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latter; the cause of Boston" had become in a new and fearful sense "the cause of all." Their delegates in the Congress proclaimed a declaration of the reasons for the appeal to arms, passed a resolution to raise 20,000 troops, each Colony to furnish its quota on an agreed equitable basis; appointed, on the nomination of Massachusetts, George Washington, of Virginia, to be Commander-in-Chief of all the Colonial forces; and made other preparations for defending the rights of the Colonies against what they considered unwarranted aggressions, actual or threatened, on their chartered rights. "We have not raised armies," they declared, "with ambitious designs of separating from Great Britain and establishing independent States. We fight not for glory or conquest. We shall lay them (arms) down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before." 2

*

*

But revolutions never go backward; and, in the light of history, this declaration of the representatives of the Colonies, if sustained by the several Colonies, meant independence or subjugation. It was not so regarded, however, in the Colonies; it was generally expected that the British Ministry would recede from their measures

'This was an effective piece of diplomacy. "The delegates from New England were particularly pleased with his election, as it would tend to unite the Southern Colonies cordially in the war.”—Am. Mil. Biog., 325. But it was very offensive to the New England offi cers who had hitherto commanded in their military operations. Some of them refused to serve under "Continental officers," notably John Stark, Seth Warner, Artemas Ward, and Seth Pomeroy.

2On the 26th of April, 1775—a week after the battle of Lexington— the Legislature of Massachusetts, in session at Watertown, issued an "Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain," which contained the following passage: "They" (the British Ministry) "have not yet detached us from our Royal Sovereign; we profess to be his loyal and dutiful subjects."-Dillon's Hist. Evidence, page 54.

of aggression, as they had so often done before. Accordingly the people in many of the Colonies were attempting, for months after General Washington took command at Boston, to bring about accommodations with the Royal Governors. In New Jersey the expectation of a reconciliation was not abandoned even as late as July 2, 1776, when her new frame of government was adopted.1

This Congress remained in session several months, and the delegates, obeying instructions from their several Colonies, declared, July 4, 1776 (though New York's assent was not obtained till July 9), that these Colonies renounced ali allegiance to the British sovereign; and "that as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.

952

About the same time a plan of union was being drafted by a committee which had been appointed early in June. The result of their labors was the Articles of Confederation, which were submitted November 15, 1777, to the several State Legislatures, with a request for instruc

1Since Massachusetts was the first Colony to resist Great Britain, it would be natural to suppose that she was first to propose independence; but she was behind the Southern Colonies, North Caro lina taking the lead on April 12.

Bancroft obscures this disagreeable truth in the following passage in Volume VIII, page 449: "Comprehensive instructions reaching the question of independence without explicitly using the word, had been given by Massachusetts in January."

2Samuel Johnston, President of the North Carolina Assembly, in a letter to Messrs. Hooper, Hewes and Penn, dated April 13, 1778, G said: "The North Carolina Congress have likewise taken under consideration that part of your letter requiring their instructions with respect to entering into foreign alliances, and were unanimous in their concurrence with the enclosed resolve, confiding entirely in your discretion with regard to the exercise of the power with which you are invested.”—North Carolina Colonial Records, X, 495.

tions to their several delegations to approve and sign them.

They proposed in the preamble to establish "a Confederation and perpetual union between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia." They were also translated into the French language and sent with an address to the people of the British Provinces north of these States, the eleventh article providing that "Canada acceding to this Confederation and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to, all the advantages of this Union," and that other Colonies might be admitted by the assent of nine States.

On the 9th of July, 1778, the Articles were signed by the delegates from the New England States, New York, Virginia and South Carolina, New York's approval being on the condition that all the other States would approve. The delegates from New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland refused to sign because their States had not so instructed them, while North Carolina and Georgia were not represented. In the course of ten months, however, all the States except Maryland acceded to the Confederation. She stood aloof until March 1, 1781, the last year of active hostilities. Practically, therefore, the war was waged under the Continental Congress, which was little more than an advisory body, all really effective political power being in the several States. After the war was ended the Articles of Confederation, designed principally as the Constitution of a military government, were found unsuited to the new situation. The excitement of the war period and the necessity for extra exertion, which could be relied on as inducements

for each State to furnish its quota of requisitions to the general treasury, had now passed away; and the Legislatures of the several States were loath to burden their impoverished constituents with even the taxes necessary to discharge their own obligations, contracted in each. State for the maintenance of its own military organization and the defense of its own soil. Hence there was inadequate provision for the debts and obligations of the Continental Congress and "the United States in Congress assembled."

This situation induced some of the ablest men in the States to advocate amending the Articles of Confederation so that the "United States in Congress assembled" could lay and collect taxes; and in a short time commercial jealousies of particular States, threatening the peace of the Union, indicated the necessity of other amendments. At last, after four years of uncertainty and discontent-counting from the definitive treaty of peace a Convention was called, framed a new Constitution, and asked the States to ratify it, as we have seen.

This general survey of the relations of the States prepares us for a somewhat critical inquiry into the structure of the Union, which we will postpone to the next chapter, wherein we shall study the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.

NOTE A.

BRITISH TAXATION AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE COLONIES OF

NORTH AMERICA.

"Taxation without representation" has always been held to have been the cause of the Revolutionary war; but familiar as we are with the difficulty of bringing the masses of the people to a realization of the heavy tax-burden imposed on them by the Federal Government, it is not easy to understand how the peoples of all the Colonies could have been induced to unite in measures of opposition to British taxation. To-day the average man who complains

if his direct tax to his State, county or town amounts to $25, will in the course of a year pay to his merchant $150 for his purchases, $75 of it going to the Federal treasury, if the goods are foreign, or into the pocket of the manufacturer, if they are domestic; and he will do this without a murmur, because the tax is concealed from him, being levied, as Turgot said, so as to pluck the goose without mak ing it cry.

NOTE B.

The historians who have persistently asserted that Great Britain never "attempted directly or indirectly to derive a dollar of reve nue" from these Colonies, have never satisfactorily accounted for the existence of Custom Houses at all the seaports. They tell us that the Custom House was moved from Boston to Salem; but the reader is left in the dark as to the duties of the officers. The truth seems to be that taxes were collected on certain imports, to which the importer raised no objection, because he reimbursed himself when he sold the articles to his customers, who, as now, did not see the tax "wrapped up" in the price. Hence it was easy to convince the great majority of the people, as it is now, that they were not taxed by tariff acts.

But import taxes were not all. In all the Royal Colonies there was an annual land tax called "quit rents," collected by the King's officers and turned over to the Royal Treasury. In 1729, when George II bought seven shares of North Carolina from the Lords Proprietors, he paid 5,000 pounds for the "quit rents" then in arrears. The custom was to sell land for a nominal sum-50 shillings per 100 acres and stipulate for this annual rent, which was usually four shillings per 100 acres, or nearly one cent per acre.

This was quite a heavy tax; it would amount to-day to about a quarter of a million of dollars in North Carolina. But there was no outcry against it.

NOTE C.

The New England Colonies sent Col. Ethan Allen twice into Can ́ada, in the autumn of 1775, to observe the disposition of the people and enlist their cooperation, with apparently favorable results. In a letter from John Penn, one of North Carolina's delegates in the Continental Congress, to Thomas Person, dated February 12, 1776, he said: "The Canadians in general are on our side.”—North Carolina Colonial Records, X, 448.

And about the time Penn wrote this letter the Congress sent Dr. Franklin, Samuel Chase and Charles Carroll on a mission to Canada; and in April invited Father John Carroll (Charles's cousin) to go with them. The latter was selected "because of his * * * religious standing among his brethren of the Catholic faith, and be