is now unsupported, will be relinquished forever. A total repeal cannot be thought of till America is prostrate at our feet." Thus the new premier, not only nullified the effect of his concessions, but aroused by his utterances an antagonism far more serious and detremened than any that had gone before. As a consequence, a general covenant was entered into, and strictly adhered to throughout the colonies, not to use any tea until the tax was removed. The effect of the non-tea-drinking policy in America. was disastrous to the East India company, which accumulated in its London warehouses the thousands upon thousands of chests that would have naturally supplied the colonial market. Government interfered to protect its pet corporation, by the passage of an act freeing the commodity from export duties, thus enabling the company to sell it so cheaply in America that it was hoped the colonies might be tempted from their pledge. Ships were at once loaded and cleared for the various American ports; from some they returned to London with unbroken cargoes; at others they unloaded and the tea spoiled in warehouses and cellars; nowhere was the tea sold in any considerable quantity. It was reserved for Boston to give the most decisive proof of determination to receive or consume no taxable goods. Vessels laden with tea reaching that port, a small quantity was landed, but its sale was prohibited. The governor refused to give the vessels clearance to return to England, and there was every evidence of a determination to test the colonies to the utmost, by compelling the retention and the landing of the cargoes. On the night of the 16th of December, 1773, a party of young men, disguised as Indians, boarded the vessels and, to the last chest, threw the tea into the harbor.

So soon as the news of this action reached England, Parliament passed an act closing the port of Boston and removing the custom office to Salem, thus seeking by direct retaliation to reduce the spirit of citizens of a town which, more than any other, had earned the displeasure of the crown. Not content with this, subsequent legislation provided that all judicial officers of the province should be appointed by the crown, to hold office during the royal pleasure, and that persons accused of capital offences, committed in aid of the magistrates, might be removed to other colonies or to England for trial. When the news of this legislation reached America it everywhere met with the unmeasured condemnation of the people. Public meetings in Boston and New York adopted resolutions expressing a sense of the outrage, and the Virginia House of Burgesses declared similar sentiments and was promptly dissolved. On the 1st of June the order closing the port of Boston went into effect, and the day was kept as one of fasting and prayer throughout the colonies.

General Gage, the officer who led the advance in Braddock's battle with the French, was the newly appointed commandant at Boston, and upon him was imposed the responsibility of enforcing the regulations of the crown, and

somewhat unjustly, the ignominy that of necessity attached to the appli- . cation of measures so severe. General Gage did not assume the attitude of one commanding the protective garrison of a friendly city; his action was that of armed occupation, for restraint, if not for punishment. The neck which unites the peninsula, upon which Boston is built, with the mainland, was entirely entrenched; guns mounted in the works with muzzles pointing landward, and every preparation made to meet and successfully resist any movement which might be made by the colonists. against the troops of the king. The commander showed little tact in dealing with the people of Boston, who were in an extremely excited state; the public meetings, which aroused his apprehension, were prohibited to be held after a given date, but this order was practically nullified by the citizens, who kept alive the meetings already convened.

A

CHAPTER X.

CONCORD, LEXINGTON, AND THE SIEge of boston,

T last came the night of the famous 18th of April, 1775. Gage held Boston with a force of eight thousand men, strongly placed, defended by land batteries, and supported by the guns of men-of-war in the harbor. Urged by his own pride and the solicitations of the toadies about him, he determined to capture the public arsenal at Concord, twenty miles from the city. Though preparations were made with great secrecy, and all roads leading to the city were picketed, information of the design leaked out, and when, on the night of the 18th, nine hundred infantry embarked in beats and landed in Cambridge, a lantern hung in the tower of the old South Church flashed out the intelligence to the patriots, and before the movement was well begun, that famous "midnight ride of Paul Revere," had spread the news through the dark and sleeping villages before the troops. Consequently the advance was made to the unwelcome music of alarm guns and pealing bells. The commander of the expedition, Colonel Swift, sent back for reinforcements, while Major Pitcairn pushed on to secure the way and the bridges at Concord. At Lexington a handful of armed colonists-less than seventy-drawn up in order on the common, awaited the coming regulars. Major Pitcairn ordered them to disperse; some one-on which side no one will ever know-fired a shot, a general desultory firing followed, eight of the continentals fell dead and ten wounded, the first blood had been shed in an armed collision between king and colonies, the war of the Revolution was begun.

