Henry, whose eloquence is the talk of all Virginia. The two rising lawyers, Richard Henry Lee and Peyton Randolph, are known by everybody. There is another young man not so well known, Mr. Thomas Jefferson, now at William and Mary's College in Williamsburg, who is certain to make his mark one of these days. If great men can make a community thriving, Virginia is rich in material for prosperity. The Carolinas and Georgia are rich in tobacco and rice plantations, and down in the swampy fields where the rice grows, you will see bands of black slaves at work. The Carolina planter is not as rich as the Virginian, but he is prosperous, and the towns of Charleston in South Carolina, and Savannah, which good Mr. Oglethorpe laid out so carefully, are handsome cities. As yet they have no export in the Carolinas which rivals tobacco in the riches it brings to the planters. But twenty years ago a young girl of eighteen, named Eliza Cotton Plant. Well, our journey is ended. We have made a rapid tour of the king's colonies in North America, and will take return ship to London, from whence we came. During this year (1760) his majesty King George II. has yielded up his crown and sceptre, and gone to sleep in the royal tomb at Westminster Abbey. His grandson, George III., is just crowned King of England, and as we sail away, guns are fired off from the fort in Charleston harbor, in honor of the new monarch. From all sides go up the cry, "The King is dead. Long live the KING!" Let us see in the next chapter how we like this new king. CHAPTER XXXIV. UPRISING OF THE COLONIES. The New King. - Royal Treasury empty. - Taxation without Representation. - Stirring Scene in Boston State-house. - The People and the Stamp Act.-Speech of Patrick Henry. Our Defenders in England. THE year 1761 beheld a new monarch ascend the throne of England. He was a young man of twenty years, the grandson of George II., the preceding king. England was just emerging from the clouds of her war with France. The war had been long and expensive, and the English government wanted money very much, so much that they were not particular about the means by which they got it. The young king had not the best of advisers. William Pitt, a man of great intellect and eloquence, who had been the secretary of state in his grandfather's reign, did not gain the ear of the new monarch, and his favorite counselors foolishly advised him to tax the American colonies to raise some money to put into the royal coffers. William Pitt. The American colonies were worn out and tired to death with war. They had really done more than half the work of driving the French out of Canada. They felt that if ever the "mother-country" ought to be proud of her children over here, and tender of them, it should be after they had unfurled the English flag above the walls of Louisburg, Duquesne, and Quebec. Besides, the American colonies had never been an expense to the crown of England. On the contrary, they had paid their own way almost from the first, and were really valuable acquisitions to the power of England. So that the proposition to tax them without allowing them to have any voice in the matter, was not very agreeable, as you can fancy. To state the matter in six words, "They objected to Taxation without Representation." Now do you know just what that means? "Taxation without representation?" If not, I shall be obliged to tell you, because it is quite necessary you should understand it. A "tax" is a sum which must be paid on any article used by the people who are taxed. It may be tea or sugar or tobacco, or any other article imported into a country, and the tax may be five cents, or ten cents, or any number of cents a pound. If it is silk, or any fabric for wearing apparel, the tax would be so many cents on a yard. All the teas or sugar or silk, or any other taxable article, must be weighed or measured when it comes into a port, and the people pay so much extra on each pound or yard, which goes into the coffers of the government. When this country is taxed (and we always have some taxed articles to furnish money to the government) we send our representatives to Congress to make laws about the taxes, and choose the men whom we believe worthy of trust. These men represent us in making laws, and we are willing to pay such taxes as they decide are wise and proper. This is taxation with representation. But the American colonies had no votes in England. They did not send any representatives over to the great English Parliament, where laws were made regulating taxes and everything else in England. Therefore, when the English minister, Sir Richard Grenville, said in effect, "We are now going to pass a law to tax you, and you must submit to it," the blood of the colonies boiled fiercely with rage. They said, "We will not submit to it. We tax our black African slaves, and take their earnings without allowing them to have any voice in the