men, and small things, is lost, that of the truly great becomes more bright. The contemporary aspect of things is often confused and indistinct. The eye, which is placed too near the canvass, beholds, too distinctly, the separate touches of the pencil, and is perplexed with a cloud of seemingly discordant tints. It is only at a distance, that they melt into a harmonious, living picture."

Nor does .t detract from the honour of the eminent person ages, who were conspicuous in the transactions of our earlier history, that they foresaw not all the glorious consequences of their actions. Not one of our pilgrim fathers, it may be safely conjectured, had a distinct anticipation of the future progress of our country. Neither Smith, Newport, nor Gosnold, who led the emigrants of the south; nor Carver, Brewster, Bradford, or Standish, who conducted those of the north; looked forward to results like those which are witnessed by the present generation. But is the glory of their enterprise thereby diminished? By no means; it shines with an intenser light. They foresaw nothing with certainty, but hardships and sacrifices. These, they deliberately and manfully encountered. They went forward unassured, that even common prosperity would attend their enterprise They breasted themselves to every shock; as did the vessel which bore them, to the waves of the ocean.

Or, to take an example which has a more direct reference to the work before us; it may be fairly conjectured, that not a member of the illustrious assembly that declared the Inde pendence of America, had any adequate conception of the great events which were disclosed in the next half century. But, will this detract from their merit in the estimation of posterity! again we say, it will enhance that merit. In the great national crisis of 1775, the minds of the leading men were wrought up to the highest pitch of fervour. They glowed with the loftiest enthusiasm. The future was, indeed, indistinct; but it was full of all that was momentous. What the particular consummation would be, they could not foresee. But conscious of their own magnanimous designs, and in a humble reliance on divine providence, they pledged to each

other, their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honour, either to die in the assertion of their unalienable rights, or to establish American liberty upon a solid foundation. The merit of these men, and of all who contributed to the happy condition of our republic, should be measured, by the grandeur of the actual consequences of their enterprise, although the precise extent of those consequences could not then have been foreseen.*

In a work, whose professed object is, to speak of men who lived and flourished in the days of our revolutionary struggle, we have little to do with the motives which induced the first settlers of our country to seek an asylum in what was then an unexplored wilderness. Nor is this the place to record the thousand sufferings which they endured, before the era of their landing; or their numberless sorrows and deprivations, while establishing themselves in the rude land of their adoption. The heroic and christian virtues of our fathers will occupy a conspicuous page in history, while the world shall stand.

Nor does it belong to our design, to enter minutely into the early history of the colonies, interesting as that history is. An outline, only, will be necessary, to understand the causes of that memorable event in the history of our country-The Declaration of American Independence—and to introduce to our more particular notice, the eminent men who proclaimed that independence to the world.

The year 1607 is the era of the first settlement of the English in America. During the interval between this date, and the year 1732, thirteen colonies were established; Virginia being the first, and Georgia the last. The others were Massachusetts, Connecticut, New-Hampshire, Rhode Island, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and the two Carolinas.

In the settlement of these colonies, three forms of government were established. These were severally denominated, charter, proprietary, and royal governments. This differ

ence arose from the different circumstances which attended the settlement of different colonies, and the diversified views of the early emigrants. The charter governments were confined to New-England. The proprietary governments were those of Maryland, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, and the Jersies. The two former remained such, until the American revolution; the two latter became royal governments long before that period. In the charter governments, the people enjoyed the privileges and powers of self government; in the proprietary governments these privileges and powers were vested in the proprietor, but he was required to have the advice, assent, and approbation of the greater part of the freemen, or their deputies; in the royal governments, the governor and council were appointed by the crown, and the people elected representatives to serve in the colonial legislatures.®

Under these respective forms of government, the colonists might have enjoyed peace, and a good share of liberty, had human nature been of a different character. But all the colonies were soon more or less involved in troubles of various kinds, arising, in part, from the indefinite tenor of the charter and proprietary grants; but more than all, from the early jealousy which prevailed in the mother country with respect to the colonies, and the fixed determination of the crown to keep them in humble subjection to its authority.

The colonies, with the exception of Georgia, had all been established, and had attained to considerable strength, without even the slightest aid from the parent country. Whatever was expended in the acquisition of territory from the Indians, proceeded from the private resources of the European adventurers. Neither the crown, nor the parliament of England, made any compensation to the original masters of the soil; nor did they in any way contribute to those improvements which so soon bore testimony to the industry and tfelligence of the planters. The settlement of the province of Massachusetts Bay alone cost 200,000l.;-an enormous sum at that period. Lord Baltimore expended 40,000l., for

Pitkin.

his contingent, in the establishment of his colony in Maryland. On that of Virginia, immense wealth was lavished; and we are told by Trumbull, that the first planters of Connecticut consumed great estates in purchasing lands from the Indians, and making their settlements in that province, in addition to large sums previously expended in the procuring of their patents, and of the rights of pre-emption.

It is conceded by historians of every party, that from the earliest settlements in America, to the period of the revolution, the parent country, so far as her own unsettled state .would permit, pursued towards those settlements a course of direct oppression. Without the enterprise to establish colonies herself, she was ready, in the very dawn of their existence, to claim them as her legitimate possessions, and to prescribe, in almost every minute particular, the policy they should pursue. Her jealousies, coeval with the foundation of the colonies, increased with every succeeding year; and led to a course of arbitrary exactions, and lordly oppressions, which resulted in the rupture of those ties that bound the colonies to the parent country.

No sooner did the colonies, emerging from the feebleness and poverty of their incipient state, begin to direct their attention to commerce and manufactures, than they were subjected by the parent country to many vexatious regulations, which seemed to indicate, that with regard to those subjects, they were expected to follow that line of policy, which she in her wisdom should mark out for them. At every indication of colonial prosperity, the complaints of the commercial and the manufacturing interests in Great Britain were loud and clamourous, and repeated demands were made upon the British government, to correct the growing evil, and to keep the colonies in due subjection. "The colonists,” said the complainants, "are beginning to carry on trade;-—they will soon be our formidable rivals: they are already setting up manufactures; they will soon set up for independence.'

To the increase of this feverisa excitement in the parent

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