HISTORIC SKETCHES. 



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1 again by thoe. 23. The father mutt be lored. 24. The bad 



: the laws of the MUte be ootwoieutiuunly 



11 nii/.'iiM. A^ of God re observed by holy 



i>ts of virtue beea observed by tlie young 



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HISTORIC SKETCHES, XXIV. 



ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



li'inan tellx us America ia obstinate; America ia 



in . |..-n rebellion. Sir, 1 rejoice that America has 



re-isteil. Three inii,!< BO dead to all the feelings 



i o be slaves, would have been 

 make slaves of all the rest. I come not here 

 point* with law cases and Acts of Parliament, with 

 iito-book doubled down in dog's ears, to defend the cause 

 \ . 1 1 1 had, L myself would have cited the two cases of 

 HIM Ihirhum. 1 \vuuld have cited them to show that 

 even under arbitrary reigns Parliament were ashamed of taxing 

 ii. ut their eoiir-i'iit. u;ul allowed them representa- 

 tives. The gentleman asks, when were the colonies emancipated ? 

 But I desire to know when they were made slaves." 



Such were the words of Mr. Pitt, on the 14th of January, 



17i><>, in the course of an indignant remonstrance he made 



a^idust the policy the Government was pursuing towards the 



British colonies in America, a policy which was arousing in the 



colonists a fierce and implacable resentment towards the mother 



count ry, and which finally determined them to sever at all risks 



"imectioii with her. The occasion was a memorable one, 



the words used by some orators in the debate were almost pro- 



. and the blindness of the rulers in the matter savoured 



almost of affliction. 



Of all the colonies of Great Britain none were more loyal, 

 more generous in their devotion, more easy to be governed, than 

 the plantation colonists in America. Though founded originally 

 by men who preferred to face Nature in her wildest form, both 

 as regards scenery and men, rather than live under the rule of 

 oppressors in their native land, the colonies had become famous 

 for inhabitants of unquestionable loyalty, men whose pride it 

 was to speak of England as their home, who cherished English 

 ways and English modes of thought, named their towns after 

 towns in England, taught their children not only to fear God, 

 but also to honour the king who had never seen their land, 

 and who dwelt in a remote island 2,000 miles across the sea. 

 Nearly 150 years had elapsed since the Pilgrim Fathers, 

 _r England in a vessel of 186 tons, the Mayflower, landed 

 near Cape Cod and founded Plymouth, the first of the New 

 England settlements. By conquest, by treaty, by settlement, 

 by purchase, the American colonies grew till they constituted 

 thirteen large provinces, each having a governor appointed by 

 the King of England, with local magistrates, on the municipal 

 system, administering the laws of England and such local laws 

 as were from time to time found to be necessary. At the time 

 Mr. Pitt spoke of them in the English House of Commons they 

 included over two millions of people of European blood, and 

 about a million more of Africans and native Indians, but these 

 three millions were scattered over a vast tract of country, and 

 might well have been deemed unable to cope with the organised 

 forces of a powerful empire. " I know the valour of your troops. 

 I know the skill of your officers," said Pitt. " In a good cause, 

 oi> a sound bottom, the force of this country can crush America 

 to atoms. But," he added, " in such a cause as this your 

 success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would fall 

 like the strong man. She would embrace the pillars of the State 

 and pull down the Constitution along with her ! Is this your 

 boasted peace P Not to sheathe the sword in its scabbard, but 

 to sheathe it in the bowels of your countrymen?" 



But what was the occasion of this language ? Of what nature 

 was the fear that the loyal colonies would throw off their 

 allegiance ? What cause was there to suppose that the United 

 States were about to come into existence ? Where was the vulner- 

 able place in the dutifuluess of the Americans ? Let us see. 



