Oct. CHAP. orders tardily received from Dunmore, the little army, XV. leaving a garrison at Point Pleasant, dashed across 1774. the Ohio to defy new battles. After a march of eighty miles through an untrodden wilderness, on the twentyfourth of October they encamped on the banks of Congo Creek in Pickaway, near old Chillicothe. The Indians, disheartened at the junction, threw themselves on the mercy of the English; and at Camp Charlotte, which stood on the left bank of Sippo Creek, about seven miles southeast of Circleville, Dunmore admitted them to a conference. Logan did not appear; but through an Indian interpreter he sent this message: "I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Logan's cabin, and I gave him not meat; if he ever came naked, and I clothed him not. In the course of the last war Logan remained in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites that the rest of my nation pointed at me, and said, 'Logan is the friend of white men.' I should have ever lived with them, had it not been for one man, who, last spring, cut off, unprovoked, all the relations of Logan, not sparing women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called upon me for revenge. I have sought it; I have killed many, and fully glutted my revenge. For my nation, I rejoice in the beams of peace; but nothing I have said proceeds from fear! Logan disdains the thought! He will not turn on his heel to save his life! Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one." Before the council was brought to a close, all differences were adjusted. The Shawanese agreed to XV. Oct. deliver up their prisoners without reserve; to restore CHAP. all horses and other property which they had carried off; to hunt no more on the Kentucky side of the 1774. Ohio; to molest no boats passing on the river; to regulate their trade by the king's instructions, and to deliver up hostages. Virginia has left on record her judgment, that Dunmore's conduct in this campaign was "truly noble, wise, and spirited." The results inured exclusively to the benefit of America. The Indians desired peace; the rancor of the white people changed to confidence, and the Virginian army, appearing as umpire in the valley of the Scioto, nullified the statute which extended the jurisdiction of Quebec to the Ohio. The western Virginians, moreover, halting at Fort Gower on the north of the Ohio, on the fifth of November, took their part in considering the grievances of their country. They were "blessed with the talents" to bear all hardships of the woods; to pass weeks comfortably without bread or salt; for dress, to be satisfied with a blanket, or a hunting shirt and skins; to sleep with no covering but heaven; to march further in a day than any men in the world, and to use the rifle with a precision that to all but themselves was a miracle. For three months they had heard nothing from the east, where some jealousy might arise of so large a body of armed men under a leader like Dunmore. They, therefore, held themselves bound to publish their sentiments. Professing zeal for the honor of America and especially Virginia, they promised continued allegiance to the king, if he would but reign over them as "a brave and free people." "But," said they, "as attachment to the XV. CHAP. real interests and just rights of America outweigh every other consideration, we resolve that we will 1774. exert every power within us for the defence of American liberty, when regularly called forth by the unanimous voice of our countrymen. و, America contrasted the regiments of regulars at Boston, ingloriously idle and having no purpose but to enslave a self-protected province, with the noble Virginians braving danger at the call of a royal governor, and pouring out their blood to win the victory for western civilization." CHAPTER XVI. THE FOURTEENTH PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. OCTOBER-DECEMBER, 1774. XVI. 1774. "Ir is the united voice of America to preserve their CHAP. freedom, or lose their lives in defence of it. Their resolutions are not the effect of inconsiderate rashness, but the sound result of sober inquiry and deliberation. The true spirit of liberty was never so universally diffused through all ranks and orders of people in any country on the face of the earth, as it now is through all North America. If the late acts of parliament are not to be repealed, the wisest step for both countries is to separate, and not to spend their blood and treasure in destroying each other. It is barely possible that Great Britain may depopulate North America; she never can conquer the inhabitants." So wrote Joseph Warren, and his words were the mirror of the passions of his countrymen. They were addressed to the younger Quincy, who as a private man had crossed the Atlantic to watch the disposition of the ministry; they were intended to be made known in England, in the hope of awaken CHAP. ing the king and his ministers from the delusion that XVI. America could be intimidated into submission. 1774. Oct. The eyes of the world were riveted on Franklin Nov. and George the Third. The former was environed by dangers; Gage was his willing accuser from Boston; the hatred which Hutchinson bore him never slumbered; the ministry affected to consider him as the cause of all the troubles; he knew himself to be in daily peril of arrest; but "the great friends of the colonies" entreated him to stay, and some glimmering of hope remained, that the manufacturers and merchants of England would successfully interpose their mediating influence. The king on his part never once harbored the thought of concession; and "left the choice of war or peace" to depend on the obedience of Massachusetts. The new elections to parliament came on, while the people of England were still swayed by pride ; and the question was artfully misrepresented, as though it were only that Massachusetts refused to pay a just and very moderate indemnity for property destroyed by a mob, and resisted an evident improvement in its administrative system, from a deliberate conspiracy with other colonies to dissolve the connection with the mother country. During the progress of the canvass, bribery came to the aid of the ministry, for many of the members who were purchasing seats, expected to reimburse themselves by selling their votes to the government. The shrewd French minister at London, witnessing the briskness of the traffic, bethought himself that where elections depended on the purse, the king of France might buy a borough as rightfully at least as |