THE AMERICAN NATION A HISTORY FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES BY ASSOCIATED SCHOLARS EDITED BY ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, LL.D. PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY ADVISED BY VARIOUS HISTORICAL SOCIETIES IN 27 VOLUMES VOL. 8 THE AMERICAN NATION A HISTORY LIST OF AUTHORS AND TITLES Group I. Foundations of the Nation Vol. I European Background of American History, by Edward Potts Chey- ney, A.M., Prof. Hist. Univ. of Pa. ** 2 Basis of American History, by Livingston Farrand, M.D., Prof. Anthropology Columbia Univ. * * 3 Spain in Ameri ca , by Edward Gay- lord Bourne, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Yale Univ. ** 4 England in America, by Lyon Gar- diner Tyler, LL.D., President William and Mary College. " 5 Colonial Self - Government, by Charles McLean Andrews, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Johns Hopkins Univ, Group II. Transformation into a Nation Vol. 6 Provincial America, by Evarts Boutell Greene, Ph.D., Prof. Hist, and Dean of College, Univ. of 111. " 7 France in America, by Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D., Sec. Wis- consin State Hist. Soc. Vol. 8 Preliminaries of the Revolution, by George Elliott Howard, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Univ. of Nebraska. ** 9 The American Revolution, by- Claude Halstead VanTyne,Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Univ. of Michigan, " lo The Confederation and the Consti- tution, by Andrew Cunningham McLaughlin, A.M., Head Prof. Hist. Univ. of Chicago. Group III. Development op the Nation Vol. II The Federalist System, by John Spencer Bassett, Ph.D., Prof. Am. Hist. Smith College. *' 12 The Jeffersonian System, by Ed- ward Channing, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Harvard Univ. " 13 Rise of American Nationality, by Kendric Charles Babcock, Ph.D., Pres. Univ. of Arizona. " 14 Rise of the New West, by Freder- ick Jackson Turner, Ph.D., Prof. Am. Hist. Univ. of Wisconsin. " 15 Jacksonian Democracy, by Will- iam MacDonald, LL.D., Prof. Hist. Brown Univ. Group IV. Trial op Nationality Vol. 16 Slavery and Abolition, by Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D., Prof. Hist. Harvard Univ. Vol. 1 7 Westward Extension, by George Pierce Garrison, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Univ. of Texas. ** 1 8 Parties and Slavery, by Theodore Clarke Smith, Ph.D., Prof. Am. Hist. Williams College. " 19 Causesof the Civil War ,by Admiral French Ensor Chadwick, U.S.N., recent Pres. of Naval War Col. '* 20 The Appeal to Arms, by James Kendall Hosmer, LL.D., recent Librarian Minneapolis Pub. Lib. ** 21 Outcome of the Civil War, by James Kendall Hosmer, LL.D., re- cent Lib. Minneapolis Pub. Lib. Group V. National Expan'^ion Vol. 22 Reconstruction, Political and Eco- nomic, by William Archibald Dun- ning, Ph.D., Prof. Hist, and Politi- cal Philosophy Columbia Univ. " 2^ National Development, by Edwin Erie Sparks, Ph.D., Prof. Ameri- can Hist. Univ. of Chicago. ** 24 National Problems, by Davis R. Dewey, Ph.D., Professor of Eco- nomics, Mass. Institute of Tech- nology. " 25 America as a World Power, by John H. Latan6, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Washington and Lee Univ. " 26 National Ideals Historically Traced, by Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D., Prof. Hist. Harvard Univ. " 27 Index to the Series, by David May dole Matteson, A.M. COMMITTEES APPOINTED TO ADVISE AND CONSULT WITH THE EDITOR The Massachusetts Historical Society Charles Francis Adams, LL.D., President Samuel A. Green, M.D., Vice-President James Ford Rhodes, LL.D., ad Vice-Preside Edward Channing, Ph.D., Prof. History Harvard Univ. Worthington C. Ford. Chief of Division of MSS. Library of Congress The Wisconsin Historical Society Reuben G. Thwaites, LL.D., Secretary and Super- intendent Frederick J. Turner, Ph.D., Prof, of American His- tory Wisconsin University James D. Butler, LL.D., formerly Prof. Wisconsin University William W. Wight, Ptesident Henry E. Legler, Curator The Virginia Historical Society William Gordon McCabe, Litt.D., President Lyon G. Tyler, LL.D., Pres. of William and Mary College Judge David C. Richardson J. A. C. Chandler, Professor Richmond College Edward Wilson James The Texas Historical Society Judge John Henninger Reagan, President George P. Garrison, Ph.D., Prof, of History Uni- versity of Texas Judge C. W. Raines Judge Zachary T. FuUmore SAMUEL ADAMS • • • • !• THE AMERICAN NATION : A HISTORY VOLUME 8 PRELIMINARIES OF THE REVOLUTION 1 763-1 775 BY GEORGE ELLIOTT HOWARD, Ph.D. PROFESSOR OF INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA WITH MAPS NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS / Copyright, 1905, by Harper & Brothers. All rights reserved. Published August, 1905 C#NTENT^ CHAP. PAGE Editor's Introduction xiii Author's Preface xvii I. The French War Reveals an American People (1763) 3 II. The British Empire under George III. (1760-1775) 2.2 ^^ in. The Mercantile Colonial System (i66o- yy* 1775) 47 ^^^ IV. The First Protest of Massachusetts (X761) 68 V. The First Protest of Virginia (1758-1763) 84 ^ VI. The First Act for Revenue from the Colonies (i 763-1 764) 102; ,*c: VII. The Menace of the Stamp Act (1764-1765) 121- VIII. America's Response to the Stamp Act (1765) 140. IX. The Repeal of the Stamp Act (1766) . 