matter, because they are our slaves. But we are not slaves. You mean to treat us as if we were, but we will NOT endure it. We will never bear taxation without representation." Previous to the accession of George III. there had been laws passed taxing various kinds of merchandise in the colonies, but these laws were generally ignored, and were considered worthless. The first step the English crown took towards this tyranny they were planning was to send over here legal documents called "Writs of Assistance." These writs commanded the king's officers to search anywhere, in a man's store or his house, for articles taxed under the old laws, and seize upon it, in the king's name. One old tax which had not been enforced was on sugar and molasses. It was proposed to put that in force, and make the people pay it. The worst feature of the writs of assistance was, that the king's officers were authorized to oblige the colonial sheriffs and town officers to assist in breaking into a man's house, and search for his taxable goods. There was a stirring scene in the old Boston state-house in February, 1761. The council chamber was filled to overflowing. Five judges, with Governor Hutchinson, the chief-justice of Massachusetts, at their head, were seated in state, grandly dressed in long flowing robes of scarlet broadcloth, with great wigs on their heads, which made them look as big as bushel baskets. At a long table covered with papers and law books, sat all the lawyers of Middlesex County in their black gowns and wigs. At each end of the room was a picture in a splendid gilt frame, of the two sovereigns, Kings Charles II. and James II. The scene was like a grand picture itself, and there were heads there better worth putting on canvas, than the reckless Charles II. and his contemptible brother James. This assembly was gathered to hear an argument from a young Massachusetts lawyer, James Otis, against the writs of assistance. It was a speech that fired every American who heard it, and sent him away with 66 Liberty" ringing in his ears. John Adams, afterwards a president of the United States, heard Otis speak, and declared "American independence was then and there born." It was a speech that silenced the king's officers. They dared not mention "writs of assistance" that day. I think Governor Hutchinson, who was an American born, must have writhed in his scarlet gown, as he sat under the blazing eloquence of this glorious orator. James Otis. It would be a long story, and tiresome, if I followed out every act by which the English attempted to force the colonies to accept their will as law. I shall only mention the most notable acts, the first of which is called the "Stamp Act." This was a taxed paper, and bore a royal stamp. The colonies were ordered to use it on all business or legal contracts. Nothing would be legal, not even a marriage ceremony, if the contract were not on stamped paper. The people all over the country were very angry when this stamped paper was sent here. Of all of them Boston was a little the worst. The Boston people would not buy the paper. They would not get married, not buy or sell anything, or do any business which obliged them to use it. They made a great figure of straw dressed up in a red coat to look like Mr. Oliver, the royal officer who had the stamped paper to sell, and hung the figure on a tree on Boston Common, which is since called "The old Liberty Tree." They broke into Governor Hutchinson's house, and made great havoc there, burning his books and papers. I am sorry for that, for Governor Hutchinson was a man of ability, who wrote a very good history of the colonies, and he lost there many valuable papers which would be interesting now for us to read. 66 In New Hampshire, when the news of the passage of the stamp act was made public, the bells were tolled, and the people summoned to a funeral. A coffin with the inscription, Liberty - died 1765," was paraded through the streets. It was carried to the grave, guns were fired over it, and a funeral oration spoken. Just as they were about to bury it, it was declared that there were still signs of life; the coffin was again carried through the streets with "Liberty alive again," inscribed upon it. These things show the spirit of the people, and that they had no idea of burying their liberties without a struggle. In New York city they hung an effigy of the governor, burned up his carriage, the only piece of his property they could lay hold of, and behaved as unreasonably as mobs usually do. All over the colonies a society called "Sons of Liberty" was formed by the men who meant to fight rather than yield. In Virginia they held a meeting which was ad dressed by Patrick Henry, a spirited young Virginian. He spoke so boldly for freedom that the older men were Patrick Henry. alarmed. When he introduced some resolutions claiming that the American colonists were free-born Englishmen, and to tax them |