Part 8 (1/2)

Thus Congress began rather as the adviser than as the director of the colonies; but it advised strong measures. On May 30, 1775, a plan of conciliation suggested by Lord North was p.r.o.nounced ”unreasonable and insidious.” On the request of the provincial congress of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, it recommended that body to ”form a temporary colonial government until a governor of his Majesty's appointment will consent to govern the colony according to its charter.” June 12, Congress issued a proclamation recommending ”a day of public humiliation, fasting, and prayer.” Like the First Continental Congress, it framed several pet.i.tions and addresses to the British people and to the king of Great Britain. During the first six weeks of its existence, therefore, the Second Continental Congress acted chiefly as the centre for common consultation, and as the agent for joint expostulation.

37. THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT FORMED (1775).

[Sidenote: War in Ma.s.sachusetts.]

[Sidenote: National military measures.]

The situation rapidly pa.s.sed beyond the stage of advice. The people of Ma.s.sachusetts and the neighboring colonies, on their own motion, had shut up the governor of the colony and his troops in the town of Boston, and were formally besieging him. On June 17 the British made their last sortie, and attacked and defeated the besieging forces at Bunker Hill.

Neither the country nor Congress could long stand still. Precisely a week after a.s.sembling, Congress voted that certain commerce ”must immediately cease.” A week later, May 26, they ”Resolved, unanimously, that the militia of New York be armed and trained ... to prevent any attempt that may be made to gain possession of the town;” and on June 14 the momentous resolution was reached that ”an American continental army should be raised.” On the following day George Was.h.i.+ngton, Esq., of Virginia, ”was unanimously selected to command all the continental forces raised or to be raised for the defence of American liberty.” In October the fitting out of a little navy and the commissioning of privateers were authorized.

These acts were acts of war such as up to this time had been undertaken only by individual colonies or by the home government. They were, further, acts of united resistance, and in form they pledged the whole country to the establishment of a military force, and the maintenance of hostilities until some accommodation could be reached.

[Sidenote: National diplomacy.]

[Sidenote: Other national powers.]

In other directions the Continental Congress showed similar energy.

November 29, 1775, ”a Committee of Correspondence with our friends abroad”

was ordered, and thus began, the foreign relations of the United States of America. National amba.s.sadors were eventually sent out; no colony presumed to send its own representative across the sea; foreign affairs from this time on were considered solely a matter for the Continental Congress. In like manner, Congress quietly took up most of the other matters which had been acknowledged up to this time to belong to the home government.

Congress a.s.sumed the control of the frontier Indians, till this time the wards of England. The post-national office had been directed by English authority; Congress took it over. The boundaries and other relations of the colonies had been strictly regulated by the home government; Congress undertook to mediate in boundary disputes. Parliament had controlled trade; Congress threw open American ports to all foreign nations, and prohibited the slave-trade. In financial matters Congress went far beyond any powers ever exercised by England. June 22 it ordered an issue of two million dollars in continental paper currency, and subscriptions to national loans were opened both at home and abroad.

[Sidenote: Basis of national authority.]

This a.s.sumption of powers is the more remarkable since their exercise by England had caused the Revolution. The right to raise money by national authority, the right to maintain troops without the consent of the colonies, and the right to enforce regulations on trade,--these were the three disputed points in the English policy of control. They were all exercised by the Continental Congress, and accepted by the colonies. In a word, the Continental Congress const.i.tuted a government exercising great sovereign powers. It began with no such authority; it never received such authority until 1781. The war must be fought, the forces of the people must be organized; there was no other source of united power and authority; without formally agreeing to its supremacy, the colonies and the people at large acquiesced, and accepted it as a government.

[Sidenote: Organization of the government.]

For the carrying out of great purposes Congress was singularly inefficient. The whole national government was composed of a s.h.i.+fting body of representatives elected from time to time by the colonial or State legislatures. It early adopted the system of forming executive committees out of its own number: of these the most important was the Board of War, of which John Adams was the most active member. Later on, it appointed executive boards, of which some or all the members were not in Congress: the most notable example was the Treasury Office of Accounts. Difficult questions of prize and maritime law arose; and Congress established a court, which was only a committee of its own members. In all cases the committees, boards, or officials were created, and could be removed, by Congress. The final authority on all questions of national government in all its forms was simply a majority of colonies or States in the Continental Congress.

38. INDEPENDENCE DECLARED (1776).

[Sidenote: Tendency towards independence.]

Under the direction of Congress and the command of General Was.h.i.+ngton the siege of Boston was successfully pushed forward during the winter of 1775- 76. From the beginning of the struggle to this time two political currents had been running side by side,--the one towards a union of the colonies, the other towards independence. Of these the current of union had run a little faster. Notwithstanding the authority which they had set over themselves, the colonies still professed to be loyal members of the British empire. To be sure, there is a strong smack of insincerity in the protestations poured forth by the a.s.semblies and the second Continental Congress. But John Adams says: ”That there existed a general desire of independence of the Crown in any part of America before the Revolution, is as far from the truth as the zenith is from the nadir.” Yet Patrick Henry declared as early as September, 1774. that ”Government is dissolved.

Fleets and armies and the present state of things show that government is dissolved. We are in a state of nature, sir.... All America is thrown into one ma.s.s.”

[Sidenote: Hesitation.]

[Sidenote: Suggestion of independence.]

From the moment that the Second Continental Congress had ordered the colonies to be put in a state of defence, either independence must come, or thee colonies must submit. No far-seeing man could expect that England would make the concessions which the colonies declared indispensable. Yet for more than a year Congress hesitated to declare publicly that the Americans would not return to obedience. As forgiving and loyal subjects of a king misled by wicked advisers, they still seemed supported by precedent and acting on the rights of Englishmen. Suggestions were made throughout 1775 looking towards independence Thus the New Hamps.h.i.+re Revolutionary Convention declared that ”the voice of G.o.d and of nature demand of the colonies to look to their own political affairs.” In May, 1775, came the resolutions of a committee of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. In declaring that the government of the colonies had ceased to exist, they were probably not different in spirit from many other resolutions pa.s.sed by like bodies. On July 8, 1775, Congress sent its last formal pet.i.tion to the Crown. In it ”Your Majesty's faithful subjects” set forth ”the impossibility of reconciling the usual appearance of respect with a just Attention to our own preservation against those artful and cruel Enemies who abuse your royal Confidence and Authority for the Purpose of effecting our destruction.” Congress was determined to wait until the pet.i.tion had been received. On the day when it was to have been handed to the king, appeared a royal proclamation announcing that open and armed rebellion was going on in America.

[Sidenote: Congress determined.]

The news of the fate of the pet.i.tion reached Philadelphia on October 31.

The hesitation of Congress was at an end. Three days later it resolved to recommend the people of New Hamps.h.i.+re to establish their own government.

The next day similar advice was given to South Carolina, with the promise of continental troops to defend the colony. Here for the first time was an official recognition of the fact that the colonies stood no longer under English control. It was an a.s.sertion that independence existed, and the steps towards a formal declaration were rapid.