PROGRESS OF THE ANGLO-AMERICAN COLONIES. 255

them it counted kings and ministers of state—had not accomplished for it, in half a century, a tithe of the prosperity which, within the same period, sprung naturally from the benevolence of William Penn to the peaceful settlers on the Delaware.

CHAPTER XLIX.

PROGRESS OF THE ANGLO-AMERICAN COLONIES.

THE progress of the Anglo-American colonies was advanced, not by anticipating strife with the natives, but by the progress of industry. Peace on the eastern frontier revived the youthful maritime enterprise of Maine, and its settlements began to obtain a fixed prosperity. The French, just before occupying Crown Point, pitched their tents on the opposite eastern shore, in the township of Addison. But already, in 1724, the government of Massachusetts had established Fort Dummer, on the site of Brattleborough; and thus, one hundred and fifteen years after the inroad of Champlain, a settlement of civilized man was made in Vermont. That Fort Dummer was within the limits of Massachusetts, was not questioned by the French; for the fort at Saybrook, according to the French rule, gave to England the whole basin of the river. Of Connecticut the swarming population spread over all its soil, and occupied even its hills; for its whole extent was protected against the desolating inroads of savages. The selfish policy of its governors and its royalist party delayed the increase of New York. Pennsylvania, as the land of promise, was still the refuge of the oppressed. We shall soon have a German colony," wrote Logan, in 1726, "so many thousands of Palatines are already in the country." Nor did the south

west range of mountains, from the James to the Potomac, fail to become occupied by emigrants, and enlivened by county courts; and, in 1732, the valley of Virginia received white inhabitants. There were no European settlements, even in Carolina, on streams that flow westward. In that colony the abodes of civilized man reached scarcely a hundred miles from the Atlantic; the more remote ones were made by herdsmen, who pastured beeves upon canes and natural grasses; and the cattle, hardly kept from running wild, were now and then rallied at central "Cowpens." Philanthropy opened the way beyond the Savannah. A British poet pointed with

admiration across the Atlantic :

"Lo! swarming southward on rejoicing suns,
Gay colonies extend, the calm retreat
Of undeserved distress, the better home
Of those whom bigots chase from foreign lands.
Not built on rapine, servitude, and woe,

But bound by social freedom, firm they rise."

While the Palatinate poured forth its sons from their devastated fields; while the Scotch, who had made a sojourn in Ireland, crowding to America, established themselves as freeholders in almost every part of the United States, the of colonization was progress mainly due to the rapid increase of the descendants of former settlers. At the peace of Utrecht, the inhabitants in all the colonies could not have been far from four hundred thousand. Before peace was again broken, they had grown to be not far from eight hundred thousand. Happy America! to which Providence gave the tranquillity necessary for her growth, as well as the trials which were to discipline her for action.

The effects of the American system of social freedom were best exhibited in the colonies which approached the most nearly to independence. More than a century ago, "the charter governments were celebrated for their excellent laws and mild administration; for the security of liberty and property; for the encour

1704.7 THE AMERICAN PERIODICAL PRESS.

257

agement of virtue, and suppression of vice; for promoting letters by erecting free schools and colleges." Among the most distinguished sons of Ireland of that day was George Berkeley, who, like Penn, garnered up his hopes for humanity in America. By the testimony of adverse factions, possessing "every virtue under heaven," he repaired to the new hemisphere to found a university. But opinion in England did not favor his design. The funds that had been regarded as pledged to it were diverted to pay the dowry of the princess royal. Disappointed, yet not irritated, Berkeley returned to Europe, to endow a library in Rhode Island; to cherish the interests of Harvard; to gain a right to be gratefully remembered at New Haven; to encourage the foundation of a college at New York.

