6

did not prevail; instead, Parliament on 27 February passed the Conciliatory Resolution' of Lord North (p. 138, note); an unsatisfactory compromise-Burke's ransom by auction on the taxation question leaving the Coercive Acts in force.

War began on 19 April 1775, when the Boston garrison clashed with provincial militia at Lexington and Concord. On 10 May the Continental Congress reassembled. It represented all phases of colonial opinion except the out-and-out loyalists, who, owing to the drastic measures of local committees, were now becoming fairly numerous. Congress adopted the militia besieging Boston, as the continental army; appointed Washington commander-in-chief, and issued the Declaration of Causes of taking up Arms (p. 141)— a joint product of the conservative Dickinson and the radical Jefferson. Many, but not all of the radicals now believed independence to be the only solution; but they were content to wait for public opinion to develop. The majority, both in Congress and the country, flattered itself that commercial pressure, combined with military success, would discredit the North ministry, produce a political crisis in England, and place Burke and Chatham in power. Independence sentiment gained ground very slowly. Between November 1775 and January 1776, four of the middle colonies instructed their delegates to oppose independence; but before the end of the year Congress decided to seek French aid.2

By the opening of 1776 it became clear that the American policy was a failure. War had widened the chasm instead of closing the breach; and the Association was hurting the colonies more than England. At this moment appeared at Philadelphia an amazing pamphlet by an Englishman with a stormy career before him. Thomas Paine's' Common

1 See Warren's letters (p. 139), and cf. Jefferson's, of 25 August, in Writings (Ford ed.), i. 482, or Hist. MSS. Comm., Dartmouth MSS., ii. 361.

2 Callender, 163.

Sense ' 1 was the first important republican tract to be issued in America, the first to turn colonial resentment against George HI, and the first to present cogent arguments for independence. Provincial congresses began to instruct their Continental delegates in that sense (p. 146). On 6 April Congress declared American commerce open to the world. In May, it instructed the colonies to form State governments (p. 148). South Carolina had already done so (p. 146), and Virginia soon followed (pp. 149-56). Congress still hesitated before the final step; the conservatives wished first to have a look at the terms that Admiral Lord Howe was rumoured to be bringing, and the radicals were equally zealous to have independence an accomplished fact before that mission arrived. A political victory of the radical, frontier element in Pennsylvania over the local conservatives hastened, matters. On 2 July a resolution for independence was passed by the Continental Congress, and on 4 July the famous Declaration (p. 157) was adopted.

2

Every one who studies the American Revolution must ask himself whether independence was, after all, the only way to avoid absolute tyranny'. The royal instructions to the peace commission of 1778 (p. 186) are relevant to this question. These were the most favourable terms the British Government could bring itself to offer, after Burgoyne's surrender, in the hope of averting the French alliance. Would they have satisfied America if proposed before 1776? Or, supposing they had been accepted as a compromise, would they have removed the causes of the conflict, and permitted colonial development toward dominion home rule, or independence by mutual consent?

1 To be found in numerous contemporary editions, in Paine's Complete Works (M. D. Conway, ed. Putnam's), and in a cheap edition published by Peter Eckler, New York.

2 Lord Howe merely had power to issue pardons under the Prohibitory Act (16 Geo. III, c. 5, s. 44), and to use his good offices with Parliament for a redress of grievances.

IV. The State and Federal Constitutions, 1776–88.

The manner in which free governments have been established in America' (p. 355) is another remarkable phase of the Revolution. State and federal governments were substituted for the old colonial system; and for their successful operation statesmen were found, and public opinion created. Self-government, under the colonial system, made this possible; yet the colonists had had no experience with federalism, and no opportunity to draft charters, since the seventeenth century.

1

The transition from colonial to state government was, in most instances, carried out by the provincial congresses' or conventions' of 1775-6. These popularly elected bodies, which assumed legislative and executive authority in each colony after the royal governors had dissolved the colonial assemblies, followed the recommendation of 15 May 1776 by the Continental Congress (p. 148), drafted state constitutions for their constituents, and put them into effect without popular ratification. Only three of the constitutions of 1776 contained any provision for subsequent amendment, and they gave the power to the state legislature.

