256 THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND 



Mississipj)! passed, as a result of the battle of Quebec, from the i)OS- 

 session of France to that of England. New France on the morning 

 of that day was a thing of the i)ast. • New England was simply a little 

 strip along the shore. It was a great day — more significant even 

 than the day of the Declaration of Independence — because it settled 

 that England, the Anglo-Saxon race, should be the dominant force on 

 this continent. When the shades of evening fell on that eventful day 

 the dying Wolfe murmured, " I die happy " ; but he could not know 

 how much he had done. Montcalm said, Avith true divination, that 

 he had struck a greater blow at his conquerors in their victory than 

 he could have done in their defeat, for he foresaw that the English 

 race on this side of the Atlantic would not remain in subjection to the 

 mother country. As one of our historians has truly said, there is no 

 event in modern histor}^ more significant, more fraught with great 

 consequences, than the cai)ture of Quebec. We s{)eak of the great 

 significance of the War of the Revolution ; we speak of the significance 

 of our Civil War ; but the greatest war ever waged here was the war 

 which ended in the trium])h of Wolfe upon the plains of Quebec, and 

 which determined that this America should l)e forever New England 

 and not New France. 



With the victory of Wolfe upon the heights of Quebec, says an 

 English historian, the history of the United States began. Mont- 

 calm knew well that the only thing that could keep these English 

 colonies a part of England was the danger which they were in from 

 Canada, and he knew that when Canada passed into English control 

 the feeling of independence among these Englishmen was such that 

 they were sure in time to have their separate national existence. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON THE EXPANDER OF ENGLAND 



With the victor}' at Quebec truly the history of the United States 

 began. The American Revolution was thus assured. What was the 

 American Revolution ? It was a movement which gained us our 

 independence; but it was more than that. We have noticed that 

 Puritanism was English and American. The movement which we 

 call our Revolution had its two parties alike, one on one side of the 

 ocean and one on the other, and Chatham and Burke and their asso- 

 ciates in all that conflict stood shoulder to shoulder with Ceorge Wash- 

 ington and Sam Adams, li^dmund Burke did not find it difficult to 

 see that the men behind the redoubt at Bunker Hill were the true 



