A School History of the United States by John Bach McMaster

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%116. Sons of Liberty.%--Meantime, the colonists had not been idle.
Taking the name of "Sons of Liberty," a name given to them in a speech
by a member of Parliament (named Barre) friendly to their cause, they
began to associate for resistance to the Stamp Act. At first, they were
content to demand that the stamp distributors named by the colonial
agents in London should resign. But when these officers refused, the
people became violent; and at Boston, Newark, N.J., New Haven, New
London, Conn., at Providence, at Newport, R.I., at Dover, N.H., at
Annapolis, Md., serious riots took place. Buildings were torn down, and
more than one unhappy distributor was dragged from his home, and forced
to stand before the people and shout, "Liberty, property, and
no stamps."

%117. November 1, 1765.%--As the 1st of November, the day on which
the Stamp Act was to go into force, approached, the newspapers appeared
decorated with death's-heads, black borders, coffins, and obituary
notices. The _Pennsylvania Journal_ dropped its usual heading, and in
place of it put an arch with a skull and crossbones underneath, and this
motto, "Expiring in the hopes of a resurrection to life again." In one
corner was a coffin, and the words, "The last remains of the
_Pennsylvania Journal_, which departed this life the 31st of October,
1765, of a stamp in her vitals. Aged 23 years." The _Pennsylvania
Gazette_, on November 7, the day of its first issue after the Stamp Act
became law, published a half sheet, printed on one side, without any
heading, and in its place the words, "No stamped paper to be had."
During the next six months, every scrap of stamped paper that was heard
of was hunted up and given to the flames. Thus, when a vessel from
Barbados, with a stamped newspaper published on that island, reached
Philadelphia, the paper was seized and burned, one evening, at the
coffeehouse, in the presence of a great crowd. A vessel having put in
from Halifax, a rumor spread that the captain had brought stamped paper
with him, and was going to use it for his Philadelphia clearance. This
so enraged the people that the vessel was searched, and a sheet of paper
with three stamps on it was found, and burned at the coffee-house.

%118. Non-importation Agreements.%--Meantime, the merchants in the
larger towns, and the people all over the country, had been making
written agreements not to import any goods from England for some
months to come.

The effect of this measure was immense. Not a merchant nor a
manufacturer in Great Britain, engaged in the colonial trade, but found
his American orders canceled and his goods left on his hands. Not a ship
returned from this country but carried back English wares which it had
brought here to sell, but for which no purchaser could be found.

%119. Stamp Act repealed.%--When Parliament met in December, 1765,
such a cry of distress came up from the manufacturing cities of England,
that Parliament was forced to yield, and in March, 1766, the Stamp Act
was repealed. In the outburst of joy which followed in America, the
intent and meaning of another act passed at the same time was little
heeded. In it was the declaration that Parliament did have the right to
tax the colonies "in all cases whatsoever."

%120. The Townshend Acts.%--If the people thought this declaration
had no meaning, they were much mistaken, for next year (1767) Parliament
passed what have since been called the Townshend Acts. There were three
of them. One forbade the legislature of New York to pass any more laws
till it had provided the royal troops in the city with beds, candles,
fire, vinegar, and salt, as required by what was called the Mutiny Act.
The second established at Boston a Board of Commissioners of the Customs
to enforce the laws relating to trade. The third laid taxes on glass,
red and white lead, painter's colors, paper, and tea. None of these
taxes was heavy. But again the right of Parliament to tax people not
represented in it had been asserted, and again the colonists rose in
resistance. The legislature of Massachusetts sent a letter to each of
the other colonial legislatures, urging them to unite and consult for
the protection of their rights. Pennsylvania sent protests to the King
and to Parliament. The merchants all over the country renewed their old
agreements not to import British goods, and many a shipload was sent
back to England.

%121. Colonial Legislatures dissolved.%[1]--The letter of
Massachusetts to the colonial legislatures having given great offense to
the King, the governors were ordered to see to it that the legislatures
did not approve it. But the order came too late. Many had already done
so, and as a punishment the assemblies of Maryland and Georgia were
dismissed and the members sent home. To dissolve assemblies became of
frequent occurrence. The legislature of Massachusetts was dissolved
because it refused to recall the letter. That of New York was repeatedly
dissolved for refusing to provide the royal troops with provisions. That
of Virginia was dismissed for complaining of the treatment of New York.

