genius of the English Colonists than such a comparison carefully wrought out. The Spanish and French colonies were established by patronage or power, and they were ruled in the spirit of absolutism by royal governors. They did not desire self-government; in fact, did not know what it is; and the more paternal the government became the more content they were. When Count Frontenac took steps in the direction of establishing municipal institutions at Quebec, Colbert, the great French minister, reproached him, saying: "It is well for you to observe that you are always to follow, in the government of Canada, the forms in use here; and since our kings have long regarded it as good for their service not to convoke the States-General of the kingdom, in order, perhaps, to abolish insensibly this ancient usage, you on your part, should very rarely, or, to speak more correctly, never give a corporate form to the inhabitants of Canada. You should even, as the colony strengthens, suppress gradually the office of the syndic, who presents petitions in the name of the inhabitants; for it is well that each should speak for himself, and no one for all." Political life is impossible under such a regime as this. The thirteen Colonies came up in a very different way; and, save in times of war, they were never so happy as when Crown and Parliament left them most severely alone.

NOTE. Within a few years a disposition has been shown, and notably by Mr. Douglas Campbell (See "The Puritan in Holland, England, and America") to emphasize Dutch influence in the development of American institutions, largely to the exclusion of English influence. To repel the extreme claim that has been made, it is not necessary to deny Dutch influence altogether. A recent writer sums up the contention as follows:

"(1) It is claimed that America was influenced by Holland, because Holland exerted an influence over England. But it is evident that this particular line of influence, whatever it may have been, reached America through England. Little is said by those one-sided writers of any influence exerted by England over Holland. (2) It is claimed that because the Pilgrims and some of the early Puritans passed through Holland on their way to America, they were controllingly influenced by the Dutch. But there is practically an ignoring of the fact that these men had spent the greater part of their lives in England, and were by birth and blood Englishmen. (3) It is claimed that by means of commercial transactions, Holland and New Amsterdam influenced the social life of the Colonists. But the long and bitter hostility of the Colonists toward the Dutch is unmentioned. And the fact is left out of sight, that the main contact and commerce of the Colonist, down to the very last, was with England." Stevens: Sources of the Constitution, page 18.

I.

CHAPTER III.

AMERICA INDEPENDENT.

REFERENCES.

HISTORIES OF THE UNITED STATES.-Bancroft, Vols. II.-V. (The American Revolution in Five Epochs); Hildreth, Vols. II., III.; Winsor, Vol. VI., particularly Chap. I., (The Revolution Impending); Pitkin, Chaps. VI.-IX.; Johnston, The U. S., III., IV.; Hart, Chap. III.

II. SPECIAL WORKS, ARTICLES, ETC.-Greene, Historical View of the American Revolution, I.; Goodloe, The Birth of the Republic (A Compilation of Documents); Johnston, Congress, Continental, and Declaration of Independence (in Lalor); Story, Book II., Chap. I.; Frothingham, Chaps. V.-XI.; Woodburn, Causes of the American Revolution (J. H. U. Studies, Tenth Series, XII.); Curtis, History of the Constitution, Book I., Chaps. II., III.; Wilson, The State, XI.; Burke, Speech on Taxation of America, and Speech on Conciliation of America.

III. ENGLISH Writers.-Smith, Goldwin, The United States, etc., Chaps. I., II.; Seeley, The Expansion of England, Course I., Lecture 8; Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century, Chaps. XII., XVIII.; Green, History of the English People, Book IV., Chap. II.

98. Growth of the Colonies.—At first this was slow, afterwards rapid. This growth included all the material and moral elements of power-territory, population, wealth, intelligence, and religion. In the war that transferred the French dominions on the continent east of the Mississippi to England, the Colonies were a prominent factor. Colony, which first meant a single feeble settlement on the seashore, now meant a vigorous and thriving commonwealth. The Virginia of 1775, for example, was no longer Jamestown, but a noble province that extended to the Ohio River, embracing many hundreds of plantations and containing half a million of people.

99. Population.-In Colonial days there were no regular or complete censuses; and historians, dealing with population and wealth, are compelled to rely on very imperfect data. Mr. Bancroft supposes that the population of the country in 1774 was 2,600,000.1 This is about onefourth of the population of England and Wales at that time. Nearly all of this population was American-born. To no Colony had the emigration from Europe been of long continuance, or great in numbers. The younger Colonies, to a considerable extent, drew their population from the older

ones.

