THIRD PERIOD. INDEPENDENCE AND UNION. CHAPTER XXXII. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. Independent spirit of the people-Hatred of George III.-French hostility toward England-Arbitrary government of the colonies-Taxation without representation-Review of oppressive acts-Search-warrants-Trade with the West Indies destroyed-A stamp-tax threatened-The_Stamp Act passedReception of the news in America-Patrick Henry-First Colonial Congress-Operation of the Stamp Act preventedNon-importation agreement-The act is repealed-New taxes imposed-Renewed opposition-Gage in Boston-The "Regulators" in Virginia-Trouble in New York-The Boston Massacre-The Gaspé burned-The duty on tea-The "Boston Tea-party "-The Boston Port Bill-Second Colonial Congress-Soldiers sent to Boston-Boston Neck fortified-Massachusetts prepares for resistance-"Minute-men." We are about to narrate the history of a most important event-important not only in the New World but in the Old World as well. In America it settled forever the question whether the inhabitants should rule themselves or whether they should be governed by a parliament and a king living across the seas. And the foundation of a government in America “of the people, by the people, and for the people" has been an example and an inspiration to advanced minds in Europe ever since. The French Revolution was to no little degree the result of the liberal political ideas which had been expressed, fought for, and finally embodied in a constitution in America. The first and most general cause of the American Revolution is to be found in the character of the people and the history of the colonies. We have already pointed out how an independent spirit among the colonists was the natural result of the oppression at home from which the original settlers fled and the hardships they experienced in the wilderness. Bacon's rebellion in Virginia, Connecticut's resistance to Andros and Fletcher, and numerous other acts show how ill the colonists bore tyranny or unwarranted interference. The contests with unwise proprietors, with despotic kings and tyrannical royal governors, had not endeared to the people government from beyond the seas. Public opinion was beginning to incline toward the idea of independence. John Adams and other advanced thinkers saw the probable result twenty years before the struggle commenced. The bulk of the people, however, though they and their publications showed with increasing force that they entertained the same notion, did not actually appreciate the situation and declare plainly for independence till the struggle was upon them. It was not till wrongs had been heaped on wrongs beyond endurance that they were willing to revolt against their mother country. Then the possibility and necessity for united action which all had been taught by the French and Indian War, and some of them previously, drew them together in their common desires and dangers. Personal antipathy to the king, George III., had not a little to do with the feeling of the Americans. The vast majority of this generation had never seen their monarch, and they had not lived near enough to the seat of government to have had their eyes blinded |