CHAPTER XIV.

HOW CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION BEGAN.

OCTOBER, 1774.

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THE Congress of 1774 contained statesmen of the CHAP. highest order of wisdom. For eloquence Patrick Henry was unrivalled; next to him, the elder Rut- 1774. ledge of South Carolina was the ablest in debate; "but if you speak of solid information and sound. judgment," said Patrick Henry, "Washington is unquestionably the greatest man of them all."

While the delegates of the twelve colonies were in session in Philadelphia, ninety of the members just elected to the Massachusetts assembly appeared on Wednesday the fifth of October at the court house in Salem. After waiting two days for the governor, they passed judgment on his unconstitutional proclamation against their meeting, and resolving themselves into a provincial congress, they adjourned to Concord. There, on Tuesday the eleventh, about two hundred and sixty members took their seats, and elected John Hancock their president. On the fourteenth they sent a message to the governor, that for

CHAP. Want of a general assembly they had convened in XIV. congress; and they remonstrated against his hostile 1774. preparations. A committee from Worcester county made similar representations. "It is in your power to prevent civil war, and to establish

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your character as a wise and humane man," said the chairman. "For God's sake," replied Gage, in great trepidation, "what would you have me do?" for he vacillated between a hope that the king would give way, and a willingness to be the instrument of his obstinacy. To the president of the continental congress, he expressed the wish that the disputes between the mother country and the colonies might terminate like lovers' quarrels; but he did not conceal his belief that its proceedings would heighten the anger of the king.

To the provincial congress, which had again adjourned from Concord to Cambridge, Gage made answer by recriminations. They on their part were surrounded by difficulties. They wished to remove the people of Boston into the country, but found it impracticable. A committee appointed on the twentyfourth of October to consider the proper time to provide a stock of powder, ordnance, and ordnance stores, reported on the same day, that the proper time was now. Upon the debate for raising money to prepare for the crisis, one member proposed to appropriate a thousand pounds, another two thousand; a committee reported a sum of less than ninety thousand dollars, as a preparation against a warlike empire, flushed with victory, and able to spend twenty million pounds sterling a year in the conduct of a war. They elected three general officers by ballot. A committee of safety, Hancock and Warren being of the number,

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was invested with power to alarm and muster the CHAP. militia of the province, of whom one-fourth were to hold themselves ready to march at a minute's notice.

In Connecticut, which, from its compactness, numbers, and wealth, was second only to Massachusetts in military resources, the legislature of 1774 provided for effectively organizing the militia, prohibited the importation of slaves, and ordered the several towns to provide double the usual quantity of powder, balls, and flints. They also directed the issue of fifteen thousand pounds in bills of credit of the colony, and made a small increase of the taxes. This was the first issue of paper money in the colonies preparatory

to war.

The congress of Massachusetts, in like manner, directed the people of the province to perfect themselves in military skill, and each town to provide a full stock of arms and ammunition. Having voted to pay no more money to the royal collector, they chose a receiver-general of their own, and instituted a system of provincial taxation. They appointed executive committees of safety, of correspondence, and of supplies. As the continental congress would not sanction their resuming the charter from Charles the First, they adhered as nearly as possible to that granted by William and Mary; and summoned the councillors duly elected under that charter, to give attendance on the fourth Wednesday of November, to which time they adjourned. To their next meeting they referred the consideration of the propriety of sending agents to Canada.

The American revolution was destined on every

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CHAP. side to lead to the solution of the highest questions of XIV. state. Principles of eternal truth, which in their uni

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versality are superior to sects and separate creeds, were rapidly effacing the prejudices of the past. The troubles of the thirteen colonies led the court of Great Britain to its first step in the emancipation of Catholics; and with no higher object in view than to strengthen the authority of the king in America, the Quebec act of 1774 began that series of concessions, which did not cease till the British parliament itself, and the high offices of administration have become accessible to "papists."

In the belief that the loyalty of its possessions had been promoted by a dread of the French settlements on their northern and western frontier, Britain sought to create under its own auspices a distinct empire, suited to coerce her original colonies, and restrain them from aspiring to independence. For this end it united into one province the territory of Canada, together with all the country northwest of the Ohio to the head of Lake Superior and the Mississippi, and consolidated all authority over this boundless region in the hands of the executive power. The Catholics were not displeased that the promise of a representative assembly was not kept. In 1763 they had all been disfranchised in a land where there were few Protestants, except attendants on the army and government officials. A representative assembly, which none but Protestants could be chosen, would have subjected almost the whole body of resident inhabitants to an oligarchy, hateful by their race and religion; their supremacy as conquerors, and their selfishness. The Quebec act authorized the crown to

to

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confer posts of honor and of business upon Catholics; CHAP. and they chose rather to depend on the clemency of the king, than to have an exclusively Protestant par- Oct. liament, like that of Ireland. This limited political toleration left no room for the sentiment of patriotism. The French Canadians of that day could not persuade themselves that they had a country. They would have desired an assembly, to which they should be eligible; but since that was not to be obtained, they accepted their partial enfranchisement by the king, as a boon to a conquered people.

The owners of estates were further gratified by the restoration of the French system of law. The English emigrants might complain of the want of jury trials in civil processes; but the French Canadians were grateful for relief from statutes which they did not comprehend, and from the chicanery of unfamiliar courts. The nobility of New France, who were accustomed to arms, were still further conciliated by the proposal to enroll Canadian battalions, in which they could hold commissions on equal terms with English officers. Here also the inspiration of nationality was wanting; and the whole population could never crowd to the British flag, as they had rallied to the lilies of France. There would remain always the sentiment, that they were waging battle not for themselves, and defending a government which was not their own.

The great dependence of the crown was on the clergy. The capitulation of New France had guaranteed to them freedom of public worship; but the laws for their support were held to be no longer valid. By the Quebec act they were confirmed in the posses