CHAPTER II

THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM ·

An Age of Transition-Gathering of the Storm-British Lack of VisionThe Parting of the Ways-The Declaration of Independence-The Federalist-The Hartford Wits A True Poet-The Theatre in America— Our Earliest Dramatists-Joseph Dennie-Charles Brockden Brown.

1. An Age of Transition.-During the early colonial era no marked tendencies characterized our literature. The scattered settlements were kept isolated by the difficulty of communication and had few interests in common. Even in the most favorable weather the journey by stage-coach between New York and Boston could only be accomplished at the rate of forty miles a day. Few travellers undertook such a journey and little interest was shown in what was going on in other colonies. Although the religious fervor of the period had produced many theological works, the demand for such books gradually waned. A more indifferent generation, bent on material affairs, succeeded the early settlers who had read with pious intentions the lengthy sermons and the learned disputations of American divines.

As the colonists became more firmly established and virtually free from Indian aggression, they no longer endured the hardships that had fallen to the lot of the pioneers. Prosperity brought in its train a desire to keep in closer touch with the fashionable life of England. They began to take a greater interest in the writings of the popular British

authors of the day, whose works were imported and freely imitated by those of a literary disposition. Addison set the fashion for the leisurely essay of manners, while Pope was the model for social and political satiric verse, but most of their American imitators lacked literary distinction and are now quite forgotten.

2. Gathering of the Storm.-Throughout this period England looked upon her American colonies as trading outposts to extend her commerce and to increase her wealth. Her laws forbade the colonists to export their products except to the mother country, and likewise required them to import all manner of goods from England alone and in English ships. Yet for more than a century and a half that policy had been accepted as reasonable and had caused no serious differences of opinion. The colonies had been permitted to manage their own affairs and to levy their own taxes. A bitter struggle had been going on between France and England for commercial supremacy; the French and Indian War (1756–1763) represented that phase of the conflict between the two great Powers that was to determine the control of America.

During the progress of that war England sought to break up the wide-spread smuggling that had curtailed her revenues from America. Accordingly she authorized writs of assistance, which empowered officers of the Crown to enter private warehouses to search for smuggled goods. These evidences of aggression caused the first serious resentment on the part of the colonists. In the settlements along the Atlantic seaboard there were now nearly 3,000,000 inhabitants, growing ever more conscious of their strength and

with some vision of their destiny. They had become selfreliant and independent to a degree that England could not understand when she undertook to enforce her unjust laws.

James Otis (1725-1783), a successful lawyer of Boston, defended the colonial merchants in their stand against the writs of assistance. In a five-hour speech delivered (1761) in the Town Hall of Boston and described as "a torrent of impetuous eloquence," he contended that the colonists were not bound to respect laws passed by a British Parliament in which they were not represented. Upon this principle he likewise argued that they should not be expected to pay any taxes levied by such a body. Thus was proclaimed the fundamental idea, "taxation without representation is tyranny,' in which lay the germ of the American Revolution. Boldly he declared his opposition "to a kind of power, the exercise of which, in former periods of history, cost one King of England his head and another his throne." To those who sought to dissuade him, he replied: "Let the consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed. The only principles of public conduct that are worthy of a gentleman or a man are to sacrifice estate, ease, health, and applause, and even life, to the sacred calls of his country." John Adams later declared that Otis was "a flame of fire" and by his speech "had breathed into the nation the breath of life."

3. British Lack of Vision.-Undeterred by the growing spirit of revolt in the colonies, Parliament passed the Stamp Act (1765), which was a direct tax on newspapers, pamphlets, and legal documents. A storm of protest swept over the colonies. The day on which the Stamp Act went into effect was observed as a day of mourning; bells were tolled

and business houses were closed as an evidence of popular feeling toward the unjust legislation. The Virginia House of Burgesses assembled soon afterward. Many later notable men, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, attended the session. Divergent views were expressed by the members who sought to act wisely in the crisis. Patrick Henry (1736-1799), a young lawyer who had been admitted to the bar after failing in farming and in business, offered a set of resolutions in which he declared that "the General Assembly of the Colony had the sole right and power of laying taxes in the Colony." A bitter discussion followed, in which some of the cautious Tories opposed such a direct defiance of British authority. Henry's scathing rejoinder ended in the memorable words: "Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third-" At that juncture the cry of "Treason! Treason!” came from several members. Henry paused for a moment, then continued calmly, "may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it."

Similar remonstrances from Massachusetts and from nine other colonies assembled in New York were addressed to the King, but in vain. Although the Stamp Act was repealed in the following year, the repeal was brought about because British merchants complained of financial loss resulting from an American boycott of English goods, not because Parliament admitted the justice of the stand taken by the colonies. Indeed, before another year had passed, and in spite of the protests from wise statesmen who foresaw the disastrous results, Parliament levied new duties on such articles of commerce as glass, paper, and tea. The centre of

opposition now shifted from Virginia to Massachusetts. Samuel Adams (1722–1803), of Boston, an aggressive champion of popular rights, won his title, "the Father of the Revolution," by his numerous pamphlets and his fiery addresses at town meetings, in which he was among the first to advocate political separation from the mother country.

For some time the inclination to take such a hazardous step was by no means general. Not only the Tories but also sincere sympathizers with the colonial cause dreaded the consequences of open defiance. John Dickinson (17321808), a native of Maryland who practised law in Philadelphia, was a man of wealth and culture, eager to bring about a peaceful settlement of the difficulties between England and America. In 1767-1768 he published in a Philadelphia newspaper a series of twelve letters that were afterward circulated in pamphlet form as The Farmer's Letters, and made him one of the most widely discussed writers of the day. No other political writings of the period are comparable to these letters for literary merit, as well as for clearcut exposition of the fundamental principles of government. 4. The Parting of the Ways.-King George III was not inclined to conciliate the colonists, whose united action he now regarded as open rebellion against the Crown. He paid no heed to the eloquent warnings in Parliament from such far-sighted statesmen as Edmund Burke and William Pitt, who sympathized with the colonists in their brave stand for representative government. On the contrary, he sent troops to Boston to enforce the laws, and then followed the stirring events that soon brought on the Revolution. First came the Boston massacre, which gave Samuel Adams and his