Chapter 4:
America Refuses to be ruled by arbitrary Instruc-Tions.—Pelham's administration continued.1751-1753.
the thoughts of the British ministry were sochap. IV.} 1751. |
chap. IV.} 1751. |
Meantime, parliament, by its sovereign act, on the motion of Lord Chesterfield, changed the commencement of the year, and regulated the calendar for all the British dominions. As the earth and the moon, in their annual rounds, differed by eleven days from the English reckoning of time, and would not delay their return, the legislature of a Protestant kingdom, after centuries of obstinacy, submitted to be taught by the heavens, and conquering a prejudice, adopted the calendar as amended by a pope of Rome.
The Board of Trade was all the while maturing its scheme for an American civil list.7 The royal prerogative [85] was still the main-spring in their system.
chap. IV.} 1751. |
This forbearance is, in part, also, to be ascribed to the moderation of character of Sir Robert Walpole. He rejected the proposition for a colonial stamp-tax, being content with the tribute to British wealth from colonial commerce; and he held that the American evasions of the acts of trade, by enriching the colonies, did but benefit England, which was their final mart. The policy was generous and safe; but can a [86] minister excuse his own acts of despotic legislation by
chap. IV.} 1751. |
In 1740, Ashley, a well informed writer, had proposed to establish a fund by such ‘an abatement of the duty on molasses imported into the northern colonies,’10 as would make it cease to be prohibitory. ‘Whether this duty,’ he added, ‘should be one, two, or three pence sterling money of Great Britain per gallon, may be matter of consideration.’ The time was come when it was resolved to discard the policy of Walpole. Opinions were changing on the subject of a stamp-tax; and the Board of Trade, in 1751, entered definitively on the policy of regulating trade, so as to uproot illicit traffic and obtain an American revenue.11 To this end, they fostered the jealous dispute between the continental colonies and the favored British West Indian Islands; that, under the guise of lenity, they might lower the disregarded prohibitory duties, and enrich the exchequer by the collection of more moderate imposts.
But the perfidious jealousy with which the Duke of Newcastle plotted against his colleague, the Duke of Bedford, delayed for the present the decisive interposition of parliament in the government of America. Besides, Halifax with his Board was equally at [87] variance with his superior. The former was eager to
chap. IV.} 1751. |
chap. IV.} 1751. |
During the progress of these changes, the colonies were left to plan their own protection. But every body shunned the charge of securing the valley of the Ohio. Of the Virginia Company the means were limited. The Assembly of Pennsylvania, from motives of economy, refused to ratify the treaty which Croghan had negotiated at Picqua, while the proprietaries15 of that province openly denied their liability ‘to contribute to Indian or any other expenses;’16 and sought to cast the burden of a Western fort on the equally reluctant ‘people of Virginia.’ New York could but remonstrate with the governor of Canada.17
The deputies of the Six Nations were the first to manifest zeal. At the appointed time in July, they came down to Albany to renew their covenant chain; and to chide the inaction of the English, which was certain to leave the wilderness to France.
When the congress, which Clinton had invited to meet the Iroquois, assembled at Albany, South Carolina came also,18 for the first time, to join in council with New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts,—its earliest movement towards confederation. From the Catawbas, also, hereditary foes to the Six Nations, deputies attended to hush the war-song that for so many generations had lured their chiefs [89] along the Blue Ridge to Western New York. They
chap. IV.} 1751. |
To anticipate or prevent the consummation of these designs remained the earnest effort of the French. They sent priests, who were excited partly by ambition, partly by fervid enthusiasm, to proselyte the Six Nations; their traders were to undersell the British; in the summer of 1751, they launched an armed vessel of unusual size on Lake Ontario,19 and converted their trading-house at Niagara into a fortress;20 they warned the governor of Pennsylvania,21 that the English [90] never should make a treaty in the basin of the
chap. IV.} 1751. |
Yet Louis the Fifteenth disclaimed hostile intentions; to the British minister at Paris he himself expressed personally his concern that any cause of offence had arisen, and affirmed his determined purpose of peace. The minister of foreign relations, De Puysieux, who, on the part of France, was responsible for the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, a man of honor, though not of ability, was equally disinclined to disturb the public tranquillity. But Saint-Contest, who, in September, 1751, succeeded him, though a feeble statesman and fond of peace, yet aimed at a federative maritime system against England;23 and Rouille, the minister of the marine department, loved war and prepared for it. Spain wisely kept aloof. ‘By antipathy,’ said the Marquis of Ensenada, the considerate minister of Ferdinand the Sixth, ‘and from interest also, the French and English will be enemies, for they are rivals for universal commerce;’ and he urged on his sovereign seasonable preparations, that he might, by neutrality, recover Gibraltar, and become the arbiter of the civilized world.24
Every thing seemed to portend a conflict between England and France along their respective frontiers in America. To be prepared for it, Clinton's advisers [91] recommended to secure the dominion of Lake Ontario
chap. IV.} 1751. |
And the question did but invite from the governor of New York new proposals for ‘a general duty by act of parliament;25 because it would be a most vain imagination to expect that all the colonies would severally agree to impose it.’
