TRIALS FROM A SPIRIT OF COMPROMISE.

To a superficial eye, it might have seemed a hopeful fact that the American colonists had strong advocates in the British Parliament; that noble friends of liberty opposed with matchless argument and faithful warnings every measure of oppression which the king and his ministers imposed upon the colonies: but it is precisely here that we discover the origin of our greatest peril. If Pownal and Fox and Burke could have succeeded in tearing the mask from the eyes of George the Third, and unveiling the depth of disgrace into which he was plunging the nation; could they have made ministers believe, what they so confidently affirmed, that they could not conquer America, and that the war would rob England of the brightest jewel in her crown,— the odious Stamp Act would have been promptly repealed, taxation without representation would have been abandoned, and then, so far as we can see, all idea of independence would have perished in America. It was from her friends that the greatest danger to Liberty arose. Their sense of justice was truly exalted; their plea for humanity worthy of their noble rank. They were honored in the right; but the men they addressed were judicially blinded. Their hearts were hardened, like the heart of Pharaoh; for God evidently intended to lead out his people "with a high hand and an outstretched arm."

Kindred dangers arose on every hand. Petition after petition went from the American colonists to the crown. Had any one of these been heeded, and the heavy yoke upon their necks been lightened, the rising nationality of freedom would have been crushed in its beginnings. It reminds us of the oppressive decisions of Rehoboam. Strange infatuations, now as then, had seized the monarch; for "the cause was from the Lord."

When, in 1774, Galloway proposed to Congress his measures of compromise, they were rejected by a majority of

only a single vote. Who controlled that single vote? We tremble to think of so narrow an escape.

When temporizers, led on by Dickinson, a man of splendid abilities, and the most captivating style of manners and rhetoric, had it in their power, again and again, to postpone the declaration of independence, and to secure a last humiliating petition to the throne, how marked the Providence that denied even the royalist Penn an audience with the king, or access to official power, to present it, and which made it the occasion of a most despotic and cruel proclamation, denouncing the colonists and their congress as rebels, and, in effect, menacing their immediate subjugation or utter extermination!

What strength of self-interest in the various proprietary governments! what plausibility in the peace doctrines of the Quakers, and in .pleas for loyalty from legislators and capitalists, from merchants and lawyers, who saw nothing but ruin in resistance to the power of England! Especially what power did the leaders of compromise acquire, when it arose from the boldest and firmest remonstrants against tyranny, and promised to accept nothing but justice, which the British Government, it was with reason affirmed, would ultimately yield!

The apathy of Congress amid the general distress of 1779 added to the public peril. Many of its strongest men left it for various reasons, wholly incompatible with the high trust committed to them by the people. The number in attendance was frequently reduced below thirty, and even below twenty-five.

Finally, when the triumphant leaders of the British army came with the sword in one hand and the olive-branch in the other, offering "peace and liberty and wealth" in the place of bloody war and insupportable suffering, sustained by the whole influence of the Church of England at home and in America, how improbable it was that the offers of pardon would be rejected! But God gave to the Ameri

can nation a high-souled honor, a sacred regard for principle, an unconquerable bravery, which exalted them above the blandishments of hypocrisy as well as the terrors of war. He nerved the souls of Jefferson and Henry, of Adams and Jay, and, above all, of the immortal Washington, with a ̧ patriotism so incorruptible, that they led the nation through the perils of smiles and of tears, of bribery and of blood, with a firmness and devotion which made them a sublime spectacle to enemies and friends.

By such discipline did God separate the precious from the vile, drive away or destroy the cowardly timidity and craven selfishness unfit for use in constructing the Temple of Liberty, and nerve with highest energy the master-spirits chosen to lead the hosts of Freedom in the ages to come.

Thus have we found and brought forward the facts which clearly justify the proposition which stands at the head of this chapter,-discipline insures a vigorous national life.

CHAPTER VII.

HISTORY RECORDS AN ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONAL LIFE.

"O Peace, thou welcome guest, all hail! Thou heavenly visitant, calm the tumults of nations, and wave thy balmy wing over this region of liberty! . . . May this great event excite and elevate our first, our highest acknowledgments to the Sovereign Monarch of universal nature, to the Supreme Disposer and Controller of all events! Let this our pious, sincere, and devout gratitude ascend in one general effusion of heartfelt praise and hallelujah, in one united cloud of incense, even the incense of universal joy and thanksgiving to God, from the collective body of the United States."— PRESIDENT STILES.

THE neighborhood of nations requires mutual concessions. It is not merely the question of each, whether it has a right to exist, or whether its institutions are sound and benign in their influence upon the people. As individuals are under obligations to be good and acceptable neighbors, so each nation is bound to be a peaceable and useful member of the family of nations. Every other member of the great family has a right to exact it. The happiness and prosperity of the whole depend upon it.

When, therefore, colonies, however remote from the home government, assert their independence, they are greatly concerned in the question of acknowledgment. Are they right? Do the principles of their uprising commend themselves to sound reason, to the approval of leading minds, to the men in power in other nations? Have they vindicated their nationality? Are they a nation with the indispensable resources, rights, and powers of separate independent government?

Until these questions are answered, there is still cause for anxiety with regard to the new experiment. There was cause for anxiety in America.

THE ENGLISH ACKNOWLEDGE AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

Before the commencement of actual hostilities, the popular feeling was strongly with the government. The Americans were rebels, and his Majesty must subdue them at all hazards. Writers and speakers vied with each other in opposing all ideas of future separation. There was, however, one exception. Dean Tucker, in a published pamphlet, urged upon Parliament a peaceful release of the colonies from all obligations of loyalty to the British crown. It is true, he placed it upon grounds of forfeiture; but the principle of American independence was conceded even by his proposition, that the way should be open for the return of any colony repenting its attempt to live without the mother-country.

Burke would not tolerate the noble proposition of Tucker, though he was a warm friend of the colonies. His desire for reconciliation, however, carried with it a confession of American rights, which had been denied, and formed the nucleus of an opposition, which finally gathered around it a strong public sentiment in favor of American independence. In a recent election, the ministry had obtained an overwhelming majority in favor of coercion. Lord North could go on with his measures for the suppression of rebellion, but not heartily; for even he was, in principle and feeling, really opposed to the war. Officially, he favored the king; but, personally, the colonies. This fact was of great moral importance to America.

The minority had strength among the merchants, who were not long in discovering that free colonies fostered by the British Government, or even an independent nation with the best resources of a continent at command, would furnish a more lucrative trade than a subdued, oppressed, and discouraged people. The principles of civil liberty, now apparently endangered in the whole kingdom, were roused to a new and vigorous life by the American strug