DEFECTION OF THE COLONISTS, ETC.
Towards the close of this year, clear proofs were given that the Americans were not wholly unanimous in the cause of independence. The inhabitants of the city and island of New York, and of Long Island, and various other places, presented petitions to Lord Howe, declaring that they acknowledged the supremacy of Great Britain, and praying to be received into the king’s peace and protection. On the removal of congress from Philadelphia to Baltimore, the majority of the Philadelphians also began openly to declare for the royal cause. Washington detached troops to that city to quell the anti-revolutionary spirit, but this did not prevent many of its leading men from going over to, and corresponding with the commissioners. Moreover, most of the towns of the Jerseys sent deputations to the king’s commissioners, and expressed their anxiety for a renewed allegiance to the British Crown. Possibly this may in part be attributed to the success of the royal arms, but it is evident that the feelings generally arose from genuine patriotism. Self-preservation may, also, in part, have dictated this line of policy, for in one particular the advice of Lord Barrington had been followed with respect to the Indians, and it had produced its natural consequences. Our establishments for the management of affairs with these tribes were withdrawn, and then the red men were left to act as they pleased; and they had a long account to settle with the Americans. From the earliest period of their emigration the colonists had laid it down as a principle that the red men were to be treated like beasts of prey, and they still hunted them down on every opportune occasion. Hence, as the Indians were accurate accountants in matters of blood, and held it as a sacred part of their religion, that they were bound to avenge the death of their kindred; no sooner were our agents withdrawn, than the Creek and Cherokee Indians resolved to ravage the back territories of Virginia and the Carolinas, and to carry, if possible, both fire and the spear into the heart of these colonies. They were repulsed by the militia of the colonies, but not before they had taken a terrible revenge for long-endured wrongs; and the day might not be far distant when they would return with other tribes to extend their devastations throughout America.
MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
The British parliament assembled on the 31st of October. In his opening speech the king declared that nothing would have given him so much pleasure as to be able to state that the troubles in America were terminated, and that the colonists had returned to their duty. He continued:—“But so daring and desperate is the spirit of their leaders, whose object has always been dominion and power, that they have now openly renounced allegiance to the crown, and all political connexion with this country; they have rejected, with circumstances of indignity and insult, the means of conciliation held out under the authority of our commission; and have presumed to set up their rebellious confederacies for independent states. If their treason be suffered to take root much mischief must grow from it to the safety of my loyal colonies, to the commerce of my kingdom, and, indeed, to the present system of all Europe. One great advantage, however, will be derived from the object of the rebels being openly avowed and clearly understood;—we shall have unanimity at home, founded in the general conviction of the justice and necessity of our measures.” His majesty said that he was happy to inform them that Canada was recovered, and that the success in the province of New York had been such as to give the strongest hopes of the most decisive consequences. He then recapitulated, as usual, the pacific assurances of European powers, although he must himself have had some doubts at this time of the sincerity of their professions. It is manifest, indeed, that signs of a rupture had become evident to the British cabinet, for his majesty added to this part of his speech,—“That he indulged the hope that all misunderstanding might be removed, and Europe continue to enjoy the inestimable blessing of peace.” He also recommended that England should be put in a respectable state of defence, and urged upon his “faithful commons,” the necessity of granting ample supplies for the maintenance of the honour of his crown, and the vindication of the just rights of parliament. He concluded thus:—“In this arduous contest I can have no other object but to promote the true interests of all my subjects. No people ever enjoyed more happiness, or lived under a milder government than those now revolted in the provinces: the improvements in every art of which they boast declare it: their numbers, their wealth, their strength by sea and land, which they think sufficient to enable them to make head against the whole power of the mother country, are irrefragable proofs of it. My desire is to restore them to the blessings of law and liberty, equally enjoyed by every British subject, which they have fatally and desperately exchanged for all the calamities of war, and the arbitrary tyranny of their chiefs.”