The receiver-general of New York, Archibald Kennedy, urged, through the press, ‘an annual meeting of commissioners from all the colonies at New York or Albany.’ ‘From upwards of forty years observation upon the conduct of provincial assemblies, and the little regard paid by them to instructions,’ he inferred, that ‘a British parliament must oblige them to contribute, or the whole would end in altercation and words.’ He advised an increase of the respective quotas, and the enlargement of the union, so as to comprise the Carolinas; and the whole system to be sanctioned and enforced by an act of the British legislature.26
‘A voluntary union,’ said a voice from Philadel-
1752. |
chap. IV.} 1752. |
While the people of America were thus becoming familiar with the thought of joining from their own free choice in one confederacy, the government of England took a decisive step towards that concentration of power over its remote dominions, which for thirty years28 had been the avowed object of attainment on the part of the Board of Trade. Halifax with his colleagues, of whom Charles Townshend was the most enterprising and most fearlessly rash, was appointed to take charge of American affairs; with the entire patronage and correspondence belonging to them.29 Yet the independence of the Board was not perfect. On important matters governors might still address the Secretary of State, through whom, also, nominations to offices were to be laid before the king in council. We draw nearer to the conflict of authority between the central government and the colonies. An ambitious commission, expressly appointed for the purpose, was at last invested with the care of business, from which party struggles and court intrigues, or love of ease and quiet had hitherto diverted the attention of the ministry. Nor did the Lords of Trade delay to exercise their functions, and [93] to form plans for an American civil list and a new
chap. IV.} 1752. |
But in the moment of experiment, the thoughts of the Board were distracted by the state of relations with France.
Along the confines of Nova Scotia, the heat of contest began to subside; but danger lowered from the forest on the whole American frontier. In the early summer of 1752, John Stark, of New Hampshire, as fearless a young forester as ever bivouacked in the wilderness, was trapping beaver along the clear brooks that gushed from his native highlands, when a party of St. Francis Indians stole upon his steps, and scalped one of his companions. He, himself, by courage and good humor, won the love of his captors; their tribe saluted him as a young chief, and cherished him with hearty kindness; his Indian master, accepting a ransom, restored him to his country. Men of less presence of mind often fell victims to the fury of the Indian allies of France.
At the same time, the Ohio Company, with the express sanction30 of the Legislature of Virginia, were forming a settlement beyond the mountains. Gist had, on a second tour, explored the lands southeast of the Ohio, as far as the Kenhawa. The jealousy of the [94] Indians was excited. ‘Where,’ said the deputy of
chap. IV.} 1752. |
Virginia, under the treaty of Lancaster, of 1744, assumed the right to appropriate to her jurisdiction all the lands as far west as the Mississippi. In May, 1752, her commissioners met chiefs of the Mingoes, Shawnees and Ohio Indians, at Logstown. It was pretended31 that chiefs of the Six Nations were present; but at a general meeting at Onondaga, they had resolved that it did not suit their customs ‘to treat of affairs in the woods and weeds.’32 ‘We never understood,’ said the Half-King, ‘that the lands sold in 1744, were to extend farther to the sunsetting than the hill on the other side the Alleghany Hill. We now see and know that the French design to cheat us out of our lands. They plan nothing but mischief, for they have struck our friends, the Miamis; we therefore desire our brothers of Virginia may build a strong house at the fork of Monongahela.’
