Part 25

The news of the battle of Bunker's hill not only roused to indignation the king and his ministers, but convinced them that "a flock of Yankees" were not so despisable objects as they had supposed; and that if the arms of the Americans were not so brightly burnished as those of his majesty's disciplined troops, nevertheless, in the firm hands and under the practised eye of "country boors," they could make sad havoc among them.

A large augmentation of the forces in America, contrary to all previous opinion, was now deemed essential. Accordingly, an act was introduced into parliament, authorizing the employment of sixteen thousand German troops, which, with the British regiments in, and about to be sent to America, would constitute a force of nearly fifty thousand men. The minority in parliament reprobated the employment of mercenary troops, in strong and unmeasured terms. But little did the friends of America in parliament feel, in view of such a step, compared with the Americans themselves. "Arm foreigners against us!" they exclaimed; "let us treat the English themselves as foreigners. Better for us to be eternally separated from them, than to be exposed to such cruelty." But the indignation of the Americans was, if possible, still more increased by another act of parliament, passed at the same session, viz: "prohibiting all _trade_ and _commerce_ with the colonies; and authorizing the _capture_ and _condemnation_, not only of all American vessels with their cargoes, but all other vessels _found trading_, in any port or place in the colonies, as if the same were the vessels and effects of _open enemies_; and the vessels and property thus taken were vested in the captors, and the crews were to be treated, not as prisoners, but as _slaves_." By another clause, British subjects were authorized to compel men taken on board of American vessels, whether crews or _other persons_, to fight against _their own countrymen_!

By such measures, cruel and impolitic, did the British authorities _compel_ the Americans, not only to take up arms against the mother-country, but to desire a lasting separation from her.

Thus the leaven commenced, and by degrees diffused itself through the mass. Shortly after, the gazettes began to speak out. These were followed by the issue of several pamphlets; among which, that entitled _Common Sense_, by Thomas Paine, "produced a wonderful effect in the different colonies in favor of independence." Influential individuals in every colony urged it as a step absolutely necessary, to preserve the rights and liberties, as well as to secure the happiness and prosperity of America. Reconciliation, they said, on any terms compatible with the preservation and security of these great and important objects, was now impossible. These sentiments were disseminated among the people by distinguished individuals, in a variety of ways. The chief justice of South Carolina, William Henry Dayton, appointed under the new form of government, just adopted, in his charge to the grand jurors, in April, after justifying the proceedings of that colony, in forming a new government, on the principles of the revolution in England, in 1688, thus concludes: "The Almighty created America to be independent of Great Britain: let us beware of the impiety of being backward to act as instruments in the Almighty's hand, now extended to accomplish his purpose; and by the completion of which alone, America, in the nature of human affairs, can be secure against the crafty and insidious designs of her enemies, who think her power and prosperity already far too great. In a word, our piety and political safety are so blended, that to refuse our labors in this divine work, is to refuse to be a great, a free, a pious, and a happy people." This was bold language for one so prominent to utter. In the view of royalists, it was treasonable; but in the estimation of the true friends of American liberty, if bold, it was just and patriotic.

At length, the question of independence entered some of the colonial assemblies and conventions, and expressions in favor of such a measure were made. North Carolina, it is believed, has the honor of taking the lead, as a _province_, having by her convention, as early as April 22d, empowered their delegates in congress, "to concur with those in the other colonies in declaring independency."[36]

On the 15th of May the convention of Virginia went still further, and unanimously _instructed_ their delegates in the general congress, "to propose to that respectable body, to declare the united colonies free and independent states, absolved from all allegiance or dependence upon the crown or parliament of Great Britain; and to give the _assent_ of that colony to such declaration." During the same month, Massachusetts and Rhode Island virtually adopted similar resolutions. In short, public sentiment appeared to be setting strongly in favor of action, on this great and momentous question.

Meanwhile, congress were not idle or uninterested spectators of events. They had been watching with no small solicitude the "signs of the times." Personally, they had counted the cost. Most of the members had come to the conclusion that rather than be slaves, as they had been, they would sacrifice fortune and life itself. These, therefore, they were willing to peril, by any act or declaration which might seem to contribute to their country's cause.

But a sacred regard to that cause, required the utmost prudence. Premature action might injure a cause which they wished, above all others, to benefit. The popular feelings must have become duly interested--the popular will must _precede_ and _direct_.

At length, the propitious time was believed to have arrived, and in humble dependence upon the guidance and protection of Almighty God, it was determined to go forward with this great and solemn work.