[Footnote 1: One of the charges against the King in the Declaration of
Independence.]

%122. Boston Riot of 1770.%--And now the troops intended for the
defense of the colonies began to arrive. But Massachusetts, North
Carolina, and South Carolina followed the example of New York, and
refused to find them quarters. For this the legislature of North
Carolina was dissolved. Everywhere the presence of the soldiers gave
great offense; but in Boston the people were less patient than
elsewhere. They accused the soldiers of corrupting the morals of the
town; of desecrating the Sabbath with fife and drum; of striking
citizens who insulted them; and of using language violent, threatening,
and profane. In this state of feeling, an alarm of fire called the
people into the streets on the night of March 5, 1770. The alarm was
false, and a crowd of men and boys, having nothing to do, amused
themselves by annoying a sentinel on guard at one of the public
buildings. He called for help, and a corporal and six men were soon on
the scene. But the crowd would not give way. Forty or fifty men came
armed with sticks and pressed around the soldiers, shouting, "Rascals!
Lobsters! Bloody-backs!" throwing snowballs and occasionally a stone,
till in the excitement of the moment a soldier fired his gun. The rest
followed his example, and when the reports died away, five of the
rioters lay on the ground dead or dying, and six more dangerously
wounded.[1]

[Footnote 1: The soldiers were tried for murder and were defended by
John Adams and Josiah Quincy. Two were found guilty of manslaughter. The
rest were acquitted. On the massacre read Frothingham's _Life of
Warren,_ Chaps. 6, 7; Kidder's _The Boston Massacre_; Joseph Warren's
Oration on March 6, 1775, in _Library of American Literature_, Vol.
III., p. 256.]

This riot, this "Boston Massacre," or, as the colonists delighted to
call it, "the bloody massacre," excited and aroused the whole land,
forced the government to remove the soldiers from Boston to an island in
the bay, and did more than anything else which had yet happened, to help
on the Revolution.

%123. Tea sent to America and not received.%--While these things were
taking place in America--indeed, on the very day of the Boston riot--a
motion was made in Parliament for the repeal of all the taxes laid by
the Townshend Acts except that on tea. The tea tax of 3d. a pound,
payable in the colonies, was retained in order that the right of
Parliament to tax America might be vindicated. But the people held fast
to their agreements not to consume articles taxed by Great Britain. No
tea was drunk, save such as was smuggled from Holland, and at the end of
three years' time the East India Company had 17,000,000 pounds of tea
stored in its warehouses (1773). This was because the company was not
permitted to send tea out of England. It might only bring tea to London
and there sell it at public sale to merchants and shippers, who exported
it to America. But now when the merchants could not find anybody to buy
tea in the colonies, they bought less from the company, and the tea lay
stored in its warehouses. To relieve the company, and if possible tempt
the people to use the tea, the exportation tax was taken off and the
company was given leave to export tea to America consigned to
commissioners chosen by itself. Taking off the shilling a pound export
tax in England, and charging but 3d. import tax in America, made it
possible for the company to sell tea cheaper than could the merchants
who smuggled it. Yet even this failed. The people forced the tea
commissioners to resign or send the tea ships back to England. In
Charleston, S.C., the tea was landed and stored for three years, when it
was sold by South Carolina. In Philadelphia the people met, and having
voted that the tea should not be landed, they stopped the ship as it
came up the Delaware, and sent it back to London.

%124. The Boston Tea Party.%--At Boston also the people tried to send
the tea ships to England, but the authorities would not allow them to
leave, whereupon a band of young men disguised as Indians boarded the
vessels, broke open the boxes, and threw the tea into the water.

%125. The Five Intolerable Acts.%--When Parliament heard of these
events, it at once determined to punish Massachusetts, and in order to
do this passed five laws which were so severe that the colonists called
them the "Intolerable Acts." They are generally known as

1. The Boston Port Bill, which shut the port of Boston to trade and
commerce, forbade ships to come in or go out, and moved the customhouse
to Marblehead.

2. The Transportation Bill, which gave the governor power to send
anybody accused of murder in resisting the laws, to another colony or to
England for trial.

3. The Massachusetts Bill, which changed the old charter of
Massachusetts, provided for a military governor, and forbade the people
to hold public meetings for any other purpose than the election of town
officers, without permission from the governor.

