Young people's history of the American Revolution

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Preface

In this narrative of the struggle of our forefathers to win the independence of the United States, I have incorporated many authentic though unfamiliar incidents which formed a vital part of the War of the American Revolution. There has been no attempt to belittle the courage and determination of the hardy soldiers, but the heroism and sufferings of the people also are worthy of recognition. Deeds of individual heroism, the fortitude of the scattered and lonely families that were left to the mercy of marauding bands while the men were absent fighting with the colonial troops, the daring of the farmer's boys, the resistance offered by the women left to till the soil in the absence of their protectors, are all true and form a part of a record which should never be ignored or forgotten. It is true that occasional incidents of the historic struggle have been recorded in poetry and prose, but other deeds, equally indicative of the spirit of '76, have been neglected. In a desire to keep these alive as a vital part of the price paid for the liberties Americans today enjoy I have included many of them for the benefit of the young people, particularly for those who are the children of men and women that came to this land after independence had been won and by that fact perhaps are not fully aware of the price that was paid for the freedom they have received.

I have been careful to include nothing that did not have a basis of truth. Old family letters and records, diaries of soldiers, articles that appeared in early newspapers, private collections of verified tales, trustworthy books of the period have provided me with a mass of material which I am glad to pass

v vi PREFACE

on to the boys and girls of the present day in the hope that they will hold up the principles and precepts which their ancestors so worthily upheld.

The philosophy of the events of that time, the study of the principles which were moving men of all classes and different nations, the detailed and critical following of the military movements are not a primary part of this work. It is rather (at least it has been the aim of the writer) to present a narative of the events which constitute the long and weary struggle and to give a reasonably correct picture of what was done by the soldier and the patriot — the men and women who dared to rebel against the strongest power on earth and having once determined to have a land of their own were willing to pay in full the price which was demanded for their freedom and independence.

Everett T. Tomlinson

Elizabeth, New Jersey

Mouse in which the Declaration of Independence was written (Philadelphia,

Contents

CHAPTM , AGB

I. The People in America I

II. The Beginnings of the Trouble 8

Chapter I The People In America

Why did the colonies in America rebel against England ? What was the cause of the struggle which has now become famous ? What was it that led to the Declaration of Independence and made the men on this side of the great ocean fight so desperately for almost a decade against the nation to which they were joined by ties of blood and the traditions of many generations ?

The answer is to be found in the very facts which, when we first think of them, seem to have been the strongest of reasons for holding the two nations together. It was just because the people in America were so like those in England that they could not agree. There was the same sturdy feeling of independence in both. There was the same unwillingness to be ruled by others, and the same determination to hold to what they believed to be their rights in America that was to be found in England herself.

The earliest stories of old England are of the wars of the natives to prevent the Romans from ruling them. The Picts and Scots seemed never able to learn just how to give up, no matter how severely they might be beaten by the men who tried to conquer them. The hardy Saxons never tired of fighting back the Danes and the huge Norsemen who were constantly landing on their shores, and even when King William won his victory over Harold in the battle of Hastings, the only way by which he was able to make the conquered people stay conquered was to remain in England himself.

This same spirit was just as strong among the people who afterwards crossed the sea and came to the shores of America as it had been on English soil. The men in the New World loved the mother country. They never tired of telling their children of the glories and beauties of the home from which they had come. Her heroes were their heroes, and her rulers were also theirs. In the very telling, however, they unconsciously appealed to the natures which, though perhaps asleep, were nevertheless alive, and had made England great, and were certain to produce results just as great wherever the sons of England went.

We are usually told that the unjust taxation which a few of the foolish rulers of England imposed upon the colonies was the cause of the outbreak. The Stamp Act and the tax on tea are said to have been the laws against which the determined people in America rebelled and at last brought to pass the separation which made of the struggling colonies a free and independent nation. These laws were unjust, it is true, but were they, after all, the real cause of the American Revolution ?

