Fletcher not expect any help from Pennsylvania? 40. Trace the steps that led to the Albany congress. 41. Why were the colonies named in order from north to south? 42. How are they ordinarily named now? 43. Who authorized the union? 44. Name the points in the plan of Franklin for a union, 1754. 45. Why were these articles of confedation rejected by the colonies? by England? 46. Compare this plan with that of 1643. 47. Which the better? 48. Importance of the word American as used about 1766. 49. Why did the colonies desire to unite about 1765? 50. Write all you can on the significance of the phrase "A BritishAmerican." 51. What were the committees of correspondence? 52. In what states was the idea of having them conceived? 53. How did Patrick Henry regard union? 54. What kind of union was possible? 55. Write an essay trac ing the growth of the idea of union. 56. How is the poetry connected with the topic of union?

Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office, Lincoln, Nebraska, J. S. A.

AMERICAN HISTORY STUDIES.

CAUSES OF AMERICAN REVOLUTION. &

N the last study we traced some of the move. ments looking to a union of the colonies. An attempt was made to show that two forces were at work, one tending to emphasize the importance of the colony, and the other the value and necessity of union. In the causes of the American Revolution we shall find many factors which intensified the spirit of union. In fact, the necessity of union in order to resist the plans of the English king and ministry was in itself a great educative force in this movement. The right of local self-government was perhaps the most fundamental issue. The colonies were accustomed to make their own laws, and to live their own life, hence, when the acts of the king and parliament in the years following 1760, seemed to endanger these privileges, resistance appeared and increased till independence was established.

It must be seen clearly, if we are to understand this movement at all, that a spirit existed in America different from that in England. The colonists already, as early as 1760, looked at all social, political, and even religious questions out of different eyes than their fellow citizens on the other side of the water. This spirit was the product of past forces in their colonial life. In short, it must be noticed that a new pcoplc was in process of formation. Hence, if any question arose which necessitated the yielding of one view or the other a conflict was sure to

occur.

The literature of the period, 1760 to 1776, is very abundant, both in American and in English publications. The debates in parlia ment furnish the views of English statesmen. The letters that were sent from the English cabinet to governors and other officials in America give us the spirit that animated the English government of the time. The instructions that were sent by the colonial assemblies to their agents in England, the resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress, and of the first and second Continental Congresses, together with the letters and writings of statesmen of the time, preserve a very vivid picture of the views of the Americans. It is felt that in the following extracts the views of England and of the "Tories" are not adequately set forth; the reason, the press of other duties which made the time at my command unequal to the necessities of the occasion.

For those who can invest a few dollars in the very best body of sources which has yet appeared, I wish to speak of Prof. Hart's "American History as Told by Contemporaries." The first volume is out, and the second, which brings the history down to 1783, is announced for this month. There are to be four volumes, published by Macmillan & Co., at $2.00 per volume, or $7.00 for the set.

The Acts of Navigation and of Trade of 1660, 1664, and 1672 should be noted as factors in the formation of an American spirit hostile to English conceptions.

Act of Navigation, 1660.

For the increase of shipping and encouragement of the navigation of this nation be it enacted, that... no goods or commodities, whatsoever, shall be imported into, or exported out of, any lands, islands to his Majesty belonging . . in Asia, Africa or America, in any other ships or vessels but in such ships or vessels, as do truly

that

build of, and belonging to, any of the said islands Section 18. And it is further enacted from and after the first day of April, which shall be in the year of our Lord 1661, no sugars, tobacco, cotton, wool, indigoes, ginger, fusticks or other dyeing wood of the growth of an English plantation in Amer

ica, Asia or Africa shall be shipped, carried . . to any land other than to such English plantations as do belong to his Majesty or to the kingdom of England. . . --Rot. Parl. 12 C. II., 2 nu. 6. 5 Statutes of the Realm, 246. Cited in Scott Development of Constitutional Liberty, pp. 314-16.

Statute 15 Car. II., c. 7-A. D. 1663.

p.

Section fifth. And in regard [to] his Majesty's plantations beyond the seas [which] are inhabited and peopled by his subjects of this his kingdom of England, for keeping them in a firmer dependence upon it, and rendering them yet more beneficial and advantageous unto it, in the further increase of

nglish shipping and seamen, vent of English wool and other manufactures

Section sixth. Be it enacted etc., that no commodity of the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe, shall be imported into any land, island

or place

to his Majesty belonging

colony in

Asia, Africa, or America, . . but which shall be bona fide, and without fraud, laden and shipped in England, and in English-built shipping, etc. -Cited in Scott, Appendix, pp. 316-17.

Stat. 25 Car. II., c. 7—A. D. 1672.

Section fifth. And whereas, by one Act passed in this present Parliament,

it is permitted to ship, carry, convey, and transport sugar, tobacco, cotton, wool, indigo, ginger, fustick, and all other dyeing wood from the place of their growth

to any other of parts, and that

same, [act here

your Majesty's plantations in those without paying of customs for the recites that this privilege has been abused by exporting these articles to other countries, therefore] for the prevention thereof .. be it enacted that

if any ship or vessel which by law may trade in any of your Majesty's plantations shall take on board

any of the aforesaid commodities, [a bond shall be