A Short History of the United States by Channing

by Edward Channing

  This was the Quebec Act. It provided that the land between the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Great Lakes should be added to the Province of Quebec. Now this land was claimed by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. These colonies were to be deprived of their rights to land in that region. The Quebec Act also provided for the establishment of a very strong government in that province. This seemed to be an attack on free institutions. All these things drove the colonists to unite. They resolved to hold a congress where the leaders of the several continental colonies might talk over matters and decide what should be done.

  [Sidenote: The First Continental Congress, 1774.]

  127. The First Continental Congress, 1774.--The members of the Continental Congress met in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, in September, 1774. Never, except in the Federal Convention (p. 137), have so many great men met together. The greatest delegation was that from Virginia. It included George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee. From Massachusetts came the two Adamses, John and Samuel.

  From New York came John Jay. From Pennsylvania came John Dickinson. Of all the greatest Americans only Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were absent.

  [Illustration: CARPENTER'S HALL, PHILADELPHIA.]

  [Sidenote: The American Association, 1774.]

  128. The American Association, 1774.--It soon became clear that the members of the Congress were opposed to any hasty action. They were not willing to begin war with Great Britain. Instead of so doing they adopted a Declaration of Rights and formed the American Association. The Declaration of Rights was of slight importance. But the Association was of great importance, as the colonies joining it agreed to buy no more British goods. This policy was to be carried out by the Committees of Correspondence. Any colony refusing to join the Association should be looked upon as hostile "to the liberties of this country," and treated as an enemy. The American Association was the real beginning of the American Union.

  [Sidenote: Resistance throughout the colonies 1774-75.]

  129. The Association carried out, 1774-75.--It was soon evident that Congress in forming the Association had done precisely what the people wished to have done. For instance, in Virginia committees were chosen in every county. They examined the merchants' books. They summoned before them persons suspected of disobeying "the laws of Congress." Military companies were formed in every county and carried out the orders of the committees. The ordinary courts were entirely disregarded. In fact, the royal government had come to an end in the Old Dominion.

  [Sidenote: Parliament punishes Massachusetts, 1774-75.]

  130. More Punishment for Massachusetts, 1774-75.--George III and his ministers refused to see that the colonies were practically united.

  On the contrary, they determined to punish the people of Massachusetts still further. Parliament passed acts forbidding the Massachusetts fishermen to catch fish and forbidding the Massachusetts traders to trade with the people of Virginia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and all foreign countries. The Massachusetts colonists were rebels, they should be treated as rebels. General Gage was given more soldiers and ordered to crush the rebellion.

  [Sidenote: General Gage.]

  [Sidenote: Opposed by the Massachusetts people.]

  131. Gage in Massachusetts, 1774-75.--General Gage found he had a good deal to do before he could begin to crush the rebellion. He had to find shelter for his soldiers. He also had to find food for them. The Boston carpenters would not work for him. He had to bring carpenters from Halifax and New York to do his work. The farmers of eastern Massachusetts were as firm as the Boston carpenters. They would not sell food to General Gage. So he had to bring food from England and from Halifax. He managed to buy or seize wood to warm the soldiers and hay to feed his horses. But the boats bringing these supplies to Boston were constantly upset in a most unlooked-for way. The colonists, on their part, elected a Provincial Congress to take the place of the regular government. The militia was reorganized, and military stores gathered together.

  [Illustration: APRIL 19, 1775, DRAWN AND ENGRAVED BY TWO MEN WHO TOOK PART IN THE ACTION. Reproduced through the courtesy of Rev. E.

  G. Porter.]

  [Sidenote: Lexington and Concord, 1775. Higginson, 178-183; McMaster, 126-128; Source-Book, 144-146.]