At Concord the time had permitted of a larger gathering; every effort was made to remove and conceal the munitions contained in the magazine, and with so much success that little remained for the regulars when they came. The continentals, hearing of the collision at Lexington, were excited to the highest degree, but finding themselves three times outnumbered by the advancing force, retired to an eminence near the town, while

the British conducted the almost futile search, and sacking of the magazine. The regulars arrived at 7 o'clock in the morning. About 10 o'clock, the northerly bridge of the two that span the Concord river in the village being held by the British, the defending body was attacked by a force of three hundred Americans, who, after some loss, carried the bridge and forced the regulars back upon the main body. Colonel Swift, having completed his work, determined to retreat, and set out upon an orderly retrograde movement toward Boston. The provincials now took the offensive; dispersing upon the flanks of the enemy, after the backwoods fashion, firing from behind trees, stumps, and stone fences; presenting no target for the volleys of the regulars, yet making every bullet from their own guns effective; galling the enemy in the open country; assailing him so closely, where the road passed through woodland, as to make fearful havoc in his ranks, these inexperienced farmers and blacksmiths, absolutely without a leader, acting in no concert, save that which arose from a community of wrongs, drove a superior force of the flower of British regulars from retreat to rout, from rout to headlong, disorderly flight, a flight in which no man paused to raise his fallen or wounded comrade from the ground, until, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, a brigade of one thousand men, sent as reinforcements from Boston, opened its ranks to receive the panting and terrorstricken fugitives to the protection of its guns and muskets. This modern Thermopyla was the first victory of America; the parallel, in less degree, of Braddock's disaster at Duquesne. The pursuit was only given over at sunset, the provincials being called to a halt at Charlestown common. Their forces had been constantly increased by the arrival of minute men and others, who had left their homes so soon as word of the battle reached them, armed with whatever weapons they could command. Had the royal force shown but a little less zeal in the flight, their annihilation or capture would have been assured. As it was, the body of men who had moved so confidently out as for a holiday expedition, entered Boston as thoroughly demoralized as ever were royal troops, sent to face plow-boys and clodhop

pers.

In Virginia, at the very time when came the news of the affair at Concord, Lord Dunmore, the Governor, was engaged in carrying into effect the royal mandate, by seizing all stores and munitions of war within the colony. Only his timely retreat from this determination saved him, unpracticed as he was, from capture.

The mustering of forces in the East was speedy, and augured ill for Gage. All the New England colonies began the levy of troops to assist their neighbors of Massachusetts. Among others, Generals Artemas Ward and Israel Putnam, hastened to offer their services, and the former was advanced to the command of the camp, where were stationed the forces of the allied colonies.

During the following month the daring exploits of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold accomplished the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and the opening of the only available highway to Canada, and all without the loss or even wounding of a man.

On the 10th of May, 1775, the Second Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia. A formal petition to the crown was again adopted, but the pressing and absorbing measure was as to the recognition and maintenance of the Massachusetts army, which was really besieging Boston. A federation of the colonies was proposed, leaving each to regulate its internal affairs, but reposing the central authority in an executive committee of twelve. A resolution to admit any colony that might still apply, though it had not been represented in the former Congress, brought Georgia into line, and the Congress was ready to take practical legislative action. It authorized the issuing of notes to the amount of three million dollars, for which the faith of the colonies should be pledged, and directed the purchase of supplies, the enlistment and equipment of troops, and the construction of fortifications; then it turned to the consideration of the army of New England. It is not surprising that there should have been a disagreement on this point. The Southern men urged that, the army having been recruited in New England, if a commander in chief were appointed from the same section, any contribution which the South might make would be but to an alien force. New England, on the other hand, held that for the very reason that they had armed and equipped the troops, and had shed the first blood, they were entitled to the command. General Artemas Ward was already at the head of the army, and the men were quite satisfied with him; John Hancock, though he had never seen service. except in the militia, was anxious for the honor; Colonel Charles Lee, 'a brilliant officer, but a foreigner and an adventurer, was in the lists, as well. Washington's name was prominently before the Congress, but he had no agency in the matter. When John Adams, with a spirit of true patriotism, determined to throw over all sectional considerations, arose in his place and, without using a name, clearly indicated his preference for Washington, the latter, who sat near the door, hastened from the room, determined no longer to take part in the debate. The question was not then decided; it was determined to hold it open and take the sense of the people on the subject, but, this having been done, there remained no question that Washington was the popular candidate, and he was consequently, on the 15th of June, 1775, named commander in chief of all the forces of the united colonies. At the same time it was determined to properly clothe, arm, equip, and pay the army already assembled in New England and to supplement its strength with ample reinforcement.

Washington felt natural gratification at his selection, and accepted the trust with an avowed intention to fulfil it to the utmost of his power, but