Chapter LXXV: Appendix: Canals and Railroads (5)

We shall soon have more papists in the north than they
have slaves in the south. And who would not prefer two
million of slaves, under the control of two million
of masters, owners of the soil, and prompted by every
consideration of duty and interest to promote the peace
and prosperity of our country, to two million of papists,
under the control of two thousand priests, educated
in the schools of Austria and Ireland――two thousand
_bachelors_, bound to the country by no tie of interest or
affection――two thousand emissaries of a _foreign prince_,
whose supremacy they acknowledge, and who is our natural
_enemy_, became our prosperity is working the ruin of his
despotism? Is it probable that we shall long continue to
enjoy tranquillity with such a population remaining among
us in all the ignorance to which their masters would doom
them? Will the Holy Alliance of despotic sovereigns in
Europe consent that the examples of peace and prosperity
in this free republic should continually endanger the
stability of their thrones, when one word from the pope
would give them security, by carrying riot and uproar
through all our borders?

We are happy to find that the friends of liberty in all
parts of the north and west are opening their eyes to the
dangers that menace us from the progress of popery. The
following remarks of the Boston Recorder on the threat of
the superior of the convent at Charlestown, in relation to
the ten thousand Irishmen, are very pointed and forcible.

THE ‘BISHOP OF BOSTON.’――‘Mr. Cutter told me he was afraid
the mob would destroy the convent, and then I told him
that if they did, “the right reverend bishop’s influence
over ten thousand brave Irishmen might lead to the
destruction of his (Mr. Cutter’s) property, and that of
others also.”’

Such is the testimony, given under oath, in open court, by
Mary Anne Ursula Moffat, _alias_ Mary Edmond St. George,
superior of the Ursuline community at Charlestown. In
all important particulars it agrees with Mr. Cutter’s
statements. It fully sustains the most important
points――the bishop’s influence over the ‘ten thousand
brave Irishmen,’ and the reasonableness of expecting that
he will use that influence in a certain way. She adds,
‘I said this without much thought.’ It was no story,
deliberately made up for the occasion, for the purpose
of frightening Mr. Cutter with imaginary dangers. It was
the real truth, well known to her, and uttered without
premeditation. It is true, he did not wield this power for
the destruction of Mr. Cutter’s property. He told his ‘ten
thousand brave Irishmen’ to keep still, and they obeyed
him; and he and they were praised for it.

Here we have a _government_, wielding a physical force
according to its pleasure, for the protection of its
subjects. The superior wished Mr. Cutter to be in fear
of it. She placed some reliance on in existence, and
on the terror it might inspire, for her own safety, and
the safety of her community. It is a government which
may operate for the defence of its subjects, or for the
punishment of those who injure them by the destruction of
the property of our citizens. The officer who wields this
power is not known to our constitution. He is not elected
by our freemen. He is not officially responsible to the
United States, or to the commonwealth of Massachusetts.
He is not even elected by those whom he governs. He is
appointed by a foreign state, to which he still retains
his allegiance, and by which he is liable to be removed
from office, whenever his official acts shall not be
such as the rulers of that state approve. One of his
predecessors has been removed from this office to another
by that foreign power. His conduct had pleased his
superiors, and he was promoted. Bishop Fenwick is equally
liable to be promoted, if his conduct pleases, or deposed,
if it displeases. We invite attention to the fact, that
_we have among us a body of ‘ten thousand brave Irishmen,’
ready to destroy our property at the bidding of an officer
who holds his office at the will of a foreign government_.
On the destruction of the convent, many of them came
together to receive his orders. He told them not to
destroy the property of our citizens, and they obeyed.
But whether this was any thing more than an adjournment of
vengeance, is doubtful. The superior who has better means
of knowing the bishop’s intentions than any Protestant,
‘cannot answer’ that Mr. Cutter’s property is _yet_ safe
from those under the ‘right reverend bishop’s influence.’
It does not become us to be confident while she is in
doubt.

In reference to the testimony quoted above, and to
documents which have been published in the Boston papers,
the Recorder remarks:

What, then, is the amount of her testimony? We think it
establishes the following points: viz.

1. That there is, within the limits of bishop Fenwick’s
diocese, a large Roman Catholic force which he can command.

2. That, if he signifies his pleasure, this Roman Catholic
force will destroy the property of our citizens.

3. That he may be expected to use this Roman Catholic
force in this manner, whenever it shall seem expedient,
for the protection of Roman Catholic interests.

4. That some well-informed Roman Catholics do rely upon
him to protect them and theirs in that way. And,

5. That the danger of a Roman Catholic mob, which shall
destroy the property of Protestants, at the bishop’s
bidding, in ‘retaliation’ for the burning of the convent,
is not yet over. The superior, _at the date of her letter_
published last week, ‘could not answer, that Mr. Cutter’s
property would not be destroyed.’

That the things are so, is proved, be it remembered, by
the testimony of the superior, who from her situation must
be presumed to know.

Now, if there is a power established among us, having
its regular government, to which government its subjects
look for protection of personal property, and which may be
expected to issue orders for their protection by physical
force, which orders will be obeyed,――if this be a fact,
does it not deserve the attention of all our citizens?
Does it deserve attention any the less because that power
pretends to be spiritual? If it really exists as a civil
government for the protection of the persons and property
of its subjects, armed, or able to arm itself at will,
with a military force, whether in the shape of a militia
or a mob, do its spiritual claims render it an affair
of no consequence? And if it is known to avow, us a
fundamental principle of its existence, a spiritual
allegiance to a foreign power, which foreign power is
known to be civil and military as well as spiritual, does
not this fact also deserve notice?