100. Wealth and Commerce.-Unfortunately, there are no statistics showing the growth of wealth, or its total amount at any one time. Great progress was made, however, in agriculture, in lumbering, and in fisheries, considerable progress in manufactures, and some in mining. Durand wrote of the Colonies in 1766: “They are too rich to remain in obedience."

ΙΟΙ. Independence Declared.-All this time the conspicuous fact in the politics of these commonwealths was their dependence upon England. But, suddenly, as the casual European observer must have thought, there came a great change. Early in the year 1775, the Colonies united to resist by force of arms the efforts of the Mother Country to govern them; and on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress, representing them all, published and declared:

"That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as free and independent States they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do."

The British Colonies in North America now became the 1 History, Vol. IV., p. 62.

The War of IndependAs the planting of these

United States of North America. ence made the declaration good. Colonies was the most far-reaching event of the seventeenth century, so their independence was the most far-reaching event of the eighteenth.

102.

Cause and Occasion of the War.—The Declaration of Independence assigns the causes that impelled the Colonies to separation. These causes form a "history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States." The facts recited were rather the occasion than the cause of separation. The American Revolution was a step in that grand march of civilized man toward larger freedom and better political institutions, which began in Europe in the fifteenth century, and has continued until the present day. This movement was felt in England before the American Plantations were made, and was particularly vigorous in the seventeenth century. In America, it went forward with more momentum than in England. The American Revolution was a kind of continuation of the English revolutions of 1642 and 1688; and its best definition is, a clash between the republican ideas of America and the monarchical and aristocratical ideas of England. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States belong to the same series of great charters of human rights as Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, the Bill of Rights, and the Reform Bill. At the utmost, the facts recited in the Declaration were only proximate, and not original, causes of the division of the British Empire.

103. Idea of Nationality.-The Colonies occupied the edge of a vast territorial empire that was the fit home of a great sovereign people. A people had been slowly forming in this empire worthy to possess it. They were 2,600,000 in number. They abounded in that capacity for self-government which is so characteristic of the English race. They represented the advanced civil, political, and religious

ideas of the world. At the beginning, they sought only a redress of grievances; for a full year, they shrank from cutting the ties that bound them to the Mother Country; and yet, unconsciously to themselves, the idea of nationality had slowly been taking form in their minds. The name Continental" given to the Congress, the army, and the cause shows how readily they caught the vision of independent empire. Turgot wisely said that "Colonies are like fruits, which cling to the tree only till they ripen."

An historical review will illustrate the foregoing state

ments.

104. England in 1603.—At this time England was a great and progressive state. In no country did the people, on the whole, enjoy more civil, political, and religious rights. In a long series of struggles with arbitrary power, the people had won a large measure of freedom. In these respects, the Englishman of Queen Elizabeth's time was far in advance of his contemporaries on the Continent, save alone the Hollander.

105. The English Revolution of 1642.-Soon after the House of Stuart came to the throne, there came a crisis in English history. Broadly stated, the issue when defined was, How much power shall belong to the King, and how much to Parliament? Narrowly stated, Shall the King levy taxes that have not been voted by the House of Commons? When Charles I. could not obtain a parliament that would conform to his wishes, he undertook to govern without one; and this attempt brought on, in 1642, a civil war, that finally ended, in 1649, in his death, the overthrow of the Monarchy, and the establishment of the Commonwealth. Questions of religious rights were also involved in the struggle. And it is important to note that the first British Colonies in America were planted while this long contest was going on.

106. Political Character of the Colonists.-The Colonists brought with them to America all the free political institutions that had slowly grown up in England. The royal charters guaranteed to them the common rights and liberties of Englishmen. Moreover, a large number of them held the most advanced civil, political, and religious views then held in England. Not a few of them-all in fact, who founded New England, and some in other Colonies-left the Mother Country on account of these views. Thus, to an extent the men who planted the Colonies were even more pronounced in their political and religious sentiments than the men who successfully resisted tyranny in England. Some of them were the same men.