  132. Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775.--Gage had said that with ten thousand men he could march all over Massachusetts. In April, 1775, he began to crush the rebellion by sending a strong force to Concord to destroy stores which his spies told him had been collected there. The soldiers began their march in the middle of the night. But Paul Revere and William Dawes were before them. "The regulars are coming," was the cry. At Lexington, the British found a few militiamen drawn up on the village green. Some one fired and a few Americans were killed. On the British marched to Concord. By this time the militiamen had gathered in large numbers. It was a hot day. The regulars were tired. They stopped to rest. Some of the militiamen attacked the regulars at Concord, and when the British started on their homeward march, the fighting began in earnest. Behind every wall and bit of rising ground were militiamen. One soldier after another was shot down and left behind. At Lexington the British met reinforcements, or they would all have been killed or captured. Soon they started again. Again the fighting began. It continued until the survivors reached a place of safety under the guns of the warships anchored off Charlestown. The Americans camped for the night at Cambridge and began the siege of Boston.

  QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

  CHAPTER 11

  § 103.--a. Name some instances which illustrate England's early policy toward its colonies.

  b. Explain the later change of policy, giving reasons for it.

  §§ 104, 105.--a. What reasons did Otis give for his opposition to the writs of assistance? Why are such writs prohibited by the Constitution of the United States?

  b. What is a veto? What right had the King of Great Britain to veto a Virginia law? Which side really won in the Parson's Cause?

  § 106.--What colonies claimed land west of the Alleghany Mountains? How did the king interfere with these claims?

  CHAPTER 12

  §§ 107-109.--a. What reasons were given for keeping an army in America?

  b. What is meant by saying that Parliament was "the supreme power in the British Empire"?

  c. Is a stamp tax a good kind of tax?

  d. Explain carefully the colonists' objections to the Stamp Act of 1765. Do the same objections hold against the present Stamp tax?

  §§ 110-113.--a. Explain the difference between the Stamp Act Congress and the earlier Congress.

  b. What did the Stamp Act Congress do?

  c. Give an account of Franklin. What did Franklin say about the feeling in the colonies?

  d. Explain carefully the causes which led to the repeal of the Stamp Act.

  e. Can the taxing power and the legislative power be separated? What is the case to-day in your own state? In the United States?

  §§ 114-116.--a. How did Townshend try to raise money? How did this plan differ from the Stamp tax?

  b. What was the Massachusetts Circular Letter? Why was it important?

  c. What was the result of the seizure of the Liberty?

  §§ 117, 118.--a. What were the Virginia Resolves of 1769? Why were they passed?

  b. What were the Non-importation agreements?

  c. What action did the British merchants take? What results followed?

  CHAPTER 13

  §§ 119, 120.--a. Why were the soldiers stationed at New York? At Boston?

  b. Describe the trouble at Boston. Why is it called a massacre?

  §§ 121-123.--a. What was the work of a Committee of Correspondence?

  b. What did the British government hope to accomplish in the tea business? Why did the colonists refuse to buy the tea?

  c. Why was the destruction of the tea at Boston necessary?

  §§ 124-126.--a. How did Parliament punish the colonists of Massachusett
s and Boston? Which of these acts was most severe? Why?

  b. What effect did these laws have on Massachusetts? On the other colonies?

  c. Explain the provisions of the Quebec Act.

  d. How would this act affect the growth of the colonies?

  §§ 127-129.--a. What was the object of the Continental Congress?

  b. Why was the Association so important?

  c. How was the idea of the Association carried out?

  d. What government did the colonies really have?

  §§ 130-132.--a. What is a rebel? Were the Massachusetts colonists rebels?

  b. Describe General Gage's difficulties.

  c. What was the result of Gage's attempt to seize the arms at Concord?

  GENERAL QUESTIONS

  a. Arrange, with dates, all the acts of the British government which offended the colonists.

  b. Arrange, with dates, all the important steps which led toward union. Why are these steps important?

  c. Give the chief causes of the Revolution and explain why you select these.

  TOPICS FOR SPECIAL WORK

  a. The early life of Benjamin Franklin (Franklin's Autobiography).

  b. The early life of George Washington (Scudder's Washington).

  c. The Boston Tea Party (Fiske's War of Independence).

  d. The Nineteenth of April, 1775 (Fiske's War of Independence; Lossing's Field-Book).

  SUGGESTIONS TO THE TEACHER

  This section is not only the most important but the most difficult of any so far considered. Its successful teaching requires more preparation than any earlier section. The teacher is advised carefully to peruse Channing's Students' History, ch. iv, and to state in simple, clear language, the difference between the ideas on representation which prevailed in England and in the colonies. Another point to make clear is the legal supremacy of Parliament. The outbreak was hastened by the stupid use of legal rights which the supremacy of Parliament placed in the hands of Britain's rulers, who acted often in defiance of the real public opinion of the mass of the inhabitants of Great Britain.

