1775.] MR. PENN EXAMINED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. 361 of the majority of the people,-from the time of that rejection of their last humble effort at pacification held that to British councils, and not to American, all the bloodshed and guilt of the war were to be ascribed. The British government considered, or professed to consider, that with "vague expressions of attachment to the parent state," the rebellious war was "manifestly carried on for the purpose of establishing an independent empire." The Americans maintained, up to that period, that they entertained no such purpose. In the House of Lords, on the 7th of November, the petition of the Congress to the king was to be taken into consideration, and having been read, the duke of Richmond moved that Mr. Penn be examined. That examination, which took place on the 10th, was a very important testimony to the state of opinion in the Colonies. The questions proposed to Mr. Penn, as he stood at the bar of the House of Lords, were chiefly those of the duke of Richmond and other supporters of the opposition; but he was subjected to a cross-examination by the earl of Sandwich and others of the ministry. He had resided four years in America; he was two years in the government of Pennsylvania. He thought the members of Congress were men of character, and capable of conveying the sense of America; they undoubtedly convey the sense of the provinces they represent, and he firmly believed the provinces would be governed by their decisions. He was acquainted with almost all the members of the Congress. "Do you think," he was asked, that "they levy and carry on this war for the purpose of establishing an independent empire ?" His answer was, "I think they do not carry on the war for independency; I never heard them breathe sentiments of that nature." He was asked, "For what purpose do you believe they have taken up arms?" Brief and emphatic was his answer: "For the defence of their liberties." At the close of his examination Mr. Penn distinctly stated that the most opulent inhabitants of the American provinces would prefer freedom under this country to any other state of freedom; and that while supporting the measures of the Congress they wished at the same time a reconciliation with Great Britain.† The opinions of Mr. Penn on the subject of independence have been confirmed by those held by Washington, Madison, Franklin, and Jefferson, before the commencement of hostilities. Even after that commencement Jefferson affirms that the possibility of separation was "contemplated with affliction by all." Mr. Jay marks more distinctly the period when the notion of separation began to be received: "Until after the second petition of Congress in 1775, I never did hear an American of any class, or of any description, express a wish for the independence of the colonies. . . . Our country was prompted and impelled to independence by necessity and not by choice." A motion that the petition of Congress brought by Mr. Penn afforded grounds for conciliation was rejected by an overwhelming majority. In vain Shelburne and Grafton in the Lords,-in vain Burke, Fox, and Barré in the Commons,-supported propositions "for composing the present troubles in America." The government carried its measures with a high hand. Chatham was again incapable through sickness of taking part in the debates of this 362 LORD NORTH'S PROHIBITORY BILL-CANADA. [1775. solemn period. Lord North's Prohibitory Bill, forbidding any commerce with the thirteen American Colonies, was carried, in all its severe enactments, without Chatham's voice being heard to reprove Mansfield for hounding on the people to the extremities of war. But Chatham emphatically manifested the consistency of his opinions. General Carleton, the commander in Canada, had sent home lord Pitt, Chatham's eldest son, with despatches; and in a letter to the father had expressed the most favourable opinion of his aide-decamp. The countess of Chatham writes to general Carleton to convey the gratitude of her husband; who, from ill health, was unable fully to testify his sense of obligation: "Feeling all this, sir, as lord Chatham does, you will tell yourself with what concern he communicates to you a step that, from his fixed opinion with regard to the continuance of the unhappy war with our fellow-subjects of America, he has found it necessary to take. It is that of withdrawing his son from such a service."* General Carleton, in his letter to Chatham from Montreal, in September, says, of lord Pitt, "I would it had been in my power to send him with more agreeable news for the public." The Congress had sanctioned an invasion of Canada, under the command of general Montgomery. Benedict Arnold had received a detachment of a thousand men from Washington's army in Massachusetts; and Ethan Allen was ready for a repetition of some such dashing exploit as his capture of Ticonderoga. Allen was marching to attack Montreal when he fell in with the British troops; was made prisoner; and was sent to England. Arnold, having surmounted great difficulties in penetrating through a country of woods and rocks, his men sometimes wading through rapid rivers, and sometimes carrying their boats over barren heights-appeared suddenly before Quebec. Arnold was repulsed by colonel Maclean, who came in time to save the capital of Canada. But Montgomery was approaching with a larger force. Carleton, with energetic resolution, set off from Montreal disguised as a fisherman; and, passing in a whale-boat through the American flotilla on the St. Lawrence, got into Quebec, and took the command. On the 31st of December the united forces of Montgomery and Arnold climbed the heights of Abraham, and attacked the city. They were met by a formidable resistance. Montgomery was killed, and Arnold severely wounded. But the Americans blockaded Quebec throughout the winter. From July 1775, to February 1776, Washington had continued the blockade of Boston. He was tired of what he describes as the irksomeness of his situation. The frost had formed some pretty strong ice over the river Charles, and he contemplated an assault upon the town. He was over-ruled by a council of war. Meanwhile the British army, in camp round Boston, was suffering great privations and miseries. The small-pox had broken out among the troops. The want of fresh provisions and of fuel made sickness and cold more fatal. In March, Washington had taken possession of Dorchester Heights, and was about to secure other strong points, from which measures he hoped it would be in his power to force the ministerial troops to an attack, or to dispose of them in some way that will be of advantage to us." No attack was made by the British; and on the 19th "Chatham Correspondence," vol. iv. p. 420. Ibid., February 26. 