90 – Mr. Hamilton observes――I passed an hour or two very
agreeably at one of a series of meetings, which are called
‘Wistar parties,’ from the name of the gentleman at whose
house they were first held. Their effect and influence on
society must be very salutary. These parties bring together
men of different classes and pursuits, and promote the free
interchange of opinion, always useful for the correction of
prejudice. Such intercourse, too, prevents the narrowness
of thought, and exaggerated estimate of the value of our
own peculiar acquirements, which devotion to one exclusive
object is apt to engender in those who do not mix freely
with the world.

These meetings are held by rotation at the houses of the
different members. The conversation is generally literary
or scientific, and as the party is usually very large, it
can be varied at pleasure. Philosophers eat like other men,
and the precaution of an excellent supper is by no means
found to be superfluous. It acts, too, as a gentle emollient
on the acrimony of debate. No man can say a harsh thing
with his mouth full of turkey, and disputants forget their
differences in unity of enjoyment.

At these parties, I met several ingenious men, of a
class something below that of the ordinary members. When
an operative mechanic attracts notice by his zeal for
improvement in any branch of science, he is almost uniformly
invited to the Wistar meetings. The advantage of this policy
is obviously very great. A modest and deserving man is
brought into notice. His errors are corrected, his ardor
is stimulated, his taste improved. A healthy connection is
kept up between the different classes of society, and the
feeling of mutual sympathy is duly cherished. During my stay
in Philadelphia, I was present at several of these Wistar
meetings, and always returned from them with increased
conviction of their beneficial tendency.

91 – For interesting sketches of western manners and customs, see
the Transatlantic Sketches, by Alexander, and the valuable
works of Mr. Flint.

92 – For a full description, see Captain Franklin’s Narrative.

93 – At the period when the prison was erected, the legislature
of the state, and the public, had become so dissatisfied
with the mode of penitentiary punishment, without solitary
confinement, then existing, which seemed rather to harden
than to have a tendency to reform the delinquents, that it
was generally believed, that, unless a severe system was
adopted, the old sanguinary criminal code must be restored.
The legislature of New York state, therefore, in the year
1821, directed a selection of the oldest and most heinous
offenders to be made, who should be confined constantly in
solitary cells. Eighty convicts were accordingly put into
solitary cells, on the twenty-fifth of December, 1821. Five
of those convicts died during the year preceding January,
1823, while only five died out of one hundred and forty
convicts confined at the same time in prison, but who were
kept to labor. The health of the solitary convicts was very
soon seriously impaired. Some of them became insane; and the
effect of this constant imprisonment was not more favorable
to reformation than to mental and bodily health.

Before the end of 1823, exclusive solitary confinement was
entirely discontinued, and the present successful system,
combining solitude and silence with labor, introduced;
a majority of the commissioners, who examined the prison,
having reported, that they were entirely averse to solitary
confinement without labor, on the grounds of its being
injurious to health, expensive, affording no means of
reformation, and unnecessarily severe. La Fayette, when he
was lately in the United States, and heard of the experiment
of exclusive solitary confinement, said it was just a
revival of the practice in the Bastile, which had so
dreadful an effect on the poor prisoners. ‘I repaired,’
he said, ‘to the scene on the second day of the demolition,
and found that all the prisoners had been deranged by their
solitary confinement, except one; he had been a prisoner
twenty-five years, and was led forth during the height of
the tumultuous riot of the people, whilst engaged in tearing
down the building. He looked around with amazement, for he
had seen nobody for that space of time; and, before night,
he was so much affected, that he became a confirmed maniac,
from which situation he never recovered.’

94 – The following judicious remarks are from the excellent work
of Mr. Stuart, and indicate the estimation in which our
penitentiary system is held by intelligent foreigners.

No attempt to regulate any of the prisons in this country
according to the Auburn plan has, so far as I have learned,
been made. This appears the more extraordinary, because it
is stated, in the printed report of the agent of the Auburn
prison for 1827, that the British minister at Washington,
Mr. Vaughan, after a critical examination of the institution,
declared in ardent language, that he hoped in God it would
be made the model of imitation, not only for this country,
but for all Europe. And Mr. Vaughan would, of course, not
fail to make his opinion, and the results on which it was
founded, known in the proper quarter. Great Britain ought,
of all countries on the face of the earth, to be the most
grateful to the state of New York, for having set such an
example before her; for in what country are there so many
convicts in reference to the population?――where are they
maintained at so great expense to the state?――and where has
so little yet been done towards accomplishing the great end
of punishment,――the diminution of offences by the terror
of punishment?――or in promoting the reformation of the
offenders?