On the 7th of June, therefore, the great question of independence was brought directly before congress, by Richard Henry Lee, one of the delegates from Virginia. He submitted a resolution, declaring "that the united colonies are, and ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; and that all political connection between them and Great Britain is, and ought to be, dissolved." The resolution was postponed until the next day, and every member enjoined to attend, to take the same into consideration. On the 8th, it was debated in committee of the whole.

No question of greater magnitude was ever presented to the consideration of a deliberative body, or debated with more eloquence, energy, and ability. Every member seemed duly impressed with the important bearing that their decision would have upon the future destiny of the country.

Mr. Lee, the mover, and Mr. John Adams were particularly distinguished in supporting, and Mr. John Dickinson in opposing the resolution. On the 10th, it was adopted in committee, by a bare majority of the colonies. The delegates from Pennsylvania and Maryland, were instructed to oppose it; and the delegates from some of the other colonies were without special instructions on the subject. To give time for greater unanimity, the resolution was postponed in the house, until the first of July. In the mean time, a committee, consisting of Mr. Jefferson, John Adams, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Sherman, and R. R. Livingston, was appointed to prepare a declaration of independence. During this interval, measures were taken to procure the assent of all the colonies.[37]

A portion of the colonies had not given specific instructions to their delegates, while others had, and in opposition to the measure. On a question of such magnitude, it was deemed of the utmost importance that entire unanimity, if possible, should be had. The delegates of New York dispatched an express to the convention of that colony, then in session, for advice; but the convention, not considering themselves or their delegates authorized to declare the colony independent, recommended that the people, who were then about to elect new members to the convention, should give instructions on the subject. June 15th, New Hampshire instructed her delegates to join the other colonies on this question. On the 14th, Connecticut gave similar instructions. New Jersey followed on the 21st. Pennsylvania, the same month, removed restrictions which in the previous November, had been laid upon their delegates, and now authorized them to unite in the measure. Maryland had also instructed her delegates to vote against independence; but on the 28th of June, following the example of Pennsylvania, the members of this convention rëcalled their former instructions, and empowered their delegates to concur. These new instructions were immediately dispatched by express to Philadelphia, and, on 1st of July, were laid before congress.

On the same day, the resolution of Mr. Lee, relating to independence, was resumed in that body, referred to a committee of the whole, and was assented to by all the colonies, except Pennsylvania and Delaware.

The delegates from the former, then present, were seven, and four voted against it. The number present from Delaware, was only two--Thomas McKean and George Read--and they were divided; McKean in favor, and Read against the resolution. Being reported to the house, at the request of a colony, the proposition was postponed until the next day, when it passed, and was entered on the journals. The declaration of independence was reported by the special committee on the 28th of June, and on the 4th of July, came before congress for final decision, and received the vote of every colony.

Two of the members from Pennsylvania, Morris and Dickinson, were absent; of the five who were present, Franklin, Wilson, and Morton, were in favor, and Willing and Humphrey against. Mr. McKean, to secure the vote of Delaware, sent an express for Mr. Rodney, the other delegate from that colony; who, although at the distance of eighty miles from Philadelphia, arrived in time on the 4th to unite with him in the vote, and thus complete the union of the colonies on this momentous question. The committee appointed to prepare a declaration of independence, selected Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson a sub-committee; and the original draft was made by Mr. Jefferson.

This draft, without any amendment by the committee, was reported to congress, and after undergoing several amendments, received their sanction.

It now only remained to affix their signatures to the declaration, and to publish it to the world, and their duty, in respect to this important measure, was done. Having been engrossed on parchment, it was brought out, and laid on the table. This was on the 2d of August. Meanwhile, some who had voted for the declaration, had left congress, and others had taken their places. The latter signed the instrument.

John Hancock, as president of the congress, led the way. Taking a pen, he recorded his name. He wrote with great power, and on the original parchment, no signature is so bold and full-faced as his. The others followed by states--fifty-six in number.

The declaration of independence, was the great act of the Revolution. It was the hinge on which turned the important events which followed. Yet, at the period the plan was brought forward, it appeared to many to partake of the wildness and extravagance of some measure of the knight of la Mancha. At that day, the colonies were few and feeble. They had no political character--no bond of union but common sufferings, common necessities, and common danger. The inhabitants did not exceed three millions--they had no veteran army--no arsenals but barns--no munitions of war--few fortifications--no public treasury, no power to lay taxes, and no credit on which to obtain a loan.

No wonder that the hearts of some trembled. No wonder that many doubted the expediency of such a bold and adventurous step. Who was the nation with which the colonies had to contend?--the mistress of the world--a nation whose navy far exceeded that of any other nation on the globe. Her armies were numerous and veteran--her officers were skilful and practised--her statesmen subtle and sagacious, and were now fired with indignation.

