of the pitiable narrowness of the governing minds of the Massachusetts Colony, that our readers may see how profound were the religious convictions which formed the foundation of our national organizations. The erroneous application of these convictions does not impair their his torical verity or importance. It is easy for us to see, that, without them, no part of our peculiar national organization would have been possible.

This New-England union, imperfect as it was, and revealing alarmingly as it did the stern antagonisms of National and State rights, was nevertheless of great importance, as the bold assumption of the right of union for the common defence. This, in the eyes of English despotism, was conspiracy and constructive treason; but, under the control of God, it was a prudent advance in the career of republican liberty, the beginning of national organization. Like every other essential right, when once asserted by the American people, it was to be steadily maintained until it should be triumphantly vindicated and formally acknowledged by the civilized world.

A broader representation of the people took place in New York in 1690. Delegates from Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New York, met, in response to a call from the General Court of Massachusetts, to agree upon plans for the invasion of Canada. "And it is worthy of remark, that the Massachusetts Government, which made the call, was the government which sprang up between the overthrow of Andros and the arrival of the new charter, and in which the popular element was more freely mingled; and the New-York Government, which accepted it, was the government of Leisler, which sprang directly from an uprising of the people. Thus the earliest utterance of the people's voice was a call for union;"* but this union was for war.

As we have before seen, another and highly important

* Greene's Historical View of the American Revolution, pp. 69, 70, et seq.

congress assembled in Albany on the 19th of June, 1754. To the colonies of New England and New York were now added those of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Twenty-five delegates, representing seven colonies, met, "ostensibly to renew the treaty with the six nations, really to take counsel together about a plan of union and confederacy."

Benjamin Franklin appears among the distinguished men of this Congress. His calm deliberation and keen insight had discovered the necessity for union, and a plan for its consummation. The idea of independence was held in abeyance for the present; but the union of men and means for common security seemed to many as no more than the dictate of common prudence.

The extreme difficulty of the undertaking soon appeared; for after the perplexing labors of the Congress had brought out its best ideas in the form of a virtual though not ostensible constitution, the provincial assemblies condemned it as having "too much of the prerogative in it." England condemned it for a reason exactly opposite, -it had "too much of the democracy." The great purpose of the Congress failed; but the moral effect was of the highest importance. The facts and principles brought out by this comparison of views could never go out of existence. Through their representative men, they became the common property of the colonies, and greatly strengthened the purpose to preserve with inviolable fidelity the liberties of the people, while all just demands of the crown were to be loyally met. The feeling of the necessity of unity became stronger as the danger became more threatening. was at the door; war on the seaboard; war all along their northern and their western frontier."

"War

In 1765, the Massachusetts House of Representatives saw the stamp act impending, and resolved to ask counsel from the other colonies. In a circular, Samuel White, their speaker, invited their several assemblies "to appoint committees to meet in the city of New York, on the first Tuesday in Octo

ber next, to consult together on the present circumstances of the colonies, and the difficulties to which they are and must be reduced by the operation of the acts of Parliament for levying duties on the colonies; and to consider of a general and united, dutiful, loyal, and humble representation of their condition to his Majesty and the Parliament; and to implore relief."

Nine colonies were now represented by twenty-seven delegates, who met in the city of New York on the 7th of October, in obedience to the call of Massachusetts. "Then James Otis first took John Dickinson by the hand." "Then Lynch and Gadsden and John Rutledge of South Carolina first sat on the same bench with Thomas McKean and Cæsar Rodney, of the counties that were to become Delaware; and Philip Livingston of New York, and Dyer of Connecticut, to compare feelings and wishes, as ten years later, when the horizon, now so dark, was already glowing with the swift approach of day, they were to meet and compare them again." * It was a great achievement for liberty to bring such men together. The result of this Congress was a petition to the king in language profoundly respectful, but firm and dignified; a petition to Parliament equally calm, but with more freedom of expression; and "a declaration of rights and grievances" to the people of England and America, "claiming the right of taxing themselves, either personally or by representatives of their own choosing, the right of trial by jury, and the right of petition.” †

These were all State-papers of very great merit, showing that God had prepared minds of the clearest discrimination and highest culture to lead the struggle for American liberty. The Congress of 1765 accomplished its mission. It had given clear definition and great enlargement and assurrance to its statesmen, and, through them, to the people generally. It had also ascertained and increased the providential unity and the true patriotism which would decide the

contest. There was henceforth no necessity that the British nation should misunderstand the issues between them and their American colonies. No right-minded man could fail to see that simple justice would secure perpetual and devoted loyalty; persistent oppression, revolution.

ALL THESE RIGHTS DENIED, BUT NEVER SURRENDERED.

Let us examine more minutely the sharpest points of this battle of mind with mind. A crisis of the gravest importance came on. The Long Parliament was in power, and, in a famous case, had assumed "the right to reverse the decisions and control the government of Massachusetts." This was the grand question of the age, and the Puritans in America were instantly roused. Neither parliament nor king should be allowed this style of sovereignty. The commonwealth of England was Puritan; but she must not usurp authority over the Puritans of New England.

Cromwell was kind and plausible. He wished them to surrender their charter, and would give them another, broader, better, than the old. But these Americans were shrewd and far-seeing. The Stuarts might return to the throne; and to yield the charter now would be to be without it then. Policy in England had to grapple with a statesmanship in the New World which was amazing to men in power. "An order from England," thundered liberty across the waters, "is prejudicial to our chartered liberties, and to our well-being in this remote part of the world. We have not admitted appeals to your authority; being assured they cannot stand with the liberty and power granted by our charter, and would be destructive to all government. The wisdom and experience of that great council, the English Parliament, are more able to prescribe rules of government, and judge causes, than such poor rustics as a wilderness can breed up; yet the vast distance between England and these parts abates the virtue of the strongest influences. Your counsels and your judg

ments can neither be so well grounded, nor so seasonably applied, as might either be useful to us, or safe for yourselves, in your discharge, in the great day of account. If any miscarriage shall befall us when we have the government in our own hands, the State of England shall not answer for it."

What words are these for "such poor rustics" to use! But, members of Parliament, it will be safer for you to heed them. You are going to the judgment: do you hear? Yes; and we yield. "We encourage no appeals from your justice. We leave you with all the freedom and latitude that may, in any respect, be duly claimed by you." Thus another grand crisis had passed.

The Stuarts did indeed return, and with them their hereditary dread of liberty, and love of irresponsible power; and soon a formal and obstinate assertion of legislative supremacy over the colonies commenced.

Charles II. was acknowledged in Massachusetts; but a weak and dissolute man had no power to understand the value of growing colonies, fostered by parental care, and their loyalty consecrated by freedom. He must immediately take measures to make these ambitious, headstrong Puritans feel the force of kingly prerogatives. The four colonies, he believed, had united for the express "purpose of throwing off dependence on England." Royal commissioners were soon on their way to bring these rebels under due subjection.

The people took the alarm, and moved promptly for the protection of their invaluable rights. "The patent" was intrusted to prudent hands, and was soon safe from the clutches of tyranny. An appeal was made to God, in humble fasting and prayer, for the protection of liberty.

On the 23d of July, 1664, the fleet arrived in Boston Harbor, ostensibly to subdue the Dutch, but really to sustain the commissioners, who had come "with full authority to provide for the peace of the country, according to the royal instructions and their own discretion."