CHAP. succeeded; but as soon as it was known, drums were XXV. sent through the city to alarm the inhabitants, the 1775. independent company got under arms, and the 21. people assembled for consultation. At their instance

April

the mayor and corporation asked the governor upon what motives the powder had been carried off privately "by an armed force, particularly at a time when they were apprehensive of an insurrection among their slaves ;" and they peremptorily demanded that it should be restored.

The governor at first answered evasively; but on hearing that the citizens had reassembled under arms, he abandoned himself to passion. "The whole country," said he, "can easily be made a solitude, and by the living God! if any insult is offered to me, or those who have obeyed my orders, I will declare freedom to the slaves, and lay the town in ashes."

The offer of freedom to the negroes came very oddly from the representative of the nation which had sold them to their present masters, and of the king who had been displeased with the colony for its desire to tolerate that inhuman traffic no longer; and it was but a sad resource for a commercial metropolis, to keep a hold on its colony by letting loose slaves against its own colonists.

The seizure of the powder startled Virginia. "This first public insult is not to be tamely submitted to," wrote Hugh Mercer and others from Fredericksburg to Washington; and they proposed, as a body of light-horsemen, to march to Williamsburg for the honor of Virginia. Gloucester county would have the powder restored. The Henrico committee would be content with nothing less. Bedford offered

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1775.

a premium for the manufacture of gunpowder. The CHAP. independent company of Dumfries could be depended upon for any service which respected the liberties of April. America. The Albemarle volunteers "were ready to resent arbitrary power, or die in the attempt.' "I expect the magistrates of Williamsburg, on their allegiance," such was Dunmore's message, "to stop the march of the people now on their way, before they enter this city; otherwise it is my fixed purpose to arm all my own negroes, and receive and declare free all others that will come to me. I do enjoin the magistrates and all loyal subjects, to repair to my assistance, or I shall consider the whole country in rebellion, and myself at liberty to annoy it by every possible means; and I shall not hesitate at reducing houses to ashes, and spreading devastation wherever I can reach." To the secretary of state he wrote: "With a small body of troops and arms, I could raise such a force from among Indians, negroes, and other persons, as would soon reduce the refractory people of this colony to obedience."

On Saturday, the twenty-ninth of April, there were at Fredericksburg upwards of six hundred well armed men. A council of one hundred and two weighed the moderating advice received from Washington and Peyton Randolph, and they agreed to disperse; yet not till they had pledged to each other their lives and fortunes, to reassemble at a moment's warning, and by force of arms to defend the law, the liberty, and rights of Virginia, or any sister colony, from unjust and wicked invasion. Did they forebode that the message from a sister colony was already on the wing?

VOL. VII. 24

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE KING WAITS TO HEAR OF THE SUCCESS OF LORD NORTH'S

PROPOSITION.

April.

APRIL-MAY, 1775.

CHAP. EVEN SO late as the first day of April, the provincial XXVI. congress of Massachusetts, still fondly hoping for a 1775. peaceful end of all their troubles, so far recognised the authority of Gage, as to vote, that if he would issue writs in the usual form for the election of a general assembly, to be held on the last Wednesday in May, the towns ought to obey the precepts, and elect members; but in case such writs should not be issued, they recommended the choice of delegates for a third provincial congress. On Sunday, the second, two vessels arrived at Marblehead with the tidings, that both houses of parliament had pledged to the king their lives and fortunes for the reduction of America, that New England was prohibited from the fisheries, and that the army of Gage was to be April largely reinforced. The next morning, congress re3. quired the attendance of all absent members, and

desired the towns not yet represented to send members without delay.

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"If America," wrote Joseph Warren on that day, CHAP. "is an humble instrument of the salvation of Britain, it will give us the sincerest joy; but if Britain must 1775. April. lose her liberty, she must lose it alone. America must, and will be free. The contest may be severe— the end will be glorious. United and prepared as we are, we have no reason to doubt of success, if we should be compelled to the last appeal; but we mean not to make that appeal until we can be justified in doing it in the sight of God and man. Happy shall we be, if the mother country will allow us the free enjoyment of our rights, and indulge us in the pleasing employment of aggrandizing her."

The most appalling danger proceeded from the Indians of the northwest, whom it was now known Canadian emissaries were seeking to influence. The hateful office fell naturally into the hands of La Corne, Hamilton, the lieutenant governor for Detroit, and others, who were most ready to serve the bad passions of those from whom they expected favors. Guy Johnson was also carefully removing the American missionaries from the Six Nations.

Countervailing measures were required for immediate security. Dartmouth college, "a new and defenceless" institution of charity on the frontier, where children of the Six Nations received Christian training, was "threatened with an army of savages;" its president, Eleazer Wheelock, sent, therefore, as the first envoy from New England, the young preacher James Dean, who was a great master of the language of the Iroquois, "to itinerate as a missionary among the tribes in Canada, and brighten the chain of friendship."

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1775.

April.

CHAP. To the Mohawks, whose ancient territory included the passes from Canada and the war-paths from the more remote western nations, the Massachusetts congress despatched the humane and thoughtful Kirkland, who had lived among them as a missionary; and who was now instructed to prevail with them either to take part with the Americans, or "at least to stand neuter, and not assist their enemies." To each of the converted Indians who were domiciled at Stockbridge, the congress voted a blanket and a ribbon as a testimony of affection, saying, "we are all brothers." The Stockbridge Indians, after deliberating in council for two days, promised in their turn to intercede with the Six Nations in behalf of the colonists among whom they dwelt.

Meantime the Green Mountain Boys formally. renounced the government of New York, which was virtually renouncing their allegiance to the king; and agreed to seize the fort at Ticonderoga as soon as the king's troops should commit hostilities. Their purpose was communicated in profound secrecy to Thomas Walker, a restless Anglo-Canadian, at Montreal. In my opinion," wrote Walker to Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren, "they are the most proper persons for this job, which will effectually curb the province of Quebec."

The congress of Massachusetts adopted a code for its future army, and authorized the committee of safety to form and pay six companies of artillery; yet they refused to take into pay any part of the militia or minute men. They enjoined every town to have its committee of correspondence; they ordered a day of fasting and prayer for the union of the American