This plan proposed the establishment of a general government in the colonies, the administration of which should be placed in the hands of a governor-general appointed by the crown, and a council of forty-eight members, representatives of the several provinces, “having the power to levy troops, declare war, raise money, make peace, regulate the Indian trade and concert all other measures necessary for the general safety; the governor-general being allowed a negative on the proceedings of the council, and all laws to be ratified by the king.” This plan was signed by all the delegates excepting the one from Connecticut, who objected to a negative being allowed to the governor-general, on the 4th of July, the day on which Fort Necessity was surrendered, and the very day twenty-two years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
This scheme of union was, however, rejected by all the colonial assemblies, on the plea of giving too much power to the crown; and, strange to say, was rejected likewise by the crown, because it gave too much power to the people. The colonial union, therefore, being at an end for the present, it was proposed by the British ministry that money should be furnished for the carrying on of the war by England, to be reimbursed by a tax on the colonies. This scheme, however, the colonies strongly opposed, being averse, argued Massachusetts, to everything that shall have the remotest tendency to raise a revenue in America for any public use or purpose of government. It was, therefore, finally agreed to carry on the war with British troops, aided by such auxiliaries as the colonial assemblies would voluntarily furnish. These pending territorial disputes led to the publication of more complete maps, whereby the position and danger of the British colonies were more clearly understood. The British colonies occupied about a thousand miles of the Atlantic coast, but their extent inland was limited; the population amounted to about 1,500,000. New France, on the contrary, contained a population not exceeding 100,000, scattered over a vast expanse of territory from Cape Breton to the mouth of the Mississippi, though principally collected on the St. Lawrence. The very remoteness of the French settlements, separated from the English by unexplored forests and mountains, placed them in comparative security, while the whole western frontier of the English, from Maine to Georgia, was exposed to attacks of the Indians, disgusted by constant encroachments and ever ready for war.[[2]]
While negotiations were being carried on with France for the adjustment of the territorial quarrel, the establishment of French posts on the Ohio and the attack on Washington being regarded as the commencement of hostilities, General Braddock was selected as the American major-general, under the Duke of Cumberland, commander-in-chief of the British army. Braddock was a man of despotic temper, intrepid in action, and severe as a disciplinarian; and as the duke had no confidence in any but regular troops, it was ordered that the general and field officers of the colonial forces should be of subordinate rank when serving with the commissioned officers of the king. Washington, on his return from the Great Meadows, found Dinwiddie re-organising the Virginia militia, and that, according to the late orders, he himself was lowered to the rank of captain, on which he indignantly retired from the service.
In February, 1755, Braddock, with two British regiments, arrived in Chesapeake Bay, the colonies having levied forces in preparation, and a tax being already imposed on wine and spirituous liquors, spite of the general opposition to such imposts, and which excited a very general discontent, each family being required on oath to state the quantity consumed by themselves each year, and thus either to perjure or to tax themselves. This unpopular tax gave rise to several newspapers, the first newspaper of Connecticut dating from this time.
Braddock having arrived, a convention of colonial governors met at Alexandria, in Virginia, to concert the plan of action, when four expeditions were determined upon. Lawrence, the lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, was to reduce that province; General Johnson, from his long acquaintance with the Six Nations, was selected to enrol the Mohawk warriors in British pay, and conduct an army of Indians and provincial militia against Crown Point; Governor Shirley was to do the same against Niagara; while Braddock was to attack Fort Du Quesne, and thus recover the Ohio Valley and take possession of the North West.
Soon after Braddock sailed, the French sent out a fleet with a large body of troops under the veteran Baron Dieskau, to reinforce the army in Canada. Although England at this time had avowed only the design of resisting encroachment on her territory, Boscawen was sent out to cruise on the banks of Newfoundland, where he took two of the French ships; of the remainder, some aided by fog, and others by altering their course, arrived safely at Quebec and Louisburg; at the same time, De Vaudreuil, a Canadian by birth, and formerly governor of Louisiana, arrived and superseded Du Quesne as governor of Canada.
