4 THOMAS HUTCHINSON 



Had the Civil War resulted in dividing the United 

 States into two distinct nations, such an era of recon- 

 ciliation would, of course, have been long delayed. 

 With most people the sentiment of patriotism, which 

 now extends, however inadequately, over the whole 

 country, would then have become restricted to half of 

 it. It would have been long before an independent 

 Confederacy could have recognized the personal merit 

 of men who strove with might and main to prevent 

 its independence ; and it would have been long before 

 the defeated and curtailed United States could have 

 been expected to admire the character or do justice to 

 the motives of those who had shorn it of power and 

 prestige. When one group of people owes its national 

 existence to the military humiliation of another, the 

 situation is very unfavourable for correct historical 

 judgments, and it is apt to fare ill with the reputation 

 of men who have been upon the unpopular side. Such, 

 for the past hundred years, have been the relations 

 between the United States and Great Britain, and 

 accordingly many of the illustrious men of the Revo- 

 lutionary period are still sadly misunderstood, in the 

 one country if not in the other. The two foremost 

 men of the time, the two that tower above all others 

 in that century, Washington and Chatham, are indeed 

 accepted as heroes in both countries ; their fame is the 

 common possession of the English race. The admi- 

 ration which our British cousins feel for Washington 

 is perhaps even more disinterested than that which 

 we Americans feel for our eloquent defender, Chat- 

 ham ; but in either case the homage is paid to tran- 

 scendent greatness. In the portraits of too many of 

 the actors upon our Revolutionary scene, the brush of 