All these circumstances were well known to the patriots who composed the congress of '76. They were aware that they put in peril life, liberty, and country.

Yet, they well knew the importance of the measure proposed, and not only its importance, but its necessity. The country needed some great object distinctly before them. The colonies required a bond of union--a common cause--one expressed--recorded--recognised--some one great plan, the object of which they could pledge their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor, to secure. That plan was independence.

The influence of the declaration was immediately perceived--it roused the nation to a higher tone of feeling, and gave impulse and concentration to the national energies. It helped on the tide of Revolution, and mightily aided in driving back the waves of British oppression. But the full influence of that measure is not yet felt--is not yet seen. That belongs to distant time. Some day, hereafter, it will stand out in the great picture of human liberty, in all its grandeur and importance. More will be thought of it than of the splendid and long-lauded achievements of Marathon and Salamis--of Waterloo and Trafalgar!

Nor can we yet estimate the greatness of the _men_. We are still too near them. But they are rising higher and higher, every year that passes. As we retire into the distance from the date and scene of their actions, their magnitude and worth acquire their true and proper dimensions. In stern and self-denying virtue, they will compare with Regulus, and in a pure and lofty patriotism, will be placed on the same roll with William Tell and Robert the Bruce.

The signers of the declaration of American independence, and their compatriots in toil, and trial, and blood, will never be forgotten. They _need_ no monument, but they _deserve_ one; and, for myself, I wish there was one--a _Revolutionary monument_--erected by the nation--worthy of the empire whose liberties, civil and religious, they secured--one which should stand--if God pleased--through all time, to serve as a consecrated offering to their patriotism, and the evidence of their imperishable glory:--a monument to which we might conduct our sons in future days; and, as they pondered the deeply engraved names of these heroes and martyrs to liberty--we, the fathers, might say, "_Look upon your ancestry, and scorn to be slaves_!"

What a day is the 4th of July, as it yearly recurs! The cannon on that day thunders from our hills--but it speaks of liberty. The bell from every spire sends forth its peal, but in sounds which impart a joyous impulse to the blood of the sire, and awaken a thrill of delight in the bosom of the stripling.

No other nation ever celebrated such a day. Days of joy and jubilee they have had; but they were days which, while they removed one usurper from the throne, made way for another; or celebrated some ambitious hero's victories, achieved at the expense of slaughtered thousands. Is it the spirit of an unholy triumph, which prompts the Americans to dwell with delight upon the day? Patriotic sympathy would hail with joy such a day, for any nation on the globe. And such a day, we trust, will come for all; when the sun of liberty, which warms and refreshes us, will fill with joy even the vassals of the Russian autocrat, and spread his heart-cheering beams over the tyrannized millions of the misnamed "celestial empire."

It has sometimes been cast upon us as a reproach, that we exalt the day too much. Exalt it too much! It has indeed sometimes been abused. The spirit of liberty has grown wanton, and excess has sullied the irreproachable propriety, which should ever characterize the demonstrations of joy on such a day as this. But those days are chiefly passed. No--whence the charge of exalting the day too highly?--Not by those who have tasted the sweets of American liberty, nor by those who have drawn long and deep draughts from the refreshing fountains of western freedom. Oh, no--not by such; but by the hirelings of some eastern usurper--by the myrmidons of crowned heads, who hate a day which speaks so loudly of rational liberty to the rest of the world in bondage.

What monarch in Europe would think his throne safe, were his subjects to witness an American celebration of the 4th of July? It would open visions before them upon which they would gaze with intense emotions. It would excite pantings after liberty, which, if unresisted, would convulse every nation, and demolish every despotic throne. What would the Russian serf say, were he to look in upon the smiling faces which course the streets of a New England village, on a bright and balmy 4th of July? What would the subjects of Algerine or Turkish despotism say?

Yet we exalt the day too much! But for that day, what would have been our present condition? Where would have been that constitution, under which our political voyage of more than sixty years has been made with so much prosperity to the nation? Where were that enterprise which has levelled our forests, and spread a smiling and happy population over our western wilds? Where that inventive genius, which, in its creations, has rivalled, and in some respects excelled, the inventions of Europe? Look at our ships--our manufactures--our printing establishments--our cities--our canals--our railroads--our thousand and ten thousand sources of wealth and happiness--where had these been, but for the 4th of July, 1776, connected as it was, and must ever be, with the achievement of our national independence? Would Great Britain have suffered these? Would she have seen such thrift--such expansion--such accumulation of national power, and not have repressed it--when she could not bear, without passing prohibitory laws, that our forefather's should make a hat to cover their heads--or manufacture a sheet of paper on which to write a letter to a friend! Had the mother-country had her will, where had been the genius of Fulton, Whitney, and Clinton? On the other side of the waters--not on this. Our halls of legislature would have failed in the manly eloquence of rival orators, and our temples of worship would have been devoted to God _and_ the aggrandizement of a phalanx of spiritual lords.