When a man throws a lighted match into a powder magazine, we are accustomed to say that the match was the cause of the explosion that followed. Was the true cause in the match or in the powder ? The same man might throw a hundred matches into a pile of rocks, but

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no serious results would follow from his actions. There is nothing in a rock that can explode. So there are peoples who can be taxed and ruled, sometimes very unjustly, but they never rebel. It may be that even England herself has treated some of her dependent subjects at times much more harshly than ever she did America, but no trouble, or at least no serious trouble, arose. But in the American colonies there was much of the same feeling that has made the mother country herself so bold and independent. There was the same strong will and dauntless courage and love of having their own way, because they had no doubt that their way must be the best, that they had received from their own fathers and mothers. They were simply a people who could not be ruled, but if there was ruling to be done, they preferred to do it themselves.

It is said that there could not be two Caesars in Rome. No more could there be two rulers for people of the Anglo-Saxon race. And so, just as when a boy is ill with the measles and the eruption on his skin appears, we know that the red blotches come on the surface only because of the disease that is already in his system; so we also know that it was not the matter of a few apparently insignificant laws that caused the strong-willed Americans to rebel. The rebellion, or independence, or whatever we choose to term it, was already in the very nature of the settlers, and the unjust taxation was only the cause of its asserting itself. They were bom to be free, to be an independent and not a dependent nation.

It is true there were settlers in America from other nations than England. The Dutch, the Swedes, and the French and Spanish, and other peoples had their settlements here ; but though they were by no means fond of obeying other laws than those they had made for them* selves, still the English was the prevailing nation, and English blood was that which coursed in the veins of the most of the seaboard colonists.

Then, too, the success which had attended the efforts of the colonists had only served to increase their feeling of confidence in their own power. They had driven out or overcome the savages (not always by the best or most just of means), and had felled the trees and cleared the land, and they could not forget that it was by the labour of their own hands that all this had been done.

In 1760 they had sent more than five millions of dollars' worth of produce to England alone ; and their trade with other nations, although this was forbidden by Parliament, was by no means small. In 1639, m Cambridge, the first printing-press had been set up, and newspapers and books were soon common. Six colleges had been founded, and were already doing much in connection with the numerous schools to enlighten the people. Harvard had been founded in Massachusetts in 1638 ; William and Mary in Virginia in 1692; Yale in Connecticut in 1700; the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1746; the University of Pennsylvania in 1749; and King's (Columbia) in New York in 1754. The preachers were men of unusual power, and all together the people in the new land were already profiting by their success in trade, the benefits of their schools, colleges, and churches, and the circulation of their newspapers and books.

The motives, too, with which many of the settlers had come to America had intensified their own feeling of independence. Some had left the Old World because of the persecution they had suffered for their religion ; and there

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is no one thing that makes people bolder than a strong religious faith. Others had come to seek possessions that should restore their families to wealth and position. The very difficulties which had been overcome had served to strengthen the feeling of self-reliance and to make the victories they had won the sweeter, for hardships are sure incentives to enthusiasm. The sight of a burning building, the peril of a stricken army, the sufferings and dangers of a contest, are after all the appeals to which men most readily respond. So the meeting of dangers, the overcoming of difficulties, and the conquest of a new land had developed the qualities of heart and soul in the hardy colonists until the people were almost as rugged as the rugged country they had subdued.

In justice to both sides engaged in the struggle, it must be said that some of the claims put forth by the English were not without a foundation of truth. They had provided a large navy to protect the trade of the colonies, though they had demanded that all the trade should come to them. It was their daring explorers and their capital that had opened up the lands in the New World. English soldiers had been sent for the protection of the settlers, and the mother country had ever been quick to respond to the calls for help that came across the sea. Particularly did they make much of the part the regulars had taken in holding back or driving back the Frenchmen who had been plotting to gain the recently settled lands for Louis of France. It was only just that the colonies themselves should bear the burden of the taxation which must in part pay the expenses of the French and Indian War, waged, as they claimed, in behalf of the colonists themselves.

Such demands the Americans did not dispute, though

Franklin declared that, in the French war, the colonists had " raised, paid, and clothed nearly twenty-five thousand men — a number equal to those sent from Great Britain, and far beyond their proportion. They went deeply into debt in doing, this ; and all their estates and taxes are mortgaged for many years to come in discharging that debt." Parliament had on several occasions acknowledged the truth of this claim of Franklin, and had even voted sums of money to be paid the needy colonists for their labours and privations, but the necessity of raising more money for themselves had made the rulers forget largely the justice of the plea. Money must be had, and money they would have, too, and the colonies must raise what they were pleased to call their share.