GEORGE III. 1776-1777
DEBATES ON AMERICA.
Addresses which were, as usual, echoes of the speech, were brought forward in both houses, and they elicited violent debates. In the commons Lord John Cavendish moved an amendment of greater length than even the proposed address. This amendment was seconded by the Marquess of Granby, and in it, and the debates that ensued, it was affirmed that the disaffection and revolt of the colonists could not have taken place, if there had not been great faults committed against them. The faults pointed out were, chiefly, the rejection of petitions and complaints; the improper instructions given to commissioners for the purpose of reconciliation; the endeavours made to break down the spirit and independence of the colonists, by the many acts of parliament passed during the recent sessions; and the project of extirpating the Americans by the sword. All these errors were imputed by the opposition to the want of information, and the too great confidence in ministers, who though in duty bound to ascertain the temper and disposition of the Americans, had totally failed for want of that knowledge. An appeal to the sword was denounced as a most dangerous precedent, and by a strange perversity of mind the leaders of the American revolution were described and especially by Wilkes, as men averse to a change of government, and as being only driven to extremities by an accumulation of neglect, insult and injury, and by two years of a savage, piratical, and unjust war, carried on against them by the English people. Wilkes also, with others on the same side, took umbrage at the word “treason,” as applicable to the Americans, asserting that what ministers called “treason,” the Americans denominated “a just resistance and glorious revolution.” As for the pacific declarations of foreign powers, and especially the Bourbons, all reliance on them was exposed with sarcasm and ridicule. Colonel Barré, indeed, declared that a war of the most serious nature with France and Spain was impending over the country. The whole of his majesty’s speech was, in truth, denounced as false, insidious, hypocritical, and deceptive;—as holding out law and liberty, indeed, but holding it out at the point of the sword.
The speech and address were defended by Lord North and Lord George Germaine. Lord North denied the charge which had been alleged against him of withholding information; declared that he had always communicated to the house as much as he could divulge with safety; and indignantly repelled the charge of hypocrisy advanced against that part of the king’s speech which stated his desire to restore law and liberty to the colonists. In his own peculiar quiet way, Lord North hinted to the opposition, that if they were members of the new American legislature, they could not have ventured to make so free with the president and majority of congress, as they were now doing with their sovereign, his ministers, and the majority of the English parliament. In the defence, Lord George Germaine remarked that we had been anxious for reconciliation upon mild and fair terms, and that these terms had been rejected with scorn by the American leaders. According to their own statements, he said, of the propositions made by Lord Howe, and the conference that had taken place on Staten Island, his lordship was as eager for the restoration of peace, as Franklin, Washington, and the other leaders were for the continuance of hostilities. He then turned to the statements made by foreign powers, concerning their friendship for England. These statements of the princes of the House of Bourbon must be taken as proofs of their pacific intentions, but if they proved false, and should incur the folly and the guilt of assisting a rebellion, Great Britain was prepared to meet them in the field. He pertinently asked:—“Will the Bourbons, blind to their own interests, wish the spirit of independence to cross the Atlantic? Can they be exempt from fear, lest their own colonists should catch fire at the doctrine of the unlimited rights of mankind, and prefer them to slavery and digging of gold? And will not great danger arise from the vicinity of powerful states freed from European control?” Finally, it was urged in defence of the speech and address, that the only question which called for debate, was simple in its nature it was, only, whether we chose to resign all the benefits we derived from our colonies, and which had been purchased by our best blood and treasures, and by truckling to the defiance and insult hurled at us by the Americans, cut off those sources of power and opulence, and submit to a degradation from the rank we held in the political system of Europe; or, whether we should, by the full exertion of our power, preserve those advantages, assert our ancient supremacy, restore the authority of the British Parliament, and bring back our ungrateful subjects to a sense of their duty. A division on the amendment answered these questions; it was negatived by a majority of two hundred and forty-two against eighty-seven, and the original address was therefore carried.