  V

  THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE,

  1775-1783

  Books for Study and Reading

  References.--Fiske's War of Independence; Higginson's Larger History, 249-293; McMaster's With the Fathers.

  Home Readings.--Scudder's Washington; Holmes's Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill; Cooper's Lionel Lincoln (Bunker Hill); Cooper's Spy (campaigns around New York); Cooper's Pilot (the war on the sea); Drake's Burgoyne's Invasion; Coffin's Boys of '76; Abbot's Blue Jackets of '76; Abbot's Paul Jones, Lossing's Two Spies.

  CHAPTER 14

  BUNKER HILL TO TRENTON

  [Sidenote: Advantages of the British.]

  133. Advantages of the British.--At first sight it seems as if the Americans were very foolish to fight the British. There were five or six times as many people in the British Isles as there were in the continental colonies. The British government had a great standing army.

  The Americans had no regular army. The British government had a great navy. The Americans had no navy. The British government had quantities of powder, guns, and clothing, while the Americans had scarcely any military stores of any kind. Indeed, there were so few guns in the colonies that one British officer thought if the few colonial gunsmiths could be bribed to go away, the Americans would have no guns to fight with after a few months of warfare.

  [Illustration: GRAND UNION FLAG. Hoisted at Cambridge, January, 1776.

  The British Union and thirteen stripes,]

  [Sidenote: Advantages of the Americans.]

  134. Advantages of the Americans.--All these things were clearly against the Americans. But they had some advantages on their side. In the first place, America was a long way off from Europe. It was very difficult and very costly to send armies to America, and very difficult and very costly to feed the soldiers when they were fighting in America.

  In the second place, the Americans usually fought on the defensive and the country over which the armies fought was made for defense. In New England hill succeeded hill. In the Middle states river succeeded river.

  In the South wilderness succeeded wilderness. In the third place, the Americans had many great soldiers. Washington, Greene, Arnold, Morgan, and Wayne were better soldiers than any in the British army.

  [Sidenote: The Loyalists.]

  135. Disunion among the Americans.--We are apt to think of the colonists as united in the contest with the British. In reality the well-to-do, the well-born, and the well-educated colonists were as a rule opposed to independence. The opponents of the Revolution were strongest in the Carolinas, and were weakest in New England.

  [Illustration: THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.]

  [Sidenote: Boston and neighborhood, 1775-76.]

  [Sidenote: Importance of Dorchester and Charlestown.]

  136. Siege of Boston.--It was most fortunate that the British army was at Boston when the war began, for Boston was about as bad a place for an army as could be found. In those days Boston was hardly more than an island connected with the mainland by a strip of gravel. Gage built a fort across this strip of ground. The Americans could not get in. But they built a fort at the landward end, and the British could not get out. On either side of Boston was a similar peninsula. One of these was called Dorchester Heights; the other was called Charlestown. Both overlooked Boston. To hold that town, Gage must possess both Dorchester and Charlestown. If the Americans could occupy only one of these, the British would have to abandon Boston. At almost the same moment Gage made up his mind to seize Dorchester, and the Americans determined to occupy the Charlestown hills. The Americans moved first, and the first battle was fought for the Charlestown hills.

  [Illustration: A POWDER-HORN USED AT BUNKER HILL.]

  [Sidenote: Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775. Higginson, 183-188; McMaster, 129-130.]

  137. Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.--When the seamen on the British men-of-war waked up on the morning of June 17, the first thing they saw was a redoubt on the top of one of the Charlestown hills. The ships opened fire. But in spite of the balls Colonel Prescott walked on the top of the breastwork while his men went on digging. Gage sent three or four thousand men across the Charles River to Charlestown to drive the daring Americans away. It took the whole morning to get them to Charlestown, and then they had to eat their dinner. This delay gave the Americans time to send aid to Prescott. Especially went Stark and his New Hampshire men, who posted themselves behind a breastwork of fence rails and hay. At last the British soldiers marched to the attack. When they came within good shooting distance, Prescott gave the word to fire.