Said a patriarch and apostle of liberty, just after the vote on the question of independence had been taken--"Let the day be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God. Let it be solemnized with pomp, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward for ever."

The patriarch uttered noble and patriotic sentiments. Be the day remembered now and for ever. Remember it, _fathers_, as connected with the civil and religious blessings, which have been your portion in your earthly pilgrimage. Remember it, _mothers_, for it has made you the wives and companions of freemen. Remember it _sons_ and _daughters_, as the birth-day of liberty, but for which you might be shedding your blood in the service of a tyrant, or staining your virtue in the embraces of a bachanalian.

Be it remembered--and as it recurs--and may it recur with every year while time shall last--first and foremost let the tribute of a devout homage ascend to the GOD of our fathers--to HIM, who imparted wisdom to their counsel and success to their arms--who, when darkness encircled them, dispelled it--when stores failed, supplied them--who was a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night--to Him be glory for a land like that which the patriarch saw from Pisgah--and whose hills are like those of Lebanon and Carmel.

The day is becoming a _religious festival_. This is right. Let the sanctuary be opened, and homage be offered there. Let our Sabbath-schools assemble, and fill our groves with divine song. But never should we dispense with other innocent demonstrations of joy. Let the cannon thunder from our hills--let the bells peal through our villages and through our vallies. In every appropriate way, let the future generations celebrate that glad era in our history when British cohorts were obliged to retire, and "God save the king" on the rolling drum, died upon our shores.

FOOTNOTES:

[36] It has long been claimed that the first declaration of independence was made by the people in Charlotte town, Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, in May, 1775. All doubt on this subject is now dispelled, and the honor of such declaration must be accorded to them. In a letter from Mr. Bancroft, American minister at London, to Governor Swain, of North Carolina, dated London, July 4th, 1848, he says: "You may be sure that I have spared no pains to discover in the British state paper office a copy of the resolves of the committee of Mecklenburg, and _with entire success_. The first account of 'the extraordinary resolves of the people in Charlotte town, Mecklenburg county,' was sent over to England by Sir James Wright, then governor of Georgia, (to whom they had found their way) in a letter of the 20th of June, 1775. The newspaper thus transmitted is still preserved, and is the number 498 of the South Carolina Gazette and County Journal, Tuesday, June 13, 1775."--"It is identically the same with the paper which you enclosed to me."--The letter of Sir James Wright, referred to by Mr. Bancroft, closes as follows: "By the enclosed paper, your lordship will see the extraordinary resolves of the people of Charlotte town, in Mecklenburg county: I should not be surprised if the same should be done every where else"

[37] Pitkin.

VI. ATTACK ON SULLIVAN'S ISLAND.

INVASION of Southern Colonies proposed--Expedition dispatched--Charleston its first Object--Proceedings of its Citizens--Sullivan's island Fortified--Arrival of General Lee--His opinion of Fort Moultrie--British Fleet arrives--Preliminary movements--Fort Moultrie attacked--Remarkable Defence of it--Action described--Heroic conduct of Sergeant Jasper--British repulsed--Respective losses--Liberal conduct of Governor Rutledge--Mrs. Elliot--Death of Jasper.

The successful defence of Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's island, is justly considered one of the noblest achievements recorded in the annals of the Revolution.

The reduction of the southern colonies to obedience, was deemed a measure of prime importance by the British government, nor was it considered a project of difficult achievement. Hitherto the principal theatre of the war had been in the north; and, hence, it was calculated that preparations for the defence of the southern colonies had been so much neglected, that little more than a demonstration in that quarter would be necessary to bring the people to terms.

Early in 1776, an expedition having the above object in view was devised, the command of which was entrusted to Sir Peter Parker and Earl Cornwallis. Accordingly, on the 3d of May, Admiral Parker, with twenty sail, arrived at Cape Fear, with Generals Cornwallis, Vaughan, and several others.

General Clinton was expected from New York, with another considerable corps, to cöoperate in the attack. With his troops he had arrived at the point of destination, even anterior to the naval armament; and, being the senior general, on the junction of the forces, assumed the command. The immediate object was the reduction and possession of Charleston, the capital of South Carolina; on the fall of which, the subjugation of that and the other southern provinces would be an easy achievement.