Advanced

to a bishopric, he still loved the simplicity and gentle virtues which the villages of America illustrated; and, as he looked into futurity, the ardor of his benevolence dictated his prophecy

"In happy climes, the seat of innocence,

Where nature guides, and virtue rules;

Where men shall not impose for truth and sense
The pedantry of courts and schools ;-

"Westward the course of empire takes its way.
The four first acts already past,

A fifth shall close the drama with the day.
Time's noblest offspring is the last."

To free schools and colleges the periodical press had been added, and newspapers began their office in America as the ministers to curiosity and the guides and organs of opinion. On the twenty-fourth day of April, in 1704, the Boston News-Letter, the first ever published on the western continent, saw the light in

VOL. II.

17

1

the metropolis of New England. In 1719, it obtained a rival at Boston, and was imitated at Philadelphia. In 1740, the number of newspapers in the English colonies on the continent had increased to eleven, of which one appeared in South Carolina, one in Virginia, three in Pennsylvania, one of them being in German, one in New York, and the remaining five in Boston. The sheet at first used was but of the foolscap size; and but one, or even but a half of one, was issued weekly. The papers sought support rather by modestly telling the news of the day, than by engaging in conflicts; they had no political theories to enforce, no revolutions in faith to hasten. In Boston, indeed, where the pulpit had marshaled Quakers and witches to the gallows, one newspaper, the New England Courant, the fourth American periodical, was established in August, 1721, as an organ of independent opinion, by James Franklin. Its temporary success was advanced by Benjamin, his brother and apprentice, a boy of fifteen, who wrote pieces for its humble columns, worked in composing the types, as well as in printing off the sheets, and himself, as carrier, distributed the papers to the customers. The little sheet satirized hypocrisy, and spoke of religious knaves as of all knaves the worst. This was described as tending "to abuse the ministers of religion in a manner which was intolerable." "I can well remember," writes Increase Mather, then more than fourscore years of age, "when the civil government would have taken an effectual course to suppress such a cursed libel." In July, 1722, a resolve passed the council, appointing a censor for the press of James Franklin; but the house refused its concurThe ministers persevered; and, in January, 1723, a committee of inquiry was raised by the legislature. Benjamin Franklin, being examined, escaped with an admonition; James, the publisher, refusing to discover the author of the offence, was kept in jail for a month; his paper was censured as reflecting injuriously on the reverend ministers of the gospel; and, by vote of

rence.

1723.]

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

259

the house and council, he was forbidden to print it, "except it be first supervised.

Vexed at the arbitrary proceedings of the assembly; willing to escape from a town where good people pointed with horror at his freedom; indignant, also, at the tyranny of a brother, who, as a passionate master, often beat his apprentice, Benjamin Franklin, in October, 1723, then but seventeen years old, sailed clandestinely for New York; and, finding there no employment, crossed to Amboy; went on foot to the Delaware; for want of a wind, rowed in a boat from Burlington to Philadelphia; and, bearing marks of his labor at the oar, weary, hungry, having for his whole stock of cash a single dollar, the runaway apprenticegreatest of the sons of New England of that generation, the humble pupil of the free schools of Boston, rich in the boundless hope of youth and the unconscious power of genius, which modesty adorned stepped on shore to seek food, occupation, shelter, and fortune.

On the deep foundations of sobriety, frugality, and industry, the young journeyman built his fortunes and fame; and he soon came to have a printing-office of his own. Toiling early and late, with his own hands he set types and worked at the press; with his own hands would trundle to the office in a wheelbarrow the

reams of paper which he was to use. His ingenuity was such, he could form letters, make types and wood cuts, and engrave vignettes in copper. The assembly of Pennsylvania respected his merit, and chose him its printer. He planned a newspaper; and, when he became its proprietor and editor, he fearlessly defended absolute freedom of thought and speech, and the inalienable power of the people. Desirous of advancing education, he proposed improvements in the schools of Philadelphia; he invented the system of subscription libraries, and laid the foundation of one that was long the most considerable library in America; he suggested the establishment of an academy, which has ripened