The Auburn system embraces all the objects which Howard, and
the philanthropists of this and the last century, have been
endeavoring to attain. In the Maison de Force, at Ghent,
which both Howard and Buxton visited, at different periods,
thirty-four years apart, and which both of them eulogize,
the same management in respect to solitary cells, silence,
and labor, prevailed as at Auburn, and was attended with
excellent effects; but the convicts were allowed a certain
portion of their earnings, and the system was not adhered
to with the exactness, precision, and regularity, which
are indispensably necessary, so that at one period, the
earnings of the prisoners were much reduced in amount,
and there was great laxity of discipline. Mr. Western, one
of the magistrates of the county of Essex, and one of the
representatives of that county in parliament, a gentleman
whose benevolent and patriotic views are well known, has,
in a pamphlet on prison discipline, which he published a
few years ago, suggested the following plan, the details of
which he has well explained:――‘Solitary confinement, marching
and remarching to the cells, as practised at Auburn; hard
labor for eight instead of eleven hours, as at Auburn, but
without restriction as to conversation, and with liberty for
airing and exercise for three hours.’ And he asks, ‘if each
successive day was spent in this manner, can it be doubted
that the frequent commission of crime would be checked,
and more done to deter, correct, and reform, than could
be accomplished by any other punishment? A period of such
discipline, longer or shorter, according to the nature of
the offence, would surely be sufficient for any violation
of the law short of murder, or that description of outrage
which is likely to lead to the perpetration of it. This sort
of treatment is not to be overcome: it cannot be braved, or
laughed at, or disregarded by any force of animal spirits,
however strong or vigorous of mind or body the individual
may be. The dull, unvarying course of hard labor, with hard
fare and seclusion, must in time become so painfully irksome,
and so wear and distress him, that he will, inevitably,
in the end, be subdued.’ If Mr. Western’s plan would
be attended with the effects he describes, ‘to deter,
correct, and reform,’ how much more certainly would those
consequences attend that followed at Auburn, where the
offenders suffer the penalty of total exclusion from society,
deprived of all knowledge of their friends and relations,
and of their associates, even if confined in the same prison
with them; are doomed to constant hard labor, their earnings
altogether applied for the benefit of the state; subjected
to stripes, inflicted summarily and instantly, by any one
of the keepers, for every infraction of the prison rules,
even for the slightest attempt to break silence, or for
inattention to work, or not working constantly and well.

The punishment of stripes has been found fault with; but
both at Ghent and Auburn, the keepers have given it as their
opinion, that constant labor, and the maintenance of the
very strict discipline enjoined, cannot be enforced without
their having the power to inflict this summary punishment.
It is only permitted to be inflicted on the back of the
convict, in such manner as to produce personal suffering,
without danger to the health or any vital part. In point of
fact, however, the certainty of punishment following every
offence is so thoroughly understood, that the power is, as
already noticed, seldom exercised.

95 – _Education in Maine._――A writer in the Saco Republican
furnishes some details respecting the public provision for
education in the state of Maine. After its separation from
Massachusetts, a law was passed, requiring every town to
raise annually, for the support of schools, a sum equal to
forty cents for each person in such town, to be distributed
among the school districts, in proportion to the number
of inhabitants in each. In 1825, the number of districts,
as appears from the reports made to the legislature, was
two thousand, four hundred and ninety-nine; the number
of children, between the ages of four and twenty-one,
one hundred and thirty-seven thousand, nine hundred and
thirty-one; the number who usually attend schools, one
hundred and one thousand, three hundred and twenty-five, and
the total annual expenditure, one hundred and thirty-seven
thousand, eight hundred and seventy-eight dollars, and
fifty-seven cents. The present number of scholars is
estimated by this writer at one hundred and forty thousand.
The schools kept by male teachers are open, on the average,
two months in the year, and those kept by female teachers,
about two weeks longer. The writer suggests, that if the
sum of one dollar and six cents, instead of forty cents,
for every inhabitant, were required to be raised, that the
schools might be kept open during the year, and believes
that the additional tax would not be regarded as a burden.

96 – The following observations are from the pen of a writer,
who has done as much for the really useful literature of the
country as any other man. We refer to Mr. Flint, of whose
valuable writings we have so often taken the liberty to
avail ourselves.

I. Our national and state governments do little or nothing
for literature, by furnishing example, premiums, excitement,
money. They have taken no pains to inspire a taste for it,
or to cause it to become part and parcel of the national
glory. To produce a rail-road, a canal, a joint stock
company, is felt to confer more national renown, as well
as advantage, than to rear a Milton, Burke, or Walter Scott.
We hardly retain our West Point. Beside our solemn farce
of sending among the few respectable examiners, a large
proportion of ignorant and incompetent men to examine
the pupils, legislators have not been found wanting, who,
availing themselves of the miserable appeal of demagogues,
to the sordid appetite, miscalled economy, have wished
to put forth their unhallowed hands to demolish this only
vestige of national show of a disposition to foster the
sciences. Profound respect for our country interdicts the
thoughts that arise in our mind upon this head. Literature,
science, what are they at Washington, more than they
would have been in the day of Attila? The members of the
legislature have more than they can do to write letters
to their constituents, and secure the means of a future
election, and to make excuses for refusing their names
to the thousand applicants for patronage to new books and
periodicals.

In reply to all this, we are sometimes asked, what a
government, with the genius and limitations of ours,
could do to foster literature? Every one must be aware,
that if the constituent parts that compose the government
felt keenly and saw clearly, that advances in science and
literature constituted the true interest and glory of the
country, they would be at no loss to apply the adequate
excitement. Had they the strong impulse, the inward
perception, the munificent and fostering spirit, we should
discover what they could do. The feeling, the will, and not
the means, are wanting. The single solitary expedition of
Lewis and Clarke twinkles, as a kind of evening star above
the western mountains, in the midst of the darkness of our
efforts for science and letters. That single mission gained
the administration of Jefferson more true glory abroad
and at home, than any single act of that or any subsequent
administration; and every village orator annually announces,
that Athens, of amaranthine and imperishable memory, was
less extensive and less populous than one of our states of
the second class, and assigns as the cause of this freshness
and perpetuity of her fame, nothing but intellectual
pre-eminence. But the people and the rulers have alike
waxed too gross and sordid, too blind and hardened to every
impulse but personal aggrandizement and the love of money,
to perceive or regard what constitutes national glory.