The permission to build a fort at the junction of the two rivers that form the Ohio, was due to the alarm awakened by the annually increasing power of France, which already ruled Lake Ontario with armed vessels, held Lake Erie by a fort at Niagara, and would suffer no Western tribe to form alliances but with themselves. The English were to be excluded from the valley of the Miamis; and in pursuance of that resolve, on the morning of the summer solstice, two Frenchmen, with two hundred and forty French [95] Indians, leaving thirty Frenchmen as a reserve, sud-
chap. IV.} 1752. |
When William Trent, the messenger of Virginia, proceeded from the council-fires at Logstown to the village of Picqua, he found it deserted, and the French colors flying over the ruins.34 Having substituted the English flag, he returned to the Shawnee town, at the mouth of the Scioto, where the messengers of the allied tribes met for condolence and concert in revenge.
‘Brothers,’ said the Delawares to the Miamis, ‘we desire the English and the Six Nations to put their hands upon your heads, and keep the French from hurting you. Stand fast in the chain of friendship with the government of Virginia.’ ‘Brothers,’ said the Miamis to the English, ‘your country is smooth; your hearts are good; the dwellings [96] of your governors are like the spring in its
chap. IV.} 1752. |
‘Brothers,’ they added to the Six Nations, holding aloft a calumet ornamented with feathers, ‘the French and their Indians have struck us, yet we kept this pipe unhurt;’ and they gave it to the Six Nations, in token of friendship with them and with their allies.
A shell and a string of black wampum were given to signify the unity of heart; and that, though it was darkness to the westward, yet towards the sun-rising it was bright and clear. Another string of black wampum announced that the war-chiefs and braves of the Miamis held the hatchet in their hand, ready to strike the French. The widowed queen of the Piankeshaws sent a belt of black shells intermixed with white. ‘Brothers,’ such were her words, ‘I am left a poor, lonely woman, with one son, whom I commend to the English, the Six Nations, the Shawnees, and the Delawares, and pray them to take care of him.’
The Weas produced a calumet. ‘We have had this feathered pipe,’ said they, ‘from the beginning of the world; so that when it becomes cloudy, we can sweep the clouds away. It is dark in the west, yet we sweep all clouds away towards the sun-rising, and leave a clear and serene sky.’
Thus, on the alluvial lands of Western Ohio, began the contest that was to scatter death broadcast through the world. All the speeches were delivered again to the deputies of the nations, represented at Logstown, that they might be correctly repeated to the head council at Onondaga. An express messenger from the Miamis hurried across the mountains, bearing [97] to the shrewd and able Dinwiddie, the lieutenant-
chap. IV.} 1752. |
In December, 1752, Dinwiddie made an elaborate report to the Board of Trade, and asked specific instructions to regulate his conduct in resisting the French. The possession of the Ohio valley he foresaw would fall to the Americans, from their numbers and the gradual extension of their settlements, for whose security he recommended a barrier of Western forts; and, urging the great advantage of cultivating an alliance with the Miamis, he offered to cross the mountains, and deliver a present to them in person, in their own remote dwelling-places.
