independence. Their old affection for England remained paramount till the king's proclamation declared them rebels. All the colonies, as though they had been but one individual, felt themselves wounded to the soul when they heard and could no longer doubt that George III. was hiring foreign mercenaries, and domesticated negroes, and regiments of ruthless red men to reduce them to subjection.

The new conviction demanded utterance; and, as the debates in congress were secret, it had no outlet but the press. In November, Franklin encouraged Thomas Paine, who was the master of a singularly lucid style, to write an appeal to the people of America in favor of an immediate declaration of independence. He was at that time a little under forty years of age; the son of a Quaker of Norfolk in England, brought up in the faith of George Fox and Penn, the only school in England where he could have learned the principles which he was now to assert. He had been in America not much more than a year; but in that time he had frequented the society of Franklin, Rittenhouse, Clymer, and Samuel Adams. His essay, when finished, was shown to Franklin, to Rittenhouse, to Samuel Adams, and to Benjamin Rush, and Rush gave it the title of COMMON SENSE.

"In the early ages of the world," so it was reasoned, "mankind were equals; the heathen introduced government by kings, which the will of the Almighty, as declared by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproved. Hereditary succession might put posterity under the government of a rogue or a fool. England hath known some few good monarchs, but groaned beneath a much larger number of bad ones since the conquest, in which time there have been no less than eight civil wars and nineteen rebellions. In short, monarchy and succession have laid not this kingdom only, but the world, in blood and ashes.

"The period of debate on the struggle between England and America is closed. Arms must decide the contest; the appeal was the choice of the king, and the continent hath accepted the challenge.

“The sun never shone on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a county, a province, or a kingdom,

but of a continent, of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are involved in it, even to the end of time.

"Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America: this new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe; we claim brotherhood with every European Christian, and triumph in the generosity of the sentiment.

"Much hath been said that Britain and the colonies, in conjunction, might bid defiance to the world. What have we to do with setting the world at defiance? Our plan is commerce; and that will secure us the friendship of all Europe. It is the true interest of America to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do while by her dependence on Britain she is the makeweight in the scale of British politics.

"The distance at which the Almighty hath placed England and America is a strong and natural proof that the authority of the one over the other was never the design of heaven. They belong to different systems-England to Europe, America to itself. Everything short of independence is leaving the sword to our children.

"Nothing but a continental form of government can keep the peace of the continent inviolate from civil wars. The colonies have manifested such a spirit of good order and obedience to continental government as is sufficient to make every reasonable person easy and happy on that head; if there is any true cause of fear respecting independence, it is because no plan is yet laid down. Let a continental conference be held, to frame a continental charter, or charter of the United Colonies.

"All men, whether in England or America, confess that a separation between the countries will take place one time or other. To find out the very time, we need not go far, for the time hath found us. The present, likewise, is that peculiar time which never happens to a nation but once-the time of forming itself into a government.

"Nothing can settle our affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration for independence. While we profess ourselves the subjects of Britain, we must, in the eyes of foreign nations, be considered as rebels. A manifesto pub

lished and despatched to foreign courts, setting forth the miseries we have endured and declaring that we had been driven to the necessity of breaking off all connection with her, at the same time assuring all such courts of our desire of entering into trade with them, would produce more good effects to this continent than a ship freighted with petitions to Britain.

"A government of our own is our natural right. Ye that love mankind, stand forth! Every spot of the Old World is overrun with oppression; Freedom hath been hunted round the globe; Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart; oh, receive the fugitive, and prepare an asylum for mankind!"

The pamphlet "Common Sense" was published on the eighth of January, most opportunely, for on that day the king's speech at the opening of parliament arrived. When Washington came to read the king's speech, he let it be known that in his opinion independence should be declared. Greene wrote to his friend Ward, a delegate from Rhode Island in congress: "Permit me, from the sincerity of my heart, ready at all times to bleed in my country's cause, to recommend a declaration of independence, and call upon the world and the great God who governs it to witness the necessity, propriety, and rectitude thereof." John Adams, who had been elected chief justice in Massachusetts, was then at home. Scorning the threats of the king, he gave his advice to the New England colonies to persevere in the war to the end, even if no other colony than New York would join with them.