II. We have no literary metropolis, no central point, from
which information, excitement and emulation might radiate
in every direction, so as to fill the whole circumference of
our land. The interests and tastes of our numerous literary
capitals not only have no decided concurrence, but clash and
oppose each other. The favorite author, poet, editor of one
capital, glides in the steamboat, and whirls on the railway,
in a few hours, out of the orbit of his own little universe,
and is surprised to find himself in a new planet, as little
known as the man in the moon. There is no common point of
union for literary men, where they may meet and replenish
their oil from each other’s lamps, guide and encourage each
other, review and pass upon the books and literary efforts
of the past year, and impart counsels touching their own
embryo projects for the coming one. A censurate, thus
constituted, would be able to do much toward breaking
down sectional, and building up in its stead a national,
literature. Hundreds of trumpery books, on which so much
paper and ink are wasted, would, in this case, hereafter
cease to see the light――and much talent, that is now as
an unwrought gem in the mines; would be brought to view.
We shall be told, that there would be infinite jealousy,
rivalry, clanship, envy, intrigue. Perhaps there might.
But political associations are not abandoned, because
the same evil attaches to them. Such meetings have long
been practised in Germany, and have proved remarkable for
their amenity, courtesy, and good fruits. Men, especially
intellectual men, when brought together, mutually catch the
spirit of their station. Envy and jealousy are the natural
heritage of ignorance. Intellectual men, if proverbially
irritable, have been in all countries and all times
proverbially generous, kind-hearted, beneficent. Such men
would feel themselves impelled to act according to their
station and responsibility, and would have a noble disdain
at the idea of bringing a stain upon their escutcheon.
These men, being charged that the republic of letters should
receive no detriment, would scorn prejudiced, narrow, and
illiberal views, and would promulgate generous thoughts and
broad principles. The books which they patronized would be
received by the public with confidence, while those to which
they affixed their veto would cease to circulate; and thus
transfer more than half the patronage of literature, which
is now thrown away upon worthless books and periodicals, to
such as are important and useful.

III. The remaining slavery of our colonial literary
dependence upon Great Britain. It is humiliating to
reflect, that a great nation, sometimes not a little
tempted to bluster about its greatness and independence,
notwithstanding all the taunts and reproaches we have
received from the writers of that nation for our servility
and imbecile dependence upon it for our literary opinions,
as well as our books, should still look beyond the seas for
literary fame. But every one knows, that an American writer
must delve on, uncheered and unblest, until he has contrived
to get an echo of his name from beyond the Atlantic. What
efforts, what arts, what servility to obtain it? This is
not all. In the greedy competition of the press, the books
of that country, the great estimated mart of fame, can be
republished here without copy-right. On this head, there
is no need, as we have no space, to enlarge. Every one can
see that American writers have no adequate incitement to put
forth their powers, while obliged to work up against such a
wind and tide opposed to them.

97 – For this succinct, able, and interesting account of the
banking system of the United States, we have been indebted
to the Annual Register for 1831–2, published by Fessenden
& Co.

98 – ‘It would perhaps be difficult to find any individual who
experienced more gallant adventures, and daring enterprises,
of a highly romantic character, in various countries, than
captain Smith. His life, without any fictitious additions,
might easily be taken for a mere romance. He appears to have
possessed many great qualities, and to have been deficient
in nothing but that mean cunning and sordid spirit, by the
aid of which inferior men were able to thwart his views, and
deprive him of those stations and rewards which his services
amply merited. He was one of the earliest and most ardent of
those who undertook the settlement of Virginia; his bravery
and capacity more than once saved that infant colony from
destruction, and kept the enterprise from being abandoned
for several years, though the absurdity of the schemes,
and the profligacy, folly, and dishonesty of those who
were to execute them, exposed the colony for many years
to every calamity, and often brought it to the brink of
ruin.’――_North Am. Review._

