From Farm House to the White House Part 38

"And George the Third may profit by their examples!" finishing the sentence in thunder tones.

"Sir," he continued, after running his eye over the a.s.sembly, "if this be treason (bowing to the speaker) make the most of it!"

Lieutenant-governor Fauquier was alarmed at this disloyal demonstration, and proceeded to dissolve the a.s.sembly, though not until the resolutions were adopted in a modified form, still retaining, however, their patriotic spirit.

Washington supported the resolutions, and condemned the governor for dissolving the a.s.sembly; and, as the governor ordered a new election, hoping thereby to secure a Legislature of truly loyal members, he recommended the re-election of those who voted for the resolutions, and the non-election of those who voted against them. The people were so impregnated with the spirit of Patrick Henry, that nearly every man who voted for the resolutions was returned to the next a.s.sembly, and nearly all the others were left at home.

"Patrick Henry's course was treasonable," said Lord Fairfax to Washington. "A pet.i.tion to the king, expressing our grievances, and praying for the removal of these oppressive measures would accomplish far more for us in my judgment."

"And yet Patrick Henry had right, justice, and patriotism on his side,"

replied Washington. "Without his spirit we should bend our necks to the British yoke, and become a nation of slaves."

"Yes; but appeal to the government should precede opposition," suggested Fairfax.

"We have appealed,--vainly appealed," answered Washington. "The New England Colonies have remonstrated again and again; but their remonstrances have been spurned. The British Government must understand the patriotic spirit that animates our people."

"All that is true; but it is not necessary to arouse the wrath of the British lion in order to accomplish that," remarked Fairfax.

"That is a matter which should not trouble us," replied Washington. "Our rights and liberties should be maintained at all hazards. And I am heartily in favor of the New England plan to cease using importations on which taxes are imposed."

"I am with you in that," said Fairfax.

"I confess that my sympathies are with the inhabitants of Boston, even in their violent demonstrations against the enforcement of these unjust measures."

"To what do you particularly refer?" inquired Lord Fairfax.

"The citizens of Boston hung the stamp distributor in effigy, broke the windows of his office, and finally tore his office down and made a bonfire of the fragments. They closed their demonstration by pelting the officials, who interfered, with stones. The stamp distributor resigned his office at once."

"That is insurrection," remarked Fairfax.

"Very true, and I would not recommend a resort to such extreme measures; certainly not at this stage of affairs. Yet I really sympathize with the patriotic spirit that has aroused the people of Boston to repel acts of usurpation and tyranny."

Benjamin Franklin had been sent to England as an agent of the Colonies to intercede for their rights. He was summoned before a committee of Parliament, where the following colloquy occurred:

"What was the temper of America towards Great Britain before the year 1763?" That was the year of the treaty between England and France, as we have seen.

"The best in the world," Dr. Franklin answered. "They submitted willingly to the government of the Crown, and paid, in all their courts, obedience to the acts of Parliament. Numerous as the people are in the several old provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons, or armies, to keep them in subjection. They were governed by this country at the expense only of a little pen, ink, and paper. They were led by a thread.... Natives of Great Britain were always treated with particular regard; to be an Old England man was, of itself, a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us."

"And what is their temper now?"

"Oh, very much altered!"

"If the Stamp Act is not repealed, what do you think will be the consequences?"

"A total loss of the respect and affection the people of America bear to this country, and of all the commerce that depends on that respect and affection."

"Do you think the people of America would submit to pay the stamp duty if it was moderated?"

"No, never, unless compelled by force of arms."

This was stating the case without reserve; and, no doubt, it had much to do with the repeal of the Stamp Act in March, 1766.

It should not be overlooked that the Colonies had some strong friends in Parliament. Charles Townsend advocated the enforcement of the Stamp Act.

"Who are these Americans?" he cried. "Are they not our children, planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence, and protected by our arms?"

The brave Colonel Barre, with cheeks all inflamed with virtuous indignation, replied:

"They planted by your care? No, sir; your oppressions planted them in America! They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated and inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to all the evils which a wilderness, filled with blood-thirsty savages, could threaten.

And yet, actuated by true English love of liberty, they thought all these evils light in comparison with what they suffered in their own country, and from you, who ought to have been their friends.

"They nourished by your indulgence? No, sir; they grew by your neglect!

As soon as you began to indulge them, that boasted indulgence was to send them hungry packs of your own creatures to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon their substance! Yes, sir; you sent them men, whose behavior has often caused the blood of those Sons of Liberty to recoil within them--men promoted by you to the highest seats of justice in that country, who, to my knowledge, had good cause to dread a court of justice in their own! They protected by your arms? No, sir! They have n.o.bly taken up arms in your defence--have exerted a most heroic valor, amidst their daily labors, for the defence of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood, while its interior parts gave up all their savings to our emolument!"