4. The Quartering Act, which legalized the quartering of troops on the
people.

5. The Quebec Act, which enlarged the province of Quebec (pp. 111, 124)
to include all the territory between the Great Lakes, the Ohio River,
the Mississippi River, and Pennsylvania. This territory was claimed by
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia under their "sea to sea"
charters (pp. 33, 46, 52, 156).

%126. A Congress called.%--When the Virginia legislature in May,
1774, heard of the passage of the Boston Port Bill, it passed a
resolution that the day on which the law went into effect in Boston
should be a day of "fasting, humiliation, and prayer" in Virginia. For
this the governor at once dissolved the legislature. But the members met
and instructed a committee to correspond with the other colonies on the
expediency of holding another general congress of delegates. All the
colonies approved, and New York requested Massachusetts to name the time
and place of meeting. This she did, selecting Philadelphia as the place,
and September 1, 1774, as the time.

%127. The First Continental Congress.%--From September 5 to October
26, accordingly, fifty-five delegates, representing every colony except
Georgia, held meetings in Carpenter's Hall at Philadelphia, and issued:

1. An address to the people of the colonies.
2. An address to the Canadians.
3. An address to the people of Great Britain.
4. An address to the King.
5. A declaration of rights.

%128. The Declaration of Rights.%[1]--In this declaration the rights
of the colonists were asserted to be:

1. Life, liberty, and property.
2. To tax themselves.
3. To assemble peaceably to petition for the redress of grievances.
4. To enjoy the rights of Englishmen and all the rights granted by the
colonial charters.

[Footnote 1: Printed in Preston's _Documents_, pp. 192-198. The best
account of the coming of the Revolution is Frothingham's _Rise of the
Republic of the United States,_ Chaps. 5-11.]

These rights it was declared had been violated:

1. By taxing the people without their consent.
2. By dissolving assemblies.
3. By quartering troops on the people in time of peace.
4. By trying men without a jury.
5. By passing the five Intolerable Acts.

Before the Congress adjourned it was ordered that another Congress
should meet on May 10, 1775, in order to take action on the result of
the petition to the King.

SUMMARY

1. As soon as Great Britain acquired Canada and the eastern part of the
Mississippi valley from France, and Florida from Spain, she did
three things:

A. She established the provinces of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida,
and the Indian country.

B. She drew a line round the sources of all the rivers flowing into the
Atlantic from the west and northwest, and commanded the colonial
governors to grant no land and to allow no settlements to be made west
of this line.

C. She decided to send a standing or permanent army to America to take
possession of the new territory and defend the colonies.

2. A part of the cost of keeping up this army she decided to meet by
taxing the colonists. This she had never done before.

3. The chief tax was the stamp duty on paper, vellum, etc. This the
colonists refused to pay, and Parliament repealed it.

4. The colonists having denied the right of Parliament to tax them, that
body determined to establish its right and passed the "Townshend Acts."
But the colonists refused to buy British goods, and Parliament repealed
all the Townshend duties except that on tea.

5. As the Americans would not order tea from London, the East India
Company was allowed to send it. But the people in the five cities to
which the tea was sent destroyed it or sent it back.

6. Parliament thereupon attempted to punish Massachusetts and passed the
Intolerable Acts.

7. These acts led to the calling and the meeting of the First
Continental Congress.

/---------------------------------------------\
France Spain
/----------------\ /-------\
Cape Breton. Florida
Canada.
Louisiana east of
the Mississippi.
\--------------------------------------------
and cuts the new territory (1763) into
Province of Quebec,
East Florida,
West Florida,
Indian country,
and draws proclamation line
limiting colonies in the west.
\-------------------------------/
New colonial policy necessary.
/----------------------------------------------\
Country to be defended by 10,000 royal troops.
Cost of troops to be paid
|
|---------------------------------------------
Partly by crown. Partly by colonies.
|
/----------------------------------
Share of colonies to be raised by
Enforcing acts of trade and navigation.
Taxes on sugar and molasses.
Stamp tax (1765).
/---------------------------^--------------------------------\
Resisted. Principle involved.
Action of Virginia and Massachusetts.
Stamp Act Congress.
Act repealed (1766).
Declaratory Act (1766).
--------------- / \
| | Glass. |
| | Red and white lead. |
--------------- | Painters' colors | Resisted and repealed (1770)
Townshend Acts | Paper. |
(1767). | Tea. /
\
/--------^-------\
Enforced.
Resisted (1773).
Resistance / \
punished by | Five Intoler- | Continental
| able Acts. | Congress called(1774).
\ /