99 – ‘In the morning, a considerable number of Miantonimoh’s men
came on and joined the English. This encouraged many of the
Nihanticks also to join them. They soon formed a circle,
and made protestations how gallantly they would fight, and
what numbers they would kill. When the army marched the
next morning, the captain had with him nearly five hundred
Indians. He marched twelve miles, to the ford in Pawcatuck
river. The day was very hot, and the men, through the great
heat, and a scarcity of provision, began to faint. The
army, therefore, made a considerable halt, and refreshed
themselves. Here the Narraganset Indians began to manifest
their dread of the Pequods, and to inquire of captain
Mason, with great anxiety, what were his real intentions. He
assured them, that it was his design to attack the Pequods
in their forts. At this they appeared to be panic struck,
and filled with amazement. Many of them drew off, and
returned to Narraganset. The army marched on about three
miles, and came to Indian corn-fields; and the captain,
imagining that he drew near the enemy, made a halt; he
called his guides and council, and demanded of the Indians
how far it was to the forts. They represented that it was
twelve miles to Sassacus’ fort, and that both forts were in
a manner impregnable. Wequash, a Pequod captain, or petty
sachem, who had revolted from Sassacus to the Narragansets,
was the principal guide, and he proved faithful. He gave
such information respecting the distance of the forts from
each other, and the distance which they were then at from
the chief sachem’s, as determined him and his officers
to alter the resolution which they had before adopted, of
attacking them both at once, and to make a united attack
upon that at Mystic. He found his men so fatigued in
marching through a pathless wilderness with their provisions,
arms, and ammunition, and so affected with the heat, that
this resolution appeared to be absolutely necessary. One of
captain Underhill’s men became lame at the same time, and
began to fail. The army, therefore, proceeded directly to
Mystic, and continuing their march, came to a small swamp
between two hills just at the disappearing of the daylight.
The officers supposing that they were now near the fort,
pitched their little camp between or near two large rocks,
in Groton, since called Porter’s rocks. The men were faint
and weary, and though the rocks were their pillows, their
rest was sweet. The guards and sentinels were considerably
advanced in front of the army, and heard the enemy singing
at the fort, who continued their rejoicings even until
midnight. They had seen the vessels pass the harbor some
days before, and had concluded that the English were afraid,
and had no courage to attack them. They were therefore
rejoicing, singing, dancing, insulting them, and wearying
themselves, on this account. The night was serene, and,
towards morning, the moon shone clear. The important crisis
was now come, when the very existence of Connecticut, under
Providence, was to be determined by the sword in a single
action, and to be decided by the good conduct of less than
eighty brave men. The Indians who remained were now sorely
dismayed, and though at first they had led the van, and
boasted of great feats, yet were now all fallen back in the
rear. About two hours before day, the men were roused with
all expedition, and, briefly commending themselves and their
cause to God, advanced immediately towards the fort. After
a march of about two miles, they came to the foot of a large
hill, where a fine country opened before them. The captain,
supposing that the fort could not be far distant, sent for
the Indians in the rear to come up. Uncas and Wequash at
length appeared. He demanded of them where the fort was.
They answered, on the top of the hill. He demanded of them
where were the other Indians. They answered, that they were
much afraid. The captain sent to them not to fly, but to
surround the fort at any distance they pleased, and see
whether Englishmen would fight. The day was nearly dawning,
and no time was now to be lost. The men pressed on in two
divisions, captain Mason to the north-eastern, and captain
Underhill to the western entrance. As the object which
they had been so long seeking came into view, and while
they reflected they were to fight not only for themselves,
but their parents, wives, children, and the whole colony,
the martial spirit kindled in their bosoms, and they
were wonderfully animated and assisted. As captain Mason
advanced within a rod or two of the fort a dog barked, and
an Indian roared out, “Owanux! Owanux!” That is, Englishmen!
Englishmen! The troops pressed on, and, as the Indians were
rallying, poured in upon them, through the palisadoes, a
general discharge of their muskets, and then wheeling off
to the principal entrance, entered the fort sword in hand.
Notwithstanding the suddenness of the attack, and the
blaze and thunder of the arms, the enemy made a manly and
desperate resistance. Captain Mason and his party drove the
Indians in the main street towards the west part of the fort,
where some bold men, who had forced their way, met them,
and made such a slaughter among them, that the street was
soon clear of the enemy. They secreted themselves in and
behind their wigwams, and taking advantage of every covert,
maintained an obstinate defence. The captain and his men
entered the wigwams, where they were beset with many Indians,
who took every advantage to shoot them, and lay hands upon
them, so that it was with great difficulty that they could
defend themselves with their swords. After a severe conflict,
in which many of the Indians were slain, some of the English
killed, and others sorely wounded, the victory still hung
in suspense. The captain, finding himself much exhausted,
and out of breath, as well as his men, by the extraordinary
exertions which they had made in this critical state of
action, had recourse to a successful expedient. He cries out
to his men, “We must burn them.” He immediately, entering
a wigwam, took fire and put it to the mats with which the
wigwams were covered. The fire instantly kindling, spread
with such violence, that all the Indian houses were soon
wrapped in one general flame. As the fire increased, the
English retired without the fort, and compassed it on every
side. Uncas and his Indians, with such of the Narragansets
as yet remained, took courage, from the example of the
English, and formed another circle in the rear of them. The
enemy were now seized with astonishment; and, forced by the
flames from their lurking places into open light, became
a fair mark for the English soldiers. Some climbed the
palisadoes, and were instantly brought down by the fire
of the English muskets. Others, desperately sallying forth
from their burning cells, were shot, or cut in pieces with
the sword. Such terror fell upon them, that they would run
back from the English into the very flames. Great numbers
perished in the conflagration. The greatness and violence
of the fire, the reflection of the light, the flashing and
roar of the arms, the shrieks and yellings of the men, women,
and children, in the fort, and the shoutings of the Indians
without, just at the dawning of the morning, exhibited a
grand and awful scene. In little more than an hour, this
whole work of destruction was finished. Seventy wigwams were
burnt, and five or six hundred Indians perished, either by
the sword, or in the flames. A hundred and fifty warriors
had been sent on the evening before, who, that very morning,
were to have gone forth against the English. Of these,
and all who belonged to the fort, seven only escaped, and
seven were made prisoners. It had been previously concluded
not to burn the fort, but to destroy the enemy, and take
the plunder; but the captain afterwards found it the only
expedient to obtain the victory, and save his men. Thus
parents and children, the sannup and squaw, the old man
and the babe, perished in promiscuous ruin.’――_Trumbull’s
History of Connecticut._

100 – Smith’s History of New York, p. 207.

