who lived upon corruption. "There was more military prowess in a militia drummer." Before Washington arrived at the camp near Boston, on the 3rd of July, the Provincials had shown how "they would fight."

Boston is built upon a peninsula. An isthmus on the south connected the peninsula with the mainland. A promontory, then called Dorchester Neck, now South Boston, had heights which commanded the town, and which are now fortified. On the east was the harbour; on the west, the Charles River. Divided from Boston on the north by this river, was Charles Town, also a peninsula. At the northern extremity, bounded by the Mystic River, is the height of Bunker's Hill; and lower down, nearer Charles Town, is Breed's Hill. An army having possession of these two hills on the north, and of Dorchester heights on the south, would have Boston at its mercy.+ The British generals had seen the importance of the acclivities of Charles Town, and had determined to land a force to take possession of them on the 18th of June. This became known to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety; and it was resolved to anticipate the movement of the British, by establishing a post on Bunker's Hill. After sunset on the 16th of June, a brigade of a