CHAPTER XI

THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE

[Illustration: Statue of the Minute Man at Concord]

%129%. When the 10th of May, 1775, came, the colonists had ceased to
petition and had begun to fight. In accordance with the Massachusetts
Bill, General Thomas Gage had been appointed military governor of
Massachusetts. He reached Boston in May, 1774, and summoned an assembly
to meet him at Salem in October. But, alarmed at the angry state of the
people, he fortified Boston Neck,--the only land approach to the city,
and countermanded the meeting. The members, claiming that an assembly
could not be dismissed before it met, gave no heed to the proclamation,
but gathered at Salem and adjourned to Concord and then to Cambridge. At
Cambridge a Committee of Safety was chosen and given power to call out
the troops, and steps were taken to collect ammunition and military
stores. A month later at another meeting, 12,000 "minute men" were
ordered to be enrolled. These minute men were volunteers pledged to be
ready for service at a minute's notice, and lest 12,000 should not be
enough, the neighboring colonies were asked to raise the number
to 20,000.

[Illustration: Map of Country around Boston]

%130. Concord and Lexington.%--Meantime the arming and drilling went
actively on, and powder was procured, and magazines of provisions and
military stores were collected at Concord, at Worcester, at Salem, and
at many other towns. Aware of this, Gage, on the night of April 18,
1775, sent off 800 regulars to destroy the stores at Concord, a town
some twenty miles from Boston. Gage wished to keep this expedition
secret, but he could not. The fact that the troops were to march became
known to the patriots in Boston, who determined to warn the minute men
in the neighborhood. Messengers were accordingly stationed at
Charlestown and told to ride in every direction and rouse the people,
the moment they saw lights displayed from the tower of the Old North
Church in Boston. The instant the British began to march, two lights
were hung out in the tower, and the messengers sped away to do
their work.[1]

[Footnote 1: The ride of one of these men, that of Paul Revere, has
become best known because of Longfellow's poem, _Paul Revere's Ride._
Read it. ]

The road taken by the British lay through the little village of
Lexington, and there (so well had the messengers done their work), about
sunrise, on the morning of the 19th, the British came suddenly on a
little band of minute men drawn up on the green before the meeting
house. A call to disperse was not obeyed; whereupon the British fired a
volley, killing or wounding sixteen minute men, and passed on to
Concord. There they spiked three cannon, threw some cannon balls and
powder into the river, destroyed some flour, set fire to the courthouse,
and started back toward Boston. But "the shot heard round the world" had
indeed been fired.[2] The news had spread far and wide. The minute men
came hurrying in, and from farmhouses and hedges, from haystacks, and
from behind trees and stone fences, they poured a deadly fire on the
retreating British. The retreat soon became a flight, and the flight
would have ended in capture had they not been reenforced by 900 men at
Lexington. With the help of these they reached Charlestown Neck by
sundown and entered Boston.[3] All night long minute men came in from
every quarter, so that by the morning of April 20th great crowds were
gathered outside of Charlestown and at Roxbury, and shut the British
in Boston.

[Footnote 2: Read R. W. Emerson's fine poem, _Concord Hymn._ ]

[Footnote 3: Force's _American Archives,_ Vol. II.; Hudson's _History of
Lexington,_ Chaps. 6, 7; Phinney's _Battle of Lexington;_ Shattuck's
_History of Concord,_ Chap. 7. ]

When the news of Concord and Lexington reached the Green Mountain Boys
of Vermont, they too took up arms, and, under Ethan Allen, captured Fort
Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775.

%131. Congress becomes a Governing Body.%--The first Continental
Congress had been chosen by the colonies in 1774, to set forth the views
of the people, and remonstrate against the conduct of the King and
Parliament. This Congress, it will be remembered, having done so, fixed
May 10, 1775, as the day whereon a second Congress should meet to
consider the results of their remonstrance. But when the day came,
Lexington and Concord had been fought, all New England was in arms, and
Congress was asked to adopt the army gathered around Boston, and assume
the conduct of the war. Congress thus unexpectedly became a governing
body, and began to do such things as each colony could not do by itself.