But in America the formation of new governments was like passing through death to life. The convention of New Hampshire, which was the first to frame a government of its own, disavowed the intention of separating from the parent country, and merged the executive power in the two branches of the legislature only during "the unnatural" contest with Great Britain. The legislature of Maryland voted unhesitatingly to put the province in a state of defence, but on the eleventh of January bore their testimony to the equity of the English constitution, and forbade their delegates in congress to assent to any proposition for independence, foreign alliance, or confederation.

"The tyrant!" said the impatient Samuel Adams, as he read the proceedings at the late opening of parliament; "his speech breathes the most malevolent spirit, and determines my opinion of its author as a man of a wicked heart. I have heard that he is his own minister; why, then, should we cast the odium of distressing mankind upon his minions? Guilt must lie at his door; divine vengeance will fall on his head;" and, with the aid of Wythe of Virginia, the patriot set vigorously to work to bring on a confederation and independ

ence.

On the day after the publication of "Common Sense," Wilson came to congress with the king's speech in his hand; and, quoting from it the words which charged the colonists with aiming at a separation, he moved the appointment of a committee to explain to their constituents and to the world the principles and grounds of their opposition, and their present intentions respecting independence. He was strongly supported. On the other hand, Samuel Adams insisted that congress had already been explicit enough, and rallied the bolder members, in the hope to defeat the proposal; but, in the absence of John Adams, even his colleagues, Cushing and Paine, sided with Wilson, and the vote of Massachusetts formed a part of his majority. When Cushing's constituents heard of his wavering, they elected Elbridge Gerry in his place; at the moment, Samuel Adams repaired to Franklin. In a free conversation, these two great sons of Boston agreed that confederation must be speedily brought on, even though the concurrence of every colony could not be obtained. "If none of the rest will join," said Samuel Adams to Franklin, "I will endeavor to unite the New England colonies in confederating." "I approve your proposal," said Franklin; "and, if you succeed, I will cast in my lot among you."

On the sixteenth, Franklin, who best knew the folly of expecting peace through British commissioners, endeavored to get a day fixed for the consideration of his plan of a confederacy; but he was opposed by Hooper, who, contrary to his own wishes, obeyed the instructions of North Carolina, and the majority was against him. The inexorable malice of the king and his officers could alone impel the thirteen colonies to

a united assertion of independence. It soon left no option to the oldest and largest and most populous of them all.

Driven from the land of Virginia, Dunmore maintained command of the water by means of a flotilla composed of three vessels-of-war, carrying altogether fifty-four guns, aided by ships, light vessels, and tenders. His first outrage was on the press. Finding fault with the newspaper published by John Holt at Norfolk, he sent on shore a small party, who brought off two printers and the materials of a printing-office.

A few months later this precedent was followed in New York. Isaac Sears, entering the city with a party of mounted volunteers from Connecticut, rifled the printing-house of the tory Rivington; but the act was censured by the committee and convention of New York as an infringement of the liberty of the press, and a dangerous example to their enemies.

In Virginia the war began with the defence of Hampton, a small village at the end of the isthmus between York and James rivers. An armed sloop, driven on its shore in a gale, had been rifled and set on fire. Dunmore blockaded the port. Its inhabitants summoned to their aid one company of the Virginia regulars and another of minute-men, besides a body of militia. On the twenty-sixth of October, Dunmore sent tenders into Hampton Roads to burn the town. The guard marched out to repel them, and George Nicholas, who commanded the Virginians, discharged his musket at one of the tenders. It was the first gun fired in Virginia against the British; his example was followed by his party. The British on that day vainly attempted to land. In the following night the Culpepper riflemen were despatched to Hampton. The next day the British renewed the attack; the fire of the riflemen killed a few and wounded more. One of the tenders was taken, with its armament and seven seamen; the rest were towed out of the creek. The Virginians lost not a man.

*

In England, Dunmore had been taken at his word, and Lord Dartmouth had enjoined him, with the regulars whom he was authorized to send for, and "the men whom he had said he could raise from among Indians, negroes, and other persons," to bring together "at least force enough to withstand

* Dartmouth to Dunmore, 12 July 1775. MS.