If we for a moment forget the territorial and popular influence which belongs to the action of sovereign States and large masses of men, we shall see no material difference between this language and that of the Declaration of Independence. It was a pledge of life to the support of the laws and liberties of the land. It was at once a concise and forcible review of the past; a just and eloquent defence of the principles and conduct of the colony; a noble appeal in behalf of that and future generations. Memorable words for men to utter who led at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill!
James Prescott, of Groton, was chairman of the convention, and Frances Faulkner, John Hayward and Ephraim Hapgood were members from the town of Acton. This was the most important step taken prior to the commencement of hostilities. The convention attracted universal notice. Copies of its proceedings were sent to the Continental Congress, then sitting at Philadelphia, and they received cordial approbation. But even as late as September, 1774, the patriots say to General Gage, "that their sole intention is to preserve pure and inviolate those rights to which, as men, and English Americans, they are justly entitled, and which have been guaranteed to them by his majesty's royal predecessors." Thus anxious were they at every point of the controversy to define the ground on which they stood.
From August, 1774, to February, 1775, the British were engaged in examinations of the country, in landing and drilling the troops, and in vain attempts to check the progress or expression of the public sentiment of almost universal hostility.
The province was engaged in the organization and discipline of the minute men, and the collection and safe-keeping of stores, arms, and munitions of war; preparations for attack on the one side, and preparations for defence on the other. Nevertheless, this was a season for reflection. For six months after the issue was fairly presented, there were no evidences of fear, and but few indications of a disposition to conciliate.
General Gage, however, appears not to have entertained the common notion of English officers, that a small body of troops would put down all opposition. He informed his government that the time for "conciliation, moderation, reasoning was over," and that the first campaign should be opened by the presence of twenty thousand men. This was wise advice, because it was such advice as a wise man would have given under the circumstances. It was, however, a fortunate blunder in the English Government that they rejected it. They held Boston with the army they sent, and with a larger army they could have done nothing more. They might have made more frequent and more sanguinary forays into the country, but the result of the campaign would have been the same. It was neither possible nor politic for the Americans in the Revolution to assemble large bodies of troops; therefore, the presence of twenty, or even fifty, thousand men, would not have been a matter of great importance to the colonies.
England held us in 1775, as she holds many of her provinces now—by their own consent, but not otherwise. That consent can be perpetual only by the recognition of the principles of freedom and equality. The cause of liberty raises up friends and advocates everywhere. None of its martyrs ever die unwept, unhonored or unsung. The human heart has never been truer to any principle than to that of liberty. It is not in America alone that the cause of freedom excites sympathy and enlists support. Its voice is as potential, its victories as grateful elsewhere as with us. And when its banner is borne down and trampled in the dust, it is not in America alone that true hearts sympathize and bleed. There are noble men in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Hungary, upon whom the blow falls, as upon the first victims of slavery. But in the wisdom of God, the nation that is not just shall stand finally
"Childless and crownless in her voiceless woe,
An empty urn within her withered hands."
And thus shall it be with Austria. With the judgment of the civilized world against her, with her people disaffected and disloyal, her treasury drained and her credit destroyed, she shall wither and fall. The partition of Poland, and the dispersion of the Poles all over Europe, have been active agencies in the revolutionary movements of that continent. Thus do the results of tyranny aid in the overthrow of tyrants. No government can now be considered strong, whether it call itself republican or monarchial, unless its foundations are laid deep in the affections of the people, and based upon the immutable principles of justice and equality.
In 1775, England had been engaged a century in the work of disunion. In a hundred years great changes may be wrought. The affections of a whole people may be diverted from former objects and attached to new ones. This was the great change which took place in America. England had ceased to be the mother country. The colonists had less regard for her in 1774 and 1775 than we have now. All fear and, I trust, all prejudice have disappeared, and we may look upon her as she is. However England may regard us, we need only view her as a splendid example of a nation great and powerful by the productiveness of her soil and mines, the ability of her people, and the liberalizing spirit of her commerce. In her present external condition, in her vast navy, her extensive commerce, in all save her insulated and secure position, we may read our own near destiny. Grasping, ambitious and powerful the British race certainly is; illiberal, cowardly or mean it certainly is not. Highly refined it never was, possibly never will be. Neither the ocean nor the mountain produces the highest refinement of manners or nicety of scientific investigation; but the shores of the ocean and the mountain valleys are the birthplaces of great men.
"Chains may subdue the feeble spirit, but thee,
Man of the iron heart, they could not tame;
For thou wert of the mountains, they proclaim
The everlasting creed of liberty."