So the taxation came about which revealed even to the colonists the strength and determination which were theirs. The Englishmen were thinking mostly of how the money was to be raised and the Americans be compelled to pay it. They had never a thought of serious rebellion ; for though the colonists might complain and there might even be some sharp words spoken, and perhaps more or less trouble in the beginning, in the end the taxes would be paid, and such a thought as that the Americans would really rebel never seemed to have entered the minds of the obstinate men who were the advisers of King George.

On the other hand, it was the principle at stake, and not the money which they were called upon to pay, that roused the American men. When England asked them to pay or requested their aid, they were prompt to respond, for the love of the land from which they or their fathers had come was strong. But when England declared it to be her " right " to tax and govern the colonies as she chose.

DRAFTING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

The Committee: Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Livingstone, and Sherman

(From a painting by Chappel)

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then every sentiment of antagonism was instantly aroused. What might be given gladly would not be yielded when it was demanded as a right. There should not be " taxation without representation."

It was in this wise that the beginning of the long struggle ,came about. Probably few, if any, on either side had any conception of what the end was to be, and indeed many of those who were the boldest in resisting the payment of the taxes were very pronounced in their declaration of love and loyalty to England. But the spirit of the people when once aroused carried them far on their way ; and though several times during the long contest that followed, the rulers of England promised to grant the requests of the colonists and so put an end to the war, how little the taxes had really had to do with it all became apparent when such offers were declined and the struggle continued. Independent men were fighting to become an independent nation, and the strength of their characters manifested itself in the fierceness of the contest.

Chapter II

The bitter feeling in the colonies had begun when, more than a hundred years before the Revolution, Parliament had passed the first of what came to be known as the Navigation Acts. This was in 165 1, and by these laws the people in America were forbidden to trade with any other country than England, or to receive any ships of foreign nations within their harbours.

This action of Parliament had been aimed at New England more than at any other settlements in the New World, for the people of these colonies were even at that early time beginning to engage in commerce. It was an easy matter to build a ship from the timber cut from the forests that abounded, and then to make a cargo of the lumber which remained after the vessel was completed. It was a common practice for the men, and even the boys, who dwelt in some little seaboard hamlet to work together all through the winter in building a schooner, and then when the spring came, a crew would be made up, the vessel would be loaded with lumber and such other articles as the sparsely settled region afforded, and the roughly contrived boat would sail away for some port in the West Indies or elsewhere, the cargo would be exchanged, and with the new wealth on board, the schooner would sail for home. Very frequently the cargo on the return voyage would consist of rum and molasses, and after it had been disposed of in Boston, the proceeds would be divided among all those who had had a share in the enterprise. Boys and even old women as well as men were accustomed to bring their small contributions, and even poultry and all sorts of valuables were offered, so that when the vessel started on its voyage it would contain a motley collection that would surprise the captain of a modern vessel if he could behold it. These ventures were frequently very profitable, and many a fortune had its foundations laid in the shrewd dealings of these thrifty people.

This navigation act was therefore very unpopular with the New England people, and with the Virginians, who also suffered from it, and it soon became a dead letter. The revenue officers became careless, and it was an open secret that a bribe was seldom refused, so that the trade with foreign countries went on just as if there had been no laws against it. They had also given slight heed to the laws against manufacturing in the colonies, so when, more than a hundred years after the hated laws had been passed, England seriously began to enforce them, the colonists, who had not thought very much about the matter, and had apparently cared less so long as they were left to themselves, suddenly realized that the mother country was claiming the right to tax her colonies just as she chose, and that they themselves had really nothing to say about it.

It was in 1764, when England first declared she had this right. Perhaps her rulers wanted to see just how the people would feel about it in America, for they waited a year before they passed the act which has since become famous and is now known as the Stamp Act.