158 ^ X. The Townshend Revenue Acts (i 766-1 767) 174 XI. First Fruits of the Townshend Acts (1768- 1770) 193 XII. The Anglican Episcopate and the Revolu- tion (1638-1775) 206 xiii. Institutional Beginnings of the West (1768-1775) 222 c,-i\^^ Xll CONTENTS CHAP. XIV. Royal Orders and Committees of Corre- spondence (1770-1773) 242 XV The Tea-Party and the Coercive Acts (1773-1774) XVI. The First Continental Congress (1774) XVII. The Appeal TO Arms (i 774-1 775) . XVIII. The Case of the Loyalists (i 763-1 775) . XIX. Critical Essay on Authorities . MAPS British Possessions in North America, 1765 {in colors) ^facing 4 Designation of Members to General Con- gresses (1754-1765) ** 154 Indian Delimitations Made by Indian Treaties (1763-1770) {in colors). ** 224 Proposed Western Colonies (i 763-1775) {in colors) ** 230 Designation of Members to General Con- gresses (1774-1775) ** 282 British Possessions in North America, 1775 {in colors) ** 298 Eastern Massachusetts (1775) .... ** 310 / / ^ EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION FEW periods of American History have been more written upon than the decade preceding the Rev- olution. Nevertheless, there is still room for a brief voltime upon the subject; all the world knows that the Revolution really began almost fifteen 5^ars before its beginning, because of the efforts of'Hhe British government to give greater unity and stiff- ness to its colonial system, both as to government and as to trade with other nations; but the real motives underlying the uneasiness of the colonies still need enlightenment. In the arrangement of The American Nation, both Greene's Provincial America (vol. VI.) and Thwaites's France in America (vol. VII.) are in- troductory to this volume: the one showing the organization of government against which they complained, and the other the danger from the French, the removal of which opened the way for revolution; the volume is also most closely linked with Van Tyne's American Revolution (vol. IX.). Professor Howard opens with two chapters on the conditions and political standards of the Americans on their side of the ocean, and of the . xiv EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION British on their side; then follows (chap, iii.) an account of the system of Navigation Acts as it then existed, which may well be compared with chapters i. and xix. of Andrews's Colonial Self- Government, and chapters iii. and xviii. of Greene's Provincial America. The two preliminary episodes of the Parson's Cause and Writs of Assistance (chaps, iv. and v.) are followed by a discussion of the Sugar Act of 1766, which Professor Howard considers the starting-point of the Revolution. In three chapters (vii., viii., ix.) the Stamp Act, Stamp Act Congress, and repeal are considered; in two more chapters the Townshend Acts and the attempts to enforce them by the military are described. The narrative then gives way to an indispensable discussion of the Anglican Episcopate, which fits into Greene's discussion of the same subject in an earlier volimie {Provincial America, chap, vi.)- The first appearance of the West as a distinct factor in national life is described in chapter xiii. and will be resumed in Van Tyne's American Revolution (chap. XV.) ; and, in a later stage, in McLaughlin's Confederation and Constitution (vol. X., chaps, vii., viii.). The final steps leading up to revolution, from 1773 to 1775, occupy chapters xiv. to xvii. The last chapter of text is the argument of the loyalists, a strong presentation of the reasons which led so many thousand Americans to adhere to the mother- country. It should be compared with Van Tyne's 2 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xv American Revolution (chap. xiv.). The Critical Essay on Authorities is conveniently classified by subjects .which do not follow strictly the order of the chapters. The aim of the voliime is to show what the issue really was and why people who had lived under one general government for a century and a half could no longer get on together. Professor Howard's investigations bring him to about the same point as those of earlier writers—viz., that war was inevitable because of long antecedent causes tending to inde- pendence, and was precipitated by the failure of the home government to understand either the sit- uation or the American people ; but that it was not a result of direct and conscious oppression. Yet this fresh study of the evidence results in a clearer view of the difficulties of the imperial problem; and brings out in sharper relief the reasons for the apparent paradox that the freest people then on earth insisted on and deserved a larger freedom. VOL.