943 



UNITED STATES. 



UNITED STATES. 



981 



government to the commanders of king's ships stationed in America 

 to enforce the law against smuggling, which had hitherto been very 

 generally connived at by the authorities. Both the act and the 

 instructions were met in a spirit of the most determined resistance. 



The Assembly of Massachusetts protested against the Sugar Act 

 and the quartering of troops as unconstitutional; and appointed a 

 committee to (it during the recess, to write to other governments to 

 inform them of the resolutions, and to invite all the colonial assemblies 

 to join with them to obtain a repeal of the Sugar Act and prevent the 

 enactment of a Stamp Act. la Virginia the House of Burgesses, on 

 receiving information of the declaratory act, prepared an address to 

 the king, a memorial to the House of Lords, and a remonstrance to 

 the House of Commons. The confiscations of the naval commanders 

 put a stop to the commerce which the English colonies had carried 

 on with the French islands and the Spanish settlement*. The conse- 

 quence of these acts and discussions was a universal ferment through- 

 out the colonies; nevertheless the Sugar Act, being regarded as a 

 commercial regulation, was not openly disobeyed. 



In the beginning of 1765 the British parliament followed up the 

 declaratory resolution of the preceding year by passing an act for 

 raising a revenue by a general stamp-duty through all the American 

 colonies. The Assemblies of Massachusetts and Virginia protested 

 again.it the act aa unconstitutional On the 7th of October a Congress, 

 consisting of twenty eight delegates, from the Assemblies of Massa- 

 chusetts, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, 

 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Delaware counties, Mary- 

 land, and South Carolina, met in the city of Mew York. The results 

 of its deliberations were, a petition to the king, a memorial to each 

 House of Parliament, and a recommendation to the colonies to appoint 

 special agents to solicit redrew of grievances. The Stamp Act was 

 never enforced; and in 170'i it wai repealed by parliament But the 

 repeal was accompanied by a declaratory act, asserting the right and 

 power of the British Legislature to bind the colonies in all cases what- 

 ever ; and in conformity with this declaration an act was passed in 



1767, imposing a duty on paper, glass, painters' -colours, and teas, to 

 be paid by the colonists in the colonies. This act was met ou the part 

 of the Americans with the same determined spirit of resistance as the 

 Stamp Act. The Assembly of Massachusetts addressed, in February 



1768, a circular letter to the burgesses and representatives of the 

 people throughout the colonies, requesting them to unite to obtain 

 redress. The colonial legislatures generally expressed their approval 

 of this letter and were consequently dissolved. The members of the 

 Misfhnirt>s Assembly, on being dissolved by the governor, re- 

 assembled under the name of a Convention, and continued to sit and 

 act as a legislature in defiance of his authority. When the new 

 colonial legislatures met, in 1769, they proved as intractable as their 

 predecessor*. In 1770 Lord North, who had succeeded the Duke of 

 Orafton as premier, prepared a bill to repeal so much of the act of 



1 imposed duties on glau, paper, and painters' -colours, and to 

 continue that port which imposed a duty on tea. Such an alteration 

 could have no effect on the sentiment* of the colonials, who objected 

 to the right of the British parliament to tax them, not to the amount 

 of the tax. 



I'r .in the meeting of the Congress of 1765 till 1774, the authorities 

 were able to carry into effect noue of the parliamentary or ministerial 

 measure* throughout the thirteen colonies, except where soldiers were 

 present to enforce them. But the resistance was everywhere local, 

 spontaneous, unpreconcerted, though none the less resolute. In 1771 

 the Regulators of North Carolina shut up the courts of justice, and 

 were only put down after a pitched battle. In 1772 the colonists of 

 Khnde Island captured the armed government schooner Gaspee. In 

 1773 the citizens of Boston threw the cargoes of tea, which had been 

 brought into their harbour notwithstanding their non-importation 

 resolutions, into the sea. Every attempt on the part of the govern- 

 ment officers to enforce the obnoxious laws called forth petitions, pro- 

 tests, and remonstrances from the colonial legislatures ; and when 

 these bodies were dissolved, their members met as congresses or con- 

 ventions without the authority of the governor.', and transacted 

 business w before. The destruction of the tea in Boston in 177!) was 

 punuhed in 1774 by an act of parliament ordering the port to bo 

 shut up. The enforcement of this act converted the community of 

 Boston into martyrs for American liberty. At Philadelphia a subscrip- 

 tion was set on foot for the poorer inhabitants ; the Assembly of Vir- 

 ginia proclaimed a solemn fast to be observed ou the day the port 

 was closed ; the neighbouring ports offered the use of their stores and 

 wharfs to the merchants of Boston. Boston became a central point 

 towards which the sympathies of all America converged the nucleus 

 of a combination of all the colonies. Committees of correspondence 

 already existed in most of thriu. The first had been appointed at a 

 town-meeting in Boston in 1772; another by the House of Burgesses 



;inia in 1773. In June 1774 the Massachusetts House of Repre- 

 sentatives appointed a committee of five persons to meet committees 

 gate* from the other provinces at Philadelphia on the 1st of 

 September. The colonies represented on this occasion were New 

 Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, 

 New Jereev, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. On 



Ith the deputies from North Carolina arrived. This first Con- 

 tinental Congress continued to sit for eight week*. During that 



period it prepared ami published 1. A Declaration of Rights, enu- 

 merating the nets by which they had been violated, and declaring a 

 repeal of these acts indispensable to the restoration of harmony 

 between Great Britain and the colonies. 2. A loyal address to the 

 king. 3. An address to the people of Great Britain. 4. Letters to 

 the people of Canada, to the colonies of St. John's, Nova Scotia, and 

 Georgia, and the Florida?, inviting them to unite in the common cause 

 of British America. 5. A memorial to the people of British America. 