%132. Origin of the Continental Army.%--After a month's delay it did
adopt the little band of patriots gathered about Boston, made it the
Continental Army, and elected George Washington, then a delegate in
Congress, commander in chief. He was chosen because of the military
skill he had displayed in the French and Indian War, and because it was
thought necessary to have a Virginian for general, Virginia being then
the most populous of the colonies.

Washington accepted the trust on June 16, and set out for Boston on June
21; but he had not ridden twenty miles from Philadelphia when he was met
by the news of Bunker Hill.

%133. Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.%--On a narrow peninsula to the
north of Boston, and separated from it by a sheet of water half a mile
wide, was the village of Charlestown; behind it were two small hills.
The nearer of the two to Charlestown was Breeds Hill. Just beyond it was
Bunker Hill, and as the two overlooked Boston and the harbor where the
British ships lay at anchor, the possession of them was of much
importance. The Americans, learning of Gage's intention to fortify the
hills, sent a force of 1200 men, under Colonel Prescott, on the night of
June 16, to take possession of Bunker Hill. By some mistake Prescott
passed Bunker Hill, reached Breeds Hill, and before dawn had thrown up a
large earthwork. The moment daylight enabled it to be seen, the British
opened fire from their ships. But the Americans worked steadily on in
spite of cannon shot, and by noon had constructed a line of
intrenchments extending from the earthwork down the hill toward the
water. Gage might easily have landed men and taken this intrenchment in
the rear. He instead sent Howe[1] and 2500 men over in boats from
Boston, to land at the foot of the hill and charge straight up its steep
side toward the Americans on its summit. The Americans were bidden not
to fire till they saw the whites of the enemy's eyes, and obeyed. Not a
shot came from their line till the British were within a few feet. Then
a sheet of flames ran along the breastworks, and when the smoke blew
away, the British were running down the hill in confusion. With great
effort the officers rallied their men and led them up the hill a second
time, to be again driven back to the landing place. This fire exhausted
the powder of the Americans, and when the British troops were brought up
for the third attack, the Americans fell back, fighting desperately with
gunstocks and stones. The results of this battle were two fold. It
proved to the Americans that the British regulars were not invincible,
and it proved to the British that the American militia would fight.

[Footnote 1: General William Howe had come to Boston with more British
troops not long before. In October, 1775, he was given chief command.]

[Illustration: BOSTON, CHARLESTOWN, ETC.]

%134. Washington takes Command.%--Two weeks after this battle
Washington reached the army, and on July 3, 1775, took command beneath
an elm still standing in Cambridge. Never was an army in so sorry a
plight. There was no discipline, and not much more than a third as many
men as there had been a few weeks before. But the indomitable will and
sublime patience of Washington triumphed over all difficulties, and for
eight months he kept the British shut up in Boston, while he trained
and disciplined his army, and gathered ammunition and supplies.

%135. Montreal taken.%--Meanwhile Congress, fearing that Sir Guy
Carleton, who was governor of Canada, would invade New York by way of
Lake Champlain, sent two expeditions against him. One, under Richard
Montgomery, went down Lake Champlain, and captured Montreal. Another,
under Benedict Arnold, forced its way through the dense woods of Maine,
and after dreadful sufferings reached Quebec. There Montgomery joined
Arnold, and on the night of December 31, 1775, the two armies assaulted
Quebec, the most strongly fortified city in America, and actually
entered it. But Montgomery was killed, Arnold was wounded, the attack
failed, and, six months later, the Americans were driven from Canada.

[Illustration: Bunker Hill Monument]

%136. The British driven from Boston, March 17, 1776.%--After eight
months of seeming idleness, Washington, early in March, 1776, seized
Dorchester Heights on the south side of Boston, fortified them, and so
gave Howe his choice of fighting or retreating. Fight he could not; for
the troops, remembering the dreadful day at Bunker Hill, were afraid to
attack intrenched Americans. Howe thereupon evacuated Boston and sailed
with his army for Halifax, March 17, 1776. Washington felt sure that the
British would next attack New York, so he moved his army there in April,
1776, and placed it on the Brooklyn hills.

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