The aged and undiscerning German prince who still sat on the British throne, methodically narrow, swayed by his mistress more than by his minister, [98] meanly avaricious and spiritless, was too prejudiced to
chap. IV.} 1752. |
The heir to the throne was a boy of fourteen, of whose education royalists and the more liberal aristocracy were disputing the charge. His birth was probably premature, as it occurred within less than ten months of that of his oldest sister; and his organization was marked by a nervous irritability, which increased with years. ‘He shows no disposition to any great excess,’ said Dodington to his mother. ‘He is a very honest boy,’ answered the princess, who still wished him ‘more forward and less childish.’ ‘The young people of quality,’ she added, ‘are so ill educated and so very vicious, that they frighten me;’ and she secluded her son from their society-The prince, from his own serious nature, favored this retirement; when angry, he would hide his passion in the solitude of his chamber; and as he grew up, his strict [99] sobriety and also his constitutional fondness for domes-
chap. IV.} 1752. |
Neither the king nor the court of the Prince of
chap. IV.} 1753. |
Many proposals, too, were ‘made for laying taxes on North America.’ The Board of Trade had not ceased to be urgent ‘for a revenue with which to fix settled salaries on the Northern governors, and defray the cost of Indian alliances.’ ‘Persons of consequence,’ we are told, ‘had repeatedly, and without concealment, expressed undigested notions of raising revenues out of the colonies.’44 Some proposed to obtain them from the post-office, a modification of the acts of trade, and a general stamp act for America.45 With Pelham's concurrence, the Board of Trade46 on [101] the eighth day of March, 1753, announced to the
chap. IV.} 1753. |
Meantime, the Indians of Ohio were growing weary with the indecision of England and its colonies. A hundred of them, at Winchester, in 1753, renewed to Virginia the proposal for an English fort on the Ohio, and promised aid in repelling the French.47 They repaired to Pennsylvania with the same message, and were met by evasions. The ministry which had, from the first, endeavored to put upon America the expenses of Indian treaties and of colonial defence, continued to receive early and accurate intelligence from Dinwiddie.48 The system they adopted gave evidence not only of the reckless zeal of the Lords of Trade to extend the jurisdiction of Great Britain beyond the Alleghanies, but also of the imbecility of the cabinet. The king in council, swayed by the representations of the Board, decided, that the valley of the Ohio was in the western part of the colony of Virginia; and that ‘the march of certain Europeans to erect a fort in parts’ claimed to be of his dominions, was to be resisted as [102] an act of hostility. Having thus invited a conflict
chap. IV.} 1753. |
That Board, of itself, had as yet no access to the king; but still it assumed the direction of affairs in its department. Busily persevering in the plan of reforming the government of the colonies, it made one last great effort to conduct the American administration by means of the prerogative. New York remained [103] the scene of the experiment, and Sir Danvers Os-
chap. IV.} 1753. |
The new governor, just as he was embarking, was also charged ‘to apply his thoughts very closely to Indian affairs;’54 and hardly had he sailed, when, in September, the Lords of Trade directed commissioners from the northern colonies to meet the next summer at Albany, and make a common treaty with the Six Nations. On the relations of France and England with those tribes and their Western allies, hung the issues of universal peace and American union.
During the voyage across the Atlantic, the agitated mind of Osborne, already reeling with private grief, brooded despondingly over the task he had assumed. On the tenth of October, he took the oaths of office at New York; and the people who welcomed him with acclamations, hooted his predecessor. ‘I expect the like treatment,’ said he to Clinton, ‘before I leave the government.’ On the same day, he was startled by an address from the city council, who declared they would not ‘brook any infringement of their inestimable liberties, civil and religious.’ On the next, he communicated to the Council his instructions, which required the Assembly ‘to recede from all encroachments on the prerogative,’ and ‘to [104] consider, without delay, of a proper law for a perma-
chap. IV.} 1753. |
Being of morbid sensitiveness, honest, and scrupulous of his word, the unhappy man spent the night in arranging his private affairs, and towards morning hanged himself against the fence in the garden. Thus was British authority surrendered by his despair. His death left the government in the hands of James Delancey, a man of ability and great possessions. A native of New York, of Huguenot ancestry, he had won his way to political influence as the leader of opposition in the colonial Assembly; and Newcastle had endeavored to conciliate his neutrality by a commission as lieutenant-governor. He discerned, and acknowledged, that the custom of annual grants could never be surrendered. ‘Dissolve us as often as you will,’ said his old associates in opposition, ‘we will never give it up.’ But they relinquished claims to executive power, and consented that all disbursements of public money should require the warrant of the governor and council, except only for the payment of their own clerk and their agent in England. Nor did public opinion in Great Britain favor the instructions. Charles Townshend was, indeed, ever ready to defend [105] them to the last; but to the younger Horace Walpole
chap. IV.} 1753. |