  The British line stopped, hesitated, broke, and swept back. Again the soldiers marched to the attack, and again they were beaten back. More soldiers came from Boston, and a third time a British line marched up the hill. This time it could not be stopped, for the Americans had no more powder. They had to give up the hill and escape as well as they could. One-half of the British soldiers actually engaged in the assaults were killed or wounded. The Americans were defeated. But they were encouraged and were willing to sell Gage as many hills as he wanted at the same price.

  [Illustration: FACSIMILE OF A REVOLUTIONARY POSTER.]

  [Sidenote: Washington takes command of the army, 1775. Higginson, 188-193.]

  [Sidenote: Seizure of Ticonderoga and Crown Point.]

  [Sidenote: Evacuation of Boston, 1776.]

  138. Washington in Command, July, 1775.--The Continental Congress was again sitting at Philadelphia. It took charge of the defense of the colonies. John Adams named Washington for commander-in-chief, and he was elected. Washington took command of the army on Cambridge Common, July 3, 1775. He found everything in confusion. The soldiers of one colony were jealous of the soldiers of other colonies. Officers who had not been promoted were jealous of those who had been promoted. In the winter the army had to be made over. During all this time the people expected Washington to fight. But he had not powder enough for half a
battle. At last he got supplies in the following way. In the spring of 1775 Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, with the help of the people of western Massachusetts and Connecticut, had captured Ticonderoga and Crown Point. These forts were filled with cannon and stores left from the French campaigns. Some of the cannon were now dragged by oxen over the snow and placed in the forts around Boston. Captain Manley, of the Massachusetts navy, captured a British brig loaded with powder.

  Washington now could attack. He seized and held Dorchester Heights. The British could no longer stay in Boston. They went on board their ships and sailed away (March, 1776).

  [Illustration: SITE OF TICONDEROGA.]

  [Sidenote: The Canada expedition, 1775-76.]

  [Sidenote: Assault on Quebec.]

  139. Invasion of Canada, 1775-76.--While the siege of Boston was going on, the Americans undertook the invasion of Canada. There were very few regular soldiers in Canada in 1775, and the Canadians were not likely to fight very hard for their British masters. So the leaders in Congress thought that if an American force should suddenly appear before Quebec, the town might surrender. Montgomery, with a small army, was sent to capture Montreal and then to march down the St. Lawrence to Quebec. Benedict Arnold led another force through the Maine woods. After tremendous exertions and terrible sufferings he reached Quebec. But the garrison had been warned of his coming. He blockaded the town and waited for Montgomery. The garrison was constantly increased, for Arnold was not strong enough fully to blockade the town. At last Montgomery arrived. At night, amidst a terrible snowstorm, Montgomery and Arnold led their brave followers to the attack. They were beaten back with cruel loss. Montgomery was killed, and Arnold was severely wounded. In the spring of 1776 the survivors of this little band of heroes were rescued--at the cost of the lives of five thousand American soldiers.

  [Illustration: ARNOLD'S MARCH.]

  [Sidenote: Strength of Charleston.]

  [Sidenote: Fort Moultrie.]

  [Sidenote: Attack on Fort Moultrie, 1776.]

  [Sidenote: Success of the defense]

  140. British Attack on Charleston, 1776.--In June 1776 a British fleet and army made an attack on Charleston, South Carolina. This town has never been taken by attack from the sea. Sand bars guard the entrance of the harbor and the channels through these shoals lead directly to the end of Sullivan's Island. At that point the Americans built a fort of palmetto logs and sand. General Moultrie commanded at the fort and it was named in his honor, Fort Moultrie. The British fleet sailed boldly in, but the balls from the ships' guns were stopped by the soft palmetto logs. At one time the flag was shot away and fell down outside the fort. But Sergeant Jasper rushed out, seized the broken staff, and again set it up on the rampart. Meantime, General Clinton had landed on an island and was trying to cross with his soldiers to the further end of Sullivan's Island. But the water was at first too shoal for the boats. The soldiers jumped overboard to wade. Suddenly the water deepened, and they had to jump aboard to save themselves from drowning.