When the contest came, it came as a struggle over ancient English constitutional principles. The drift had long been toward an opening of the whole question of mutual civil relations, when George III. forced the question to an issue by attempted taxation through act of Parliament. England was proud of America as her occasionally a writer urged in an essay in the newspapers that the only way to place American liberty on a firm foundation was to form an independent nation; but these were the views of extremists, and were generally disavowed. The great body of the Whigs united with the Tories in prizing this union as of incalculable value. They regarded themselves as fellow-subjects with Britons. looked on the people of both countries as being one in the essential elements of nationality, political ideas, language, and the Christian religion; and one in the love of a noble literature and precious historic memories. They kindled at the sight of the old flag and at thoughts of the mother-land "A land of just and old renown, Where freedom broadens slowly down They and it was the prevailing sentiment that a recognition of coequal rights would enable the people of both countries to live long under the same flag. The popular leaders averred that they did not deny the sovereignty, but opposed the administration. They did not ascribe the obnoxious measures to the king whom they revered, or to the constitution which they venerated, or to the nation which they loved, but to despotic ministers and corrupt majorities.” — Rise of the Republic of the United States, 294, 295. In another place he well remarks: "I cannot but think that much error has crept into American history by not keeping in view the difference between opposition to the measures of an administration and resistance to the supreme power of the empire, or to the sovereignty." And looking back over the period of colonial history, adds, "The immigrants. . . bore toward [England] a noble affection.". Ibid. 67. chief imperial possession; but she had not yet learned the secret of imperial administration, and her old customs and legal theories, lingering from days when she had been but an island kingdom, were inapplicable to the new conditions. By those theories, the colonists, being British subjects, were as completely subordinated to Parliament as were all other British subjects. True, they had long been permitted to regulate their internal affairs, and above all, to vote their own taxes; but Parliament had on sundry occasions asserted its right of taxation, and held such right to be a necessary part of its own position as supreme legislature. As the legal theory of Parliament had grown up under purely national conditions, this parliamentary claim was theoretically correct. But it did not accord with the new imperial facts. On the other hand, the colonists held that the imperial facts ought to be conceded. Though British subjects, they were separated by wide seas from the older land, and were unable to take active part in its political life. A fundamental principle of the liberties of Englishmen associated, as the colonists understood it, the right of representation with the right of taxation. The principle had been enunciated in their colonial legislation almost from the beginning of colonial settlement, and had been steadily acted upon by them. They were without representatives in Parliament, and therefore Parliament could not, in their view, rightfully tax them. They were unwilling to pay the parliamentary tax, though, through their own representatives in the colonial legislatures, they were ready to vote more liberal supplies than those proposed by Parliament. Their plea was conservative, for it desired that the then existing state of affairs should be continued. The war that ensued was fought on the part of the colonists in defence of what they thus held to be their rights as men of the English blood; and American independence resulted from this constitutional struggle. CHAPTER II. MAKING OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. THE HE political steps that led to American independence were taken gradually. At the beginning of the war, an intercolonial or "continental" Congress assembled. Gatherings, similar in principle, had been held on other occasions in colonial experience without involving a denial either of the civil rights of individual colonies or of the authority of the mother-country. Indeed, the colonists, though in no gentle mood, contemplated at first not political separation, but only defence against what they claimed to be an unconstitutional attack upon their liberties as English subjects ; and Englishmen had many a time in the history of the mother-land itself taken up arms for the preservation of liberties.1 But the logic of events on American soil 1 "A separation from Great Britain was viewed with alarm and trepidation, and was not only opposed by the Tory party as a whole, but also by many Whigs, who feared it might lead to anarchy and its attendant evils."— Straus, Origin of Republican Form of Government in the United States, 5. "It was long before the ill will, which the systematic disregard by Parliament of the rights of the colonists had excited, triumphed over this feeling. Even in August and September, 1775 — that is, half a year after the slowly shaped the issue, and the Congress was forced more and more into acts involving the assumption of sovereign power, and plainly inconsistent with loyalty to battle of Lexington · so strong was the Anglo-Saxon spirit of conservatism and loyalty among the colonists, that the few extremists who dared to speak of a violent disruption of all bonds, entailed chastisement upon themselves and were universally censured."Von Holst, Constitutional History of the United States, I. 2. See also Works of John Adams, II. 423, and American Archives, III. 21, 196, 644, etc. "In May, 1775, Washington said: 'If you ever hear of me joining in any such measure [as separation from Great Britain], you have my leave to set me down for everything wicked.' He had also said: 'It is not the wish or interest of the government [meaning Massachusetts], or of any other upon this continent, separately or collectively, to set up for independence.' And in the same year, Benjamin Franklin assured Chatham, that no one in America was in favour of separation. As a matter of fact, the people of the colonies wanted a redress of their grievances they were not dreaming of separation, of independence. . . . We must also remember that the Revolution was begun and carried on by a noble minority — that the majority were really in favour of Great Britain."— Ingersoll, North American Review, CLV. No. 2, August, 1892, p. 183. It is proper in this connection to add, that in the opening period of the war, the feeling in England in favour of American brethren "was intense. Officers resigned their commissions rather than serve in America; the great cities took open ground in favour of the colonies; and some of the English middle classes were mourning the dead at Lexington. As the war increased in its intensity, this sentiment necessarily decreased; but even while Parliament was supporting the war by votes of more than two to one, the ministry was constantly hampered by the notorious consciousness that the real heart of England was not in it. Even when 25,000 men were voted at the king's wish, provision had to be made to obtain them from Germany." - Johnson, Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., XXIII. 742. |