George Grenville, who was practically the head of the British government, had prepared the act himself, and it was passed by Parliament in the spring of 1765, and was to go into effect on the following November. Newspapers and almanacs could not be published in America, no papers used in lawsuits could be had, not even a certificate of marriage could be given, unless these stamps, to be had only from the British government, were placed upon them.

The declaration that the old navigation acts would now be enforced was bad enough, but this Stamp Act was worse, and made the colonists furiously angry. Then when Parliament decided to send British soldiers over here to see that the new laws were obeyed, fuel was added to the fire ; for in addition to their hatred of the soldiers, they knew that the redcoats were to be paid from the money received from the sale of the stamps, so that in reality the Americans were paying the soldiers who were forcing them to obey laws that they hated and declared to be unjust.

Just as soon as word was received in America, it seemed as if the people had been waiting for that one event to bind them together. In every colony the men prepared to resist, though of course at this time they had no thought of becoming independent of England. It was the law and only the few foolish and obstinate rulers that they hated, and indeed it is well known to-day that all through the war of the Revolution the heart of the great English people was really with the struggling colonists. But the Americans were just as angry as if they had had no friends across the sea. There were mass meetings held, and such eloquent men as Patrick Henry of Virginia and

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE TROUBLE II

James Otis of Massachusetts greatly stirred the people by their burning words. The speakers were on fire, and the audiences ready to take fire, so that it is no wonder that flames speedily burst forth. What a pleasure it would be to us to-day if only we could have heard the words and seen the excited crowds. We have some of their speeches, but they are only words. All the excitement, anger, and determination of the men cannot be handed down.

Just as fast as the different assemblies of the various colonies met, they declared that Parliament had no right to tax the colonies and the people here never would submit. Organizations of men called Sons of Liberty were formed to help the resistance. And then, what angered and astonished Lord North and King George more than all else, just as soon as the stamps were sent over here, they were seized and burned by what the English called mobs. If they really were " mobs," they were very orderly ones ; for they went quietly about their work, and no other property suffered any damage. The stamp officers themselves were so frightened by the anger of the people that they very quickly resigned. And so it came to pass that when the day in November, 1765, came, when the Stamp Act was to go into effect, the law fell flat for the simple reason that there were no stamps to be sold and no stamp officers to sell them.

In Virginia, Patrick Henry had introduced a series of resolutions in the Assembly, that declared the people of America were free-born men and would remain free, or die in the defence of their liberty. Some of the Tory members shouted " Treason ! " and called upon him to stop, but the young orator was too excited to heed them, and most of the men felt just as he did. In Massachusetts, James Otis had suggested that a circular should be sent to all the colonies, and that each colony should send delegates to a -general congress to be held in New York to devise and consider what further could be done to resist the hated act.

All except four of the colonies at once agreed to the proposal, and sent delegates to the congress which was held in New York on the 7th day of October, 1765. Virginia had no representatives there, for her governor had succeeded in breaking up the Assembly, and so none could be appointed. But Patrick Henry's resolutions had been printed, and scattered through the colony, and every one understood just how the people felt and what they were willing to do. Georgia, North Carolina, and New Hampshire were the other three colonies that had no one to represent them in New York, but their people were as strongly stirred as were those of the others.

There was a British fleet off the city at the time when this congress met, and General Gage had a force of regulars there, but neither guns nor redcoats could stop the angry Americans. They passed resolutions and declared what they believed the rights of the colonies to be, and united in a petition to the king and Parliament to respect those rights. The language of the congress was very mild, much milder than that which the people were using; but if Lord North had only stopped to think of what the meeting itself was, he might have read between the lines and seen the danger that was threatening.

Very naturally the action of the American people surprised England and her rulers, who had never a thought that the colonies would take their deeds so seriously.

The friends of America, and particularly the English manufacturers, who had no desire to have their goods rejected by the buyers in America, because of the unjust tax, pleaded for a repeal of the hated law, and so strong were their protests that within a year the Stamp Act was repealed. Parliament still declared that it had a right to tax the colonies if it chose to do so, and as the Americans now thought they had nothing more to fear, they made no formal protest, although some of them, including the New York Assembly, still refused to provide supplies for the British soldiers that had been quartered upon them, and others were having constant quarrels with their governors who had been appointed by the crown. For the most part, however, the colonists declared themselves to be "loyal subjects of the king — God bless him!"