1776.] EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 363 of March, Washington wrote to the President of Congress, "It is with the greatest pleasure I inform you, that on Sunday last, the 17th instant, about nine o'clock in the forenoon, the ministerial army evacuated the town of Boston, and that the forces of the United Colonies are now in possession thereof." General Howe sailed for Halifax to wait for reinforcements. Washington and his army marched for New York; against which city he felt. assured that the British arms would be next directed. The Congress ordered a gold medal to be struck to commemorate the evacuation of Boston.* On the 20th of February, 1776, lord North presented copies of treaties between Great Britain and the duke of Brunswick, the landgrave of Hesse Cassel, and the count of Hanau, for the hire of troops. The prime minister said, "that the force which this measure would enable us to send to America would be such as, in all human probability, must compel that country to agree to terms of submission, perhaps without any further effusion of blood." The petty German princes made a hard bargain with the British government. Mr. Hartley, the friend of Franklin, said with a clear prospect of the future, "When foreign powers are once introduced in this dispute, all possibility of reconciliation and return to our former connection is totally cut off. You have given a justification to the Americans by your example, if they call in the assistance of foreign powers." The measure was supported by a majority of a hundred and fifty-four. On the 3rd of March, Silas Deane was dispatched by the Congress to Paris, with instructions to inform the French minister for foreign affairs, that in the event of the probable separation from Great Britain, France would be regarded as the power whose friendship it would be fittest for the United Provinces of America to obtain and cultivate. At the beginning of 1776, the Americans had been defeated by general Carleton, and had retired from Quebec. In other engagements they had *The obverse of the medal is given at the head of this chapter. 364 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BY CONGRESS. [1776. been equally unsuccessful; and Canada, in the summer of that year, was in the unmolested possession of the king's troops. In June, general Howe had left Halifax, and had landed his forces on Staten Island. In July, admiral lord Howe arrived with reinforcements from England. The two brothers had been authorised, as Commissioners, to receive the submission of insurgent colonists, to grant pardons, and inquire into grievances. At an earlier period the appointment of these Commissioners, who were men of sense and moderation, might have had beneficial results. But the state of feeling amongst the colonists was hurrying onward that measure of separation, which the most sagacious saw would be the inevitable result of an obstinate assertion of authority opposed to an ardent desire for independence-a desire at first timidly avowed by a few, dreaded by most, and at last matured into a sentiment which it would have been dangerous in the minority to oppose. Whilst the British forces under Howe were taking a position on Staten Island, and the Americans, under Washington, were collecting on Long Island and in the city of New York, each preparing for hostilities, the Congress at Philadelphia took a decisive resolution which gave to the war a character somewhat different from an insurrection. In the Convention of Virginia the delegates to Congress had been instructed to propose that the Colonies should declare themselves independent of Great Britain. The proposal was submitted to the Congress at the beginning of June, and was debated for some days with slight prospect of unanimity. Six of the Colonies were opposed to the immediate adoption of such a measure. Nevertheless, a committee of five was appointed to prepare a manifesto embodying this principle. Jefferson was selected to make the draught of a Declaration of Independence. It was submitted and discussed on the 1st of July, when the delegates of Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted against it. Those of Delaware were divided in opinion; and those of New York withdrew. On the next day, by a 1776.] DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BY CONGRESS. 365 compromise and a change of delegates, three of the dissentient provinces gave their adhesion to the majority. The draught prepared by Jefferson was discussed during sittings of three days; and it was finally agreed to by the members present of the twelve States, with the exception of one. The delegates from New York were subsequently empowered to give their assent. Thus, on the 4th of July, was completed what has been not unjustly termed "the most memorable public document which history records." * We give the document in a note to this chapter. The long catalogue of "injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny," must be regarded, in many particulars, rather as overstrained inferences from impolitic acts, than as evidences of deliberate oppression. Like most of the manifestoes in any great conflict of principles, these charges must be viewed rather as a demonstration of temporary feeling than as incontrovertible truths. But the opening paragraphs of the Declaration are very remarkable as an exposition of doctrines which had a different origin than the Anglo-Saxon institutions upon which the American Colonies were founded. The deputies of Congress say, "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and their happiness." These were not American ideas. They were based upon the "Social Contract" of Rousseau, and reflected the popular philosophy which was destined to produce a far mightier revolution than that of the separation of America from the British Crown. In France, where inalienable rights-life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness-were too frequently trampled upon by the governing classes, the American Declaration of Independence was hailed as a beautiful illustration of that theory of liberty and equality which was delightful to speculate upon in the Parisian salons-a theory calling forth a delicious enthusiasm, provided it could be kept at a safe distance. If we look back with wonder and pity upon the obstinacy of the British government in the attempt to coerce the Americans into submission, we may regard as a stronger manifestation of political blindness, the support which the French government gave to that practical assertion of republican freedom, which was to convert the ideal democracy of which courtly aristocrats delighted to talk, into the terrible reality in which a long-suffering people roused themselves to act, in a fearful revenge of centuries of misrule. |