101 – The following account of the origin of the name Pennsylvania,
given by its founder, in a letter dated January 5, 1681, is
curious and interesting. ‘This day,’ says Penn, ‘after many
waitings, watchings, solicitings, and disputes, in council,
my country was confirmed to me under the great seal of
England, with large powers and privileges, by the name of
Pennsylvania; a name the king would give it in honor of my
father. I chose New Wales, being a hilly country; and when
the secretary, a Welshman, refused to call it New Wales, I
proposed Sylvania, and they added Penn to it; though I much
opposed it, and went to the king to have it struck out. He
said ’twas past, and he would take it upon him; nor could
twenty guineas move the under-secretary to vary the name;
for I feared it should be looked on us a vanity in me, and
not as a respect in the king to my father, as it really
was. Thou mayest communicate my grant to friends, and expect
shortly my proposals. ’Tis a dear and just thing, and my
God, that has given it me through many difficulties, will,
I believe, bless and make it the seed of a nation. I shall
have a tender care to the government, that it be well laid
at first.’

102 – On receiving his mortal wound, Wolfe was conveyed into the
rear, where, careless about himself, he discovered, in the
agonies of death, the most anxious solicitude concerning
the fate of the day. From extreme faintness, he had reclined
his head on the arm of an officer, but was soon aroused by
the cry of ‘They fly, they fly!’ ‘Who fly?’ exclaimed the
dying hero. ‘The French,’ answered his attendant. ‘Then,’
said he, ‘I die contented,’ and immediately expired. A death
more full of military glory has seldom been recorded by
the pen of the historian, or celebrated by the pencil of
the painter. General Wolfe was only thirty-three years of
age. He possessed those military talents, which, with the
advantage of years and opportunity of action, ‘to moderate
his ardor, expand his faculties, and give to his intuitive
perception and scientific knowledge the correctness of
judgment perfected by experience,’ would have ‘placed him
on a level with the most celebrated generals of any age or
nation.’――Montcalm was every way worthy to be a competitor
of Wolfe. He had the truest military genius of any officer
whom the French had ever employed in America. After he had
received his mortal wound, he was carried into the city; and
when informed that it was mortal, his reply was, ‘I am glad
of it.’ On being told that he could survive but a few hours,
‘So much the better,’ he replied; ‘I shall not then live to
see the surrender of Quebec.’

103 – Pitkin, vol. i. p. 157.

104 – Tudor’s Life of Otis, p. 61.

105 – Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts from 1749 to 1774.

106 – ‘Declaiming, us usual, one evening on American affairs,
he addressed himself particularly to the ministers. “You
are cowards,” he said; “you are afraid of the Americans;
you dare not tax America.” This he repeated in different
language. Upon this Townshend took fire, immediately rose
and said, “Fear! fear! cowards dare not tax America! I dare
tax America.” Grenville stood silent for a moment, and then
said, “Dare you tax America? I wish to God I could see it.”
Townshend replied, “I will, I will.”’――_Manuscript papers
of Dr. William S. Johnson_, then in England as agent for
Connecticut, quoted in Pitkin’s History, vol. i. p. 217.

107 – Bradford’s History of Massachusetts, p. 205.

108 – Hutchinson, p. 270.

109 – Wirt’s Life of Henry, p. 105, 106.

110 – Lord Chatham had shown this bill to Dr. Franklin before he
submitted it to the house of lords, but the latter had not
an opportunity of proposing certain alterations which he
had sketched. Dr. Franklin, however, at the special request
of lord Chatham, was present at the debates upon it. Lord
Dartmouth was at first disposed to have the bill lie upon
the table; but lord Sandwich opposed its being received,
and moved that it be immediately ‘rejected with the contempt
it deserved. He could never believe,’ he said, ‘that it was
the production of a British peer; it appeared to him rather
the work of some American.’ Turning his face towards Dr.
Franklin, then standing at the bar, ‘He fancied,’ he said,
‘he had in his eye the person who drew it up, one of the
bitterest and most mischievous enemies this country had ever
known.’ To this part of the speech of lord Sandwich, the
great Chatham replied, by saying ‘that it was entirely his
own. This declaration,’ he said, ‘he thought himself the
more obliged to make, as many of their lordships appeared to
have so mean an opinion of it; for if it was so weak or so
bad a thing, it was proper in him to take care that no other
person should unjustly share in the censure it deserved.
It had been heretofore reckoned his vice not to be apt to
take advice; but he made no scruple to declare, that if he
were the first minister of this country, and had the care of
settling this momentous business, he should not be ashamed
of publicly calling to his assistance a person so perfectly
acquainted with the whole of American affairs as the
gentleman alluded to, and so injuriously reflected on; one
whom all Europe held in estimation for his knowledge and
wisdom, and ranked with our Boyles and Newtons; who was
an honor, not to the English nation only, but to human
nature.’――_Franklin’s Works_, vol. i. p. 322, 323. _Pitkin_,
vol. i. p. 312. Among the papers which had been laid before
the house by lord Dartmouth, was the petition of the congress
to the king, in behalf of which the American agents, Dr.
Franklin, Mr. Bollan, and Mr. Lee, petitioned to be heard
at the bar of the house. But this privilege was refused
to them by the ministers, on the ground that the congress
was an illegal body, and their petition was rejected by an
unusually large majority.