They still continued to plead for a representation in Parliament, declaring that then, when they had a voice in making their own laws, no possible trouble could arise between the mother country and her children across the sea. Many of the prominent Englishmen were in favour of granting this request, and declared that it was only just and reasonable ; but the king was a very obstinate man, and said that he would never yield to such a demand, and would soon show his rebellious subjects in America that they would be brought to terms in a manner that would convince them that it was never wise to dispute the will of their divinely appointed ruler. What would have been the effect if the just request of the Americans had been granted and they had secured a representation in Parliament we may never know, but in all probability the history we are reading would have been of a very different character from that which it now is.

Matters became more quiet after the repeal of the Stamp Act, but only for a brief time. In 1767, Parliament passed an act that angered the Americans even more than the previous law had. A tax was now to be placed upon the tea and some other articles which were exported to America ; revenue commissioners were to be sent to the colonies, and aided by the redcoats they were to punish any who refused to pay the tax ; and the New York Assembly was forbidden to make any more laws until it should provide supplies for the British regulars, as long before it had been ordered to do.

The effect of this new act was immediately evident. The people began to understand that it was tyranny they were resisting. There was no more talk of sending representatives to Parliament, and some of the bolder men, like John Adams of Massachusetts, though they did not talk it openly, began to believe that there was no hope of relief so long as the colonies remained joined to the mother country.

Without any formal action the most of the people quietly resolved that they would neither buy nor drink any more tea if it had to be bought of England and the detested tax upon it paid. It is true there were two parties in America, — the one in favour of resisting the new law being known as the Whigs, and those who believed the king could do no wrong, and that whatever he commanded must be right, known as the Tories. The Whigs, however, so greatly outnumbered the Tories, that it almost seemed as if the entire nation was aroused.

For a number of years now everything seemed to be going from bad to worse. In North Carolina, the people had had so severe a quarrel with their royal governor that they had shut him up in prison and declared they could and would govern themselves. Another governor they drove out of the colony. In Boston, the British revenue collectors had seized John Hancock's sloop Liberty, but this action had made the people so angry that they chased the officers until they were compelled to take refuge in a frigate at that time anchored in Boston harbour. General Gage and four British regiments were then stationed in the town, but the people did not appear to be very greatly alarmed by the presence of the redcoats. There was constant quarrelling and frequent street fights, and even the boys joined in the fray, pelting the soldiers at times with their snowballs. One day, the 5th of March, 1770, the soldiers became so angry that they fired on the people, killing three and wounding many others. This was known as the Boston Massacre, and served to increase the hatred and anger of all the colonists still more.

In 1772, a number of Rhode Island men captured and burned the Gaspee, one of the king's boats that had been collecting the revenue from the ships that had entered Providence. In New York City, there had been fights between the people and the soldiers who were sent there for the help of the revenue officers, and, indeed, all over the colonies the same spirit of resistance seemed to be becoming bolder and bolder.

Parliament called the people " rebels " when it learned of these deeds, but calling names did not appear to have much effect. Those who had burned the Gaspee were ordered to be sent to England for trial, but as it was necessary first to catch the men before they could be sent, there was necessarily a failure to obey the command.

Learning that the Americans were not greatly alarmed by threats, Parliament tried a new plan. The East India Company, which sent most of the tea to America, was not becoming very rich now that the determined people simply refused to drink their tea, or if they did drink any, they were very certain that it came from Holland and not from England, and they added their pleas that something might be done to bring about a better condition of affairs. So Parliament took off all the taxes that had been imposed on goods sent to America, except that on tea, and this they thought they had fixed all right when arrangements were made with the English tea merchants in 1773 to send cargoes of tea to America at a price that was threepence lower than that which had before been paid. The tax of threepence, or about six cents on a pound, still remained, but at the new price not only was it thought that no more tea would be bought of the Dutchmen, but that at this price the Americans would buy the English tea and pay the tax when the price was no higher than it had been before the tax had been placed upon it.