From the time of the first settlement till 1765 all had gone 

 well with the colonists, because they had been left alone by 

 the Homo Government. Beyond sending out governors, and 

 occasionally issuing orders which were necessarily to be obeyed, 

 not only by the American colonies, but by every part of the 



for the common good, the Authorities at Whitehall 

 troubled their heada very little about the " plantation*," M 

 ttioy wore called. But .-. occurred to Mr. Grtnvilto, 



then at the head of affair* in England, to recruit the ihaaated 

 ury, by extending aome of the impost*, which were 

 payable in England, to the colonies. It most be conceded that 

 if he did not know he waa doing right, he waa by no mean* 

 assured ho was doing wrong, in reaorting to ancb an expedient, 

 though the argument* which were advanced to him, to aay 

 nothing of the question aa to the policy or impolicy of the move- 

 ment, might have had more weight than he choae to allow them. 

 He decided, after trying one or two petty impoeta, which though 

 not acquiesced in were not reaiated, to extend to America the 

 same stamp duties aa were payable by the people at home, and 

 he hoped by this means to gather into the imperial coffer* a 

 sum estimated at something lens than 100,000 a-year. 



Now one of the most valuable concessions ever made by a 

 king was the concession which was made by King John in the 

 Great Charter, and afterwards ratified in a separate Act of 

 Parliament, to the effect that no money by way of tax, or by any 

 other means, should be levied on the commons of England with- 

 out their own consent previously expressed by the voice of their 

 representatives in Parliament. The American colonies had not 

 any representatives in the English House of Commons, no one by 

 whom they could give assent or dissent to the proposals made to 

 tax them, and they could not therefore legally be called upon to 

 obey the orders in such a matter even of the British king, lords, 

 and commons. Already they had put up their backs against some 

 custom-house charge which had been imposed in 1764, though 

 they admitted the abstract right of the imperial Government to 

 charge them, and though the money raised was intended to be 

 spent on the protection and improvement of the colonies. They 

 were taking annually something like the worth of j3,000,000 

 a-year in British produce and manufactures, and with increasing 

 prosperity would have taken much more, when the imposition of 

 these vexations duties turned the current of their commercial 

 liberality backwards, and resolved them to form societies for the 

 renunciation of trade with Great Britain. It was while things 

 were in this state that Mr. Grenville, " by way of experiment, 

 towards further aid from the Americans," brought into the 

 British House of Commons a bill to extend to America almost 

 all the stamp duties in force at home. 



The American colonists were deeply incensed when they heard 

 that the bill had passed into law, and that it had done so without 

 a division in the House of Lords, and with only one division in 

 the House of Commons. It was not because they begrudged 

 the money. Had the king chosen to send letters to the assem- 

 blies of each of the provinces, asking for a grant in aid of 

 imperial expenses, especially the expenses incurred in defending 

 the American coasts and frontiers, there cannot be any doubt 

 but the call would have been answered liberally. They would 

 give handsomely if asked to give, but pay as a matter of right 

 they would not. So the colonists determined. Mr. Grenville, 

 though remonstrated with by all who knew most about the 

 colonies, insisted on his Stamp Act ; collectors and assessors 

 were appointed, and Boston was chosen as the head-quarters of 

 the Stamp Commissioners. 



As soon as the news reached Boston, the flags of the shipping 

 there were hoisted half-mast high, and the church bells tolled as 

 if for a funeral, the Stamp Act itself was reprinted and sold, 

 with a death's head instead of the royal arms, and for its proper 

 title was substituted, " The folly of England and the ruin of 

 America." The House of Representatives in Virginia, under 

 the guidance of Patrick Henry, drew up a spirited remonstrance 

 to be laid before the king ; other colonial legislatures, imitating 

 the example of Virginia, did the same thing ere the several 

 governors could dissolve them ; and the people bound themselves 

 not to buy any British thing with which they could possibly 

 dispense, until the obnoxious tax should be repealed. 



In England the strongest efforts were made to procure a repeal 

 of the Act. All the eloquence of Mr. Pitt, all the learning of 

 Lord Camden, all the authority of the largest-hearted and 

 clearest-sighted statesmen of the day were employed to con- 

 vince the king and his ministers of the danger in which the 

 country stood in respect of the colonies, and to devise some 

 means by which that danger might be averted. Pitt declared 

 it as his opinion that the Stamp Act ought to be repealed 

 "absolutely, totally, and immediately. That the reason for 



