ACTIVE RESISTANCE BY THE COLONIES. 239

subjects into rebels by treating them as rebellious. The Ministers introduced various "very determined measures, and despatched troops to America to enforce their execution, while the King exulted at what he conceived to be a vigorous exhibition of authority. "The Colonies," he said, "must either triumph or submit. If we take the resolute part, they will undoubtedly be very meek." Yes; meek as Englishmen generally are under an outrage or an insult! Massachusetts called out and armed its militia; and all the other States, except Georgia, espoused its cause, and sent their delegates to the Congress which, on the 4th of September, 1774, met at Philadelphia. Still, there was time for peace; Virginia, and the States generally, shrank from rising against the mother-country. In January, 1775, Chatham who had taken Benjamin Franklin into his councils,* made a great effort to avert a rupture. All his conceptions were thorough; and this one was admirable in its thoroughness. The Bill which he introduced abandoned the claim to tax the Colonies, ordered the recall of the British troops, repealed the vexatious Acts of Parliament passed since 1763, and provided for the due recognition and observance of the Colonial charters; while it summoned a Colonial assembly to meet and discuss the means by which the Colonies might defray their share of the public debt. The Bill was somewhat rudely drawn, as Chatham acknowledged; but it contained all the materials for a satisfactory settlement of the difficulties

* A full account of his discussions with the American statesman will be found in the 'Memoirs of the Life of Benjamin Franklin.'

240

CHATHAM URGES MODERATION,

which had arisen, and if accepted, would have averted that dark episode in our history on which every Englishman looks back with shame and regret. The House of Lords, however, refused to consider it. King, Ministers, and Parliament seemed alike bent on rushing precipitately and without reflection into the foaming breakers which so clearly menaced the safety of the ship of the State. In vain Chatham warned them that they could not hope to prevail in an unjust cause and against a united America; that they would be forced ultimately to retreat. In vain he solicited them to avoid so humiliating and disgraceful a necessity. In vain he addressed the peers in his most impressive and earnest tones: "With a dignity becoming your exalted situation," he said, "make the first advances to concord, to peace, and happiness; for that is your true dignity,-to act with prudence and justice. That you should first concede is obvious, from sound and rational policy. Concession comes with better grace and more salutary effect from superior power; it reconciles superiority of power with the feelings of men; and establishes solid confidence on the foundation of affection and gratitude. So thought," he continued, "a wise poet and a man wise in political sagacity; the friend of Mæcenas and the eulogist of Augustus. To him, the adopted son and successor of the first Cæsar, to him, the master of the world, he wisely urged this conduct of prudence and dignity:

"Tuque prior, tu parce; genus qui ducis Olympo;
Projice tela manu.'

Every motive, therefore," he added, "of justice and of

AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 241

policy, of dignity and of prudence, urges you to allay the ferment in America by a removal of your troops from Boston-by a repeal of your Acts of Parliamentand by demonstration of amicable dispositions towards your Colonies. On the other hand, every danger and every hazard impend, to deter you from perseverance in your present ruinous measures:-foreign war hanging over your heads by a slight and brittle thread,—France and Spain watching your conduct, and waiting for the maturity of your errors,-with a vigilant eye to America and the temper of your Colonies, more than to their own concerns, be they what they may." But the advice of the veteran statesman was rejected; his predictions were slighted. Thereupon the American Congress ordered the levy of an army, and entrusted its command to George Washington, a man cast in the old heroic mould, of a severe genius and a chivalrous devotion to duty which seemed to elevate him above the ordinary passions of humanity. The war at first was marked by varying fortunes; but the determination of the Colonists every day grew sterner, and on the 4th of July, 1776, the delegates in Congress adopted their celebrated Declaration of Independence.*

In the spring of 1777, the British Government made a vigorous effort to crush the revolt. But they could not manufacture great military commanders; and though our troops exhibited their accustomed valour, they fought with less than their accustomed spirit. An irretrievable disaster was the surrender of General Burgoyne and his

America," said Camden, "is gone for ever."- Autobiography of the Duke of Grafton,' quoted by Lord E. Fitzmaurice, ii. 320.

VOL. I.

16

242

CHATHAM'S APPEAL.

army at Saratoga on the 13th of October. No such disgrace had ever befallen our arms; and the news went to the heart of England with a pang of humiliation. At this very time Chatham, who had again risen from a bed of sickness, was imploring Parliament to make such concession as might even at the last hour prevent the dismemberment of the empire. "My Lords," he said, "you cannot conquer America. What is your present situation there? We do not know the worst, but we know that in these campaigns we have done nothing and suffered much. Besides the sufferings, perhaps total loss, of the Northern force [this was spoken in November; in December the country learned the truth of Chatham's forebodings]; the best appointed army that ever took the field, commanded by Sir William Howe, has retired from the American lines; he was obliged to relinquish his attempt, and, with great delay and danger, to adopt a new and distinct plan of operations. We shall know, and in any event have reason to lament, what may have happened since. As to conquest, therefore, my Lords, I repeat, it is impossible. You may swell every expense, and every effort, still more extravagantly; pile and accumulate every assistance you can buy or borrow; traffic and barter with every little pitiful German Prince that sells and sends his subjects to the shambles of a foreign Prince; your efforts are for ever vain and impotent-doubly so from this mercenary aid on which you rely; for it irritates, to an incurable resentment, the minds of your enemies, -to overawe them with the mercenary sons of rapine and plunder; devoting them and their possessions to the

HIS REPLY TO LORD SUFFOLK.

243

rapacity of hireling cruelty! If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed my country, I never would lay down my arms-never -never-never.'

in

Then, with a generous indignation inspiring his lofty eloquence, he inveighed against the employment of the Indian and his scalping-knife as allies against the children of England.

"Who is the man," he asked, "that has dared to authorise and associate to our arms the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the savage? To call into civilised alliance the wild and inhuman savage of the woods; to delegate to the merciless Indian the defence of disputed rights, and to wage the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren?"

In the course of the debate, Lord Suffolk, one of the Secretaries of State, defended the employment of Indians.* "It was perfectly justifiable," he said, "to use all the means that God and Nature put into our hands." This provoked from Chatham one of his finest outbursts. Rising hastily, and leaning on his crutch, he exclaimed:

“I am astonished! shocked! to hear such principles confessed-to hear them avowed in this House or in this country-principles equally unconstitutional, inhuman, and unchristian!

"My Lords, I did not intend to have encroached

* It was asserted that Chatham himself had formerly sanctioned their engagement as auxiliaries; but satisfactory proof was given that though this had been done by the Administration of which he was a member, it was without his knowledge.