Virginia's constitution of 1776 (pp. 149–56) was the first successful state constitution, and a model to most of the other states.

George Mason, a wealthy planter steeped in the traditions of English liberty, drafted both the Bill of Rights and the greater part of the Frame of Government. The latter was a compromise between the radical westerners, who favoured the wild constitutional notions of Paine's 'Common Sense', and the conservative easterners, who desired a life senate and a strong governor. The convention was also much

1 Rhode Island and Connecticut, however, were able to retain their seventeenth-century charters, on the joint-stock model, as state constitutions by a mere change of preamble.

influenced by John Adams's Thoughts on Government'. 1 On the whole the old-settled, slaveholding eastern section won, by obtaining a fixed basis of representation (ss. 5, 6, cf. p. 359), with no change in the franchise (s. 7); which meant, in general, that no one could vote unless he possessed fifty acres of improved, or one hundred of unimproved land. As a concession to popular prejudice against executive power, the governor was made a mere creature of the legislature. Nevertheless, the Virginia constitution was imitated by most of the states, and lasted until 1830.

The Pennsylvania constitution (p. 162) with its manhood suffrage, reflected the recent victory of the democratic element in that state, and incorporated two favourite notions of Benjamin Franklin, a unicameral legislature and a plural executive. Although the standard of the radicals, this constitution was a most unsuccessful experiment; imitated only by the frontier state of Vermont, and superseded in Pennsylvania as early as 1790.

The War of Independence emphasized the faults of these early state constitutions. There was too much restraint on the executive and judiciary; too little on the legislatures, who were not always composed of persons most noted for wisdom and virtue' (p. 165). The New York constitution (1777) showed some improvement, but that of Massachusetts (1780) 2 was the more permanent. The town meetings of that state were so many debating societies of political theory during the war, and from one of them came the first recorded suggestion that a constitution should be drafted by a convention specially elected for that purpose, and submitted for approval to the people (p. 176). After a false start by the legislature, that mode was tried in 1779-80. The con

1 Adams's Works, iv. 185–203; cf. C. H. Ambler, Sectionalism in Virginia (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1910), and Eckenrode, Revolution in Virginia (Houghton, Mifflin, 1916).

2 Printed in Old South Leaflets, No. 206, and in all volumes of the state laws. Cf. 'Struggle over adoption of the Constitution of Mass.' in Proceedings Mass. Hist. Society, 1. 353.

vention delegated to John Adams the actual drafting of the constitution. As a working government, it was a vast improvement over its predecessors, and has not yet been superseded; it was a deliberate and successful attempt to further efficiency, safety, and order, even at the expense of liberty. The franchise was more restricted than under the colonial government, though not so much as in Virginia; the governor was elected by the voters and given an appointive power and a suspensive veto; the senate frankly represented wealth, being apportioned according to the taxable property of the state; the judges of the supreme court were appointed by the governor, and held office during good behaviour. A more distinct religious establishment was adopted than in any other state save South Carolina; separation of Church and State being the exception rather than the rule in American revolutionary constitutions.

Federal government was a different, and far more difficult, problem; for the people of the states were of no mind to part with the powers they had taken over from Crown and Parliament. During the first two years of the war, the Continental Congress wielded considerable power without express authority. Constitutionally, it was little more than a supreme war council of thirteen allies. The Articles of Confederation (p. 178), drafted in 1777 but not ratified (for reasons connected with the Western problem) until 1781, legalized the existing situation. Congress, as organized in 1774, remained the sole organ of the Confederacy, and, in general, was granted only those powers which, before 1775, the Crown and Parliament had exercised without question. The states retained full control over taxation, commerce, and customs duties. This Confederation might have devoloped into an efficient federal government had not the process of amendment been so difficult, and the times out of joint.

To some extent the American Revolution was a social upheaval. It did not in any marked degree change the laws