 The 1 resolutions of the Continental Congress received the sanction of 

 the thirteen provincial congresses and colonial assemblies, with the 

 exception of that of New York. 



A second Congress met at Philadephia on the 10th of May, but 

 before that time hostilities had been commenced by the battle of 

 Lexington in Massachusetts. The intimation of this collision to Con- 

 gress called forth a declaration that hostilities had already commenced, 

 and that the colonies ought to be placed in a state of defence. On 

 the 27th of May it was voted that 20,000 men should be immediately 

 equipped, and George Washington appointed general and commander- 

 in-chief; articles of war were framed, and the organisation of the 

 higher departments of the army commenced ; bills of credit were 

 issued to defray the expenses of the war, and ' the Twelve United 

 Colonies ' pledged for their redemption : in short, all the functions of 

 an independent legislature were now assumed, and from this time 

 continued to be carried on. Before the second Congress dissolved 

 Georgia had elected delegates ; and the members of Congress despair- 

 ing of any of the mainland colonies wrested from the -French and 

 Spaniards joining their standard, had forbidden all exportation to 

 Quebec, Nova Scotia, and East and West Florida, and prohibited the 

 supply of provisions to British fisheries on the American coast. Thus, 

 before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the United 

 Colonies had already all the essentials of their future general govern- 

 ment as well as states' governments. The want of a chief magistrate 

 was supplied by appointing an Executive Committee of twelve, one- 

 third of whom were to retire every year by rotation. The Declaration 

 of Independence, framed by a committee of five persons, including 

 John Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin, appointed by the third Congress 

 for the purpose, was finally adopted by the delegates on the 4th of 

 July, 1776; a day which has ever since been kept by the Americana 

 as a public festival. 



In 1777 Articles of Confederation and perpetual union between 

 ' The United States of America ' were drawn up by Congress and sent 

 to the legislatures of the several states, with the request that, if they 

 approved of them, they would authorise their delegates to ratify the 

 contract in Congress. By these articles the states were to bind them- 

 selves to a league for common defence ; the free inhabitants of each 

 state were to be citizens of the whole Union ; each state was to retain 

 iti sovereignty, and every power not expressly delegated to Congress. 

 Congress waa to consist of delegates from all the states, to be invested 

 with the power of determining on peace and war, and other supremo 

 executive powers. These articles, if adopted, were to be binding until 

 alterations were made by Congress, and approved by the legislatures 

 of every state. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, 

 New York, Virginia, and South Carolina, acceded to this confederation 

 in 1777; New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, 

 and Georgia, in 1778; Delaware in 1779; Maryland not before 1781. 

 Under this make-shift constitution, in which the legislative, executive, 

 and judicial functions were all vested in one body, the United State* 

 brought the war with Great Britain to a successful termination in 

 1783 ; and it was not till six years later that they attempted to 

 organise the general government upon a more permanent system. 



In 1778 the first public audience was given by the king of France 

 to the American ambassadors. In April, 1782, Holland recognised 

 the independence of the United States. lu 1783 peace was concluded 

 between Great Britain and the United States. Their independence 

 was recognised in the course of the same year by Sweden, on the 5th 

 of February; by Denmark on the 25tn; by Spain on the 24th of 

 March ; and by Russia in July. Treaties of amity and commerce were 

 concluded with all these nations, and thus the United States of North 

 America took their place among the nations of the earth. The original 

 extent of the territory of the United States was from the British 

 possessions on the north to Florida, which had again fallen to Spain, 

 on the south ; and from the Atlantic on the east to the Mississippi on 

 the west. 



The inadequacy of the Congress, as constituted under the Articles 

 of Confederation, to exercise tire functions of government, soon became 

 apparent. A convention, sanctioned by the recommendation of Con- 

 gress, assembled at Philadelphia, in May, 1787, to frame a constitution 

 for the United States. The. great difficulty in this task arose from 

 the jealousies which existed between the large and the small states : 

 it was obviated by instituting a legislature of two chambers, the 

 members of the one (the House of Representatives) to be elected 

 directly by the people in proportion to the population ; the members 

 of the other (the Senate) to be elected as each state should determine, 

 two for each state. A president was to be elected for four years, and 

 to be re-eligible at the close of the term. A supremo court of judiciary 

 was also to be created. A qualified negative ou the proceedings of 

 the legislature was given to the prexident, and a right of concurrence 

 in the ratification of treaties to the Senate. The power of taxation 