Three thousand men sailed from Boston under Lieutenant-colonel Winslow, on the 29th of May, for the expedition against Nova Scotia. This Winslow was the great-grandson of the Plymouth patriarch, and grandson of the commander of the New England forces in King Philip’s war; he was a major-general in the Massachusetts militia, and now, under the British commander-in-chief, was reduced to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. At Chignecto, in the Bay of Fundy, he was joined by Colonel Monckton with 300 British regulars, and advancing against the French forts at Beau Sejour and Gaspereau, took possession of them in five days, after slight resistance; and no sooner did the English fleet appear in the St. John’s, than the French, setting fire to their fort at the mouth of that river, evacuated the country. The English thus, with the loss of about twenty men, found themselves in possession of the whole of Nova Scotia: when great difficulty arose, what was to be done with the people?
Acadia was the oldest French colony in America, having been settled by Bretons sixteen years before the landing of the pilgrim fathers. Thirty years before the commencement of the present war, the treaty of Utrecht had ceded Acadia to Great Britain, yet the settlement remained French in spirit, character, and religion. By the terms granted to them when the British took possession, they were excused from bearing arms against France, and were thence known as “French Neutrals.” From the time of the Peace of Utrecht, they appear, however, almost to have been forgotten, until the present war brought them, to their great misfortune, back to remembrance. Their life had been one of Arcadian peace and simplicity; neither tax-gatherer nor magistrate was seen among them; their parish priests, sent over from Canada, were their supreme head. By unwearied labour they had secured the rich alluvial marshes from the rivers and sea, and their wealth consisted in flocks and herds. Their houses, gathered in hamlets, were full of the comforts and simple luxuries of their position; their clothing was warm, abundant, and home-made, spun and wove from the flax of their fields and the fleeces of their flocks. Thus were the Acadians prosperous and happy as one great family of love. Their population, which had doubled within the last thirty years, amounted at this time to about 2,000.
Unfortunately, these good Acadians had not strictly adhered to their character of neutrals; 300 of their young men had been taken in arms at Beau Sejour, and one of their priests was detected as an active French agent. It was resolved, therefore, to remove them from their present position, in which they had every opportunity of aiding the French. Lawrence, lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, Boscawen, and Mostyn, commanders of the British fleet, consulted with Belcher, chief-justice of the province, and the result was a scheme of kidnapping and conveying them to the various British provinces, although at the capitulation of Beau Sejour it had been strictly provided that the neighbouring inhabitants should not be disturbed. But no matter; they must be got rid of, for there was no secure possession for the English while they, bound by all the ties of language, affection, and religion to France, remained there. A sadder incident of wholesale outrage hardly occurs in history than this. The design was kept strictly secret, lest the people, excited by despair, should rise en masse against their oppressors. Obeying the command, therefore, to assemble at their parish churches, they were surrounded by soldiers, taken prisoners and marched off, without ceremony, to the ships, for transportation. At Grand Pré, for example, says Bancroft, 418 unarmed men came together, when Winslow, the American commander, addressed them, as follows: “Your lands and tenements, cattle of all kinds, and live stock of all sorts, are forfeited to the crown, and you yourselves are to be removed from this province. I am, through, his Majesty’s goodness, directed to allow you to carry off your money, and your household goods, as many as you can without discommoding the vessels you go in.” They were the king’s prisoners; their wives and families shared their lot; their sons, 527 in number; their daughters, 576; the whole, including women and babes, old men and children, amounting to about 2,000 souls. They had left home in the morning; they were never to return. Wonderful it seems, that Heaven left such an outrage on humanity unavenged on the spot!
The 10th of September was the day of transportation. They were marched down to the vessels six abreast; the young men first, driven forward by the bayonet, but not a weapon was allowed to them. It was a scene of heart-breaking misery, and in the confusion of embarkation, wives were separated from their husbands, parents from their children, never to meet again! It was two months before the last of the unhappy people were conveyed away, and in the meantime many fled to the woods; but even this availed nothing, the pitiless conquerors had already destroyed the harvests, to compel their surrender, and burnt their former homes to the ground.