111 – In Montgomery the Americans lost one of the bravest and most
accomplished generals that ever led an army to the field.
But he was not more illustrious for his skill and courage as
an officer, than he was estimable for his private virtues.
All enmity to him on the part of the British ceased with his
life, and respect to his private character prevailed over
all other considerations. His body was taken up the next day,
and he was decently interred.――Montgomery was a gentleman
of good family in Ireland, who, having married a lady and
purchased an estate in New York, considered himself as an
American, and had served with reputation in the late French
war. Congress directed a monument to be erected to his
memory, with an inscription expressive of their veneration
for his character, and of their deep sense of his ‘many
signal and important services; and to transmit to future
ages, as examples truly worthy of imitation, his patriotism,
conduct, boldness of enterprise, insuperable perseverance,
and contempt of danger and death.’ A monument of white
marble, with emblematic devices, has accordingly been
erected to his memory, in front of St. Paul’s church in New
York.

112 – Not long after his appointment, Dr. Church was detected in a
traitorous correspondence with the British in Boston. He had
sustained a high reputation as a patriot, and was at this
time a member of the Massachusetts house of representatives.
He was tried, convicted, and expelled from the house of
representatives; and congress afterwards resolved, that
he be closely confined in some secure gaol in Connecticut,
without the use of pen, ink, or paper; and that no person
be allowed to converse with him, except in the presence and
hearing of a magistrate, or the sheriff of the county.

113 – On the 1st of January, 1776, the town of Norfolk, in
Virginia, was set on fire by the British, under the
direction of lord Dunmore, and reduced to ashes. On the
arrival of the Liverpool man-of-war from England, a flag was
sent on shore to put the question, whether the provincials
would supply his majesty’s ship with provisions, and a
negative answer being returned, it was determined to destroy
the town. The whole loss was estimated at three hundred
thousand pounds sterling. The provincials themselves
destroyed the houses and plantations near the water, to
deprive the ships of every resource of supply.

114 – The chief justice of South Carolina, William Henry Drayton,
appointed under the new form of government just adopted, in
his charge to the grand jurors, in April, after justifying
the proceedings of that colony in forming a new government,
on the principles of the revolution in England in 1688, thus
concludes: ‘The Almighty created America to be independent
of Great Britain: let us beware of the impiety of being
backward to act as instruments in the Almighty hand, now
extended to accomplish his purpose; and by the completion
of which alone, America, in the nature of human affairs, can
be secure against the crafty and insidious designs of her
enemies, who think her power and prosperity already by far
too great. In a word, our piety and political safety are
so blended, that to refuse our labors in this divine work,
is to refuse to be a great, a free, a pious, and a happy
people.’――_Pitkin_, vol. i. p. 359.

115 – Pitkin’s Political and Civil History, vol. i. p. 361.

116 – ‘This measure was followed by the most lively demonstrations
of joy. The spirit of the times is interestingly manifested
by the following paragraph from Purdie’s paper of the 17th
of May, which immediately succeeds the annunciation of the
resolutions:――“In consequence of the above resolutions,
universally regarded as the only door which will lead
to safety and prosperity, some gentlemen made a handsome
collection for the purpose of treating the soldiery,
who next day were paraded in Waller’s grove, before
brigadier-general Lewis, attended by the gentlemen of the
committee of safety, the members of the general convention,
the inhabitants of this city, &c. The resolutions being read
aloud to the army, the following toasts were given, each of
them accompanied by a discharge of the artillery and small
arms, and the acclamations of all present:――1. The American
Independent States.――2. The grand congress of the United
States, and their respective legislatures.――3. General
Washington, and victory to the American arms.――The union
flag of the American states waved upon the capitol during
the whole of this ceremony; which being ended, the soldiers
partook of the refreshments prepared for them by the
affection of their countrymen, and the evening concluded
with illuminations and other demonstrations of joy; every
one seeming pleased that the domination of Great Britain was
now at an end, so wickedly and tyrannically exercised for
these twelve or thirteen years past, notwithstanding our
repeated prayers and remonstrances for redress.”’――_Wirt’s
Life of Henry_, p. 195.

117 – These melancholy facts were thus narrated by general
Washington, in his letter to congress:――‘Our situation is
truly distressing. The check our detachment sustained on the
27th ultimo, has dispirited too great a proportion of our
troops, and filled their minds with apprehension and despair.
The militia, instead of calling forth their utmost efforts
to a brave and manly opposition, in order to repair our
losses, are dismayed, intractable, and impatient to return.
Great numbers of them have gone off; in some instances
almost by whole regiments, half ones, and by companies
at a time. This circumstance of itself, independent of
others, when fronted by a well-appointed enemy, superior in
number to our whole collected force, would be sufficiently
disagreeable; but when their example has infected another
part of the army,――when their want of discipline, and
refusal of almost every kind of restraint and government,
have produced a like conduct, but too common to the whole,
and an entire disregard of that order and subordination
necessary to the well doing of an army, and which had been
inculcated before as well as the nature of our military
establishment would admit of,――our condition is still more
alarming; and with the deepest concern I am obliged to
confess my want of confidence in the generality of the
troops.’

