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CHAP. haps of any who have figured in the last ten years,' is the contemporary record of John Adams. "I canApril. not sufficiently respect his integrity and abilities,"

1774.

said Clymer of Pennsylvania; "all good Americans should erect a statue to him in their hearts."2 Time proved that he had been right, even where his conduct had been questioned; and many in England "esteemed him the first politician in the world." He saw clearly that "the rigorous measures of the British administration would the sooner bring to pass" the first wish of his heart, “the entire separation and independence of the Colonies, which Providence would erect into a mighty empire." Indefatigable in seeking for Massachusetts the countenance of her sister Colonies, he had no anxiety for himself; no doubt of the ultimate triumph of freedom; but as he thought of the calamities that hung over Boston, he raised the prayer, "that God would prepare that people for the event, by inspiring them with wisdom and fortitude."

The members of the Committee knew how momentous was the revolution which they were accomplishing. "We have enlisted," they said, "in the cause of our country, and are resolved at all adventures to promote its welfare; should we succeed, our names will be held up by future generations with that unfeigned plaudit, with which we now recount the great deeds of our worthy ancestors." 1

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Meantime, New-York gave proof that the union CHAP. was perfect; on the nineteenth, while the House of Commons was voting not to repeal the duty on tea, April. its people sent back the tea-ship which had arrived but the day before; and eighteen chests of tea, found on board of another vessel, were hoisted on deck and emptied into "the slip."

America had chosen her part, so too had the British Ministry. The second penal Bill for the Government of Massachusetts Bay, which was introduced into Parliament on the twenty-eighth, without any hearing or any notice to the Province, abrogated so much of its Charter as gave to its Legislature the election of the Council; abolished Town Meetings except for the choice of town officers, or on the special permission of the Governor; conferred on the executive the power of appointing and removing the Sheriffs at pleasure; and transforming the trial by jury into a snare for the people, it intrusted the returning of juries to the dependent Sheriff. This Bill, too, notwithstanding the earnest resistance of Dunning, passed the Commons by a vote of more than three to one.

A third penal measure, which had been questioned by Dartmouth, and recommended by the King, transferred the place of trial of any magistrates, Revenue officers, or soldiers, indicted for murder or other capital offence in Massachusetts Bay, to Nova Scotia1 or Great Britain. As Lord North brought forward this wholesale Bill of indemnity to the Governor and soldiers, if they should trample upon the people of Boston and be charged

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CHAP. with murder, it was noticed that he trembled and LII. faltered at every word; showing that he was the vasApril. sal of a stronger will than his own, and vainly struggled to wrestle down the feelings which his nature refused to disavow. "If the people of America," said Van, "oppose the measures of Government that are now sent, I would do, as was done of old, in the time of the ancient Britons; I would burn and set fire to all their woods, and leave their country open. If we are likely to lose it, I think it better lost by our own soldiers, than wrested from us by our rebellious children." "The Bill is meant to enslave America," said Sawbridge with only forty to listen to him. "I execrate the present measure," cried Barré; "you have had one meeting of the Colonies in Congress; you may soon have another. Americans will not abandon their principles; for if they submit they are slaves."

The

Yet the Bill passed the Commons by a vote of more than four to one. But evil when it comes, is intermixed with good; the ill is evanescent, the good endures. The British Government inflamed the passions of the English people against America, and courted their sympathy; as a consequence, the secrecy of the debates in Parliament came to an end; and this great change in the political relation of the Legislature to public opinion, was conceded by a Tory Government, seeking strength from popular excitement. The concession was irrevocable.

A fourth measure legalized the quartering of troops within the town of Boston. The fifth statute professed to regulate the Government of the Province of Quebec. The nation which would not so much as legally recognise the existence of a Catholic in Ireland,

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April.

from political considerations sanctioned on the Saint CHAP. Lawrence "the free exercise of the religion of the Church of Rome, and confirmed to the clergy of that Church their accustomed dues and rights." So far the act was merciful; but it extended the boundaries of the Government to the Ohio and the Mississippi, and over the vast region, which included, besides Canada, the area of the present States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, it decreed an arbitrary rule. The establishment of Colonies on principles of liberty is "the peculiar and appropriated glory of England," 1 rendering her venerable throughout all time in the history of the world. The office of peopling a Continent with free and happy commonwealths was renounced. The Quebec Bill which quickly passed the House of Lords, and was borne through the Com mons by the zeal of the Ministry and the influence of the King, left the people who were to colonize the most fertile territory in the world without the writ of Habeas Corpus to protect the rights of persons, and without a share of power in any one branch of the Government.

In this manner Great Britain, allured by a phantom of absolute authority, made war on human freedom. The liberties of Poland had been sequestered, and its territory began to be parcelled out among the usurpers. The aristocratic privileges of Sweden had been swept away by treachery and usurpation. The Free Towns of Germany, which had preserved in that empire the example of Republics, were, "like so many dying sparks that go out one after another."

1 Edmund Burke.

CHAP. Venice and Genoa had stifled the spirit of indepenLII. dence in their prodigal luxury. Holland was ruinApril. ously divided against itself.

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In Great Britain the

House of Commons had become so venal, that it might be asked, whether a body so chosen and so influenced was fit to exercise, legislative power even within the realm. If it shall succeed in establishing by force of arms its "boundless" authority over America, where shall humanity find an asylum? But this decay of the old forms of liberty was the symptom and the forerunner of a new creation. The knell of the ages of servitude and inequality was rung; those of equality and brotherhood were to dawn.

As the fleets and armies of England went forth to consolidate arbitrary power, the sound of war every where else on the earth died away. Kings sat still in awe, and nations turned to watch the issue.