XXVI. 1766. Russia with her own hand minuted an edict for uni- CHAP. versal tolerance. "Can you tell me," writes Voltaire1 exultingly to D'Alembert, "what will come within Oct. thirty years of the revolution which is taking effect in the minds of men from Naples to Moscow? I, who am too old to hope to see any thing, commend to you the age which is forming." But though so far stricken in years, Voltaire shall himself witness and applaud the greatest step in this progress; shall see insurgent colonies become a Republic, and welcome before Paris and the Academy of France a runaway apprentice as its envoy to the most polished Court of Europe. Meantime Choiseul dismissed from the Council of his King all former theories about America, alike, in policy and war; and looked more nearly into the condition of the British colonies, that his new system might rest on the surest ground. 1 Voltaire to D'Alembert, 15 Oct. 1766. 2 Choiseul to Durand, 15 Sept. 1766. 3* CHAPTER XXVII. CHAP. XXVII. 1766. CHARLES TOWNSHEND USURPS THE LEAD IN GOVERNMENT- OCTOBER, 1766-JANUARY, 1767. THE people of Massachusetts lulled themselves into the belief that they were "restored once more" to Oct. the secure enjoyment "of their rights and liberties." But their secret enemies, some from a lust of power, and others from an inordinate love of money,1 still restlessly combined to obtain an American army and an American tribute, representing them in numerous letters as necessary for the enforcement of the Navigation Acts, and even for the existence of Government. When the soldiers stationed in New-York had, in the night of the tenth of August, cut down the flagstaff of the citizens, the General reported the ensuing quarrel as a proof of "anarchy and confusion," and the requisiteness of troops for the support of "the laws."3 Yet the New-York Association of the Sons of Liberty had been dissolved; and all efforts to keep up "its glorious spirit," were subor 1 2 O Candidus [Samuel Adams], in * Holt's Gazette, 1232; 14 Aug. 433; Isaac Q. Leake's Life of John Lamb, 36. General Gage to Secretary Richmond, 26 Aug. 1766. "A few individuals "2 "A few individuals "2 at Boston, CHAP. XXVII. 1766. dinated to loyalty. having celebrated the anniversary of the outbreak against the Stamp Act, care was taken to report, how Oct. healths had been drunk to Otis, "the American Hampden, who first proposed the Congress;" "to the Virginians," who sounded the alarm to the country; to Paoli and the struggling Corsicans; to the spark of Liberty that was thought to have been kindled in Spain. From Bernard, who made the restraints on commerce intolerable by claiming the legal penalty of treble forfeits from merchants whom his own long collusion had tempted to the infraction of a revenue law, came unintermitted complaints of illicit trade. At Falmouth, now Portland, an attempt to seize goods under the disputed authority of Writs of Assistance, had been defeated by a mob; and the disturbance was made to support a general accusation against the Province. At Boston, Charles Paxton, the Marshal of the Court of Admiralty, came with the Sheriff and a similar warrant, to search the house of Daniel Malcom for a second time; but the stubborn patriot refused to open his doors, which they dared not break down, so doubtful were they of their right; and when the altercation attracted a crowd, they withdrew, pretending to have been obstructed by a riotous and tumultuous assemblage. These incidents, by themselves of little moment, were secretly Isaac Sears, John Lamb, and others to Nicholas Ray, New-York, 10 Oct. 1766. Andrew Oliver to Thomas Whately, 7 May, 1767, in Letters, &c., 19. Tenth Toast at Liberty Tree, 14 Aug. 1766. • Bernard to the Board of Trade, 18 Aug. 1766, and Inclosures; Same to Shelburne, 3 Sept. 1766; Bernard to Shelburne, 10 Oct. XXVII. 1766. Oct. CHAP. reported as a general rising against the execution of the Laws of Trade. But the chief reliance of the cabal rested on personal importunity; and the untiring Paxton, who had often visited England, and was known to possess as much of the friendship of Charles Townshend as a selfish client may obtain from an intriguing patron, was sent over as the representative of the colonial Crown Officers,' with special authority to appear as the friend of Oliver and of Hutchinson.8 We are drawing near the measures which compelled the insurrection of the colonies; but all the stars in their courses were harbingers of American Independence. No sooner were the prairies of Illinois in the possession of England than Croghan, a deputy Indian Agent, who from personal observation knew their value, urged their immediate colonization. Sir William Johnson; William Franklin, the royalist Governor of New Jersey; several fur-traders of Philadelphia; even Gage himself eagerly took part in a project by which they were to acquire vast estates in the most fertile valley of the world. Their proposal embraced the whole Western territory bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio, a line along the Wabash and Maumee to Lake Erie, and thence across Michi 4 XXVII. 1766. gan, Green Bay, and the Fox River, to the mouth of the Wisconsin.1 The tract was thought to contain sixty-three millions of acres, the like of which could Oct. nowhere be found. Benjamin Franklin favored the enterprise which promised fortune to its undertakers, and to America some new security for a mild colonial Administration. It was the wish of Shelburne, who loved to take counsel with the great philosopher on the interests of humanity, that the Valley of the Mississippi might be occupied by colonies enjoying English liberty. But the Board of Trade, to which Hillsborough had returned, insisted that emigrants to so remote regions would establish manufactures for themselves; and in the very heart of America, found a power, which distance must emancipate. They adhered, therefore, to the Proclamation of 1763, and to the range of the Alleghanies as the frontier of British settlements. But the prohibition only set apart the Great Valley as the sanctuary of the unhappy, the adventurous, and the free; of those whom enterprise, or curiosity, or disgust at the forms of life in the old plantations, raised above royal edicts; of those who had nowhere else a home; or who would run all risks to take possession of the fine soil between the Alleghanies and the Ohio. The boundless West became the poor 4 |