1774. Dec.

king of England is puzzled between his desire of reducing the colonies, and his dread of driving them to a separation; so that nothing could be more interesting than the affairs of America." As the king of France might be called upon to render assistance to the insurgent colonies, the English support of the Corsicans was cited as a precedent to the French embassy at London, and brought before the cabinet at Versailles. To Louis XVI., Vergennes explained that the proceedings of the continental congress contained the germ of a rebellion; that, while the Americans really desired a reconciliation with the mother country, the ministry from their indifference would prevent its taking place; that Lord North, no longer confident of having America at his feet, was disconcerted by the unanimity and vigor of the colonies; and that France had nothing to fear but the return of Chatham to power.

The interests of Britain required Chatham's return; for he thoroughly understood the policy of the French, as well as the disposition of the colonies. In his interview with Americans, he said without reserve: "America, under all her oppressions and provocations, holds out to us the most fair and just opening for restoring harmony and affectionate intercourse." No public body ever gained so full and unanimous a recognition of its integrity and its wisdom as the general congress of 1774. The policy which its members proposed sprung so necessarily out of the relations of free countries to their colonies, that within a few years it was adopted even by their most malignant enemies among the British statesmen, for three quarters of a century regulated the colonial administration of every successive ministry, and finally gave way to a system of navigation yet more liberal than the American congress had proposed.

The day after Franklin's first conversation with Lord Howe, Chatham received him at Hayes. "The congress," said he, "is the most honorable assembly of statesmen since those of the ancient Greeks and Romans in the most virtuous times." He thought the petition to the king "decent, manly, and properly expressed." He questioned the assertion that the keeping up an army in the colonies in time of

peace required their consent; with that exception, he admired and honored the whole of the proceedings. "The army at Boston," said Franklin, who saw the imminent hazard of bloodshed, "cannot possibly answer any good purpose, and may be infinitely mischievous. No accommodation can be properly entered into by the Americans, while the bayonet is at their breasts. To have an agreement binding, all force should be withdrawn." The words sank deeply into the mind of Chatham, and he promised his utmost efforts to the American cause, as the last hope of liberty for England. "I shall be well prepared," said he, "to meet the ministry on the subject, for I think of nothing else both night and day."

1774

Like Chatham, Camden desired the settlement of Dec the dispute upon the conditions proposed by congress; and, from the coolness and wisdom of most of the American assemblies, he augured the establishment of their rights on a durable agreement with the mother country.

To unite every branch of the opposition in one line of policy, Chatham desired a cordial junction with the Rockingham whigs. That party had only two friends who spoke in the house of lords, and in the house of commons was mouldering away. And yet Rockingham was impracticable. "I look back," he said, "with very real satisfaction and content on the line which I, indeed, emphatically I, took in the year 1766; the stamp act was repealed, and the doubt of the right of this country was fairly faced and resisted." Burke, like his patron, pursued Chatham implacably, and refused to come to an understanding with him on general politics. Neither did he perceive the imminence of the crisis, but believed that the Americans would not preserve their unanimity, so that the controversy would draw into great length, and derive its chief importance from its aspect on parties in England. At the very moment when he was still fondly supporting the omnipotence of parliament over the colonies, he derided Chatham as the best bower anchor of the ministry.

With far truer instincts, Chatham divined that peril was near, and could be averted only by a circumscription of the

absolute power of parliament. To further that end, the aged statesman paid a visit to Rockingham. At its opening, Chatham's countenance beamed with cordiality; but Rockingham had learned as little as the ministers, and, with a perverseness equal to theirs, insisted on maintaining the declaratory act. "The Americans have not called for its repeal," was his reply to all objections; and he never could be made to comprehend the forbearance of congress. The opposition, thus divided, excited no alarm.

Jan. 12.

The majority of the cabinet, instead of respecting Lord North's scruples, were intriguing to get him turned out, and his place supplied by a thorough assertor of British supremacy. At a cabinet council, held on the twelfth 1775. of January, 1775, his colleagues refused to find in the proceedings of congress any honorable basis for conciliation. It was therefore resolved to interdict all commerce with the Americans; to protect the loyal, and to declare all others traitors and rebels. The vote, though designed only to divide the colonies, involved a civil war.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHATHAM LAYS THE FOUNDATION OF PEACE.

JANUARY 20, 1775.

1775.

Jan.

Ar the meeting of parliament after the holidays, Lord North, who had no plan of his own, presented papers relating to America. Burke complained of them as partial. They reminded Chatham of the statesman who said to his son: "See with how little wisdom this world of ours is governed;" and he pictured to himself Ximenes and Cortes in the shades discussing the merits of the ministers of England.

The twentieth of January was the first day of the Jan. 20. session in the house of lords. It is not probable that even one of the peers had heard of the settlements beyond the Alleghanies, where the Watauga and the forks of Holston flow to the Tennessee. Yet, on the same day, the lords of that region, most of them Presbyterians of ScottishIrish descent, met in council near Abingdon. Their united congregations, having suffered from sabbaths too much profaned, or wasted in melancholy silence at home, had called Charles Cummings to the pastoral charge of their precious and immortal souls. The men never went to public worship without being armed, or without their families. Their minister, on sabbath morning, would ride to the service armed with shot-pouch and rifle. Their meeting-house, which was always filled, was a large cabin of unhewn logs; and, when about twice in the year the bread and cup were distributed, the table was spread outside of the church in the neighboring grove. The news from congress reached them slowly; but, on receiving an account

of what had been done, they assembled in convention, and the spirit of freedom swept through their minds as naturally as the ceaseless forest wind sways the firs on the sides of the Black Mountains. They adhered unanimously to the association of congress, and named as their committee Charles Cummings their minister, Preston, Christian, Arthur Campbell, John Campbell, Evan Shelby, and others. They felt that they had a country; and, adopting the delegates of Virginia as their representatives, they addressed them as men whose conduct would immortalize them in its annals. "We explored," said they, "our uncultivated wilderness, bordering on many nations of savages, and surrounded by mountains almost inaccessible to any but these savages. But even to these remote regions the hand of power hath pursued us, to strip us of that liberty and property with which God, nature, and the rights of humanity have vested us. We are willing to contribute all in our power, if applied to constitutionally, but cannot think of submitting our liberty or property to a venal British parliament or a corrupt ministry. We are deliberately and resolutely determined never to surrender any of our inestimable privileges to any power upon earth, but at the expense of our lives. These are our real though unpolished sentiments of liberty and loyalty, and in them we are resolved to live and die.'

Jan. 20.

While they were publishing in the western forests this declaration of a purpose, which they were sure to make good, Chatham was attempting to rouse the ministry from its indifference. "Your presence at this day's debate," 1775. said he to Franklin, whom he met by appointment in the lobby of the house of lords, "will be of more service to America than mine;" and, walking with him arm in arm, he would have introduced him near the throne among the sons and brothers of peers; but, being reminded of the rule of the house, he placed him below the bar, where he was still more conspicuous.

So soon as Dartmouth had laid the papers before the house, Chatham, after inveighing against the dilatoriness of the communication, moved to address the king for "im