These words of Barre were as just as they were heroic; for, in the "Seven Years' War" the Americans lost about thirty thousand men; and Ma.s.sachusetts alone spent about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in defence of the country.

The next session of the House of Burgesses occurred after a Congress of delegates from the several Colonies met in New York City. The doings of that Congress were not suited to make the action of the Virginia Legislature more conciliatory, for that Congressional body denounced the acts of the British Parliament, and declared that Americans could never submit to such a.s.saults upon their liberties.

The Virginia a.s.sembly was more insurrectionary at the next session, startling the new governor (Lord Botetourt) to such a degree that he appeared in the council chamber personally, and said:

"Mr. Speaker, and gentlemen of the House of Burgesses, I have heard of your resolves, and augur ill of their effects. You have made it my duty to dissolve you, and you are dissolved accordingly."

The Burgesses adjourned to a private house, and made Peyton Randolph moderator. Here Washington presented "a draft of the articles of a.s.sociation, concerted between him and George Mason. They formed the ground-work of an instrument signed by all present, pledging themselves neither to import nor use any goods, merchandise, or manufactures taxed by Parliament to raise a revenue in America."

This plan had been adopted by the New England Colonies, and now measures were taken to make it universal.

Washington adhered scrupulously to the plan, and allowed nothing to come into his house with the tax of England upon it. He wrote to his London agent:

"You will perceive, in looking over the several invoices, that some of the goods there required are upon condition that the act of Parliament, imposing a duty on tea, paper, etc., for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, is totally repealed; and I beg the favor of you to be governed strictly thereby, as it will not be in my power to receive any articles contrary to our non-importation agreement, which I have subscribed and shall religiously adhere to, and should, if it were as I could wish it to be, ten times as strict."

He wrote to George Mason:

"Our all is at stake, and the little conveniences and comforts of life, when set in compet.i.tion with our liberty, ought to be rejected not with reluctance, but with pleasure.... It is amazing how much this practice, if adopted in all the Colonies, would lessen the American imports, and distress the various traders and manufacturers in Great Britain."

Washington's prediction was fulfilled. The traders of England were embarra.s.sed by non-importation, and appealed to the government for relief. The tax was removed from all articles except tea. It was retained on tea in order "to show the Colonies that England claimed the right of taxation."

To the Colonies a tax on one article was just as much an invasion of their rights as a tax upon all; so that the last act of Parliament was additional proof that England meant to force taxation upon them. Of course, as brave and fearless patriots, they resisted. Tea was universally discarded. Ship-loads of it in Boston, New York, and other ports were returned to England, or packed away to perish. In Boston seventeen citizens disguised themselves as Indians, boarded an English tea-vessel, and cast the tea into the dock. This act aroused the British lion, and he shook his mane and roared. Soon an English fleet appeared in Boston Harbor to reduce the inhabitants to subjection by force of arms. At the same time, the Boston Port Bill was enforced, thereby closing the harbor of that city to commerce.

The citizens refused to provide quarters for the English troops, and declared, in public a.s.sembly, that quartering British soldiers in the State House and Faneuil Hall, as the English officers had done, was a still further and graver invasion of their rights.

We should have said that the day on which the Stamp Act went into operation, Nov. 1, 1765, was observed throughout the Colonies as a day of fasting and prayer. The day was ushered in by the tolling of bells, as if the funeral ceremonies of the king himself were to be performed.

Ships displayed their colors at half-mast. Business was suspended, and halls and churches were opened for prayer and addresses. Washington's journal shows that he spent the day very much as he did his Sabbaths, in devout worship in the house of G.o.d, and religious exercises at home.

In Boston a solemn procession bore along the streets effigies of the men who were promoters of the Act, burying them with appropriate ceremonies.

In New York City a similar procession carried the printed Act itself upon a pole, surmounted by a death's head, with a scroll bearing the inscription,

"THE FOLLY OF ENGLAND AND RUIN OF AMERICA."

Lieutenant-Governor Colden, who had lent his influence to secure the Act, fearing violence, fled to the fort, and garrisoned it with marines from a ship of war. "The mob broke into his stable, drew out his chariot, put his effigy into it, paraded it through the streets to the Common (now the Park), where they hung it on a gallows. In the evening it was taken down, put again into the chariot, with the devil for a companion, and escorted back by torchlight to the bowling green, where the whole pageant, chariot and all, was burnt under the very guns of the fort."