118 – ‘On the 17th of December, our army marched from Brunswick
at four o’clock in the morning, and about the same hour
in the afternoon arrived at Princeton. This place general
Washington, in person, with Stirling’s brigade, left not one
hour before the British arrived. At Princeton the British
general waited seventeen hours, marched at nine o’clock
in the morning of the 8th, and arrived at Trenton at
four o’clock in the afternoon, just when the last boat of
general Washington’s embarkation crossed the river, as if
he had calculated, it was observed, with great accuracy,
the exact time necessary for his enemy to make his
escape.’――_Steadman’s History of the American War_,
vol. i. p. 220.

119 – General Lee had been a British officer, and had engaged
in the American service before the acceptance of the
resignation of his commission. Sir William Howe for
this reason pretended to view him as a traitor, and at
first refused to admit him to his parole, or to consider
him as a subject of exchange. Congress directed the
commander-in-chief to propose to Sir William Howe to
exchange six field-officers for general Lee. In case
the proposal was rejected, that body resolved, that these
officers should be closely confined, and in every respect
receive the treatment that general Lee did. The proposition
not being acceded to, the resolution of congress was carried
into effect, by the executives of the states in whose
custody the selected field-officers were, with a degree of
severity which perhaps even the treatment of general Lee
hardly warranted.

120 – Thacher’s Military Journal, p. 107.

121 – It has ever been a source of reproach against the British,
that they employed the sanguinary Indians as their allies.
The atrocities they committed might be somewhat exaggerated
by general Gates and others; but that instances did occur,
to the disgrace of their civilized associates, cannot be
denied. The melancholy case of Miss M’Rea will long be
remembered. Captain Jones, her lover, an officer in the
British army, anxious on her account, engaged some Indians
of two different tribes to convey her away from among the
Americans for the purpose of security; fearing for her,
probably, on account of her father’s being interested in
the royal cause, and of her attachment to himself. Having
promised to reward the person who should bring her safe to
him with a barrel of rum, the two Indians, who had already
conveyed her to some distance, disputed which of them
should present to captain Jones the object of his affections.
Each was anxious for the reward; and that the other might
not receive it, one of them killed her with a blow of his
tomahawk. Upon the first intelligence of what had happened,
Burgoyne obliged the Indians to deliver up the murderer,
and threatened to put him to death. Many thought the threat
would have been executed; but he was pardoned upon the
Indians agreeing to terms enjoined them by Burgoyne, which
the general thought would be more efficacious than an
execution to prevent similar mischiefs.――_Gordon_, vol. ii.
p. 544.

122 – ‘The colonel was furnished with the following curious
instructions, which fell into the hands of general
Stark:――“To proceed to New Hampshire grants, cross the
mountains, scour the country, with Peter’s corps (tories)
and the Indians, from Rockingham to Otter creek, to
get horses, carriages, and cattle, and mount Reidesel’s
regiment of dragoons; to go down Connecticut river as far
as Brattleborough, and return by the great road to Albany,
there to meet general Burgoyne; to endeavor to make the
country believe it was the advanced body of the general’s
army, who was to cross Connecticut river and proceed to
Boston, and that at Springfield they were to be joined
by the troops from Rhode island. All officers, civil
and military, acting under the congress, were to be
made prisoners. To tax the towns where they halted with
such articles as they wanted, and take hostages for the
performance, &c. You are to bring all horses fit to mount
the dragoons or to serve as battalion horses for the troops,
with as many saddles and bridles as can be found. The number
of horses requisite, besides those for the dragoons, ought
to be thirteen hundred; if you can bring more, so much the
better. The horses must be tied in strings of ten each, in
order that one man may lead ten horses.” This redoubtable
commander surely must be one of the happiest men of the
age, to imagine that such prodigious achievements were at
his command,――that such invaluable resources were within
his grasp. But, alas! the wisest of men are liable to
disappointment in their sanguine calculations, and to
have their favorite projects frustrated by the casualties
of war. This is remarkably verified in the present
instance.’――_Thacher’s Military Journal_, p. 109.

123 – The committee consisted of Mr. Harrison, Dr. Franklin,
Mr. Johnson, Mr. Dickinson, and Mr. Jay.

124 – ‘He was to appear in the character of a merchant, and
was directed, among other things, immediately after his
arrival at Paris, to solicit an interview with the count
de Vergennes, the French minister, and to inform him, that
congress, being unable to obtain for America the quantity
of arms and ammunition necessary for its defence, had
despatched him to apply to some of the European powers
for a supply. That he was instructed to make his first
application to France, from an opinion that, in case of a
total separation of America from Great Britain, which every
circumstance seemed to indicate, it would be most proper
to obtain and cultivate her friendship. That in such case
the commercial advantages formerly enjoyed by Great Britain
would be transferred to France. That the Americans were
in want of clothing and arms for twenty-five thousand
men, with a suitable quantity of ammunition, and a hundred
field-pieces. Mr. Deane was also directed to sound the
French minister with regard to forming an alliance with
the colonies, in case they should be forced to declare
themselves independent.’――_Pitkin_, vol. i. p. 387. The
instructions will be found at length in the Diplomatic
Correspondence of the American Revolution, edited by
J. Sparkes, vol. i. p. 5–9.

125 – This important committee consisted of Mr. Dickinson,
Dr. Franklin, John Adams, Mr. Harrison, and Robert Morris.

126 – Mr. Jefferson, on account of the situation of his family,
being unable to accept the appointment, Arthur Lee, then in
London, was substituted.