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July.

and liberties of his fellow-subjects in America;" in CHAP. the same month congress sent to Ireland a pledge of their unalterable sympathy, and their joy that 1775 their own trials had extorted some mitigation of its wrongs. Howe was of an Irish family; to the Irish, therefore, they expressed their amazement at finding his name in the catalogue of their enemies; and they fletched their complaint by adding: "America loved his brother."

While these addresses were in progress, the British government was exerting every nerve to provide the means of reducing America; and as the aid of Indian tribes was believed to be absolutely necessary, Guy Johnson, acting independently of Carleton, was lavishing promises without bounds on the Six Nations and the savages of Northwest Canada. An Iroquois chief, who attended the conference at Montreal, consented to take home a very large black war belt, emblazoned with the device of the hatchet, but would engage himself no further; while the other savages, for whom a pipe of wine was broached, feasted on an ox that was named Bostonian, drank of his blood, and sang the war song, with loud promises of prowess when they should be called to the field.

Yet the majority of the congress, scrupulous not to outrun the convictions and sympathies of their constituents, and pleasing themselves by confiding in the speedy restoration of peace, not only made no adequate preparations for resistance, but would not even consent to relieve the state of anarchy by sanctioning the institution of governments in the several colonies. The hesitancy of so many members, especially

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July.

CHAP. of Dickinson, incensed John Adams, who maintained that the fifty or sixty men composing the congress, 1775. should at once form a constitution for a great empire, provide for its defence, and, in that safe attitude, await, the decision of the king. His letters to New England, avowing these opinions, were intercepted; and so little were the central colonies prepared for the bold advice, they were published by the royalists as the surest way of destroying his influence, and heaping obloquy upon his name. So hard it was to rend the tie that bound America to England! The king's decision was already irrevocably taken; even while the congress was engaged in timid deliberations to manifest to the world that war and independence, if they came, would come unavoidably. The most decisive measure was the adoption of the paper, prepared by Jefferson, on Lord North's proposal for conciliation.

The American congress asked of the king a cessation of hostilities, and a settlement of the disputed questions by a concert between the crown and the collective colonies; Lord North offered, as the British ultimatum, to treat separately with each assembly for grants towards the general defence and for its own civil government, with the promise that parliament would abstain from taxing the province that should offer satisfactory terms. This proposition was pronounced unreasonable, because it implied a purchase of the forbearance of parliament at an uncertain price; invidious, as likely to divide the colonies, and leave the dissatisfied to resist alone; unnecessary, for America had ever voluntarily contributed fully, when called upon as freemen; insulting, since the de

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mand for money was made with fleets and armies; CHAP. unjust, as it asked increased contributions without renouncing as an equivalent the monopoly of trade; 1775. July. unwarrantable, as a wrongful intermeddling in the colonial support of civil government; unsatisfactory, since it left the obnoxious acts unrepealed; insufficient, as it did not renounce the claim of a right to alter colonial charters and laws; insincere, as coming from a minister who had declared "that he would never treat with America, till he had brought her to his feet;" and delusive, as it offered no option but of devastation or abject submission. On the other hand, if the king would order a truce and point out a method for treating with the colonies jointly, they would desire nothing better than a colonial constitution, to be established by a mutual agreement.

Content with this declaration, and clinging to the hope of a speedy adjustment with Britain, congress shunned energetic measures to the last. For the transmission of intelligence, Franklin was selected to organize a post office, and thus came to be known as the first postmaster general; a hospital was agreed to for the army, and Benjamin Church elected its director; the rate of pay of officers and soldiers was finally settled; but these votes added no real strength; what was really wanting was money and munitions of war. For money, a third million of dollars was ordered to be struck in paper bills. To promote their credit, some mode for redeeming them must be devised. There was no commerce, and therefore no hope of revenue from duties upon imports. Besides, congress had no power to enforce taxes of any kind. It was necessary, there

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CHAP. fore, to charge each separate colony with the obligation to provide for sinking its quota of the bills issued 1775. by the general congress. Here, at the creation of the July. national finances, the question arose as to the proper principle for the apportionment; whether wealth or population; and, if of population, whether slaves should be numbered as well as freemen. After a long opportunity for deliberation, it was agreed that population should constitute the distributive rule; and that all persons, including free negroes, mulattoes, and slaves, should be counted. Thus, to the correct principle of "no representation, no taxation," and of representation in proportion to population, was added the injustice of taxation in proportion to representation; so that the continental revenue was to be sustained by a collective poll tax. Of four annual instalments, by which the continental notes were to be redeemed, the earliest was adjourned to the last day of November, 1779; in other words, was adjourned indefinitely. Paper money, which was never to be sunk but by the concurring action of twelve or thirteen colonies at distant periods, was virtually irredeemable, and would surely depreciate with rapidity; yet the united colonies had no other available resource, when they rose against a king who easily commanded annually twenty millions of pounds sterling in solid money.

There was no mode of obtaining munitions of war but by throwing open the ports and inviting commerce, especially with the French and Dutch colonies; yet the last act of congress, before its adjournment, was the renewal of the agreement, neither

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directly nor indirectly to export any merchandise or CHAP. commodity whatever to Great Britain, Ireland, or to the British, or even to the foreign, West Indies.

On the first day of August the congress adjourned for five weeks, leaving the insurgent country without a visible government, and no representative of its unity but Washington and the army.

1775.

Aug.