CHAPTER V THE REVOLUTION AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR In this chapter we study how our colonies became a free and independent nation. There was a cause for this—and an occasion for it. They should be distinguished one from the other. The causes have been described in preceding pages; from earliest days and through all our colonial history the struggle for freedom from autocracy had been going on. A crisis was now reached. The British Parliament began to enforce the collection of taxes which had not been regularly collected before. In order to do this laws and ordinances were made which the colonies felt were unjust. This was the occasion of the trouble. In a "revolution" what really "revolves"? Men's hearts-and the charters or constitutions under which men live. It was, therefore, evolution. Our forefathers' hearts had long been revolving; the "overt act" was now performed when they went to work to rewrite the constitutions of their various colonies and to turn those "colonies" into "States." The "revolution" was then completed. Would the new constitutions stand or fall? Only a war could settle that question. Thus a "Revolutionary War" followed to make England agree to the independence of the United States. "rotten The authorities in England, as it happened, were glad of the opportunity the threatened war in America offered. Whig leaders were making demands for the reform of Parliament so that it would really represent England; great cities like Manchester were not represented in Parliament while make-believe boroughs, boroughs" they were called, whose population had in part vanished, were represented. The American colonies were making demands similar to those of the political opponents of the King at home. He preferred to fight out the question across the seas rather than at home. He knew opinion was divided in America and in England. Thousands of colonists ("Loyalists") were unfavorable to war. These, he thought, could be so rallied that victory for the Loyalists in America would be certain. This is made clearer by the fact that the war was not wholly won or lost where it was fought in the colonies. True, the campaigns in America resulted disastrously, for the most part, for the British. But the heroic patriotism and undying faithfulness of the "embattled farmers" of the Thirteen Colonies was in no small measure aided by the reaction in public sentiment in their favor in England. The fact remains, however, that our forefathers little considered this "civil war" phase of the Revolution. Had England acted as she did they would have precipitated war just as they did, whether representation had been a problem in England or not. Greatly aided they were by Whig activities, at least until 1778; but they "stood on their own legs" and fought their own war. Their convictions were cemented by home affairs—not by foreign affairs; their patriotism was fired by their own vision of liberty—not by somebody else's. And the contest lost England the fairest colonial possession any nation ever owned. Section 16. The Prelude of the Revolution A GREATER England arose from the battle-smoke of the Seven Years' War in Europe, an empire with new princely possessions in America and India. The hour and its tasks demanded great genius, great men, and greatly The New increased revenues to pay new expenses as well as to pay a debt of 140 million pounds. Unfortunately King George put aside the man who had made the empire possible-William Pitt-and chose those of inferior caliber to meet the crisis at hand. British The need of more revenue was the vital need of the hour, and it was only human for England to try to fashion English a scheme by which some "other fellow" should theory and help pay the bill. European nations, generally, practice in had expected their colonies to "pay their way" laying duties and return a goodly profit in addition. England had been quite lenient with her American colonies as the times went. In theory she had laid taxes and tariffs and had made restrictions in trade favorable to herself. In practice, all regulations had been loosely enforced. To such a degree, in fact, was this true that the duties laid on the colonies hardly paid the bill for collecting them! Lord North found the profit from duties in America was less than £300 a year, while military expenses there amounted to £170,000 a year. "Navigation Since Cromwell's time (1651) what were called "Navigation Laws" had now and again been passed for the purpose of making colonial trade profitable to the Mother Country. This "Mercantile Theory," as it was Laws" called, may be summed up as follows: (a) foreign goods which did not come to the colonies through England were heavily taxed; (b) only English or colonial ships could do the carrying; (c) colonial manufactures were restricted so as not to hurt the Mother Country's manufactories. England wanted to manufacture all the goods the colonists needed. Also, she demanded that the colonies should export certain goods nowhere except to England. In order that there should be no mistake as to just what these goods were to be, a list of "enumerated commodities" was published. At first the colonies could not export tobacco, cotton-wool, or sugar anywhere except to England; later on naval stores, rice, copper, and furs were added to this list. Salutary neglect As the colonies grew more and more robust, capable, and selfconfident, it was evident that serious friction would naturally arise and not, particularly, through any one's fault. Friction did arise, but, since England did not strictly enforce tariff rules, it was allayed. Laws which hurt most were very laxly enforced. The colonies did not dispute England's right to pass them but fell into ways of ignoring and avoiding them. Smuggling became common and to it government officials learned to shut their eyes. The "Molasses Act" of 1733 is a good illustration. England did not import molasses enough to sup- "Molasses ply the rum manufacturers of New England. Act" The additional raw material which they needed was secured by barter from the French and Dutch islands. The Act mentioned forbade this and demanded that New England buy her molasses from British sources no matter how high the price. Such a foolish piece of legislation did harm in The two ways. The law was not enforced by English officials in the first place and, more harmful, the passage of it weakened the confidence the colonists had in the good sense of English lawmakers. Navigation Acts to be enforced To meet the great expenses of the new empire and to pay its enormous debt (incurred in good part in defense of the colonies) King George's ministers now proposed to make the Americans contribute to the Imperial treasury by strictly enforcing the various duties which had not been collected heretofore with any regularity. These taxes were not exorbitant. That on tea (which occasioned in time so great an outcry) would have produced but £40,000 revenue. It was the autocratic method adopted to collect this tribute which occasioned alarm and opened up the larger question of the Mother Country's right to lay any taxes which the colonists had not themselves first authorized in colonial legislation. The right to levy taxes questioned Writs of Otis's argument against writs One way to collect duties which had not heretofore been collected systematically was by the issuance of "Writs of Assistance" to ascertain the whereabouts of smuggled goods. English officers were authorized by these writs to search anywhere for suspected smuggled goods. The issuance of general warrants of such a kind had been made illegal by act of Parliament. James Otis, a brilliant Boston attorney, gained wide fame for keenly arguing a test case on this Act; his speech marked the beginning of formal American objection to such Acts, and first gave expression to the idea that "an Act of Parliament against the constitution is void.” One of the taxes now laid on the colonies was the Sugar Tax. The French West Indies paid for imports from our colonies, in part, in sugar. A new "Sugar Act" of 1764 (substituted for one of 1733) was more than a mere tax; it revised the whole navigation acts system for the stated purpose of raising a revenue. It absolutely prohibited trade between the English The Sugar |